Ok, here's my full summary. I'll try to hit all points and pitfalls.
I ordered in early August (profile complete about 3-4 days later), received the car (Colma, 40 miles from Fremont) on December 28th.
Ordering:
I, personally, loved the Tesla ordering process. Except that, and this will be a theme, they did not give you enough information at all. Not even close. So, test drives (which I guess are harder to come by now) were great. I tested (Walnut Creek, CA) a MYP and MYLR on consecutive visits. I also drove a Ford Mustang Mach E, Polestar 2, and Volvo XC40. I considered but did not drive the Audi e-tron, Volkswaged ID4, and BMW iX. My parents drive a Leaf and I have some experience and feedback with it. So I looked around. To be honest, I favored any car but the Tesla going in. I don't really like Elon Musk, I think Teslaheads are douchebags, there are too many fanboys inflating the stock for their own gain, and I take the side of the county with regards to COVID-19 disputes. So look, you can take that as you want. I wasn't prone to Tesla.
On the first test drive, I was really intrigued. I actually like some of the things others complain about. Simplicity of design and UX and UI is appealing to me. Frankly, driving the MYLR and Mach E back to back made the Ford look like a toy. I know it gets a TON of praise, but navigating that OS and using their various buttons and knobs just felt cheap and toy like compared to the Model Y. And yeah look, the first time you punch the accelerator in the MYP or use FSD, it's a pretty giddy experience. So I loved the car and moved to wanting to buy it, not because I believe in the dream, but because to me, it was the superior car.
So let's talk ordering and post order process. Loved the ordering. Throughout two test drives, it was EXTREMELY low pressure. Great. Nice. THere is also no need to pressure anyone, so it's basic market forces at work. But it's nice to not go through the undercoating and would you like to drive it well Bob will go with you that exists in the dealer model. Nice to see that getting broken across the board, but Tesla is above and beyond.
Ordering through the website a breeze. Click, enter click done. Really nice. And no pressure to do it live. So all good.
That's where it gets bad. There was literally nobody, and I mean NOBODY that followed up with me. At all. Zero. Zilch. And, turns out, I hadn't COMPLETED MY PROFILE which is everything. So, luckily, I found this board and did that pretty quickly. But this board is FULL of stories of people that didn't know that, or missed some step, or didn't know to switch to cash. That's pretty poor for a buying experience. I have some theory that if you buy in person you get more support than virtual, but that's just a guess.
LESSON FROM BUYING: Complete your profile. Be sure it's complete. Call and make sure. Switch to cash if you're financing of any kind (it is VERY easy to switch back, covered below). Your profile date is your wait date. Don't mess this up. Get it ready.
Waiting:
So, I watched every video. I hit these threads. I obsessed. The things I didn't do. Call SAs and freak out. Look, Tesla said they'd get me the car in December from the outset. My mind was always if they hit that they and I are happy. And, in the end, it was all true. With no cajoling, hassling, haggling, etc. So, maybe just stay chill. The ONLY part I freaked about was when they started pushing me MUCH later than that. Like every other wait promise i heard, it was just mythical. Also, I ordered zero accessories. Look, it takes like a week to get them. You can wait, and it will help prioritize what you really need. I thought I'd want a console organizer. Three weeks later I can't see why. I only use one console storage and can reach spare masks, wipes, and hand sanitizer easily. Some of y'all are pack rats and that's ok. You might want to have those read.y
LESSON FROM WAITING: Don't obsess as long as you are in the window Tesla told you. And certainly, CERTAINLY don't follow the EDDs or SA windows. It's unhealthy, and they are all mythical creatures.
The MOMENT:
So here's how it went down. My EDD gets pushed back. I think fine, not happening this year. The tweet that Tesla is moving a LOT of EOQ cars. The updates on here that others are getting theirs. Heres how my notifications went. See update in the app first. "we are making updates" - check the online account. It has details. No text. No call. Fill out forms to accept and say yes, i want to proceed. Then, the app starts showing updates. Complete insurance (already done). Next step, complete financing. BUT...this is CHRISTMAS EVE. At like 4PM. Not an easy time for a match. We call Tesla. They answer. Guy says it's "probably ok" (thanks bro) because they know it's a holiday and financing is going to be tough to line up. But the call ends with him reminding me they'll only hold the car 3 days, and I am sweating and pulse through the roof. At this point though, no real match or countdown.
Check again. VIN. Still no "set up your appointment."
So, I call Tesla. I'm getting third party financing. No problem, who. DCU. Ok, switched. Honestly the call took maybe 50 seconds including dialing. I called the number of the Colma entry on Google maps. It all seems like the same system. Maybe it isn't. More on that later. Loved the calls to Tesla, great experience.
Call DCU. They pre-approve a loan (bear in mind, I hadn't called DCU before because I didn't want to unfreeze credit). Honestly, this step was easy anyway. Had a referral. They say create an account online over the weekend. OK, cool. Do that Saturday...but....
Last step Friday. I finally get a text. "Schedule your pickup." I follow the link. Lots of time slots. I choose basically the latest, Tuesday at 5PM. I want to make sure we have financing locked in.
