Discussion: Model 3 Price reductions - Jan / April / Oct 2023 and all other pricing discussions

[parrainx]

Never thought I’d see the day a cars value could plummet 22-30k over night like we invested in the stock market… yeah Elon did that and killed his brand name overnight. No trust will ever be given to him again for his cars. In 3 months he could reduce them again reducing values by another 10k anything could happen because of his stupidity.

Elon destroyed a decade of brand loyalty overnight.

How does that Timberlake song goes? Cry me a river.

It’s like waiting in line to get new iphone and then crying about it few months later because Verizon is giving them away for free with service.

 

[CKwik240]

The difference is that never in my history of owning over 20 cars, has the trade in value lost 20+% overnight.

The problem here in the US anyway, is that all of the used Tesla's sitting on lots are priced based on what the used car dealers had to pay during the pricing bubble. So someone traded in or sold their Tesla to a used car dealer to take advantage of the bubble, and now the dealers are trying to at least break even on what they paid out -meanwhile you can buy a new one for less than what they are trying to sell low mileage trade ins for.

While I get what you are saying, there was plenty of speculation leading up to this. I'm sure there were people holding out after the IRA was passed in hopes for a tax credit. Some jumped on the year end discounts. I wasn't all that surprised. I was actually more surprised by the Model Y price changes.

I would hope car dealers would be more acutely aware, but given they tend to be more concerned with about the transaction right on front of them, it's probably not unexpected.

 

[Unit41]

The sting sure would be much less if current owners or at least 2022 purchasers got FSD or EAP for free

 

[Unclepaul]

See similar things happening for the C8 Corvette. 6 Months ago dealers were putting on a $20,000 additional markup, then reduced to $15000, and now more like $10,000. Will work it's way down to selling existing inventory for MSRP, and later on discounting them heavily towards the end of it's run.

Everybody wants to get the best deal in the World, but prices do tend to fluctuate.

Understand the sting for those who paid more, but also the joy for those that snagged a dea.

 

[datoda]

Seeing the recent price cuts, I am exasperated that I paid $55k for my Model 3 back in 2018. I have tweeted Elon to demand an immediate refund + lifetime free supercharging & premium connection for my car.

I can dream, can't I?

 

[rootusrootus]

See similar things happening for the C8 Corvette. 6 Months ago dealers were putting on a $20,000 additional markup, then reduced to $15000, and now more like $10,000. Will work it's way down to selling existing inventory for MSRP, and later on discounting them heavily towards the end of it's run.

Everybody wants to get the best deal in the World, but prices do tend to fluctuate.

Understand the sting for those who paid more, but also the joy for those that snagged a dea.

Except that was dealer markup for individual dealers. You could go to a different dealer (and some don't do markup at all). Tesla is the only seller you can go to if you want to buy a new Tesla.

What aggravates people is the "ha! screw you!" way they implemented this. December 1st -- here's an incentive. Two weeks later, ha, screw those of you who just bought, we're going to double it. Followed a few weeks later by "ha! screw ALL of you, we're dropping prices like 20%!"

I guarantee that they had a good idea on December 1st what they were going to do with prices in early January. They should have just cut prices then.

 

[Rodney!]

What aggravates people is the "ha! screw you!" way they implemented this. December 1st -- here's an incentive. Two weeks later, ha, screw those of you who just bought, we're going to double it. Followed a few weeks later by "ha! screw ALL of you, we're dropping prices like 20%!"

I guarantee that they had a good idea on December 1st what they were going to do with prices in early January. They should have just cut prices then.

Quoted for truth.

 

[turns2stone]

The difference is that never in my history of owning over 20 cars, has the trade in value lost 20+% overnight.

Sure it has. Go buy a brand new BMW X3 today. Tomorrow, go get a quote from Carmax. Promise you, you'll be lucky to get a cash offer of 20% less than you paid 24 hours previously from a BMW dealer.

 

[parrainx]

Again people posting this are stupid. Show me where he increased prices by 13k over night? Just like he decreased them 13k over night? There is a right way to do bussiness and a wrong way and he did it the wrong way and screwed everyone. His price increases were msrp and slowly increased incrementally. If he had listed the car as 58k with a 50k msrp and said 8k is inflationary like EVERY other dealer did. It wouldn’t be considered wrong. What he did was screw his entire base and he probably broke a few laws since he’s been skirting the whole msrp laws. I bet this catches the eyes of lawmakers especially since they are going after him for his Twitter purchase.

FYI he also said this on the same day.

Tesla vehicles are now 'appreciating assets' due to self-driving capability, says Elon Musk

Elon Musk has made quite an important claim about Tesla vehicles today; the CEO said that Tesla’s vehicles are now...

electrek.co

Basic supply and demand. Stop looking at covid time as the new norm. We all know you loose money on new car the moment you drove it off the lot. I still love mine and was happy with the price when I decided to buy one, $52k M3LR.

