El Supreme, I do understand your point. For me the defining issues/differences are:
1) It's about what make sense rather than any comparison to other vendors. Tesla has set up a dual pricing scheme for tires which makes no sense to me. If you want to make a comparison, Tesla often touts themselves as being more like a tech company than a car company....
This is absolutely correct. I realize that other car companies "do it wrong", I don't particularly like that either, but you can go into the dealer and haggle with them about it. Since Tesla doesn't do that, the fact that they're "doing it wrong" becomes much more obvious.
2) Downgrading to the 19" tires is desirable for many people due to the nature of tires and not just the cost. With other upgrade packages, there may be things you don't care about, but it'd be hard not to classify them as superior than their basic counterpart (e.g. improved headlights). Not caring about an upgrade is different from the case where 19" tires have distinct advantages beyond cost.
This is also correct. Since the 19" wheels are clearly superior to the 21" wheels for many situations, the only way to view the "included 21" wheel option" is as an increased premium for the package. Almost everything else in the package has to be viewed as an upgrade, whether it's one you want or not (I do know some people actively dislike leather seats, so there's that, and the multi-coat paint job isn't an upgrade if you want a different color). The 21" wheels are objectively inferior unless you're obsessed with looks, so I have to UPgrade from the 21" wheels to the 19" aeros in order to get the car "fully loaded".
The Sig premium is basically $5550 (treating the 19" aeros as the superior option), assuming you get white paint -- $7050 if you get black. That's pretty sizeable for "somewhat more leather" and "earlier". For me it's still worth it because of my allergies, but it seems *odd*. The Performance premium is higher -- $10500 -- but you get a Performance car from it.
It's worth noting that the difference in price between the two types of wheels on the Standard is $2000, a rather large amount. The inferior-except-for-aesthetics wheels cost $2000 more. Curious, that. The price difference is large enough to create this ridiculous wheel-trading market.
3) Tesla specifically offers a downgrade option on the tires. Tesla does not offer selective downgrades of the items in the tech package. No one is asking Tesla to create an option they don't already provide, we're only asking they charge for what's actually delivered. Again, that beautifully simple "pay for what you get" approach.
Tires/wheels are also ridiculously easy to swap in and out (without invalidating the warranty); there is no technical excuse for treating them as "included", whereas there is such a technical production-line reason on the tech package items. The swappability is also why this is an area where it makes
no sense to do 'you gotta buy this' deals.
The pricing scheme makes it glaringly obvious that *either* people getting the Perf or the Sig with 19" wheels are being gouged on price, or that people getting the Standard with 21" wheels are being gouged on price.
It's one or the other, the way Tesla's set it up. That's not smart. It's fine to maximize profit, but make it a little less obvious when you're gouging us, OK? :wink: Leave the customer with the illusion that he's being given a fair deal.