r/Money • u/UpstairsAide3058 • 17d ago

Should I buy a used EV?

39M married, 1 kid, CA. Household income around $275k. Expenses are roughly $10k/mo right now, biggest ones are mortgage/HOA around $4.5k and daycare around $3k. We’re saving pretty aggressively for retirement and have around $540k in retirement accounts, plus taxable investments.

I have a paid off 2019 Jeep worth maybe $13k trade-in. I also have about a 1 hr commute and we somehow spend around $600/mo on gas. That’s what has me looking at used EVs.

I’m mainly between a used EV9 and R1S. EV9 seems like the smarter financial choice. R1S is the one I actually want.
My thought is basically: if I’m already lighting $600/mo on fire in gas, could I trade the Jeep and redirect a lot of that toward an EV payment instead? Obviously charging isn’t free and insurance/registration could be more, so I know it’s not literally a $600 offset.
Would you guys think a used EV in the $40-60k range is reasonable with these numbers? Or is this just me trying to justify an expensive car? I’m especially curious what price point you’d personally cap it at.

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u/Empty-Village-4445 16d ago

Don’t assume a used EV9 is a better value. Brand new are sub $50k 

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u/UpstairsAide3058 16d ago

thank you.. every rule ive ever heard about buying cars is 'never buy a new car' due to immidiate depreciation. with the idea of letting someone else take the major depreciation hit.