Tesla making changes to inventory car purchase process

[Atebit]

My advisor got the email the evening of the 14 January, just before I called him to put down my deposit on an inventory vehicle.

I was (am) in the market for an S85 and it appears there are currently none to be had that meet the new criteria. You may be in better shape if you're after a P85 WRT time on the ground.

Hmmmm.....this is news to be. I bought my 60 off the sales floor, last week we found to P85 loaner to buy and I am currently try to sell my 60 to buy it. There was no mention of the car having to be in service for 90 days.....its pretty much new. Guess I will make sure of that today.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

If you reread what I wrote, it wasn't specifically or even emphasizing 'potential' customers - that was an afterthought. It was far more encompassing and bigger picture than that. There's no indication that 'calculated decisions' were made to 'NOT honor a promise'.

I don't recall Elon ever saying; 'I 'promise', blah, blah, blah...' I don't think I've ever heard him use the word 'promise', though, he's often stated things with emphatic intent. Regardless, if indeed the situation is changing as reported by the OP, then you'll have that 'promise'. In the scheme of things, what difference is it making to you if the 'promise' took a bit longer to implement than originally 'promised'? Is someone connected to you dying because the 'promise' wasn't kept?

In general I entirely agree, if you can't keep a promise, don't make it until you're sure you can keep it. The caveat there, though, is that sometimes *hit happens, and sometimes things beyond your control change, and it's never a good idea to go into self-sacrifice mode because of a promise. There are times and situations when a promise should be broken. If Elon actually said 'I promise' related to this topic, then you're just going to have to chalk it up to his usual over exuberance and habit of pushing the limit on absolutely everything. A little patience here will see the situation as 'promised' come to fruition the moment Tesla has enough batteries.

Finally, the remedy for your 'tiredness' is simple. Don't buy a car from Tesla, or sell the one you currently own, delete your any links Tesla related, don't type any Tesla related words or topics into Google and the like. If you choose to do otherwise then you have no one to blame but yourself for your 'tiredness'. :wink:

Or instead of "selling" my car, "deleting tesla links?" and not typing "Tesla related words into Google?" I could work on holding them accountable to their statements instead of giving them leeway every time they fall considerably short? Searching on the phrase with Google (which I hope is okay with you?) "elon musk tesla loaner cars service" helped me find this link from April of last year:
Creating the World’s Best Service and Warranty Program | Blog | Tesla Motors

Which reveals these bullets at the very top of the press release:

• Fully loaded Model S Performance 85 cars or Tesla Roadsters as loaners
• Tesla will seamlessly valet the loaner cars to your location

Well, what's funny is I just called and scheduled my first service, and even though I only live 43.5 miles from the Marietta SC, I was told I was "in range" for a loaner because there was a valet driver that lived on my exit. I got the impression that if he/she didn't live down here, I'd have to drive it in... So "Tesla will seamlessly valet the loaner cars to your location" might should have some asterisks beside it, which of course it doesn't. I was also told by the service manager he would "try to get me a MS as the loaner, but it would probably end up being an ICE"... but I was told it would only take a day to do all the work, so I'm inferring from his statement ~1 day without a Tesla loaner is ok? The bottom line is- Today is January 18th, 2014 which is 265 days after this release was made by Elon himself, and they were only able to honor one of the above two "statements" (and likely only because someone lived close enough for the valet)... additionally, I won't be getting a P85 or P85+ for the day like they said 265 days ago. And yes, I prepaid for the service. Overall, it isn't a huge deal, but at the same time it is not meeting the expectations they set for themselves... plain and simple. I did look around for the word "promise," and couldn't find that, so I suppose I probably read someone else's post stating he promised and took it as fact (which is my bad).. but when you put out a press statement like this and tout to USA today that's what you will be doing, how long should it take before you can keep your end of that statement? I guess it's going to be a little more than 265 days, which might be okay for you, but for me, it's not quite hitting the mark they set for themselves. In addition to owning a MS, I own stock, and I'd like to see them be successful. Part of being successful is meeting or exceeding the expectations you set for yourself. Again, not a huge deal right now, but let's say they're still not able to keep good on this statement after 2yrs? 3? When do owners start using the words "accountable?"

