Base Bolt CHEAPER than a base Model 3 (assist from Costco)

[bro1999]

Whelp, here it is. A base Bolt LT + destination charge is priced out at $36,030....$170 cheaper than what a base Model 3 will cost ($35,000 + $1,200 destination/delivery fee = $36,200).

No need to worry about dealer markups if you get your Bolt from a Costco-dealer....which the vast majority of Chevy dealers are. In fact, it will be at least invoice pricing.

 

[3Victoria]

Big deal. its obvious that GM will discount them if needed. They are a loss leader for them ... they want the ZEV credits. Hopefully they will get more serious and supply more of them. I think they fill a need.

Why the need to trumpet a false comparison?

 

[bro1999]

Oh, forgot to add, the Costco price is typically ~$200 less for GM vehicles than invoice pricing.

 

[RobStark]

If you wait til Model 3 launch a base Bolt will be at least $5k cheaper than a base Model 3.

Because in reality it is a $22k car.

A few people love it and will be willing to pay premiums for it(10s of Ks per year) .

But by 2019 when Tesla is selling well over 300k Model 3s GM will be selling less than 30k at big discounts.

And very few base Model 3s with no options will be sold not because it doesn't have all he necessities that other $35k cars have but because the options are so compelling the vast majority of Model 3 buyers will buy at least a few of them.

 

[WannabeOwner]

$170 cheaper

Wow! That would definitely make my mind up ... I'm always up for a fair bit less than a half of one percent saved ...

 

[Az_Rael]

Why the need to trumpet a false comparison?

I am guessing because there were many here crowing about how the Bolt was "more expensive" than the Model 3 just based on the MSRP. Totally forgetting/ignoring that absolutely no one pays MSRP for a GM car.

 

[McRat]

If you wait til Model 3 launch a base Bolt will be at least $5k cheaper than a base Model 3.

Because in reality it is a $22k car.

A few people love it and will be willing to pay premiums for it(10s of Ks per year) .

But by 2019 when Tesla is selling well over 300k Model 3s GM will be selling less than 30k at big discounts.

And very few base Model 3s with no options will be sold not because it doesn't have all he necessities that other $35k cars have but because the options are so compelling the vast majority of Model 3 buyers will buy at least a few of them.

2017 $22,995 Electric Car:

Below is the pictures of the planned $22,000 electric cars for sale through 2018:

 

[SW2Fiddler]

Unless they can be built to order (my 1997 Saturn SW2 was), will more than a few dozen "Base" Bolts be built? Some will exist, as Loss Leaders aka advertised "bait" for the ever popular Bait And Switch maneuver. But I'll be shocked if I ever get to see a zero-optioned Bolt.

 

[diamond.g]

Unless they can be built to order (my 1997 Saturn SW2 was), will more than a few dozen "Base" Bolts be built? Some will exist, as Loss Leaders aka advertised "bait" for the ever popular Bait And Switch maneuver. But I'll be shocked if I ever get to see a zero-optioned Bolt.

If they are built to order do they usually still sell them at a discount?

 

[bro1999]

I am guessing because there were many here crowing about how the Bolt was "more expensive" than the Model 3 just based on the MSRP. Totally forgetting/ignoring that absolutely no one pays MSRP for a GM car.

Yes. this. So in addition to lower-than-invoice Costco pricing, I'll also be able to use my $500 farm bureau incentive, my few hundred dollars of GM Card earnings, and whatever state purchase incentives I may qualify for as well.

Looking at easily $3k off MSRP, if not more.

 

[McRat]

If they are built to order do they usually still sell them at a discount?

The biggest discount programs normally apply only to "dealer inventory". But some discounts apply to special order cars.

 

[SW2Fiddler]

If they are built to order do they usually still sell them at a discount?

Don't know.

Saturns were never negotiated. Any 'discounts' were rebates or on demo cars for mileage (sound familiar?), so any custom orders were list price IIRC. Ours was ordered from the Tennessee factory because TX dealers didn't stock the new-fangled ABS option.

 

[bro1999]

The biggest discount programs normally apply only to "dealer inventory". But some discounts apply to special order cars.

This must be why the dealer I placed an order at didn't actually put an order in my name....he simply spec'ed it to my wants and ordered as dealer stock.

That way all their Bolts will be "dealer inventory" and they will be able to apply discount programs like Costco.

 

[ggr]

This must be why the dealer I placed an order at didn't actually put an order in my name....he simply spec'ed it to my wants and ordered as dealer stock.

That way all their Bolts will be "dealer inventory" and they will be able to apply discount programs like Costco.

It's also so that when the cars come in, they can say that there's one that's the same color and trim and everything that you wanted, but it also has the sunroof and sports package and HyperCupHolders and whatever... just what you wanted but only $3,500 more. And by the way yours hasn't been built yet.

 

[bro1999]

It's also so that when the cars come in, they can say that there's one that's the same color and trim and everything that you wanted, but it also has the sunroof and sports package and HyperCupHolders and whatever... just what you wanted but only $3,500 more. And by the way yours hasn't been built yet.

I'm sure some dealers do that, but I'm fairly confident the one I put a deposit at won't. And if they do? I just tell them to pound sand and just wait it out till Bolts show up locally. Will still be way before any Model 3 is delivered to MD.

 

[McRat]

While everybody knows dealerships are a grand conspiracy, there is one advantage that nobody seems to remember.

When it was time to shop for a car, I found one virtually identical to the way I would have ordered it. Why? There were about 400 cars in my region. Took 1 hour to buy it and drive it home.

 

[WannabeOwner]

There were about 400 cars in my region. Took 1 hour to buy it and drive it home.

Yup, agreed, but I'm doubting that Bolt, with worldwide (maybe?) production at 30,000 p.a. is likely to have that much inventory choice? I don't know how Tesla inventory works, seems to me that its relatively painless to cancel an order, after it enters production, you just (JUST!!) lose your deposit, and the car goes into Inventory. I've heard of people cancelled because the 100 just-came-out and so on, and I guess some folk will fall on hard times, so I don't know how much production is just for inventory compared to cancelled orders ... I'd be curious to know if that is the same for other Marques too, and what sort of percentage of the inventory it makes up.

If indeed GM dealers do scummy things like ordering over-spec'd versions which match customer bespoke orders, but will (somehow??) deliver much earlier, then presumably Tesla direct-sales has no need to behave like that, and vive la difference

 

[stopcrazypp]

I am guessing because there were many here crowing about how the Bolt was "more expensive" than the Model 3 just based on the MSRP. Totally forgetting/ignoring that absolutely no one pays MSRP for a GM car.

I know you are going with a little hyperbole, but there are plenty of GM cars sold at or above MSRP, esp. when they are in high demand. With Tesla's model, you always pay MSRP, even if pre-ordering the most anticipated car ever.

A more fair point would be that Tesla's price had not been officially set yet (we don't know how much is destination and the cost of options).

 

[MXWing]

Tesla might not even get a Model 3 in your hands for a year or more if you got the strip model ones with no options?

 

[WannabeOwner]

Tesla might not even get a Model 3 in your hands for a year or more if you got the strip model ones with no options?

Yeah, "might not".

Am I going to be able to get a right hand drive Bolt in Year One then?