If Tesla shipped your S today, could you pay for it?

[widodh]

Yes. I'm buying the S on my company and I'm going to lease/finance it. That is cheaper than paying it all upfront. The interest will be somewhere around 7 ~ 8%, while my company can make more than 7 ~ 8% with that 'cash'.

I think a lot of people who buy the S on their company will finance it.

I am buying the base car. But then again I will be 36 when I receive the car next October-ish (P2138). I saw it written somewhere lately that most Model S Reservation holders are 45 or older. So I don't feel so bad about my lack of finances when compared to the Signature crowd.

Wow, 45!? Here I come with my 24 years..

 

[vfx]

Plans change. When we locked in with our down payment on the Roadster we had planned to sell our paid-for brand new-ish SUV. We also keep cars to the bitter end but who knew someone would make an exciting electric car!? Came out of nowhere!
Then the car was delayed several times. In the ensuing 2 year wait, the price of the car jumped $7,200 and gas prices spiked making the now much older SUV not worth selling. Of couse the irony is it does not get driven much at all now.

Those of you who are using the sale of Tesla stock to buy a Tesla product are the ones I will watch the most. Is there precedence there?

 

[Mycroft]

Check your local credit unions. Mine will finance up to $100k at 1.79% for up to 60 months. So if I end up financing $60,000 over 60 months, the monthly payment would be $1,046.

A $1,000+ monthly payment for 5 years. Looked at that way, it seems crazy to buy the car. I don't care, you only live once, I'm not getting any younger, and I want to buy the future, now! :biggrin:

 

[Mycroft]

For those on a tight budget, make sure you account for the delivery and prep charges (I'm estimating $1,500) in addition to the registration fees and (depending on location) taxes. Also, don't forget that the federal tax incentive is a rebate. So you have to pay the full price up front and you'll get the $7,500 back in your tax refund.

Also, if you do any freeway driving, (and if you don't, you should probably just buy a Leaf), then you'll want to have a clearbra applied to protect that great paint job from chips. Modern clearcoats can be quite hard and robust, which protects the paint better against wear and tear, but it leaves it vulnerable to chipping when hit be debris at freeway speeds. Not sure what the price of that's going to be since this will be my first new car.

 

[de704]

?? The attention matters as part of the buying/options decision?

I'll be 36, Single, with no kids so............. YES!

I might get my S painted like chuck in kill Bill. LOL!! J/K

Hell, I'm guna lie and say I payed $77k for My Model S, 99% of people wouldn't be able to tell if I did or not.

No sir I am not as interested in the green thing as I am in the pink thing :wink:


My point was, unless you just have an extra $40k laying around. There's point to go big with the S. But... I will admit if I could afford it I have a 100k Signature Model S.

So really, I'm just talk'n/type'n to pass the time until my S comes. :biggrin:

 

[AnOutsider]

I'm still confused. If having the cash is better, why not finance all 70-90k? Your Sig deposit isn't required to go into the purchase, it's just a deposit. Unless you can find an investment that's guaranteed to better than paying off the 3-4% auto loan (which, after taxes, means you'd better be making 5-6% ROI), you might as well pay on the car. If you then do find a good investment, then why not take the car loan then? Why sit on 80k, effectively paying 3% interest on it, unless you've got an immediate plan for it?

I'm so confused.

I know nothing of their plans, but I imagine that if you have 40k deposited on the Model S, they aren't going to hand you a 40k check and let you finance the whole thing. Even if they DID, financing 80k = higher monthly payments than financing 40k. For me, I'd want the monthly payments in a sweet spot so that it makes sense. $700-1,000/month is very different than $2k/month depending on your monthly income and what your cash on hand is doing for you. YMMV - do what makes sense for you.

No sir I am not as interested in the green thing as I am in the pink thing :wink:

:biggrin:

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

I'll actually press Tesla to accept the deposit towards the downpayment. I'll also ask T to let me put the rest of the amount that I intend to put down, on a credit card (to be paid off right away, of course) for all the ancillary benefits from that (i.e. frequent flyer miles coz' I'm just as much a mileage junkie of the flying kind!).

 

[Mycroft]

They can't possibly accept a credit card and eat that expense. Good luck with that!