 

[Zaxxon]

I'm with you, Seminole. It would be one thing if it was an isolated incident, but it's not. Back in the summer I was one who called Tesla out for being off (by 90%) on their Supercharger roll-out promise. Most people suggested we just give Tesla slack because they can only do so much. The fact is that Tesla's modus operandi is to over-promise and under-deliver. I give them a ton of credit for eventually getting the Supercharger rollout going like gangbusters and meeting their revised promises on that front. I imagine that they will reach a point where the service promises are being met, as well. But at some point the communications folks at Tesla need to realize that words have specific meaning, and that they need to start using words that they can live up to--when they say they will, not 6, 9, or 12 months later.

-Service loaners (the program hasn't yet come anywhere close to consistently meeting their April promises)
-Supercharger rollout (they were far behind for many months before revising their promised rollout and starting to meet goals in November/December)
-Supercharger speeds--200 miles in 30 minutes is not something that any S owner will ever see on a current Supercharger (even the revised 170 miles in 30 minutes is an extremely optimistic number)
-Vanity mirrors, other old retrofit promises
-Model X in 2013

I'm sure there are more. I'm a huge Tesla fan and can't wait to own one. I also realize that as a startup car company undergoing huge growth, **** will happen and Tesla can only do their best--they will fail to meet some milestones that they internally thought were pretty sure-fire. But as I mentioned back in the summer, virtually no one has a problem with what Tesla is delivering. The issue is that they consistently fail to deliver on what they publicly state that they will do. To the point that one can reliably extend Tesla timelines and dial back Tesla-stated numbers in order to arrive at something resembling reality. They need to learn to promise what they can deliver rather than promising the moon. Especially since what they deliver tends to be super-awesome--folks only have reason to complain because they'd been promised super-duper awesome. We Tesla fans deal with this because we love what Tesla is doing. We are rapidly approaching the point where Tesla goes mainstream, and that is when this sort of amateur hour communication policy will start to bite back more severely.

Tl:dr - I love Tesla. Tesla is neat. I find their ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to their newsletter. For their own future benefit and the sanity of their customers, they should hire someone to vet their communications for a reality check.

 

[SeminoleFSU]

Exactly. Sadly it has gotten to the point now that whenever I hear a date announced by Tesla, I immediately tack on another 25-50% of "Tesla time" onto their statements. It's kind of like figuring out how much range you have left on your rated miles gauge, except with that you're subtracting 25%

 

[sp4rk]

Atebit, I understand your POV as a prospective buyer but, as a current owner, I'm applauding here. You may have seen endless complaints, including from myself, about not having access to a Model S loaner when our cars are in for service. This problem is more pronounced at busy service centers such as the ones in Calif. Driving an Enterprise gasser POS as a loaner is not an attractive prospect and is one reason that I've been putting off my pseudo-annual service visit till I can be assured of an MS loaner at my local service center. Call me spoilt but, it's what it is

Hi gg! (hope you're well)
No spoil at all.
Now that I have driven almost 2 years sans gas, the only time I suffer with gas / diesel is when traveling in the USA / UK. I begrudgingly lump it.
So, like you, I too wait for service. My "S" 1 year I think I waited 6-8 weeks for a Model S loaner.
(As my mates will attest, I have difficulty getting my spine into and out of a Roadster!)

 

[AnOutsider]

Amen on the above. Far past time for us to stop making excuses for tesla.

 

[Atebit]

So this thread seems to have morphed into a "what hasn't Tesla done for me recently" thread.

In an attempt to get it back OT, any potential owners have any feeling/experiences around the new policy?

 

[Zaxxon]

I love it.

 

[Atebit]

I love it.

Yeah, it's pretty clear how you feel about it. . I was looking for folks more along the line of GDH that might've had an inventory purchase lined up or on the verge of pulling the trigger.

 

[772]

Atebit, from what I've gathered so far, it sounds like those looking to buy P85/P85+ won't be affected as badly (if at all) as those cars made up the bulk of Tesla's inventory. Now, as those get replaced with 85s and 60s, those that are looking to buy them will have to wait it out. However, inventory 85s and (especially) 60s were not easy to find before they introduced this new policy anyway. In about 3 months time, we'll see people being able to buy inventory 85s and (especially) 60s more easily, and maybe a bit harder to buy inventory P85/P85+, but that remains to be seen.

Given the battery supply constraints, I would expect, in the short term, to see more 60s in inventory, as well as some P85/P85+. I think regular S85 will be hard to find in inventory in the short term, as it makes more sense to build P85, which is a higher margin product using the same amount of batteries as a regular 85, and it also helps them move towards their eventual goal of having a fleet of P85s for loaner vehicles.

