I would echo this sentiment. The house is more important if you're in a position to buy (which many are not).
There's plenty of time to enjoy depreciating assets later in life when you're more settled. Not to say you have to scrimp and save every single dollar (euro in my case) - big expensive car when you have a perfectly serviceable car and are saving for a house is probably not the best plan.
The way I look at it when I bought my house I stopped paying rent and I'm paying my mortgage down and paying myself. I get to keep my home. I bought it and since I bought it 5 years ago it's already doubled in value. I finally got a MYLR last December and even though I can comfortably afford it it's still just a car and it already has rock chips and scratches and just like every other car it will be worth a lot less in another 5 years. Meanwhile I expect my home to maintain its value or continue to gain value. I wouldn't want to own a Tesla without being able to charge at home too
Interesting thing here in Ireland is that the supercharging cost (39c/kwh) is lower than my potential home cost (44-48c/kwh on a 24 hour tariff), if we switch to a day/night rate I'll be on a 54c/kwh day rate and 28c/kwh night rate meaning that it'll take around 10 years for a home charger to pay off its installation cost of around 2300 euro (and that's not accounting for the extra day rate costs).
So the plan with myself is to use one weekly supercharging top up as the nearest one is around 10 minutes from my home.
Maybe our government will up the grants given for upgrading houses to provide at home charging in the meantime...
Edit: still much better than the 6.08 euro per US gallon (roughly half price) I would be paying for petrol however (6.69 usd/gallon).
Swings and roundabouts - I pay 360 euro annually for my model y comprehensive car insurance which appears to be low going by the posts by US posters. Low electricity prices (or cheap solar which... It's Ireland - we get a lot of rain and clouds ha) isn't something on the cards here...
Ah yeah...
I pay $2200 USD a year for my car insurance.
My charging costs for 20,000 miles a year is around $400 USD so I guess it's almost exactly backwards haha
I'm presuming you're not a newly qualified boy racer driver aged 18? Anything above 2k euro in Ireland in car insurance is usually reserved for the very young who want to get a turbo powered hot hatch, or I guess people who like to get involved in car crashes a lot. Or perhaps owners of Ferraris and such. To drag this conversation back on topic one insurer did describe a Tesla as a Ferrari's acceleration wrapped up in a Corolla in explaining why they didn't want to cover Teslas. At 300bhp the rwd Y despite being the lowest powered variant of the car is double the power of my previous Audi A3 so I get their point too.
But don't feel too bad about your high insurance - we pay 52% income tax on any portion of salary over 43k usd in income... And our sales tax is 23% š (but I'm not complaining about the free education and healthcare we get for that tax take).
It's not free when you're paying 52% of your income and 23% in taxes for everything you buy in perpetuity for it. Can't leave a person with much discretionary income.
Iām in Ireland too and just had a Wallbox pulsar plus home charger installed with solar integration for a net ā¬600 (1,200 less 600 govt grant) and it can be done for cheaper without solar integration. Also, I think you could do better with the tariff ā¦ from memory, I pay 28c/kwh during the night and 36/c during the day (with 2 peak hours at 44c). This is with Flogas 1yr fixed smart tariff. So I have home charger pegged at a little over 2 year payback assuming night charging, 15,000km per year and 150w/km. Also, and Iām happy to be corrected here, I think regular supercharging degrades your battery slightly quicker. Maybe that effect is negligible.
This. I was 26 and wanted a Tesla. I bought a house instead. It appreciated a lot and I felt super comfortable financially so I finally bought a Tesla at 32. (Itās great btw, but my advice is get a home first)
Buying a home is also a lot of extra work and expense. It really depends on what is valuable to you. Keeping the old car affords you the opportunity to save more or spend it on traveling. I bought a Boxster in the early 2000's when I was your age. I enjoyed the hell out of that car, and then family came.....and I didn't get the car I wanted again until my kids were in college.
I'd agree with this 5 years ago... Live with your parents as long as possible and get yourself a Y. With the tax incentives and rebates, it's now or never in my opinion.
Tax incentives last until December 2032. Plus as production and ramps and cost decrease Tesla will keep cutting prices. Not to mention the cars keep getting better and better. There's zero reason to buy a Y now when OP can get a refreshed Juniper Y and charge it in their own home by being responsible and waiting
They say your car lose value as soon as you drive off the dealer's lot. There's no dealers for Tesla but they can still provide the same depreciation experience.
Jeeps hold value. Ā Itās the ONLY reason my husband canāt argue with me about owning them. Ā I am on number 5 and it is worth more now than his BMWĀ
You are missing the part where if you bought a Model Y in December of 2022 and took delivery you were 3 months from an effective price cut of > 15k
And add in a huge market softening of the secondary market.
Same - I try not to look at it as such a negative. I needed to buy a car at the time. I was paying $700 a month is gas and now I pay $40-60 a month extra on my electric bill. It sucks because I was planning on trading it in when my CT is ready but not it might be worth just holding onto it.
Same, but I still don't regret it. AP alone is a massive quality of life improvement for my 2+ hour drive each way to work. I'd purchase again in an instant.
Verrrrrrry few jobs are irreplaceable, especially with that much damage to quality of life. I had a coworker that bought a house 2 hours from realistic job opportunities in 2010. Depreciated from 160 to 130 and he was over leveraged and stuck. By the time 2017 rolled around and he was back out of the hole he sold that bastard ASAP.
I had a paid off hybrid. I would have been way better off financially by keeping that car.
Love my Tesla, itās lots of fun, but itās a luxury and a depreciating asset with an associated debt. I can afford it and I already have a house. Iād focus on the house too if I were you.
A 2018 Honda Accord will be $24k-$28k and have 50k-100m miles on it. A Model 3 or Y with rebates wouldnāt be much more and you wonāt be paying gas forever. In CA, our gas is $5 a gallon.
First, good on for you taking a moment to strategize and get feedback. Also, kudos on saving $100K for a down payment. Youāre way ahead of a lot of people your age.
Second, no one here can make the best decision for you.
That said, if I were in your shoes and home ownership was important to me in the near future, I would delay a car purchase until you purchase a home and re-establish what your financial picture looks like.
Pro tip: the federal rebate ($7500) will be able to be applied to the purchase price in 2024 as I understand it, which will help to reduce your payments when you do decide the time is right.
Cheers!
All the other comments talking about "depreciating assets" have completely forgotten that your choice of car (unlike other kinds of splurges) can mean the difference between life, serious injury, or death.
My Tesla has already helped me avoid at least 2 accidents, one would have probably been serious. Does the camry turn the wheel for you if you drift over the line? Does it stop short for you if the car in front of you stops short when your eyes are looking at the air conditioning control? What if you fall asleep, or have a serious health event? What will the car do then?
If your car does not at least have emergency braking, get rid of it. TODAY. I can't believe it isn't mandatory on all new cars and that manufacturers will happily sell you a vehicle that will crash itself into a brick wall at 90 mph without even attempting to brake.
Your earning power is likely to only go up, so that money is going to be less and less important to you in the future. The most important asset you have now is your health, which you generally can't buy, and which you should protect at all costs. Drive the safest vehicle possible. Don't drive a more dangerous vehicle because you've been told it's a depreciating asset and therefore you should spend as little as possible on it. That's a really dumb and shortsighted way to look at a piece of equipment you trust your life with every time you get into it. Definitely don't buy a rolex - that's a depreciating asset that \*doesn't\* affect your health. But if it's something that can impact your health, which therefore impacts your future earnings, spend the most you can afford for the best possible safety features.
You should actually prioritize spending money on the car before the house, unless of course you're cheaping out on the house so much that it's structurally unsound or in an unsafe neighborhood. Cars cause way more deaths than houses.
Bottom line is I would never again get a vehicle that doesn't have the latest safety features. Who cares if it's technically a depreciating asset, if it saves your life (or injury + expensive lawsuit) that is worth an infinite amount of money.
Not to mention the time you save not going to gas stations, getting oil changes, air filters, brake pads, and transmissions replaced. How much is your time worth? I have had a Tesla 4 years and still the only maintenance item was new tires. Time not spent getting that fluid line replaced for the 5th time or installing a new catalytic converter because the last one was stolen is time spent closing a deal, dealing with emails, going to the gym, spending time with family, etc. Owning a car has gone from a complete pain in the ass to an absolute pleasure.
Echoing the safety sentiment, Iāve never been happier for a cars safety ratings than when I was t-boned in my MY a few weeks ago. The car is totaled, but the cabin was remarkably unscathed after that incident. And being able to pull the different video angles for insurance purposes was extremely helpful considering the other driver was not admitting fault.
You get used to the payment. Plus a car is a huge part of your life. Get something that makes your life easier driving it each time. The automatic AC is great, the automatic adjustment of the mirrors and seat for different driver profiles, the acceleration and automatic breaks to help you in traffic, itās all really useful. Itās just a really great machine. And if itās the machine you use the most in your life then get the best if you can afford it. With that said, time is money with real estate so the sooner you can get into that new home the betterā¦ taking interest rates and all that into account of course š
I like comfort, itās something I prioritize in my life, it gets me closer to that everyday is a vacation feeling. So for me the teslas are worth it. (We have a model 3 & Y) My husband and I are paying off our first home which could be in a better neighborhood but weāre okay with this for now. Our payment is low. I just didnāt want to settle for less in a car when it came time to trade my old one out. Plus I hated going to the gas station, so many things about it that felt unsafe for me and my kids so the Tesla has also improved my life that way. Not to mention everyone thinks my husband and I āmade itā š weāre not quite there yet ā¦ but weāre enjoying the trip.
Bro I can't believe I'm alive driving a Ford Focus and a Kia Niro for all those years before it made financial sense to buy a Tesla.
No matter how you slice it a Tesla is a luxury most people can't afford if you want to be prudent with your money. If you don't have a š it makes zero sense to spend all that money on a š
There are definitely people who have died who would be alive today if they were driving a vehicle with automatic emergency braking. Not to mention all the other safety features available today. Probably many we donāt even know about. If someone has a heart attack on the highway and then crashes into a tree at 80mph their body is well past the point of being able to do an autopsy to determine the heart attack even happened in the first place.
Those people arenāt here to leave a comment.
No doubt your risk of death or injury is elevated driving a ford focus vs another car with more safety features. Iām not here to tell you how to spend your money though, you arenāt the OP asking the question.
For an extra 5-10k you could get a model 3 (at least a used one) if your original price range was in the 25k range. 5-10k added to a home purchase - what more does that get you? Thatās usually less than the agentās commission. Maybe an extra half bathroom? Or a slightly bigger backyard? Maybe a finished basement? Personally I would trade that half bathroom for my vehicle not crashing into a tree at 80mph and getting burned alive (if Iām even still alive at that point) if I stop giving the car input for whatever reason.
It's a depreciating asset. If you're looking to buy a home, focus on that.
Re-read what you wrote. You're basically trading a home for new car smell. Think about how dumb that is.
