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Critique My Strategy: Blindly Buying the Base Model

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I wish I were rich - I'd have gotten the fully loaded P90D whatever insane ludicrous whatnot version! I just don't have kids - there's my car payment right there. :)

Totally unrelated - I have friends in Westchester County. Lovely part of the state. Except... humid.

So what's your definition of rich? I guess everyone has his own idea about that.
One of the reasons that I can afford to buy my MS is that I've always been a single guy, so no spending on girlfriend/wife, nor kids. ;)
 
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Noob here, window shopping and trying to resist the temptation. Question: Does financing have to be arranged at delivery or at order time? I have a pending home closing in less than 30 days, so if I order now and opt for a September delivery, would they still pull a credit check? (assuming I got with Alliant CU).

Thank you!
 
Tesla doesn't care too much about financing, they just want their money before you can drive off in your car. If you finance through them, then I imagine there's some defined process, but if you're financing separately then it's up to you to get things arranged on time. I guess they figure that the prospect of losing a $2,500 deposit is sufficient motivation. I ended up arranging my financing on Friday with delivery scheduled for the following Tuesday, no problem. Typically you'd wait until a few weeks before your delivery date before nailing that part down.
 
Tesla doesn't care too much about financing, they just want their money before you can drive off in your car. If you finance through them, then I imagine there's some defined process, but if you're financing separately then it's up to you to get things arranged on time. I guess they figure that the prospect of losing a $2,500 deposit is sufficient motivation. I ended up arranging my financing on Friday with delivery scheduled for the following Tuesday, no problem. Typically you'd wait until a few weeks before your delivery date before nailing that part down.
 
Thank you for your reply. So I guess I can start going through the design studio and order one before the referral rebate ends in a week. Will start another thread to go through my options.


Tesla doesn't care too much about financing, they just want their money before you can drive off in your car. If you finance through them, then I imagine there's some defined process, but if you're financing separately then it's up to you to get things arranged on time. I guess they figure that the prospect of losing a $2,500 deposit is sufficient motivation. I ended up arranging my financing on Friday with delivery scheduled for the following Tuesday, no problem. Typically you'd wait until a few weeks before your delivery date before nailing that part down.
 
If you can afford a brand new version, don't worry about the extra features. Pick black or white and click buy !!! Our MS is also and will also be our most expensive car we ever buy. You can upgrade later to access supercharging if you want to or get autopilot if you want to.
If you don't take many road trips and don't think the autopilot is essential, get the basics and you will LOVE it. !!!!

Otherwise get a used one sold privately or on the CPO with more features you can afford and want, will probably be a 60 battery but that is usually fine with the distance SC are from each other.

Enjoy the buying process, then enjoy the driving !!!!
 
That's actually a problem. I'm in the NYC area, and there's not much SC action hereabouts. A bunch of expensive garages in midtown Manhattan with slow chargers for a hefty extra fee, but not much available for highway driving in boroughs and 'burbs....
If you have home charging, you should be fine to get to Superchargers while highway driving. Or are you saying you would be circling the city, outside of reach of the SC network?
Check out supercharge.info for a current map with details. Looks like a pair of SCs are just north of your general area. This site also lists projected and under construction SCs, although none of those are around you at this time.
Tricky to get precise plans from Tesla's maps for 2016, so keep an eye on the aforementioned link.
 
Hi Eric,
I have a base S60 with absolutely NO option on order. Vin 150xxx. Delivery is Oct due in Australia.

My current ride is a wonderful LS460. Best ICE car in the world for me. Will not be selling it when the Tesla is delivered. Australia as a whole has only 28 DC chargers and next SuperCharger is almost 600 kms away from home. Next Service Centre is almost 1000 kms. LoL.

I bought the car to learn about Tesla product and to support their noble cause. The current S60 is a heck of a deal with 75KW battery. You will never suffer range loss, ever. The drive unit is the same as P90D rear drive unit. This thing will last probably longer than the paint job of the car.

Did not buy any options because I am a cheapo. Also because the base model is hell of a fun car to drive. Not having options means also your car will drive more like a classic GT. And it will be faster than advertised. The official 0-100 numbers are based on fully optioned setup. The real number on a barebone S60 could be 0.5 sec faster.

Here in Australia, the base S60 is 1.5 sec faster than a Porsche Panamera e-hybrid and costs half the price.

Last but not least: Tesla is a giant iphone on wheels. Even the most expensive ones today will be totally obsolete in 5 years. You will lose a lot less money if you need to sell it one day compared to the fully optioned ones. Also, less than 5% of all Model S are barebone. This means a lot less competition when you need to sell it. Tesla second hand buyers are very price sensitive. This will work in your favour one day.

Now stop wasting your time and just press that "confirm order" button! You are not alone!
 
Just picked up my base poor mans model S. Only option I got was autopilot. If I did it over again I may consider next gen seats and the moonroof instead of autopilot but the standard seats are still pretty nice. I'm sure I'll be glad I got autopilot on a long trip but after trying it out Briefly I'm not confident how much I'll use it.
 
I test drove AP in heavy varied speed traffic and misting rain at the Fremont Factory, which sold me immediately on AP. I'm a CS professor, so was excited about the technology from when it was announced; however, actually seeing it in action I was already regretting my current ICE didn't have it or TACC. But agree, it takes some getting used to initially... especially the first time it comes up quickly on a vehicle in front of you going slower. My girlfriend disengaged AP at least once if not twice when it did that during the test drive as it wasn't slowing down quick enough for her based on the distance setting it was set at for the test drive.
 
I test drove AP in heavy varied speed traffic and misting rain at the Fremont Factory, which sold me immediately on AP. I'm a CS professor, so was excited about the technology from when it was announced; however, actually seeing it in action I was already regretting my current ICE didn't have it or TACC. But agree, it takes some getting used to initially... especially the first time it comes up quickly on a vehicle in front of you going slower. My girlfriend disengaged AP at least once if not twice when it did that during the test drive as it wasn't slowing down quick enough for her based on the distance setting it was set at for the test drive.

I was set to order our S without it but after my wife and I experienced it during our test drive SHE was the one that said we cannot order a Tesla without it. Who was I to argue??

My biggest case use will be in stop and go traffic in the mornings and evenings in the DFW area as I have heard it excels in that arena.
 
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