Buying a Tesla? | Don't Make These 11 Mistakes!

are you looking to buy a tesla well you're not alone tesla's and electric cars in general are getting more and more popular each day in 2021 tesla sold nearly a million vehicles and with two new factories about to start deliveries 2022 is expected to be an even more impressive year for tesla deliveries buying a tesla though isn't like buying a typical car instead of going to a dealership you order online you can look at tesla's cars in a store or do a test drive but especially right now there aren't cars in inventory available for you to drive away with instead you order wait a few months and then take delivery which leads to a number of differences you'll want to keep in mind when buying today i'm going to break down the common mistakes you'll want to avoid when buying a tesla so let's get into it and a special thanks to nordvpn for sponsoring this video [Music] the first mistake when buying a tesla is the one that impacts costs the most buying the right range this can come in two different ways buying too much or too little let's start off with talking about buying too much range for many when getting into an electric vehicle for the first time they'll want to match the range of their gasoline vehicle sometimes this ends up putting them above 400 miles and for tesla that brings you immediately to their most expensive model the model s the epa estimated range on the long range model s with normal wheels is 405 miles but you have to pay 94 990 to get that car this points to a big difference between electric and gasoline cars if you had to fill up your car with gasoline each day that would get frustrating however if you have charging setup at home filling up your electric car each day is not an issue when it comes down to it the average miles driven by someone in the united states is 40 per day in this case you could in theory go about 10 days without recharging your model s but electric cars operate differently than this in practice charging your electric car each night at home like you would a smartphone is actually best practice so it will be very rare when you actually need to utilize all 405 epa miles on your model s ultimately buying less range can work out just fine and as you'll see you'll bring down the cost of your tesla purchase significantly by doing so the model s offers a lot more upgrade than simply range but if you're looking for a solid electric car tesla's cheapest standard range model 3 is over half the cost of a model s if you're a road trip warrior or you're someone who takes that one road trip per year and uses that as the reason that you need more range than an ev offers that's where tesla's supercharger network comes into play even with their lowest range cars you can make most road trips stopping to charge quickly at their supercharger stations across the country and worldwide it typically takes about the same time it would take you to get out get gas get food and use the restroom but sometimes could add a little time to your road trip ultimately though in my experience i've found supercharging to be fun and only get frustrating if you're driving 14 plus hours in a day the supercharger network is a huge part of what makes tesla's lower range vehicles still make sense for any customer that brings us to the second mistake to avoid when buying a tesla buying too little range tesla quotes an epa estimated range of 272 miles for the standard range model 3 with stock wheels as i've been mentioning the average american drives about 40 miles a day and if they can charge at home this range will more than suffice if you can't charge at home you'll last around six or more days in the real world before needing to charge you can even complete most road trips on that range with their supercharger network for myself this weekend i'm actually driving to las vegas from la in our standard range model 3 for a gig i plan to charge up to 100 before leaving and then i know that there will be plenty of charging options along my route technically if i map this out it's a 253 mile drive for me if the standard range model 3 gets 272 miles of range i can make it without charging right well unfortunately probably not in the right conditions you can achieve an epa range but most people don't drive in those conditions most people drive faster than what the epa tests for and use more climate controls which use up some of the battery as well so i'm definitely planning to charge on my route and that's why it's important to ensure that you don't make the mistake of buying too little range epa range is the standard but it's just not realistic in most scenarios so i'm expecting more like 220 to 250 miles of range on my model 3 in the real world this weekend my model y with a 330 mile range as quoted by tesla now can get well below 300 on a road trip so if you're someone who regularly needs to drive over 250 miles or so you'll definitely want to upgrade to tesla's longer range options maybe a long-range model y or long-range model 3 getting 330 epa miles and 358 epa miles respectively inside evs has done some great testing with evs charged to 100 and driving 70 miles per hour the whole way for the 2021 tesla model 3 long range all-wheel drive they achieved a range of 310 miles instead of the 353 tesla quoted at the time 310 miles is still great but it really shows how