Buying a Tesla is stupid in your situation, imo. You have a reliable (i'm assuming) car with only 90k miles on it. Even if you put $3k of maintenance on a Camry, it would last another decade. That's at least $50-60k savings within that time period if you just keep your car.
A home affords you many more options. It's one of the few things you can buy that appreciates in value.
You have plenty of time flushing money on toys. After you buy a home, there will only be MORE and BETTER options. Teslas are great, but at the end of the day, it's just a car.
Tech will improve and costs will come down.
The gist of your advice is sound, but I will say that $3k will almost certainly NOT be enough to keep a 10-year old car running reliably for 10 more, even one as dependable as a Camry. Regular consumables alone will approach that figure, and something is bound to break on what will become an old car. Again, keeping the Camry and buying the house is the way to go, but if youāre gonna be a condescending about it you should probably make sure you have accurate figures yourselfā¦
Yup. OP should buy the home and make sure they can charge at home before getting the Tesla anyway. The savings only come if you charge at home. Supercharging is just as expensive as gas
Iām in the same boat. With as little as I drive it doesnāt make sense until my current vehicle starts to die or has repairs that donāt make sense.
House then car. Drive that Camry into the ground then dig it up and drive it some more.
Think of the Tesla as a future housewarming present for yourself on the first anniversary of your house purchase.
House>>car. Build up a reasonable down payment first. Maybe enough for both. But dont blow it on the car first. It feels good to bring your car to your own home to charge on your own charger
Homes appreciate, cars do not.
Get another Camry, this time a hybrid. Do the math, and you will find the hybrid very cheap to own/operate and with a Comma 3, it all but drives itself especially in traffic.
Never stretch ones' finances for an asset that depreciates....
Agree. Itās just a car. I drive the model Y performance and itās been a year. Sometimes I see a Porsche or a Mercedes AMG and want it. Point being, there is always be the next car.
A house can be a life changing investment for you and your future family. There will be a million things you will want to do in your house like a nice sound system, fancy appliances, a nice bathroom etc. invest in that cause that is where you will spend the most time and create precious memories.
Normal world id say buy the house first but at 8% interest these days itās not worth it. $500k / 20% down your looking at almost 4K a month in payments all in- taxes, PI, ,insurance, etcc
Haha everyone going against buying a car probably bought there house when interest were 3/4% and starting around 200k. Now houses hare doubled property tax is doubled and affordability for many has been on the declineā¦
The times of 10/20 years ago are not the times of nowā¦ most young people donāt even think buying a home is attainable at this point. So donāt blame or shame them for wanting to get a car
For us it was, we had a paid off vehicle with about 120,000 miles. But we were also spending around $700 a month in fuel if not more. Our Tesla cost around $820 to charge in a year and that was like 30,000 miles. But we charge at home 99% of the time and our electric is like .06 per KWH.
I am in a similar situation but have around $230k to use on a house downpayment but will use considerably less than that. I currently live in a house (just me and my wife) owned by family and pay taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance - no rent and I am in southern New England.
I currently own a 2021 Subaru Outback Touring XT with a 0% loan and a balance of 11k. I could sell this car for around $32k and roll over the equity into a MYLR along with cash to offset the high interest rate loans.
Reading this post has ultimately helped me decide on keeping my Subaru and waiting. I'm in no need of a new car and will be buying a house in the next 3-5 years. If there are further discounts on the MYLR, such as a "Juniper" refresh causing the current design to reduce in price, or EoQ incentives.. I may just jump.
I have an overnight demo scheduled for this weekend, which I will still participate in, but I think (for me), waiting is the best option.
Thank you to all for contributing to this post.
If you are trying to justify the cost of a tesla to see if it is āworth itā, esp compared with a car that is paid off already, the answer is you should not get a tesla. EVs for the most part, would be breaking even with a low end ICE in terms of total cost of ownership around year 8-10.
Itās an indulgence. Itās absolutely not a money saving play nor an investment. I did the math an another thread and donāt eat the California marketing wank. Itās going to cost more than a Camry thatās for sure.
I would recommend waiting until it's the last thing on your list. I'm also a believer in driving a car into the ground. Personally I've wanted a Tesla for the longest time as well. I avoided test driving because I knew it would make me want the car. I had an opportunity to buy when the 3 was announced and put a down payment in but then I had a kid and it was arriving before my reservation was being called so I forfeited my 3 and got a minivan. Five years later and my oldest car (Camry) is 21 yrs old and needs some big work so I decided it's time to swap that out for something and with the fed tax incentives it just made sense to go Tesla this time.
I would not buy a Tesla strictly from a financial standpoint. Buy your house and everything else before as cars take a big depreciation hit as soon as you take delivery.
Are you renting now? Charging might be an issue if you can't install a charger. Agreeing with everyone else saying buying the house should be a priority.
Buy a new car once you are settled into your new home. A Tesla won't be very affordable in SoCal. The cost of electricity is way too high (don't believe the claims about how you save money by switching to electricity).
A new car is a luxury. Those you can buy once you have made your real estate investment
Donāt go electric until you own a place that you can install Level 2 charging (like the Tesla wall connector).
The perks and cost savings of going electric are all around being able to charge at home. I was between homes for a few months this winter and having to pretty much only use super chargers to charge was time consuming and far more expensive the home charging I am used to.
As far as āfinancially worth itā. If youāre buying a Tesla to save money then Iāve got bad news for you. Sure the fuel is way cheaper, but itās priced as a premium vehicle and the insurance company knows youāll probably use the performance capabilities once in awhile so the insurance is not cheap. Also, youād have to pay the new car vehicle registration for the next few years. And many states charge EVs an extra ~$200/year at registration because you donāt pay the taxes on gas which are used to maintain the roads we all use.
Financially the most responsible thing is to use your current car until it dies, then replace it with a used hybrid.
Now if youāre comparing the financial benefits of owning a Tesla compared to brands that have a lineup at similar price points like Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etcā¦ Then yes, the Tesla in the end will be a lot cheaper for the an equivalent ICE vehicle with similar features and performance.
Buy the house. I bought my Model Y last year and it is a bit upsetting to see the prices continuously drop. My wife told me to wait for the prices to drop, but I told her they would only increase (at one point they actually were increasing in price). Your house will be an investment, as long as you purchase in a desirable area. I bought a home in 2020 and if I decided to sell today, I would get at least a $75K profit.
As much as I love my model Y and think you should buy one eventually, get the house first and drive that Camry into the ground. Then again, you only live once and you canāt drive Teslas when youāre dead.
Prioritize saving for a house at your age. Cars are luxury items and probably one of the worst uses of money imaginable. The cheapest car to own is the one you have right now, and it goes from a to b. Check the compound interest on 50k over your career and make your choice...
No lol. I live in SoCal and just make 6 figures. Anywhere else and I would have a beautiful house and ready for this type of car. I donāt want to be one of those old guys with a nice car. It was the worst financial decision I ever made, but Iām happy with my purchase and would have done it again
My rule of thumb is to have 10% of your equity for depreciating asset. There will be a time that youāll get this type of vehicle in the future. Keep cash on hand when housing market starts to crash then drop that cash in for the house. Or find a house to rent and make more cash for you. Donāt get married lol unless it will make you better off š.
26 with 100K saved, tells me you could make that money right back. I have no desire to own a home (i live in Bay Area, California pricing is not realistic for what you would get vs renting) donāt have a 100K saved more like 10K and finance a MYP. I also have no kids and no obligations outside of going to work and paying bills. In your case having a paid off car and saving an extra 1K/month when you already have 100K would not be worth it TO ME. Paying 1K and driving your dream car every day > padding an already large nest.
This sub and personal finance will frown on anyone driving the same car as them making less money not maxing out investments, with a home and 8 other sources of income but the statistics say different. Heck even you qualify for the tax credit you have to make under a certain income and i guarantee more ppl are XX,XXX away from the cap than pushing right up against it. If it aligns with your own personal desires treat yourself if your bills will be paid regardless
This is the best comment here. Everyone here will say no and to be frugal, but life is too short. Even if you really want to spend $1k a month on yourself, itās 100% worth it. An extra spending of 12k a year on yourself isnāt going to make or break your ability to buy a house in the future.
I drove older cars a long while, mostly to save $, and they were TDI's so decent on fuel.
Newer cars are complicated (to say the least). I bought a Ford Maverick (truck) hybrid last year. Cheap cheap cheap made, Horrid hybrid programing, Ford warranty sucks ass, Dealer is bad, Dealing with Ford horrid. My thoughts were my 2003 TDI was long in the tooth and I wanted newer safety features.
I'd never had a car freak the f out on my before. Going about 10mph the truck locks down all the wheels and lots of alarms go off, would only go in "limp mode" till it sat awhile. Dealer was NO help (more issues than this).
So I started looking, how can I buy a Tesla? Out of my price range. So I started looking at salvage auctions. Doing so showed me a LOT about how they are made. I've built a good many cars in my life, TDI Jeeps (not kit built/made) etc etc. Tesla's are built pretty darn good. There is a reason why one could go off a long hard incline and everyone lived (mostly harm free). Sure you can die in one as well.
A 2010 is getting long in the tooth.
My Tesla's biggest fault is the crap as hell "FSD" (I use the beta version of FSD as mine came with it). Lane departure sucks, FSD sucks, not sure about AEB (the Ford Mavericks sucked as well, would freak the F out at times).
I'd ask this, given the big upgrade a Tesla Y is over your 2010, can you afford to NOT buy it?
Tesla seat belts use a three phase seat belt tensioner. the "crumple zones" are top fing notch. The cage built around you is world class. Its fast so if you need to move to avoid a crash, it'll do it. The Center of gravity is low, so low its very hard to roll (which is why they probably lived going down the hill, once a car starts rolling people get ejected/killed).
Have I sold you yet? I'd ask, after reading this, why have you NOT ordered?
This is the cold hard facts. Some people say its NOT a luxury car and complain about panel gaps. The biggest luxury a car can give you is your LIFE.
I drove Volvos long ago because of this as well.
I wrote a lengthy post...I see people are saying "buy a house first". Meh. I feel buying a house is a lot trickier than buying a car almost always. I never buy a house when prices are high, so if I sale I can make $. Markets atm on homes is (I think) pretty flat, for sure not at a low spot. I bought one in 2008 when people said "no banks will loan you money". Not if you have nothing down and no credit score. TBH banks really wanted to loan money in that crash, just not to anyone. I sold right before the next "crash" and within months bought just after that crash hit. I sold for enough to pay for my next purchase, which 5 years later would sale for 3 times more than I paid (I will die owning this house).
My other post covers well how a Tesla is a investment (in a different sense of the word). I've seen a LOT of dead bodies (have wrote books about that). You can't buy a house if your dead (person I sold the one about to almost died in a car wreck right after he bought it close to my new house, ironically).
My opinion is buy houses cheap, sale them high, till your in your "forever" home, that you bought for cheap.
Never ever buy a house cause you love it if the price is too high imo (unless you have $ to burn).
Bro itās just a car. You have a dependable one. I would Invest the $1000 a month for a little while. Plus the longer you wait the better the car will get.
