TM Bulletin Board Response to Why No Perf Credit for 19" Wheels?

[bonnie]

Having said that, part of me wants to call on Monday and change my order to a Perf plus a set of 19s for winter, but I hardly think I am worthy of that treatment after my little tirade above. :redface:

Do it! Think of the great story you'll have to tell: Well first I went off on Tesla and then the VP publicly responded and and and... and then all the other reservation holders encouraged me and and and. It's a great ending to the story, Jake .

And more kudos from me for being a standup guy.

 

[JakeP]

Really Peter? What was the price? I have already subsidized Sears and Tirerack.com for all sorts of specialized equipment for changing tires: proper hydraulic jack, torque wrench, gorilla wrench for loosening tight lugs, Psi-Clops dual-hose tire pressure balancing gauge (which I *highly* recommend), etc. Why strand that investment when I sell the BMW, and why not share the love with the Tesla Shop?!? I probably need a bigger jack while I am at it, as the Model S probably weighs a ton more than my BMW!

- - - Updated - - -

Do it! Think of the great story you'll have to tell: Well first I went off on Tesla and then the VP publicly responded and and and... and then all the other reservation holders encouraged me and and and. It's a great ending to the story, Jake .

And more kudos from me for being a standup guy.

Haha, thanks Bonnie! Maybe instead I should just pay the $3500 to upgrade my standard to Silver 21s, or buy a spare set of 21s for $5200, the extra revenue for Tesla being a sort of penance for my accusatory tirade.

 

[dsm363]

Really Peter? What was the price? I have already subsidized Sears and Tirerack.com for all sorts of specialized equipment for changing tires: proper hydraulic jack, torque wrench, gorilla wrench for loosening tight lugs, Psi-Clops dual-hose tire pressure balancing gauge (which I *highly* recommend), etc. Why strand that investment when I sell the BMW, and why not share the love with the Tesla Shop?!? I probably need a bigger jack while I am at it, as the Model S probably weighs a ton more than my BMW!

The Rangers were told by engineering that the jack must be 3.5T or above at least so if your current jack meets that, you should be ok.

 

[JakeP]

The Rangers were told by engineering that the jack must be 3.5T or above.

Thanks for that information, DSM363!

 

[efusco]

Thanks George. I apologize, I did not remember the 19" option early on.
Still stand behind that it would have been nice to throw a bone to those of us who can't afford the performance model. I'm already stretching what I can afford by a LOT, and being forced to pay extra foe air suspension to get my car this year and having to compromise & buy black instead of blue bc of the cost is unfortunate.


Evan, Via Tapatalk

 

[ckessel]

It seems like the problem is Telsa had one mental image in mind, but anyone that does any number crunching wasn't going to see it that way. There's one price for the Perf, but tires/rims obviously don't have the same actual wholesale cost, so to the outside number cruncher it looks like folks with 19" wheels were getting the raw end of the stick.

GeorgeB basically nailed the way it could have been communicated and folks would have been estatic:

...we felt the Performance Package was the ideal place to offer something extra to our early reservation holders who were purchasing a fully loaded car.

It's all in the messaging. Imagine how well it would have come across if the Perf's tire choices had had an * next to them saying:

"21 inch tires are normally a $3500 upgrade, but Tesla is currently offering them as a free upgrade on the Performance package to our early customers. Any reservation made before the offer ends will have this option if they choose the Performance package. Reservations made after this offer expires will have the 21" option for the normal $3500".

The end result is the same, but Tesla's good intentions come across. Part of the problem in the "no cost" thing is folks are so cynical on marketing speak. Buy one get one free (means it was over priced), "free" maintenance (yea, it's really in the base price), etc. "no cost option" sounds like marketing speak for "built into the price". Showing it's a limited time offer for early reservation holders makes clear a more noble intent.

 

[JakeP]

+1, CKessel. That would have sold quite a few more Perfs, I'll wager. Easy for us to say this with 20/20 hindsight, of course.

