My Fiance currently drives a 2014 BMW 328i on a 3 year lease. The Van Nuys BMW dealership, where we had it serviced once, has been calling her and mailing her stuff lately to try to get her into a new 2018 330i. She answered today and a woman started offering her all of these incentives to end her lease early and get into a new vehicle, so she finally told her that, while she might consider an X3, she's about 99% sure that she's going to get a Tesla Model 3 and though she won't know for certain until she's able to test drive it (Probably November), she's already pretty set on getting the Tesla when her lease is over this January.
The BMW representative immediately got defensive and said that Tesla's batteries aren't really very good for the environment and if she really wants to get an environmentally friendly car, she should look at the i3. They spoke for more than ten minutes, during which the saleswoman offered more and more incentives, insisted that Tesla's batteries were "#400" on a list of environmentally friendly batteries (or perhaps companies, it's unclear), whereas companies like Exxon and BP are listed in the mid-hundreds.
Finally, after my fiance agreed to test-drive an x3 (since Tesla doesn't have a direct competitor to it, until the Model y comes out) they were getting ready to hang up, but not before one last parting shot.
"I don't want to say Tesla is a scam... but Tesla is a scam."
My take? BMW and its dealerships are SHOOK! The 3 series has been the gold standard of entry-level luxury sports sedans for about 3 decades and Tesla is going right at them. My fiance, who runs in a crowd of people who primarily drive either a BMW 3 series or 5 series, said several of her friends and coworkers have made the same decision - after their leases are finished, they're going with a Model 3, which means that this probably wasn't the first time that woman had heard someone say they're leaving BMW for Tesla.
The BMW representative immediately got defensive and said that Tesla's batteries aren't really very good for the environment and if she really wants to get an environmentally friendly car, she should look at the i3. They spoke for more than ten minutes, during which the saleswoman offered more and more incentives, insisted that Tesla's batteries were "#400" on a list of environmentally friendly batteries (or perhaps companies, it's unclear), whereas companies like Exxon and BP are listed in the mid-hundreds.
Finally, after my fiance agreed to test-drive an x3 (since Tesla doesn't have a direct competitor to it, until the Model y comes out) they were getting ready to hang up, but not before one last parting shot.
"I don't want to say Tesla is a scam... but Tesla is a scam."
My take? BMW and its dealerships are SHOOK! The 3 series has been the gold standard of entry-level luxury sports sedans for about 3 decades and Tesla is going right at them. My fiance, who runs in a crowd of people who primarily drive either a BMW 3 series or 5 series, said several of her friends and coworkers have made the same decision - after their leases are finished, they're going with a Model 3, which means that this probably wasn't the first time that woman had heard someone say they're leaving BMW for Tesla.