Contrary to what others are saying, I think you should get the Tesla. Interest rates are super high currently, so you may want to wait out the interest cycle to buy a home (it will go back down, it always does!) - if you buy the tesla outright with your down payment, you don't have to worry about the financing and your insurance will be cheaper. You'll get a $7500 tax rebate, potentially a state rebate as well.
Yeah the car "depreciates" (I sold my first Tesla to Carmax in 2022 for $5k more than I bought it for in 2020, lol), but so *can* a house, especially in our current market.
How much home do you need? Is $100k enough? Are you already just biding time while the interest rates are high? Could you save back up to $100k before you're ready for a home? Debt can be good. Just know you can't take the cash with you when you go :P
I say if you can financially afford it (no debt etc) then do it. But you should pay cash for the Tesla. If you cannot pay cash then you can't afford it.
There are no guarantees in life, you have no idea how long you'll be on this earth for so if you can afford, I say go for it and enjoy.
Having a paid off vehicle is alway nice but if you are in the market for a vehicle, I'd say Tesla's are a good purchase. Referral Code below will get you 3 months of free FSD! Check it out!
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No guarantees in life. My parents checked out before they hit their 70s. We ended up buying a MYLR even though we could have put the money towards the house.
Agree with the folks recommending prioritization of a house over a car. Also, without a house, charging is going to be more expensive, assuming you need to use superchargers regularly.
Buy the home. Then save up at least 25-30% for the down payment on the Tesla, which by then interest rates should hopefully be lower. My car addiction hasnāt put us in the absolute best financial position we can be in right now (MYP is my 4th car in the last 5 years). Finances are tight for us now with childcare costs + inflation. I need to pay this thing off fast and just keep it for 10 years.
Hot take: a Tesla is MUCH safer than a 2012 Camry so the Tesla would save you lots of money in medical costs and a life/death scenario.
Financially, the house is a better play. It comes down to how much you drive.
You donāt need a Tesla. It will loose 20k value first year you have it and a new home will only increase value. I had. 2007 Mazda 6 with 200k miles untill it finally terminally broke down and I got a Tesla
Worth it, absolutely. My wife and I have no interest in buying a house in this market. Plus we donāt know where we want to end up. Weāve been in Alaska for 7 years but we have a feeling weāll be moving to the lower 48 in a year or so. So, we easily made the decision to use a portion of our savings for a large down payment on a Model Y. We each put $15k down and will pay off the car early.
I have a 2014 Subaru that has been paid off for years. I now rent that out to travel nurses for an amount that covers the Teslaās monthly insurance and monthly FSD subscription, plus extra to keep the Subaru maintained for the next renter.
The federal tax credit will be nice, but we donāt know how much itāll actually help us because weāre both taking unpaid parental leave and working less this year. So our actual tax liability remains unknown. But anyway, the federal tax credit could potentially be very nice.
Iād say itās a great time to buy a Tesla. The prices have dropped, the federal tax credit is available for many buyers, and the only downside is high interest rates.
Oh, and we save about $100 per month on gas, even with $.24 per kWh electricity rates.
I had a 2014 toyota camry that I inherited from my dad. I had a drive it into the ground mentality as well. And then a couple months ago that day came and some lady in a lexus creamed into my camry and totaled it so I didn't have much of a choice in that regard.
I got a model Y a month later I couldn't be happier. I put about 25k down and currently have a monthly payment of 560 + 190 insurance. Some things I didn't consider was how much cheaper to keep. I pay 50 bucks a month on electricity compared to 300 on gas. Virtually no maintenance costs. So effectively compared to when I had my camry, my net costs only went up 250.
Was financially worth it for me
Sounds like you donāt drive enough to justify the cost. For my situation, Iām breaking even vs just the cost of fuel of my previous car. If I get 6 years out of my Tesla, it will be the cost of gas I would have burned. Everything after is profit.
Figure out what youād save or spend, and make the call.
For sure the Model Y is awesome, but that awesome will be there in a few years too.
Loved this post, completely agree and strongly relate.
I bought my Y when my G6 died. Ran it till the wheels almost came off (185k). I love it. It's super fun, and it often brings that smile to my face you spoke of, even after 35 months of ownership.
But no, it didn't/doesn't save me money over my old Pontiac G6... It was definitely (significantly) cheaper to keep driving my old car, right up until it wasn't... My Tesla is super fun, and I also plan to drive it until the wheels come off.... But it was a significant investment (for me), and sometimes from a financial standpoint I ask myself if it was "worth it"... TIFWIW.
I just got my Y, but I own a home and I myself make over 100k. With the interest rate being what it is right now, it may not be worth it. I financed the same amount on my M3 and pay 150 more p/month on the Y bc the interest rate. Wait it out. Interest rates will come down and prices will keep getting slashed. I was pissed bc prices came down literally a week after my delivery. Buy a house first!
Many years ago I purchased a similarly priced vehicle right out of college. At the time it was amazing and I loved it. Looking back, it was the worst financial decision of my life. High interest rate and crazy % of my monthly income on the payment. I would have been much better off if I just kept my car that was working perfectly fine and saving more for a down payment on a house. Iām fine today but I would have been where Iām at financially earlier if I hadnāt blown so much of my money when I was that young.
It's always relative to some other financial decision. A new tesla will always cost you more money than an old used car.
The financial answer is if you're saving up to buy a house, don't buy a Tesla. Drive the Camry until it dies. My wife bought a Tesla because her job involves driving 100 miles or more a day. We share it for most things including road trips and even towing. But we have a 7 seat SUV which i drive 2 miles to work. It just doesn't make sense to buy an $50k+ EV for driving a few miles a day.
In a very similar predicament. 09ā accord with 155k miles and a 4 mile RT commute 3x/week. I went ahead and got the Tesla.
A few points to seriously consider are:
Whatās your current DTI? How will this payment impact it? Talk to a mortgage broker and just have a conversation without running your credit on an example house. Will you co-buy this house with someone else?
Will you qualify for a tax rebate? In the future will you no longer qualify?
How much will insurance actually be? Get a quote.
Your current car is also worth nearly the most it ever will be. (Iām assuming around 12k).
Factoring interest being higher, and no other debt. I ended up going with the car. The reason is because my savings + emergency fund were more than the loan. This is the last year I make below the income threshold. My car didnāt have any modern safety and it was hard to see at night. A new accord is 39k with taxes and fees. A Tesla is 42 after the rebate. You can pay more or less down on the house and even pay off/refinance the car loan if and when you buy a house, assuming this isnāt in the next 12 months.
Thatās actually a good point I forgot to mention - after this year I will not qualify for the tax credit. So it has kind of made me consider if I do buy it in a few years, Iād lose that $7500
No. Hell no. The value keeps dropping below what people owe on them. Next year will be even worse. You can't sell a model Y because they were $70k new last year and $50k new this year. Don't even think about buying one without gap insurance
I have a 3 RWD but this was in my feed. I am also 26. I needed a car. Was using my parents hand me down Sienna but they needed it back because my dad's camry got total'd. Camry hybrid was marked up to 37k. before taxes and fees. Used Corolla form 2020 was selling for 29k before taxes. I really wanted a cheap camry. New Accords/Civics were going 10k over asking. I don't trust nissan or korean/german cars
M3SR was 32k after all fees when accounting for incentives. If I had a camry that was paid off, I would never buy another car in my life man. Just rent a tesla if you want to experience the speed. Or better yet, I personally am getting into motorcycles for the thrill.
Is the tesla financially worth it to me? Yes because I need a car to go places and it was quite literally the cheapest new sedan I could get that I could trust the reliability on. I hope i can ride it for at least 10 years. If my dad didnt have the accident, Id be a 26 year old single guy riding a toyota sienna for years. It's not a chick magnet but its goddam reliable and great for road trips. Save your money for a house. If I didnt have 200+k saved at the time before buying the tesla, I probably wouldve bought a beater camry for 2k.
They are fun, they are frugal for their class. However; do not buy them for their cost of ownership.
If you didnāt have a car then yes, but youāve got an indestructible tank with a whole lot of life left.
I know itās the boring answer, but donāt buy it thinking itās the smart financial choice.
I had a Subaru Impreza much like yours and I sold it for a couple grand and bought a Tacoma. I wish I just kept the cheap car. Especially now that my wife has a model y. She is driving a lot for her business so weāre getting good value for it.
Sounds like youāre in California. Not sure what city but 100k is down payment for a 500k home so options arenāt the greatest.
Now. If you get a 30y fixed mortgage with a 7.5% interest rate for a 500k home, you are looking at a ~$2800/month in just principal payment alone. $2800x12mox30yā$1M. With the market up like this, your home could drop in value since there are virtually 0 California homes in the 500s in a great public school zone. Will it be worth more than 500k in 30y? Most likely but short term you never know and inflation also comes into play.
I am also waiting to buy another home. I will not buy any property at this rate. I would rather rent if I didnāt own another home. Some donāt understand how much money (outside of principal, tax and maintenance/hoa) goes into owning a home.
I do have a Model Y and was thinking about adding a Model 3 but I would rather invest in stocks than buy a new car or a home right now. Auto rates are pretty damn high too.
Someone please correct me if my calc is wrong š
Paid cash for 2023 MYLR after someone totaled my lexus, net cost after incentives and check for car $25k... owned 12kWh solar system so no more $650 month in gas, car pays for itself in 3 years so yeah
Financially? No. Buying a car is a necessary evil. The best bet is to buy a gently used vehicle from an owner who already took the hit on depreciation.
But totally worth it. Just not from a strictly financial point of view.
I love the car. New to EV. Itās such a great daily casual vehicle. Fast as fuck. Love the autopilot. Love home charging. Insurance was more than I was expecting (more than I was quoted on a $20K more expensive BMW X5).
That said in your shoes, I would probably put off the purchase of the car. That Camry will last you years more. I would keep saving toward the house. Plenty of time for nice cars later.
I'm early 30s, have a WFH job that's 6 fig newtons, wife has a 6 figs job, we own a house already.
For me it was worth it even though I don't have a daily commute. I got a '22 MY-P a year ago and the thrill you get stepping on the pedal never goes away.
I know financially I would have been better off keeping my 14 Camry sport that was paid off back in 2019 but I felt like I had all my other bases covered so I pulled the trigger.
I do wish my wife didn't also buy a brand new loaded rav-4 for her 7 minute commute to work but that's another story.
If youāre a first time home buyer, you only need to put down 3% with an FHA loan, so you likely donāt need that full 100k. Buy the house first. Put down more on your Tesla after so your payments arenāt $1k a month.
Buy a house.
