$35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now • Hacker News Board

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#481

Post by steelframe » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:06 AM UTC

jeffparsons wrote: post #377

BoorishBears wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Courageous” If anyone has ever had to cancel a car sale you’ll realize how much of a hassle it truely is to “return a car” Your credit report will show a loan even after it’s been cancelled for weeks. I once cancelled financing for a car due to it not being as described. Started looking for a new car and found it. Got denied for a loan because my score showed a 60k loan with 0 payments made. It took almost 2 months…

> "financing for a car" ... "ding your credit score" To my mind the mere fact that someone would borrow money at all to buy _a car_ is a huge red flag against their creditworthiness / financial responsibility. But I keep reading online that people who otherwise seem pretty sensible do this as a matter of course. Is it possible that living in a city with functioning public transport has sheltered me to the point of na…

I just bought a car this week and got a loan because the lender gave me $3,000 for borrowing from them. I have to wait 45 days before I'm allowed to pay it off, but there's no penalty for doing so.

I have a 0% interest rate for 7 years on my other car. That's literally free money.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#482

Post by Johnny555 » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:11 AM UTC

I wish they'd just rent them out of their service centers.

I'm not likely to buy a car without a chance to drive it first (even if I can return it "free", there's still a lot of time/effort in getting a loan, registration, insurance, etc)

But I'd be happy to pay $50/day to rent it for a weekend to give it a good test drive.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#483

Post by natch » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:14 AM UTC

briandear wrote: post #457

FireBeyond wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I had a 2016 A4. Went to Austin for a conference, was in a 2016 Model S. Road noise was better in the Audi. And in my current car, compared to a friend's new S? No comparison, mine is far quieter, despite being a V8 (Jaguar XJ) thanks to in cab active noise cancelling and others.

I have a Q7, $20k cheaper than the X and far nicer; Tesla can’t even get CarPlay. If I am paying $100k+ for a car and it has less connectivity to my devices than a KIA, that’s a problem. During the time I own the Q7, the gasoline expense isn’t going to exceed the markup for the X. I like Musk’s vision, but Teslas are the Honda Civic of the Silicon Valley crowd.

But you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution so... but yeah the Q7 is nice. BTW no problems whatsoever with device connectivity with the Model 3. And the X is a moving target; it’s improved all the time so past experience does not indicate the current situation.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#484

Post by d--b » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:19 AM UTC

While I think making cars online sale only makes sense in terms of company operations. I am not exactly sure that making a car go from 37k to 35k will make such a difference in terms of sale.

Probably a good publicity stunt though.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#485

Post by steelframe » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:19 AM UTC

Current Tesla Model X owner. Wanted to replace our other car (ICE) with an EV. Sat in the Model 3 for exactly 15 seconds before I said, "Nope!" Never warmed up to the whole "must hit GUI elements on an LCD with my finger while driving" thing Tesla has going on for almost anything you want to do: A/C, headlights, suspension height, whatever. Interior is still second-rate. Steering column adjustment was a joke. The interior somehow felt claustrophobic. I don't know how they managed that given the room they had to work with.

Went down the street to Jaguar and bought an I-PACE. Sure, it's got a handful of "first gen" issues, but I have no real regrets. Given the choice between heading out of the garage in the Model X and the I-PACE, I've been choosing the I-PACE for the past week. Could be because of the novelty of the thing, but I sort of like things like Bluetooth actually working. I'll use the Tesla when I'm going far enough to need to use the superchargers. But I actually haven't used a supercharger in over a year now.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#486

Post by davidgould » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:20 AM UTC

pcurve wrote: post #171

codeulike wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So presumably they are hoping many $35k buyers will be tempted by the $37k which presumably has a better margin for Tesla

I don't think anyone will actually buy $35k model. They made it so undesirable that it's almost laughable. Reminds me of 2004 Honda Accord DX model with $16995 with roll-up manual windows, plastic hub caps and manual tranny that hardly anyone bought. Most will opt for $40k premium model. Though 37k is much better value, it's missing the core features that tickle fancy of Tesla buyers. Standard Interior Includes: Manu…

I drove a 1994 Honda Accord DX stick for 20 years. It had 247000 miles on the meter when the dash stopped working three years before I replaced it with a Chevy Spark EV. Great car, it was still on the original clutch although it was using a bit of oil.

Now I have a Model 3 Performance because it’s amazing, it’s what I was saving for driving the Accord all those years.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#487

Post by 7e » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:22 AM UTC

tfehring wrote: post #128

TheSmiddy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

buying a $35,000 Tesla has the equivalent cost of ownership of buying a $26,950 ICE car. It's not a massive amount of mental gymnastics. I definitely don't agree with Teslas practices of framing it that way, I'd rather they just show cost of ownership comparisons across a variety of cars. Especially since they can't even meet the demand they currently have, why resort to shady practices?

> buying a $35,000 Tesla has the equivalent cost of ownership of buying a $26,950 ICE car. It's not a massive amount of mental gymnastics. But only if you arbitrarily include the difference in fuel costs, which makes Tesla look cheaper, and exclude the differences in insurance and maintenance costs, which make Tesla look more expensive.

Further, Tesla does not include the costs of a home charger, nor the cost of the yearly EV tax imposed by 17 states.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#488

Post by dpkonofa » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC

Judgmentality wrote: post #396

dpkonofa wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true, though. You can still go to a Tesla dealer and test drive one. You can't necessarily test drive the exact model that you would buy but that's exactly the edge case that the new return policy is meant to address.

Did you miss the part where they said they're closing their stores?

Where did they say they're closing all their stores? All they said was that they were moving sales to online only. They'll still have service centers and other physical locations unless there's a source somewhere that says they're closing all physical locations...

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#489

Post by natch » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:26 AM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #238

trumped wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> clearly it's geolocating by IP address here so you can use a vpn/vps/etc to get the rebate?

Pretty useless if you aren't going to pay NY taxes, right?

Different places have different rebates. One should not assume your location has none, although that’s certainly possible.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#490

Post by 11thEarlOfMar » Fri, Mar 01, 2019, 5:29 AM UTC

steelframe wrote: post #485

Current Tesla Model X owner. Wanted to replace our other car (ICE) with an EV. Sat in the Model 3 for exactly 15 seconds before I said, "Nope!" Never warmed up to the whole "must hit GUI elements on an LCD with my finger while driving" thing Tesla has going on for almost anything you want to do: A/C, headlights, suspension height, whatever. Interior is still second-rate. Steering column adjustment was a joke. The int…

Current Model 3 owner, 15,000 miles. Never drove an X or I-PACE.

I've never had more fun driving. The GUI is NBD in about an hour. It's roomy for me, even at 180 pounds. Looks like my range will go from 310 to 325 with a software upgrade.

And it has built in emissions testing.