Official Tesla Model S thread

[LTLFTcomposite]

initially around 20 a day?? i think i read somewhere. extra QC is being performed to make sure nothing bad gets out. they hope to get to 100 a day in a few weeks time

Is that seven days a week?

Just an observation, 20 model S/day x 30 days/month > current U.S. Leaf sales rate

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

initially around 20 a day?? i think i read somewhere. extra QC is being performed to make sure nothing bad gets out. they hope to get to 100 a day in a few weeks time

Is that seven days a week?

Just an observation, 20 model S/day x 30 days/month > current U.S. Leaf sales rate

the 20 a day figure is only a temporary thing to insure the process does not miss any key quality steps. there is an article (green car reports most likely) that covers this and the stated goal is 100-150 a day. guessing its probably only a 5 day a week operation

 

[EricBayArea]

Very cool video, thanks for sharing. That center screen is huge (I've seen it before, but still..)!!! Talk about being distracted. I wonder it if has one helluva disclaimer to hit "OK" to every time to start the car

Also, I love how the key is the shape of the car. And those doorhandles - really? Not overkill?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

initially around 20 a day?? i think i read somewhere. extra QC is being performed to make sure nothing bad gets out. they hope to get to 100 a day in a few weeks time

Is that seven days a week?

Just an observation, 20 model S/day x 30 days/month > current U.S. Leaf sales rate

the 20 a day figure is only a temporary thing to insure the process does not miss any key quality steps. there is an article (green car reports most likely) that covers this and the stated goal is 100-150 a day. guessing its probably only a 5 day a week operation

If they really do produce at that rate and Leaf sales don't pick up significantly, Model S's could outnumber Leafs in the U.S. in less than six months. Hard to picture that happening.

 

[grommet]

100 cars a day? No way. Tesla likely won't make it through even half of the 10K Tesla Model S blind pre-orders this year. Their aspirational goal for 2013 is 20K cars.

 

[mitch672]

I used their "design studio" and configured a few different configurations, I got to the point of putting down the deposit on Sunday, then decided to think about it for a little while... Got a call that afternoon asking me why I stopped the deposit... Then yesterday, another call. I have to give them an A+ or effort. I was told it's advisable to put down the $5,000 deposit if you want to get a test drive this summer, they're only giving deposit holders test drives. Was also told delivery would be 12-18 months out, roughly... The 2 models I configured where $72.8K and $82.8K (60KW and 85KW pack with most of the options, except those 21" low profile tires/wheels, including the home HPC EVSE, dual 10KW chargers, retractable sun roof, metallic paint, mostly maxed out) Just not sure I want to spend that much of my 401K on a car, but then again, what use is money if you can't spend it . The killer is the %10 penalty and then having to pay the tax due as well... So it will take about %40 more money to be withdrawn to pay the taxes than the car costs, ugh.

 

[cdub]

Just not sure I want to spend that much of my 401K on a car, but then again, what use is money if you can't spend it . The killer is the %10 penalty and then having to pay the tax due as well... So it will take about %40 more money to be withdrawn to pay the taxes than the car costs, ugh.

Please splash some water on your face. Don't spend your 401k money on a car. (or anything else for that matter)

 

[mitch672]

Just not sure I want to spend that much of my 401K on a car, but then again, what use is money if you can't spend it . The killer is the %10 penalty and then having to pay the tax due as well... So it will take about %40 more money to be withdrawn to pay the taxes than the car costs, ugh.

Please splash some water on your face. Don't spend your 401k money on a car. (or anything else for that matter)

Oh I'd probably just end up getting an auto loan, rates are very low these days.
I just usually pay cash for cars, I don't like financing a depreciating asset.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I used their "design studio" and configured a few different configurations, I got to the point of putting down the deposit on Sunday, then decided to think about it for a little while... Got a call that afternoon asking me why I stopped the deposit... Then yesterday, another call. I have to give them an A+ or effort. I was told it's advisable to put down the $5,000 deposit if you want to get a test drive this summer, they're only giving deposit holders test drives. Was also told delivery would be 12-18 months out, roughly... The 2 models I configured where $72.8K and $82.8K (60KW and 85KW pack with most of the options, except those 21" low profile tires/wheels, including the home HPC EVSE, dual 10KW chargers, retractable sun roof, metallic paint, mostly maxed out) Just not sure I want to spend that much of my 401K on a car, but then again, what use is money if you can't spend it . The killer is the %10 penalty and then having to pay the tax due as well... So it will take about %40 more money to be withdrawn to pay the taxes than the car costs, ugh.