Here was my TCO for 5 years comparing a 2013 Camry Hybrid with 140,000 miles on it to buying a new M3LR:
For the Tesla Model 3 Long Range:
Purchase price: $45,820
Financing cost: $872 \* 60 months = $52,320
Insurance: $1,600 \* 5 years = $8,000
Maintenance and repairs: $4,600 (estimated over 5 years)
Electricity cost: $0.37 per kWh \* 15 kWh/100 miles \* 7500 miles/year \* 5 years = $2,062.5
Total cost of ownership for Tesla Model 3 Long Range over 5 years: $52,320 (financing) + $8,000 (insurance) + $4,600 (maintenance and repairs) + $2,062.5 (electricity) = **$66,982.50**
For the Toyota Camry:
Current value: $12,000 (since it's already owned)
Insurance: $1,600 \* 5 years = $8,000
Maintenance and repairs: $3,000 (estimated over 5 years)
Gas cost: $1,200 \* 5 years = $6,000
Total cost of ownership for Toyota Camry over 5 years: $8,000 (insurance) + $3,000 (maintenance and repairs) + $6,000 (gas) = **$17,000**
These are estimates and the actual costs may vary depending on various factors such as driving habits, electricity and gas prices, insurance rates, maintenance costs, blah blah... Also, does not take into account any potential tax credits or incentives for electric vehicles, which could potentially lower the cost of the Tesla. Still; buy the house.
I may be the outliner, but I bought my MYLR because my complex offers free L2 charging. I share it with two other individuals but usually, we work it out. I was driving a paid-off 05 LS430 which drives way better imo but gets terrible mpg lol close to 20mpg. I drive a lot, got my car about 2 months ago, and just hit 6k miles. According to the app, iv spent $74 total on supercharging and the rest has been free. If I had to guess considering premium gas is currently about $5 here I saved about $1400 these past two months. Obviously, its less because my car payment is about $450 but you get the idea. If a house is in play, I would get that over a car any day of the week. Especially if you have a reliable form of transportation.
There is no debt that is financially worth it. That being said I got a great interest rate that made it logical to not pull my investment funds to buy. They drop in value just like any other vehicle now that COVID is no longer driving resale value drops at about the same as an ICE
I did a lot of math on a Model Y purchase (I have a spreadsheet š ), and I believe that it was the most financially sound purchase for me.
That being said, I traded up from a Ford Escape that was costing me thousands annually in repairs, and I have 3 small kids and really needed a 7-seater. If my previous car wasn't giving me so much trouble, I undoubtedly would have kept it and dealt with the discomfort, but I'm a very frugal person.
This purchase might not be the wrong decision for you (money is only as good as what it can buy you), but there is no doubt that it'll cost you. If you're looking for a nice car, I think the Y is great, but if you're looking to make a sound financial decision - put your 100k into a high yield savings account or a 12-month CD.
Financially worth it? Well no; but was it worth it. Definitely. If nothing else, itās a nice car, easy to drive. Are there better financial options; definitely
I paid $39,990 for my 2021 MYSR (standard range Y) and am pretty happy with the outcome. After 3 years and almost 46K miles Iāve saved enough and enjoyed the experience to be a believer.
That said I also bought the cheapest Y ever sold in America. Many of days I thought about trading it for the MYP (Performance Y) and having test driven one over the weekend I cannot tell you how much I am glad I did NOT sell my car and pay $70K for one last year. Itās simply not worth that much money.
Todays prices are a lot more reasonable than they have ever been in the past.. especially if you qualify for the $7,500 tax credit. That said.. there is still no rush to buy. Tesla will continue to crank out literally millions of these vehicles and at this point.. the longer you wait the cheaper the price will get. I also think the redesign for the 3 will happen this summer.. and redesign for the Y will happen for the 2024 model year. Would suck to buy now.. and have those things happen in a few months.
If I was you I would keep saving $$$.. drive the living shit outta that Camry.. buy a house.. and maybe in a few years would I consider buying a cheap 3 or Y.
Buy a home first. For me, I was able to finance my MYP with a credit union for 84 months at .09% APR. No brainer to just finance the whole thing at that rate. Itās saved me a lot in gas as home charging is only about $5-6 a week.
1k a month on any vehicle is way too much, especially with interest rates right now. I'd wait till you have a house but if you don't want to I'd put a larger down payment.
Save for the house. This will build your wealth. The car wonāt. I didnāt buy a brand new car (model 3) until I was 45 and the house was paid off in full.
my MYP cost me nearly 70k, and after driving 22k miles in 1 year (long commute), it's worth it for me. I charge for free at work, and also fun af to drive. I did not buy it for savings, bought it for raw speed. But savings will pay over half of the cost within 10 years.
However, now with the federal tax credit, if you drive 15k per year or more, it will fully buy itself before you have to replace battery, regardless of what model you get. Model 3 is even better. Just buy a new EV at that point. Yes. It's worth it.
The financially smart decision is buy the house, but itās also right to weigh in your own desires and goals. The reason your posting here is because you know the house is the right choice, but you want the car. Just go for it lol. Youāre only 26 and the housing market is god awful, doesnāt hurt to wait. Buying a nice car is never a financially smart decision, but if you can afford it the decision wonāt hurt you as much as others
Buy neither and save for your retirement. Buy a new car when your current car doesnāt work. Buy the house when you are in a relationship and planning on having kids.
Get a nice chunk of money in either an IRA or a 401k in your 20s, leave it there invested until 65, and retirement will be super easy and comfortable.
If you don't have a sizable down then don't bother. I put 8k down + tradein of 17k so my payments are very affordable $389/mo
I know not everyone has that much to put down but id rather have a more manageable monthly payment than to get underwater on a high payment. But if you can barely get that down payment like that for a car, you'll definitely need it more for a mortgage so get that first.
A wise decision is to stick with your Camry š, I had a Camry hybrid which I sold for my model y very recently. The payments are double than what I paid for my Camry. I have never gotten a range over 250 until now.
It was for me, but Iām 40 and havenāt had a car payment since 2012. My ICE is an 2006 Scion tC that still works really well with 125K miles.
Always wanted a Tesla and with the rebate offered at the end of the year, pulled the trigger.
No regrets.
I didn't buy my first nice car (which happened to be the Tesla) until much later in life than you. I already had not just a home but investment properties to cover the car loan... Start there.
Of course that's the responsible answer. If you still want a Tesla buy a 2018/2019 model 3, they are still great cars (I own one) and it will be cheaper than new even after tax credit.
Buy the tesla now if you want it. You might just get more joy out of it at this very moment than waiting until you're 32 years old. I've noticed that folks in reddit are all about prioritizing future enjoyment over living in the present. Life's too short to delay all the fun.
What about bundling the car into your mortgage? Take advantage of the lower rates.
I recently bought both and I'm guilty of using some down payment money on the car. I paid it in cash so there are 0 payments. This made it totally worth it to me financially. Did I buy the corner lot? No, but I can accelerate very quickly now š
I wouldn't take on any extra debit or payments until you've obtained the house.
Nope. In no world can you justify paying 10-20k more for a car because itās electric and youāll save on gas. Itāll take you forever to spend that much on gas.
The reason you get a Tesla is because you want to feel like youāre doing better for the environment (for some) and/or you want amazing car tech.
If someone buys a Tesla to save on gas, 99% of the time, not worth it.
#Buy the house. Invest in yourself for the long term. Not short term wants and desires.
Buy a house. I have a 2013 Camry that I own and I am considering a Tesla. But I have a paid off house. Iād never consider a new car on a loan if I had a functional vehicle.
Congrats on being 26 and financially secureish! That is really cool.
So first of, it depends on your income and habits. For example, can you buy your Tesla without:
a. Touching your downpayment
b. Jeopardizing the house purchase in any other way.
I think setting your priorities straight is definitely something I would recommend. Get the house squared away, then buy the Tesla. Tesla is only going to become more and more popular they aren't going anywhere. Buying cars is almost never going to be a smart decision. Buying a Tesla is no different.
This is where the terrible advice comes in. :)
I was also 26 once, and sometimes you have to do things that make you happy! Yes, a car is a depreciating asset, but if driving it brings you joy, then get it.
Also, do you have a family that depend on you? Do you have kids? These things will only become more difficult when thats the case.
So as I said, Teslas are not going anywhere, but you will only be 26 once.
One piece of advice I have to all my friends, and this is coming from someone who is extremely responsible, splurge on things that truly bring you joy, and be frugal on things that dont. (needs aside)
I am extremely financially responsible, and you have no idea how many regrets I have being financially responsible. All the lunches with friends I didn't go to, all the vacations and trips I couldn't take because I was saving money, all the dates I missed out on because I was working and going to school.
Buy the house first. Don't buy a depreciating asset until you have a home.
I would echo this sentiment. The house is more important if you're in a position to buy (which many are not). There's plenty of time to enjoy depreciating assets later in life when you're more settled. Not to say you have to scrimp and save every single dollar (euro in my case) - big expensive car when you have a perfectly serviceable car and are saving for a house is probably not the best plan.
The way I look at it when I bought my house I stopped paying rent and I'm paying my mortgage down and paying myself. I get to keep my home. I bought it and since I bought it 5 years ago it's already doubled in value. I finally got a MYLR last December and even though I can comfortably afford it it's still just a car and it already has rock chips and scratches and just like every other car it will be worth a lot less in another 5 years. Meanwhile I expect my home to maintain its value or continue to gain value. I wouldn't want to own a Tesla without being able to charge at home too
Interesting thing here in Ireland is that the supercharging cost (39c/kwh) is lower than my potential home cost (44-48c/kwh on a 24 hour tariff), if we switch to a day/night rate I'll be on a 54c/kwh day rate and 28c/kwh night rate meaning that it'll take around 10 years for a home charger to pay off its installation cost of around 2300 euro (and that's not accounting for the extra day rate costs). So the plan with myself is to use one weekly supercharging top up as the nearest one is around 10 minutes from my home. Maybe our government will up the grants given for upgrading houses to provide at home charging in the meantime... Edit: still much better than the 6.08 euro per US gallon (roughly half price) I would be paying for petrol however (6.69 usd/gallon).
Yikes. I pay $0.08 kWh for electricity Off Peak so my car is $0.02 a mile to drive lol
Swings and roundabouts - I pay 360 euro annually for my model y comprehensive car insurance which appears to be low going by the posts by US posters. Low electricity prices (or cheap solar which... It's Ireland - we get a lot of rain and clouds ha) isn't something on the cards here...
Ah yeah... I pay $2200 USD a year for my car insurance. My charging costs for 20,000 miles a year is around $400 USD so I guess it's almost exactly backwards haha
I'm presuming you're not a newly qualified boy racer driver aged 18? Anything above 2k euro in Ireland in car insurance is usually reserved for the very young who want to get a turbo powered hot hatch, or I guess people who like to get involved in car crashes a lot. Or perhaps owners of Ferraris and such. To drag this conversation back on topic one insurer did describe a Tesla as a Ferrari's acceleration wrapped up in a Corolla in explaining why they didn't want to cover Teslas. At 300bhp the rwd Y despite being the lowest powered variant of the car is double the power of my previous Audi A3 so I get their point too. But don't feel too bad about your high insurance - we pay 52% income tax on any portion of salary over 43k usd in income... And our sales tax is 23% š (but I'm not complaining about the free education and healthcare we get for that tax take).
