Should You Buy A Used Tesla? | 5 Years Of Model S Maintenance Costs Plus My Current Experiment
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- Опубліковано 20 чер 2024
- It's hard to believe, but we've now owned our 2015 Tesla Model S 85D for 5 years! It's been a fantastic 5 years and I've loved driving our Model S around, both around town and on road trips. In this video I catch you up on what maintenance costs there have been in this last year and give additional details on battery degradation and how I'm currently charging it.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:02 Our Model S currently has 138,904 miles on the odometer
02:28 My Experiment to charge the Model S exclusively from our RV solar panels
06:25 Maintenance costs for the last year
06:58 Follow-up on the windshield wipers
07:49 Tire rotation
09:45 Cabin air filter
10:01 Things that are acting up
10:37 Driver tail light dust
11:07 Steering column stiffness every 90 degrees
14:19 Charge Port
15:36 TeslaFi battery degradation report
16:52 Tesla app charge stats for the last year
18:10 Wrap up - Наука та технологія
I should have included in the video that the total cost at this point after 5 years of ownership and adding 75,108 miles onto the odometer, the total cost to us has been $4,223.99 to own and operate our 2015 Tesla Model S. Tires alone are $2,024.11 of that price, and the other large ticket item was upgrading to MCU 2 which was $1,876.88. Our supercharging was free throughout this until right at the end when we transferred free supercharging to our Model Y and we had to pay for charging to get home from Las Vegas. Our charging at home has been free with solar and we haven't paid for charging anywhere the entire time we've owned it. This number does not include insurance and registration costs as that's highly variable depending on your own insurance rates and where you live.
Your charging at home isn't free with solar unless the solar was free.
@@SafeEffective-ls2plIt's free if it has broken even on installation costs ua-cam.com/video/m_UNWLxNehU/v-deo.html
Don't you include depreciation on bill?
@@patricaomas8750 Someday if I ever sell it then I will know it's depreciation for sure and be able to include that in the total ownership cost. Until then it's just anybody's approximated guess. I purchased it for $39,400 in May of 2019. Maybe in next year's 6-year update I will address that topic and do a general approximation but up to this point I have been just focusing on the mechanical device itself and the cost of ownership and maintenance.
I purchased a 2018 Model S 100D in 2018 new and still have it.
With 220,000 miles on it, vehicle is still going strong.
New it was supposed to get 330miles w/full charge, it never was able to achieve that new.
New it usually was able to charge up to 300miles.
Now it will charge up to between 284 to 280miles.
I enjoy the free supper charging while on the road, internet, all the radio channels, games and the self-driving.
Overall, no big issues or repairs.
Had to change the A/C once as a bearing went out on the blower.
Replaced 12v battery once and wipers once or twice.
I am still on the original breaks.
Tires last about 50,000 miles.
Car is garage kept and taken care of.
Interior is holding up great.
I plan on keeping car long term.
I was going to get the Truck, but after seeing the reviews and range I will opt-out.
I was going to trade my 100D in for a Plaid but Tesla will not give my much for a trade-in and I will lose all my options I have with the 100D and I like the sun roof and use the roof tracks to put my surfboards on too as the Plaid dose not have a good roof rack system like the 100D.
That is my 2-cents.
I have a 2018 Model S 100D also if I charge too 100% it show 364 miles
Thanks for your insight on the Model S! I have been thinking about getting a new Model Y, since the discounts are great, but have to believe that the Model S is a more luxurious car.
I'm most surprised that your tires typically last 50k miles! Yes we're holding off on buying the Cybertruck for now due to lack of 6 seats primarily, but I'm also bummed about the minimal range and simultaneous huge price hike. Thanks for taking the time to type up your $0.02! It's helpful to others to get multiple perspectives since my video is just one vehicle.
The S has more luxurious features for sure. However I've been loving driving our Model Y and for the price it's hard to beat the value of the Y. I prefer to drive our Y a little bit more because it has better visibility, blended regen braking to friction brakes, blind spot camera, and it's a nimbler ride. But both vehicles are infinitely better to drive than any non-Teslas I've ever driven.
I suppose it matters how people drive a car? People complain about tyres on EVs, but those EVs have great 0-60 times so could it be that people use (or abuse) this function much more than on regular cars and so the tyres are wrecked faster?
I live in Tampa and I think it’s a very long drive to Key West. I can’t imagine driving all the way from Utah L O L.
