- So I've had my Model 3 for over six months now
and I thought it was time to take a look at how
much money I've actually spent on owning it,
upgrading it, and repairing it.
Let's dive in.
(upbeat music)
So the first thing I wanted to take a look at
was the monthly expenses.
Essentially, how much money each month I am spending
on the cost of owning a Tesla Model 3.
Then, I wanted to take a look at the upgrades.
And I'll walk you through all the ones I did
and what they cost.
And lastly, we'll take a look at repairs.
Alright, first up, the monthly costs.
And we start out with the loan amount and this varies
greatly depending on how much you spend on the car,
and what your financing rate is,
and what the term of your loan is.
And I do have a calculator online to figure that stuff out
if you haven't already went down that rabbit hole.
But for me, it came out to about $700 a month for the loan.
Now, I have a shorter loan
but I do have a great interest rate,
I put a lot of money down,
so again, these will vary for you.
Now the fuel for me is $26 per month
and the way I break this down is looking at the
overall cost of having solar.
Amortizing that cost of that system across
the 25 years that I actually, you know, it's warrantied for.
And then looking at how much
of the energy my car actually uses.
Now this is a bit of an aggressive estimate.
I probably used less than this,
but I wanted to make sure that we kind of looked
at how to conservative way of looking at this
so that way if you are following along,
you don't have any big surprises there.
Now comparing to how much I would've had to spend
in gas, if I was using a gas car
that got 30 miles per gallon,
this would be about $144 per month in San Diego,
which is a lot.
So I'm saving a ton and that's something that you can really
look forward to if this is your first electric vehicle.
Next, insurance.
And I broke it down by month even though you pay
every six months, or at least that's how I do it.
And it came out to just under $102 so I just rounded up
to $102 per month for insurance on my Tesla Model 3.
So that brings us a total of monthly expenses at $828.
Next, let's take a look at upgrades.
So I've done quite a bit to my car
and you probably aren't going to go to the extent that I did
but here's what I had.
My car did have some paint damage coming out of the factory
which is really common if you want to upgrade that look
even if you pay for the extra paint,
there's likely some stuff that you'll have to do to fix it.
Now I had a pretty extensive amount of damage
to my vehicle regarding the paint
and so it cost me $1000 to actually repair that.
Then, I wanted to kind of protect it,
give it a better finish,
make sure that it was protected a bit more
and so I put on this ceramic coating
and that cost right around $3,500.
Next, in terms of the upgrades,
I ended up lowering it with the dual rate suspension
from unplugged performance
and with that what it actually did
it gives it a smoother ride when you're just cruising
and then when you're turning,
it has a tighter amount of suspension
so it actually is better performing
than just the regular stuff and it also lowers it.
I took the 1.5 inch drop so it's pretty low.
I may change that but overall that was about 800 bucks
in terms of the cost of the install and the springs.
And I'll put a link to all these things
in the description down below.
Then from EV Wheel Direct I got the wheels and tires
and these were pretty expensive as well.
These were the 20 inch turbine saw wheels
plus the Michelin pilots sport 4S tires,
which are pretty expensive.
But, they really are the best you can buy.
So that brings our total for the upgrades to $9,100.
So this is a significant amount for me
and you're likely not gonna spend all that money
but you know, you easily could
and you could do more if you added a wrap
or some of the other things on there.
Next, let's take a look at repairs and maintenance.
So repairs, I didn't really need any of these,
but they were sort of self-inflicted.
So I did hit a curb and the rocker panel
on the passenger side got scraped up on the bottom
and I am going through insurance for it
so my deductible is $750.
In terms of the cost of the repairs,
it's kind of fluid.
They're somewhere in between three to 5,000
and it depends on how well or
how easily they're able to repair this.
Now the rocker panel where the damage is on my Model 3
is actually mid grade steel
and so they think they can repair it
rather than having to order a part
which is great news because otherwise
this would be a lot more expensive
and take a lot longer.
That is really all I have there.
The maintenance is zero for this
so we got zero maintenance but $750 in repairs,
which were again, self-inflicted.
So there are the different categories,
the monthly at $828,
the upgrades at $9,100,
and the repairs of 750 so far.
Now I didn't factor in depreciation
because it's really difficult to calculate that
and because of the upgrades I've done,
I probably would be able to sell it
for more than what I bought it,
but less than what I paid overall
so it's really hard to say.
Now, that is the biggest cost typically,
so I'll leave that for a later date if and when
decide to sell and maybe when
the market is a bit more mature.
But generally, that would be you know,
the next big category to add here
but I excluded it for that reason.
So I wanted to just put that on the table so
you understand why.
So let's take a look at the total cost,
now let's add all this up.
And the first thing to do is take our monthly cost
and multiply it times six,
giving us a total of $4,968,
the upgrades of 9,100,
the repairs of 750,
giving us a grand total that I've spent over
the past six months, or six months and change now,
by owning a Tesla Model 3 at $14,818.
A pretty healthy amount.
It's definitely not on the cheaper side by far
and my vehicle isn't the performance model,
isn't the all wheel drive,
I got the solid black paint
so I didn't get even a paint upgrade
although I paid for it later.
So lots of stuff to consider there.
I'm curious what you guys are thinking about
if you've already ordered yours,
if you've already got it.
How does this compare to you?
Now the big variable here for me was fuel
and the reason I listed that at such a low price is
because I bought solar.
So if you're curious about how I made that decision,
I'll put a link to a video where I broke that down
and the tools I used and kinda how I calculated that.
I think it's important and once you get an EV
it's one of those things where it really does make sense.
I'll also a link to the tool that I use
which is called EnergySage in the description
down below in case you guys just wanna jump straight over
and start you know, getting quotes and stuff
and figuring it out for you.
So there you have it guys,
as I mentioned, if I do decide to sell the car
I'll update this and look at the depreciation
and kind of factor that in
and we'll revisit this a little bit down the line.
So don't forget when you free the data,
your mind will follow.
I'll see you guys back here next time.
(happy music)