 

[Trnsl8r]

Interesting topic, should have made a poll out of it...

Anyway, yes, I could afford it. No, I (probably) wouldn't buy it, because it would involve turning my life savings more or less inside out. I put the deposit down and made myself a goal of what my savings would have to be like in a year (when Tesla is likely to call and ask what color I want). If I'm there then, great, if not, then may I have my $5k back please.

Probably will finance about half of it if I get a good rate. If for no other reason, it's not bad to have a bank owning half the car in case someone tries to steal it or muck with registrations.

Have no illusions though. A car is a consumable, not a durable (unless there comes a crazy person with loads of money to burn who wants to buy your Model S in 2012 with a huge premium just because he can't wait a year... yeah, this is California, it could happen...).

 

[rolosrevenge]

I would have to finance. I have some cash savings coming out of grad school but nothing near Model S required. What I've been doing though is saving over $1000 a month to see if we can handle the expense. We can, so I think as long as interest rates hold low, we'll be able to finance around 55 k of it. I still haven't put in a deposit but that is because we are having our second child any day and I want all of my cash free just in case. Hopefully though, I'll get to put a deposit down in two or three months if there are no serious medical problems cropping up.

 

[dmckinstry]

Check your local credit unions. Mine will finance up to $100k at 1.79% for up to 60 months. So if I end up financing $60,000 over 60 months, the monthly payment would be $1,046.

A $1,000+ monthly payment for 5 years. Looked at that way, it seems crazy to buy the car. I don't care, you only live once, I'm not getting any younger, and I want to buy the future, now! :biggrin:

I'm not getting any younger either. I'm already retired on fixed income. I still have money in my IRA and stock. I'm currently living on the fixed income, house is paid off, and the biggest single payment I make each month is for health insurance premiums and a lump sum each year for long term care. With the money I have in CDs, IRA and TSLA I could pay for the 300 mile version, but it would cost me extra. Income tax on the IRA taken out, penalty for early withdrawal on the CDs and not letting the TSLA stock rise as much as I hope it does.

I may pay for about half of it and use a credit union loan for the rest. I still have to plan it all out though.

And like Bonnie, I don't care what other people think of the car. I WANT/NEED it. OK, I don't need it, but I really want it.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

And like Bonnie, I don't care what other people think of the car. I WANT/NEED it. OK, I don't need it, but I really want it.

Define the urge to "want" something - isn't it usually to stand out and be noticed?

Going slightly OT, this in itself is begging for a poll! What exactly are folks going to great lengths for (in most cases) to get a Model S? Is it purely for the looks? Performance/handling/features? Or, for the EV/green aspect of it? To stand out in a boring ICE crowd?

 

[Tommy]

From the responses I've read so far, it looks like most folks don't have extra cash just laying around and there is some stretching of the purchase dollars to make their "dream" car a reality. Put another way, far from being wealthy, I think most folks purchasing the Model S are making some financial sacrifice and any tax credits they receive will help with their personal balance sheet.

 

[jimbakker666]

Define the urge to "want" something - isn't it usually to stand out and be noticed?

Going slightly OT, this in itself is begging for a poll! What exactly are folks going to great lengths for (in most cases) to get a Model S? Is it purely for the looks? Performance/handling/features? Or, for the EV/green aspect of it? To stand out in a boring ICE crowd?

I didn't even think about a poll, doh!

It's interesting to hear a few people with an approach similar to me, not 'rich' and having to work and save to make this car a reality.

For me at least, the car excites me because it allows me to give the finger to gas stations and oil companies. I love cutting into the profits of dishonest people or institutions, I do it every few weeks on my Bakker blog

My wife likes it because it's cool, and as she steps into the real estate game it'll enable her to drive potential clients around in style. The carpool lane access will also help a lot.

Honestly, I don't even know how much I'll drive it. My satisfaction comes from knowing I'll never pay for gas again, at least for that vehicle.

 

[Iz]

From the responses I've read so far, it looks like most folks don't have extra cash just laying around and there is some stretching of the purchase dollars to make their "dream" car a reality. Put another way, far from being wealthy, I think most folks purchasing the Model S are making some financial sacrifice and any tax credits they receive will help with their personal balance sheet.