i borrow from my 401K all the time. i get charged a $50 loan fee and all payments including interest are paid back to me. how can i lose? last time i did it was beneficial since right after i took the money out, the market dived along with all my funds i was in...

 

[RegGuheert]

my favourite Model S customer video so far

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0CBJQw5rvw&feature=player_embedded (sorry, I couldn't get the youtube embed feature to work)

Nice video! thanks!

Now I'm thinking ALL cars should come with little Voodoo dolls of themselves. That could come in handy when they don't do as they are supposed too! :twisted:

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

If anything you could consider taking a 401k loan... experts advise against that but I'm not sure that's always the best advice. You'd probably pay about 4% interest on a 401k loan, but in effect you are paying to yourself. So if the rate on the 401k loan is better than you can get borrowing the money elsewhere, it looks good from the perspective of the borrower. As a 401k investor you will now only be getting a 4% return on that money, which would normally be considered poor, but who knows. One time I took a 401k loan and only had the money out for a few months, and the market went down during that time, so it turned out great.

Bad news if you lose your job though and don't have other resources.

Financial advice from idiots like me on message boards should be taken with a grain of salt. On the other hand at least the advice from the idiots isn't driven by how much commission they will make off you.

 

[mitch672]

i borrow from my 401K all the time. i get charged a $50 loan fee and all payments including interest are paid back to me. how can i lose? last time i did it was beneficial since right after i took the money out, the market dived along with all my funds i was in...

Dave,

I can borrow up to $50,000 maximum, at about %5 interest or more, the payments are automatically taken out of my paycheck... If you leave the company, the loan becomes immediately payable. So, It's not an ideal situation, the car is more than $50K for starters...

 

[DaveEV]

Anybody know how many cars a day are rolling out the back door of this factory?

They're doing 1/day right now with the plan to ramp up to 80/day by the end of the year. Single shift, ~20 working days/month.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i borrow from my 401K all the time. i get charged a $50 loan fee and all payments including interest are paid back to me. how can i lose? last time i did it was beneficial since right after i took the money out, the market dived along with all my funds i was in...

Dave,

I can borrow up to $50,000 maximum, at about %5 interest or more, the payments are automatically taken out of my paycheck... If you leave the company, the loan becomes immediately payable. So, It's not an ideal situation, the car is more than $50K for starters...

yes, i have same stipulation if i leave but no loan limit per se. i can go up to 90% of plan value.

i actually have not borrowed against my 401K in two years in anticipation of leaving the company which i did in April.

it is a bit of a risk for sure but at the same time, its all money coming back to you. i "might" consider this a bad time because of the market possibly coming back but dont see that happening unless there is very rosy conclusion to all the financial crap going on in Europe...something i dont foresee for at least a few years.

 

[cdub]

i borrow from my 401K all the time. i get charged a $50 loan fee and all payments including interest are paid back to me. how can i lose? last time i did it was beneficial since right after i took the money out, the market dived along with all my funds i was in...

Dave,

I can borrow up to $50,000 maximum, at about %5 interest or more, the payments are automatically taken out of my paycheck... If you leave the company, the loan becomes immediately payable. So, It's not an ideal situation, the car is more than $50K for starters...

Borrowing from a 401k sends all kinds of alarm bells off for me. Especially the part about the loan immediately being payable... what if God forbid you get "downsized"?

Maybe that's the Dave Ramsey in me... heck I've already paid off my Leaf. I'm a little crazy anti debt right now. And again - don't take advice from people on message boards like me. It's your money. But alarm bells go off in my head.