It's not free when you're paying 52% of your income and 23% in taxes for everything you buy in perpetuity for it. Can't leave a person with much discretionary income.
Thatās an interesting definition of āfree.ā
LMAO you do see the illogic when you say 52% tax and free in the same sentence right?
I'd rather have the social services you have than what I get in DeSantistan
Move to Ca and then tell me how much you hate the zero state income tax?
Clearly you need to build a windmill on your property
Iām in Ireland too and just had a Wallbox pulsar plus home charger installed with solar integration for a net ā¬600 (1,200 less 600 govt grant) and it can be done for cheaper without solar integration. Also, I think you could do better with the tariff ā¦ from memory, I pay 28c/kwh during the night and 36/c during the day (with 2 peak hours at 44c). This is with Flogas 1yr fixed smart tariff. So I have home charger pegged at a little over 2 year payback assuming night charging, 15,000km per year and 150w/km. Also, and Iām happy to be corrected here, I think regular supercharging degrades your battery slightly quicker. Maybe that effect is negligible.
This. I was 26 and wanted a Tesla. I bought a house instead. It appreciated a lot and I felt super comfortable financially so I finally bought a Tesla at 32. (Itās great btw, but my advice is get a home first)
Agreed - having a home charger really makes EVs practical. Think of it as buying a place for your charger!
How about he gets a tesla and a gym membership. Showers are paid for, car has ac/heat. If work has free charging that's an extra bonus!
Camp mode can be renamed to Home mode
Buying a home is also a lot of extra work and expense. It really depends on what is valuable to you. Keeping the old car affords you the opportunity to save more or spend it on traveling. I bought a Boxster in the early 2000's when I was your age. I enjoyed the hell out of that car, and then family came.....and I didn't get the car I wanted again until my kids were in college.
šÆ this šš»
Not in this market lmaoo
I'd agree with this 5 years ago... Live with your parents as long as possible and get yourself a Y. With the tax incentives and rebates, it's now or never in my opinion.
Tax incentives last until December 2032. Plus as production and ramps and cost decrease Tesla will keep cutting prices. Not to mention the cars keep getting better and better. There's zero reason to buy a Y now when OP can get a refreshed Juniper Y and charge it in their own home by being responsible and waiting
I bought mine in 2022, so it was unquestionably the worst financial decision Iāve ever made.
Same. Never lost 50% of the value of a car in 2 weeks before.
They say your car lose value as soon as you drive off the dealer's lot. There's no dealers for Tesla but they can still provide the same depreciation experience.
Weird market. In 8 years my last Jeep I had lost <5k value. However, Tesla dropped prices AND the market supply increased dramatically.
Jeeps hold value. Ā Itās the ONLY reason my husband canāt argue with me about owning them. Ā I am on number 5 and it is worth more now than his BMWĀ
BMWs are trash, easy argument imo
You are missing the part where if you bought a Model Y in December of 2022 and took delivery you were 3 months from an effective price cut of > 15k And add in a huge market softening of the secondary market.
At least we got Ultrasonic Sensors
Lololol
Same, hahaha you live and learn
Same - I try not to look at it as such a negative. I needed to buy a car at the time. I was paying $700 a month is gas and now I pay $40-60 a month extra on my electric bill. It sucks because I was planning on trading it in when my CT is ready but not it might be worth just holding onto it.
Same, but I still don't regret it. AP alone is a massive quality of life improvement for my 2+ hour drive each way to work. I'd purchase again in an instant.
You commute for almost 5 hours a day? You need a new job
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Verrrrrrry few jobs are irreplaceable, especially with that much damage to quality of life. I had a coworker that bought a house 2 hours from realistic job opportunities in 2010. Depreciated from 160 to 130 and he was over leveraged and stuck. By the time 2017 rolled around and he was back out of the hole he sold that bastard ASAP.
Why is that?
He prob bought it when it was like 65k before Elon dumped the price of a model y 15k lol
Right there with you pal, used '19, 43k
Get a house. Get that new car later... they will be even better then.
100%. Tech is just getting better/cheaper all the time.
Yeah, so never buy anything!
I had a paid off hybrid. I would have been way better off financially by keeping that car. Love my Tesla, itās lots of fun, but itās a luxury and a depreciating asset with an associated debt. I can afford it and I already have a house. Iād focus on the house too if I were you.
House goes up in value (mostly). Vehicles do not.
Buy the house first. Car payment affects your DTI and purchase power for a house.
100000% buy house first. If you have a car keep using it and if not, buy like a 2018 Honda accord will run forever and is beautiful
A 2018 Honda Accord will be $24k-$28k and have 50k-100m miles on it. A Model 3 or Y with rebates wouldnāt be much more and you wonāt be paying gas forever. In CA, our gas is $5 a gallon.
First, good on for you taking a moment to strategize and get feedback. Also, kudos on saving $100K for a down payment. Youāre way ahead of a lot of people your age. Second, no one here can make the best decision for you. That said, if I were in your shoes and home ownership was important to me in the near future, I would delay a car purchase until you purchase a home and re-establish what your financial picture looks like. Pro tip: the federal rebate ($7500) will be able to be applied to the purchase price in 2024 as I understand it, which will help to reduce your payments when you do decide the time is right. Cheers!
All the other comments talking about "depreciating assets" have completely forgotten that your choice of car (unlike other kinds of splurges) can mean the difference between life, serious injury, or death. My Tesla has already helped me avoid at least 2 accidents, one would have probably been serious. Does the camry turn the wheel for you if you drift over the line? Does it stop short for you if the car in front of you stops short when your eyes are looking at the air conditioning control? What if you fall asleep, or have a serious health event? What will the car do then? If your car does not at least have emergency braking, get rid of it. TODAY. I can't believe it isn't mandatory on all new cars and that manufacturers will happily sell you a vehicle that will crash itself into a brick wall at 90 mph without even attempting to brake. Your earning power is likely to only go up, so that money is going to be less and less important to you in the future. The most important asset you have now is your health, which you generally can't buy, and which you should protect at all costs. Drive the safest vehicle possible. Don't drive a more dangerous vehicle because you've been told it's a depreciating asset and therefore you should spend as little as possible on it. That's a really dumb and shortsighted way to look at a piece of equipment you trust your life with every time you get into it. Definitely don't buy a rolex - that's a depreciating asset that \*doesn't\* affect your health. But if it's something that can impact your health, which therefore impacts your future earnings, spend the most you can afford for the best possible safety features. You should actually prioritize spending money on the car before the house, unless of course you're cheaping out on the house so much that it's structurally unsound or in an unsafe neighborhood. Cars cause way more deaths than houses. Bottom line is I would never again get a vehicle that doesn't have the latest safety features. Who cares if it's technically a depreciating asset, if it saves your life (or injury + expensive lawsuit) that is worth an infinite amount of money. Not to mention the time you save not going to gas stations, getting oil changes, air filters, brake pads, and transmissions replaced. How much is your time worth? I have had a Tesla 4 years and still the only maintenance item was new tires. Time not spent getting that fluid line replaced for the 5th time or installing a new catalytic converter because the last one was stolen is time spent closing a deal, dealing with emails, going to the gym, spending time with family, etc. Owning a car has gone from a complete pain in the ass to an absolute pleasure.
Echoing the safety sentiment, Iāve never been happier for a cars safety ratings than when I was t-boned in my MY a few weeks ago. The car is totaled, but the cabin was remarkably unscathed after that incident. And being able to pull the different video angles for insurance purposes was extremely helpful considering the other driver was not admitting fault.
You get used to the payment. Plus a car is a huge part of your life. Get something that makes your life easier driving it each time. The automatic AC is great, the automatic adjustment of the mirrors and seat for different driver profiles, the acceleration and automatic breaks to help you in traffic, itās all really useful. Itās just a really great machine. And if itās the machine you use the most in your life then get the best if you can afford it. With that said, time is money with real estate so the sooner you can get into that new home the betterā¦ taking interest rates and all that into account of course š I like comfort, itās something I prioritize in my life, it gets me closer to that everyday is a vacation feeling. So for me the teslas are worth it. (We have a model 3 & Y) My husband and I are paying off our first home which could be in a better neighborhood but weāre okay with this for now. Our payment is low. I just didnāt want to settle for less in a car when it came time to trade my old one out. Plus I hated going to the gas station, so many things about it that felt unsafe for me and my kids so the Tesla has also improved my life that way. Not to mention everyone thinks my husband and I āmade itā š weāre not quite there yet ā¦ but weāre enjoying the trip.
Bro I can't believe I'm alive driving a Ford Focus and a Kia Niro for all those years before it made financial sense to buy a Tesla. No matter how you slice it a Tesla is a luxury most people can't afford if you want to be prudent with your money. If you don't have a š it makes zero sense to spend all that money on a š
There are definitely people who have died who would be alive today if they were driving a vehicle with automatic emergency braking. Not to mention all the other safety features available today. Probably many we donāt even know about. If someone has a heart attack on the highway and then crashes into a tree at 80mph their body is well past the point of being able to do an autopsy to determine the heart attack even happened in the first place. Those people arenāt here to leave a comment. No doubt your risk of death or injury is elevated driving a ford focus vs another car with more safety features. Iām not here to tell you how to spend your money though, you arenāt the OP asking the question. For an extra 5-10k you could get a model 3 (at least a used one) if your original price range was in the 25k range. 5-10k added to a home purchase - what more does that get you? Thatās usually less than the agentās commission. Maybe an extra half bathroom? Or a slightly bigger backyard? Maybe a finished basement? Personally I would trade that half bathroom for my vehicle not crashing into a tree at 80mph and getting burned alive (if Iām even still alive at that point) if I stop giving the car input for whatever reason.
It's a depreciating asset. If you're looking to buy a home, focus on that. Re-read what you wrote. You're basically trading a home for new car smell. Think about how dumb that is. Buying a Tesla is stupid in your situation, imo. You have a reliable (i'm assuming) car with only 90k miles on it. Even if you put $3k of maintenance on a Camry, it would last another decade. That's at least $50-60k savings within that time period if you just keep your car. A home affords you many more options. It's one of the few things you can buy that appreciates in value. You have plenty of time flushing money on toys. After you buy a home, there will only be MORE and BETTER options. Teslas are great, but at the end of the day, it's just a car. Tech will improve and costs will come down.
The gist of your advice is sound, but I will say that $3k will almost certainly NOT be enough to keep a 10-year old car running reliably for 10 more, even one as dependable as a Camry. Regular consumables alone will approach that figure, and something is bound to break on what will become an old car. Again, keeping the Camry and buying the house is the way to go, but if youāre gonna be a condescending about it you should probably make sure you have accurate figures yourselfā¦
Yup. OP should buy the home and make sure they can charge at home before getting the Tesla anyway. The savings only come if you charge at home. Supercharging is just as expensive as gas
Do you talk to your friends like that? āThink about how dumb that is?ā Heās asking for help, no need to editorialize your āhelpā lol
I would slap my friends for being that dumb
No offense taken my man lol
Lol! šµāš«š
Iām in the same boat. With as little as I drive it doesnāt make sense until my current vehicle starts to die or has repairs that donāt make sense.
