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$35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

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271–280 of 741 posts

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#271
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you drive it, you are not going to want to return it, so all this is moot for most people.

I drove a Model S. None of my cars is a Model S. I remember the “salesperson” talking about how quiet it was as wind noise whistled through the cabin like we were in a Corolla. The A4 I was driving at the time was immensely quieter at highway speeds but I nodded and played along. I’m convinced the aspirational status of Teslas means people who haven’t experienced actual luxury vechicles are buying into the hype that…

Though a model 3 does not compete with an A4, it competes with a Honda Civic or similar...

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#272
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rent it for a couple days on Turo. I did that recently with a Model 3 just to try it out.

So now we have to pay for test drives?

I don't think this model makes sense for the long term. Eventually there will be enough competition that Tesla will need to go through an actual Sales/Marketing process like every other product.

But as long as they have a huge wait list for cars, and huge numbers of people who are willing to pay for cars without testing them this makes sense.

My response to your question is "Why should I (a preorder customer) pay a premium for Tesla's business model that allows YOU to do a test drive?"

Until the demand of the wait list customers has been fulfilled, catering to the HARD SELL customer is actually making my experience worse and more expensive.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that but we're talking three months here and a 20% drop in price for an identical product. This is not like a new iPhone. I owe the bank more than the car is worth NEW. Or close to it.[0] So effectively, Tesla has tanked the resale value of the asset. So the $3000 isn't even the half of it. I am now also depreciated by that much more. [0] I haven't done the math, I may be be slightly bellow by a few hund…

Unless you made a particularly large downpayment, you were probably already underwater on the loan. That's extremely common for the first 1/3-1/2 of the loan period on nearly any car.

Point taken and comment updated.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#274

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

Especially if the range limit continues to be imposed only by the car's software.

From what I was told at the dealer, the software range limit was only on the Model S produced during a certain span of time and now all long-range Teslas have larger batteries than their stock counterparts.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#275
post #9

Interesting to point out that the $35k is the full price, which goes down when additional discounts are applied. If you get the short range model with no options, it starts out at $35k, then goes down all the way to $24,950 after including the $3,750 Federal tax credit, $2,000 New York EV rebate (clearly it's geolocating by IP address here), and "$4,300 estimated 6 year gas savings". OK, so that last bit is BS, and i…

Including the credits in the price used to be pretty shady, since you had to have a sufficient pre-credit tax liability to actually get the full benefit of the credit. (The EV credit is non-refundable, meaning that if you don't have a tax liability, you don't get anything from the credit.)

But the Trump Tax Bill lowered everyone's refunds (largely because the IRS lowered withholding during the year), so more people have a year-end tax liability, and those that did before the TTB now have a larger tax liability, ultimately meaning more people can now theoretically benefit from the credit.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#276

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…

"In summary, Tesla is essentially saying “you can’t test drive it but if you don’t like it you can cancel your car search for a few months and ding your credit score for nothing”" Where do they say that? On the site is a big "Test drive" button which goes to https://www.tesla.com/drive which, I asume, will let me test drive a Tesla. Without Buying.

You won’t be able to test drive _the specific car you are buying_ before committing to purchasing it. You’d only be able to test drive another instance of that model, but not the specific one you’d be committing to for X years. This deprives you of the ability to, e.g., avoid purchasing a particular instance of a vehicle that has some annoying defect or flaw.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#277

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…

"In summary, Tesla is essentially saying “you can’t test drive it but if you don’t like it you can cancel your car search for a few months and ding your credit score for nothing”" Where do they say that? On the site is a big "Test drive" button which goes to https://www.tesla.com/drive which, I asume, will let me test drive a Tesla. Without Buying.

They're closing their stores...

When I requested a test drive in a state with no dealerships I was directed to a store out of state.

These stores will no longer exist.

The messaging is also very clear, sometimes it’s ok to read between the lines...

We’re closing stores where you test drive + we’re pushing returns hard in the marketing = we want to move past test drives

This is a new annocument, other parts of the site don’t even have the right mileage and days for returns last I checked, give them some time before the site is consistent with the new reality

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#278

"To achieve these prices while remaining financially sustainable, Tesla is shifting sales worldwide to online only. You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide. We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn’t needed. You can now return a car within 7 days or 1,000 miles for…

What I like about this on a strategic level, it opens up opportunities to (later) have a whole sub-economy of dealerships who offer additional services. Everybody can order online directly, but if you want to be the middleman you may can, but you have to earn it. Everybody with a good idea for a store can compete.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#279
post #242
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars have always had delivery fees. Delivering something that weighs several tons is not cheap.

That's not the full story though. When delivering to dealerships they are often delivered in a more efficient manner, so the per unit cost of delivery is lower. Even if that wasn't the case when you go to a dealership that delivery cost is part of the price. Claiming the car is $35,000 when it's literally impossible to buy it for that is a bit misleading.

With a $3,750 federal tax credit and possible state credits to offset the delivery cost, the headline price of $35,000 is misleadingly high.

Re: $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

#280
post #221
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter to the victim who is at fault? ...also, there's a $1,200 delivery fee. Is this the new "restock fee"? it is conveniently left out of the marketing materials.

Cars have always had delivery fees. Delivering something that weighs several tons is not cheap.

It's cheap in NorCal - my friend had a Model 3 delivered by a dude. Literally. A dude drove his car to his house and then called Uber.

P.S. by "dude" I meant that the man just drove the car to the owner's place from their Fremont factory (30 min).

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