 

[AP1]

Caveats aside, the Model S is the most fully-realized electric vehicle anybody has yet delivered. It's a genuinely impressive effort; one that compares favorably with the vehicles to which Tesla touts it as an alternative. Already manna from heaven to the faithful, it remains to be seen how many fence-sitters this new sedan can convert.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/201...del-S--Drive-review&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

 

[EricH]

i borrow from my 401K all the time. i get charged a $50 loan fee and all payments including interest are paid back to me. how can i lose? last time i did it was beneficial since right after i took the money out, the market dived along with all my funds i was in...

Dave,

I can borrow up to $50,000 maximum, at about %5 interest or more, the payments are automatically taken out of my paycheck... If you leave the company, the loan becomes immediately payable. So, It's not an ideal situation, the car is more than $50K for starters...

Borrowing from a 401k sends all kinds of alarm bells off for me. Especially the part about the loan immediately being payable... what if God forbid you get "downsized"?

Maybe that's the Dave Ramsey in me... heck I've already paid off my Leaf. I'm a little crazy anti debt right now. And again - don't take advice from people on message boards like me. It's your money. But alarm bells go off in my head.

The bell you hear is the IRS getting pissy if you don't pay the loan back when you separate from the company. If you aren't old enough to take "normal" distributions, the entire amount is treated as an early withdrawal, which means 10% penalty off the top, and the entirety is treated as ordinary income (i.e. top bracket 36%) next April 15. For a $50k loan, that means $5k penalty plus up to $16k (50k+36%) extra Fed income tax -- plus any income tax your state may levy.

If you don't leave the company, and 5% is better than your other 401(k) investments do, it can work out OK. You just need to be aware of the worst-case secenario....

 

[EricH]

A good friend at work has had a deposit in on the Tesla S for some time, and was just informed that because she isn't ordering the top-of-the-line configuration (300-mile range, $100k+ pricetag), she will be waiting an extra six months (early 2013). Reasonable business decision to focus their limited production capacity on the highest-revenue model, but a frustrating surprise for their less-extravagant customers.

Of course, many of us waited at least 3 months while Nissan flooded the Japanese market with Leafs to exploit the government rebate in early 2011, so Tesla is hardly the first to delay/disappoint the EV faithful...

 

[mitch672]

i borrow from my 401K all the time. i get charged a $50 loan fee and all payments including interest are paid back to me. how can i lose? last time i did it was beneficial since right after i took the money out, the market dived along with all my funds i was in...

Dave,

I can borrow up to $50,000 maximum, at about %5 interest or more, the payments are automatically taken out of my paycheck... If you leave the company, the loan becomes immediately payable. So, It's not an ideal situation, the car is more than $50K for starters...

Borrowing from a 401k sends all kinds of alarm bells off for me. Especially the part about the loan immediately being payable... what if God forbid you get "downsized"?

Maybe that's the Dave Ramsey in me... heck I've already paid off my Leaf. I'm a little crazy anti debt right now. And again - don't take advice from people on message boards like me. It's your money. But alarm bells go off in my head.

I'm 52, I own 2 houses outright (one I inherited that is currently rented out), so I am not worried about it... I was actually thinking of taking an early withdrawal, but that causes a %10 penalty and you have to pay the Federal taxes due on the money withdrawn as ordinary income, so that could be %36 more, so you would need to withdraw almost $150K to net out $82K after penalties and tax due, ouch!

Borrowing from your own 401K is actually conservative, compared to actually selling it and paying the tax due and penalty. If you get laid off, then you sell it to pay the loan, at that point... Or borrow money from your house to cover it.

Putting down a $5K deposit, still gives you 12-18 months before delivery, as of now, so it's just a placeholder in line for now.

 

[palmermd]

...and was just informed that because she isn't ordering the top-of-the-line configuration (300-mile range, $100k+ pricetag), she will be waiting an extra six months (early 2013)....

I'm very surprised she just found out. It has been widely publicized that they will be building and selling the cars from the most expensive orders first (signature performance, signature, performance, then standard 85 kWh, standard 60 kWh, standard 40 kWh). Somebody who places an order today for a performance car will be put in line ahead of a standard 60kWh that has had an order for a year or more.