More Uk-bound Ships?

[drivingmrte5la]

Only because there aren't currently 5000+ people simultaneously trying to get their hands on a brand new landmark model, some of whom reserved up to 3 years ago. If you want a similar experience elsewhere try ordering a new E-tron or Porsche Taycan and see how long that takes to arrive. Or maybe a VW id?

Are you saying that from experience or guessing?

It's my guess that aside from lead times, the actual comms for the delivery process wouldn't be any difference from ordering say, an S5.

I think Tesla needs to up its logistics and communications game - that's all I'm saying. I'd still cut my little toes off to get the car tomorrow. I am still a fanboy, after all!

EDIT: Typo

 

[Martinb999]

I've had the same two emails that most have had, changing the price but nothing else it seems.

Yes, I'd agree with you guys that say it is the worst buying experience. I've had all sorts of brand new cars over the years; audi, bmw, mercedes, ford, range rover, skoda, VW, etc and I've never experienced such an unorganised system. IF I'd had known this before we ordered (yes, my fault for not researching the process properly before we put the order in) I can tell you now that we would NOT have ordered it. It's VERY stressful having to wait so long - I did anticipate about 8 weeks even though I was originally told probably the end of June, but this is getting really ridiculous now. We would have waited a year to see the first waves ironed out and then ordered. Meanwhile we could live with the Audi and Range Rover for a little longer!!

I've resigned myself to the fact that the wife's early birthday present WON'T be an early present - it will be a LATE present (her birthday is 3rd August!). BTW, I'd still do as drivingmrte5:la would to have one tomorrow!!

 

[drivingmrte5la]

I've resigned myself to the fact that the wife's early birthday present WON'T be an early present - it will be a LATE present (her birthday is 3rd August!). BTW, I'd still do as drivingmrte5:la would to have one tomorrow!!

Maybe you should take her to Freemont, CA for her birthday instead?

 

[Tony Hoyle]

It was made worse by the shutdown in June. If they hadn't done that it'd currently be mid june and we'd be looking at mid july deliveries which wasn't so far from the estimates.

 

[TestPilot]

With every order apart from Mercedes I've received a link that shows exactly where in the build and ship process my car is. There were about six or seven steps on average. Most had email confirmations of stage changes.

Maybe that's spoiled me, but these companies aren't known as being particularly as tech-savvy as Tesla are, so that they are so much better in keeping customers informed is frankly crackers to me!

Try and buy a Kona. That has been a painful experience.

 

[dst87]

If you want a similar experience elsewhere try ordering a new E-tron or Porsche Taycan and see how long that takes to arrive. Or maybe a VW id?

I went in with my parents to look at the Kia e-Nero. Worst experience ever. The salesman had no interest or knowledge, and told his we’d be lucky to get one by next Christmas (18 months away). This is for a car that is in production now.

He then said that the government know nothing about cars and effectively positioned EVs as the next diesel-gate, along with spouting long-solved questions like “Do you really think the grid will handle all of these EVs?”.

So yeah, I think the Tesla experience, for all of it’s flaws, is still pretty damn good.

Honestly - every new car I've had in the last ten years has been done through carwow. The salespeople bid for your custom. Completely turned the car buying experience on its head for me. The only reason I've gone into a showroom since using them is to have a look round and test drive a vehicle and give those salespeople the chance to match or beat.

I'm not affiliated in any way with carwow, btw. Just a very happy customer of theirs!

I’ve heard great things about CarWow. I did briefly use the site a few years ago when considering a Nissan Leaf. Seemed great! I still had to deal with the garages and the sales tactics to arrange a test drive though. Still an overall unpleasant experience. But much better with CarWoW.

 

[Martinb999]

Maybe you should take her to Freemont, CA for her birthday instead?

Oh now that would be the icing on the cake. I don't think I'd ever get back to the UK, she'd probably leave me there!!!!

 

[Peteski]

With every order apart from Mercedes I've received a link that shows exactly where in the build and ship process my car is. There were about six or seven steps on average. Most had email confirmations of stage changes.

Maybe that's spoiled me, but these companies aren't known as being particularly as tech-savvy as Tesla are, so that they are so much better in keeping customers informed is frankly crackers to me!

Funnily enough that's pretty much the buying experience I had with my Model X last year. I knew exactly where my car was at all stages, because it was a true custom order and there weren't 5000 other uk customers ordering one at the same time! Model 3 uk launch is a special situation and was obviously going to be chaos given the huge demand. It is what it is, so you have to show some patience.

