Re:Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer wit...
by floatingatoll on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @10:25AM
(#19738619)
I spent eighteen months researching my car and six more months waiting for it to arrive. It didn’t even have a price for the first year, but I knew approximately what to expect and I paid approximately what I expected. I forgot the exact price within 24 hours of the day it arrived, I got a final quote, and paid it. (I can tell you exactly what my loan payment was, though!)
The price matters between when you decide to commit and when you actually commit. If you accept a range of prices, the the price matters less than your timing in any potential discount or package benefit cycles.
It is difficult to care about (Tesla price guess here!) $45k vs $44k vs $46k, but is extremely easy to care about seeing the price drop $1k the day, or the day after you purchase it.
Even if you're fixated on getting a Tesla, not many people have enough cash on hand to buy a Tesla straight out of their checking account. Nonliquid assets often take a while to turn into cash for large purchases. Every time Tesla raises prices or cuts low-cost products, they cause resentment among people in the process of buying their car. Every time Tesla lowers prices or substantially enhances their existing products, they cause resentment among people who have just recently bought their car. You never know when Tesla is going to announce a shakeup to their product line and make a fool out of anyone who bought their car the month before. It's sort of a corollary Osborne effect. I think the continuous delivery model for hardware enhancement is just asking for trouble. A "model year" approach with fixed hardware costs through the year and continuous software updates would make more sense.