Latest Price Drop Discussion

[Kilotango74]

Wow got a disagreement for saying I’m grateful for a lower price. Harsh. Guess I need to suffer like early adopters?

 

[Prunesquallor]

...I like a lot of things about Tesla, but Musk's slimy sales tactics and compulsive lying are major issues with the company. ...

Elon Musk: “I think in general, though, from a societal benefits standpoint, we need to just improve the cost of an electric powertrain—the battery pack and powertrain overall—to make the car more affordable, and we need self-autonomy.”

It appears You DON'T like Tesla's mission.

 

[UTMB]

Gosh, I sure thought that $52k was pretty good in April. Still do. 2000 miles of pure joy. Amazing handling and acceleration, perfect climate control, quiet. Car acquired Sentry Mode and will be ChaDeMo compatible soon (probably won’t buy this adapter or use it). New safety features, too.

Thrilled to death that lower prices could recruit new buyers. My only concern I the impact on profitability; is this a desperate move, or is it just cheaper to make the car?

 

[Octo]

Wow got a disagreement for saying I’m grateful for a lower price. Harsh. Guess I need to suffer like early adopters?

What do you mean with “suffer”? As someone who could have saved $3000 (effectively) had I waited 4 weeks, I certainly don’t suffer. At most I think that it would have been nice to save those, what, 5% had I waited,

I guess you never bought anything truly expensive.

Frankly, if money were so tight as to “suffer” if the price of the car drops for new buyers, I’d shop for a used Hyundai, not a new Tesla. I’d wager that a lot of P3 buyers don’t have to save up but can simply buy that from their disposable money stash. Those people may be annoyed but suffer?

 

[dmurphy]

Gosh, I sure thought that $52k was pretty good in April. Still do. 2000 miles of pure joy. Amazing handling and acceleration, perfect climate control, quiet. Car acquired Sentry Mode and will be ChaDeMo compatible soon (probably won’t buy this adapter or use it). New safety features, too.

Thrilled to death that lower prices could recruit new buyers. My only concern I the impact on profitability; is this a desperate move, or is it just cheaper to make the car?

Nothing to add, just quoting for truth. Spot on.

 

[MountainJedi]

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.

These seem directed in part at my post, so here we go.

Your point #2 - yes, people are used to discounts at certain times from dealers. By and large, those same sales periods will apply here (in the form of incentives and MSRP adjustments) once Tesla no longer can claim a tax credit. The best time to buy will be end of month/quarter/year as they try to hit revenue targets. That may not be the case now, but anyone doing any research should have seen price drops coming as tax credits expire.

Your point #3 - of course incentives and rebates by dealers impact the secondary market of other cars. For example, my boss bought a Bolt at the end of last year and received no discounts or incentives due to demand and the tax credit. Now you can go get one and get 15% off MSRP without a problem. By your logic, he’s just as impacted as someone who has a Tesla. But the truth is that the secondary market bakes in incentives. If a car has an MSRP of $35k but never sells for that because of incentives the secondary market and residual values build that into their prices.

Your point #4 - sure, it’s known you can shop other dealers. However it’s also known that Tesla doesn’t use dealers and doesn’t negotiate prices (generally speaking). No one who has purchased one thought otherwise. No ones paperwork said that prices wouldn’t change. Anyone that didn’t expect prices to change when the tax credits expired didn’t do their homework. The prices are going to drop again in January.

As far as the Y, I’d expect them to price those appropriately from the beginning. They won’t have any tax credits to adjust for and they’ll have the data from the 3 sales to base their pricing off of. If they are still making big adjustments then, it will be a reflection of poor management and low demand and then people should be worried.

 

[focher]

I like a lot of things about Tesla, but Musk's slimy sales tactics and compulsive lying are major issues with the company. I bought a Tesla believing in the vision and now I feel like a sucker who bought into a scam. I will definitely try hard to avoid buying a Tesla next time around. It's sad, but the brand has about the same prestige as VW to me at this point.

It’s ironic how you rail against Musk for his hyperbole, but then fall victim to it yourself. If anyone buys a Tesla based on a Musk statement, their judgment is highly questionable. Buying a car because of the car is the only rational basis for buying a car.

As for pricing, just add this one to the trash heap of bitching about product pricing. Product pricing is based almost entirely on the basis of what a consumer is willing to pay and is highly disconnected from things like cost to produce or consistency. Pick a product or service, and the price each consumer pays can vary greatly. Even Walmart has market-based prices for products. Walk into a Walmart with more affluent buyers and a product will cost more than that same product in a Walmart with less affluent buyers.

 

[SMAlset]

What do you mean with “suffer”? As someone who could have saved $3000 (effectively) had I waited 4 weeks, I certainly don’t suffer. At most I think that it would have been nice to save those, what, 5% had I waited,

I guess you never bought anything truly expensive.

Frankly, if money were so tight as to “suffer” if the price of the car drops for new buyers, I’d shop for a used Hyundai, not a new Tesla. I’d wager that a lot of P3 buyers don’t have to save up but can simply buy that from their disposable money stash. Those people may be annoyed but suffer?

