New inventory versus a new order?

[xilex]

Offered a choice between factory new inventory (ie 0 miles, not driven, etc) or a newly built car. Do you think newly built would be better since they will have more experience building the car? Or it is somewhat negligible at this point? Thanks.

 

[bigfan18]

Does the delivery date change based on your answer? Newly built would be the better option if the delivery date is similar but if there's a big difference between new inventory, find out when the manufacturing date is. A few weeks old I would take it.

 

[MXWing]

Offered a choice between factory new inventory (ie 0 miles, not driven, etc) or a newly built car. Do you think newly built would be better since they will have more experience building the car? Or it is somewhat negligible at this point? Thanks.

Why not inspect the inventory car and then decide?

If the inventory car is in overall great shape, I would not throw the dice. That's my two cents.

 

[LoveEV]

Inventory = immediately available, maybe have a good discount on it if it's a showroom or test car, might not be your exact spec.

Custom = will take some time to produce but will be your exact spec and with the latest tech (newest changes)

 

[mattjs33]

I have a legitimate question -- where are these "inventory" cars coming from? I thought all Teslas were build-to-order? Wasn't that the whole point of not having dealerships?

Are these cancelled order cars, or what?

 

[voip-ninja]

I have a legitimate question -- where are these "inventory" cars coming from? I thought all Teslas were build-to-order? Wasn't that the whole point of not having dealerships?

Are these cancelled order cars, or what?

Tesla has too many pre-orders and too many people backing out, stepping in, changing configuration, having financing fall through, wanting to be in Europe for a month for them to build the Model 3 this way at this point in time.

So they do in fact appear to be producing as many cars as they can in a variety of configurations based on demand (and slanted towards the higher profit stuff) and then matching them with customer orders.

For the OP, if the "inventory" car has zero miles then I don't understand why it would be selected over one they are going to build in the factory next week.

A 115,xxx VIN black Model 3 just showed up in the company garage today and appears to have the exact same minor misalignment issues (slightly sunken hood on one side, one door aligned slightly lower, etc.) as my 999xx car that was built in August.

The big dice thrower right now is paint quality, some cars are being delivered to customers with serious paint defects and I haven't seen any indication that this is notably improved in newer VIN cars. Fortunately the paint on mine, from what I could tell going over it with a flashlight was pretty good.

 

[mattjs33]

Tesla has too many pre-orders and too many people backing out, stepping in, changing configuration, having financing fall through, wanting to be in Europe for a month for them to build the Model 3 this way at this point in time.

So they do in fact appear to be producing as many cars as they can in a variety of configurations based on demand (and slanted towards the higher profit stuff) and then matching them with customer orders.

I mean, this sounds exactly like what the traditional OEMs and dealerships do?

For a while I've argued here that it would have been smarter for Tesla to build up some inventory. Everyone told me I was wrong. So what you're saying now is that I was right?

For the OP, if the "inventory" car has zero miles then I don't understand why it would be selected over one they are going to build in the factory next week.

The inventory car would be selected precisely because it is already on site and can be inspected prior to purchase. Why on earth would you give Tesla the opportunity to screw up your build or delay your delivery when there's a car available right now?

 

[voip-ninja]

I mean, this sounds exactly like what the traditional OEMs and dealerships do?

For a while I've argued here that it would have been smarter for Tesla to build up some inventory. Everyone told me I was wrong. So what you're saying now is that I was right?

You seem to be mistaking me with someone who argued they shouldn't build inventory. Tesla should build as much inventory as they can right now in anticipation of year end demand crush that's sure to come due to expiry of tax incentives.

They will have to begin to be a little bit more careful next year as I believe the cars they will begin building for export outside of North America will have different hardware so they can't just stockpile cars forever.

 

[ewoodrick]

I'd say that odds are that the car is essentially just another VIN, could be better, could be worse. You'll never know though. Build quality seems to have been relatively consistent for the last few months.

 

[Gavyne]

I have a legitimate question -- where are these "inventory" cars coming from? I thought all Teslas were build-to-order? Wasn't that the whole point of not having dealerships?

Are these cancelled order cars, or what?

It's said that a lot of the cars get left behind due to logistics issue. Since Tesla is delivering so many vehicles these days, they move hundreds of cars every day to delivery centers across the country. If a car doesn't make it onto the transport, that car gets left behind. Cars get left behind don't always get shipped again since delivery centers can only hold so many cars, so some become inventory, while others get routed to another delivery center.

People who's cars don't make it onto the transport often get matched up with another VIN with the same config.

 

[xilex]

New inventory in this case is a 0 mile car that is still at the Fremont factory and does not have assigned owner, so if I wanted they would ship that car over here. I'm not confident of the build date, but I think more than 2 weeks old. So it's not on site and can't really be inspected, though technically it is a new car. I'm assuming with time the build of the car is slowly getting better, maybe not though.

 

[ebmcs03]

Best built batch seems to be in the April -June time frame.

Newest upgrades and no paint defects.

 

[Trevor B]

If 0 miles. Go for new inventory. Btw Hi. Did you use the referral code?
If not do you want to add mine? Please let me know we can work out a deal

@Arul03, let me say this in a language you might understand. "dey, don't be a muttaal"

 

[robski]

How do you get 0 miles? Do they transport it from the end of the assembly line to a parking space, then put on the wheels?

 

[LoveEV]

slowly getting better, maybe not though.

Seriously I wouldn’t worry about something that hasn’t happened yet. If there is a glaring issue with paint or anything else you have the option to reject the car and tesla will build you another or allow them to fix it.
No car manufacturer is perfect including the Germans they all go back to the service centre for something minor. In my case if I’ve ever had a problem the service centre has never quibbled and just gets it fixed