Downgrade SR+ and get $2000 back?

[Curb71]

Called Tesla few minutes ago (Tesla Corporate not the local delivery service).
A lady told me that is possible to downgrade and she opened a case number and she provided me
with the case number.
The lady told me she’s not sure when I’ll be called back since the software for the downgrade is not yet available. I’ll try on Monday
Hope this information can help.

Could you share the name and number you used since everyone I talk to thinks I'm crazy when I mention this?

 

[Retaw]

Just catching up on this thread and I have a few comments:

1) I’m confident that heated front seats will remain in the SR, contrary to a vague comment about them in the blog. There was a document passed out to customers two weeks ago stating this, and several Delivery Advisors have confirmed this in an email.

2) The blog states that SR+ owners can request a refund to downgrade to SR. I believe Elon wrote this but never communicated his intentions about it to the executive team, so nobody that answers the phone has been provided any direction on how it will work, what the restrictions are, or how to handle the requests. It’s sloppy, but unfortunately common practice at Tesla. I can understand why customers would be frustrated about this. We need to stop trolling people who are complaining about this because Tesla opened the door to the refund option and never put a plan in place to execute. They created their own mess here.

3) If you are planning on buying an SR, you absolutely need to make sure they build it in the system with the SR pricing. Don’t fall for the line that you can pay for it as an SR+ and request a refund later. You’ll be chasing Tesla for months trying to get your refund. Just don’t do it.

4) SR+ has had three different prices in the past two months. $37K, $37.5K, and now $39.5K (with AP included). Your perception of whether the SR announcement is fair will depend to some extent on which price you paid for your SR+. If you want an SR+ with AP, the current price is only $1,500 more than the SR with AP. If you don’t want AP, the SR is a much better deal. The worst case scenario is someone who just paid $39.5K for an SR+ but would have preferred not buy AP and could have saved $4,500 by waiting for the SR $35K option to come out.

I’m helping a friend take delivery of an SR next week. Tesla still has not figured out how to downgrade the price as it still shows an SR+ configuration. The salesperson has been useless in the process. I know the manager at the local store so I’ll likely have to call him next week and try to sort things out. Tesla does not make it easy sometimes.

That heated front seat is a bit surprising. Isn't it something never promised in SR and easily disabled in software?
Another reason to downgrade I guess.

 

[MP3Mike]

That heated front seat is a bit surprising. Isn't it something never promised in SR and easily disabled in software?
Another reason to downgrade I guess.

Actually heated front seats where always supposed to be in the SR. So the surprise was that they were going to disable them.

 

[Retaw]

Actually heated front seats where always supposed to be in the SR. So the surprise was that they were going to disable them.

I don't think so.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190311162659/https://www.tesla.com/model3/design#battery

Standard Interior Includes:

• Manual seat and steering adjustment
• Cloth seats and base trim
• Basic audio
• Standard maps and navigation
• Center console with storage and 4 USB ports

Partial Premium Interior Includes:

• 12-way power adjustable heated front seats
• Premium seat material and trim
• Upgraded audio – immersive sound
• Standard maps & navigation
• LED fog lamps
• Center console with storage, 4 USB ports and docking for 2 smartphones

Premium Interior Includes:

• 12-way power adjustable front and rear heated seats
• Premium audio – 14 speakers, 1 subwoofer, 2 amps, and immersive sound
• Satellite-view maps with live traffic visualization and navigation
• In-car internet streaming music & media
• Internet browser
• Location-aware automatic garage door opener
• LED fog lamps
• Center console with storage, 4 USB ports and docking for 2 smartphones

All Interiors Include:

• Tinted glass roof with ultraviolet and infrared protection
• Auto dimming, power folding, heated side mirrors
• Music and media over Bluetooth ®
• Custom driver profiles

 

[MP3Mike]

don't think so.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190311162659/https://www.tesla.com/model3/design#battery

And here is the document Tesla was showing people in store to help them decide at the same time:

 

[Leafdriver333]

And here is the document Tesla was showing people in store to help them decide at the same time:

View attachment 401661

But then SR is getting a lot of things it wasn't supposed to get.
It is a mess.