I believe the “suffering” is more from the grief he’s gotten over being happy at the price reduction and verbalizing it here.

 

[happyzod]

What do you mean with “suffer”? As someone who could have saved $3000 (effectively) had I waited 4 weeks, I certainly don’t suffer. At most I think that it would have been nice to save those, what, 5% had I waited,

I guess you never bought anything truly expensive.

Frankly, if money were so tight as to “suffer” if the price of the car drops for new buyers, I’d shop for a used Hyundai, not a new Tesla. I’d wager that a lot of P3 buyers don’t have to save up but can simply buy that from their disposable money stash. Those people may be annoyed but suffer?

Lets say you were a company and had to report earnings. You bought a piece of equipment that depreciates over time. Suddenly the price of that equipment new drops by 33%. You would need to mark that piece of equipment to market and report a loss. It's called marking to market.

 

[ElectricGhost]

Any other P3D owners getting tired of continuous tesla force depreciation? Tesla has depreciated my car 25% since I bought it and it has likely depreciated another 25% due to use. I am still underwater on my 2018 vs buying new. My trade in is probably around 50% of what I paid 10 mths ago.

I get the mission and what not but $15k in price cuts less than one year of release is just ridiculous.

Teslas excessive price cuts are a disservice to its loyal customers that dropped $1000 down on a reservation 3 years ago.

https://electrek.co/2019/07/18/tesl...dEFtEAVvOBntX4sMDanZVWLYIQ5ZwtLD_kCjJzxhJtWJw

 

[iqless]

You bought a new car based on a completely new platform coming from a really really new car company. You are at the front line of early adopters for new technology and as time passes and production volume increases costs will decrease. This is just inevitable.

Apart from new technology and manufacturing, Tesla is also a very new company that is chaotic and has always been in some state of flux when it comes to stuff like this. It's just clear that this purchase might not have stood the test of time financially.

With this company you just never know, and it sucks. I put down money for a used P100D and couple days later they decreased P100D prices by $16,000, meaning my car lost about 15% in value overnight and of course they immediately refused to make any price adjustment on it. That made me cancel my order. It's just ridiculous and it always will be.

 

[tomas]

1) you got the tax credit. Figure that in.
2) you got to drive it for a year.

 

[Xenius]

No. They don't.

You paid the price you agreed at the time of sale. That's it, full stop. You get nothing beyond that.

 

[ElectricGhost]

1) you got the tax credit. Figure that in.
2) you got to drive it for a year.

I did figure that in. Still underwater vs buying new.

 

[03DSG]

Tesla was near under water with the Cap-X entering the 3 ramp and with the ramps delays needed the cashflow. We all knew the pricing going in and accepted it. Great to see Tesla dropping the pricing as economy of scale allows. Makes it more affordable to a larger demographic. Enjoy the car. Its amazing.

 

[jgs]

Lets say you were a company and had to report earnings. You bought a piece of equipment that depreciates over time. Suddenly the price of that equipment new drops by 33%. You would need to mark that piece of equipment to market and report a loss. It's called marking to market.

Which may be relevant to company accounting practices but I fail to see how it relates much to personal finance or more to the point, personal car ownership.

 

[duanra]

Any other P3D owners getting tired of continuous tesla force depreciation? Tesla has depreciated my car 25% since I bought it and it has likely depreciated another 25% due to use. I am still underwater on my 2018 vs buying new. My trade in is probably around 50% of what I paid 10 mths ago.

I get the mission and what not but $15k in price cuts less than one year of release is just ridiculous.

Teslas excessive price cuts are a disservice to its loyal customers that dropped $1000 down on a reservation 3 years ago.

https://electrek.co/2019/07/18/tesl...dEFtEAVvOBntX4sMDanZVWLYIQ5ZwtLD_kCjJzxhJtWJw

It is a great car...etc...but the mission ?
Well, the mission is to make money like every business...as such they will play with price to maximize profit.

 

[brobinson]

The people that relentlessly defend price drops are probably the same ones that bitched and moaned until they got a $5k refund on their performance cars :thinking:

Honestly, the general reaction to these threads, even ones that are mostly level headed complaints, is pretty gross. It is within everyone's right to be upset about the roller coaster style price fluctuations and how it impacts the long term value of their vehicle.

ps. being able to negotiate a better price at a car dealership is nowhere near the same thing as the manufacturer dropping the price of a 'fixed price' vehicle at the drop of a hat.

 

[tomas]

I did figure that in. Still underwater vs buying new.

You were throwing around 25% price drop and 50% depreciation numbers. For my 3P bought at highest point those numbers are way inflated if you figure in tax credit difference. If you are going to throw around numbers, show your math! I’ll post mine later today.

I paid, after 5k refund and $5k tax credit equalization, 62k before sales tax, including AP, FSD and premium paint. That would now cost about 55k. That’s 13% price drop. Not 25.

 

[Xenius]

It is a great car...etc...but the mission ?
Well, the mission is to make money like every business...as such they will play with price to maximize profit.

That's not the mission, it's only a requirement to continue said mission.