Stop complaining and start promoting if you want Tesla to survive!

[Stirfelt]

This thread is about Tesla survival.

It seems to me that Tesla hired brilliant designers and engineers .... and conceived a trend-setting, fantastic automobile.
EM seems to have been fully in charge of that phase .... and did a commendable job.

Then Tesla cut corners .... didn't fine-tune the refinements before putting them on the market. Unsure if that was EM fault.
Assembly issues became problematic ..... service centers were inundated with work, and their quality faltered.

Management didn't know how to market the car. The cost of options has been so unstable ... that many, once-loyal fans are left confused, and many feel betrayed. That is not good for business, loyalty, or referrals..

Now, sales outlets are being closed. I do not believe a new auto company with a increasingly "checkered" reputation .... can survive without a sales outlet for a prospective buyer to test drive a vehicle. Americans have never bought cars that way before.
"Purchase a Tesla than see if it meets your driving needs" is not acceptable. (thinking about Nancy Pelosi and health care)

We all want Tesla to survive ... perhaps EM needs to hire assembly and marketing professionals to manage the company commensurate with the engineering talent that he hired.

We're all pulling for you.

 

[Nocturnal]

See....I have no problem about the price of EAP going down. They delivered it and I've used it. So....that's just the nature of the beast.

FSD - a different story.

I paid 7k for my EAP, but as you said I made the choice and have used it for months.

 

[SR22pilot]

Well, I used money from downsizing my house to buy mine and to help my partner with buying hers. I would have saved money had I waited. Both of us are teachers. I suspect the money would mean more to me than most people on this forum. However, it does me more harm if Tesla goes under. I thought the Model 3 was a good buy when I bought so that makes it a better buy now. I have enjoyed the updates I have received and I want more. Plus I do feel Tesla is the one company pushing the transition to EV's. I don't think we would be moving as fast as we are if it wasn't for Tesla. If the $35K Tesla sells like crazy then the other manufacturers will be forced to respond. That helps the world and Tesla being around to support and update my car helps me.

 

[dhanson865]

You aren't getting it.

The problem is not simply the price drops.

One of the problems many people are missing is that Tesla has sold a product they haven't given out yet.

They charged people for this product to the tune of $5k.

Remember: They haven't given the product to ANYONE.

They then sold the same product to other people for $2k.

Remember again...they haven't given the product to Anyone.

Originally they told people that " Hey!! you better get this product now because if you wait its going to cost a lot more".

That has turned out to be totally UNTRUE. The price didn't go up like they warned. It actually went down.

That's what is causing some of the angst and sadness.

But you left out the fact that If I go to buy a Model 3 today it's still a $5k option.

So the only people that got the chance to "buy it for $2k" already paid way more than me as a person that hasn't bought the car yet.

In other words it wasn't $5k vs $2k it was

* Expensive car A + 5K vs
* Expensive cab B + 2k vs
* cheaper car C + 5k

someone earlier on sure did pay more but just saying 5k vs 2k is oversimplifying it. It was likely more than a $3,000 difference between any random car in group A, B or C.

Which takes us back to price drops.

 

[Knightshade]

Now, sales outlets are being closed. I do not believe a new auto company with a increasingly "checkered" reputation .... can survive without a sales outlet for a prospective buyer to test drive a vehicle. Americans have never bought cars that way before.

I dunno why folks think you won't be able to do test drives.

Service/Delivery centers aren't going anywhere... (they're supposedly going to be expanding those as they close down "showrooms/sales galleries"

The service centers already have to have loaners on hand for cars under repair- no reason they can't have demo cars doing that work too for test drives.


That said- having no/few sales galleries, and no marketing, and relying no word of mouth... and then pissing off your oldest/most loyal customers with crazy pricing changes that will prompt them to tell people to NOT buy new Tesla products in the first year or you get screwed, is probably a poorly thought out plan.

 

[Stirfelt]

I dunno why folks think you won't be able to do test drives.
Service/Delivery centers aren't going anywhere... (they're supposedly going to be expanding those as they close down "showrooms/sales galleries"

I like what you say ... but Tesla has not made it clear (that I have seen), and many writers on this forum do not have a clear understanding either.

I did understand that not all sales galleries would be closed. I'm assuming the one in as Vegas will remain open.
I don't need the traditional Ford and Chevy showroom .... but I would like to see, sit and drive the variants .... reading opinions on this forum help .... but inadequate when making a major purchase.

Example:
There has been more than enough comments about paint issues ... including pictures ... we can each judge how important that is.
Everyone agrees about the performance, torque, acceleration and etc. Again, we understand that.
But there is a tread about how poor the seat support is. Then someone else praises the seats. That is something that each buyer needs to judge for himself .... opinions don't help but a personal experience is required to truly evaluate the comfort.

 

[Garlan Garner]

But you left out the fact that If I go to buy a Model 3 today it's still a $5k option.

