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1st World Problems?

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I have supercharged maybe ten times total. It is fast, convenient and very free. I haven't looked at my battery, but am fairly certain it is an A pack. I have never noticed any decreased pleasure in the supercharging experience, and don't feel the need to check my battery in hopes I might avoid unnecessary disappointment.
 
Since you asked... my March 2013 car came with an A-pack while I know of several February 2013 cars (i.e. before mine) that came with B-packs.

The B rollout was even more staggered than that. I picked up mine in December 2012 with a "B" pack and have since verified that it does indeed charge at the faster rate. I understand the sense of disappointment attached to missing out on ongoing improvements. Communication here could certainly be improved, but I think it only rises to an actionable level in those rare cases where Tesla didn't deliver what was promised at the time the vehicle configuration was confirmed and locked in. Beyond that, I'd rather Tesla continued to push the envelope and make the best car they can. That way my next Tesla is guaranteed to be absolutely amazing.

I'm just waiting for the inevitable outcry when new vehicles arrive with better connectivity and touchscreen performance than the current 3G + Tegra 2 chipset level. I suspect that's going to happen with the Model X rollout and seems certain to show up in the Model S in a similar timeframe.
 
The B rollout was even more staggered than that. I picked up mine in December 2012 with a "B" pack and have since verified that it does indeed charge at the faster rate.

Is your car a Performance model by any chance? Those people I know who got B-packs before my car came with it's A were all Performance models (mine is a non-Performance version). I wonder if Tesla prioritized the P cars for the early B-packs for some reason??? If so, I wonder what that reason might be?
 
Is your car a Performance model by any chance? Those people I know who got B-packs before my car came with it's A were all Performance models (mine is a non-Performance version). I wonder if Tesla prioritized the P cars for the early B-packs for some reason??? If so, I wonder what that reason might be?

I think we tried to track this but came to no conclusion as there were some random standards with B packs too.
 
Is your car a Performance model by any chance?

It is not. It's a standard 85 delivered when they were trying to get as many California cars as possible into Q4 for whatever reason. We had originally been told to expect it in March the next year, but we had ordered it while living in Washington and when we told them we had moved to California it mysteriously showed up months ahead of time. They called to say we could pick it up on December 26th, making for a nice late Christmas present that year.
 
It is not. It's a standard 85 delivered when they were trying to get as many California cars as possible into Q4 for whatever reason. We had originally been told to expect it in March the next year, but we had ordered it while living in Washington and when we told them we had moved to California it mysteriously showed up months ahead of time. They called to say we could pick it up on December 26th, making for a nice late Christmas present that year.


I got mine at the end of Feb/2013 and I got an A pack. Wonder if I got one of the last of the A packs. anyway, I'm just waiting for it to fail any day now so i can get a B pack. I can only hope.

Many of you mentioned here that you would not trade your current models for the newer one if it meant you had to wait. Had I known what improvements were coming only 1.5 to 2 years from my purchase date, I would have waited. Except, I had no idea, so I can't blame Tesla. Many of us are still used to traditional upgrade cycles (every 3-4 years with refresh), where you can expect when the newer models will come with changes. It'll take time for people to get used to Tesla upgrade system. Or maybe they can batch certain hardware upgrades by model year but constantly do the software upgrades as they currently do.

Just my 2 cents
 
I got mine at the end of Feb/2013 and I got an A pack. Wonder if I got one of the last of the A packs. anyway, I'm just waiting for it to fail any day now so i can get a B pack. I can only hope.

Well, I got my A-Pack in March, so I've got you beat there. For me, the slight difference in Supercharging capability is a minor inconvenience, but I have lost just under 10% of my capacity at about 35,000 miles. I've tried all the "tricks" (Range Charge / deplete a few times; charge regularly to 90% etc.) and only recovered 3 miles.

Had I known what improvements were coming only 1.5 to 2 years from my purchase date, I would have waited. Except, I had no idea, so I can't blame Tesla. Many of us are still used to traditional upgrade cycles (every 3-4 years with refresh), where you can expect when the newer models will come with changes. It'll take time for people to get used to Tesla upgrade system.

Yeah, I was far enough away from any significant upgrades that I am not as bothered as some over this. There will always be "the next best thing" and at some point you just have to pull the trigger.

I've been thinking a lot about Tesla's continuum of improvements vs. the traditional model year changes. I've seen a lot of the early adopters and Tesla enthusiast (a group in which I include myself) kind of defending Tesla's approach, but I really think they will have to deal with this as their cars move beyond the enthusiasts and in to the mainstream. The purchase of a car, not to mention an expensive car, is a big deal for a lot of folks, and to have just missed out on an unannounced improvement really can be a bitter pill to swallow. It's different when you buy a 2014 car mid-year, then the even better 2015's come out. You kind of expect that. Even if Tesla eschews the traditional model year approach, it might be wise for them to consider something like the Apple philosophy where everyone "knows" the new iPhone will be announced in September. Keep doing the software updates that everyone can benefit from, but save the big hardware stuff for a once a year announcement at a time when people are expecting it. If they don't do something like this, the mainstream Model 3 buyers are going to be really confused.
 
