Texas Model S Reservation Holders - PLEASE READ

[sublimaze1]

A few things have come to light today. They are not earth shattering, but that can cause some dyspepsia, if you are not prepared. I was not prepared.

(1) TESLA no longer gathers tax for Texas. Texas sent Tesla some kind of piss-o-gram this week and essentially forbade them from collecting tax. Because they are not an authorized dealer and only dealers can collect taxes on cars as an extension of the government taxing authority.

- why is this important? If you finance your car, when you get the final MVPA, the tax will not be on it and it will not be rolled into the financing. You will have to search for $5-8K somewhere else.

(2) When your car is delivered to you, it will no longer be with a Delivery Specialist. Yes, you read it right. He or She will not be present on your property to deliver the car to you. Clyde or Marvin or Spike will deliver your Model S as a third party delivery company would. Roll your car off, presumably hand you the fobs and get a signature and leave. I did not ascertain if you would be able to have the DS come by later, or not.

This is simply another way that state legislature is playing bully on the playground. And you know what bullies on the playground end up being? They end up mowing our lawn.

Slightly peeved, but motivated to get over it,

WJ
McKinney, Texas

[stevezzzz]

Yikes!

Is this why they say, "Don't mess with Texas"?

[huntjo]

Yikes!

Is this why they say, "Don't mess with Texas"?

Actually "Don't mess with Texas" was an anti- littering campaign from the 80's.

But of course the general ballsy-ness of Texan businessmen/ elected officials do reflect that attitude even better. I think politics in Texas is like a real life Game of Thrones. e.g."A Lannister always pays his debts."

[gg_got_a_tesla]

With all the press coverage and the trophies and such, the cat is out of the bag, I guess. Tesla Model S is officially out of stealth mode now and the vultures are circling!

[sublimaze1]

What I am learning from all this (and if someone is reading this on Nov 9, 2013 - it all may have changed)is that I am going to have to be vigilant in this new vehicle sales model, with respect to my state and other issues that are unknown right now. I guess keeping on top of this has helped me avoid unrecoverable situations: e.g. digging around for $6,500 on Christmas Eve ...

[Tommy]

Sorry to hear about these problems you're having. Would treating the car purchase as an item ordered online from Tesla (clothing, charge cord) allow Tesla to collect the tax for TX? There must be other companies with a physical presence in TX but main office located elsewhere, that are required to collect sales tax, Tesla shouldn't be any different. If so, can they generate two invoices, one for the finance company showing the full price of the car including tax (the online purchase) and the other for the DMV?

[NigelM]

So Texas is enforcing an anti-business, closed-shop style, anti-competitive law. Did anyone tell Gov. Perry?

[Gigemags]

Hey WJ. I'm in plano and taking delivery next week move been introduced to my delivery specialist so I think I will meet him at some point. I haven't heard anything about him not being present at delivery.

I'll update this thread when I learn more.

[pete8314]

Out of interest, I'm in Texas, but am (vaguely) planning on doing a factory collection followed by a road-trip home, so would that bypass these issues? Paying 'cash' for the sales tax will not really be an option for me, without dropping some other options off the car.

Would love to see a copy of the piss-o-gram. Stupid Texas.

[Bardlebee]

This is really sad. That is all I can say. I hope this changes by the time I make my purchase. If not I will buy out of state if that's an option and Texas won't get any of my Tax dollars... unless of course I have to pay where I live.... then I'm screwed I suppose.