Honestly, I think they're doing them in random order. I put my deposit down basically within a half-hour of the deposit page being online... I might um, have a script that periodically checks shop.teslamotors.com for new stuff. Somehow my service center said I was 4th on their list. I mean, that's pretty much impossible. There's pretty much no way three people found out about the reservation page in my area before me and placed deposits. *shrugs*
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Ludicrous Upgrade Scheduling?
- Thread starter tstafford
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- Driving Dynamics Model S
Honestly, I think they're doing them in random order. I put my deposit down basically within a half-hour of the deposit page being online... I might um, have a script that periodically checks shop.teslamotors.com for new stuff. Somehow my service center said I was 4th on their list. I mean, that's pretty much impossible. There's pretty much no way three people found out about the reservation page in my area before me and placed deposits. *shrugs*
whitex
Well-Known Member
I contacted my SC couple of days after the announcement. Placed deposit a couple of hours after it came online (from a cell phone while waiting somewhere). I was scheduled few weeks ago for mid-march. MikeBur was scheduled after me but for an earlier day, possibly because he was at a service center 10 miles away from my SC. There doesn't seem to be any discernible pattern. I'm happy to have the date set, and it looks like I may have saved an additional SC trip with the new bolts thing.
PS> Seriously considering getting a CAN bus reader to understand my car better. Lots of interesting knowledge can be gathered.
I ordered mine 2 hours after the website went active which was a few days before Tesla announced it. Still 5 ordered before me according to Tesla. After talking with 3 of them online and getting their order numbers it was true that I wasn't anywhere near first even though I placed the order almost as soon as the site was up.
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Jason, how many miles on your P85D and what's your 80 or 90% rated charge with range mode on?
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Jason, how many miles on your P85D and what's your 80 or 90% rated charge with range mode on?
~24,000 miles now. (My racking up of miles has slowed a bit.) I don't see any difference with range mode on/off as far as mile display goes. 100% was 250 today, surprisingly. Was around 246 last time. 90% has been between 220 and 223 usually.
I'm booked for March 29th in Vancouver. I think this is one of the first to be done in Vancouver.
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
It does look like a ten second run might be possible with use of the available power within the first second. Better launch brings the whole acceleration curve forward thus allowing more time at higher speeds. Launch really does have a disproportionate affect on ET.
I do believe (from Elon's initial release) that Tesla intended L to be a free over the air upgrade. The company just ran into hardware limitations trying to validate it. Can you imagine how this whole thing would have played out had the company shipped the Bad*ss P85D as they did then bumped it to the DL for free OTA eight to ten months later? We would all be sitting in wonder and calling them super stars. As is, it appears there is tremendous value in the L upgrade yet some have a bad taste in their mouth because they expected it on day one and it is a pay to play thing today. Stepping back and looking at the how it all happened, I really do think Tesla had the very best intentions, got a little over their skis with enthusiasm (who wouldn't?), and ended up having to make Lemmon Aid out of Lemmons when they ran into hardware problems. A lot of people were pissed because Tesla could not pull off what they honestly thought they could. I would prefer they share, fail trying difficult things and have the upgrade cost then just about any other option I can think of.
I do believe (from Elon's initial release) that Tesla intended L to be a free over the air upgrade. The company just ran into hardware limitations trying to validate it. Can you imagine how this whole thing would have played out had the company shipped the Bad*ss P85D as they did then bumped it to the DL for free OTA eight to ten months later? We would all be sitting in wonder and calling them super stars. As is, it appears there is tremendous value in the L upgrade yet some have a bad taste in their mouth because they expected it on day one and it is a pay to play thing today. Stepping back and looking at the how it all happened, I really do think Tesla had the very best intentions, got a little over their skis with enthusiasm (who wouldn't?), and ended up having to make Lemmon Aid out of Lemmons when they ran into hardware problems. A lot of people were pissed because Tesla could not pull off what they honestly thought they could. I would prefer they share, fail trying difficult things and have the upgrade cost then just about any other option I can think of.
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My theory had been that Tesla concatenated the list based on SCs. If you selected an SC where they had originally planned to perform the upgrades, you went directly on the list in timestamp order. If you selected an SC that wasn't originally on the list, you went to the end of the line. Then once Tesla realized the take rate was significantly higher than anticipated, they created a new procedure that enabled all SCs to perform the upgrade. Somewhere in this step the original order was lost. Perhaps they went back to the customer's original ask, but lost the original time stamps?
No idea. All I know is like you, I called the SC during Elon's press call, and placed the deposit a few days before the announcement email. I think it was the first day it was on the accessory store. If not, the second.
I've received conflicting answers from Tesla on where I am. One said "we must go strictly by deposit date", and another said "engineering in California is setting the order. We receive a box with the parts ended with a VIN". When I point out that I was told months ago that I was third on the list and they've done at least 10 at this point I get crickets.
MarcG
Active Member
My thoughts exactly! Now if they could hurry up and get to my upgrade (and take my money) that would be just dandy :biggrin:
Has anyone gotten theirs done in Fremont recently? If so, do you where you sat on the waitlist?
whitex
Well-Known Member
The worst part is that their communication was HORRIBLE on this issue. The complete silence and then posts like JB's blog basically caused a lot of people (myself included) to no longer trust anything that comes out of Tesla official communications. The other part of that trust loss was that they advertised this "free upgrade" as included in the "P", then went completely silent on what happened to it. Some people were speculating that Tesla met the letter of the wording, but in truth Tesla never actually officially told us that the promised high speed performance upgrade was ever delivered or not. On one hand I want to believe that someone thought they could deliver the L with a free OTA. On the other hand we see something like the 691hp which based on even L numbers still boggles my mind on how they thought they could deliver on that. If the company is willing to BS on the latter, maybe they also knew the L upgrade was not possible via OTA, who knows? See, that's what I mean about lost trust?
