The trade makes sense, especially if there are no inventory cars and you have to wait for your car (otherwise you could sell your car and be waiting months for a new car.) The trade was a problem because they had to clear the liens on my trade, which is very advanced follow through level stuff apparently. The system miraculously lowered my trade in value for no reason on the day I was supposed to pick up my new tesla, which essentially forced me to take the lowered price (it was $1000 lower). There was literally no human who could give me a reason. I still ended up with a very good sized credit with my trade and new loan. Getting that money back took a year and a half. In a year and a half, I got 3 responses from them to my 40 contact attempts. I bet at least 25% of the people who bought from Tesla have a buying horror story. Its generally not a fun experience.
But in case you missed it, I would buy another one in a heartbeat. The car is awesome enough that they can get away with that crap. As a theater mom, I spend a lot of time sitting in parking lots waiting for rehearsals or auditions. To be able to sit in the air conditioning and play games or watch netflix for 3 hours with no damage to the car and minimal loss of battery life is life changing! I leave my car on while I shop so I come back to the right temperature. It has cabin overheat protection. If I do nothing, it won’t get above 105 in there. There are just a lot of unanticipated lifestyle benefits of it. But I totally bought it for the speed and ease of driving. Mostly the speed 
Wouldn’t any car buying experience other than a simple cash purchase for a car that is already right there be worse for each aspect of complexity (for someone to mess up on or try shenanigans on)?
- Waiting for an ordered car.
- Trading in a car.
- Financing or leasing.
When waiting for an ordered car, used car trade-in values can change, as can financing or leasing rates.
If we go the Tesla route, that will be a dilemma we have: even if we ordered a Model Y today, the website says delivery by September. I also don’t like what happened to the other poster where Tesla baited/switched on the trade-in price on the day the poster was going to do the deal. That ain’t right.
By contrast, we have had two cars acquired through the Costco car buying program. Honestly speaking, it has been effortless, and both times, we got very good deals with very little haggling. As mentioned, we are looking at another non-Tesla vehicle, and I have gotten the Costco dealer info just now.
Honestly speaking, I am a little bit leery of Tesla. Its stock is being massively shorted right now as its carbon credits sale business, which is actually the only thing that makes profitable money for Tesla, is sunsetting. If the customer service in my first dealing with it is not great, I can only imagine how much worse it could get if its finances take a deep dive south. For obvious reasons, Tesco is not in the Costco car buying program, so we have to rely on the full faith and credit of Elon Musk and crew to be around and maintain an acceptable level of customer service. That’s another reason I am leasing rather than buying, so I can hedge our bets.
Let’s see!
Funny…I too spend hours in school parking lots waiting for the DDs to finish their stuff. I routinely do conference calls and work in the car! Yes, thank heavens for a decent car to work in.
Thank you for your great description about how nice the car is.
That being said, I don’t at like what they did about lowering the price for your trade-in. That no one could give you an answer tells me exactly why they did this: to rip you off of a $1000. That is not good, and it is very unfair.
We are going for the Model Y test drive today. As far as I can see, even if we ordered today, the car wouldn’t be ready until September. Accordingly, I am a bit concerned as to how the trade-in will work for us, especially if they engage in what the folks in other countries refer to as “sharp practices”.
What exactly is your worry?
That the company will go out of business and leave you stranded? That’s very unlikely.
That the company will not give you a good sales and service experience. That’s more likely.
It really comes down to what you think the best EV is right now. On the plus side, Tesla has an overall reliable EV (in sharp contrast to Volvo’s and Hyundai’s EVs) and the SuperCharger network. On the minus side, it has body panels that don’t align together very well and an interior that is not for everyone.
Drive the car. Also drive a Mach E and a Hyundai and a Bolt. See which one you like. Personally, I think that Ford has made the most compelling EV besides Tesla, but you give up the SuperCharger network in buying one.
Take the car to CarMax and get a quote from them. Tesla gave a lowball trade in value at first but honored the higher CarMax quote.
I would completely decouple the sale of your car and purchase of the new one. This is what we did (the small loss of sales tax credit would not have made a difference in the overall $$ involved). Put down a deposit on your Tesla if you like it, keep driving your car. Get the Tesla and then sell your vehicle to Carmax or such.
