Should I wait until after the Qtr-end madness?

[KDeanCville]

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on ordering a MY LR. It occurs to me that I might prefer to avoid the madness of pushing cars out the door (and the factory) to meet the end-of-quarter, March 31. What's the harm of waiting a couple weeks and ordering the car in late March, for a delivery in April?

Obviously, I'm giving up the joy of having the car sooner but do I have a better chance of getting a car with fewer panel gaps, etc.?

Thanks! This forum is amazing and has been invaluable as I learn the Tesla ecosystem. I'm looking forward to being a full fledged owner/member soon.

 

[SDM44]

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on ordering a MY LR. It occurs to me that I might prefer to avoid the madness of pushing cars out the door (and the factory) to meet the end-of-quarter, March 31. What's the harm of waiting a couple weeks and ordering the car in late March, for a delivery in April?

Obviously, I'm giving up the joy of having the car sooner but do I have a better chance of getting a car with fewer panel gaps, etc.?s!

From my past experience (last year with my Model 3 order at the end of Q1, and from what I saw happen to other people during that same time), if you placed your order anytime in March then Tesla would try their best to source a car, get you to take care of your financing & paperwork right away, so they can get it delivered to you by 3/31. Last year, I re-ordered (after the factory had shutdown) another Model 3 on 3/29, and took care of the financing and everything on 3/30, and the car was set to be delivered on 3/31 - which I received via home delivery at 8:30pm at night on 3/31.

There were some people who had rejected their orders in late March and had to wait longer (into April) to get another car, but from what I saw they got their deliveries around the 2nd week of April. However, it looked like most of those cars were March builds that may had been rejected, then fixed & corrected, and finally sold to new owners. I also remember that some people still didn't get a car delivered in early April, and had to wait until mid-May when Tesla was able to build a car for them. Although back then, european & chinese Tesla cars were still be built out of Freemont so those builds took precedence before US cars during the early part of each quarter.

Things may have changed with the way Tesla is now doing things from a year ago, especially with the China factory up & running at full capacity and able to pump out cars for Europe. However, I still think if you place an order in late March or the beginning of April, that you may get one a March build that wasn't sold in Q1 (which are most likely getting built right now as of this post, or will be built in the next couple of weeks). But if you want to wait for an even newer build that's not from March, then you may be looking closer towards a late-May or June delivery before the end of Q2.

 

[KDeanCville]

From my past experience (last year with my Model 3 order at the end of Q1, and from what I saw happen to other people during that same time), if you placed your order anytime in March then Tesla would try their best to source a car, get you to take care of your financing & paperwork right away, so they can get it delivered to you by 3/31. Last year, I re-ordered (after the factory had shutdown) another Model 3 on 3/29, and took care of the financing and everything on 3/30, and the car was set to be delivered on 3/31 - which I received via home delivery at 8:30pm at night on 3/31.

There were some people who had rejected their orders in late March and had to wait longer (into April) to get another car, but from what I saw they got their deliveries around the 2nd week of April. However, it looked like most of those cars were March builds that may had been rejected, then fixed & corrected, and finally sold to new owners. I also remember that some people still didn't get a car delivered in early April, and had to wait until mid-May when Tesla was able to build a car for them. Although back then, european & chinese Tesla cars were still be built out of Freemont so those builds took precedence before US cars during the early part of each quarter.

Things may have changed with the way Tesla is now doing things from a year ago, especially with the China factory up & running at full capacity and able to pump out cars for Europe. However, I still think if you place an order in late March or the beginning of April, that you may get one a March build that wasn't sold in Q1 (which are most likely getting built right now as of this post, or will be built in the next couple of weeks). But if you want to wait for an even newer build that's not from March, then you may be looking closer towards a late-May or June delivery before the end of Q2.

Thanks @SDM44 - that's very interesting. It's clear from my visit to the local service center today that they are bringing in a pile of cars right now for delivery in Q1. The lot was overflowing and it's only end of Feb. Hadn't considered that a car in April, might be a reject from late March. The main question is - does the build quality suffer a bit at the end of the quarter, due to the push to get as many out as possible?

 

[Uncle Paul]

Catch 22 is that if you do not get your car prior to EOQ, Tesla begins directing production to Europe and Asia, so they will be delivered prior to the end of next quarter. This will push your deliveries out for an month or so.

EOQ is not so much of a production push as a delivery push. No reason to believe that vehicles made in the next month will be of higher quality.

Much of US deliveries happen close to EOQ.

 

[Giraffe950]

Well a bunch of us who ordered in January are stuck waiting til the end of March anyway, so it may be that you don’t have much choice anyway

 

[KDeanCville]

Good point! And the other comments in this thread have convinced me, there's no need or value in delaying the order to avoid the end of quarter madness.

 

[SDM44]

Let me rephrase when I said earlier "cars were March builds that may had been rejected, then fixed & corrected, and finally sold to new owners" as it sounds worse than it really is, when in reality it can actually be better.

When there are any issues with the car upon taking delivery, you can either record these issues and simply make an appointment to have these fixed at the SC, and they will gladly take care of it for you. Or, you can reject the car and hold out for another one in the same spec, and possibly gamble on the chance that it may have other issues from the factory.

If a new car is rejected by the first buyer and the issues are obvious (paint issues or panel gaps for example), then those issues get addressed by the SC and corrected. The VIN is then made available again in the system so it can be matched up to a new buyer looking for that specific configuration.

So a "rejected" new car just means the original buyer didn't want to take it, and you may actually get a better quality car since any issues would have been addressed and taken care of.


Just some food for thought.

 

[KDeanCville]

OK - I pulled the trigger today, 3/1/21 on a new MY LR. Placed the order, now awaiting the VIN and delivery date. Expecting it before the end of month due to quarter-end. I need to hustle and get the Wall Connector delivered and installed! Exciting!!!

 

[Samyul]

I made the mistake of buying a bunch of accessories thinking that the estimated delivery range would be accurate. I'm now past the return window on everything, and one of the accessories, the Taptes usb hub, is already obsolete because of the new console. I totally get the enthusiasm, but this is a marathon, not a sprint. You're going to have to pace yourself if you ordered a 7 seater like me.