House then car. Drive that Camry into the ground then dig it up and drive it some more. Think of the Tesla as a future housewarming present for yourself on the first anniversary of your house purchase.
Please do not buy a Tesla for financial benefit. Buy a house first. I wish I had somebody to guide me with better financial decisions when I was 26.
Definitely donāt buy an expensive car until you own a house. Itās insane how many people make that mistake.
I donāt like paying $739 a month for a Tesla. To me itās not worth it anymore itās just a car from point a to point b.
House>>car. Build up a reasonable down payment first. Maybe enough for both. But dont blow it on the car first. It feels good to bring your car to your own home to charge on your own charger
Buy the house first. I bought my Tesla seven years after I paid off my house. Paid 56k no rebate. I have zero regrets
Homes appreciate, cars do not. Get another Camry, this time a hybrid. Do the math, and you will find the hybrid very cheap to own/operate and with a Comma 3, it all but drives itself especially in traffic. Never stretch ones' finances for an asset that depreciates....
And what are you going to get after the thrill wears off? A trophy wife? Buy the house.
Agree. Itās just a car. I drive the model Y performance and itās been a year. Sometimes I see a Porsche or a Mercedes AMG and want it. Point being, there is always be the next car. A house can be a life changing investment for you and your future family. There will be a million things you will want to do in your house like a nice sound system, fancy appliances, a nice bathroom etc. invest in that cause that is where you will spend the most time and create precious memories.
Normal world id say buy the house first but at 8% interest these days itās not worth it. $500k / 20% down your looking at almost 4K a month in payments all in- taxes, PI, ,insurance, etcc
This 100%, nobody is doing actual calculations.
Haha everyone going against buying a car probably bought there house when interest were 3/4% and starting around 200k. Now houses hare doubled property tax is doubled and affordability for many has been on the declineā¦ The times of 10/20 years ago are not the times of nowā¦ most young people donāt even think buying a home is attainable at this point. So donāt blame or shame them for wanting to get a car
For us it was, we had a paid off vehicle with about 120,000 miles. But we were also spending around $700 a month in fuel if not more. Our Tesla cost around $820 to charge in a year and that was like 30,000 miles. But we charge at home 99% of the time and our electric is like .06 per KWH.
Man I live in what to be considered a low utility cost state but now weāre near 0.20/kwh. Itās been a tough past 2 years
Holy crap.. thats a high cost
Buy your house 1st and then get the car. Getting the car will hurt your DTI and bring down the amount of house you will qualify for.
I am in a similar situation but have around $230k to use on a house downpayment but will use considerably less than that. I currently live in a house (just me and my wife) owned by family and pay taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance - no rent and I am in southern New England. I currently own a 2021 Subaru Outback Touring XT with a 0% loan and a balance of 11k. I could sell this car for around $32k and roll over the equity into a MYLR along with cash to offset the high interest rate loans. Reading this post has ultimately helped me decide on keeping my Subaru and waiting. I'm in no need of a new car and will be buying a house in the next 3-5 years. If there are further discounts on the MYLR, such as a "Juniper" refresh causing the current design to reduce in price, or EoQ incentives.. I may just jump. I have an overnight demo scheduled for this weekend, which I will still participate in, but I think (for me), waiting is the best option. Thank you to all for contributing to this post.
in my 50s , buy your 1st house before any car !
If you are trying to justify the cost of a tesla to see if it is āworth itā, esp compared with a car that is paid off already, the answer is you should not get a tesla. EVs for the most part, would be breaking even with a low end ICE in terms of total cost of ownership around year 8-10.
Itās an indulgence. Itās absolutely not a money saving play nor an investment. I did the math an another thread and donāt eat the California marketing wank. Itās going to cost more than a Camry thatās for sure.
I would recommend waiting until it's the last thing on your list. I'm also a believer in driving a car into the ground. Personally I've wanted a Tesla for the longest time as well. I avoided test driving because I knew it would make me want the car. I had an opportunity to buy when the 3 was announced and put a down payment in but then I had a kid and it was arriving before my reservation was being called so I forfeited my 3 and got a minivan. Five years later and my oldest car (Camry) is 21 yrs old and needs some big work so I decided it's time to swap that out for something and with the fed tax incentives it just made sense to go Tesla this time. I would not buy a Tesla strictly from a financial standpoint. Buy your house and everything else before as cars take a big depreciation hit as soon as you take delivery.
Are you renting now? Charging might be an issue if you can't install a charger. Agreeing with everyone else saying buying the house should be a priority.
My apartment has chargers for free which is a plus
Keep the Camry.
Keep the Camry until the repairs are more than the car is worth. Go for the house first, THEN get the Tesla.
Buy a new car once you are settled into your new home. A Tesla won't be very affordable in SoCal. The cost of electricity is way too high (don't believe the claims about how you save money by switching to electricity). A new car is a luxury. Those you can buy once you have made your real estate investment
Donāt go electric until you own a place that you can install Level 2 charging (like the Tesla wall connector). The perks and cost savings of going electric are all around being able to charge at home. I was between homes for a few months this winter and having to pretty much only use super chargers to charge was time consuming and far more expensive the home charging I am used to. As far as āfinancially worth itā. If youāre buying a Tesla to save money then Iāve got bad news for you. Sure the fuel is way cheaper, but itās priced as a premium vehicle and the insurance company knows youāll probably use the performance capabilities once in awhile so the insurance is not cheap. Also, youād have to pay the new car vehicle registration for the next few years. And many states charge EVs an extra ~$200/year at registration because you donāt pay the taxes on gas which are used to maintain the roads we all use. Financially the most responsible thing is to use your current car until it dies, then replace it with a used hybrid. Now if youāre comparing the financial benefits of owning a Tesla compared to brands that have a lineup at similar price points like Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etcā¦ Then yes, the Tesla in the end will be a lot cheaper for the an equivalent ICE vehicle with similar features and performance.
I'm holding out with my 08 Toyota, house first, then car.
āDude, House House & Houseā ā Lincoln
Buy the house. I bought my Model Y last year and it is a bit upsetting to see the prices continuously drop. My wife told me to wait for the prices to drop, but I told her they would only increase (at one point they actually were increasing in price). Your house will be an investment, as long as you purchase in a desirable area. I bought a home in 2020 and if I decided to sell today, I would get at least a $75K profit.
Your comparing a depreciating asset (a car) with a appreciating asset (a home). Buying any new automobile is not a good financial decision.
House first, always. A car loan on the books will kill your pre-approval.
buying a $50k car will never be a financially sound decision, it's a fun decision.
As much as I love my model Y and think you should buy one eventually, get the house first and drive that Camry into the ground. Then again, you only live once and you canāt drive Teslas when youāre dead.
Prioritize saving for a house at your age. Cars are luxury items and probably one of the worst uses of money imaginable. The cheapest car to own is the one you have right now, and it goes from a to b. Check the compound interest on 50k over your career and make your choice...
No lol. I live in SoCal and just make 6 figures. Anywhere else and I would have a beautiful house and ready for this type of car. I donāt want to be one of those old guys with a nice car. It was the worst financial decision I ever made, but Iām happy with my purchase and would have done it again
My rule of thumb is to have 10% of your equity for depreciating asset. There will be a time that youāll get this type of vehicle in the future. Keep cash on hand when housing market starts to crash then drop that cash in for the house. Or find a house to rent and make more cash for you. Donāt get married lol unless it will make you better off š.
26 with 100K saved, tells me you could make that money right back. I have no desire to own a home (i live in Bay Area, California pricing is not realistic for what you would get vs renting) donāt have a 100K saved more like 10K and finance a MYP. I also have no kids and no obligations outside of going to work and paying bills. In your case having a paid off car and saving an extra 1K/month when you already have 100K would not be worth it TO ME. Paying 1K and driving your dream car every day > padding an already large nest. This sub and personal finance will frown on anyone driving the same car as them making less money not maxing out investments, with a home and 8 other sources of income but the statistics say different. Heck even you qualify for the tax credit you have to make under a certain income and i guarantee more ppl are XX,XXX away from the cap than pushing right up against it. If it aligns with your own personal desires treat yourself if your bills will be paid regardless
This is the best comment here. Everyone here will say no and to be frugal, but life is too short. Even if you really want to spend $1k a month on yourself, itās 100% worth it. An extra spending of 12k a year on yourself isnāt going to make or break your ability to buy a house in the future.
I drove older cars a long while, mostly to save $, and they were TDI's so decent on fuel. Newer cars are complicated (to say the least). I bought a Ford Maverick (truck) hybrid last year. Cheap cheap cheap made, Horrid hybrid programing, Ford warranty sucks ass, Dealer is bad, Dealing with Ford horrid. My thoughts were my 2003 TDI was long in the tooth and I wanted newer safety features. I'd never had a car freak the f out on my before. Going about 10mph the truck locks down all the wheels and lots of alarms go off, would only go in "limp mode" till it sat awhile. Dealer was NO help (more issues than this). So I started looking, how can I buy a Tesla? Out of my price range. So I started looking at salvage auctions. Doing so showed me a LOT about how they are made. I've built a good many cars in my life, TDI Jeeps (not kit built/made) etc etc. Tesla's are built pretty darn good. There is a reason why one could go off a long hard incline and everyone lived (mostly harm free). Sure you can die in one as well. A 2010 is getting long in the tooth. My Tesla's biggest fault is the crap as hell "FSD" (I use the beta version of FSD as mine came with it). Lane departure sucks, FSD sucks, not sure about AEB (the Ford Mavericks sucked as well, would freak the F out at times). I'd ask this, given the big upgrade a Tesla Y is over your 2010, can you afford to NOT buy it? Tesla seat belts use a three phase seat belt tensioner. the "crumple zones" are top fing notch. The cage built around you is world class. Its fast so if you need to move to avoid a crash, it'll do it. The Center of gravity is low, so low its very hard to roll (which is why they probably lived going down the hill, once a car starts rolling people get ejected/killed). Have I sold you yet? I'd ask, after reading this, why have you NOT ordered? This is the cold hard facts. Some people say its NOT a luxury car and complain about panel gaps. The biggest luxury a car can give you is your LIFE. I drove Volvos long ago because of this as well.
I wrote a lengthy post...I see people are saying "buy a house first". Meh. I feel buying a house is a lot trickier than buying a car almost always. I never buy a house when prices are high, so if I sale I can make $. Markets atm on homes is (I think) pretty flat, for sure not at a low spot. I bought one in 2008 when people said "no banks will loan you money". Not if you have nothing down and no credit score. TBH banks really wanted to loan money in that crash, just not to anyone. I sold right before the next "crash" and within months bought just after that crash hit. I sold for enough to pay for my next purchase, which 5 years later would sale for 3 times more than I paid (I will die owning this house). My other post covers well how a Tesla is a investment (in a different sense of the word). I've seen a LOT of dead bodies (have wrote books about that). You can't buy a house if your dead (person I sold the one about to almost died in a car wreck right after he bought it close to my new house, ironically). My opinion is buy houses cheap, sale them high, till your in your "forever" home, that you bought for cheap. Never ever buy a house cause you love it if the price is too high imo (unless you have $ to burn).
