I am not considering the MXP because of the 6 seat option. Also, the way they recline is stupid. They should have just copied BMW X7 rear seats. Another frustration, is the lack of a center arm rest in the 5 seat version. Does Tesla hate arm rests? How could they make the 2nd row captain chairs not have arm rests. Huge miss
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Model X price cuts- yet again
- Thread starter A1TSL
- Start date
E90alex
Active Member
The S/X pricing doesn’t make sense at all.
The S/X Plaid are both currently the same price. But the S Paid is a $20k up charge. The X Plaid is only a $3500 up charge after factoring 6 seat configuration.
Meaning if X Plaid was available in 5 seat it should be $100,990 making it cheaper than S Plaid? Therefore the S Plaid is *significantly* overpriced and should be at $90,990 if based on X pricing model.
Lol imagine a X7 with falcon wing doors. You'd have one in your driveway already heh.
Or at least they could make the middle seats on the 6 seater fold down by now.
$100mm in standing inventory is chump change to an automaker with a market capitalization that is over 2x that of Toyota. Tesla has the cash to finance their own standing inventory.
But even if Tesla's cash was all tied up in DOGE and BTC, the big banks and even specialty finance folks all offer what are sometimes referred to as floorplan lines or warehouses that advance cash based on the collateral someone drops in there. Tesla could easily prop up a 20:1 structure and support $100mm of Tesla channel inventory with as little as $5mm of equity/cash.
Look, the auto industry typically builds stock through Q1 and focuses on hitting the Q2 period hard. Tesla has you all spoiled at how perfect things can be when demand > supply.
Here are the pre-pandemic USA sales charts from ICIS. If Tesla has 5,000 Model X after September, then I agree with you something bad is going on. But it's April 2023, and it's hardly time to start talking about "problems." Someone that is paid way more money than me is sitting with a lot more data than me to make sure they manage this correctly.
Did a X run over your puppy? You seem to trash it at every opportunity. The biggest "complaint" I have with ours is I wish it had more range as we drive @20k miles per year. There is a value to Tesla having a cool "Halo" car. The CT will not be it. My other car is a "Halo" car from GM. A C8 Corvette. They sell 35k - 40k per year. An insignificant number from a corporate view. But they recognize the "Halo" effect. I know you don't like them, but to most people the FWD are pretty cool. As is being able to open and close all the doors from your fob are touchscreen. Tesla has already amortized the R&D so I suspect they have a lot of headroom to adjust pricing. They should also though update it to have a 400+ mile range and move the interior more upscale vs the 3 and Y.
E90alex
Active Member
You can’t compare the regular auto industry stock levels to Tesla since Tesla is all made to order (or should be). It’s a completely different business model.$100mm in standing inventory is chump change to an automaker with a market capitalization that is over 2x that of Toyota. Tesla has the cash to finance their own standing inventory.
But even if Tesla's cash was all tied up in DOGE and BTC, the big banks and even specialty finance folks all offer what are sometimes referred to as floorplan lines or warehouses that advance cash based on the collateral someone drops in there. Tesla could easily prop up a 20:1 structure and support $100mm of Tesla channel inventory with as little as $5mm of equity/cash.
Look, the auto industry typically builds stock through Q1 and focuses on hitting the Q2 period hard. Tesla has you all spoiled at how perfect things can be when demand > supply.
Here are the pre-pandemic USA sales charts from ICIS. If Tesla has 5,000 Model X after September, then I agree with you something bad is going on. But it's April 2023, and it's hardly time to start talking about "problems." Someone that is paid way more money than me is sitting with a lot more data than me to make sure they manage this correctly.
That’s like saying it’s not a problem if Chipotle has a pile of pre-made custom ordered burritos leftover at the end of the day since the grocery store has dozens of burritos in the freezer ready to go.
Tesla is an major automaker... operating in the global auto industry. I'm not talking about burritos. I'm talking about cars. And in this industry of cars, there are enough financial and business instruments to stomach 1,000 Model X's that don't happen to have a buyer yet. Tesla also has significant control over its manufacturing, supply chain, and pricing to respond to current market conditions.
March had 1.27mm auto sales in the USA. 1,000 units of autos would be 0.07%. Do you honestly believe Tesla is on a crash-course to depressing-town because 1,000 Model X?
I'll say it again, these aren't burritos. Tesla is fine. The Model X is fine. Arm-chair-quarterbacking a Tesla for 1,000 cars is entertaining I guess. But it's borderline outrageous to try and convince me that Tesla lacks the ability to manage 1,000 vehicle units that don't have a buyer yet just because Chipotle makes burritos fresh.
Damn! Now I want a burrito for dinner.
