Buyers are "locked-in" for the $250 nonrefundable deposit, which they could easily walk away from. I know several people that cancelled their orders. Tesla probably didn't want people to walk away and end up with more inventory. A good move on their part.
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I wouldn't worry about demand until we see what happens in 2023. People are clearly going to wait for the Inflation Reduction Act credit to kick in, and that's why Tesla is discounting vehicles for the month of December. I'm sure that Tesla was thinking that if people are waiting because they want a break on the price, well, Tesla can just give them a break on the price and it'll largely be a wash. Tesla is still building cars as fast as possible, and that suggests to me that they are confident in demand. If they weren't, they'd slow down or stop the ramping of production at their factories. So they have the cars and they want to sell them, and a one-month price break is just a quick patch to keep deliveries going.
There seems to be a whole lot of people on these boards that are eagerly looking forward to their delivery day and had no intention of "walking away." Yet Tesla decided to offer these "locked-in" buyers a $3,750 reduction. Do you think any other auto maker would have done that?
A lot of brand loyalty is being created with this gesture.
I take exception to the term "gesture". This is not a gracious act by a company but simply a business move of moving a demand lever in a certain direction. Sure, people who fall into the December deliveries will be happy about the price break, but there are a whole bunch more people who are unhappy about having to deal with price increases over the past year. If this is a gesture, then the price increases were an exploit. Except that they weren't. It was just an impersonal act by a bunch of people doing business and trying to control demand against their available supply.
You and I differ in how we view this situation. I don't think nor do I have any reason to believe that the majority of buyers are attempting to time their purchase for after Jan 1st. Rather, I think those individuals are the exception and the majority were working to get their Tesla ASAP. I think your view is that the vast majority of buyers are doing this time.
Fair enough...
My view has nothing to do with what the "vast majority of buyers" are doing. I'm pointing out that Tesla is acting exactly as if they believe that enough buyers are waiting for the IRA tax credit to cause Tesla to accumulate too much inventory during Q4. Tesla is offering exactly half of the full IRA tax credit and they're only doing it until the IRA tax credit starts. The implications seem pretty obvious to me; Tesla wants to entice the people who are sitting on the fence because of the IRA tax credit to buy during December. Whether that's 1%, 10% or 99% of the buyers I have no idea. It's not important.
Under the current understanding of the IRA, only one trim of the Model Y would qualify for the EV Tax Credit, yet Tesla is extending this gesture to all Model 3 and Model Y deliveries in Dec. This incentive goes well above and beyond the IRA. Said another way, a Model 3 Performance buyer won't be delaying their order to get the credit, as everyone including Tesla knows they don't qualify. Yet Tesla is gracious enough to provide these buyers with a December reduction.
This is definitely a reactionary move by Tesla. They are window dressing their quarterly delivery numbers by providing the discount. Businesses don't offer discounts unless they absolutely have to. Drove pass the Fremont plant yesterday and it was completely filled with new vehicles. My guess is too much supply/cancellation and they are forced to entice people to take delivery in Dec. I wish they focus more on QC than pushing delivery numbers.
Let's not forget they have been raising prices for 18 months to lesson demand. It makes perfect sense to start bringing down prices to something more affordable once demand slackens somewhat. Of course, this kind of sucks for those of us who recently took ownership at the highest prices.
Good observation.
The fact of the matter is Giga Berlin is finally achieving respectable weekly production rates for the Model Y and Giga Shanghai sent 100 factory workers to Fremont presumably to optimize the Model 3 (RWD) production line. North America production is likely at the highest point of the year right now. I suspect this aggressive incentive is a part of a Q4 delivery wave as opposed to any material demand issue.
I had a buddy with a '21M3P drive my '23 M3LR w/Boost today to see if he noticed any differences between his and mine. Here are a few of his observations:
- The '23 handles noticeably better than his '21. It is just as responsive, but is much smoother over road imperfections. He personally likes the way the '23 handles better. More like a BMW 3-series vs a Mini Cooper. Both handle well, but one is more polished.
- The '23 is quieter than his '21 especially when it comes to road noise. Some of it may be due to the tire differences or the suspension changes Tesla made over the summer or both. The '23 is certainly WAY quieter than my old '18 3 RWD.
- The '23 looks better put together with tighter tolerances than his '21. He was pointing to the gaps around the front bumper and lights as examples.
- He liked the look of the wrap around wood, which the '21 didn't have.
- He loved the pickup of the boosted '23.
- Overall he commented that Tesla seems to have stepped up their game in the quality department.
