Toyota’s cars are boring, because they want them to be. They are very capable of designing fun, engaging cars (IS-F, LFA, etc) however, they want to sell the most cars. Producing vanilla, reliable cars is the way to do that.
by the time these are out ~5 years the reliability should be known. Also if they depreciate anything like other 100k ish cars ~5 years old will be earliest I could justify the cost.
I could definitely see buying one if reliability remains good and resale isn’t sky high, say $50k or so
Resale will probably stay high for a while due to low production numbers and high demand/hype. People were saying the same thing about the GTR when they came out, what, 5/6 years ago? They’re still pretty expensive as far as I know.
I’d be surprised if the brakes, bearings and suspension bushings wear at a significantly higher rate similar products on similar cars. Wouldnt Tesla be buying the same products that Cadillac or BMW are using or at least similar? those are not the parts that Tesla is re-engineering anyways unless i’m wrong.
The Model S has way fewer substitutes than gas powered cars and Tesla has far less production capacity. I would imagine that keeping residuals high would be pretty easy to do as a result. residuals are susceptible to significant influence from the OE afterall.
Such a cool car. There is a white Model S driving around WNY. Wonder how his did this past winter?
Owner is a pretty cool guy. Talked to him for a good 15min last fall
The IS-F was dropped because it was a flop and the LFA took 10 years and didn’t meet expectations. For the price, they just didn’t demonstrate why people should buy it over a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Their other “fun” cars have been limited to things like MR2’s and Celicas that looked sporty but did their 0-60 with a calendar. They have the appliance thing down for sure but I don’t think they’ve ever done fun-to-drive well.
When I cross-shopped a few years ago and drove them all, I had the IS-F in 4th place behind the CTS-V, M, and AMG.
Supra?
I can’t wait to order my new Tesla S from Newegg…
but in all seriousness I would be worried about electrical parts failing due to our finely salted roads. There are electric motors in this car and regenerative braking systems that could fail and cost alot more than a simple CV joint to be replaced. This cars is not using the KISS method. I am not opposed to this technology however I am not ready to sign off and put it in the driveway yet until it proves itself to be as reliable as the horse and buggy
if you see the skeletonized chassis with all the moving parts on the dealer floor there are infinity-less parts to fail as compared to gas-powered cars.
This is true but Toyota should have waited longer. BMW M and Merc AMG among others take years to establish themselves. Toyota should not have expected their IS-F line to just take off immediately.
I drove an IS350 F-sport in Edmonton a couple weeks ago, a good friend bought it. To me the Lexus IS-F products could easily establish themselves as the best option for buyers in the segment with M3, C63 AMG, S5 / RS4 by proving to be the most fuel efficient, the highest quality and the highest residual values (things Toyota is good at) if they kept at the category for a couple generations. At this price point those factors end up being a $XX,000 value.
In fact, i would want them to do that so that the BMW, Merc, Audi stuff gets more reliable. Shit goes wrong on these cars while they’re in warranty that just doesn’t fail on a toyota. Any accountant or lawyer or person of reason who works their way into this part of the market would seriously have to consider an established Lexus product if they can keep the quality up.
The Lexus dealer that sold the car to my buddy; the techs there complain they cant make full 40 hour work weeks because all they do is oil changes and brake jobs… nothing breaks. whereas when he shopped the C63 AMG the techs told him straight up to stay away if he couldnt handle $7k a year in running costs after 2 years.
Wow, how did I forget about the Supra…they had a good thing going there for being 20 years ago. The 90’s MR2’s were pretty solid too. Shame they abandoned that line of thinking and went purely appliances.
I can’t believe Infiniti didn’t step up with a performance line years ago. Especially having such a great starting platform to work with and the GTR parts bin to raid.
About a month ago I spent some time researching ZF’s 8 and 9 speed transmissions. I think about all the work that went into the development of these things. Or the evolutions in PDK with fraction of a second shifting. They’re amazing examples of engineering. But this car makes them all pointless because it has no need for a transmission. It always gives you the maximum power traction will allow regardless of speed.
I think about all the things I purchased to build my Z to where it is now. Choosing turbos, injectors, intercoolers, oil feed lines, spark plugs, exhaust, etc. This car needs none of that. It has none of that.
lol, all I’m saying is that anyone who was on the fence about Tesla should Reading Rainbow this shit.
There are at least 3 of them downtown where I live. Red, white and black. I’ve posted in the sightings thread. I’ve seen them all winter so who knows.
http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/tesla-resale-value-guarantee.pdf?v20131001
I searched on electric car mods a while back and found nothing. After reading this thread I am glad to see some companies starting to mod. While I am not an electrical engineer I would think almost any electric car could be made much quicker although the range may go to 4.7 miles. Lol
One more thought: When will someone mass produce a swap? You could have any car you desire AND have it be electric.
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This is a great little video… 
There are places that will retrofit your existing car to electric, but the execution won’t be nearly as good.
I think there’s room with these platforms for a return to coach-building where you start with the Model-S battery & motor and build out your own car from there.
Thats a good idea that I would be willing to finance… Anyone want to open a custom shop?
Ultima GTR anyone?
There are a handful of these in buffalo, I saw 3 different ones in the span of a few hours this past winter
Hate all you like, but this is the future of transportation
I want mine to be a mac - F windows.
I don’t want my car getting viruses or needing to reboot it when I’m on the highway.
i want mine to run on BB7 so i can just pull the battery out and reboot it when it crashes.
Good read.