So the only people that got the chance to "buy it for $2k" already paid way more than me as a person that hasn't bought the car yet.

In other words it wasn't $5k vs $2k it was

* Expensive car A + 5K vs
* Expensive cab B + 2k vs
* cheaper car C + 5k

someone earlier on sure did pay more but just saying 5k vs 2k is oversimplifying it. It was likely more than a $3,000 difference between any random car in group A, B or C.

Which takes us back to price drops.

I'm not talking about buying a Model 3 today. So I'm not leaving out any facts.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Thank you Electrek.

https://electrek.co/2019/03/04/teslas-autopilot-bait-and-switch/

 

[Jedi2155]

Thank you Electrek.

https://electrek.co/2019/03/04/teslas-autopilot-bait-and-switch/

LoL, this affected Fred personally so he is definitely writing about it. Whoops, it's written by Jameson which was not Fred. That being said, it affected me tremendously as well.

It's insult to injury. As a P3D+ owner who bought a fully optioned Model 3 ($80.5k / $87k after taxes), my exact car configuration is now $12,000 cheaper than it was 5 months ago.

Us P3D+ owners had to endure:

• $5000 loss due to inclusion of Performance Upgrade Package for "free" supercharging which is now basically "prepaid" supercharging
• MSRP on the car drop from $64,000 to $58,000
• FSD being free now if you bought EAP or AP+FSD ($8000 -> $5000)
• FSD being cheaper and same price when threatened with higher price later.

What do we get for pre-paying FSD early? - Early access program, perk I already got from providing 5+ referrals.

I've also been a Tesla investor and that hurts too. I was super into convincing my wife to get a Tesla when her lease comes up. I'm not so sure anymore.

 

[Knightshade]

Errr, quick thing guys- The byline on the story is Jameson Dow...not Fred Lambert

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

LoL, this affected Fred personally so he is definitely writing about it. That being said, it affected me tremendously as well.

It's insult to injury. As a P3D+ owner who bought a fully optioned Model 3 ($80.5k / $87k after taxes), my exact car configuration is now $12,000 cheaper than it was 5 months ago.

Us P3D+ owners had to endure:

• $5000 loss due to inclusion of Performance Upgrade Package for "free" supercharging which is now basically "prepaid" supercharging
• MSRP on the car drop from $64,000 to $58,000
• FSD being free now if you bought EAP or AP+FSD ($8000 -> $5000)
• FSD being cheaper and same price when threatened with higher price later.

What do we get for pre-paying FSD early? - Early access program, perk I already got from providing 5+ referrals.

I've also been a Tesla investor and that hurts too. I was super into convincing my wife to get a Tesla when her lease comes up. I'm not so sure anymore.

I'm in the same boat, but I don't really feel all that screwed.

I traded free supercharging for the $5K refund so it's less of a hit. Sure I had to give up free supercharging, but I don't use more than maybe $100 or $200 worth of supercharging a year.

I view the reduction in MSRP as a response to the disappearing tax credit. I think the changes were made to position the pricing for when the tax credit disappears for all sense and purpose (in less than 3 months).

FSD is not free now if you bought EAP. If you bought EAP you still have to pay $2K for it. So that's $7K versus the $8K we paid. That's not a big deal to me even though I think it should be $3K. I absolutely disagree with the AP+FSD being $5K for people who didn't buy either. I see no reason for that, and I doubt there would be a high take rate on it. The reason is that $5K is a lot of money to spend after you bought the car. So I can't see a lot of people who didn't get it having the financial means to easily get it. Tesla is probably expecting a lot of money from people jumping at the chance to get FSD for $5K, but I don't see that happening. Instead they'll probably opt for AP for $2K which is a lot more swingable.

I was always opposed to the threats of high price later with EAP and FSD. So having the whole thing blow up wasn't entirely surprising to me.

Mostly I feel like Tesla changed too many things at once. All the price drops, and all the stores closing. It's not just that, but the haphazard way they went about it. The whole thing was poorly executed.

I find myself looking more, and more at the Audi E-Tron.

 

[Surfer]

Way too much whining!

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Tesla just ripped off our band-aids. I don't think they will be lowering their prices again for a very long time, if ever. I wasn't planning on selling my MS. I was planning on driving it until I died of old age in maybe 30 or 40 years. I do feel for those that were planning on selling their top of the line Teslas in the near future. I hope Tesla figures out a way to make this right.

 

[krhoades59]

I was initially concerned that the value of my model 3 performance was going to be lower since the newly priced lower models were available, but that is not the case. The car I bought is still sold for the exact same price with the exact same options. I don't see any comparable EV's on the market yet, just promises. I will never buy another ICE car again, they seem both crude and wasteful. Tesla is not going anywhere, despite the short sellers, the SEC, the Russian trolls or the fake news.