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As a child I came to understand the difference between white (pronounced WITE, with no “h” sound) and white (WHA-HITE). The problem is the ambiguous relationship between the written word and these two colors. Tesla has likely programmed some robots to paint white and others to paint white, hence...

Pardon my basic understanding of the approach, but it seems the vehicles would be better off on rails to remove the need for left/right steering. The autopilot software would only have to worry about velocity. It just seems safer at high speeds also. So why not use rails? Edit: I’m referring...

Why do you not want to install rim savers? I have no experience with them so Indont know they pros and cons.

You can tell someone stole the hood ornament off the one with the black induction wheels

You will have a pretty good chance to buy one in 6 months. With the economy headed for a recession, they will take your order for a higher trim, $70K MY or you may even find one in inventory. if it were me, I’d first push hard they replace given all the issues. If that doesn’t work I would...

You don’t want to press for a return?

Instead we will have thread titles like “my truck’s rolled steel exoskeleton wasn’t folded properly” I can’t wait to see those pics

So you're describing my dream config -- Black 85 P+ w/grey interior and carbon fiber. I've seen several black Model S in real life, some with silver 21" wheels and some with grey 21" wheels. I prefer the silver wheels. I like the contrast of the silver off the black; I'd call it an "executive"...

Now I just need to find a Model S demo car with the 85kWh battery and 75k miles or more on the odometer, and I'm all set. :biggrin:

Assuming 15mpg, she's used 10k gallons. Unless she's buying Evian gasoline, it's more likely she's spent $30,000 - $40,000. Still, it's an insane amount of fuel and money to burn for one vehicle.

More, especially if there is piano black inside. :biggrin:

But it's a Signature, not a Performance.

I'm guessing you didn't run the A/C much, given that it was a beautiful Bay Area day today. Right? Just bringing this up so people can factor in the weather to your experience with the 60.

I was in the Menlo Park store in mid-December and asked for a test drive. I was told only reservation holders are allowed test drives, and that there is a two-month waiting list. What if Tesla had inventory on-hand that could be purchased on-the-spot. Let's just say ~10 cars/week off the...

The problem is not that Tesla lacks dealerships. The problem is that Tesla has not built the competency to perform customer-satisfying "doorstep" deliveries at the current rate. Delivery is one of Amazon's key strengths. Unlike Amazon, from the beginning Tesla has had to build the actual...

The flyer says "Performance" and "0-60 in 4.4 seconds". Is it a performance model that is being raffled?

I think it's perfectly reasonable to wait to make your decision until you are comfortable making it. You are the one who has to live with your decision, so make it when you feel it is right.

I'd go with "Mr. Roboto" especially if I did factory pickup

I'm making a few assumptions that certainly could be very wrong: 1) That the mainstream car buyer would only look at the 85kWh configuration as viable when cross-shopping, and thus the Model S is effectively a $70-80k car. That's why I excluded cars priced under $80k (removed the 1-,3-...

That's right. What percentage of Model S sales are expected to be in the US? I'd expect it to be at least 50%. For the Model X I'd expect it to be higher; let's say 70%. That means 10k Model S units and 14k Model X units, for a total of 24k units annually in the US. In context, that's 25% of...

I don't think they can survive on luxury car shoppers alone. I look at the Model S as an $80k luxury car. That is the price point the mainstream luxury car shopper will look at it and say "I don't have to make (m)any compromises" relative to other cars in its class. I don't count the lower...

Absolutely beautiful car! Congratulations and thank you for posting pictures! BTW, the car matches the house really well -- the paint of the "S" seems to match the house's shutters and IIRC the tan leather is close to the primary paint on the house. Coincidence or did you plan it this way?

Not to mention the shipping logistics. It's not something that needs to be in their core competency. Maybe at some point they will change the delivery model.

I wonder how they planned "door step" delivery for 20k cars/year in the first place.

Agreed. I love reading every delivery story and viewing pictures of the new cars. It never gets old. Edit: The stories and pics are in multiple threads. I've seen some in the Delivery Update thread, like this one: Model S Delivery Update - Page 327

I haven't seen blue with grey. Pearl white with grey looks great. Although you are not considering it, grey with grey looks great, too. So does black with grey

Parcel shelf

The BMW 3-series is exactly the target. There is nothing radical about the 3-series' design; it *is* mainstream. Still, it's lean, athletic, and attractive (to many people, including myself). Model S is beautiful, but not groundbreaking styling-wise, and that's perfect IMO. If GenIII is a...

