‘Electric Altimas’: Man says Teslas are the ‘new Nissan Altima, for ‘low-income individuals’ after seeing depreciation prices

If you think owning a Tesla is a status symbol and puts you into a particular upper echelon of society, then you may not like what TikTok user Parris Devon (@parris.devon) has to say.

The popular TikToker, who has 50,000 followers, said that due to the electric vehicle's depreciation rate, they may be the "new Nissan Altimas."

While pretty much every financial analyst will tell you that purchasing a new car is almost always an awful investment—new cars will depreciate in value up to 20% the first year that they are purchased—there are some brands that lose less of their value throughout time than others. Toyotas, for instance, have some of the lowest depreciation rates, and this is due to the Japanese auto manufacturers' legendary reliability status.

Devon says that this isn't the case for Tesla, however.

"Teslas are depreciating so bad. They might become the new Nissan Altima. If you guys haven't been noticing lately, you can get Tesla Model 3 with only 24,000 miles for around $27,000-$26,000," Devon says, showing online listings for used Teslas. "Looking over here, you have one with one 19,000 miles on it for $26K. That is absolutely insane. And mind you, those are only the 2023 Models."

Devon, who has gained a huge following for his car content, gives some background on why used Teslas are getting more and more attainable to the average car buyer.

"In January, Elon Musk dropped the prices of the Teslas about 20%—that's because there are so much more EVs out there on the market," he says. "They're not the only major EV company anymore. So for Tesla to be able to make profits and money still, they had to cut their prices down, so they can be more competitive amongst the other EV companies."

"Now there's no more COVID, and there's no more chip shortage. Brand-new cars with no mileage are coming in at a discounted rate, meaning you can buy a brand new car for cheaper leaving all the used cars to sit on the market longer, causing them to be cheaper," he adds.

Devon proposes a plan for how to get these used Tesla Model 3 cars sold. "I think the government should take Tesla with all these cheaper prices, give huge tax breaks to individuals who live in lower income housing, give them two years of free charging, whether it's through Electrify America or it's through like Tesla. ... Those things will sell like hot cakes and replace the Nissan Altima. Because they got the car for cheaper, and they don't have to pay for gas. Then they can get around go to their job and save up money to get out of section 8," he suggests.

@parris.devon #car #cars #carsoftiktok #bmw #bmwlife #bmwm #parrisdev #devonparris #cartok #cartiktok #carguy ♬ midnight vice city - WisdomBeatz

It's not difficult to imagine how the aforementioned suggestion might ultimately backfire. There are certainly folks who purchase Tesla vehicles because they feel as if it allows them access to an exclusive club. Take this one Tesla driver, for example, who called the police on a Rivian driver (an equally priced EV) for using a Tesla supercharger station, even though Musk's company has opened up Tesla supercharger access for some non-Tesla electric vehicles.

Commenters who responded to Devon's video seemed to agree with his Telsa-Altima sentiment. "They are basically electric Altimas, regular traffic," one person remarked.

Another said that folks should ultimately stay away from them due to the high cost of a battery replacement should it ever go dead. "Don’t buy em, they depreciate bc people realize how much it is to get a battery replaced," they warned, with another echoing, "Yea cause the batteries aren't cheap to replace."

EVs are relatively more costly to repair than other vehicles, and owners can typically only bring them to Tesla dealerships to get them fixed, this can put drivers in potentially expensive and frustrating predicaments should their cars ever need to be serviced.

But, according to Cars.com, there are 4,046 used Tesla Model 3's for sale across the U.S. right now. If you're looking for a Tesla, and, depending on where you live in the country (or you're willing to travel to), you might be able to nab yourself a pretty good deal on a used one that's still under warranty.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Tesla via email and Devon via Instagram direct message for further comment.

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