engle
Member
Hi Derek,
I got my "time to finalize" email 39 days ago (#4,491). Nothing happened to the [FINALIZE] button in myTesla after 30 days had elapsed. There is no business case for Tesla to cancel a reservation and return the free loan to the customer!
The answers to the common questions (press [FINALIZE] to see for yourself) are:
"How long do I have to complete the order process?
You may place your order at any time.
Once I complete the order process, how long will I wait before delivery?
Your Model S will be delivered about three months after you complete the order process. About a month before delivery, your Delivery Specialist will contact you to arrange delivery and payment.
Is my Reservation Sequence Number my VIN?
No. The Tesla Factory processes Model S orders in small blocks, building vehicles based on configurations. Your Reservation Sequence Number and VIN may be very close, but they will likely not be identical."
In my case, after 17 days of not finalizing, a Tesla Product Specialist reached out to me via email. I asked a few questions, including about the manual sunshade, which is a big issue for my wife. (We have a 2012 ML 350 Bluetec and its pano roof lets in too must light/heat and the Benz sunshade is pretty useless.)
"1. Currently we do not have a picture of the manual sunshade, although there will be one in every car. The panoramic roof already blocks out 98% of light and 81% of heat. The manual sun shade will block out the rest. The manual sunshade will be a mesh material.
2. Test drives are up and running at both the Menlo Park and Santana Row stores. I can help you schedule a test drive.
3. I will reach out to both stores and see if they have cars with and without the panoramic roof."
He wrote on 9/12 if I ordered by 9/14, expected delivery date was Nov/Dec. Now, when I start [FINALIZE], it says my Estimated Delivery for a Model S Performance is Dec, 2012 to Jan, 2013. I'm not sure how much of the slip is because Tesla warned they won't produce 5,000 units in 2012 - does the site reflect this? - and how much is because I let the 30-day window expire?
Anyway, IMHO, for cautious people, the main issue is will Tesla be around to support your vehicle in the future? Elon's blog post says he expects TSLA to become cash-flow positive by the end of Nov. 2012. If one waits to [FINALIZE] until that happens, which makes your $5K non-refundable, risk is much less. The secondary placement also reduced macro company risk, too.
In my case, I'm waiting not because of TSLA itself, but for the following reasons, some to do with Model S, and some personal: (SuperCharging is already off the list, and I love their solution!)
- See a real manual sunshade to decide on Pano Roof option.
- See the real "opportunity" console option(s) become orderable since we need one for our business vehicle.
- See if adaptive cruise control appears in time for us since we use it all the time on our Benz.
- See if LEASING appears in time for us since we own a small business. Leasing: A) provides much greater tax deductions, and B) makes it easier to switch to Model X (which is a "Heavy SUV" so we would just buy it) if we decide not to get both at the same time. (We drive together a lot and have older back-up ICE's.)
- Our 2012 ML350 Bluetec is very functional. Been driving it like crazy. So far have used-up 7,500 of the 24,000 leased miles in 4 months! At this rate, hope to consume 18,000 miles in 6 more months... I just know once I have a Model S I'll hardly ever drive the Mercedes again!! (I don't want to pay Benz $1,038/month until 5/27/2014 and return it with lots of unused lease miles.)
"What if an option I chose is not in production yet?
Not all options will be available right away. The Tesla Factory will add options throughout 2012 and early 2013. If an option you want is not in production at this time, save your configuration. We'll invite you to place your order when the options become available.
If the option I want is not in production, do I lose my place in line?
If you configure your Model S with an option that is not yet in production, we will place you in a special queue, by Reservation Sequence Number, of people waiting for that option.
"
PS. BTW, our ML 350 Bluetec will cost about $5,250 in diesel fuel for 24,000 miles over 24 months ($220/month). I asked Elon about leasing at the stockholder's meeting. He said Model S will be perfect for it, because business people will see their lease payment is "discounted" by the monthly fuel savings. This should make the net lease cost for Model S's less expensive than similarly-priced ICE's. He expects a higher percentage of Model S' will be leased than ICE's for this reason once they get their Leasing program going...
