Just wondering, my guess is you'd be willing to take a 5k bath to be rid of the fucking thing.

And I say that not as a Tesla owner but as someone that didn't like a car.

On a car I bought the year before and absolutely hated. Decided to trade in for what I really wanted. I just wanted to get rid of it. I love my new car and it will likely be the last car I buy.

If I owned a Tesla, which is a very big IF because I had that Nazi’s number quite a while ago, I’d definitely be willing to take a $10k bath to ditch it.

Everyone knows this. Cars lose $5000 as soon as you drive it off the lot. All of them. 24% of the people trading in cars were upside down with the average amount owed being $6500.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2024/10/16/upside-down-car-loans-americans-owe-record-amount/75686795007/

If you could buy a new car and trade it in three years later for the same price you paid, why wouldn't a buyer just buy a new one?

People trade in vehicles for all kinds of reasons; tens of thousands every day. Decided an EV wasn't for them, wanted something newer, bigger, smaller etc, etc. Got a promotion and wanted a fancier car, needed a pickup truck. People get bored and want something different. Not to mention the popularity of leasing which puts you in a new vehicle every few years anyway.

I'm the opposite as I keep cars 12 years and 225k miles. Develop an emotional attachment and familiarity with them. Haven't traded one in in over 30 years.

Which again, sucks for those folks that bought a Tesla prior to the realization that Elon is a shit human, and want to hang on to their current Tesla.

Since 99% of my driving is around town and usually way less than 50 miles per day, I have spent less than $200.00 on gas in the last 18 months. I spent $20k on it out the door. Already I have saved several thousand dollars on gas for my no longer owned Jeep Grand Cherokee. I love the Volt, and after the battery is drained I can run the gas engine and it will generate electricity for the electric drive motor until I have to stop and refill the 8.5 gal tank or plug it in overnight to recharge. Plus, I don't worry about people vandalizing ity because it's not a swasticar.

Given that 1.4% of trade ins were Tesla's, that means people were trading them in less than other makes of cars

It was 4.2 % in 2023 and 3.8% in 2022

I don't think that's relevant, mostly because you have to take the value of the car into consideration. You have to have some serious financial resources to take a hit on a Tesla, whereas you don't have to have such resources on a less expensive car.

You have to look at Tesla's trend by itself. There is no comparison in the decision-making process to trading in a Tesla vs trading in a Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sentra, or Honda Civic, for example.

snip from Washington Post:

Of all vehicles traded in at dealerships for new or used cars through March 16, 1.4 percent were Tesla cars from model year 2017 or newer — the highest share on record, according to data from U.S. car shopping website Edmunds, which analyzed purchases at traditional dealerships (but not direct-to-consumer brands). The data shows a steady increase: Last March, 0.4 percent of all vehicles traded in were Teslas. The figure rose to 0.8 percent in January and 1.2 percent in February.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/21/tesla-trade-ins-elon-musk/

The relevant point is that people are trading them in increasing numbers.

I don’t see what this has to do with the fact that it’s easier to make this decision when the cost of the vehicle is considered.

Making it nearly impossible to conclude anything of substance from the article

There's plenty of evidence; FWIW I had a job for one of the big 3 automakers and part of the job was looking at findings like this. It would have caused a major freakout.

The car has already been sold the first time; they already made their profit from it. The fact that a buyer is trading in a used car at all doesn't matter to them; it's all about what they do for their next purchase.

There are only 2 possibilities for a manufacturer when people are trading a car in.

1) People trading in your brand of cars to buy a different brand = not good (lost a customer)

2) People trading in your brand of cars to buy another one of the same brand = excellent (retained a customer and made another sale)

Since Edmunds was unable to provide any data on either of those two possibilities, their article or any conclusions thereof are meaningless.

Automotive manufacturers do care about their dealership used car departments. They are concerned with the overall economic health of the dealership because if the dealer is not selling used cars, it takes away from the economic base the dealership needs to stay alive in the marketplace.

Have you ever read a dealership legal agreement? It doesn't sound like it.

Hopefully, they will remain successful for many years to come.

I hope the whole operation goes down in flames and that it takes Elongated with it.

Tesla was not one of the top ones from last year however

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/advice/cars-with-the-fastest-depreciation

2024.

I don't. If anything it may be worse.

Feel free to share the data showing otherwise

Not interested in discussing anything else.