 

[OCR1]

The cloth seats were not going to be heated. But when they eliminated the cloth seats they elected to keep heated front seats in the SR. The blog was poorly written and confused everyone but I believe it intended to say no heated rear seats.

 

[Talax74]

Could you share the name and number you used since everyone I talk to thinks I'm crazy when I mention this?

I called the 888-518-3752
Then select 1 (for cars)
Then good luck, I don't remember exactly the other combinations of keys I think I did 2 and 2 again but I can't promise I remember correctly.
I called something like 7 times tried with different combinations before being able to talk with corporate.
I'm pretty sure I didn't push 1 for sales.

The name of the lady was Landy
Hope this help

 

[Leafdriver333]

That heated front seat is a bit surprising. Isn't it something never promised in SR and easily disabled in software?
Another reason to downgrade I guess.

I ordered my car 2 weeks too soon based on the original info.
I ordered SR+ for $37.5 + color option because of the HEATED SEATS.
Had I waited until today to place my order, I would have ordered a SR w/o AP for $35K + color option. $37,700 total. I would have saved $2500.
For that extra $2500, I get to enjoy 20 extra miles and 0.3 sec faster car, which is quite expensive.
I don't care about immersive sound, or fog lights.

 

[Keromaru]

Honestly, I would've went with SR with white exterior over SR+ for the small difference the two trims are now. Oh and autopilot is 100% useless in my city. Barely any drawn lines and construction sites everywhere.

 

[Retaw]

I ordered my car 2 weeks too soon based on the original info.
I ordered SR+ for $37.5 + color option because of the HEATED SEATS.
Had I waited until today to place my order, I would have ordered a SR w/o AP for $35K + color option. $37,700 total. I would have saved $2500.
For that extra $2500, I get to enjoy 20 extra miles and 0.3 sec faster car, which is quite expensive.
I don't care about immersive sound, or fog lights.

I doubt I will enjoy that 20 miles at all. I won't charge to 100% unless I'm on a snow/mountain trip without any superchargers, preparing to be towed. (And why am I doing such a trip in the first place?) With SR software lock I will charge to 100% on all trips.

 

[OCR1]

I know that a number of people have posted a theory that because the SR really has an SR+ battery with 10% locked out with software that you should be able to charge the battery to the full 220 mile range without stressing the battery. I’m curious if anyone has been able to confirm this to be true with Tesla engineering?

I don’t believe any SR buyers have actually been downgraded yet so it’s probably too early to test. But once it happens I will be curious to see if they receive the normal warning about charging the battery to 100%. In addition, there could be a second warning that regen braking is limited because the battery is at 100%. In theory this should not apply if the battery is really not at 100% due to software locks.

 

[Retaw]

I know that a number of people have posted a theory that because the SR really has an SR+ battery with 10% locked out with software that you should be able to charge the battery to the full 220 mile range without stressing the battery. I’m curious if anyone has been able to confirm this to be true with Tesla engineering?

I don’t believe any SR buyers have actually been downgraded yet so it’s probably too early to test. But once it happens I will be curious to see if they receive the normal warning about charging the battery to 100%. In addition, there could be a second warning that regen braking is limited because the battery is at 100%. In theory this should not apply if the battery is really not at 100% due to software locks.

I need to test it out myself but I've heard regen, depending on temp, can be limited starting at 85% or even lower. So the question here is whether SR is now limited at around 10% higher, like 95%.
The 100% charging warning doesn't mean anything I think.

 

[Reeler]

I need to test it out myself but I've heard regen, depending on temp, can be limited starting at 85% or even lower. So the question here is whether SR is now limited at around 10% higher, like 95%.
The 100% charging warning doesn't mean anything I think.