😂
Thank you. I used several of your links. Would the CRC "Contact Cleaner" be worth spraying in your charge port? I really enjoy your videos as you just "tell it like it is" with "just the facts, Maam" and your facts are always so well documented, lighting is excellent, and audio is excellent. I learn something each time and appreciate the effort as the results are professional. Also, it is a joy to this older man to see your wonderful family as it brings me back to when my two kids were young and with me. "Your gunna miss this!" so be happy you have all those fun videos to look back on.
That's probably a good idea to try spraying CRC contact cleaner into certain parts of the charge port both from the outside and inside the vehicle. I hadn't considered doing so, but I'll try that. Thanks for your positive feedback and yes I agree I will miss these days and thus why I spend a lot of time, effort and money on doing things with my family and our favorite thing to do is go on trips which are great to do in a Tesla. There have been a few times already when for whatever reason I'll show an older video to the girls and they already exclaim at how young they were and it's fun to see them grow up in the videos that are edited and easy to watch. I of course have plenty of other casual video, but since it's unedited it's harder/more boring to watch.
Congratulations on your purchase of that Model S 85D saving money is always advisable to taking bonding with family on vacations trips together, BRAVO sir. No wonder your channel deserves a shout out and a scream to succeed it is my hope that you can continue to show us how to do it...
Heartfelt THANKS for what you do for me at least.
Thanks, you're very kind. I appreciate the support to continue sharing our adventures and technology tips. It's a lot of work to make the videos and would be easier to just go on the trips enjoying the technology, but I love to share how it's working for us!
Since the cabin filter replacement takes so little time, would you consider doing a "How To" video on just replacing the Cabin Filter? I know I would appreciate it.
I could...but someone else already made this one that is about as good as I could make. ua-cam.com/video/zF21YDsnPOs/v-deo.htmlsi=84tyM3tOjAxmyavk
As always brotha love the data and we truly pray we meet someday I'm hoping for a utah trip in summer i know its somewhere closer to yall but either way always glad to see videos the family is loving the content
Will you be driving through the Salt Lake City area on I-15 on your trip? If so let me know when and perhaps we can meet up somewhere.
Most def will be lol we as in the family would love that we will be in august or september
I have a 2016 purchase with 5 k miles in 2016. 8 years and 60k miles still loving it. Charges fast enough on road trips ( 20 -25 min stops give me 150 miles range from near zero to about 60 percent) . Was really tempted to transfer supercharging but if I did it would be to a plaid (I have a p90d ludicrous) . Just not feeling like spending 100k right now . That said I really love my model S . I have the second gen vs your first gen so my charging is ok . To be honest it’s faster than my new f150 0-50% . That said I have half your miles but have had only 1 repair in 8 years . AC went out . 4K later ( some stuff burned out ) and loving it ! But overall best car I have ever owned . Wife had a 17x and like I said I just got my self an f150 lightning. Down with gas :) I sent this video to a friend that says electric cars can’t last . He says mine is too low miles so I sent him yours . Good stuff !
Thanks for sharing your experience and the video with your friend!
Thanks for posting this clear and concise information. I have been holding off on getting a Tesla model 3 or Y because I don't like touch screens and I believe everything is controlled / monitored on this screen. I'm thinking it may be distracting at times, especially if I have to swipe it 2 or 3 times to get a response as I do on my android smart phone. Do you have any thoughts or opinion about this? Also, I live in far northern Utah and the closest service center I believe is in Utah county - at least 100 miles away. Would that be a deal breaker for you, based on your experiences?
The Tesla screens are very responsive and I have no problems with having to touch it multiple times. It's the same sensitivity as a smart phone screen or tablet. Sometimes my phone has issues because it gets contaminants on the phone screen such as when I'm working on my sprinkler system and my hands are all gross and I'm using the sprinkler controller app to turn on the sprinklers. In those situations I have to clean my cell phone screen then it's back to ideal sensitivity. That's never been a problem with my Tesla screens because I don't use those screens in as diverse of situations. There are two Tesla service centers in Utah at this point in time. One is at 1038 S 300 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101 and thus would be the closest one to you, and the other one is at 2265 W 700 S, Pleasant Grove, UT 84062 farther south. The PG service center was built in 2023, so for the 4 years prior to that we had to drive to the SLC location which is roughly 45 minutes away and it wasn't a problem. Roughly half the time the mobile service came to our house and did the work in the driveway. I know of other Tesla owners who are hours drive away from a service center and it hasn't been a deal breaker for them. Personally I wouldn't worry about it overly much since we don't need service all that often, and mobile service is able to do a lot.
@@ElectricTechAdventures Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question. I guess I need to pay closer attention to how dirty my cell phone screen is! And I somehow thought that the Tesla location in SLC was for selling only, not repairs. I will reconsider the Model Y as I decide which EV to get.
