Hello All,
I have long watched these threads and want to jump in here. As background, bought a P3D back in September, fully loaded with Blue, PUP, and FSD. In addition, all 4 rims bent withing 3 months

Thus I think I am in the "most screwed" category if it was a pissing match... Other background, I was the first in line in the US (to my knowledge) camping outside the store for days. I would say I am a superfan. I will say, I do not feel screwed at all as I did get FUSC, which in 10 months, has saved me about $2000 over paying to charge.
But a few points I feel keep getting glossed over:
1) Comparing a Tesla to a cell phone or TV is ridiculous. There is a huge difference in price, impact on people's finances, and practicality. The root people are getting at is Tesla is tech, not a car. Sorry, but no. Tesla is competing in the automotive market not the cell phone or TV market and there are far different expectations.
2) Tesla has always touted they are better than dealers as there are no shady price tactics, this is shady. The reason being is it follows no logic and people can not predict. People typically know that certain seasons have better deals, model year changes, time on market, end of month, start of month, ext will have different deals. Also, manufacturers never change MSRP during a model year, it is a once a year affair. Bringing me to my next point...
3) Lowering MSRP is not at all the same as offering a discount or rebate. Lowering MSRP has a huge impact on people's financial position, as it instantly lowers the value of their by that amount, putting many underwater that may not have been. And more than that, that is a real cash hit as a car is an asset (100% depreciating, until proven otherwise....cough cough...doubt doubt). People did lose that equivalent amount from their net worth overnight even if there is no loan. Rebates and discounts do not have this impact on residual value of cars, at least not to nearly the same degree.
4) Yes with dealers someone may buy the same car on the same day for $10k less, BUT that is a known. Car buying is all about negotiating and researching. Everyone who buys knows that and knows there is a risk. Some people accept it and buy at whatever the dealer gives them, some will crossshop 10 dealers to get the best price possible. That is known and you choose the risk you want to take. When a company says the price is always uniform, and then changes the MSRP at random (i.e. not along traditional wisdom of model years), then the consumer has ability to assess their risk and act accordingly, it is all a coin flip.
5) Tesla is not a scrapy startup, they are a global, influential powerhouse, granted a very new one. These are not early adopter buyers anymore, these are typical car shoppers and they are being treated like early adopters; this may have flown in Model S and X days, but we are well past that now.
I love how Tesla disrupts, but they are now turning away good customers. The company is dealing with everyday people now, not just techies and superfans. And to be honest, it is very upsetting. Literally this past weekend, we were talking about trading in the GFs AWD 3 when the Y comes out as having one SUV makes sense, and my 3 has FUSC. But then this happened. Now she lost thousands of dollars on resale, that will be a real loss a year from now, and we are afraid to buy a Y as we do not want to go through this pain again. That perspective may change.
Tesla needs to have some rhyme or reason. My opinion is they should run specials, on a predicable basis, say monthly, thus they can be ever more flexible. And only do MSRP changes at year end or when they make major model changes.
Typical consumers will not take this any for long and Tesla is killing loyalty. We have 3 (2x 3, one S) in the immediate family, and between these changes and the horrid service, we would buy any other brand next time..... as long as they had the SC network, amazing performance/handling, AutoPilot, and constant updates. And their in lies Tesla's greatest advantage. They can hurt their consumers because their lead is so fast, but that will dry up, and if they do not inspire loyalty, real loyalty and not blind fandom, and soon, the established brands will come hit them hard.
Just my $.02
