I may well be mistaken, but it was my understanding that Tesla's year coding on VINs was tied strictly to production date, which means that "model year" 2020 vehicles won't be available until some time in January of 2020. As
@hocr is in California, transit times will be low, so a 2020-production car could conceivably be delivered just days into the new year; however, there will be cars produced in 2019 in inventory, so it won't be until several weeks later that a wide majority of delivered cars will be built in 2020. Also, in the past, Tesla has dedicated most or all of its early-quarter production to overseas markets. If they follow this pattern in early 2020, it could be February before they start producing 2020 vehicles for the US market. I know that when I bought my Model 3, in March of this year, a lot of people were complaining on this forum about getting cars built in 2018. (Of course, I don't know what the percentages were; people would be more likely to complain about getting a "year old" car, rather than praise Tesla for delivering a car built a few weeks later.)
Also, note that Tesla does incremental improvements to its cars, rather than refreshes based on the model year. Thus, waiting
could get you some new feature or improvement on an old feature, whether the wait brings you across a year boundary or not. OTOH, waiting might result in no significant improvement. Likewise for pricing changes and features or options being
removed from the car. (The mid-range battery pack was discontinued on short notice in March, for instance, and many other details have changed since then, including the default paint color and availability of the LR RWD version.) The main advantage to waiting for a new year is that resale value will likely be higher for the newer car, particularly if you intend to keep it for a short time. If you intend to keep the car for 10 years, I doubt if it'll make much difference.
Remember, too, that
deliveries (not orders) before the end of this year are eligible for the $1875 Federal tax credit. Anything delivered on or after January 1 will get no Federal tax credit -- at least, assuming Congress doesn't change the law on these things.
Given all of this, if the configuration you want is available now at a price you like, I'd buy now. If you'd prefer something else, like an LR RWD or a paint color that's not offered (some people want the discontinued silver to return, for instance), you could try holding out for that, but there's no guarantee you'll get it. The probability of price changes between now and January 1 seem to be close to 100%, given Tesla's history, and the price for the configuration you want could go up or down, so that's a gamble. If you decide to wait, be sure to check back frequently, since changes can be announced on short or no notice.