The top, rear Model S in that pic appears to be Dolphin Grey to me. Does anyone else see it that way? :confused:

+1 You've probably thought about this already, but is it a possibility for you to reduce your commute? If you are currently doing that 200 mile commute every weekday and could reduce it by two-thirds, you will get back ~40 hrs/month of your time!

Alexander, I don't mean to sound negative, but I think the reason Model S may seem "affordable" in your calculations is that you are paying a lot to operate your automobiles currently. According to your numbers, you are spending over $7000/yr in maintenance and repairs for your two current cars...

Yes, I'm speculating when it comes to GenIII pricing. But let's not ignore the fact that we have now seen the only two Tesla models brought to market -- Roadster and Model S -- announced at a price that was subsequently raised. So Tesla is batting 1.000 in pricing higher than we thought (some...

They have supply and demand in their favor now. Heck, they had 10k reservations before they delivered their first Model S! The reservation book is still full with early adopters, EV fans, and auto enthusiasts. Fast forward a year from now when those reservations have been filled, and I don't see...

Agreed. What happened to the mission of making EVs mainstream? Raising prices hurts that mission. The car is already 2-3x the cost of the average car sold in the U.S. If it's not a profit-optimization issue but rather a cost issue, then that's no consolation. I'm increasingly confident that...

I hate this announcement. There are no "good" reasons for this IMO. I expect the average selling price for Gen III will be $50k. Base price will be $40k after federal tax credit. I don't see Tesla beating Chevrolet on pricing.

Wait, is yours a custom brown? Or is it the "Brown Metallic Paint" that is an option in the Design Studio?

It looks like there's the word "Founder" etched on the right side of the chrome strip, just a few inches from the right rear tail light.

NigelM -- You received a beautiful car on a beautiful day. Thank you very much for sharing so that others could "live" the experience! You have my dream garage, right down to the colors of the Teslas. Congratulations! :smile:

There are many ways to justify how Tesla can afford to do a better job communicating to reservation holders. At the end of the day, it's a tradeoff decision like any other. "Do I spend this money on X, Y, or Z?" Would you rather Tesla gave you more information about the status of your delivery...

10 people * $100,000/person = $1 million $100k/person is not unreasonable for a fully-loaded FTE. In Silicon Valley we use $200k in tech companies; I'm taking half that amount because of the talent profile for that job. Now let's say you are CEO of Tesla. You can spend that $1M in labor on...

2 in the span of an hour I took these pics from my model s. (Is it ok to refer to my iPhone 4s as a model s?) :tongue: The silver one was on El Camino in Mountain View. The sig red performance is founder car vin 004 at the Stanford reunion today.

Brad Berman has been writing on the hybrid/EV space for years. He started hybridcars.com several years ago and has really earned his way into automotive journalism from the ground up. I met him 6 yrs ago when I was working on the "Green Center" for Yahoo Autos. I also met the Tesla Roadster for...

I thought this was the random sighting thread. Anyway, I saw a signature red Model S on Shoreline going westbound (i.e. away from Google) in Mountain View, CA today. I didn't get a look at the license plate or driver. Any idea of whose Model S it was?

If I recall correctly, the Model S (Whitestar) was supposed to have Roadster range at half the price. So I was expecting a $50K Model S with 300-mile range. Maybe I misunderstood, but I'm not the only based on my readings on this board (I think someone has a brochure from 2009 implying this?)...

Just noted a flaw in what I posted...I backed out the $20,500 non-battery car cost for Bluestar using $30K as the target price. But then I compared it to a $40k market price BMW. To make it apples to apples, I should have used $40k as the target price for Bluestar, which would mean $30,500...

In Model S pricing, each kWh of battery capacity costs the consumer about $500. I'm basing this on the $10K it costs to go from 40kWh -> 60kWh. There are assumptions built into this, and it could be wrong; I think it's reasonable for this back-of-the-envelope stuff. This means the 40kWh...

If she loves the Lexus GS F Sport why are you replacing it?

Yes, Model S is $20K than I am willing to spend. Don't get me wrong, I want a Model S. I don't have a reservation and yet I spend time here and on the Tesla site. Question is, how many people can/will pay "Model S money" for a car (this car, or any car)? Even if Tesla manages to sell their...

I'm a LEAF owner for the past 11 months. The things I like about the LEAF have nothing to do with the LEAF in particular. Rather they are just qualities of a BEV: * Lower operating cost per mile. I'm averaging about 5 miles per kWh * Never having to go to the gas station. I just plug it in at...

+1 If money becomes a factor in choosing between your two configs, then drop the Tech Pkg from the 85kWh setup. The 85kWh battery really makes it a different car IMO -- better range which unlocks more destination possibilities, plus you get the supercharger hardware included. Just my $0.02 and...