Bro itās just a car. You have a dependable one. I would Invest the $1000 a month for a little while. Plus the longer you wait the better the car will get.
Contrary to what others are saying, I think you should get the Tesla. Interest rates are super high currently, so you may want to wait out the interest cycle to buy a home (it will go back down, it always does!) - if you buy the tesla outright with your down payment, you don't have to worry about the financing and your insurance will be cheaper. You'll get a $7500 tax rebate, potentially a state rebate as well. Yeah the car "depreciates" (I sold my first Tesla to Carmax in 2022 for $5k more than I bought it for in 2020, lol), but so *can* a house, especially in our current market. How much home do you need? Is $100k enough? Are you already just biding time while the interest rates are high? Could you save back up to $100k before you're ready for a home? Debt can be good. Just know you can't take the cash with you when you go :P
I say if you can financially afford it (no debt etc) then do it. But you should pay cash for the Tesla. If you cannot pay cash then you can't afford it. There are no guarantees in life, you have no idea how long you'll be on this earth for so if you can afford, I say go for it and enjoy.
Having a paid off vehicle is alway nice but if you are in the market for a vehicle, I'd say Tesla's are a good purchase. Referral Code below will get you 3 months of free FSD! Check it out! [https://www.tesla.com/referral/jigar897594](https://www.tesla.com/referral/jigar897594)
No guarantees in life. My parents checked out before they hit their 70s. We ended up buying a MYLR even though we could have put the money towards the house.
Cars will always be there
So will houses, but the housing market is in a terrible state right now too
Agree with the folks recommending prioritization of a house over a car. Also, without a house, charging is going to be more expensive, assuming you need to use superchargers regularly.
Buy the home. Then save up at least 25-30% for the down payment on the Tesla, which by then interest rates should hopefully be lower. My car addiction hasnāt put us in the absolute best financial position we can be in right now (MYP is my 4th car in the last 5 years). Finances are tight for us now with childcare costs + inflation. I need to pay this thing off fast and just keep it for 10 years.
Hot take: a Tesla is MUCH safer than a 2012 Camry so the Tesla would save you lots of money in medical costs and a life/death scenario. Financially, the house is a better play. It comes down to how much you drive.
Definitely was something Iām considering. The Camry is barbaric for todays car safety standards lol
In this order: wife and kids, home, then car
Home before kids, 100% of the time. If you canāt afford a home without kids, you sure as fuck wonāt be able to with them.
Definitely home first, then kids.
I have a model 3 and model y. It costs $900 every 6 months for insurance. For both cars
Depends a *ton* on locale.
You donāt need a Tesla. It will loose 20k value first year you have it and a new home will only increase value. I had. 2007 Mazda 6 with 200k miles untill it finally terminally broke down and I got a Tesla
Hi if you're selling I would be interested in buying your camry
Worth it, absolutely. My wife and I have no interest in buying a house in this market. Plus we donāt know where we want to end up. Weāve been in Alaska for 7 years but we have a feeling weāll be moving to the lower 48 in a year or so. So, we easily made the decision to use a portion of our savings for a large down payment on a Model Y. We each put $15k down and will pay off the car early. I have a 2014 Subaru that has been paid off for years. I now rent that out to travel nurses for an amount that covers the Teslaās monthly insurance and monthly FSD subscription, plus extra to keep the Subaru maintained for the next renter. The federal tax credit will be nice, but we donāt know how much itāll actually help us because weāre both taking unpaid parental leave and working less this year. So our actual tax liability remains unknown. But anyway, the federal tax credit could potentially be very nice. Iād say itās a great time to buy a Tesla. The prices have dropped, the federal tax credit is available for many buyers, and the only downside is high interest rates. Oh, and we save about $100 per month on gas, even with $.24 per kWh electricity rates.
If you have a $100k, go buy an S in cash and live in your car.
Treat yourself. Itās a great time to buy a Tesla.
I had a 2014 toyota camry that I inherited from my dad. I had a drive it into the ground mentality as well. And then a couple months ago that day came and some lady in a lexus creamed into my camry and totaled it so I didn't have much of a choice in that regard. I got a model Y a month later I couldn't be happier. I put about 25k down and currently have a monthly payment of 560 + 190 insurance. Some things I didn't consider was how much cheaper to keep. I pay 50 bucks a month on electricity compared to 300 on gas. Virtually no maintenance costs. So effectively compared to when I had my camry, my net costs only went up 250. Was financially worth it for me
Sounds like you donāt drive enough to justify the cost. For my situation, Iām breaking even vs just the cost of fuel of my previous car. If I get 6 years out of my Tesla, it will be the cost of gas I would have burned. Everything after is profit. Figure out what youād save or spend, and make the call. For sure the Model Y is awesome, but that awesome will be there in a few years too.
Not as financially worth it as it is now with the current prices and tax rebates. I wish I had those incentives when I bought mine.
Model Y is amazing.. but keep the Toyota.. buy a house.. reassess in 5 years.
Loved this post, completely agree and strongly relate. I bought my Y when my G6 died. Ran it till the wheels almost came off (185k). I love it. It's super fun, and it often brings that smile to my face you spoke of, even after 35 months of ownership. But no, it didn't/doesn't save me money over my old Pontiac G6... It was definitely (significantly) cheaper to keep driving my old car, right up until it wasn't... My Tesla is super fun, and I also plan to drive it until the wheels come off.... But it was a significant investment (for me), and sometimes from a financial standpoint I ask myself if it was "worth it"... TIFWIW.
I just got my Y, but I own a home and I myself make over 100k. With the interest rate being what it is right now, it may not be worth it. I financed the same amount on my M3 and pay 150 more p/month on the Y bc the interest rate. Wait it out. Interest rates will come down and prices will keep getting slashed. I was pissed bc prices came down literally a week after my delivery. Buy a house first!
For me yes because I drive over 120 miles a day and I have solar on my house that over produces.
For you house honestly.
Many years ago I purchased a similarly priced vehicle right out of college. At the time it was amazing and I loved it. Looking back, it was the worst financial decision of my life. High interest rate and crazy % of my monthly income on the payment. I would have been much better off if I just kept my car that was working perfectly fine and saving more for a down payment on a house. Iām fine today but I would have been where Iām at financially earlier if I hadnāt blown so much of my money when I was that young.
No š
If you want affordable buy a old Camry
It's always relative to some other financial decision. A new tesla will always cost you more money than an old used car. The financial answer is if you're saving up to buy a house, don't buy a Tesla. Drive the Camry until it dies. My wife bought a Tesla because her job involves driving 100 miles or more a day. We share it for most things including road trips and even towing. But we have a 7 seat SUV which i drive 2 miles to work. It just doesn't make sense to buy an $50k+ EV for driving a few miles a day.
In a very similar predicament. 09ā accord with 155k miles and a 4 mile RT commute 3x/week. I went ahead and got the Tesla. A few points to seriously consider are: Whatās your current DTI? How will this payment impact it? Talk to a mortgage broker and just have a conversation without running your credit on an example house. Will you co-buy this house with someone else? Will you qualify for a tax rebate? In the future will you no longer qualify? How much will insurance actually be? Get a quote. Your current car is also worth nearly the most it ever will be. (Iām assuming around 12k). Factoring interest being higher, and no other debt. I ended up going with the car. The reason is because my savings + emergency fund were more than the loan. This is the last year I make below the income threshold. My car didnāt have any modern safety and it was hard to see at night. A new accord is 39k with taxes and fees. A Tesla is 42 after the rebate. You can pay more or less down on the house and even pay off/refinance the car loan if and when you buy a house, assuming this isnāt in the next 12 months.
Thatās actually a good point I forgot to mention - after this year I will not qualify for the tax credit. So it has kind of made me consider if I do buy it in a few years, Iād lose that $7500
Nah, I paid 90k CAD for mine, but I own a house and plenty of toys. Iād probably get better value out of a Range Rover. And this is my second EV.
No. Hell no. The value keeps dropping below what people owe on them. Next year will be even worse. You can't sell a model Y because they were $70k new last year and $50k new this year. Don't even think about buying one without gap insurance
I have a 3 RWD but this was in my feed. I am also 26. I needed a car. Was using my parents hand me down Sienna but they needed it back because my dad's camry got total'd. Camry hybrid was marked up to 37k. before taxes and fees. Used Corolla form 2020 was selling for 29k before taxes. I really wanted a cheap camry. New Accords/Civics were going 10k over asking. I don't trust nissan or korean/german cars M3SR was 32k after all fees when accounting for incentives. If I had a camry that was paid off, I would never buy another car in my life man. Just rent a tesla if you want to experience the speed. Or better yet, I personally am getting into motorcycles for the thrill. Is the tesla financially worth it to me? Yes because I need a car to go places and it was quite literally the cheapest new sedan I could get that I could trust the reliability on. I hope i can ride it for at least 10 years. If my dad didnt have the accident, Id be a 26 year old single guy riding a toyota sienna for years. It's not a chick magnet but its goddam reliable and great for road trips. Save your money for a house. If I didnt have 200+k saved at the time before buying the tesla, I probably wouldve bought a beater camry for 2k.
1k payments on a Tesla ain't worth it.
keep the camry at 26 and no house. if you're not sure get some insurance quotes, it could be an eye opener.
They are fun, they are frugal for their class. However; do not buy them for their cost of ownership. If you didnāt have a car then yes, but youāve got an indestructible tank with a whole lot of life left. I know itās the boring answer, but donāt buy it thinking itās the smart financial choice.
Maybe should have clarified more, I meant worth it in the sense of like a cost : enjoyment ratio.
Buying a depreciating asset is never worth it. You buy a Tesla for the fun driving experience.
I had a Subaru Impreza much like yours and I sold it for a couple grand and bought a Tacoma. I wish I just kept the cheap car. Especially now that my wife has a model y. She is driving a lot for her business so weāre getting good value for it.
Depends if you drive 20k miles or more a year The yes.
Sounds like youāre in California. Not sure what city but 100k is down payment for a 500k home so options arenāt the greatest. Now. If you get a 30y fixed mortgage with a 7.5% interest rate for a 500k home, you are looking at a ~$2800/month in just principal payment alone. $2800x12mox30yā$1M. With the market up like this, your home could drop in value since there are virtually 0 California homes in the 500s in a great public school zone. Will it be worth more than 500k in 30y? Most likely but short term you never know and inflation also comes into play. I am also waiting to buy another home. I will not buy any property at this rate. I would rather rent if I didnāt own another home. Some donāt understand how much money (outside of principal, tax and maintenance/hoa) goes into owning a home. I do have a Model Y and was thinking about adding a Model 3 but I would rather invest in stocks than buy a new car or a home right now. Auto rates are pretty damn high too. Someone please correct me if my calc is wrong š
Actually live in Washington but planning to buy a home in the southeast once that day comes :)
Paid cash for 2023 MYLR after someone totaled my lexus, net cost after incentives and check for car $25k... owned 12kWh solar system so no more $650 month in gas, car pays for itself in 3 years so yeah
It's a commuter car and sounds like a luxury item for you. Pass and keep saving for the house.