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With the hated dealership system there is an inventory of cars; often the current year's and next year's are both offered: One with a "Huge Blow-out Discount" and one "All New For 21XX" available for consideration. The buyer does have a choice there, with the improvements demonstrated of course by a salesperson. Until Tesla gets an inventory built up - may it never happen - we will take what we can get.
The arrival of Tesla, the world's first successful electric car, is so like the early days of Volkswagen where there was a waiting list and prices controlled by the seller.
 
...but I really think they will have to deal with this as their cars move beyond the enthusiasts and in to the mainstream. The purchase of a car, not to mention and expensive car, is a big deal for a lot of folks, and to have just missed out on an unannounced improvement really can be a bitter pill to swallow. It's different when you buy a 2014 car mid-year, then the even better 2015's come out. You kind of expect that.

I think this is the issue is at the heart of what we are currently seeing. Tesla is starting to sell into non-enthusiasts and they are not as forgiving as we early adopters have been.
 
Is your car a Performance model by any chance? Those people I know who got B-packs before my car came with it's A were all Performance models (mine is a non-Performance version). I wonder if Tesla prioritized the P cars for the early B-packs for some reason??? If so, I wonder what that reason might be?
Mine is not a performance and it came with a B pack.
 
Tesla is starting to sell into non-enthusiasts and they are not as forgiving as we early adopters have been.

Doing what your customers think they want is rarely a sound strategy for doing more than merely coasting. There's a lot more historical precedent for success when a company builds something that upsets a lot of apple carts but proves to be irresistible, often counter to conventional wisdom. People complain all the time about the pace at which new hardware and software is released by some of the most successful companies in the world.
 
Doing what your customers think they want is rarely a sound strategy for doing more than merely coasting. There's a lot more historical precedent for success when a company builds something that upsets a lot of apple carts but proves to be irresistible, often counter to conventional wisdom. People complain all the time about the pace at which new hardware and software is released by some of the most successful companies in the world.

As long as Tesla is counting on their customers to be their advertising they have to try to do things that don't anger them. I don't have an answer to what they should or shouldn't be doing different, none of us do, I just think that they would be foolish to ignore the current stink that has been raised by these new customers.
 
It would cost me over $10,000 more to get the P85 configuration that I bought in August of 2013. And yes, for that additional $10k I would have received autopilot function. In a parallel world where I was ordering today and prices were the same as 15 months ago, but the autopilot suite cost $10k extra, I would never pay such a premium for that feature. If I were to sell my existing car, I'd lose the depreciation PLUS would have to pay another $10k extra to build the same car today that I had last year (plus Autopilot, which cannot be removed). I didn't get to a position of being able to buy a Model S by making such bad financial choices.
 
As long as Tesla is counting on their customers to be their advertising they have to try to do things that don't anger them.

I'm not sure Tesla were ever specifically counting on their customers to be their advertising. It just turned out that way because the cars are so great. In the meantime, there may already be enough people with a Tesla and those wanting one in the future to keep it going regardless of a few who are currently upset. Adding the free publicity they got when they won car award after car award (and there's already an expectation of many awards for the Model X), the free publicity they get every time NADA, politicians or a state try to block their sales, the free publicity they get from the media, Elon interviews and tweets, and so on.
 
And the number of people angered by updates has to be a small percentage of total deliveries. Some who were affected don't care and realize that's that happens with new things coming out. Others care a lot.
 
And the number of people angered by updates has to be a small percentage of total deliveries. Some who were affected don't care and realize that's that happens with new things coming out. Others care a lot.

True, but the ones that are unhappy are always the loudest.

All I'm saying is that I think Tesla can do better and I'm sure they will next time.
 
As I understand it, the sensor HW got rolled out to ensure high European safety ratings. This makes the add-on a business priority for the company, and as such an important step for both current and new owners. We are all reliant on the success of the company, and it's ability to attract new customers to continue build-out of charging and keeping a great service level.

What people need, is to take a step back, remember the excitement when you ordered your configuration, and do what you intended at that time; own and drive it for the amount of time you had planned.

I guaranty you, nobody gets a fair price when the market gets more or less overloaded with used P85+, the current hype around sensors and dual engine WILL die down, and fair trade-in and used prices restored. It is still an awesome car, and will remain so for years!

And, in the end, all owners WILL miss out of something.
 
BEAR with me while I hijack this thread for a mo. I couldn't help the delicious juxtaposition of the thread's title with this, coming from the "Alaska Problems" feed - "Why Packages in Alaska Don't Get Delivered On Time":
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