 

[Peteski]

Are you saying that from experience or guessing?

It's my guess that aside from lead times, the actual comms for the delivery process wouldn't be any difference from ordering say, an S5.

I think Tesla needs to up its logistics and communications game - that's all I'm saying. I'd still cut my little toes off to get the car tomorrow. I am still a fanboy, after all!

EDIT: Typo

I tried ordering a Porsche Macan in 2014 when it was first released in the uk and was told 12-18 months for delivery with no certainty. Also asked recently about delivery estimates on the Taycan and it's hard to even get them to commit to a specific year, never mind a specific month!

I agree Tesla comms is rubbish, but you have to give them some slack here. M3 is a white hot in-demand car with thousands of people climbing over each other to get one. It's not like the release of a new Nissan Micra!

 

[drivingmrte5la]

... so you have to show some patience.

Kinda feels like I'm a patient of patience at the minute. No choice but to be.

I think it's made worse by the fact that I have no other car at the minute.

EDIT: removed line

 

[Peteski]

Kinda feels like I'm a patient of patience at the minute. No choice but to be.

I think it's made worse by the fact that I have no other car at the minute.

EDIT: removed line

It may be frustrating, but I honestly didn't expect delivery of a uk M3 this year when the waiting list was racking up a couple of years ago and they were struggling with production. Yet here we are in mid 2019 and it looks like the entire order backlog (5000 cars) will be cleared in only a few months. Meanwhile VW etc are still just fannying about with prototypes and micro-websites!

 

[m-i-l]

This is genuinely the worst new car buying experience I've had, bar none! BMW / VW / Merc / Audi - All were in another league completely when it came to factory spec builds and deliveries. Worlds apart.

It almost like Tesla see themselves as more of a software company than a car company (software is often delivered late after lots of last minute changes in specs).

 

[Docro]

I’m likely in the minority. I was disappointed that I didn’t get the car for a summer holiday but price has reduced twice since then and it would have been a very expensive couple of months driving.

My worry is that I won’t get much warning regarding the pick up slot with work commitments and need to book flights to Edinburgh and ferry back to Northern Ireland

 

[drivingmrte5la]

It's not like the release of a new Nissan Micra!

THE NEW NISSAN MICRA’S DROPPED?!?!

www.niss...

 

[drivingmrte5la]

I’m likely in the minority. I was disappointed that I didn’t get the car for a summer holiday but price has reduced twice since then and it would have been a very expensive couple of months driving.

My worry is that I won’t get much warning regarding the pick up slot with work commitments and need to book flights to Edinburgh and ferry back to Northern Ireland

Actually that’s a really good point. Had I been in the 20th June drop I’d likely be moaning even moooare!!

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I'd have been pissed but I'm used to it in IT where you buy a PC one month and the next you can get better for less. Estimates so wildly out even Tesla staff have now admitted they don't have a damned clue when or if the car will be arriving, that I didn't expect.

 

[drivingmrte5la]

VIN has appeared again for me!

 

[WannabeOwner]

With every order apart from Mercedes I've received a link that shows exactly where in the build and ship process my car is.

As @Peteski said it used to be like that. As best as I can understand it the route Tesla have gone down, in order to ramp up production, is to reduce the available options and just manufacture a bunch of vehicles, irrespective of orders (I'm sure they have spotted that nearly 50% of orders are Blue, and less than 10% white (well ... before White was free ...).

So that means they will not allocate your car until pretty much at the point of handover. Personally I would have thought they could allocate it to you as soon as it came off the production line, but I suppose for LHD, at least, they may be delaying the allocation process so that they can decide if Norway handover is a bit busy they send all new LHD cars in current batch to Belgium instead. I suppose that is also true for RHD between Heathrow and Edinburgh handovers ...

Upshot is that when there is a backlog, like UK RHD launch, it is complete chaos. Once over that hump then build-rate is close to handover-rate and chances are that people will get new cars within a couple of weeks instead of build-to-order along with ship-across-the-pond which would (and used to) take several months.

Big Auto have been building cars for more than a century and have it all figured out. I expect Elon thought that hiring the most experience and sharpest minds on the planet would solve that but it didn't turn out that way. Handling the rate of growth Tesla have must be a nightmare - personally I would have put far more effort into COMMs and Back Office systems early on ... but it isn't my Gig.