My '23 has a flawless interior. I can't find a single rattle or anything else wrong. Kind of shocked about that. I have noticed a couple very minor body misalignments, but you really have to look for them. I didn't notice them during my 1-hour inspection pre-purchase. The driver door/front quarter panel is maybe 1mm off and I had to perform a slight adjustment of the trunk to reduce the gap between it and the roof rails. It appeared somebody had already tried it at the SC based on the nut marks, but I did a much better job
- The '23 handles noticeably better than his '21. It is just as responsive, but is much smoother over road imperfections. He personally likes the way the '23 handles better. More like a BMW 3-series vs a Mini Cooper. Both handle well, but one is more polished.
- The '23 is quieter than his '21 especially when it comes to road noise. Some of it may be due to the tire differences or the suspension changes Tesla made over the summer or both. The '23 is certainly WAY quieter than my old '18 3 RWD.
- The '23 looks better put together with tighter tolerances than his '21. He was pointing to the gaps around the front bumper and lights as examples.
- He liked the look of the wrap around wood, which the '21 didn't have.
- He loved the pickup of the boosted '23.
- Overall he commented that Tesla seems to have stepped up their game in the quality department.
My '23 has a flawless interior. I can't find a single rattle or anything else wrong. Kind of shocked about that. I have noticed a couple very minor body misalignments, but you really have to look for them. I didn't notice them during my 1-hour inspection pre-purchase. The driver door/front quarter panel is maybe 1mm off and I had to perform a slight adjustment of the trunk to reduce the gap between it and the roof rails. It appeared somebody had already tried it at the SC based on the nut marks, but I did a much better job
UtahRider
Member
Picked up my white/ white AWD M3 today. It had 3 miles on it! Built 26th November.
I think it looks like a SHADO MoonBase Interceptor (showing my vintage!)
Everything was OK, not perfect panel gaps but hard to fault.
One rear tail light assembly has a much bigger gap than the other, service appointment made,
Should be an easy adjustment. I have had many cars and never even thought to look at gaps.
Paint looked good. When it gets warmer I will DIY partial front eBay PPF for about $300 which I did on my 2019 M3.
I did notice the drivers wiper sits high above the hood (compared to my 2019 M3), a quick search shows the wiper
needs to be adjusted a notch down so I have a service appointment for that too.
The car drives smooth on 18” wheels, I had 19” before. I was traveling so haven’t driven a car for four months!
The overall build seems more solid than my 2019 and the wind noise is down.
I got financing from Tower Credit Union at 2.99% for 60 months which beats Tesla’s current 5.34% which saves thousands.
Also I ordered back in June just 2 days before that $2000 price increase.
Glad I ordered the white interior as build was delayed enough that I got the $3750 December delivery price reduction.
The service centre told me there is a 3 month wait for winter tires, so I will put on my old 19” sport wheels and winter tires
after I buy bluetooth TPMS sensors, 200 on eBay vs 400 from Tesla. Also Tesla wanted $156 to swop the wheels and TPMS
if I bought from them, while Discount Tire in Salt Lake City will swop for $44.
It has been a journey and thank you to everybody for sharing their stories and experiences.
Now looking forward to trading this in for a CyberTruck in a few years…
I think it looks like a SHADO MoonBase Interceptor (showing my vintage!)
Everything was OK, not perfect panel gaps but hard to fault.
One rear tail light assembly has a much bigger gap than the other, service appointment made,
Should be an easy adjustment. I have had many cars and never even thought to look at gaps.
Paint looked good. When it gets warmer I will DIY partial front eBay PPF for about $300 which I did on my 2019 M3.
I did notice the drivers wiper sits high above the hood (compared to my 2019 M3), a quick search shows the wiper
needs to be adjusted a notch down so I have a service appointment for that too.
The car drives smooth on 18” wheels, I had 19” before. I was traveling so haven’t driven a car for four months!
The overall build seems more solid than my 2019 and the wind noise is down.
I got financing from Tower Credit Union at 2.99% for 60 months which beats Tesla’s current 5.34% which saves thousands.
Also I ordered back in June just 2 days before that $2000 price increase.
Glad I ordered the white interior as build was delayed enough that I got the $3750 December delivery price reduction.
The service centre told me there is a 3 month wait for winter tires, so I will put on my old 19” sport wheels and winter tires
after I buy bluetooth TPMS sensors, 200 on eBay vs 400 from Tesla. Also Tesla wanted $156 to swop the wheels and TPMS
if I bought from them, while Discount Tire in Salt Lake City will swop for $44.