It sounds like, for the next 4-5 months, the 60s will become more plentiful in the inventory so that Model S cars can be provided as loaners. Once the battery supply constraint starts to ease in the middle portion of the year, I expect those 60s to get replaced with P85s.

As someone waiting patiently for a 60, I am OK with this :smile:

 

[Atebit]

Yeah, sounds reasonable. As an aside, my Advisor told me that they were no longer allowed to sell 60s in inventory at all starting around the end of 2013. My guess is that with Tesla coming in over 20% of expectations recently they feel comfortable ratcheting back on "short circuit" inventory sales for now.

It also looks like custom orders are running around 30 - 60 days or so right now so in that respect you can order what you want & get it before an inventory car. Overall as folks have said here this is in general a good thing, and something I'm likely to appreciate post-delivery.

 

[772]

As an aside, my Advisor told me that they were no longer allowed to sell 60s in inventory at all starting around the end of 2013.

Yes, I was told the same.

 

[dsm363]

Yeah, sounds reasonable. As an aside, my Advisor told me that they were no longer allowed to sell 60s in inventory at all starting around the end of 2013. My guess is that with Tesla coming in over 20% of expectations recently they feel comfortable ratcheting back on "short circuit" inventory sales for now.

It also looks like custom orders are running around 30 - 60 days or so right now so in that respect you can order what you want & get it before an inventory car. Overall as folks have said here this is in general a good thing, and something I'm likely to appreciate post-delivery.

If the cost difference isn't too much ordering exactly what you want is nice. Congrats either way on hopefully getting a Model S.

 

[brianman]

Aren't they battery constrained?

Recent praise of Panasonic in the production numbers for Q4 suggests otherwise. Or perhaps I misunderstood Elon on that one.

 

[RAM_Eh]

I applauded tesla for this policy.

Our local service centre has 3-400 owners it services and 4 loaners. Too many people jumping the line buying the loaners almost new!

Not as promised.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I'm looking at buying from the inventory now, and most of the cars are >6 months old and have >5000 miles on them. They are not "almost new".

And there's no "jumping the que"... Inventory cars are as-is on the lot. You don't get to pick/choose exactly what you want. If you want your MS to be exactly as you want, you won't be buying from inventory, you'll be buying new and in the que like everyone else.

 

[RAM_Eh]

Not from what info I have. I was offered a car that had under 600 km on it when I was buying. Didn't like the options on it or colours, but I could have jumped the line easily!!!

 

[AnOutsider]

I'm looking at buying from the inventory now, and most of the cars are >6 months old and have >5000 miles on them. They are not "almost new".

And there's no "jumping the que"... Inventory cars are as-is on the lot. You don't get to pick/choose exactly what you want. If you want your MS to be exactly as you want, you won't be buying from inventory, you'll be buying new and in the que like everyone else.

Inventory of course varies from location to location, but there is no denying that there were (are?) loaners being sold almost as fast as they entered service.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Not from what info I have. I was offered a car that had under 600 km on it when I was buying. Didn't like the options on it or colours, but I could have jumped the line easily!!!

Right, and with only 600km on the odo, the "discount" wouldn't be very much at all. 600km = 372 miles. The Inventory program is $1 per mile over 100 miles, so that's a $272 discount, plus 1% per month in service... so 372 miles, that's between a 1% and 2% discount For such a minimal discount off of "list price" I'm sure most people would prefer to custom order their own specifications. Unless these "almost new" cars fit someone's exact specifications, they really don't offer a deal over getting a brand new car made to order. Even if the car was 100% your own specification, wouldn't you want to pay 1% more for brand new instead of a demo/loaner car with unknown driving history?

- - - Updated - - -

Inventory of course varies from location to location, but there is no denying that there were (are?) loaners being sold almost as fast as they entered service.

True, and even though I'm in the market for an inventory car, I agree with Telsa's decision to change this policy. This will allow current owners to have a more full stable of loaners and demos, and provide better discounts for higher mileage, older cars for the inventory program. It's a win-win. I'm actually surprised the old policy even existed to sell such newer cars as inventory cars. I just need to wait several months for the "right" inventory car to become available.

 

[zwede]

I bought an inventory car earlier this week. There are a lot of P85+, some P85, and I only saw one S60. They seemed to be in two batches, either about 2000 miles or 5000-6000 miles. The one I picked was one of the older P85+. 5500 miles, and built before the price increase.