Every other car is a Tesla and/brand new!

[LudoBear]

I've noticed what seems to be every other car I've seen has either been a Tesla, a 20/70/21 reg car or both. Seems to be since covid more People have had new cars! Anybody else noticed this? I don't live in an affluent area

For me leasing is just too expensive over a lifetime. I tend to buy something relatively new and keep for 10 years then buy again. So far I’ve been a car owner for 15 years, and I’ve spent £23,000 on 2 cars. MOT is £50 per year but one car was so new it didn’t need one for 2 years so £650, tax average £100 per year (one of my cars was £120 per year one £30 per year) so £1500, servicing & maintenance probably £200 year but less on a low mileage year so but let’s call it £3000. So motoring for 15 years has cost around £30,000. My current car I plan to keep at least another 5 years, so for that time it will only cost about £300-400 per year. Yes there’s a risk that something will go wrong but that’s unlikely, I don’t do high mileage and I research reliability of make and model before buying.

Having equivalent lease cars for £300 per month during this time would have cost £54000. Over a lifetime of motoring leasing is very expensive.

Tesla’s are hugely expensive! You lot are crazy thinking that they’re owned not leased!

We could easily afford it but can think of better things to do with that sort out monthly outlay. You can put your kids into private school for the price of a Tesla ffs

I don't have a company car benefit. I am also a cheap skate - I'm running a 9 year old Toyota Yaris because it is just cheap to run and was fairly cheap to buy: it was £5k when I bought it, I've had 3 years use out of it so far and it should be good for another 5+.

But if I got company car money I could get a fully electric vehicle without paying tax on that cash as the government changed the law to incentivise electric vehicle purchase through the company car market (and then create a second hand market in those cars which should filter through in approx the next 2 years). If I had money I'd otherwise be paying tax on And could get myself a Telsa I'd sure as hell be signed up, they're meant to be lovely to drive!

Lots of people have continued to work throughout and earn exactly the same. But they've worked from home, not paid for travel costs for over a year (DH train ticket was £370 a month), not been able to go out for meals or to cinema / pub/theatre/gigs etc. Not had expensive holidays. Not needed to dry clean work clothes, or been able to go shopping for new clothes.

People who were planning on changing their car over the next couple of years have found themselves with accidental savings to make it possible this year.

Not everyone has financially struggled this year. I know we've been lucky. (Not saved enough for a new car though.)

Very few people pay cash upfront for a new car nowadays.

It's done on PCP or lease - which means a monthly payment, so the marginal difference is much smaller for an expensive car.

And there is rightly a move towards more electric cars. The government is banning sales of all new petrol & diesel cars by 2030.

DH is looking into getting a Tesla & it's about £300 a month.

For those posters still saying how expensive Teslas are I'll repeat what I said earlier in the thread. It was cheaper for us to get a Tesla than to get the cheapest petrol VW Golf (as a company car) - electric cars attract tax incentives and also some have a government grant.

Also, Elon Musk has announced that Tesla are looking at bringing out a more affordable (

This is from the Tesla website - they suggest if you are a company car driver commuting into London you can potentially save £646 a month on an equivalent petrol/diesel car. Maybe (almost certainly) those figures are a bit ambitious but you can get an idea of how it can be cheaper.

For those posters still saying how expensive Teslas are I'll repeat what I said earlier in the thread. It was cheaper for us to get a Tesla than to get the cheapest petrol VW Golf (as a company car)

You do realise that company cars are perk for the minority? For the rest, Tesla's are expensive. The cheapest one is £39k. That is is silly money to a lot of people. The cheapest Golf is half that.

What leasing does is lock people into having cars, and a certain size of car. So preventing having a smaller or older car and a lump sum of cash becoming an option if finances are tight, as I know several people did when the 1990s recession happened.

I'd be in favour of legally enforceable break clauses to help this, such as three months notice or a break after two years.

Yes, sorry, I was really replying to the people who can't work out why there are so many around as they are expensive.

@ImaHogg

The amount of Tesla’s in our (average income) area is amazing, personally I think they are one of the most ugliest cars I’ve ever seen. Brand new Range Rovers are also a thing around here too. I honestly don’t know how people are affording it!?

Finance deals.

I know lots of people in their 20s and 30s who have brand new cars on 3 year deals. At the end of the contract, they just get a new car. So they never 'own' the cars. Apparently for the generation who are used to paying for things like phones etc on contract and regularly upgrading, it's not a big deal.

DH and I are in our 50s and both our cars have 57 plates.

@JennyWreny

This is from the Tesla website - they suggest if you are a company car driver commuting into London you can potentially save £646 a month on an equivalent petrol/diesel car. Maybe (almost certainly) those figures are a bit ambitious but you can get an idea of how it can be cheaper.

The bulk of that saving is company car tax and London congestion charging.