Just want to add that my Model 3 has more than 100,000 miles on it and it still drives like a brand new car, we’ve driven on many 8-10 hour road trips with no problems, and I’d never buy a gas car again. Electric is another level. And while the Tesla service has been far from perfect, my past experience with Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, etc. has been just as bad. And it is a huge advantage that are no oil changes, radiator flushes, tune ups, etc. The best service is no need for service at all!
I’ve enjoyed following this thread. Don’t have a Tesla but am interested in next vehicle being an EV.
My friend let my H and I drive her Audi Etron today. Wow. Loved it. Have no idea how it compares to a Tesla since I’ve not driven a Tesla, but it was SO nice inside and sooo quick to accelerate. Loved it a lot: but not the price. Hah.
The Chevy Bolt is pretty affordable. We love ours. It has slightly better range than the Audi, too at 259. And it’s about half the price. It has a nice backseat and a nice hatch. We would often take family trips to the mountains (about 3 hrs away) with our teens and 60lb dog or now sometimes the cats since our dog died. I like a hatch better than a sedan so that’s another reason to favor the Bolt over the Tesla. Worth a test drive at any rate.
Here is the thing, I am confident they were not trying to rip me off. They just don’t care. Also, I got a M3 SR+. Its not like it was an expensive car compared to my prior inferior cars. The one you are considering creeps into luxury territory, so you may feel different. This was going to be my only car. So the range and the supercharger network were critical to me. No other EV offers that. Its not just how many superchargers there are. It’s that they are super fast. Don’t fall for other brands saying there are just as many charging options. The speed of the chargers is way more important than you think. It takes about 40 minutes at my local supercharger to charge from near empty to 80%. That sounds like a lot, but the truth is that just 10 minutes of supercharging will get me anywhere in town and then I can just charge overnight.
I literally went through this exact same mental process as you. And then I test drove the Model 3 and none of the doubts mattered. I hope you love it. If you can live without the third row (I think you are going to be shocked how small that is), you might want to try the M3 SR+. It’s about half the cost and the range you lose was not important to me more than a couple of times a year. And its plenty zippy.
Also, if you’re not in a rush to buy you might want to wait and test drive the Kia EV6 in early 2022. It will have a 300ish mile range and will be able to charge to around 70% (210 miles) in 18 minutes.
Charging rate depends on the charger used, so I would take those statements with a grain of salt.
Saw a Mach E and the new Volkswagen EV in my ‘hood recently. Not impressed by the looks of the Volkswagen (a box) but Mach E looks very cool.
Well here’s my update after we took the test drive on the Model Y - I was surprised at how sparse everything was on the inside, but almost everything is on the tablet in the center. The navigation system was fabulous and there are cameras everywhere on this car that couple with the NAV system. It’s so good that it shows you trashcans and parked cars ahead.
Let me mention the tablet, which contains almost every control for the car except for windows and door locks, along with a few more things. And it is right in the center of the dashboard with absolutely nothing else. The more I thought about it, this makes much more sense than having the speedometer and gauges at below eye level and the navigation system in the center, along with audio and climate controls. You have just two places to look for everything (either the road ahead, which is obviously critical, and the tablet to your right). Right now, in my car and the minivan, we have to look at three different places to get the same information (ahead, below, and to the right). It’s different than what we’re used to, but the Tesla configuration makes common sense once you get used to it.
The car did the Bay Area hills (some of which are EXTREMELY steep) with absolutely no problems.
My wife drove the car (she will be the main driver), and it was a bit of a change for her. But she has really warmed up to the Model Y. I will test drive it tomorrow, probably on the freeway for about 30 minutes just so I can get a feel for the car. But we liked what we saw.
We have jettisoned the idea of getting a third row. It is a $3000 option, but it is tiny. It’s only for people 5’8’’ tall or less. We decided it’s not worth it. The second row, with three-person seating, has HUGE legroom.
I liked the glass roof, but as folks know, the Bay Area sun can be quite strong without getting hot, and I did feel a bit more heat near my head. That may be because we didn’t know how to use the a/c controls, but I have never heard this being an issue for anyone.
The car is shorter than my PHEV, which is surprising given how much room (storage and passenger) the car has. That is a very positive thing, as it makes parking easier, certainly more so than the minivan and even my car.
The salesperson was EXCELLENT (he was on the phone with us) for a “contactless” test drive. He was able to turn on the car remotely, give us a few minutes of training on setting the seats, mirrors, and steering wheel via our phone. And then we drove it for around 45 minutes.