@@ValConB There are two Tesla buildings in the Salt Lake City area and they are near each other but several blocks apart. The address that I provided before is the address to the service center and down the road south a little bit is where the sales showroom is. I wish you the best in your search for your next vehicle!
Oooookej is it thesame issues with the new Tesla Y refreshed? Would be good if you would like to test everything on the model ?
There isn't a refreshed Model Y at this time. The Model 3 just got refreshed so maybe you're thinking of that? What do you mean by "test everything"? I have upcoming videos of us using the Y on road trips, but I haven't felt like there's a need to make lots of review videos of the functionality since it's already been out for several years and there's a ton of videos from others about the Model Y functionality and features.
2015 85D here. Just had charge port replaced by tesla. 446.20 was my total which was just for the door. In goodwill, they replaced the chargeport as well for free.
I also had a window regulator replaced for around $400 more.
Your issue looks like it may be both the door and port needing replacement whenever you pull the trigger.
Good to know, thanks for the info!
Thanks for your in-depth explanation of costs and mileage! I don’t (yet) own a Tesla but am thinking seriously about buying one. Since you also have experience with the Model S, could you share your thoughts about how this vehicle compares with your Model Y? I love that the Model Y has more headroom but also that the Model S (I’m guessing) has a more comfortable ride. Can you comment? Thanks again for your insight!
In my experience and subjective opinion the comfort of the ride is about the same between the two vehicles. The steering feel of the Y is more nimble and the visibility is better forwards, and about the same backwards. There are obviously other features to compare between them as part of your consideration, but in general I'd probably purchase the Y. I'm factoring in the long term functionality vs maintenance costs. I obviously don't have first hand knowledge about maintenance costs on the Y, but from what I've heard from others I think there's less stuff that breaks on the Y. The coil suspension feels great and it's simpler and less likely to have problems in the future, and if there are problems they'll be cheaper to fix I expect.
A few people talk about problems related to the heavy weight of the Teslas. Suspensions, control arms, joints, break pads, etc. Would you have any feedback on that ?
As long as the suspension components are built for the weight then there should be no problems, so I think you're asking if the suspension components are built robustly enough for the additional weight? I can't speak to the design specifically, but I can speak to our specific Model S and it's maintenance history. It has not had any work done on any suspension components while we've owned it. I did talk to a Tesla service advisor for a while going through the service history prior to us owning the vehicle and in 2016 (1 year after the car was built) the air suspension compressor was replaced. I have no context of the situation and I imagine that was just an early manufacturing defect warranty replacement. I've also been involved with the Tesla community for 7 years and there is NOT a general theme of increased suspension component failure. The one thing that clearly wears faster than ICE vehicles are tires, but as I talked about in this video the mileage warranty offsets that nicely.
Also was curious if you thought about using tesla batterys in camper?
I thought about doing that, and I saw others on UA-cam who had done so successfully. There was one channel who decided to switch from Tesla batteries to some off-the-shelf batteries because they just felt like they were doing a science experiment in their RV that if it went wrong could burn their home on wheels to the ground and maybe even kill them. When I did my project there were already a lot of new things I was having to learn and I decided not to DIY build a battery bank from raw cells because using off-the-shelf batteries was simpler and faster.
Yeah i could 100 percent agree with that and great points i own inspired solar and inspired construction so i build batteries and things all day unfortunately but the burn down your house statement jumps out and ive seen it happen with people using the tesla bms i used the overkill one and its friggin amazing
Yep - use LiFePO4 - safer. The batts out of a Tesla would need some serious mods to make them mobile safe after they're removed from the case. Water ingress, friction etc are all problems in a caravan. Plus Victron makes great gear that just works with off the shelf LiFe.
@@mondotv4216 Yep, that's why I went with proven batteries, albeit at a price premium. The trailer's electrical system has been rock solid stable for 2.5 years now with daily use either camping or charging Teslas as I talked about in the video.
There has got to be a way to automate the charge settings with something like home assistant so you can follow the solar output, adjust the charge level so you stay within a minimum/maximum state of charge on the RV battery or whatever other parameters you use to decide the charge level rather than having to check the app every hour or so to adjust the charge setting manually
I know that Tesla's API supports changing the charging amps, but I haven't looked into Victron's API to see what options there are. I would like to into it more, but I'm so busy editing UA-cam videos that I haven't decided to spend any more time on trying to automate it. Also I'm not a computer programmer, so it would take me even more time to figure out how to do it. I don't check the system hourly though. More like 4-5 times per day because I've been doing it long enough I can see what the weather is doing and I generally know if the Tesla is pulling a certain number of amps how quickly that'll effect the charge state of the trailer battery bank vs the solar production. I'd love to automate it someday though and I'm all ears if anyone else figures it out before I spend anymore time on it.