 

[3sr+buyer]

What aggravates people is the "ha! screw you!" way they implemented this. December 1st -- here's an incentive. Two weeks later, ha, screw those of you who just bought, we're going to double it. Followed a few weeks later by "ha! screw ALL of you, we're dropping prices like 20%!"

How is that different from the price of any slow selling car (or anything else) being reduced in steps until they find a price that someone is willing to buy it for?

 

[rootusrootus]

How is that different from the price of any slow selling car (or anything else) being reduced in steps until they find a price that someone is willing to buy it for?

As mentioned several times, the difference is that there are 10s of thousands of car dealers. Don't like what your Toyota dealer is asking down the street? Go to one of the 1500 other dealers in the US instead. But Tesla does not allow competition, so your only option is to pay whatever they demand.

Everyone hates markup, but loves Tesla's direct sales, without really appreciating that it's the same thing but you have no ability whatsoever to negotiate the markup.

 

[tlr1000]

Everyone who bought a car just before the price drop will feel some pain. The shorter the time gap between the purchase time and the price drop, the bigger the sting. On the other side, would everyone just prefer that Tesla never lowers their prices? The media only reports the side of the story of those who feel the sting of the price drop (and I understand and empathize with the situation) but why doesn't the media report all the happy individuals who are now able and/or incentivized to buy a Tesla now. Loads of happy people there.

Let's not forget the Model 3 (and probably Y as well) has one of the highest profit margins, if not the absolute highest, so a reduction should make people feel good overall that they are not making such a huge markup now.

 

[3sr+buyer]

As mentioned several times, the difference is that there are 10s of thousands of car dealers. Don't like what your Toyota dealer is asking down the street? Go to one of the 1500 other dealers in the US instead.

During the car shortage, shopping at different dealers would have found that they all either had markups or were out of stock.

Most people are not that willing to go to the other end of the US to buy a car.

 

[rootusrootus]

During the car shortage, shopping at different dealers would have found that they all either had markups or were out of stock.

Most people are not that willing to go to the other end of the US to buy a car.

And yet, the fact remains that there are thousands of dealers, and some of them do not charge a markup at all, and the actual markup varies between dealers. You don't even get -that- bit of choice with Tesla. Which is why their markups are more annoying.

 

[parrainx]

And yet, the fact remains that there are thousands of dealers, and some of them do not charge a markup at all, and the actual markup varies between dealers. You don't even get -that- bit of choice with Tesla. Which is why their markups are more annoying.

If you can’t afford the price then don’t buy the car. Simple as that. Negotiating off of made up markups is not negotiating. You’re still paying MSRP. Besides there’s hardly any negotiating going on as all the prices are available online and hopefully you already done your research before you went to the dealer to make the deal and if you happen to talk them into dropping the price then icing on the cake. If yo don’t want to loose significant amount of money on car, buy used. Plenty of places other than Tesla will happily sell you one.

 

[turns2stone]

And yet, the fact remains that there are thousands of dealers, and some of them do not charge a markup at all, and the actual markup varies between dealers. You don't even get -that- bit of choice with Tesla. Which is why their markups are more annoying.

Do you get a choice of price to pay when you buy a newly-released iPhone?

 

[Dan203]

And yet, the fact remains that there are thousands of dealers, and some of them do not charge a markup at all, and the actual markup varies between dealers. You don't even get -that- bit of choice with Tesla. Which is why their markups are more annoying.

The numbers at most dealerships are just made up. The MSRP and the dealer "cost" basically mean nothing. They make most off their money of service, trade-ins and financing kickbacks. The actual sale of cars is secondary, which is why some actually use them as loss leaders. If they can give you a "deal" you'll ignore the sh*tty financing, the low value of your trade and bring your car back to them for $150 oil changes every few months where they can find other issues they can bill the manufacturer for under warranty. It's all a big scam and the fact that EVs require very little service/maintenance is probably going to blow up the whole business model.

 

[zambono]

Sure, because other brands can't just lower prices as well, lol.

Like I said others will lower prices. Xpeng Follows Tesla With Major Price Cuts on China Electric CarsXpeng Follows Tesla With Major Price Cuts on China Electric Cars

 

[TesslaBull]

My feelings are so hurt that Tesla lowered prices, that I think they should have left pricing above the IRA limits and gone out of business. What right do they have to make a decision to stay in business! Also, they should refund every owner going back as many years as needed who paid more than the current pricing. Also, all those owners should get free lifetime supercharging, and free FSD. Then, all the people who ever paid for those features since the beginning of time should get those free as well. Then, all owners who ever bought a car from Tesla should be allowed to trade their car in at the price they bought it for.

 

[rootusrootus]

It's understandable how Tesla can be such a famously customer hostile company when their customers just bend over and defend them no matter what. You guys really are amazing . Tesla is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but you are contorting yourselves every which way just to rationalize a shitty decision on their part. Even resorting to namecalling. This is what the greater world means when they say "Tesla Stans" or fanboys. It's such a sad look.