Good topic. I plan to get the 230-mile version and finance ~ $55k of it. The rest will come from savings and some old government EE bonds. Just cannot dip into the kids college accounts. This will be my first new car and I've owned 8 so far.

 

[Andrew Wolfe]

I'm willing to try it and see :smile:
If they offered to ship today - I'd figure out how to pay for it. Let's see... If the kids sleep on the couch and I rent out their rooms...

 

[dmckinstry]

Define the urge to "want" something - isn't it usually to stand out and be noticed?

Going slightly OT, this in itself is begging for a poll! What exactly are folks going to great lengths for (in most cases) to get a Model S? Is it purely for the looks? Performance/handling/features? Or, for the EV/green aspect of it? To stand out in a boring ICE crowd?

1) I want a car with more comfort and room for driving on the road. I wouldn't pay over $50k for any other luxury car. My 1st and last new car was a 2005 Prius. It was as close to a luxury car as I've ever gotten.

2) I want an all electric. The Leaf would be satisfactory, if I were only going to use it around town. I rarely drive more than 80 miles a day.

3) I want the range, as we normally take at least 2 road trips (sometimes 4) in excess of 1500 miles each year. We just made a round trip to Missouri. Travel time each way was 3 days on the road (2 days to Denver and 1 day from Denver to Columbia, MO).

4) Because of 3) I want rapid charging. Even HPC charging is going to add at least two days (probably 3) to the trip each way. With a one hour stop every 200 miles, it would at most add 1 day to the trip each way. We travel to southern California every year. I don't consider using the gas guzzler an option since we'll stay there about 3 months and want the electric while there.

5) Not least on the list it's made in this country. I see Elon Musk as a visionary and believe in what he's doing.

As for why an electric,

I was pissed over the big tax break for Hummers. That's one of the main reasons I got the Prius. I'm tired of so much government money going to "Big Oil". Anything I can do to prevent my money going to it too I'll do.

There are probably other reasons, but they aren't as important to me. It's nice that the car is good looking, but that's not my first consideration.

P.S. My wife is always worrying about the dogs when we're parked at a restaurant in hot weather. In the Model S, we could place the car at a charger, and go into the restaurant to eat at a relaxed pace. Of course we'd have to put a sign in the window to warn people to leave the car and dogs alone. It's air conditioned.

I'm hoping this latter point convinces my wife that we should purchase the Model S. She's still not convinced. The two things holding her back are charging infrastructure and cost.

 

[bonnie]

Define the urge to "want" something - isn't it usually to stand out and be noticed?

'Standing out and being noticed' has not ever been a criteria for me - quickness, handling ... oh yes. The Roadster was a leap for me. I knew it would attract attention, but I WANTED the car. (Note that I'm saying 'despite the attention it draws'.) I'd never had such a pure joy driving experience. And I've had some high performance cars.

The first curve, I was sold. My salesperson just said, 'oh yeah, this is your car ... though the way you drive, your range is probably more around 180'. (I have no idea why they said THAT -smile-.) But the point is, not everyone WANTS the attention. Some of us are in love with the performance and appreciate the engineering and aesthetics.

 

[SByer]

In a way, it's sad that they weren't ready for drives yet. Because, like Bonnie said, EVs just drive better. Bandwidth is cheap, low latency is expensive, and EVs are all about the low latency - the 911 was tuned for it (light flywheel, grabby clutch), but still took way too darned long to actually do anything. I didn't know that then, but now I've been driving an EV for 2 1/2 years.

The Model S is probably quite exciting while been driven in it (I've only ridden in the mule way back at the Menlo Park unveiling), but when you finally get to drive it and you feel that the car is really connected to you, well, you'll be spoiled. Forever.

Please, plan ahead. The number of Roadsters that were sold because people didn't plan for an extension of 'the lost decade' is sad. I don't want to see anyone here in that situation.

 

[Larry Chanin]

Yes, I could pay for it outright, and would prefer that approach to financing. However, I'd be interested in learning if there are any benefits to leasing the just the batteries, assuming Tesla offered such an option.

Larry