much less it can be than what the epa says that's about a 12.2 percent decrease and i personally always account for this much no matter what tesla i drive their 2020 model wide test shows a decrease from 316 miles of an epa range at the time to 276 miles in the real world a 12.7 percent decrease from what the epa quotes there's a balance to strike here because more range equals more batteries which equals more cost it also adds weight to the car so you don't want to pay extra for range that you don't actually ever need but you also don't want to end up stuck with a car that you find yourself having to charge at superchargers more than you expected because it gets around 12 percent less than the quoted range in the real world the third mistake to avoid when buying a tesla relates to range and that's buying the wrong wheels for me i want to do whatever i can within reason to get the most range out of my car this ultimately is achieved with better efficiency that results in less charging and a cheaper cost of operation in theory it should extend the life of the battery as well tesla sells a few wheel options for their cars but what you'll notice is that with all of them they decrease range when you upgrade they also result in worse ride quality in my tesla model why my biggest complaint is the ride quality and the smaller the wheels you buy the bigger the tire and the better the ride quality this is why i always buy the stock wheels tesla cells they ride better and get more range for example these are epa ranges which we already know aren't the same in the real world but for the model 3 standard range it goes from 272 miles to 267 miles of range when upgrading to larger wheels that's only a 5 mile difference but the long range all-wheel drive model 3 goes from 358 to 334 miles of range when you upgrade wheels so you pay 1500 more for the looks and handling of those wheels but end up with 24 miles less range and a bumpier ride in the model y long range the range is 330 miles and goes down to 318 12 less with the 20 inch wheels in the model s it drops from 405 miles of range to 375 miles of range 30 less when you upgrade there and the plaid model is even more significant dropping 48 miles when you upgrade wheels lastly the model x goes from 351 miles to 332 miles 19 less when upgrading those wheels for me this is a no-brainer upgrading tesla wheels always decreases ride quality and range sometimes significantly so i would always buy the stock wheels however i do totally understand if looks and wheel handling are more important to you than these things it's just important to know this ahead of time and if you're willing to take that decreased range in favor of better looking and handling wheels absolutely go for it before we go any further i'd like to thank today's sponsor nordvpn nordvpn is the fastest vpn out there with over 5300 servers in 59 countries and support for up to six devices per account a vpn or virtual private network encrypts your internet traffic and hides your ip address and virtual location this allows you to unblock content that is blocked in your country like movies and games but also boosts your online privacy especially when connected to public wi-fi they also offer three new products threat protection included with nordvpn is a new feature that can guard your desktop against malicious websites malware trackers and intrusive ads with threat protection enabled you can browse the internet with peace of mind because even if you click on a malicious link and end up downloading malware it'll be scanned and deleted automatically with nordpass password manager you also don't have to worry about remembering your passwords it'll create secure passwords and remember them for you and those passwords will then be available on all of your devices lastly nord locker offers encrypted cloud storage where your files are safe from snoopers and malware to check out nordvpn for yourself visit nordvpn.com ryan shaw linked below and use the code ryan shaw for a big discount the fourth mistake to avoid when buying a tesla is buying full self-driving at this point i can't in good faith recommend the fsd package to anyone unless you plan on keeping this car for a very long time coming and want to heavily invest in the future of autonomy tesla now charges a full twelve thousand dollars for their full self-driving package which brings a few features and promises a lot however the only feature it actually includes today that i find worthwhile is auto lane change which might be worth around one thousand to two thousand dollars on its own tesla includes standard autopilot and all of their vehicles by default and that includes adaptive cruise control and auto steer which can keep you centered in your lane for long periods of time so to get those features you don't need to upgrade anything basic included autopilot is extremely useful on road trips and i've found it to be plenty auto lane change does work great with this so you don't have to exit autopilot to change lanes and then re-enter but it's not worth 12 000 tesla charges so much for fsd because they are hard at work on their full self-driving beta which ultimately will bring features where the car can drive for you in any situations if you bought the fsd package you'll receive those updates over time however these features have been promised for years now with