E90alex
Active Member
They all do. Corporate GM's or corporate BMW's customers are the dealers, and Tesla's customers are end-consumers. But this doesn't change the premise that the vehicles are "made to order."
If you are a GM, BMW, Toyota, etc dealer, you can go into an ordering system and you can put an order in. And, eventually, that build will come out per your dealer allocation.
Corporate also gets to assign certain builds to ensure they distribute a range of drivetrains (eg: to meet EPA requirements), option take rates (eg: to balance supplier contracts), and other malarkey (eg: to make sure the paint booth doesn't jam up with lots of white cars). Then these "orders" are all sequenced within the magic of the manufacturing process. Yeah, sometimes a dealer takes on a trash build it didn't really want (like some FWD SUV in Utah). But it's still made to order.
End-assembly comes through millions of times a year where each Monroney label is assigned to an existing order. And the finance/business constructs enable this inventory to move around and ultimately reach USA roadways.
You are the one who believes "made to order" has to mean someone was on Tesla.com and popped some $ down. So you're basically creating a construct in your own head then somehow trying to convince people the sky is falling. Tesla happened to have sell-through-demand > supply for quite some time, which has some onlookers a bit spoiled as to how awesome the world could be when things are perfect. But just because now sell-through-demand has dipped a little bit... it isn't the sign of Teslas growing stale like some burrito.
E90alex
Active Member
No. The legacy manufacturers mostly operate on an allocation model. The specific numbers of each model trim and options are pre-determined by corporate and allocated to the dealers. The mostly dealers get what they get assigned. Especially for the mainstream brands. They can request changes or trades with other dealers for a specific combo but they cannot “order” a specific car from the manufacturer.
Some luxury and especially the high end European manufacturers or limited production models do have custom customer ordering and we do see some changes with other manufacturers like Ford’s EV ordering process.
The difference is for Tesla, each vehicle rolling off the line should be tied to a customer order and expected to be sold.
For other OEMs not every car off the line is pre-sold (yes the dealer buys them from the manufacturer, but I mean sold to a consumer).
Some luxury and especially the high end European manufacturers or limited production models do have custom customer ordering and we do see some changes with other manufacturers like Ford’s EV ordering process.
The difference is for Tesla, each vehicle rolling off the line should be tied to a customer order and expected to be sold.
For other OEMs not every car off the line is pre-sold (yes the dealer buys them from the manufacturer, but I mean sold to a consumer).
Is this your rule? It's nice to have... but far from required for a successful automaker at Tesla's scale.
I am not sure your opinion on how legacy manufacturers is correct. I have custom ordered 4 Corvettes and have a deposit down to order an ERAY. They have all been built to my specifications. Because of all the options there are @ 11,000 possible combinations. You may say the Corvette is limited production, but I also did it with Ford F350's 5 of them in 10 years. All built to my exact standards. And if I recall the potential different combinations with the F series truck numbered in the millions. Teslas in contrast have a very limited number of different combinations. Probably less than a 100.
Dang I want to see that ERAY one day ... I really hope GM can get their act together on their EVs. They just can't seem to get their Lyriq's and Hummers out in any meaningful volume
E90alex
Active Member
It’s not a “rule”. That’s just how Tesla has operated historically, aside from store demo vehicles etc.
They don’t have acres of space at each delivery/service center to be housing rows of unsold inventory like a traditional dealership.
But maybe that’s where they are headed if production far outpaces demand, which has never been the case for Tesla and why such relatively high inventory levels now might mean demand is slowing.
Some do have more capability for custom ordering more than others but my point is most vehicles from other automakers are not customer ordered and most cars leaving the factory are not pre-sold to a customer, unlike Tesla.
Not sure if you mean that the customer doesn’t get a say on how a custom order is built. For instance, when I order a BMW or Porsche, I literally spec it out with the salesperson on exactly what I want. Then once I place a deposit, it goes into an order back. Once the vehicle goes into production, I get my VIN and generally wait up to 6mo. to have it delivered. They have never been pre-built. Each dealer gets a certain allocation based on dealer ranking with manufacturer. This is even more important if you’re trying to order a limited production vehicle, like a Porsche GT3 or BMW Alpina, etc.
As far as Tesla goes, I would agree they are supposed to be tied to an order but Tesla also produces “extra” since options are pretty limited. I bet allot of folks like myself have cancelled orders until more features are included. If I order a Tesla, it will either be one that is already sitting at the factory or to be built. Dealers will always try and search for a current build vehicle with your specs before placing a customer order.
My Hummer is “supposed” arrive fall of ‘24 based on an email I received. I don’t believe it and it will be more like 2026 based on the slow rollout of these.Dang I want to see that ERAY one day ... I really hope GM can get their act together on their EVs. They just can't seem to get their Lyriq's and Hummers out in any meaningful volume