That would be nice. I get used to regen and when missing, it can be startling and potentially dangerous as I expect it to kick in to help braking.

 

[beba91]

Just catching up on this thread and I have a few comments:

1) I’m confident that heated front seats will remain in the SR, contrary to a vague comment about them in the blog. There was a document passed out to customers two weeks ago stating this, and several Delivery Advisors have confirmed this in an email.

2) The blog states that SR+ owners can request a refund to downgrade to SR. I believe Elon wrote this but never communicated his intentions about it to the executive team, so nobody that answers the phone has been provided any direction on how it will work, what the restrictions are, or how to handle the requests. It’s sloppy, but unfortunately common practice at Tesla. I can understand why customers would be frustrated about this. We need to stop trolling people who are complaining about this because Tesla opened the door to the refund option and never put a plan in place to execute. They created their own mess here.

3) If you are planning on buying an SR, you absolutely need to make sure they build it in the system with the SR pricing. Don’t fall for the line that you can pay for it as an SR+ and request a refund later. You’ll be chasing Tesla for months trying to get your refund. Just don’t do it.

4) SR+ has had three different prices in the past two months. $37K, $37.5K, and now $39.5K (with AP included). Your perception of whether the SR announcement is fair will depend to some extent on which price you paid for your SR+. If you want an SR+ with AP, the current price is only $1,500 more than the SR with AP. If you don’t want AP, the SR is a much better deal. The worst case scenario is someone who just paid $39.5K for an SR+ but would have preferred not buy AP and could have saved $4,500 by waiting for the SR $35K option to come out.

I’m helping a friend take delivery of an SR next week. Tesla still has not figured out how to downgrade the price as it still shows an SR+ configuration. The salesperson has been useless in the process. I know the manager at the local store so I’ll likely have to call him next week and try to sort things out. Tesla does not make it easy sometimes.

I can confirm also that the SR will not get heated seats disabled. I got my configuration changed from SR+ to SR online. I was also able to keep my white interior with the SR configuration price.

 

[willow_hiller]

I can confirm also that the SR will not get heated seats disabled. I got my configuration changed from SR+ to SR online. I was also able to keep my white interior with the SR configuration price.

I wonder if Tesla considered software-locking the heated seats, but decided against it for safety reasons. If they had the heating pads physically in the car, it would just be a matter of time until someone hot-wired them, which could be a fire/burn hazard.

That being said, I wonder if the SR+ backseats physically have heaters in them... Has anyone checked whether there's a wire under the backseat in addition to the occupancy sensor? I've seen videos of people disconnecting the seat cushion to make the seats lay perfectly flat with the trunk.

 

[Jacobly]

That being said, I wonder if the SR+ backseats physically have heaters in them... Has anyone checked whether there's a wire under the backseat in addition to the occupancy sensor? I've seen videos of people disconnecting the seat cushion to make the seats lay perfectly flat with the trunk.

Yes, I checked the rear seats in my SR+ and it looks like it has the same wire and harness on the rear seats as other videos of the rear seats on a LR. (Recently posted about it on this forum) I imagine the heating coils are present in the rear seats on the SR+ too, just disabled in software.

 

[Reeler]

When will someone have a kit to override the software gimping of the rear seat heaters. Add a switch to that harness.

 

[richtrav]

I wonder if Tesla considered software-locking the heated seats, but decided against it for safety reasons. If they had the heating pads physically in the car, it would just be a matter of time until someone hot-wired them, which could be a fire/burn hazard.

That being said, I wonder if the SR+ backseats physically have heaters in them... Has anyone checked whether there's a wire under the backseat in addition to the occupancy sensor? I've seen videos of people disconnecting the seat cushion to make the seats lay perfectly flat with the trunk.

I was thinking the same thing about the fog lamps - they can really be critical in areas that have frequent fogs and deer or other large animals, it wouldn't look good if someone had an accident because Tesla decided to turn off the fog lights just because they could.

 

[ifbrock]

So has anyone downgraded yet