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Oh yeah any interruption in Tesla's notoriously smooth repair process would totally cripple the state for sure. What with all the critical services reliant on ... checks notes ... luxury electric sports cars.


I was with you until that last bit. Its not fair to describe Tesla's buyers as only buyers of "luxury electric sports cars" at this point.


You still have to be at least upper middle class to afford the cheapest Tesla car.

And I suspect their other products (power wall), etc, are more upper middle class, unless there are new apartment communities using it.


So basically it is the car that a lot of doctors and nurses drive? They seem like they'd be pretty important now.


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Whether or not a Model 3 counts as a luxury car is debatable.

And I say this as a Model 3 owner. It's a nice car for sure, but I personally wouldn't call it a luxury car.


Yeah, I've had this discussion before. I'm not convinced that its any worse than a base 3 series, but I'm also not convinced that a base 3 series is a luxury car.

Sure, its a premium with premium perforance, but its not "luxurious". Conversely, you can get more "luxurious" cars with worse performance for about the same money.

Want luxury and premium performance? That's another 10k (at least) with most brands and Tesla doesn't really offer a car with both at all, IMO.


I think of it this way...

Outside of performance, what features does my Model 3 have that my Subaru BRZ didn't?

Heated seats are pretty standard these days. My TM3 has heated seats in the rear. The TM3 has a better entertainment unit for sure, but I could have certainly replaced the head unit in my BRZ if I wanted navigation and Spotify integration. There's self-driving features, but all Subaru's these days except the BRZ have lane-keeping and TACC, which makes it on par with the AP I have, since I didn't pay for FSD. My BRZ even had dual-zone automatic climate controls!

The only things I can think of that my Model 3 has that my BRZ didn't are the automatic wipers, the a power passenger seat, and profiles for the power driver seat.

What features would the TM3 need to be considered a luxury vehicle? I can think of a few things it doesn't have.

- Heated steering wheel

- Entertainment screens built into the back of the front seats

- Air suspension

- Higher quality paint


The Model 3 starts at $35k.[1]

That makes it cheaper[2] than a Honda Civic ($36.3), Volvo S50 ($36), and a BMW 2-series ($35.3).

Are they luxury cars?

[1] Please don't say you can't actually buy one for that, it has been proven many, many times that you can, you just have to call Tesla.

[2] https://www.motortrend.com/price/30-40k/


A Civic starts at under $21k per https://automobiles.honda.com/civic-sedan. It's Motor Trend's fault, not yours, but that must be the most decked out Civic possible at that price point. I actually went through the "Build" option for the 2020 Civic Sedan Touring CVT and could not get it above $32k, so I can't explain the $36k figure.


When people are talking about a $36K Civic, they're talking about the Civic Type-R, which starts at $37K and goes up to $44K.


Definitely wouldn't call them that. Maybe "luxury-priced electric cars".




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