I know Tesla does things differently and this is why many of us love them. I also think the idea of continuous improvement is neat but when the item costs north of $100K, it's not like upgrading your iphone or iPad each year (even those have some predictable upgrade cycle).
I personally think it's time Tesla start marketing their cars by model year. Whenever new features are announced, we have a chorus of "I missed it by 1 day/week/month" and "can it be retrofitted?"
I'll admit I'm one of them: I missed the parking sensors by 1 week at the delivery time, and obsessed about them until I finally got them retrofitted this summer. And I hold out unreasonable hope that those extra wiring harnesses I know are in the rear of my car means I can somehow be granted a path to add at least some of the autopilot features (and yes, I know the statement is "no, they can't be retrofitted" yet the geek in me still hopes).
Model year designation would help the resale market considerably for most: less confusion about options and better predictability for pricing. As more Model S are sold and eventually enter the resale market, it becomes more relevant. Right now, mine would be a "2013 August before parking sensor, wiring harness present, retrofitted sensor" model. MS's being delivered now are October 2014 with autopilot hardware, but those that came off the line just before would be "early October 2014 without autopilot hardware".
Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla doesn't have a large inventory of shipped cars on lots so we won't necessarily see "2014 year blowout" sales. But, having your car in the queue to be made, then waiting a few months for delivery, then having it ship right at the time of a new feature causes great frustration for those buyers.
For potential buyers, not knowing when a new feature set might come out leads to "I'll wait a few more months just in case" decisions.
I'll admit the D and autopilot features give me the upgrade itch for a 1 year car, and it makes me worry about resale, since the difference between recently shipped cars and the newest ones is pretty big in terms of feature set, but they still look and price very similarly. Time can only tell if the free market of used cars will be able to grok the subtle difference in model changes, if panic upgrades drop the resale values, major advances make existing cars look like last year's iPhone, or that resale values trend like the resale value guarantee predicts. I think it's far too early for any of us to know, and yes, that's the price of being an early adopter.
A model year designation would attenuate some of these concerns. It would also help temper expectations. No one expects from other manufacturers that a buyer of a 2013 car get access to 2014 features, and if you buy a 2103 at the end of the model year, you do it with the understanding that the next model may be different than yours.
Thoughts?
I personally think it's time Tesla start marketing their cars by model year. Whenever new features are announced, we have a chorus of "I missed it by 1 day/week/month" and "can it be retrofitted?"
I'll admit I'm one of them: I missed the parking sensors by 1 week at the delivery time, and obsessed about them until I finally got them retrofitted this summer. And I hold out unreasonable hope that those extra wiring harnesses I know are in the rear of my car means I can somehow be granted a path to add at least some of the autopilot features (and yes, I know the statement is "no, they can't be retrofitted" yet the geek in me still hopes).
Model year designation would help the resale market considerably for most: less confusion about options and better predictability for pricing. As more Model S are sold and eventually enter the resale market, it becomes more relevant. Right now, mine would be a "2013 August before parking sensor, wiring harness present, retrofitted sensor" model. MS's being delivered now are October 2014 with autopilot hardware, but those that came off the line just before would be "early October 2014 without autopilot hardware".
Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla doesn't have a large inventory of shipped cars on lots so we won't necessarily see "2014 year blowout" sales. But, having your car in the queue to be made, then waiting a few months for delivery, then having it ship right at the time of a new feature causes great frustration for those buyers.
For potential buyers, not knowing when a new feature set might come out leads to "I'll wait a few more months just in case" decisions.
I'll admit the D and autopilot features give me the upgrade itch for a 1 year car, and it makes me worry about resale, since the difference between recently shipped cars and the newest ones is pretty big in terms of feature set, but they still look and price very similarly. Time can only tell if the free market of used cars will be able to grok the subtle difference in model changes, if panic upgrades drop the resale values, major advances make existing cars look like last year's iPhone, or that resale values trend like the resale value guarantee predicts. I think it's far too early for any of us to know, and yes, that's the price of being an early adopter.
A model year designation would attenuate some of these concerns. It would also help temper expectations. No one expects from other manufacturers that a buyer of a 2013 car get access to 2014 features, and if you buy a 2103 at the end of the model year, you do it with the understanding that the next model may be different than yours.
Thoughts?
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