I am getting the upgrade because I want the car I thought I was buying (for >30mph performance, launch is plenty fast already). Bad taste about having to pay more for something I thought was already paid for? You bet. However, I gotta say that Tesla service experience goes a long way to try to wash that taste out. Since I've owned my fist MS the service was absolutely outstanding. I think Tesla marketing owes some gratitude to the Service Centers (and their employees) for smoothing out customer relations.
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
I still believe Tesla could have generated an incredible amount of good will and good press if they had provided the Ludicrous upgrade to the early P85D purchasers at no charge. Imagine the kinds of stories there would have been in the press:
"While all car manufacturers recall cars from time to time, Tesla is allowing their customers to optionally bring their cars in for a $10,000 upgrade to make the cars faster--and not charging them anything for it! A different kind of car company? You bet!"
How do you put a value on press like that, and on how it makes customers feel, versus the way some of us feel now? Yes, we are happy that we are at least being given the opportunity to pay for the upgrade, and we are delighted at the reports of how significantly the upgrade improves performance, but the bottom line is that for many of there is still that bitter taste in our mouths. Imagine the difference had Tesla handled things differently. Sure, they'll have a little more cash-on-and this way, but long-term I think doing it the other way would have been better.
"While all car manufacturers recall cars from time to time, Tesla is allowing their customers to optionally bring their cars in for a $10,000 upgrade to make the cars faster--and not charging them anything for it! A different kind of car company? You bet!"
How do you put a value on press like that, and on how it makes customers feel, versus the way some of us feel now? Yes, we are happy that we are at least being given the opportunity to pay for the upgrade, and we are delighted at the reports of how significantly the upgrade improves performance, but the bottom line is that for many of there is still that bitter taste in our mouths. Imagine the difference had Tesla handled things differently. Sure, they'll have a little more cash-on-and this way, but long-term I think doing it the other way would have been better.
I know I'm totally trimming the context, but this is where my mind wandered.
If they had handled this as a no-cost-to-owners voluntary recall, the story would have been dramatically different and the brand would have been, well, "launched" to a whole new level of awesome. Think of it as a marketing expense and the cost to Tesla seems small (IMO).
Tesla could still yet offer this upgrade for "free" in one form or another.
A couple of options exist. The first option would be to refund the fee to those who have already paid it and make it a free upgrade to those yet to get it.
A second and more practical option would be to offer a $5K credit on the next Tesla vehicle to anyone who pays for the upgrade. In effect allowing one to get the upgrade and get $5K off their next Tesla purchase, or a $10K value for $5K.
This would give an added incentive to a customer to purchase another Tesla up the road. Customer gets treated well, plus he gets $5K off his next car, then he is likely to look no further for his next vehicle than Tesla. He probably won't even bother to look at anything else knowing that he has a $5K coupon, and he is going to tell his friends to buy Teslas as well.
It probably would not hurt them too badly to give a few hundred people a $5K discount on the purchase of a new car. And the cost could be spread out in a slight price increase on the other vehicles and products.
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lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
Tesla is under a tremendous amount of pressure to show margin on MS sales. I do not think they could afford to take a $5K a car hit for every P85D shipped and face the wrath on the earnings call. I really think they just ran into a technical problem that required hardware and have passed the costs along to us. In this instance, I am in it with Tesla, would prefer they keep pushing the envelope and thus will participate in the hurt when they simply can not pull something like an OTA L upgrade off.
As for WhiteX's trust issues, I really could not agree more. I've got my own pet peeves like underbidding wholesale on MS trades but really it all boils down to a significant degradation in trust.
As for WhiteX's trust issues, I really could not agree more. I've got my own pet peeves like underbidding wholesale on MS trades but really it all boils down to a significant degradation in trust.
While I see your point regarding Tesla being under a tremendous amount of pressure to show margin on Model S sales, does anyone know just how many pre July 17, 2015 P85Ds were sold?
Either way, I'm perfectly fine with paying for the update, and I am glad that Tesla as you say, continues to push the envelope and recognize that as they experience growing pains, so will those of us who are their customers.
But it would be interesting to know just how much exposure Tesla would be on the hook for were they to offer this upgrade for free.
We can definitely put an upper limit on it, but beyond that it's just an educated guess based on public statements (and personal theories) about the product mix during that period of production.
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
also, not all PD owners would pay to upgrade but most would be delivering their cars to the SC for a free upgrade if only to retain the car's resale..... We can all tell this ordeal is a drain on SC and engineering resources. Doing the whole fleet would have dramatically amplified the resource issue.
No, the deal would be you'd only qualify for the $5K off the next vehicle, if you first fronted the $5K for the upgrade.
In other words, you'd be compelled to spend $5K if you wanted the $10K value, i.e. the upgrade plus the $5K off the next vehicle.
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
Only halfway feasible way I see of doing it for "free, is a "buy something, and get a generous coupon/discount off of your next purchase" type of arrangement.
And even that offer would have to be on a very limited basis, i.e. only a few people would qualify for it, for the reason you already alluded to, which is why I would like to know how many cars would even be eligible for such a hypothetical offer.
I could be wrong, and I'm just SWAGing here, 1500-2000 cars tops would be in that P85Ds built up to 7/17/15 window???
Anyone else have any estimates?
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