Rationalizing a new car...

[Sundance]

Just get your wife the Tesla if that’s what she wants imo

[Dont_know_mind]

The depreciation on cars : the 50k Tesla will probably be worth 5k in 10 years.
I am not a car guy, I find it stressful having a new, expensive car that I have to worry about scratching.
I enjoy the car most around 3 years old. But I don't want the reliability hassles of buying used ones.
If it was me, I would buy 2 new, mid price range, Japanese cars for 30k each. Currently I drive a 3 year old 30k Japanese car...which I am very happy with, having owned a not very reliable european one prior to that.

On 800k-1M/year, if you keep that up, you and your partner have a shot at 10M NW in 15 years if you save at a high rate and invest reasonably.
We are mid career. Our income averaged around 900k/year over the last 13 years.
In that time, our total income was about 12M, we saved 5M, or averaged 380k savings per year. Before we had kids, we probably spent around 90k/year. Now we spend around 250k/year and save about 250k/year. My work income peaked about 8-10 years out and I'm on the downward part of the hill. The investment returns are more than our savings per year now.

Probably more important than car choice is the investments and lifestyle inflation early on.

Although the income is high, it sounds like you are still early in your career.
What happened to the idea of living like a resident for a few years ?

[Nysoz]

I can't believe I found someone cheaper than me. Definitely get her the model 3. Don't get yourself a different new car in the meantime because once you drive the tesla you won't want to drive anything else. As long as you can charge at home or at work, it's amazing.

If you're able to, look into inventory deals now. Tesla is doing a typical end of quarter push to empty out showrooms and such to try to beat estimates. You can get some pretty decent deals if you call and ask your local showroom. Someone posted about a 2019 model s p100d with 20 miles for like $68k

Preferably get 2 teslas before june 30, preferably performance models with fsd to help out the stock price :-p

[jfoxcpacfp]

For a couple hundred bucks, I recently recharged the AC on my beater after several years of not having it; the "upgrade" is almost orgasmic.

Can't quit laughing.

[EM-CCM MD]

Buy her the dang Tesla, buy yourself something nice and lightly used and don’t set up these false questions. There are 100 possibilities, not 2 or 3.

[Kamban]

Free charging at our apartment and all the hospitals we work at is a (small) bonus!

I don't know why many make a huge deal out of free charging. Availability of ability to charge - yes. Free charging - No.
I have kept records of my kWh consumed and with a electricity price of 12 cents per Kwh, it costs me just $42 to drive the 1500 miles per month, which was my average mileage pre COVID. That costs less than a fill up of a single tank for a SUV which might last just a week or so. Free charging is just a small perk but would have no meaningful financial impact on anyone's savings

[EM-CCM MD]

I don't know why many make a huge deal out of free charging. Availability of ability to charge - yes. Free charging - No.
I have kept records of my kWh consumed and with a electricity price of 12 cents per Kwh, it costs me just $42 to drive the 1500 miles per month, which was my average mileage pre COVID. That costs less than a fill up of a single tank for a SUV which might last just a week or so. Free charging is just a small perk but would have no meaningful financial impact on anyone's savings

Eeesh. That’s a lot of driving. I put fewer than 8k miles on my car a year, less now that I’m 9 minutes from the hospital.

[hightower]

The depreciation on cars : the 50k Tesla will probably be worth 5k in 10 years.
I am not a car guy, I find it stressful having a new, expensive car that I have to worry about scratching.

If we were talking about any other luxury car brand, I'd totally agree with you. BUT, with Tesla, the reality is these cars hold their values like none other. Even heavily used cars sell for barely any discount at all. In addition, the wrecked/totaled ones go for ridiculous sums as well because people use the components to build custom EV conversions of cars such as this....beautiful 1949 Mercury

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVNb6ywH000&t=156s

[Kamban]

Eeesh. That’s a lot of driving. I put fewer than 8k miles on my car a year, less now that I’m 9 minutes from the hospital.