I was also stunned to find out how safe the Tesla is based on NHTSA data, safer than the Lexus SUV we’re also looking at.
The salesperson was slightly hardsell on one point: if we put the $100 non-refundable deposit today, we would get delivery by the end of July. If not, it “might be delayed” to early September. We’re not going to rush into this, as I want to test drive the Lexus myself and check out the inner cabin storage and passenger space.
I also asked how Tesla deals with locking in the trade-in price where delivery can take anywhere from six to 10 or more weeks. He said that the moment we pay the deposit with the trade-in, the price they will pay for our car is locked in. I am a little dubious about that, but let’s see.
The trade-in price for our minivan was more or less the same as what Carmax or Lexus would give us. I would love to sell the car myself, but I just don’t have the time anymore to spend on calls, riding with potential buyers like I did years ago.
As for the lease price, I was surprised at how low it was. However, it not giving me an all in price (like tax), so I won’t do anything until I get the drive-out money down and monthly payment info.
And finally, I’m checking with our auto insurance company to see how much it will cost to insure this vis-a-vis our current minivan.
That’s all for today!
This, but really anything. I do wonder about Tesla’s long-term future given its massive sales of carbon credits to other manufacturers as a key component of its revenues. It’s stuff like this that makes me worry about Tesla being the next “Big Short”: 'Big Short' investor Michael Burry makes bearish bet on Tesla - MarketWatch. I appreciate this might seem extreme, but Michael Burry seems to be VERY bearish on the long-term future of Tesla.
That being said, the current state of customer service for repairs and quality control for new models (something even Elon Musk recently acknowledged was a problem) is not exactly glowing, and probably would get worse if Tesla has a financial downturn. But many of the reviews that I have read about recent Tesla purchasers is that very little goes wrong with these cars. However, many strongly suggest examining the car with a fine-toothed comb when accepting delivery as there are a lot of panel fit and other quality control issues that you wouldn’t expect for a car of this price. If we go with the Tesla, I will spend hours on this point, as it seems to be a recurrent theme.
Admittedly, that’s background noise for why I want to lease, which is mainly tech advances in EVs, especially with many of the major manufacturers moving away from fossil-fuel vehicles. Companies like Toyota, Honda, Ford, GM, BMW, Audi, etc are completely in the EV and PHEV game now, so I suspect there will be lots of improvements given their vast resources and decades of headstart in automotive manufacturing than Tesla (outside of Tesla’s excellence in EV and related tech). There is no question that Tesla’s range makes it the clear leader In EVs, and I don’t see that changing dramatically over a 3-year lease. But after that, who knows?
My test drive today (see my earlier post today) showed this is, without any doubt, an excellent car, and I have read a number of reviews that are basically glowing. I am convinced it’s a real choice for us. And I really like the fact that this model comes basically loaded. There are a few options, but, unlike Lexus for example, almost everything we would want is already in the car. I drove myself (so to speak!) bonkers trying to configure a comparable Lexus SUV, as when I added one option, I had to delete others.
Tesla undoubtedly has focused on making the sales process effortless to the point where I don’t think I ever need to set foot in a Tesla dealership UNTIL delivery. Having spent countless hours over the decades haggling with car dealers and taking test drives, this seems like an entirely different way of car buying than I have ever experienced.
Tesla seems to have completely streamlined the buying process, and I am impressed with that (although far less impressed with after-sale service reviews).
heads-up: There is a part shortage for the seat lumbar support, so Elon has removed them from the front passenger seat production for Model & Model Y. If that is a consideration, you might want to wait to see if they add them back in later production models. (It’s not only Tesla, as BMW has the same issue, but Bimmer is giving purchasers a $500 credit for lack of passenger lumbar support.)
Not just the lumbar support in the passenger seat, but also the radar used in the various driver assistance features has been removed. This means a reduction in some of the capabilities of the various driver assistance features, at least for now (Tesla claims that future software updates will regain the capabilities, but it is not a good look to remove the hardware before the software is good enough to do without it).
2021 seems to be a bad year to buy a new car… just like 2020 red wine vintages will be not that great.
Wow…you must have been listening in our phone conversation with the Tesla salesperson after the test drive.
My wife asked about the lumbar support, and he said it’s there. I didn’t know about this shortage.
VERY timely and useful! Thank you.
It is there for the driver, not the passenger.