@@ElectricTechAdventures You don't need to be a programer to do any of this. If both systems have APIs then their is a very good chance the Home Assistant community will already have made integrations for them and after that it's just making so rules called automations that say when the system is in certain states take whatever actions.
@@ElectricTechAdventures Home Assistant has Tesla and Victron integrations already which will pull in all the sensor data and control options your system has.
And this video will let you see how simple making automations can be ua-cam.com/video/MGHIlMorTVc/v-deo.html
You could even make a video on your adventures of getting it set up
@@Pegaroo_ Valid point. I do have work experience with Adobe Fusion which is another API integration platform. It still takes time figuring it out and while it would save me time long term not checking the Tesla and Victron apps as often, I'm still struggling with getting my UA-cam editing caught up. We keep going on new trips that I'm excited to share here on my UA-cam channel and my latest trip I'm about to finish publishing happened 20 months ago...and we just got back from yet another new trip yesterday. My current trip editing backlog is 12, and many of those trips will be a series of multiple videos. I'd love to be able to publish videos 2-3 times per week to get caught up, but alas for years now I've only managed to average editing about 1 video per week with what time I can spare from my family and day job. API integrations are just on my back burner along with building a new garden, washing the cars, fixing our lawns sprinkler system, fixing a gate in my backyard and many other things I could be doing. Adulting can be hard balancing priorities sometimes.
Thanks for the help and encouragement! I'll watch that video and see if I can perhaps setup the automation with less time investment than I've thought it would take to free up my time for more UA-cam video editing!
What do you mean the supercharging was getting too slow ?
Batteries slow down their charge speed over the course of a charge session, and after many charge cycles they develop additional chemical resistance and thus slow down charging more quickly as they age. In our Model S, over time as the battery management system tracks the usage of the battery, Tesla has programmed it so that once you've supercharged it (DC fast charge in general) a certain amount (I have no idea how much, and it might be a gradual adjustment) they lower the amount of time that the car is charging quickly due to internal resistance building up in the battery from age. I believe this slowdown would never occur if you never DC fast charged and only level 2 AC destination charged, but that's kind of pointless since DC fast charging has it's use case and we used it. I believe these 18650 cells in our Model S are perhaps more prone to this slowdown effect vs the 2170 cells in the Model Y and 3 where I've heard of people treating superchargers like gas stations and they rarely or never use the level 2 AC charging and their charging speeds aren't slowing down. Also there's the big difference that when our Model S was made the peak supercharging speed was 120 kW and through a software update was increased to 130 kW, but our Model Y has 250 kW charging. Not only does the Model Y peak at a 52% higher charge rate, it also maintains higher charge rates throughout the charge session so that the average charge speed is roughly double our Model S.
Thanks, you know your stuff 👍
Did i miss the part where you tell us how much it has cost to own ? Would be good to have a compassion to fuel car too 😊
I should have included in the video that the total cost at this point after 5 years of ownership and adding 75,108 miles onto the odometer, the total cost to us has been $4,223.99 to own and operate our 2015 Tesla Model S. Tires alone are $2,024.11 of that price, and the other large ticket item was upgrading to MCU 2 which was $1,876.88. Our supercharging was free throughout this until right at the end when we transferred free supercharging to our Model Y and we had to pay for charging to get home from Las Vegas. Our charging at home has been free with solar and we haven't paid for charging anywhere the entire time we've owned it. This number does not include insurance and registration costs as that's highly variable depending on your own insurance rates and where you live.
Thanks for the Reply, I know you have a lot of straight roads out their in the US, I wonder if it would be different here in the UK
I doubt it would be that much different. We definitely change directions a lot here too.
Metric system rules, no ”seconds” to be mixed with time
Yes it would be far more convenient if the whole world was on the metric system.
I'm so sad I was too poor to afford a car with free supercharging when it was offered.
We purchased ours used for $39,400k. It was still at the time the most expensive vehicle we've ever purchased. Occasionally used Model S' with free supercharging still show up on the used car market. You have to buy private party in order to transfer free supercharging.
Power from solar panels is not "free" - ever. Solar panels themselves are not free and they will not last "forever". Plus they need maintenance and they do break and fail on occasions. It would be like paying for multi-thousands of dollars of gasoline in a tank out back and then saying fuel from the tank was "free" after the fact. Solar isn't free even when you break even with installation costs because you need to be saving up for the upcoming replacement costs which will be significant. Of course you could move before you do a solar replacement in the same way EV owners can sell their car before it needs a battery replacement. That said, it is still not free and somebody is going to have to pay for batteries and/or solar panels at some point and that should always be factored into long term costs. EV owners see this with vehicle deprecation when they sell but homeowners never seem to want to address this.