Maybe you don't have a kid that goes to school far away. Mine has chosen a school 16 miles from home and taking her daily there, and then on to my work place, is 30 miles one way. Same on return home. Other errands like checking on the house we were building and Costco trips added to the mileage. I have not heard of any physician's kid taking public school bus around here. Certainly not those in middle and high schools. They have parent drop off and pick ups, especially with all those after school clubs they participate in.

[EM-CCM MD]

Maybe you don't have a kid that goes to school far away. Mine has chosen a school 16 miles from home and taking her daily there, and then on to my work place, is 30 miles one way. Same on return home. Other errands like checking on the house we were building and Costco trips added to the mileage. I have not heard of any physician's kid taking public school bus around here. Certainly not those in middle and high schools. They have parent drop off and pick ups, especially with all those after school clubs they participate in.

I just bought a house where my little ones can walk to school (when they are school aged). I took the bus.

[Kamban]

I just bought a house where my little ones can walk to school (when they are school aged). I took the bus.

When they do go to the school, report back if they do indeed walk to the school. With the paranoia of kidnapping and risk for MVA, there is no way my wife would even have allowed me to think about any walk to school by my kid.

And as for you taking the bus, your kids might be enrolled in so many after school activities that they might have to be brought home by car. The winding bus trips here takes 2-3 hours + to make the trip back home. And if you talk about you taking the bus when you were that age, they might reply back that you lived in ancient times when there was no internet or smart phones too and why do you need them now when you can still use pen and paper, a dictionary and a fixed line corded phone and all those things of your youth.

Good luck with that walk and bus rides. :-)

[EM-CCM MD]

When they do go to the school, report back if they do indeed walk to the school. With the paranoia of kidnapping and risk for MVA, there is no way my wife would even have allowed me to think about any walk to school by my kid.

And as for you taking the bus, your kids might be enrolled in so many after school activities that they might have to be brought home by car. The winding bus trips here takes 2-3 hours + to make the trip back home. And if you talk about you taking the bus when you were that age, they might reply back that you lived in ancient times when there was no internet or smart phones too and why do you need them now when you can still use pen and paper, a dictionary and a fixed line corded phone and all those things of your youth.

Good luck with that walk and bus rides. :-)

They won’t ride the bus, just saying I did. And yes, they will walk, we can see the school from my front porch. All the kids walk around here, that’s a big part of why we moved here. The concern of abduction is largely paranoia, as you said, not grounded in logic.

I was just saying that you drive a lot, that’s all. There’s pretty clear data suggesting overall happiness with work deteriorates with long commutes, so I moved somewhere that right by the hospital, grocery store and schools. Only thing I have to drive more than 10 mins for is church.

[ginmqi]

I am all about a reliable Japanese car. The one I'm really holding out for is the rav4 prime PHEV which comes out later this year, which is why I was hoping to go the beater route for myself for a couple years just to make sure the kinks are worked out of the new model.

The RAV4 Prime is going to sell like hot cakes and it is an incredibly practical vehicle that gives you very usable EV-only miles without the range anxiety.

You need to run, not walk, to your nearest Toyota dealer and see if they are still allowing you to be on a waitlist. Toyota just announced they have stopped taking some pre-orders due to extremely high demand and not enough supply to produce the cars needed. I think the USA is only getting a few thousand this calendar year and 2021 will likely be not as easy to get one due to production issues.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's 2022 when it is more widely available.

Oh and to respond to your OP, get a 2nd opinion on the $1700 AC fix. Dealers/big repair centers are notorious for quoting huge amounts for fixes that may not need that much repairs.

My 2006 Acura TL had slightly warmer AC few years ago and I filled it with freon and the AC has been nice and cool ever since...I suspect a slow leak that I'm sure some shops would've quoted me over $1000 to fix...but a $50 "temp" solution to the problem is lasting me couple years now and a much better value.