how much have you paid for a car and what would you pay for a car?

[disneysteve]

The F450 and all of the heavy duty class trucks are built for heavy hauling and towing.
I'd guess that most are company owned.
I see a fair amount of them around here hauling for the oil fields.

That makes sense. I can certainly see it in that setting. Not as a personal vehicle though unless perhaps you are hauling something huge like a large boat or RV.

[Petunia 100]

We paid 53k and change out the door for our 2018 Dodge Ram 2500 with a Cummins diesel engine. The sticker price was 55k, so we were pleased. (Well, relatively pleased, lol. I did not enjoy forking over that money). We had looked and looked and looked for a good used one. To get the price under 40k, you are looking at trucks with 6 digits on the odometer. That just didn't seem like a good trade off to me.

If you need something to haul a 5th wheel, horses (more than 1 or 2 at a time), or other heavy loads and you aren't going to haul only where it is flat, you need more than a half ton (Ford F-150, Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, etc.). When you go up to bigger towing capacity models, you go up in price. A diesel engine has more power and lasts much longer than a gas engine. A diesel engine adds about 8k to the price.

As we live in a 5th wheel and want to take it places like the Alaska highway, all through the Rockies, etc., towing capacity is a crucial consideration.

I hope I never again have to shell out so much for a vehicle.

[bjl584]

We paid 53k and change out the door for our 2018 Dodge Ram 2500 with a Cummins diesel engine. The sticker price was 55k, so we were pleased. (Well, relatively pleased, lol. I did not enjoy forking over that money). We had looked and looked and looked for a good used one. To get the price under 40k, you are looking at trucks with 6 digits on the odometer. That just didn't seem like a good trade off to me.

If you need something to haul a 5th wheel, horses (more than 1 or 2 at a time), or other heavy loads and you aren't going to haul only where it is flat, you need more than a half ton (Ford F-150, Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, etc.). When you go up to bigger towing capacity models, you go up in price. A diesel engine has more power and lasts much longer than a gas engine. A diesel engine adds about 8k to the price.

As we live in a 5th wheel and want to take it places like the Alaska highway, all through the Rockies, etc., towing capacity is a crucial consideration.

I hope I never again have to shell out so much for a vehicle.

The EPA has choked the diesels out with all of their exhaust regulations.
It's causing all sorts of issues with them.
As soon as the warranty is up on my Ford I'm going to delete the exhaust controls from my Powerstroke.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Here's an interesting thought brought by a friend who just bought a house and is selling their old one. They were upset someone offered $20k less than asking. I said take it. It's $20k. I pointed out they were planning on buying a new car which would cost more than $20k. Suck it up and wait and take a bird in hand offer.

I know we quibble about eating out, traveling, spending. But seriously the things that break the budget are car payments (and I have a $500/month one right now) and homes you can't afford. I wanted to point out moving from a home they bought for 1x to a home they just bought for 3x might be a bigger problem but who knows. I'd worry affording a new home payment triple what they used to pay.

[JoeP]

Paid 28k for a Volkswagen SUV, has 14k miles CPO.
Paid 40k for a Jaguar XF, 9k miles
Paid 53k(after Tax credit) for a Tesla Mode 3 Long Rang with Full Self Driving

So far I have 18k miles on the Tesla. I charge the car to 90%(for longevity of the battery) once every 4 days. When I first purchased the car a 1.3 years ago, I would get 278miles@90%. Today it's charging to 281 miles@ 90%(Tesla updated the car and made the battery more efficient via cooling and increased charged miles). Next update will give me even more range via better regen braking and another 5% increase in power(which makes this a total of 10% since I bought the car..which means 30bhp for FREE).

So I have spent 0 dollars on gas(have solar) and 0 dollars on maintenance. I have saved 2k on gas and 400 on oil changes (200 dollars/oil change for luxury performance sedans and 3 dollars for premium gas).

Model Y is suppose to come out a bit sooner than anticipated, volume production summer of 2020 so there's that if you want a CUV type car.

Honestly if I were to buy a new car under 50k, it's going backwards buying any combustion engine. The 2018 Volkswagen 3 row SUV we just bought is just years behind a Tesla. All that auto start stop nonsense plus 8 short gears to save gas while using a 4 cylinder turbo that barely gives you any acceleration..just terrible. My Tesla doesn't need any of that while accelerating to 60 in under 5 seconds while being powered by sunlight. And when I need to "gas up", just plug it in overnight, takes 5 seconds vs finding the local gas station. No more fumes, no more wait time, no more stressing out whose gas is cheaper, and no more spilled gas on my hand. I know I sound like a fanboy but can't be more happy with the purchase.

I like the concept of electric cars, but for our lifestyle, the current situation does not make sense for us.

• We like to go on long trips, sometimes 300 miles. With an IC car, we can stop whenever we want to for fuel. Stopping at any hotel with a quarter tank is no big deal because we can refuel in minutes pretty much anywhere.
• If we get an electric car for commuting purposes, which is very attractive, we'd still need a vehicle for longer trips. It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have a $53 car sit in a garage because it can't do long trips.
• My car cost $15k 5 years ago and I put $40 worth of gas in every 2 weeks. That's about $1000 worth of fuel every year.
• Cars rust quickly in upstate NY due to the tons of salt they put on the roads, so buying anything expensive is financially foolish. Better to spend a more reasonable amount.
• I like to work on my own cars, and electric cars are very unfamiliar. Are parts readily available for the DIY type of person, or will I be locked into a limited number of parts vendors?

