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To many variables to be able to make a blanket statement. Are you in a cheap gas state or a cheap electricity state? Are you in a state that has big differences in car insurance? Are you going to charge at home on Level 2 or are you using Superchargers mostly? You'll save money on oil changes by driving the Tesla, but you'll pay more in tires every 5(?) years simply because the Model 3 has bigger, more expensive tires. Are you buying a RWD Model 3 or an AWD Model 3? Are you buying the standard Corolla or the hybrid? My bet is that if you're in a situation that makes an EV make more sense (cheap electricity to charge at home) and you drive a lot of miles, the savings on gas wipes out the difference in insurance pretty quickly It's a full pros-cons spreadsheet. I asked Claude to calculate it for us. So it looks like as long as the difference in insurance is less than $900 a year, the Model 3 wins. Personally, even though I loath Tesla, I would probably pick the Model-3 over the Corolla for my use-case scenario just to have the self-driving feature. Having a less exhausting journey for myself is helpful being a consultant. That wouldn't necessarily be something I can quantify in a spreadsheet. My travels, currently, are also through mountainous areas that kill fuel economy in my gassers but could be advantageous for an EV for regen. It's a weird "uphill both ways" scenario that I could use to my charging advantage if I was careful. (I'm tempted to rent a Tesla just to try it now)

I agree, which is why I said they'd be "similar". But I guess what kind of savings over 15 years would the Model 3 net you? What're you thinking? I also expect the Model 3 to have overall savings, but 15 years is a long time and if it only ends up like 2k in savings, that's pretty negligible for that period of time.

Eh, I think the Tesla would still end up being cheaper, but pretty much any other EV would be cheaper still due to the Tesla insurance issue. I think comparing an Ioniq 6 to a nicely equipped Sonata 2.5T is a closer match and likely similar insurance rates. the BMW i4 v BMW 440i is one where the performance gets pretty close and the price difference is a rounding error. In the end the i4 will be cheaper because of fuel economy and not needing premium gas. Ionic 9 v. Tahoe is another as long as you're not trying to tow 9,000 lbs and it is just doing family hauler duty, the pricing between the two models is very close.

Yep, I didn't even mention the purchase price difference. I'd think those two TOTAL COSTS over 15 years would actually be pretty similar when you factor in price and insurance. Agreed, that it wasn't fair to either, just in different ways.

Interesting read Most Americans have no idea how close we just came to financial chaos

Yeah, that wasn’t a very good comparison and it wasn’t fair to either the Tesla or the Corolla, just in different ways. A Corolla really isn’t a market equivalent to a model 3. A more fair comparison would be something like a Cadillac CT4 or a Buick Regal if it was still made.

Its very well explained here.

I had an old Neighbor from the 80s who was a labor negotiator there. Interesting from an engineering viewpoint.

His birthday is in the vicinity of or right on that of a few people I know. A certain light bulb went on as I was responding to his post. Much like I remember engine displacements and the weird names GM used to assign to car colors, I often remember birthdays. I don't even try. I just do. I'm not sure if there's a term for that. However, I CANNOT tell you what day of the week a day fell on. That one is weird. I knew one person who could. He was "different."