I wouldn't spend more than $40k on a car under any circumstances, period. I just don't drive cars of any kind for any reason often enough to justify it. Even when I did I never spent that much, inflation adjusted or not, to buy a car.

I don't have any faith in or desire for any manufacturer's autonomous driving features. I'm brand-agnostic and don't care if a car looks good (my current car's a 10-year-old Honda Fit). I tend to have more canine passengers on car rides than human, so rear seating is irrelevant (they're always folded down) and cabin luxury is futile (everything's covered in dog hair).

I'm a homeowner with my own garage in a moderate-sized city, a low-milage driver with good transit access in a relatively mild climate, and I have a vet and grocery within walking distance, so the car's mostly used for longer-distance dog-moving, cargo-moving, road trips, or to avoid rain. My longest round-trips are under 120 miles and decreasingly frequent, so range isn't an issue. Most of my round trips are under 40 miles.

Also, EV tech for cars seems to be too immature still to expect the same lifespan and reliability that I've gotten, and will probably continue to get, from the Fit. I simply don't see myself driving an EV built today for 10 years at <$400/year total maintenance cost like I've pulled off with the Fit. Even my total gas spend on the Fit has been <$700/year over its lifetime, and probably <$400/year over the last two years.

So for me to even consider a Tesla, it absolutely must:

- cost less than $30k; my Fit was $17k ($22k inflation-adjusted) new off the lot

- have physical controls for convenience options

- have easy entry/exit for my older dogs, particularly a low chassis and tall rear hatchback door

- have the same or better cargo capacity (57 ft3) as the Fit

- match or exceed competitors (or the already-10-year-old Fit!) on TCO over the next 10 years, assuming I continue to drive <4,000 miles/year

Even if this hypothetical Tesla pulls all of that off, it also has to beat my other options:

- Change nothing. Keep driving the Fit until it falls apart.

So far, inertia's been winning. Since the pandemic my total driving's dropped to under 4,000 miles/year and continues to drop. Gas prices, even at their worst earlier this year, never caused me to break a sweat. Even with its age the Fit is still in great shape thanks to the low milage, still gets 28/40mpg, and still has an utterly ridiculous resale value of $10-$17k locally thanks in part to Honda no longer selling them in the US in favor of god damned crossovers.

- Stop owning a car altogether. Sell the Fit and buy an ebike for shorter trips, a motorcycle for longer trips, rideshare when those or public transit won't work, rent a truck to move large cargo, and rent a pet-friendly RV for vacations and road-trips.

The money I'd save each month from switching from car to motorcycle insurance would cover extra delivery costs and rideshares. I already have a manual road bike, motorcycle license endorsement, and the gear for all-weather biking, and live in a relatively bike-friendly city. Buying both a cargo ebike and motorcycle would cost the same or less than any EV I'd buy. ($2-5k for the ebike, $12-20k for a Zero S or SR; hypothetically possible to sell the Fit, buy them, and come out net-zero.) I'd have lower total maintenance costs right up to the point where I fall off of either of them and have to deal with the US healthcare system, something I'd have to deal with anyway if I crashed my manual bike (or Fit, tbqh). I'd also get more exercise and outdoor time, and could convert more of my garage to a workshop/office.

- Buy a Chevy Volt EV 1LT, which I can literally buy today for $26,890. It has physical convenience controls, a low chassis with easy entry/exit for my older dogs, 57 ft3 rear cargo capacity, and about the same chance of randomly catching fire or otherwise failing for EV-specific reasons over the next 10 years. As a bonus, it's almost as ugly and boring as the Fit.