• Addv4@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Poor financial literacy, not really planning for the future, or thinking the reliability will make up for the extra cost. Either way, I suspect there’s plenty of people like that around the world, just that we have less public transport so most people actually need a car to get around (although most people would be better with beaters or just a couple years old sedan).

      • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        I always match my loans to the warranty. That way I don’t have a payment and repairs.

        The problem for most people is car cost of went up and people want very expensive cars. I’ve seen people spend equivalent to their yearly income on a car

        • Addv4@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Yep. I recently got a newer car (a first for me, grew up on beaters and was fine until I drove a newish miata), and I remember when talking with credit union’s officers that the new avg price for a lot of the loans they were seeing was around 50k, which just blew my cheapskate mind.

          • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Cars just keep going up. I had a Nissan I bought new for 17k. Tax credits. Aggressive discounting. Etc. is was a 40k car. I still have it but my kid drives It. I choked when I bought my first Tesla. It was around 60k. I had the money but I’m just cheap on cars. They wear out and break. I don’t drive much since I work from home. I do travel for work but I often fly. My friend bought a 90k truck. It’s insane. I think two majors problems have to be solved for electric.

            1. Cost
            2. City charging - we need to make access available to condos, apartments, etc. it was going to cost 20k to add a charging station for my condo.

            People complain about range but it’s not that bad.

            • Addv4@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              More or less agree, pretty much predisposed to lightly used vehicles. While I’d argue that Teslas have a lot less maintenance than ice cars, the downside is I’ve heard that a lot is non-user serviceable, and any issues with the car are pretty hard to fix without going straight to Tesla. The drivetrain is supposed to last for ages though, so I suppose that is a definite plus. Evs have come a long way in the last couple of years, but the charging is still an issue, more than the range for a lot of people (myself included). I actually considered a Mini Cooper se which has a range of around 100 miles, but given I live in an apt the charging situation wasn’t really feasible. Honestly, rather than having major charging stations on interstate routes, it would make soo much more sense for the government to incentivize a lot of higher density housing to adopt low cost lv2 chargers.

              • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                A lot less maintenance. Though they say tires go a lot faster but I haven’t had any issues.

                All the parts are easy to access on the Tesla from what I can tell. No idea how hard they are to swap out but since Tesla builds most of them, you’d have to get them through Tesla.

                There are companies that are working to repair the parts. Like fixing a motor rather than a unit replacement.

                I’ve had zero mechanical issues with mine. The paint is 100% garbage. They claim it’s California emission laws but I suspect it’s something else. Any rock strike and you’ll lose paint. a car wash knocked off a large chunk. Tesla fixed it but it made me question the quality.

                Apartments, condo, etc need access to a charger per unit. You need to be able to plugin on a regular basis. That is where I’d like to see more government money. Tesla has the highways fairly well covered.