elon musk claiming they'll achieve it each year and it just never happens there are many reasons for this some understandable and they've made a lot of progress but ultimately it's just not worth purchasing for most people it's also something you can purchase at any time before or after delivery it's purely a software update and within the tesla app after delivery you can buy this package in two different ways if you use basic autopilot and really want to buy the full self-driving package after you already have the car you can do so from the app and it updates onto your car within minutes there is no hardware upgrade necessary whatsoever if you buy a new tesla you can also opt to subscribe instead for 199 dollars per month i did this on my model s for a period of time ultimately with the subscription it will take you about 60 months or five years before you start exceeding the cost of buying the fsd package outright at twelve thousand dollars the fsd package stays with your car and will not transfer in any way to another tesla so if you upgrade you lose it in my opinion if you want fsd really bad subscribing is the best option but even that isn't worth it to me right now the fifth mistake to avoid when buying a tesla is putting off ordering teslas are in high demand and over the past year we've only seen their prices go up the model y is up ten thousand dollars from a year ago when you put in an order for a car they are producing that locks in the price that you ordered it at sometimes people will know that they want to buy but just put off ordering and ultimately this can result in you paying a higher price and waiting longer for your car they have long lead times and prices keep going up so if you are decided on officially wanting one don't make the mistake of waiting to order and paying the higher price for mistake number five to avoid we have not planning ahead for charging with your tesla you'll quickly be shifting away from filling up at a gas station to charging this comes with a lot of benefits but will add some stress if you don't plan ahead if your car is about to die in the first week of ownership and you don't have anywhere to charge it definitely will not be fun if you're charging at home i've found that some people can actually get by especially initially by using the standard wall outlet charger tesla includes it takes a long time sometimes 24 plus hours but if you just plug in whenever you're home you can sometimes get by if you drive more frequently though like me this won't be enough i personally installed a nema 1450 outlet for pretty cheap and at the place i live now i use a device from split volt this device safely plugs into a nema 1430 dryer outlet at my current house and allows me to keep my dryer and ev charger plugged into that same box it safely switches between the two when using one or the other and allowed me to buy this box and install it myself rather than rewiring anything i can charge up overnight with no issue and use my energy company's off-peak hours if you live in an apartment or place where you can't reach your car with a charger you'll want to plan ahead by talking to your landlord and if there's no home solution for you you'll want to know where your tesla superchargers as well as city ev chargers are nearby tesla has a supercharger network you can check out for chargers near you and you can also look ahead at road trips you plan to take or regularly take and make sure there are superchargers that will have you covered then there are great websites like plug share where you can see all available stations of varying speeds in your area having a plan ahead of time will ensure a smooth transition to an ev and you'll quickly see how much more convenient it can really be mistake number six to avoid is buying a performance model simply because it's available tesla's most popular models and configurations are unavailable for a reason the performance models offer better performance specs and include some performance upgrades and cost more for them resulting in shorter lead times for example if you configure a base model y tesla estimates a december delivery a performance model will come next month that's an 8 month difference and could lead some who just need or want a tesla immediately to upgrade simply for the earlier delivery date if the performance model is what you want and you want larger wheels performance brakes a lowered suspension spoiler and stiffer suspension then absolutely go for it but if those aren't important to you you'll probably find quickly that you got your car sooner but the suspension is stiffer the car rides lower than a typical suv and your range is 27 miles less than it could have been if you waited until december you also will have paid five thousand dollars more that five thousand dollars is worth it for the upgrades it provides but not for everyone so don't make the mistake of simply upgrading to get your car faster mistake number seven is avoiding the white seats that you want tesla sells a black or white interior in the model 3 and y they also offer an additional cream option in the model s or x in my opinion the white interior is the best option on all of these cars it just looks really great and i especially think it shines in the model s and x the model y i have on order is with white seats and this may surprise some since white seats