[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by 68style

I'll play the math game a bit though, it was brought up that anything but a shitbox for $2k is a bad deal compared to an EV (we will say Tesla 3 so there's some point of comparison).

I haven't commuted driving to work for 4 years now, but when I did I went Richmond to Surrey every day and the car I drove by choice was a 2004 Lexus IS300 that I bought with 134,000kms on it for $7500. The IS300 inline-6 is notoriously bad on gas compared to most cars, it's not that fast, but what can I say... I just like how the car feels. City/Hwy is 16/23mpg on that car, probably 70% of the trip is highway so we will say 20mpg or 11.8L/100km for sake of argument.

The trip from my house to my former workplace is 29.5km each way. 60km a day. A pretty decent commute, not too crazy but definitely not a short one either. So in theory I was using 7L of fuel per day. Obviously gas was cheaper back then, but today it's $2/L so $14 per work trip. Yes the IS300 says you're supposed to use premium, but I haven't for the 8 years I've owned it and it's never been an issue. I was on a flex schedule of sorts, so working 9 day fortnights... 18 days a month on average at the office, that's a monthly fuel commuting cost of $252 at today's fuel rate. Annual cost is $3024.

Maintenance has been almost non-existent. I bought the car with the timing belt/water pump already done and new brakes. Tires were about 30% worn. Looking through my records, I've done oil changes every 5,000kms at a cost of $75 per oil change (i6 engine has a big oilpan, needs 5.4L of oil). I am just about to do the brakes for the first time at 208,000kms now at a cost of $283.20USD for new power slot discs/pads all around from RockAuto ($363 at today's exchange rate) and I will be doing the brakes myself, so there's no mechanic charge for that. I bought a new set of Barum tires in Bellingham, we don't get them in Canada but they're Czech made and pass all Euro standards which are higher than NA. I've found them to be very good, a bit noisier than Continentals that it replaced. They cost (at the time -- they've gone up to $95 now) $65USD per 215/45/17 tire for a total of $260 USD which I luckily didn't get taxed on at the border, but that's $333 after conversion.

I've had zero other maintenance on this vehicle. Assuming I was always using it for commuting (I only did half the time I've owned it) I was commuting ~13,000km per year which, being generous, is 3 oil changes for $225 per year on top of fuel of $3024. My brakes took almost 70,000kms to wear out at a cost of $363 so divided by annual mileage that's an annual average cost of $67.50 per year. I'm not going to include tires because EV's use tires too.

So my car was costing $3316.50 a year to run not including insurance (about $1800 for sake of argument for full coverage, it's since dropped down to $1400 with all the ICBC changes).

I'm unsure what government rebates are currently available on Tesla's, but I don't know that there are any on the current priced SR since it's $68990 now and beyond the cost threshold I believe. $68990 plus taxes is a bit over $77000 and there's a bit extra on top because it's past the new luxury tax threshold as well, but I won't include it because I'm lazy. At a purchase price of $7500 + taxes ($8400 all in) and annual running costs of $3316.50, it would take me 20 years of driving my Lexus to reach just the initial purchase price of a Tesla Model 3 SR. This is not even accounting for the fact it does cost money to run a Tesla as well nor does it factor in financing costs which are not insignificant -- you'd be buying it outright in this scenario.

Be super super generous and throw in a timing belt/water pump job and a couple oil leaks repaired here and there, some random coolant/transmission fluid changes, $6000 worth of stuff let's say, shit happens, it's still going to take 18 years to reach the initial purchase price.

So............. yah... not exactly just a "anything but a $2k beater costs more to own" end result.

Originally Posted by Great68

I'm stuck in this position where while we want to replace the MS3 with a new full EV car, and keep the F150 for truck duties.
But because either of us don't commute to work by car anymore, shelling out $50k+ for a palatable EV that we would only drive a few thousand kilometers per year would take decades to pay itself back even at the insane gas prices right now.

Originally Posted by Acura604

exactly my 'dilemna' if you want to call it that.

work from home 100% now - short trips here and there with the 2021 RDX is a given...i gotta eat. but if i hunker down, i can probably stretch out a full tank for 2 weeks....65L tank, premium gas...easily $120-$140 per fill.
The RDX can run on regular 89 but with sluggish power delivery -no thanks.

BUT - no car payments and maintenance is NIL except for oil changes twice a year.

Once the feds eliminate the need to get tested going back into Canada from blaine then yup, i'm switching to USA gas with 4 jerries per trip.


back in the good ol' days precovid with a 2018 RDX

Originally Posted by Euro7r

Find it stupid those that switch to EV, so they don't have to pay for gas. Yet they likely won't even keep the EV long enough to actually gain from it versus driving gasoline and paying gas. It's one thing your driving like 25,000km a year and keeping the car for the long-haul, but most city average user won't see the cost savings. Spend more to get EV to not pay for gas??!!!.

Based on all these observations and my own situation, it really only makes sense if you own a newer car, have significant equity in it, at the same time not take a bath on trade in, and drive enough to make sense. With the asterisk that you have your own garage and can charge it.

It's not "let's swap hurdur don't need to get gas". A few posts up I was saying we are considering a swap, but it would also mean we are taking on at least $40k extra on costs after trade. $40k is $800/m for 5 years. I still need to put out $600 a month. Is $600 worth it considering we are upgrading in size and luxury? Getting an EV is roughly the same cost for a smaller car.