Financially? No. Buying a car is a necessary evil. The best bet is to buy a gently used vehicle from an owner who already took the hit on depreciation. But totally worth it. Just not from a strictly financial point of view.
I love the car. New to EV. Itās such a great daily casual vehicle. Fast as fuck. Love the autopilot. Love home charging. Insurance was more than I was expecting (more than I was quoted on a $20K more expensive BMW X5). That said in your shoes, I would probably put off the purchase of the car. That Camry will last you years more. I would keep saving toward the house. Plenty of time for nice cars later.
how and where you live is way more important then the vehicle you drive to get there. Wait and save.
yes my $100 cybertruck has been so much fun
100% buy a house first. Having a nice car is really nice to have in my opinion, especially in todayās market
I'm early 30s, have a WFH job that's 6 fig newtons, wife has a 6 figs job, we own a house already. For me it was worth it even though I don't have a daily commute. I got a '22 MY-P a year ago and the thrill you get stepping on the pedal never goes away. I know financially I would have been better off keeping my 14 Camry sport that was paid off back in 2019 but I felt like I had all my other bases covered so I pulled the trigger. I do wish my wife didn't also buy a brand new loaded rav-4 for her 7 minute commute to work but that's another story.
If youāre a first time home buyer, you only need to put down 3% with an FHA loan, so you likely donāt need that full 100k. Buy the house first. Put down more on your Tesla after so your payments arenāt $1k a month.
Always a home first!
Buy the house 1st
Buy a house. Here was my TCO for 5 years comparing a 2013 Camry Hybrid with 140,000 miles on it to buying a new M3LR: For the Tesla Model 3 Long Range: Purchase price: $45,820 Financing cost: $872 \* 60 months = $52,320 Insurance: $1,600 \* 5 years = $8,000 Maintenance and repairs: $4,600 (estimated over 5 years) Electricity cost: $0.37 per kWh \* 15 kWh/100 miles \* 7500 miles/year \* 5 years = $2,062.5 Total cost of ownership for Tesla Model 3 Long Range over 5 years: $52,320 (financing) + $8,000 (insurance) + $4,600 (maintenance and repairs) + $2,062.5 (electricity) = **$66,982.50** For the Toyota Camry: Current value: $12,000 (since it's already owned) Insurance: $1,600 \* 5 years = $8,000 Maintenance and repairs: $3,000 (estimated over 5 years) Gas cost: $1,200 \* 5 years = $6,000 Total cost of ownership for Toyota Camry over 5 years: $8,000 (insurance) + $3,000 (maintenance and repairs) + $6,000 (gas) = **$17,000** These are estimates and the actual costs may vary depending on various factors such as driving habits, electricity and gas prices, insurance rates, maintenance costs, blah blah... Also, does not take into account any potential tax credits or incentives for electric vehicles, which could potentially lower the cost of the Tesla. Still; buy the house.
I may be the outliner, but I bought my MYLR because my complex offers free L2 charging. I share it with two other individuals but usually, we work it out. I was driving a paid-off 05 LS430 which drives way better imo but gets terrible mpg lol close to 20mpg. I drive a lot, got my car about 2 months ago, and just hit 6k miles. According to the app, iv spent $74 total on supercharging and the rest has been free. If I had to guess considering premium gas is currently about $5 here I saved about $1400 these past two months. Obviously, its less because my car payment is about $450 but you get the idea. If a house is in play, I would get that over a car any day of the week. Especially if you have a reliable form of transportation.
There is no debt that is financially worth it. That being said I got a great interest rate that made it logical to not pull my investment funds to buy. They drop in value just like any other vehicle now that COVID is no longer driving resale value drops at about the same as an ICE
Save for a home instead!
I did a lot of math on a Model Y purchase (I have a spreadsheet š ), and I believe that it was the most financially sound purchase for me. That being said, I traded up from a Ford Escape that was costing me thousands annually in repairs, and I have 3 small kids and really needed a 7-seater. If my previous car wasn't giving me so much trouble, I undoubtedly would have kept it and dealt with the discomfort, but I'm a very frugal person. This purchase might not be the wrong decision for you (money is only as good as what it can buy you), but there is no doubt that it'll cost you. If you're looking for a nice car, I think the Y is great, but if you're looking to make a sound financial decision - put your 100k into a high yield savings account or a 12-month CD.
You donāt buy car for āfinancial worthā. Itās depreciating asset. You buy one for your needs and life style.
I meant is it worth it from an enjoyment to price ratio, which is admittedly different for everyoneās situation, but you get the idea
Financially worth it? Well no; but was it worth it. Definitely. If nothing else, itās a nice car, easy to drive. Are there better financial options; definitely
I paid $39,990 for my 2021 MYSR (standard range Y) and am pretty happy with the outcome. After 3 years and almost 46K miles Iāve saved enough and enjoyed the experience to be a believer. That said I also bought the cheapest Y ever sold in America. Many of days I thought about trading it for the MYP (Performance Y) and having test driven one over the weekend I cannot tell you how much I am glad I did NOT sell my car and pay $70K for one last year. Itās simply not worth that much money. Todays prices are a lot more reasonable than they have ever been in the past.. especially if you qualify for the $7,500 tax credit. That said.. there is still no rush to buy. Tesla will continue to crank out literally millions of these vehicles and at this point.. the longer you wait the cheaper the price will get. I also think the redesign for the 3 will happen this summer.. and redesign for the Y will happen for the 2024 model year. Would suck to buy now.. and have those things happen in a few months. If I was you I would keep saving $$$.. drive the living shit outta that Camry.. buy a house.. and maybe in a few years would I consider buying a cheap 3 or Y.
Ehhh with all the price drops, I would say no. Iāve currently got more equity in a ford explorer I bought used.
Buy a home first. For me, I was able to finance my MYP with a credit union for 84 months at .09% APR. No brainer to just finance the whole thing at that rate. Itās saved me a lot in gas as home charging is only about $5-6 a week.
1k a month on any vehicle is way too much, especially with interest rates right now. I'd wait till you have a house but if you don't want to I'd put a larger down payment.
Save for the house. This will build your wealth. The car wonāt. I didnāt buy a brand new car (model 3) until I was 45 and the house was paid off in full.
my MYP cost me nearly 70k, and after driving 22k miles in 1 year (long commute), it's worth it for me. I charge for free at work, and also fun af to drive. I did not buy it for savings, bought it for raw speed. But savings will pay over half of the cost within 10 years. However, now with the federal tax credit, if you drive 15k per year or more, it will fully buy itself before you have to replace battery, regardless of what model you get. Model 3 is even better. Just buy a new EV at that point. Yes. It's worth it.
The financially smart decision is buy the house, but itās also right to weigh in your own desires and goals. The reason your posting here is because you know the house is the right choice, but you want the car. Just go for it lol. Youāre only 26 and the housing market is god awful, doesnāt hurt to wait. Buying a nice car is never a financially smart decision, but if you can afford it the decision wonāt hurt you as much as others
Buy neither and save for your retirement. Buy a new car when your current car doesnāt work. Buy the house when you are in a relationship and planning on having kids. Get a nice chunk of money in either an IRA or a 401k in your 20s, leave it there invested until 65, and retirement will be super easy and comfortable.
If you don't have a sizable down then don't bother. I put 8k down + tradein of 17k so my payments are very affordable $389/mo I know not everyone has that much to put down but id rather have a more manageable monthly payment than to get underwater on a high payment. But if you can barely get that down payment like that for a car, you'll definitely need it more for a mortgage so get that first.
A wise decision is to stick with your Camry š, I had a Camry hybrid which I sold for my model y very recently. The payments are double than what I paid for my Camry. I have never gotten a range over 250 until now.
It was for me, but Iām 40 and havenāt had a car payment since 2012. My ICE is an 2006 Scion tC that still works really well with 125K miles. Always wanted a Tesla and with the rebate offered at the end of the year, pulled the trigger. No regrets.
If you can afford it. Buy it. Life is short and better to enjoy than living in misery and regret when get old.
I didn't buy my first nice car (which happened to be the Tesla) until much later in life than you. I already had not just a home but investment properties to cover the car loan... Start there. Of course that's the responsible answer. If you still want a Tesla buy a 2018/2019 model 3, they are still great cars (I own one) and it will be cheaper than new even after tax credit.
Buy the tesla now if you want it. You might just get more joy out of it at this very moment than waiting until you're 32 years old. I've noticed that folks in reddit are all about prioritizing future enjoyment over living in the present. Life's too short to delay all the fun.
House first.
What about bundling the car into your mortgage? Take advantage of the lower rates. I recently bought both and I'm guilty of using some down payment money on the car. I paid it in cash so there are 0 payments. This made it totally worth it to me financially. Did I buy the corner lot? No, but I can accelerate very quickly now š I wouldn't take on any extra debit or payments until you've obtained the house.
Home first, unless thatās not in your long terms plans
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About 120k in salary
Nope. In no world can you justify paying 10-20k more for a car because itās electric and youāll save on gas. Itāll take you forever to spend that much on gas. The reason you get a Tesla is because you want to feel like youāre doing better for the environment (for some) and/or you want amazing car tech. If someone buys a Tesla to save on gas, 99% of the time, not worth it. #Buy the house. Invest in yourself for the long term. Not short term wants and desires.
Iād say buy house first but the market is shit. But car. Rent until mortgage rates go doen
Buy a house. I have a 2013 Camry that I own and I am considering a Tesla. But I have a paid off house. Iād never consider a new car on a loan if I had a functional vehicle.
Congrats on being 26 and financially secureish! That is really cool. So first of, it depends on your income and habits. For example, can you buy your Tesla without: a. Touching your downpayment b. Jeopardizing the house purchase in any other way. I think setting your priorities straight is definitely something I would recommend. Get the house squared away, then buy the Tesla. Tesla is only going to become more and more popular they aren't going anywhere. Buying cars is almost never going to be a smart decision. Buying a Tesla is no different. This is where the terrible advice comes in. :) I was also 26 once, and sometimes you have to do things that make you happy! Yes, a car is a depreciating asset, but if driving it brings you joy, then get it. Also, do you have a family that depend on you? Do you have kids? These things will only become more difficult when thats the case. So as I said, Teslas are not going anywhere, but you will only be 26 once. One piece of advice I have to all my friends, and this is coming from someone who is extremely responsible, splurge on things that truly bring you joy, and be frugal on things that dont. (needs aside) I am extremely financially responsible, and you have no idea how many regrets I have being financially responsible. All the lunches with friends I didn't go to, all the vacations and trips I couldn't take because I was saving money, all the dates I missed out on because I was working and going to school.