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Are there really discounts for showroom or inventory 3s?

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T3SLAROD

Active Member
May 14, 2019
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3,809
SoCal
I have searched and read that discounts are available from various sources but none of these sources are from regular people, meaning it's mostly you tubers or auto mags. Has anyone actually received a good discount from taking a Model 3 currently in inventory?
 
Many people received substantial discounts at the end of Q1 in March. There were all sorts of deals being cut back then. It will probably start again in another few weeks as we approach the end of Q2. Performance and AWD models will get the biggest discounts since they have the most margin. Discounts on SR or SR+ will be minimal and mostly just small mileage adjustments.
 
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I have searched and read that discounts are available from various sources but none of these sources are from regular people, meaning it's mostly you tubers or auto mags. Has anyone actually received a good discount from taking a Model 3 currently in inventory?

Yes! I just got a PM3 for $8500 off! The deals are out there...just find a good Tesla OA that will find the deal your are looking for. The end of Q2 is some to come and the deals will keep coming.
 
I too have been looking for a good discount on an M3 but the OA I'm working with still has not found me one.

He says price adjustments are based on time in use and mileage on the vehicle. The more of either one, the higher the adjustment. The ones he offered me was only around $1200 discount with about 1300 miles which I didn't think was worth it.

I think most of the good deals came from demo cars and 2018 models which I think are mostly gone now. I suggest working with an OA to see if you get lucky. Keep in mind that you will need to take delivery by 6/30 to receive the 3750 tax credit, otherwise it will be cut in half.
 
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Yes. This is an inventory 2018 July build car with 4 miles - and it had a large price adjustment mostly due to the number of months it has been sitting since it was built.

I hope this works out ok for you, and we dont see posts from you talking about issues with the car when you take delivery, or shortly after.
 
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As I understand it, most Teslas, including inventory cars, are not sold at a discount. There are, however, some exceptions, including:
  • If you order a particular configuration (say, a black Model 3 AWD with a black interior and 18-inch tires) and it's not available in inventory, but something similar is (say, the same thing but with midnight silver paint), Tesla may offer you the in-inventory car at a discount. Typically, the discount is to offer the paint and/or wheel upgrades for free.
  • If you place an order and Tesla discontinues that physical configuration before you can receive the car, you may be offered a discount on another car. This happened to a lot of people who ordered MR vehicles in February and March of this year, including me.
  • If you buy a demo car (one that had been sitting in a showroom, pawed at by everybody who walks through; or a car used for test drives), it will likely be at a discount. Tesla supposedly has a formula to determine the discount based on mileage, but I don't know what that formula is. For instance, when I placed an order for a MR Model 3, but before Tesla discontinued the MR configuration, I was offered an AWD Model 3 for about $1400 more, but it had "about 1,000 miles" on its odometer, and it had been built 6 months before. (I passed on this offer.) Note that some people seem to conflate demo cars with inventory cars. The two are not the same. Tesla sells many (perhaps most) Model 3s out of inventory; they're shipped from the factory without a buyer, based on anticipated sales in an area, much as happens with conventional car dealerships. The cars will then sit in inventory for a (hopefully brief) period before being sold, but they won't be shown in showrooms or taken on test drives. Demo cars are dedicated to those purposes, at least in the short term. Unlike most car dealerships, random inventory Teslas are not used for test drives.
There may be other ways to get discounts, but I either don't know what they are or I'm forgetting them. Obviously, of the above three possibilities, the first and second are basically hit-or-miss, although I suppose you could research current inventory to try to get a free or cut-rate paint option by trying to slot yourself into the first possibility. Buying a demo car is the only way I know of to semi-reliably get a discount, but of course that depends on when Tesla decides to unload its demo cars, and you'd be limited to whatever demo cars happen to be available in your area.
 
As someone who’s been analyzing Tesla vehicle prices extensively and who runs the Facebook Tesla Showroom Deals group page, Tesla does offer a significant discounts despite what Elon says. I’ve seen P100 with 0 miles have over $35k off, P3 for 10k off, etc. At the end of the day you just need to follow the same vehicle revenue cycle like all manufacturers. Every fiscal year there’s a huge discount during September and when the company is in need of boosting their numbers they will also discount the cars. Currently, Tesa is not doing too great with the demand on vehicles (large 2018 inventory) and thus they are discounting the vehicles as such.
 
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I have searched and read that discounts are available from various sources but none of these sources are from regular people, meaning it's mostly you tubers or auto mags. Has anyone actually received a good discount from taking a Model 3 currently in inventory?
Yes. $2000 adjustment on a LR RWD (w/7 mi on the odo), at the end of April. It appears to be a HW3 car (if you believe the internet) and so far is as perfect as a car can get with none of the weird problems I have read about.

At the time, Tesla had just begun displaying ineventory cars on their website. Looking back at that time, the displayed local cars were either blue or red. While there were no LR RWD listed, It makes me think that at the time there was an abundance of red or blue (based purely on observation, red and blue do seem to be the rarest colors) so the least popular colors may be your best bet when looking for a deal. In fact my discount was called "free red paint" although when all was said and done, the paperwork only listed a generic "price adjustment".

I originally had gone in looking for a demo car but when the guy threw out the discount for a new car, I jumped on it as it was EXACTLY what I was looking for.

Yes. This is an inventory 2018 July build car with 4 miles - and it had a large price adjustment mostly due to the number of months it has been sitting since it was built.

This makes sense then. When you said you "ordered" one the impression is that it was a new build. Any indication why there is a new July '18 car sitting around? Display?
 
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Wow! Thank you all for this information. I am assuming walking into a showroom, test driving and then doing a search would net the best results. I called Tesla and the CS Rep immediately told me there were no discounts.

I find a lot of Tesla sales reps get really weird when you ask them about discounted vehicles, like you have personally insulted them. You have to find one that is willing to search for you. The ones that tell you there are no discounts are just being lazy. Move on and find a more competent one.