Countdown: Pre-configured Roadsters Available Right Now

[vfx]

If they indeed made an agreement with Lotus for an additional 100 new gliders,....

Maybe they are quietly sitting on them in an attempt to offer them later at an increase last hurrah price.
100 strike prints!

 

[daniel]

See, this is what I find confusing. [...]

If they indeed made an agreement with Lotus for an additional 100 new gliders, and are offering these to the U.S. market as custom-orders, then there should be absolutely no restrictions on colors.

Maybe they've run out of paint.

 

[smorgasbord]

... it seems like there never were an additional 100 custom-orders. If they're just selling the 30 remaining spec cars as pseudo-custom, where you're stuck with picking from the lot of pre-made colors and swapping out parts, then that's a different story than I was led to believe. This smells a lot like nothing more than gussied-up spec cars.

I don't think it's anything so nefarious.

Some of you may recall that custom ordering was briefly halted back in May. Then the deal for 100 more gliders was done and custom ordering opened up again. All of the custom orders since then have cut into the 100 available, leaving about 35 before this last weekend. Add to that the spec cars, and you end with about 65 new Roadsters left. Note that the deal for the last 100 was made weeks before it became public. As for colors being limited, that's probably just a pipeline sequencing phenomenon and that color choices needed to be made very early on in the process. Looking at my car, it appears at least some of the panels are pained before being attached to the frame. Are they painted in France and then shipped to the UK, or does Lotus get the panels and paint them?

As for non-Sports, those cannot be custom ordered any more (has been that way for at least 45 days). My speculation here is that Tesla simply makes more money on Sport models and believes there are enough buyers for them.

The real question is when production will stop on European models. Clearly Lotus is capable of building both NA and Euro spec versions intermixed. I've been told that Roadsters will continue to be sold in Europe after they are no longer available in the US/Canada. So, if European buyers can still choose colors, why not NA customers?

 

[S-2000 Roadster]

Some of you may recall that custom ordering was briefly halted back in May. Then the deal for 100 more gliders was done and custom ordering opened up again.

Not only do I recall that window of time, but I will never forget it. I purchased my Tesla Roadster in May, and thus I was denied the option to custom order only to find out that it was made available later.

The Model S rolled through Seattle on its demo tour in early May. During that time, I was told that 8 custom-order slots remained in the U.S. About 5 or 6 days later, they were all gone. I ended up buying a spec car because no custom-order slots were available. So, you can see that it might really stick in my memory when Tesla Motors did an about-face and suddenly made 100 more custom-order slots available in the U.S.

You may be right about the panels, though. I assumed that the Tesla Roadster would be dipped like any unibody car on a production line, but it appears that the panels are sprayed because I can easily see areas that were not fully coated. If they're merely sprayed instead of being dipped all together, then I can see that it's possible they're painted elsewhere before being shipped to the assembly line.

Tesla Motors is certainly choosing to offer only Sport models due to profits. That's also the stated reason they've offered for terminating US custom-orders before UK and EU. Profits are higher outside the US, so it's all about optimizing market demand given a limited supply.

 

[TEG]

...You may be right about the panels, though. I assumed that the Tesla Roadster would be dipped like any unibody car on a production line, but it appears that the panels are sprayed because I can easily see areas that were not fully coated. If they're merely sprayed instead of being dipped all together, then I can see that it's possible they're painted elsewhere before being shipped to the assembly line...

I recall seeing pictures of Roadster parts being painted, and it was sprayed, not dipped.

Also, sometimes paint colors can be limited because they want to do a run of a bunch of cars in the same color.
It can be costly/wasteful to change colors in the paint room on a car by car basis, so they may try to batch a bunch of production in a row using the same color.

I think Lotus may have used the same paint facility to paint Elise models and Roadsters, so there may have been some jockeying to match Roadsters produced with other Lotus models being produced in the same colors at the same time. (But I could be wrong about all of this...)

 

[vfx]

I was told that all the painting is done at the Lotus Norwich plant where my custom was done.

