I'm not Bom either but I say do NOT buy the Tesla
I have taken a ride in one and it was boring, uninspiring and frankly, given my friend sunk $250K into it, an utter waste of money. Had him feeling like he was the envy of all around him (yeah right lol) if that's worth the cost
Brags to me that his fuel costs him nothing. Well lets see. He paid an additional $230K for his car than I did mine. I get about 1200km to a full tank of diesel fuel so only have to fill up about once every 3-4 weeks. Lets say I fill up at an average cost of $80, 20 times a year (worst case), that's $1600 per year in fuel.
Given I'm already ahead $230K (because at the end of the day, both cars get from A to B), it would take me about 143 years of driving before the Tesla would finally break even on the fuel saving. Only THEN would I finally start saving money on fuel lol.
The car is silent. It doesn't matter how quick it is off the line. When there is no audio feedback, it just simply isn't the same. Get in a high performance V8 or above and you will know. Alternatively if you like to play car racing games, just mute the speakers and tell me it's just as fun.
If you really got your heart set on it well as long as its chump change to you then go ahead. If it takes a bite into your savings and entails risk in this shitty covid era than maybe rethink whether you need this right away
Like the days of the small SD Plasma TV's that cost upwards of $20K or more when they were new, all the muppets buying them helped bring down the cost so the rest of us plebs could buy a 4K HDR massively oversized OLED for a fraction of the early Plasma TVs. Wait a few years and electric cars such as the Tesla will be a lot cheaper.
Play a game of would you rather. You have all that money in your hand. You could get a) Tesla. b) House for your children c) deck out your current house with any number of cool stuff to live a good life
The Tesla..... Just a car man, and a boring one to drive at that. Believe me, the thrill gets old real quick.
If you really have a friend who bought the most expensive Tesla then he A doesn’t care what you think and B doesn’t care about gas mileage vs payback.
Don't be so sure. He drives around rubber necking to see if people are turning their heads at him in his flashy car. He gave me flak that I have to pay money every week (more like a month) to refuel my car and it doesn't cost him anything
On the surface, he'll tell you he doesn't give a damn what you think. On the inside, he cares more than he'd like to admit
Hell, one of the reasons he drove over 1200km was to show off the car to me.
So from a standing still you can go 0-80km/h in short order. Without a roar of an engine/exhaust I was not inspired lol. Some people like some auditory feedback I guess. For less than half the money you could buy a car which goes almost as fast, sounds as good as it looks and is a blast to drive. So it might drink petrol like it's going out of fashion.... The money you'd save would ensure petrol costs for decades.
Currently in Australia the charging stations are not so frequent you can drive whatever route you like either. Your trip interstate needs a lot of planning and detours. I could drive to his house about 1200km away potentially without refueling (although lets say I'm not stupid to run near empty and refuel while I take a rest stop). He will need quite the sight seeing tour and make 6 or 7 stops. My refuel time is 5 minutes. He might be charging for up to an hour or more.
The one deal breaker for a car like Tesla for me anyway is the lack of gear shifting. Sorry, that is part of the fun of driving a car. If you dont drive manual, you'll never know that feedback to driving experience a clutch and gearstick provide. Especially with performance cars. I'm in the drivers seat, I control the drive. Not some high tech ECU. Hell, I'd rather spend the same dosh on an old classic car than a new Tesla lol
So a lack of any noise and lack of any gear shifting to me just takes away from the driving experience. That's why I say to test drive it 'a few times'. The first time may be a thrill but as you familiarize yourself more with it, you may find it gets 'old'.
That feeling you have before you have something and you really want it. Then when you have it, that feeling goes away.