I don't know about the CC, but I had a company car until last year and the tax for a small petrol estate was £30 a month, not £300 as in that example. What sort of car must you be driving for the tax to be £300?

Anyone considering an electric car obviously needs to do their own sums, but one thing that would put me off, as well as the range being completely inadequate for my needs (in normal times I need to drive 4-500 miles in a single day reasonably often) is that if you charge them out on the road, it actually costs more per mile for 'fuel' than petrol does, plus it takes ages to charge up. When I'm already working a 12-14 hour day, I don't have another 2-3 hours to wait around at service stations.

DB bought a Porsche during lockdown. Sewer said they have been incredibly busy due to the £50k business loans from the government.
Absolutely loads of brand new high-end cars in C London.

*dealer said.
Damn you spell checker.

Anyone considering an electric car obviously needs to do their own sums, but one thing that would put me off, as well as the range being completely inadequate for my needs (in normal times I need to drive 4-500 miles in a single day reasonably often) is that if you charge them out on the road, it actually costs more per mile for 'fuel' than petrol does, plus it takes ages to charge up. When I'm already working a 12-14 hour day, I don't have another 2-3 hours to wait around at service stations

Tesla Model 3 Long Range car has a range of up to 350 miles. Call it 300 if you like, because it’s lower in winter with a cold battery and most people don’t like to run the battery completely down before recharging. So if you are doing 500 miles in one day, you’d only need to stop once or twice. Presumable you stop for the loo or to eat during your 14 hour day? It doesn’t take two or three hours to charge either - two stops of twenty minutes each at a supercharger would do it.

As for cost, no, supercharging is not more expensive than petrol/diesel. Over £1500 miles, supercharging would be £105, versus £186 for fuel. Plus, most people charge up at home overnight when electricity costs are very low, so your first 300 miles of that would be even lower.

I bought a brand new car after lockdown one. They hadn't sold any cars for months and I got an incredible deal. Would never have been able to afford it otherwise!

Over £1500 miles - typo, should be 1500

For those of us with more modest means...

Tesla will launch an all-new electric hatchback in 2023 that’ll cost from just £18,000 and could have more than 180 miles of range. Read on for full details

www.carwow.co.uk/tesla/news/5220/new-tesla-ev-compact-electric-car-hatchback-price-specs-release-date

I was teaching Ds1 to drive last month, and they had 250+ Tesla's all lined up next to each other.
We went back the next day and the next to just sit and at them. So beautiful.
I don't like him Musk, because I think he's a tit, but he's onto a winner with this!

The technology of cars is getting better, quickly. They'll be more charging points, rapidly, and range will get better quickly. But stuff that, I'm not sitting around anywhere waiting for things to charge. I want it to fit with my needs. I'm sure they will, rapidly.

DH has a 20 plate Tesla model 3. Not many where we live so does turn a few heads! But he leases it and as it came from inventory stock he got a really good deal on it (at least £200 a month cheaper than you can get one for now).

He has one because he is a massive electric car nerd but even I admit it is fabulous to drive.

We have a Tesla. We have our own company, and Scottish Govt grants give you 6 years interest free credit on loans to buy electric cars. We also benefitted from the benefit in kind being only 0% for the first year, 1% for the second year and 2% for the third year. Add into that the VAT saving and it was a steal.

if you charge them out on the road, it actually costs more per mile for 'fuel' than petrol does, plus it takes ages to charge up. When I'm already working a 12-14 hour day, I don't have another 2-3 hours to wait around at service stations

This is not true. It takes about 40 minutes on a rapid charger to go from empty battery to about 90% - about as long as it takes to have a loo break, buy a snack & a coffee & check your emails. And it is cheaper per mile than petrol/diesel.

40 minutes to 90% full as opposed to five minutes to 100% full for petrol or diesel.

It still isn't great, and the cost per mile is artificially low at the moment. It will have to rise as revenue from petrol/diesel sales falls.

Make hay while the sun shines.

Having equivalent lease cars for £300 per month during this time would have cost £54000. Over a lifetime of motoring leasing is very expensive

The only time I haven’t had big car repair bills was when we had 3 new cars and it meant that we didn’t have huge repair bills. £54000 over 15 years sounds cheap. We spent £1500 in one 6 month period trying to keep a 4 year old car on the road. £3600 per year for repairs and depreciation isn’t a great deal.
Add on to that the excess petrol and tax and insurance and it isn’t that much difference.
Maybe because everyone drives everyone else’s cars it probably wears them out more but in order to keep one car that was just over 3 years old (top of the range type car) we were quoted £5500. It had so much wrong with it. I was going to get rid at just under 3years but lock down came and we ended up selling it to we buy any car.

If and when we get back to work then we will get new cars again. At least I know what will be going out each month and know I won’t end up on the side of the road with a big unexpected bill.