So our requirements are: long range, plenty of refueling stations, fast refueling (minutes), low purchase costs, plentiful new/used parts availability. When electric cars can do this, we're all-in. Until then, we'll stick with IC cars.

[disneysteve]

So our requirements are: long range, plenty of refueling stations, fast refueling (minutes), low purchase costs, plentiful new/used parts availability. When electric cars can do this, we're all-in. Until then, we'll stick with IC cars.

In order for e-vehicles to be widely used, the manufacturers need to adopt a standard battery pack that can be quickly and easily swapped out at any gas station anywhere. Running low on juice? Pull in just as you would to fill your tank. An attendant pulls out your battery and drops in a new one and you're on your way.

It can't require specialized charging stations and it can't take 30 minutes or more.

[Petunia 100]

In order for e-vehicles to be widely used, the manufacturers need to adopt a standard battery pack that can be quickly and easily swapped out at any gas station anywhere. Running low on juice? Pull in just as you would to fill your tank. An attendant pulls out your battery and drops in a new one and you're on your way.

It can't require specialized charging stations and it can't take 30 minutes or more.

That's an interesting idea. Like JoeP, I will not even consider an electric vehicle at this time.

[JoeP]

In order for e-vehicles to be widely used, the manufacturers need to adopt a standard battery pack that can be quickly and easily swapped out at any gas station anywhere. Running low on juice? Pull in just as you would to fill your tank. An attendant pulls out your battery and drops in a new one and you're on your way.

It can't require specialized charging stations and it can't take 30 minutes or more.

Kind of like battery powered hand tools. I can swap a battery on my drill and be back in business in a few seconds. Even your phone can be usable in a few minutes when drained.

I'll also add needed support for running out in the middle of nowhere. With my car, someone can bring a 1 gallon jug of fuel and rescue me. The time and cost for this is currently very low. How is this done with electric cars, does someone need to bring a generator? Would a battery swap while pulled over on the shoulder even be feasible due to weight and logistics of installing?

[disneysteve]

Kind of like battery powered hand tools. I can swap a battery on my drill and be back in business in a few seconds. Even your phone can be usable in a few minutes when drained.

Exactly. I have a FuelRod charger for my phone. They sell them at airports, theme parks, etc. I can charge it myself or I can take a run down one to a kiosk, pop it in, and get a freshly charged one in an instant. We need the auto version of that.

[bjl584]

Exactly. I have a FuelRod charger for my phone. They sell them at airports, theme parks, etc. I can charge it myself or I can take a run down one to a kiosk, pop it in, and get a freshly charged one in an instant. We need the auto version of that.

Swapping car batteries might be logistically cumbersome.
Inventing a technology that could charge the battery super fast (say, the same amount of time that it takes to fill a gas tank) might make more sense.
A few quick charge stations along side gasoline pumps at every major gas station, and you would have the infrastructure to support wide use of electric cars.

Whether or not electric cars are better for the environment is another debate entirely, but if you want widespread adoption, then you need a super fast way to recharge them and plentiful charge stations.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

my issue has been cost of electric cars has been substantially more than any IC car. It hasn't been worth investing in. However with it becoming more widespread in the sense that more companies are making cheaper electric cars I think it's worth looking into. I mean i could and still can't justify a $55k tesla model 3. How long will it take to beat a 3 year old camry or accord or if you were really cheap civic/corolla. Also how long would it take to beat even a used electric BMW i3? Even the cheapest tesla model 3 is $39k and with taxes for me that's around $43k. People who like cars buy them.

Friends who want an electric car usually buy a leaf, bmw i3, volt/bolt, etc. DH's 2 coworkers bought a bmw i3 and Kia niro. BMW used for $12k and Kia new for like $20k. So even then how do you beat the bmw with the tesla? That's a lot of $$$ that you have to make up for an electric car. And if you say "it's self-driving!" The response is then it's not $39k base price before taxes and fees. So you are starting at a higher price point for a better car yes, but it's a lot more money to get the longer range, self driving, etc. Or a lot of friends have prius that they bought and kept forever.

DH and I keep toying with it. I'm debating the Y but I think it's just really going to be $60k and i'm not sure i can spend that versus looking even at other electric cars.

[kork13]

OOOOOOOOO!!!!! OOOHHHH!!! I KNOW!!!! You should get a Tesla CyberTruck!!

::shudder::

Whatever visual designer created that monstrosity should be drug into an alley, shot, and his corpse towed behind said vehicle.

[bjl584]

OOOOOOOOO!!!!! OOOHHHH!!! I KNOW!!!! You should get a Tesla CyberTruck!!

::shudder::

Whatever visual designer created that monstrosity should be drug into an alley, shot, and his corpse towed behind said vehicle.

I saw that.
It's a little crazy looking.
Sort of like a Honda Ridgeline from the future.
Apparently the inspiration came from Bladerunner.

Ford and GM are happy I'm sure.
I'm not sure how well an electric truck would do once you start trying to tow and haul heavy payloads with it.
I'll keep my diesel.....

[kork13]

Apparently the inspiration came from Bladerunner.

I suppose I could believe it, though I have no idea why they'd do such a thing. It would at least explain the release date -- Blade Runner was set in November 2019.

[terri77]

My last car I paid about $24k & that’s about as much as I would want to pay for my next car.