should require much more maintenance of course there's no way around it white will show more dirt than black seats but tesla's white interiors hold up really well you'll find some horror stories online about jeans staining them and such but the overwhelming experience for owners is that if you clean them with some sort of regularity they are easy to maintain then if they end up stained there are products that can easily get it off there are full articles about all the ways the white seeds are better than black and how to properly maintain them some benefits of the white interior are that it brightens the interior they're easy to clean they resist stains and they stay cooler than white seats they also look a lot cooler so if you like the look of the white interior in a tesla but you don't want to go for it due to staining don't make a mistake they'll require a little more maintenance but won't be an issue like many think get the seats that you want in your car i will say personally though i haven't experienced the white seats on one of my own cars so i'll have to let you know in a future video what my experience is once i get that new model y the eighth mistake to avoid when buying a tesla is not checking for available ev credits depending on your state or country there are various ev rebates or credits you could receive this could help reduce the cost of your purchase and i'm consistently surprised by how few people actually know what rebates they qualify for certain programs have disappeared and a national ev credit for tesla's still isn't there but you can look up rebates for your area or state for example my power company gave me one thousand dollars for going electric make sure you aren't leaving money on the table and check for what rebates you may qualify for ahead of time the ninth mistake to avoid when buying a tesla is not inspecting the car on delivery tesla makes great vehicles but they are a newer company and are still going through growing pains with quality control overall quality has gotten far better than before but cars still get delivered with small issues here and there i have a video about the issues i had on my model y linked below as well as my 2021 plaid model s linked below each car i've received from tesla came with small fit and finish issues and i was sure to inspect these and have them noted by tesla at delivery that way when i take the car into a service appointment these fixes are 100 covered by tesla as they were problems with the car at delivery from tesla they were not issues that happened after i drove the car sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of buying a tesla and not give it a full look over but that would be a mistake you want to ensure that the car is in perfect condition before you leave your delivery center the 10th mistake to avoid when buying a tesla is not shopping around for insurance or having the right coverage some insurance companies charge incredibly high to ensure a tesla in particular which is why tesla offers their own insurance in a few states before you take delivery shop around for the best insurance options and don't just assume that whoever you're currently with will give you the best rate insurance companies often charge a specific premium for a tesla then when you have insurance you want to make sure you have the right coverage make sure you have full coverage for what you truly need in an accident when i first got my model y within a couple weeks my windshield was hit with a rock and cracked that repair ended up costing 1 337.85 and my cost was a thousand dollars if i had taken better care to have the right coverage for this situation i could have saved a lot then lastly mistake number 11 to avoid when buying a tesla is not planning ahead for accessories there are a lot of accessories that can greatly improve your experience as a tesla owner and a few of them that are essential are a screen protector and all-weather floor mats there are also great storage optimization accessories for the model y that make great use of extra space in the car like the space under the front seats i have a full video of the best accessories for the tesla model 3 and y and that's linked up here or in the description below additionally my favorite accessories are all linked in the description below as you can see buying a tesla is quite different than buying a typical car but overall most people find it to be worth it i know that i definitely have but i also know many mistakes to avoid when buying a future tesla i hope this was helpful for you if you're in the market for a tesla and if you're looking to buy a model 3 you can check out my full review of that car linked up here or in the description below i'll also link my reviews of all of tesla's cars below thanks so much for watching and i'll see you on the next one

Channel: Ryan Shaw

Views: 148,254

Keywords: tesla, tesla model 3, tesla model y, tesla model s, tesla model x, tesla news, tesla buyers guide, buying a tesla, tesla buying guide, how to buy a tesla, tesla buying tips, tesla mistakes, tesla buying mistakes, model 3, model y, model x, model s, tesla accessories, tesla wheels, tesla fsd, tesla full self driving, tesla charging, tesla charging setup, tesla range, tesla quality control

Id: N_plAhdJp70

Length: 17min 54sec (1074 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 13 2022