Back to DCU...
While my wife is creating the digital account, the whole system freaks. It says she has an account, but needs to reset the password. she does. It says she will pick up her account there. It won't. We kind of start getting worried, so i create an account as a backup.
Note: by this point, we've done the due diligence. DCU is by far the cheapest loan you are going to get anywhere. Honestly. Call around. Tell me if you get 1.24% or close. You won't. That rate saves us about 2600 over the life of the loan. So to us, it's worth it. Maybe you'd like the convenience. But also, don't get matched on Christmas Eve and this story has at LEAST 24 hours extra leeway.
If you are new to DCU, you need to become a member. We did that by joining one of their afifiliated organizations and gave $10 to education. A good cause. You have to indicate this when you open the account. Now, we are waiting for them to open on Monday.
When they open, we are up at 6:00 PST. We quickly remedy account issue and link them. And then, they transfer us to loans. Woman goes through everything. And we should hear about check being sent by EOD (reminder: our pickup is next day and we think we need an overnight check in hand for pickup). Well, wife calls EOD. They say it's not ready, the loan is all wrong, and we should call back in the morning. This was a low point.
Also that day, we finally sorted out our trade. Carvana came with an amazing offer (1400 over all competitors, and in range of what people were getting private party locally). So, we took an amount of that, and decided to make life easy. We made a down payment through Plaid directly to Tesla. Maybe it's because we are dumb and haven't bought a car in a long time, but we thought Tesla would only take one check and we'd have to make the down payment to DCU. Not so, make that to Tesla. Plaid is easy, though I get why some are hesitant. Again, we had to make some step of this easy since DCU was making us sweat. End of Monday, call again to Tesla. We can show proof of check and routing number.
So now, Tuesday morning. Call again to Tesla. We got an automated voice message saying i can show a signed loan agreement. Telsa Colma number says they aren't awake. I grab random Google maps showroom in NYC and call that number. Useless. They say yes I can show loan agreement. But, check and routing number is "better" - after 3 attempts to describe that i'm picking up my car today and i don't care about better, i only care about OK, it's lost on them and i give up. It very well may be that a local center is better. I still don't know.
Wife connects late morning to competent person at DCU. Despite having actual paperwork showing price of the car and amount financed, DCU person had all things wrong. We are now fixing actual loan amounts. They say we will have image of check and routing number within one hour. At minute 58, I lose it. We are using financing at 8%. I will renounce all possessions to get car. Who wants this hunk of junk anyway. Why would anyone put themself through this.
At minute 59, and I kid you not, it was that exact, we have check and routing number. I send to head of Colma. I curse a LOT over next 3 minutes. He responds VERY quickly that we are fully set and see you at pickup. WOW.
LESSON FROM THE MOMENT: I don't know. Don't get matched on Christmas Eve. Stay ON TOP of DCU. DCU is way cheaper. Tesla are kind of a dream to deal with (other than my actual SA who i didn't mention was totally absent and not even responding to emails from his own finance department).
The Pickup:
So, once you get all that sorted, you start seeing cool checks in the app. There are steps you should just take though. Like scanning your face. And a few other sigs consenting to e-signatures and stuff. I did all of that. Then drove to Colma.
Driving in, it was a VERY full lot, they even had an unloaded truck there. Looked for a text indicating my spot. Checked app. Nothing. So in I went. The head of the DC was free and came over. I told him pickup, he asked for name. Quick lookup. Asked me to pull up the app and had I done my face scan, etc. Yep, I had. Ok, i was ready to go to the car (I have to admit, that is really cool). I started to blurt out that I wasn't agreeing to anything until I could see the car, and he totally understood and kind of chuckled.
On the way out, I told him about the whole process and how it had been pretty rough and were they also going crazy. He said yeah, a lot of people had trouble with financing bc of the holidays and they'd been busy trying to help. I found myself wishing I'd connected with him sooner.
So we get to the car. I kind of just stop and grin. My son and wife walk over and my son starts asking if the red car is ours. I say yes. DC guy says check it out, hit accept, it will open, everything is inside. Any problems, I'm around. So, I walk through my billion point inspection. My car was CLEAN. Flawless. I was slightly annoyed that I had to accept before a full interior inspection, but I checked it out from the outside so knew no major flaws. So I hit accept and went inside. Perfect. I mean, everything. Perfect. So, I got my settings, paired my phone, tinkered around and drove off.
LESSON FROM PICKUP: Tesla's experience of buying a car is pretty damn amazing if you've done it enough to remember what it used to be like. Fill out the paperwork, which has nothing to do with "acceptance" so that you get the joy of showing up, hitting a button (after careful inspection) and driving off. Because I thought that was really fun.
I've since spent a few days driving canyon runs, playing with settings, etc. All I can say is, I love getting behind the wheel of this car. So, ask me anything I missed.
. As long as the paint looks okay and the panels/door handles are reasonably flush, I'll probably accept the car. Not gonna be OCD about one gap being a few mm more narrow/wide than the other side.
