S Observations with the D

[mknox]

I remember the first VCR that my then-husband and I bought..

Yep, and I remember my first "cellular" phone in the mid 80's too. I had to take the seats out of my car to mount the control box, run wires to the antenna that went on the back window and mount the handset to the dash. But man, it was cool. I paid $1,600 for it. A friend had paid $3,000 a year earlier and I figured cell phones would never get any cheaper than that!

 

[Jackyche]

I think you guys are being a bit harsh on the "whiners". There's a few hundred people that ordered their MS 2 months ago that missed the "goodies". Its the pitfall of not doing the traditional model year thing. Traditional dealership model, you'd get a chance to hold off buying the current model year until end of the year for next model year. For that, you pay the price of not getting year end clearance discounts.

In this case, had those people knew of the significant advancements of say, model s 1.5 or 2.0, a lot of them would probably hold off on the purchase. Of course, Tesla would then be forced to reduce price to "move" the 2014 cars while 2015 cars are sold at full price.

This is not an early adopter phenomenon. This is the direct result of not using the traditional model year system. At some point, Tesla adds upgrades/options (as we saw with parking sensors, etc), and you deal with that. But since we order our cars MONTHS ahead of time, not knowing what and when new hardware/improvements are coming, Tesla is going to piss off a few hundred people each time this happens. We'll see this again on the next significant change, like bigger batteries, better motors, or whatever the MS owners are currently envying about.

It all comes down to communication. And isn't any. And there isn't any because of the system of sales Tesla decided upon. Lets not be harsh on those who missed the boat by ordering a month or two too early. They sorta got screwed on this one. As for the owners that had their S from a year ago, well, that's just tough luck.

Elon mentioned AWD months and months ago, he just never said when. He also mentioned autopilot. He also mentioned a 500 mile pack too. So I'm sure that's in the near pipeline.

 

[jbadger]

I think you guys are being a bit harsh on the "whiners". There's a few hundred people that ordered their MS 2 months ago that missed the "goodies". Its the pitfall of not doing the traditional model year thing. Traditional dealership model, you'd get a chance to hold off buying the current model year until end of the year for next model year. For that, you pay the price of not getting year end clearance discounts.

In this case, had those people knew of the significant advancements of say, model s 1.5 or 2.0, a lot of them would probably hold off on the purchase. Of course, Tesla would then be forced to reduce price to "move" the 2014 cars while 2015 cars are sold at full price.

This is not an early adopter phenomenon. This is the direct result of not using the traditional model year system. At some point, Tesla adds upgrades/options (as we saw with parking sensors, etc), and you deal with that. But since we order our cars MONTHS ahead of time, not knowing what and when new hardware/improvements are coming, Tesla is going to piss off a few hundred people each time this happens. We'll see this again on the next significant change, like bigger batteries, better motors, or whatever the MS owners are currently envying about.

It all comes down to communication. And isn't any. And there isn't any because of the system of sales Tesla decided upon. Lets not be harsh on those who missed the boat by ordering a month or two too early. They sorta got screwed on this one. As for the owners that had their S from a year ago, well, that's just tough luck.

Elon mentioned AWD months and months ago, he just never said when. He also mentioned autopilot. He also mentioned a 500 mile pack too. So I'm sure that's in the near pipeline.

While I understand, I disagree with these statements. When someone is putting that much money down on something, they should be happy with their purchase no matter what comes out later. They may wish they had waited, but if they are no longer happy with what they got then they shouldn't have purchased it in the first place.

This can be applied to a lot of things besides cars. Phones, computers, and most other electronic devices are like this.

 

[hcsharp]

I think you guys are being a bit harsh on the "whiners". There's a few hundred people that ordered their MS 2 months ago that missed the "goodies". Its the pitfall of not doing the traditional model year thing. Traditional dealership model, you'd get a chance to hold off buying the current model year until end of the year for next model year. For that, you pay the price of not getting year end clearance discounts.

In this case, had those people knew of the significant advancements of say, model s 1.5 or 2.0, a lot of them would probably hold off on the purchase. Of course, Tesla would then be forced to reduce price to "move" the 2014 cars while 2015 cars are sold at full price.

This is not an early adopter phenomenon. This is the direct result of not using the traditional model year system. At some point, Tesla adds upgrades/options (as we saw with parking sensors, etc), and you deal with that. But since we order our cars MONTHS ahead of time, not knowing what and when new hardware/improvements are coming, Tesla is going to piss off a few hundred people each time this happens. We'll see this again on the next significant change, like bigger batteries, better motors, or whatever the MS owners are currently envying about.

It all comes down to communication. And isn't any. And there isn't any because of the system of sales Tesla decided upon. Lets not be harsh on those who missed the boat by ordering a month or two too early. They sorta got screwed on this one. As for the owners that had their S from a year ago, well, that's just tough luck.

Elon mentioned AWD months and months ago, he just never said when. He also mentioned autopilot. He also mentioned a 500 mile pack too. So I'm sure that's in the near pipeline.

You make some good points about some (but not all) of the arguments the "whiners" are making, although I disagree that it's a pitfall of not doing traditional model years or dealership model. It's a pitfall of not giving much advance warning of new features that some people might want to wait for. Some of the complainers agree with what most of us are saying. They don't even mind the sacrifices of being an early adopter in some cases. They just feel they should have been given more advance warning. A couple months probably would have done it. OTOH I'll be surprised if they see as much depreciation as they fear. I think they're over-stressing about that.

 

[richkae]

"Normal" manufacturers only upgrade on the model year boundary. They sell in to their dealers and the dealers buffer the sell through. They have many many models and when they introduce major changes it is to only a tiny fraction of the product line. When there is a major change the manufacturing of that model may stop altogether for a short time. They sell the accumulated inventory - or other models - during that time.
The consumer knows when they are getting last years model and major changes are coming. They buy the dregs at a discount.

None of those things apply to Tesla. They have no inventory buffer. Everything is made on demand. They only have 1 model. They can not idle the product line and do a model year switchover. If they announced that change X was coming on date Y too far in advance it might hurt a lot in the interim.

I am not saying that tesla should do what they did the way they did it.
I don't know how they could do it better.
I don't think that they can do things the same way as a manufacturer with lots of products, lots of factories, and inventory buffers.

 

[Chickenlittle]

"Normal" manufacturers only upgrade on the model year boundary. They sell in to their dealers and the dealers buffer the sell through. They have many many models and when they introduce major changes it is to only a tiny fraction of the product line. When there is a major change the manufacturing of that model may stop altogether for a short time. They sell the accumulated inventory - or other models - during that time.
The consumer knows when they are getting last years model and major changes are coming. They buy the dregs at a discount.

None of those things apply to Tesla. They have no inventory buffer. Everything is made on demand. They only have 1 model. They can not idle the product line and do a model year switchover. If they announced that change X was coming on date Y too far in advance it might hurt a lot in the interim.

I am not saying that tesla should do what they did the way they did it.
I don't know how they could do it better.
I don't think that they can do things the same way as a manufacturer with lots of products, lots of factories, and inventory buffers.

Only change at model year intervals would mean many would have missed cold weather package, parking sensors etc