Sulu

I do not believe that is what he was referring to. He was referring to the fact that Elon Musk must let someone else take over day-to-day management of the manufacturing of the cars. The sales of the cars -- whether directly by Tesla or through a franchised operation -- is a minor obstacle; if you have no cars (or not enough cars) available, selling them is not the worry.

jrmckinley

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this is a departure from the agreement of model 3 purchases since inception. You paid $1k as a deposit (refundable) but then when your turn came up in line, you forked over another $2,500 as production would soon begin. So I'm not sure what you're upset about. To my knowledge the rules haven't changed at all.

On top of that, I looked at a brand new Range Rover a few years ago and it was a very similar setup. It was right when the refreshed body style came out and demand was exceeding supply. Refundable deposit secured your place in line, but then you had to pay a decent amount once your Rover was about to be produced. When you have the ability to customize a car from the factory, the manufacturer needs to protect themselves to a certain degree and get some money up front for producing what may be a slightly unique vehicle based on colors and options if you choose to back out.

riredale

I do not have a reservation for the Model 3, but I think if I did I would be furious that Musk has done a switcheroo--he isn't going to build the cheap versions of the car that got everyone so excited. No, he is pushing the long-range $55K+ version, and moving folks with those preferences to the head of the line. And the patient base-model reservations folks will probably not get the $7.5K federal gift by the time their cars are ready.

So Musk has said one thing and then done another. He's done it in order to get more revenue to his slowly-suffocating company, but it's still called lying. I worked for Apple back in the early days of Mac. Steve Jobs was a pain to work with at times but I don't recall him jerking customers around.

That's how I see it. If I am mistaken about any of this, let me know.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

jrmckinley

I don't think it's accurate to say Tesla "isn't going to build the cheap versions of the car" unless I have missed something in the news. Also, when the $7,500 federal allowance goes away after 200k cars, it simply gets cut to $3,750 for six months after the decrease, and then $1,875 after that. I am not aware if Tesla has in fact bumped people down that were buying the base model to give preference to more expensive models. I think I have seen several people on Twitter tagging Musk and Tesla thanking them for getting their base model 3 and listing the price to confirm it was a low-end model. But I could be wrong on that.

mmarshall

I bought my AppleMacbook, several years ago, at Best Buy (with a $100 trade-in on my old computer) and was quite satisfied. You get the same factory warranty from Apple, whether it is from an Apple store or a regular electronics firm like Best Buy.....though BB, of course, will often try to sell you an extended warranty. I turned it down.

LeX2K

The Apple store is a hilarious place honestly, you want a taste of what being in a cult is like? Go there. Also the people working their are drones they don't have much knowledge. They are not good at fixing their products either see Louis Rossman on Youtube. I've never been in a Tesla store but I imagine the cult like environment is not too far off from Apple. On the plus side from what I've seen Tesla has amazing customer service, unless you buy a salvage or a car that Tesla deems outside of their standards. Then you get nothing, you're cut off completely.