It has been a journey and thank you to everybody for sharing their stories and experiences.
Now looking forward to trading this in for a CyberTruck in a few years…
Attachments
Your experience sounds similar to mine. Picked up our midnight gray 3LR yesterday afternoon. Gaps are really good on this car, for sure better than they were on my '19 P3D. Definitely not as fast, but it's no slouch. Doesn't have that "holy *sugar*!" punch that the P3D did. But maybe I'll pony up for the speed upgrade when I need to liven it up a bit. It's more my wife's car than mine, though, have to remember that. She never did like the punch of the P3D when she was a passenger.
Those TPMS sensors you saw on eBay, I ordered them yesterday. Already shipped, they arrive on Monday. Which is good, it snowed this morning (but just a bit, and no more for this week), so I want to get my winter wheels & tires installed. Thanks for the info on Discount Tire, now I know what to expect. I'll probably just have them swap the sensors, and I'll do the actual wheel swap at home. Too bad I gave away my pack of jack point pucks to the guy I sold the P3D to, at least they're pretty cheap.
I can't decide what I'm going to do with the tires that came with the car. I'm a bit biased based on previous experience. I think as it is the 19s look small on the Model 3, I thought the stock 20's were much better sized. But they ride a lot harsher and the P3D really paid for it in efficiency. My wife isn't a performance driver, so I should avoid making this car into what I want it to be, instead of what she wants it to be. But the aero covers are so ugly... I might just have to suck it up and get a set of good 19 wheels & summer tires as a compromise. First world problems.
The only quibble I have with this car is that it's a bit twitchy on the freeway. The steering is very direct, and the tires (and maybe alignment) seem to be conspiring for just a touch of tramlining. Might have it realigned with slightly more toe-in to make highway cruising more comfortable. Comfort mode steering helps... but it makes it sloppy at low speeds. Would like it to be more speed sensitive, so it could be tighter around town and more forgiving at 75mph.
Those TPMS sensors you saw on eBay, I ordered them yesterday. Already shipped, they arrive on Monday. Which is good, it snowed this morning (but just a bit, and no more for this week), so I want to get my winter wheels & tires installed. Thanks for the info on Discount Tire, now I know what to expect
. I'll probably just have them swap the sensors, and I'll do the actual wheel swap at home. Too bad I gave away my pack of jack point pucks to the guy I sold the P3D to, at least they're pretty cheap.I can't decide what I'm going to do with the tires that came with the car. I'm a bit biased based on previous experience. I think as it is the 19s look small on the Model 3, I thought the stock 20's were much better sized. But they ride a lot harsher and the P3D really paid for it in efficiency. My wife isn't a performance driver, so I should avoid making this car into what I want it to be, instead of what she wants it to be
. But the aero covers are so ugly... I might just have to suck it up and get a set of good 19 wheels & summer tires as a compromise. First world problems.The only quibble I have with this car is that it's a bit twitchy on the freeway. The steering is very direct, and the tires (and maybe alignment) seem to be conspiring for just a touch of tramlining. Might have it realigned with slightly more toe-in to make highway cruising more comfortable. Comfort mode steering helps... but it makes it sloppy at low speeds. Would like it to be more speed sensitive, so it could be tighter around town and more forgiving at 75mph.
Tesla Model 3 prototype spotted ahead of rumored design refresh
A new Tesla Model 3 prototype with camouflage has been spotted in California ahead of a rumored refresh coming next year.
electrek.co
Camera on the quarter panel behind the headlamp is a notable observation. But this car could just as easily be a hardware 4 prototype as it is a highland prototype.Tesla Model 3 prototype spotted ahead of rumored design refresh
A new Tesla Model 3 prototype with camouflage has been spotted in California ahead of a rumored refresh coming next year.
Daily Delivery Rate
I was chatting with the delivery center folks and walked away with a belief that they are are seeing elevate deliveries of approximately 60 deliveries / day.
Lets collect some info:
For those that have an interest and are in the process of scheduling their delivery appointments, can you try to ascertain the daily delivery numbers for your delivery center and share with us here.
If anyone is in, like this post
I was chatting with the delivery center folks and walked away with a belief that they are are seeing elevate deliveries of approximately 60 deliveries / day.
Lets collect some info:
For those that have an interest and are in the process of scheduling their delivery appointments, can you try to ascertain the daily delivery numbers for your delivery center and share with us here.
If anyone is in, like this post
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