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Buy now or wait til new year 2015?

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I've made up my mind to by a MS. Initially I was anxious to get delivery by the end of the year to take advantage of the Federal tax credit. I've done my homework in terms of charger installation, insurance etc. The car is spec'd up and I'm ready to place the order for (hopefully) a November delivery.

But now I'm thinking: why order it now and have a "2014 model" when I could wait only a couple of months and have a "2015 model". OK, I'd have to wait another 12 months to get the tax credit, but when it comes to selling it or trading it in a few years from now, it will be a whole year younger (2015 vs 2014).

Am I thinking straight?
 
I've made up my mind to by a MS. Initially I was anxious to get delivery by the end of the year to take advantage of the Federal tax credit. I've done my homework in terms of charger installation, insurance etc. The car is spec'd up and I'm ready to place the order for (hopefully) a November delivery.

But now I'm thinking: why order it now and have a "2014 model" when I could wait only a couple of months and have a "2015 model". OK, I'd have to wait another 12 months to get the tax credit, but when it comes to selling it or trading it in a few years from now, it will be a whole year younger (2015 vs 2014).

Am I thinking straight?

Telsa say doesn't make changes for model years, they happen all the time. The only potential advantage would come when you go to sell it.
 
Telsa say doesn't make changes for model years, they happen all the time.
Yes, I realize the car will be the same.

The only potential advantage would come when you go to sell it.
That's what I'm talking about. I'm thinking that in 3 years time, the difference in resale value between a 2014 and a 2015 model could by fairly substantial (even though they may actually only be a month or two different in age).
 
That's what I'm talking about. I'm thinking that in 3 years time, the difference in resale value between a 2014 and a 2015 model could by fairly substantial (even though they may actually only be a month or two different in age).

The depreciation on luxury cars is so huge, it probably won't make any significant difference, either way your looking at getting 1/2 or less of your initial money back. I'd plan on keeping it for longer than 3 years, since you'd have already lost most of the money on deprecation.
 
That's what I'm talking about. I'm thinking that in 3 years time, the difference in resale value between a 2014 and a 2015 model could by fairly substantial (even though they may actually only be a month or two different in age).

I doubt that will be the case. I think the resale value depends on the options and mileage the car has, and condition of course.
 
I doubt that will be the case. I think the resale value depends on the options and mileage the car has, and condition of course.

There appears to be quite a difference in the non-Sig 2012 and 2013 cars. Little difference between 2013 and 2014 cars. I think the existing paradigm driven by used car dealers and insurance companies will win, and the "older" model year car will be worth less.
 
I'm thinking: why order it now and have a "2014 model" when I could wait only a couple of months and have a "2015 model".

Tesla does rolling changes rather than model year updates. The decision to purchase a model S now or wait is more an emotional decision than financial.


Everything about the model S is different, you can't think of it like buying a regular ICE vehicle. Even if you waited until 2015, you may still have the same dilemma with a 2015 vehicle. When Tesla releases new features, standard or optional during the same year it effectively creates a higher resale on that specific car than those manufactured just a week or month earlier.


Bottom line, are you happy with the current features a model s has today, optional or otherwise? Or, does your must have list include, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, upgraded seats, heated steering wheel? If so, wait until next year or 2016.


Otherwise place your order now and start having fun. :)
 
+1. There is no reason to think the "model year" paradigm will apply to used Teslas when it doesn't apply to new ones. Options, mileage, and VIN.
With the exception that it will take practically forever for companies like KBB to change from the model year concept when setting a value on a car. This isn't much of a problem now because most Tesla owners and prospective purchasers have done their homework, but it will be a problem in the future when Tesla is selling hundreds of thousands of cars a year. Most people check KBB and Edmonds to find out what they should pay.
 
Bottom line, are you happy with the current features a model s has today, optional or otherwise? Or, does your must have list include, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, upgraded seats, heated steering wheel? If so, wait until next year or 2016.

Has anyone seen/heard update on when in 2015 improved driver's seat will be introduced or available as option?
Better driver's seat is one thing I'd wait a few extra months for.
 
With the exception that it will take practically forever for companies like KBB to change from the model year concept when setting a value on a car. This isn't much of a problem now because most Tesla owners and prospective purchasers have done their homework, but it will be a problem in the future when Tesla is selling hundreds of thousands of cars a year. Most people check KBB and Edmonds to find out what they should pay.

So look at it this way. The value for a car is a function of several things. For sake of simplicity, let's say it's: Make, model, model year, Options, mileage, and condition.

For many cars, there are substantive differences in the model years, although often those are subsumed by the options. E.g. my 2005 Accord with navigation might be more valuable than a comparable 2006 Accord without navigation.

For Tesla, there are not official model years. However, we can produce a rough definition of the model year as the average car delivered during that year. So for a car with a set of options delivered on Dec 31, 2014, an otherwise entirely equivalent Model S delivered on Jan 1, 2015 would have no actual differences, but the 2014 car would be lumped in with the others built during 2014, and the 2015 with those built during 2015. So even though production improvements made during the year in 2015 wouldn't affect either car, the 2015 car would have the added value, according to KBB.

However, this difference might be small (several hundred) or large (several thousand), and there is really no way to know that now. The fact that Tesla has a buy-back program in place will certainly set a benchmark for how much the vehicles cost, and the loaner system has a set rate of mileage reduction. If the choice is between having a 2014 and 2015, I don't think the cost will be worth the wait, especially given that the tax rebate can be reclaimed more quickly if you buy the car at the end of the year.
 
Does KBB use date of manufacture or date of first registration for model year?

Time spent perusing these forums over the last 24 hours seems to suggest that there is good potential for lots of changes in the near future - AWD, better seats, improved in-car technology, LTE etc. I LOVE the fact that this vehicle is such an amazing piece of technology - but it does present future purchasers with that classic tech paradigm of when to buy (which usually has no good answer).
 
Does KBB use date of manufacture or date of first registration for model year?

Time spent perusing these forums over the last 24 hours seems to suggest that there is good potential for lots of changes in the near future - AWD, better seats, improved in-car technology, LTE etc. I LOVE the fact that this vehicle is such an amazing piece of technology - but it does present future purchasers with that classic tech paradigm of when to buy (which usually has no good answer).

KBB, insurance companies and banks use model year as determined by VIN number. For Tesla, that roughly equals calendar year. You may be able to find a MY 2012 produced in early January, but I would expect something like that to be rare.
 
Have you considered if you need the federal tax credit in either 2014 or 2015?

I'm Ok waiting for it (meaning, buy the car in January 2015 and get the credit in early 2016). On that subject, my understanding is that the federal tax credit is good until a specific number of vehicles have been registered by Tesla in the US - do we know if they're getting close to this number?
 
Not close yet. Does not get to the graduated decrease until 200,000 for each manufacturer is reached. In the USA. No manufacturer is even close yet. I think the program was setup thinking more cars would have been sold by now. Even GM forecast, in 2010, for 45k US volt sales in 2012.
 
The OP should wait even beyond 2015. Try 2017. Why, by then, Model S will *ship* with 6.0 pre-installed, and you'll be on the early waiting list for playlist and artist/genre browsing in the car's Media app. It's a no-brainer: wait it out.










:)