this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
198 points (99.5% liked)
Electric Vehicles
2995 readers
409 users here now
Overview:
Electric Vehicles are a key part of our tomorrow and how we get there. If we can get all the fossil fuel vehicles off our roads, out of our seas and out of our skies, we'll have a much better environment. This community is where we discuss the various different vehicles and news stories regarding electric transportation.
Related communities:
- !automotive@discuss.tchncs.de
- !avs@futurology.today
- !byd@lemmy.world
- !ebike@lemm.ee
- !energy@slrpnk.net
- !geely@lemmy.world
- !micromobility@lemmy.world
- !polestar@lemmy.ca
- !rivian@lemmy.zip
- !teslamotors@lemmy.zip
- !xiaomi@lemdro.id
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Unfortunately, you can't ignore depreciation. It's rarely possible to actually drive a car into the dirt, as they can last for hundreds of thousands of miles if properly maintained.
Even if you intend to drive the car into the ground, you usually can't. Every time you get on the road it's a roll of the dice. Over enough time, eventually you roll snake eyes. You can be the best driver in the world, you can't beat physics. If someone pulls out of a parking lot right in front of you, you're going to crash. You can't skill your way out of minimum stopping distance.
And this happens, depreciation matters regardless of your choices. The insurance company is going to offer you a settlement based on the depreciated value of the vehicle. Sure, in theory you could say, "well, they gave me the value of a 10 year old car, so I'm just going to buy another copy of the same car I just totaled!" But that rarely works in practice. Once they get that old, you really have to worry if the old owner took care of it properly or not. Driving a car into the dirt works well when you can be the original owner and know that the maintenance has been kept up with.
All cars get driven to the ground. You save money by being the only owner, and not changing car every 3 years. In that case, depreciation is irrelevant. Your insurance case is far from being average.
I said I'd drive my first car until the wheels fell off.
Well, one day it actually did, coming around a bend on a highway. Fortunately there weren't many other people driving out at the time. I ended up flipping it over on the embankment, single-car collision.
I stayed true to my word. Never fucking said it about another car since.
Tell that to my 40 year old daily driver. Just fix your stuff....
Again. you can only do so much, especially if we're talking about buying a new vehicle today and driving that into the ground. Sure, you can keep things maintained. But even if you're the world's most skilled driver, you can't control other people.
Just this last year we lost a 15 year old Corolla. We had been planning to drive it into the dirt. Driving down a side street, maybe 30 mph. Some person doesn't look both ways properly and pulls out right in front of us from a parking lot. No time to stop. Insurance declared it a total loss. Not worth fixing. Would cost more to repair than the thing is worth.