Renewable Revolution

Why did you sell your Tesla car? 
Christian Bull, Tesla owner since February 2014

July 29, 2017

I got my Model S in February of 2014. It was a fabulous car, which convinced both me and my wife that we will never purchase another car with an internal combustion engine. The car did have its problems (Three years of Tesla ownership by Christian Bull on A Tesla Consumption Log), but all in all I was super happy with it.

I was planning to replace it with a Jaguar I-pace which comes out next year. Not because I was unhappy with the Tesla, but because I’ve always wanted a Jaguar and I was never planning to keep the Model S for more than four years anyway.

This winter that plan changed a little, and I needed to replace the S sooner than I had intended to. The I-pace also looks like it’s going to be too small for my family, so I ended up replacing my Model S with a Model X in May of this year. 

Because of a bit of luck with timing, the Model S was for all intents and purposes free. I spent maybe $850 on maintenance (services at 20,000 and 40,000 km), but I got a big discount on the first service for a couple of reasons), and when I traded the car in to Tesla in May 2017, I got 75% of the original purchase price back - that was just me being lucky with the USD to Norwegian Krone exchange rate. The depreciation was made up for in fuel savings.

Teslas are not perfect unicorns. They are complex machines, with bells and whistles (retracting door handles, falcon wing doors) that are mechanical and will eventually break, just like stuff breaks on regular cars. In total, however, I’m quite certain that over time maintenance costs will be significantly lower for a Tesla than a comparable ICE powered car.

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-you-sell-your-Tesla-car