 

[Arnold Panz]

Ckessel, I couldn't agree more. Having said that, Tesla's communications weren't exactly in mid-season form when all of this was happening, so it's definitely something that I'm sure Tesla would prefer to have communicated in the way you described. I'd also venture to say that Tesla lost some benefit of the doubt with customers since they first did this pricing (for mostly unrelated reasons), and as a consequence things that didn't seem overly suspicious in the past now pass through a more cynical lens that we would use for a more typical car company. Good the see GeorgeB still pushing to keep Tesla on the more enlightened path.

As someone who ordered the Perf package at least in part for the nicer interior that came with it, I'm very happy to hear the news from Tesla on the 21" wheels. I hesitated for a bit on the tires even though I don't need winter tires because of the added cost of more frequent replacements, higher cost per tire, and rougher ride of the 21" wheels, but ultimately have been very apply with my choice. Of course, I haven't had to replace my tires yet!

 

[efusco]

It seems like the problem is Telsa had one mental image in mind, but anyone that does any number crunching wasn't going to see it that way. There's one price for the Perf, but tires/rims obviously don't have the same actual wholesale cost, so to the outside number cruncher it looks like folks with 19" wheels were getting the raw end of the stick.

GeorgeB basically nailed the way it could have been communicated and folks would have been estatic:

It's all in the messaging. Imagine how well it would have come across if the Perf's tire choices had had an * next to them saying:

"21 inch tires are normally a $3500 upgrade, but Tesla is currently offering them as a free upgrade on the Performance package to our early customers. Any reservation made before the offer ends will have this option if they choose the Performance package. Reservations made after this offer expires will have the 21" option for the normal $3500".

The end result is the same, but Tesla's good intentions come across. Part of the problem in the "no cost" thing is folks are so cynical on marketing speak. Buy one get one free (means it was over priced), "free" maintenance (yea, it's really in the base price), etc. "no cost option" sounds like marketing speak for "built into the price". Showing it's a limited time offer for early reservation holders makes clear a more noble intent.

Well stated.

 

[bluetinc]

Not enough information here. The typical reason for two destroyed is not keeping enough air pressure in the tires (assuming there were no defects in the tires). But without examining the tires, it's not possible to say more. There are a lot of folks who are afraid of tire pressure when they should be concerned about tire heat, and there is a lot of FUD about tires some of which was true forty years ago when most tires were bias-ply.

- - - Updated - - -



It's been posted that the price is $500. Perhaps if there were a local Tesla Club where members could chip in...

Thanks Jerry! Great to know, though this means I haven't been keeping up on the forums as well as I thought!

Peter

 

[stevezzzz]

It seems like the problem is Telsa had one mental image in mind, but anyone that does any number crunching wasn't going to see it that way. There's one price for the Perf, but tires/rims obviously don't have the same actual wholesale cost, so to the outside number cruncher it looks like folks with 19" wheels were getting the raw end of the stick.

It still feels like a raw deal to this Sig Standard owner, who decided on the 19" "no cost option". I guess I could have taken the 21" set that was part of the Sig package, bought an extra set of 19" + all season tires and had them installed by my service center, and sold the 21's on the open market. At best I might have come out ahead on the deal, but it still would have been a PITA.

 

[ckessel]

It still feels like a raw deal to this Sig Standard owner...

No argument here. The Sigs configuration and Sig surcharge is a whole different can of worms though.

 

[JakeP]

Definitely different, though the exact $10,000 differential between Sig and Sig Perf certainly agrees with the BB explanation. Though I would guess that the Sig base pricing included the 21s!

 

[vfx]

... it was offered that I could buy the tool to reset the TPMS system if I lived far from a service center or wanted to avoid the Ranger trip out. ...

Would be nice if the tire setup change could be a button on the setup screen.
Roadster off-brands tires too!

PS

Classy apology Jake!

 

[STxTesla]

What it says to me is that the perf is a bargain and people should stop whining. $10k for a 20% improvement in 0-60 is unheard of in the industry and the 21's are free. Get the 21's and sell them to a non-perf for some $$.

Or...sell your 21's to someone that plans to replace their 21's in a year or so anyway.