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Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

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Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#71
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but I won’t own the car in 10 years so I don’t care. I’m not discounting your point or anyone else’s on merit. What I’m getting at is that it’s a minority position and most people don’t care. How many 10 year old cars do you see out on the road? Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that. Most buyers just don’t keep a car long enough for any of this to matter and the ones that do care h…

> Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that. What do you think happens to a car when you're done with it? In the USA, the average passenger vehicle age in 2019 was 11.8 years: https://www.bts.gov/content/average-age-automobiles-and-truc...

It ends up on a used lot, at an auction, shipped overseas or in a junk yard depending on how long I drove it and what kind of shape it’s in. But I don’t care. The next owner isn’t my problem and I’m not going to give it a second thought. The fact is I’m not going to keep a Tesla long enough that the warranty expires and I can trade it or sell it for reasonable value in order to get a new one so the ability to get it repaired by a third party is irrelevant to me. What I’m arguing is that this is true for most Tesla buyers and Tesla doesn’t have to cater to buyers who demand right to repair because there are 100 other options in that space.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#72
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is hardly any maintenance on them. I had a minor wind noise issue when I first got it that they took care of in a couple hours. Since then, it’s been washer fluid and tires. The kinds of routine maintenance and repair items you typically don’t want to take your car to a dealer for aren’t much of a thing on a Tesla. Then there are the big ones where you probably do want the dealer working on it. Like if some sig…

> but they’re going to feel that way no matter what they drive. The difference is that a "random mechanic" is an option with most manufacturers. And it's not with Tesla.

There are “random mechanics” popping up that do repairs on all types of evs. There’s quite a few who only deal with Tesla’s.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#73

Makes sense. Model Y is picking up steam. I doubt they are selling 100% production of the other models (Y is eating a bit into sales of all 3). S and X are both in need of a refresh, they have worse battery tech than both the 3 and Y and missing some of the cool Y features (heat pump, octovalve). Current wait is 8-12 weeks on a Y, and only a week or two on the rest. In line for my first Tesla (a y). It has been a ver…

There's a couple areas where Tesla needs help, and the two I've experience so far waiting for my Y is logistics & customer service. They've had extremely lousy communication so far with the delivery. I was originally supposed to have the car on Memorial Day, but they called the day before saying it wasn't in WA (where I live) yet. When I called back on Memorial Day and asked where it actually was, they told me it got…

I'm not trying to excuse their poor communication, I think the problem is that they have given the Tesla Stores a lot of autonomy in managing deliveries. That means the mothership is reliant on the Stores for status updates.

That autonomy has benefits for some. In my case, our Model 3 was initially scheduled to be delivered to a Tesla Store an hour from our house. We called to see if we could have it delivered to the location 15 minutes away, they instead offered to deliver it to our home.

The weekend before delivery we received a call from the location 15 minutes away saying they had the car and we could pick it up immediately if we didn't want to wait for them to arrange delivery.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#74
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are absolutely right, but it's also not as bad as it was before. You can now buy "unrestricted" parts. Before, you couldn't even buy an air filter.

Thanks to legislation, not to Tesla's magnanimous nature. Several states (notably, MA) had to wave increasingly large sticks at Tesla to get any traction there. You couldn't even buy a screw from their online ordering system. "Price: Not listed". "Order: Contact Tesla" (who would then say "not available to you". Even their service manuals. Make an appointment, in MA. Pay a fee. Go to a specified location, weeks later…

You can get them online...

https://service.teslamotors.com/

It’s just expensive

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#75
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but I won’t own the car in 10 years so I don’t care. I’m not discounting your point or anyone else’s on merit. What I’m getting at is that it’s a minority position and most people don’t care. How many 10 year old cars do you see out on the road? Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that. Most buyers just don’t keep a car long enough for any of this to matter and the ones that do care h…

> How many 10 year old cars do you see out on the road? Yeah, they’re out there, but most of them are a lot newer than that This must be a regional thing. I would guess the majority of vehicleS on the road in Arkansas are more than 10 years old. My daily driver is a 2000 (built in 1999). Granted, it’s a Jeep Wrangler, so that’s probably not representative of the overall market... but my wife’s vehicle is a 2015 Kia S…

I drive the Tesla 50-120 miles a day depending on what I’m doing that day. I mostly got it for the autopilot and then loved everything else after the fact. Whatever flaws autopilot has, it’s life changing if you have to spend a lot of time on the highway.

P.S. An old Wrangler definitely isn’t representative. Hell, the old ones are even better. My wife has a newer one and we will probably keep it forever. Great vehicles.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has gone from being the number 1 BEV manufacturer in Europe to now being number 3. Soon Hyundai will also overtake them in Europe and Tesla will fall back to 4th: https://www.schmidtmatthias.de/post/april-2020-european-elec... So don't worry about Tesla becoming a monopoly. It's not a practical reality.

Or maybe Tesla couldn't ship car to Europe for delivery in April -- contrary to the VW group, whose sales are mostly local stock and who don't have to ship the cars across the Atlantic. Also, Tesla delivers most its cars in Europe in the first month of the quarter. So comparing VW and Tesla over two periods with only partial quarter sales makes very little sense. Matthias Schmidt has known this for years, for some re…

They're car companies selling cars. Volkswagen is the world's biggest car company. It's no surprise that they're becoming the biggest EV company as well. I really wouldn't worry about it.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#77
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a couple areas where Tesla needs help, and the two I've experience so far waiting for my Y is logistics & customer service. They've had extremely lousy communication so far with the delivery. I was originally supposed to have the car on Memorial Day, but they called the day before saying it wasn't in WA (where I live) yet. When I called back on Memorial Day and asked where it actually was, they told me it got…

It seems highly dependent on which service center and who is assigned to you. I places two orders early this year and the first one the guy didn’t really respond to my emails at all but the second one was very responsive and proactive. Regardless they really really need to work on this.

At one point they had CSRs that would manage you and it was similarly unresponsive.

Having dealt with automotive service centers for 30+ years, it's just something I've come to expect. Some people are proactive, some people are reactive, and some people just don't give a flip.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is the stated plan then I really do not understand why the stock behaves like this was the next Apple (i.e., a company with massive margins).

You're assuming that people are expecting a monetary return on their investment. I suspect a lot of Tesla investors are expecting a return in the form of reduced problems due to climate change.

Such investors tend to hold, they don't sell just because the stock hits a certain price. This reduces the actual float, making shares harder to buy. This could be an issue if Tesla were to be added to the S&P 50O in Q2 or Q3, forcing big players to get hold of the stock at market price. Let's see.

Re: Tesla cuts car prices by up to $5k

#79

Tesla is going to get a huge amount of free publicity today. First from the SpaceX manned launch today who are going to be driven to the pad in a Model X and then later this evening from Jay Leno's Cybertruck test drive episode.

That's a very expensive way to get free publicity.
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