I guess it's time for the congratulatory perp walk. My order got confirmed last night.
I remember long ago, before there was a Tesla car company, being fed up with the fluctuating and rising costs of gasoline and deciding I wanted an electric car. But no one was making the car I wanted, which was a vehicle bigger than a sedan and with long range. Then Tesla showed up and answered the range question and I was hooked. Just a matter of waiting for the right model. Well, it showed up with the Model X, but initially all the stories about build issues gave me pause. Finally, in the last couple of months all the pieces finally fell into place and I took the plunge.
Even though I questioned the value of the free supercharger vs waiting for the possible improvements in the coming quarter, in the end I just couldn't resist and placed my order to maintain the eligibility for supercharging. I did what I could to have the car built as late as possible while still scheduling delivery by April 1. If Tesla screws up and delivers late, as long as I accommodate their earliest available delivery, it will be on them and I'll still qualify. I mentioned in another post that it's ironic that with all the dissatisfaction in this forum about Tesla's delivery delays, that I find myself hoping for them to delay as much as possible. The single most important improvement that I want is the non-performance 100kWh battery. My hope is that they make it available for ordering before my X begins manufacture and I'm offered the chance to upgrade the order. After it starts down the line, changes will get more expensive.
I figured I would go through my thought process for what I settled on, in case there's anybody else out there going through what I did for the last two or three weeks. I decided on the 90D, since I figured I would be more likely to get the offer to upgrade from there and if the 100 doesn't materialize, the range will be a little better. Ideally, they would put in a software limited 90 if the 100 production ramps up, which financially would be the best of both worlds.
I wanted the feel of leather without getting leather, so the white synthetic vegan was the logical choice. That in turn dictated to some extent the paint color because I didn't want a monochromatic look; nothing wrong with it, it's just not my taste. That left two choices: Deep Blue Metallic or Red Multi-Coat. Red with the white interior just reminded me too much of a candy cane, so that narrowed it down to the Blue. Then I saw the photo in a recent Electrek story ( Tesla finally starts shipping some referral prizes to owners – with the biggest ones still to come ) and I was bowled over. I chose the 20" wheels because range and comfort (and replacement cost) are more important to me than handling.
So next the seat config. I've talked about my dog claw concerns and not being able to fold all the seats in the six-seat config, which would have been my preferred. Several members offered work-arounds but ultimately I decided to just go safe and simple and chose the 5-seater. Not too elegantly designed right now, but it will do. Elon will eventually give us folding second row seats, but alas it will be too late for me, later than I 'm willing to wait after all these years. I'm not getting any younger.
Beyond that, I was cost conscious (a funny thing to say about a $100k+ vehicle) so I skipped the premium package and sound system. They're important for re-sale value, but I'm planning to run this car into the ground; ten or twelve years from now they won't make much of a difference, and at that point I'll probably just give the car to my daughter or granddaughters. Chose the EAP because it's imminent but skipped the self-driving because it's not. Time enough to upgrade later. Don't have really cold weather here in Florida and don't need the fast charging, so the only other thing I added was the towing package.
So there you have it. Man! This was a really long post. I apologize to anyone that actually hung on till the end.
I remember long ago, before there was a Tesla car company, being fed up with the fluctuating and rising costs of gasoline and deciding I wanted an electric car. But no one was making the car I wanted, which was a vehicle bigger than a sedan and with long range. Then Tesla showed up and answered the range question and I was hooked. Just a matter of waiting for the right model. Well, it showed up with the Model X, but initially all the stories about build issues gave me pause. Finally, in the last couple of months all the pieces finally fell into place and I took the plunge.
Even though I questioned the value of the free supercharger vs waiting for the possible improvements in the coming quarter, in the end I just couldn't resist and placed my order to maintain the eligibility for supercharging. I did what I could to have the car built as late as possible while still scheduling delivery by April 1. If Tesla screws up and delivers late, as long as I accommodate their earliest available delivery, it will be on them and I'll still qualify. I mentioned in another post that it's ironic that with all the dissatisfaction in this forum about Tesla's delivery delays, that I find myself hoping for them to delay as much as possible. The single most important improvement that I want is the non-performance 100kWh battery. My hope is that they make it available for ordering before my X begins manufacture and I'm offered the chance to upgrade the order. After it starts down the line, changes will get more expensive.
I figured I would go through my thought process for what I settled on, in case there's anybody else out there going through what I did for the last two or three weeks. I decided on the 90D, since I figured I would be more likely to get the offer to upgrade from there and if the 100 doesn't materialize, the range will be a little better. Ideally, they would put in a software limited 90 if the 100 production ramps up, which financially would be the best of both worlds.
I wanted the feel of leather without getting leather, so the white synthetic vegan was the logical choice. That in turn dictated to some extent the paint color because I didn't want a monochromatic look; nothing wrong with it, it's just not my taste. That left two choices: Deep Blue Metallic or Red Multi-Coat. Red with the white interior just reminded me too much of a candy cane, so that narrowed it down to the Blue. Then I saw the photo in a recent Electrek story ( Tesla finally starts shipping some referral prizes to owners – with the biggest ones still to come ) and I was bowled over. I chose the 20" wheels because range and comfort (and replacement cost) are more important to me than handling.
So next the seat config. I've talked about my dog claw concerns and not being able to fold all the seats in the six-seat config, which would have been my preferred. Several members offered work-arounds but ultimately I decided to just go safe and simple and chose the 5-seater. Not too elegantly designed right now, but it will do. Elon will eventually give us folding second row seats, but alas it will be too late for me, later than I 'm willing to wait after all these years. I'm not getting any younger.
Beyond that, I was cost conscious (a funny thing to say about a $100k+ vehicle) so I skipped the premium package and sound system. They're important for re-sale value, but I'm planning to run this car into the ground; ten or twelve years from now they won't make much of a difference, and at that point I'll probably just give the car to my daughter or granddaughters. Chose the EAP because it's imminent but skipped the self-driving because it's not. Time enough to upgrade later. Don't have really cold weather here in Florida and don't need the fast charging, so the only other thing I added was the towing package.
So there you have it. Man! This was a really long post. I apologize to anyone that actually hung on till the end.
