2 years and 55K miles later my car is worth more than what I paid for it.
People often time advise to buy a well maintained second hand car, mainly because the second you drive your precious new car, it starts losing value. For that reason, no one really sees a car purchase as an investment but more of a money they will never see again. And this is true for most of the cars but not for Tesla Motors.
I bought my Model X back in 2020. It happens to be my first car and my biggest gift to myself. It is an expensive car so I made so much justification over why I “deserve” that car because I “knew” the car would lose value so I cannot really see it as an investment. Had I known what I know today, I would not have to make that many justifications :)
Okay, let’s talk money. I will first make a comparison with what I paid for it and how much it costs today. Then I will focus on the second hand market. I mainly want to show the numbers here for you to see how much even basic things like having a lighter interior is up compare to two years ago.
As you can see the car itself is up 20K+ in two years and when you factor in the tax and extra interest you will pay for the 20K additional loan, it is even more. So this by itself explains why my car is not losing value and if anything it is gaining.
Even money cannot buy you a Model X in 2022
When I went to the site to see the prices, the earliest time to get the Model X is January 2023. So you can have all the money you want but you cannot just buy the car this year. I believe this also contributes to high prices in second hand market for Tesla.
And if you have any experience with Tesla, you already know how notorious they are about the estimated delivery times. I have friends and their delivery date keeps being pushed back all the time. So the January 2023 is your best possible option.
Let’s see the second hand market
This car I found on CarMax is the same car, except their interior is black meaning they did not pay extra $1,500, not sure about the wheels which is another $2,000. Their mileage is a lot less but still it is 20K+ miles and it is whooping $98,000. This person made at least 10K with this car after owning it for two years, no service fee and travelled for free with the supercharging network.
While searching for a car that is close to my mileage, I came across with 2019 Model X with 39K+ mileage and selling for $99,800
All in all, the old saying of do not buy new car or cars will always lose money does not apply to Tesla. Not even counting the fact that I used the car for 2 years and saved thousand in gas, I am still net positive.