As I talked about in this video ua-cam.com/video/m_UNWLxNehU/v-deo.html my solar panels have broken even on their installation costs. The total cost of installation (zero maintenance so far) was $9,735.31. As of yesterday the solar panels have produced 97,620.89 kWh. At 11 cents per kWh (average where I live) the panels have produced $10,738 in value. Or multiply by whatever retail rate for electricity you'd like. At this point in time (May 27th 2024) my panels have produced $1,003 more than they cost to install. There is likely going to be some maintenance costs like replacing the inverter once over the lifespan of the solar array (25 year production warranty on panels, 12 year warranty on the inverter), and when the time comes that I need to spend money on replacing components I'll add that to the installation costs. Only when the entire solar array has been removed/replaced will it be possible to calculate the exact price per kWh over the lifespan of the solar array. Saying solar energy is "not free" in the midst of the lifespan of the system is not helpful. What is helpful is adding up the installation/maintenance costs and subtracting the ongoing monetary value of the produced electricity. In my case I've had zero maintenance costs since the installation went online August 2017 so I am truly getting free electricity from the sun. Is it possible that some component fails today or in the near future that costs more than $1,003 to replace? You bet. Maybe I'll even go negative again, but every day I get more energy going towards my "free energy" calculation. Over the expected lifespan of my system (August 2042 is when the solar panels and inverter will be out of warranty) the panels will have paid for themselves 4 times! (I calculated that by dividing 9131.25 which is the number of days over 25 years by 2244 which was the number of days it took my system to break even.) It's likely the system will continue operating past that point, or perhaps not; only time will tell.
Any battery health check on this 9-yr old car ?
I showed the battery degradation from TeslaFi at 15:36 in the video which shows the battery is sitting at 9.28% battery degredation. If you want more detail I created this video ua-cam.com/video/hfFD6WTrg6g/v-deo.html recently that shows more detail from the Scan My Tesla app.
@@ElectricTechAdventures my bad
No problem, I recommend watching the video I linked to for a lot more information than what I included in this video.
Do you follow any day to day rules with your charging? Ie only charge to 80%
Also what’s the year round temperatures like where you live, I wonder if this has had any effect on your impressive battery health.
@@fenman7277 With my Model Y I am generally charging it up to 80% and then letting it run down to somewhere between 20 to 40% and then charging it back up to 80%. Sometimes it takes a week or two to run through that range so it will spend days in the ideal middle charge point. I don't just plug it in constantly but I know probably most people do. With the Model S right now during this experiment it's charge point is largely dictated by how much we've been driving versus how much solar output the trailer is providing. But I don't run it lower than 20% and once it gets above 80% I try to drive more to keep it lower and if it gets to 90% then I just send the energy to the model Y. If I were constantly just plugging in my electric vehicles at home then I would probably set the charge point to about 70 to 80% unless I needed more range than that on a daily basis like if I had a long commute to work. I live in the Salt Lake City Utah area so we definitely have hot and cold seasons here. Teslas have good active thermal management so the thing that the user affects more is the state of charge since the temperature is automatically managed. I suspect my battery degradation is probably pretty close to average for vehicles like mine.
I really wish you guys would switch to metric.
I very much agree. Metric is way better. I've added captions many times with the conversion on screen, but it gets time consuming so I don't always do it. I wish the entire world just used metric.
Haha forget those Costco wipers. They are trash for all cars. 😂
So what is a "longer" drive?
Do you use all your baked solar credits every year?
I saw 3 #CyberTrucks on a car carrier heading the wrong way on P$ the other day, which left me wondering when I get mine :-(
Longer is relative to how much charge the S has in the battery, but most of our daily life (where vehicles are used) is in about a 7 mile radius, or 15 minutes of driving. I'd define "longer" as for sure 30 minutes and above, then 15-30 minutes is grey area/gradient. Regarding net metering solar credits I strive to use every single kWh, but not more (that is have to pay for). That 0 net metering balance is a zero margin goal that is nearly impossible to achieve, but I try. Generally each year we are within 50 kWh on either side of 0. My main demand levers to adjust our net metering balance is the electric cars, a freeze dryer and a heater I plug into our clothes drier outlet to heat the house with when excess energy needs to be used. Yesterday I saw my 10th Cybertruck in the wild. That's not including the 22 Cybertrucks I saw the day prior at the Tesla showroom. I wish they would offer a 6 seat option!
First world problems