While one could argue that Tesla drivers are, indeed, less picky than people who paid $60K+ for a real luxury car (if they were equally picky, one look at Tesla's build quality and they'd be off to a BMW dealership or something)...
But really, if we are talking about people driving 100K cars, we have to compare them with people driving other expensive cars, not a driver of a second-hand Leaf.
Two of my acquaintances have EVs. One owns a Tesla and is....not thrilled. The other has a BMW and is pretty thrilled.
One of them has had what I would describe as a luxury car experience - fit and finish is perfect, and every detail of the car has been clearly thought about carefully and engineered to work precisely, and it was the cheaper of the two cars.
The other person got the Tesla. It's an acceptable car, but is wasn't cheap, nor is it luxurious. The quality just isn't there.
You assume incorrectly that people paying for Teslas are buying luxuries "such as sound deadening". They are buying an EV, 0-60 performance, touch screen operations, over the air updates, etc.
"I don't think the new money buying these cars understands or has ever sat in an actual nice car at the same price point."
I'm not sure why you would turn your nose up at people who have different preferences. I guarantee you that there are Tesla buyers who also own other expensive cars at similar price ranges.
The Tesla thing probably depends on where you are. If you have a lot of people driving the high-end models, that would match up with the assertion. If you’re in a middle class area with mostly model 3s, then you might have a more reasonable experience.
I suspect that's because Teslas appeal to a lower class idea of what luxury is, while those who can afford luxury vehicles recognize the gulf between what Tesla offers and what actual luxury car manufacturers offer.
That's true.. but I'm just comparing tesla with other tesla models. If you were in the market for a leaf, you were probably never considering a model x/s.
But you make a good point.. there are now more luxury electric cars.. and those people are the same people that would buy a model x/s. Perhaps that's also part of why sales for those are lower.
People who have never driven a car worth more than $50,000 love the luxury feel of their Teslas. It's been really interesting to see how many people had a Tesla as their first expensive car.
Where are you getting that people who own a Tesla sometimes are very generous and let strangers test drive their cars? I can't imagine a scenario where anyone would go for that given how expensive they are and how that kind of thing just doesn't happen with cars in general.
More favorably compared by who? I’ve sat in model 3,s, and x, and when compared with similar priced BMW or Mercs, there is a massive difference in interior luxury and comfort. Seriously, go and experience being inside a 100k 7 series bmw to a 100k model s. It’s like night and day in comparison. The Tesla’s always feel cheap in comparison. The handling, road noise, luxury features, seat comfort, etc are all inferior in Tesla cars.
Also, Tesla know this themselves! Elon admits that Teslas are overpriced and that current buyers are subsidizing future buyers as they scale up. Also, a friend of mine used to be the manager of a major Tesla delivery center. He said the quality control was terrible and they had tons of cars with paint and panel issues. In fact he said bad paint jobs was one of their biggest source of problems.
I agree, but it's not such a narrow demographic. 63,000 bought them in Q1. The mode similar luxury/premium car I can find is the BMW 3 series. BMW sold 8,225 of them in Q1.
So almost 8x as many people bought a model 3 for similar or higher prices than the BMW 3 series. In fact at various time periods Tesla was outselling the sum of all similar premium cars in the USA from BMW, MB, Audi, and Lexus.
So sure Tesla owners are a self selecting set, but there's apparently quite a few people that want the model 3.
I think any group whose vehicle purchase decisions are colored by gas prices are not the same group buying Tesla's or luxury SUVs. I would expect the overlap to be very small at least. My guess is Tesla drivers put fewer miles on them than average.
Most higher end vehicles (and frankly, I don't count Tesla as particularly high end, particularly not the Model 3) have similar stats, for a multitude of reasons (including but not limited to driver experience and time behind the wheel as a function of affordability of the vehicle).
Maybe I am just not that picky. I remember my friend almost got a Tesla but he was complaining about the stitching in the seat, I could not care less about that. So he got a Lexus instead, now he complains about rising gas prices.
But really, if we are talking about people driving 100K cars, we have to compare them with people driving other expensive cars, not a driver of a second-hand Leaf.
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