My wife and I are both turning 47 this month. She's been driving various kid haulers (we have 4 kids) for most of our 23 years of marriage, but now with 2 kids gone and a third leaving soon the time has come to dump the minivan. We've had a Honda minivan since 2003, that's 16 years. My thing has always been when the time comes she picks whatever she wants up to the price of $50k. So we've been casually looking at a few vehicles over the last year or so with plans to buy in the next year or two. We kinda figured we'd get an SUV or sedan...Mazda CX-9 or CX-5 were high on the list, Accord sport 2.0 or Acura RDX were all possibilities. Maybe even a Ford Explorer Any of those fully loaded gets up around $40-45k.
In the last few months I've read a bit on electric cars. I've never been a fan, just not interested, but what I keep hearing is "buy an electric for daily use/short trips and keep a gas powered car for longer trips". The eliminates the charging issues for the most part. Advantages of electric cars (specifically Tesla), we all know - tech tech tech, torque/hp, low maintenance costs (no fluids, belts, etc.).
Anyhow this still never caught my interest until I realized I can get a Model S Performance for $49k out the door after incentives. So for just a few grand more than the options above I get what many are calling the best car to be made in the last few decades. 320 mile range, 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, plus all the tech (which if you haven't looked into it, it's pretty insanely good), plus resale value is excellent. Keep the Honda Odyssey for long trips - it's bulletproof and is only worth about $4k anyway...and buy a Tesla for the other 11 months of the year.
I don't believe electric cars can or will ever fully replace gas powered ones, but in some ways they are simply far superior. I'm looking at this from a purely practical viewpoint - until now I've never cared much for them, I'm not a Testa fanboy, but when I look at what I can get for around $50k I see this as one of the very best options. I'm kind of shocked but that's where I'm at.
Anyhow I'd love opinions if you've been researching the same or have experienced or owned a Tesla.
In the last few months I've read a bit on electric cars. I've never been a fan, just not interested, but what I keep hearing is "buy an electric for daily use/short trips and keep a gas powered car for longer trips". The eliminates the charging issues for the most part. Advantages of electric cars (specifically Tesla), we all know - tech tech tech, torque/hp, low maintenance costs (no fluids, belts, etc.).
Anyhow this still never caught my interest until I realized I can get a Model S Performance for $49k out the door after incentives. So for just a few grand more than the options above I get what many are calling the best car to be made in the last few decades. 320 mile range, 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, plus all the tech (which if you haven't looked into it, it's pretty insanely good), plus resale value is excellent. Keep the Honda Odyssey for long trips - it's bulletproof and is only worth about $4k anyway...and buy a Tesla for the other 11 months of the year.
I don't believe electric cars can or will ever fully replace gas powered ones, but in some ways they are simply far superior. I'm looking at this from a purely practical viewpoint - until now I've never cared much for them, I'm not a Testa fanboy, but when I look at what I can get for around $50k I see this as one of the very best options. I'm kind of shocked but that's where I'm at.
Anyhow I'd love opinions if you've been researching the same or have experienced or owned a Tesla.