 

[TEG]

DSC00468 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
DSC00470 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
UL10 DSCN3338 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
DSC00471 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Paint Inspection | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[Lloyd]

I believe the inventory can be viewed HERE.

 

[TEG]

I believe the inventory can be viewed HERE.

Have to be logged in using a valid ID....

 

[S-2000 Roadster]

21 colors! What are the extra 7?

 

[Slackjaw]

Have to be logged in using a valid ID....

Apparently you have to be granted some additional access... This is after logging in with my owner ID:

I didn't quite have the energy to apply for the "elite" membership (isn't the club elite enough already?)

 

[Doug_G]

Try adding a custom car using the design studio.

 

[donauker]

Apparently you have to be granted some additional access... This is after logging in with my owner ID:

I didn't quite have the energy to apply for the "elite" membership (isn't the club elite enough already?)

I got this same page and almost didn't do it, but if you click the Gain Access button you will get a small form with your original signup information and when you submit that you get instant access to the inventory.

 

[Zorba]

And someone at Tesla will call you when you do. I completed the form (only to gain access to the inventory) and they called me the day after to check if I was interested.

 

[Slackjaw]

Try adding a custom car using the design studio.

I already have some cars there from my fingernail-biting pre-delivery days, but didn't try adding another one (assuming that's what you meant)...

I got this same page and almost didn't do it, but if you click the Gain Access button you will get a small form with your original signup information and when you submit that you get instant access to the inventory.

Yup, that worked. It's quite a nice page on the other side. Not exactly well organised but with only 30 cars listed I am willing to scroll up & down. I'd love to get a car like NigelM's (electric blue)... There's only one of those left, at the Florida store, and it has 10,392 miles on it!

And someone at Tesla will call you when you do. I completed the form (only to gain access to the inventory) and they called me the day after to check if I was interested.

Well, I guess I am interested, or at least "curious". Thanks for the warning :biggrin:

 

[TEG]

21 colors! What are the extra 7?

That was a picture of Lotus Elise colors. I thing some were shared with Tesla, but not all.
Also, they change available colors from time time. So don't read too much into those samples on display.
My point in showing those pictures was that Lotus seems to do spray on paint in a paint room, not the "dip in a paint bath" others thought might happen.
I am not sure if they paint Lotus Elises and Tesla Roadsters in the same rooms, but they might.

 

[NigelM]

I'd love to get a car like NigelM's (electric blue)... There's only one of those left, at the Florida store, and it has 10,392 miles on it!

Mine is "Glacier Blue"; the "Electric Blue" one is much darker than mine. I guess I added a few miles to that one in Florida :wink:, it was the first Tesla I drove at the St Petersburg festival of speed in February. If I remember right it has an all black interior which I didn't like very much.

 

[Slackjaw]

Mine is "Glacier Blue"; the "Electric Blue" one is much darker than mine. I guess I added a few miles to that one in Florida :wink:, it was the first Tesla I drove at the St Petersburg festival of speed in February. If I remember right it has an all black interior which I didn't like very much.

Ah yes, I stand corrected! Yours was the first car (probably because you took such great photos when it arrived) that made me think we'd been waaay too conservative getting a black one. Of course as we've said already, "there are no unbeautiful Roadsters"... My wife has described our car as the automotive equivalent of the "little black dress". Goes with anything, always in fashion, etc...

A Tesla sales person did call me back to talk about it but it was the same guy who made first contact before we bought our first Roadster in March so it was nice to catch up with him. It also looks like there are no Glacier Blue cars left. But I also heard (as mentioned elsewhere) that TM has managed to source an additional 100 gliders for the US market and they may be customisable in terms of colours. They are all going to be Sports though.

 

[Lloyd]

Here is a 2010 available on Ebay in midnight Blue. Pretty car.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Midnight-Blue-Sport-package-all-options-/170667807584?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item27bc981360

 

[TEG]

Here is a 2010 available on Ebay in midnight Blue. Pretty car.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Midn...7807584?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item27bc981360

Colorado -> Minnesota -> Florida... That car has been around a bit.