The PowerWall Installation (I'm sure there are quite a few sold, but nothing like as many as Model-3 orders) is a really slick online experience for providing details of where you want it, what the available space dimensions are, and uploading photographs of your location, the type of power breakers you have and loads more ... its a huge form, and very slick. So they have that ... but for Model-3 you cannot even pick/change a Handover Appointment Time without calling and being on hold for 40 minutes ...

 

[Peteski]

As @Peteski said it used to be like that. As best as I can understand it the route Tesla have gone down, in order to ramp up production, is to reduce the available options and just manufacture a bunch of vehicles, irrespective of orders (I'm sure they have spotted that nearly 50% of orders are Blue, and less than 10% white (well ... before White was free ...).

So that means they will not allocate your car until pretty much at the point of handover. Personally I would have thought they could allocate it to you as soon as it came off the production line, but I suppose for LHD, at least, they may be delaying the allocation process so that they can decide if Norway handover is a bit busy they send all new LHD cars in current batch to Belgium instead. I suppose that is also true for RHD between Heathrow and Edinburgh handovers ...

Upshot is that when there is a backlog, like UK RHD launch, it is complete chaos. Once over that hump then build-rate is close to handover-rate and chances are that people will get new cars within a couple of weeks instead of build-to-order along with ship-across-the-pond which would (and used to) take several months.

Big Auto have been building cars for more than a century and have it all figured out. I expect Elon thought that hiring the most experience and sharpest minds on the planet would solve that but it didn't turn out that way. Handling the rate of growth Tesla have must be a nightmare - personally I would have put far more effort into COMMs and Back Office systems early on ... but it isn't my Gig.

The PowerWall Installation (I'm sure there are quite a few sold, but nothing like as many as Model-3 orders) is a really slick online experience for providing details of where you want it, what the available space dimensions are, and uploading photographs of your location, the type of power breakers you have and loads more ... its a huge form, and very slick. So they have that ... but for Model-3 you cannot even pick/change a Handover Appointment Time without calling and being on hold for 40 minutes ...

I think it's hard to judge how the new order process will work until after the initial uk launch phase is over and things settle down to "normal". The M3 launch is far from a routine situation and therefore hard to compare to ordering a BMW, Audi or Merc were there is no order backlog involved. In any case it's typically 3 months from order to delivery for most custom car orders, the only difference is knowing that fact in the first place. If Tesla had estimated delivery in September, most people would have been okay with that. But then some cars were delivered in June, which would have been a shock in that case. Many more will probably be delivered in August too.

 

[MidhurstNigel]

As @Peteski said it used to be like that. As best as I can understand it the route Tesla have gone down, in order to ramp up production, is to reduce the available options and just manufacture a bunch of vehicles, irrespective of orders (I'm sure they have spotted that nearly 50% of orders are Blue, and less than 10% white (well ... before White was free ...).

So that means they will not allocate your car until pretty much at the point of handover. Personally I would have thought they could allocate it to you as soon as it came off the production line, but I suppose for LHD, at least, they may be delaying the allocation process so that they can decide if Norway handover is a bit busy they send all new LHD cars in current batch to Belgium instead. I suppose that is also true for RHD between Heathrow and Edinburgh handovers ...

Upshot is that when there is a backlog, like UK RHD launch, it is complete chaos. Once over that hump then build-rate is close to handover-rate and chances are that people will get new cars within a couple of weeks instead of build-to-order along with ship-across-the-pond which would (and used to) take several months.

Big Auto have been building cars for more than a century and have it all figured out. I expect Elon thought that hiring the most experience and sharpest minds on the planet would solve that but it didn't turn out that way. Handling the rate of growth Tesla have must be a nightmare - personally I would have put far more effort into COMMs and Back Office systems early on ... but it isn't my Gig.

The PowerWall Installation (I'm sure there are quite a few sold, but nothing like as many as Model-3 orders) is a really slick online experience for providing details of where you want it, what the available space dimensions are, and uploading photographs of your location, the type of power breakers you have and loads more ... its a huge form, and very slick. So they have that ... but for Model-3 you cannot even pick/change a Handover Appointment Time without calling and being on hold for 40 minutes ...

I've just changed my order from SR+ to LR AWD. 35 minute wait for sales to answer the phone but then dealt with very quickly and a revised agreement sent out within 5 miutes. Very much a -no problem- attitide from the sales person. I really don't think any other car maker would have been happy to do this. It really directly follows from Tesla not building cars to order, and only allocating them to customers at a late stage. So, frustrating not to watch your car passing through the build stages like you can with some manufacturers, but on balance well done Tesla for the flexibility you give us customers.