Tesla sells 5K cars....in one quarter

[rp17]

You guys are missing the point. Why spend your hard earned money on people who DO NOT LIKE US!!! Its cheaper to run electric now but even if it goes up, I like supporting Us instead of a suicide bomber. Our country need to be the first to invent a better battery tech. We can save so much alone just in the wars we fight for crude. Oops did I say that?

Besides have we forgotten the miles per gallon of the first cars? Got to start somewhere.

[Porsche Chick]

We had an electric car for a few years. It was more of a golf cart, but street legal (a Gem electric car, produced by Chrysler at the time) and it was problematic:

After about 4 years, the range on a charge became shorter and shorter. It went from the initially advertised 35 miles down to about 3 miles. Replacing the batteries with gel batteries did NOT help, the systems just degraded as it aged. Speed was also reduced, to the point where the car was almost unusable. I worry about the Tesla and it's systems long term. I don't think battery technology is where we need to be to make this a truly reliable, long-term, vehicle.

Also, I'm very suspicious of the company. After the New York Times reporter test drove one and found it wanting (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) he got severe blow back from the company. They implied that, essentially, he had "driven it wrong". Well, I'm sorry, but how many people are going to "drive it right"? I think Tesla "doth protest to much".

The dealership in the mall is a huge gimmick, plus it keeps you from test driving the car. Seriously? Why - oh, why - are people lining up to buy a car they haven't driven?

[Deserion]

Originally Posted by Porsche Chick

Also, I'm very suspicious of the company. After the New York Times reporter test drove one and found it wanting (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/automobiles/stalled-on-the-ev-highway.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) he got severe blow back from the company. They implied that, essentially, he had "driven it wrong". Well, I'm sorry, but how many people are going to "drive it right"? I think Tesla "doth protest to much".

The claims of the writer were put into question when the data didn't match his statements, in that he falsified "issues" (ex. never ran out of power when called for a flatbed). A group of Model S owners did the same route and had no issues, I believe, just to prove the point.

Originally Posted by Porsche Chick

The dealership in the mall is a huge gimmick, plus it keeps you from test driving the car. Seriously? Why - oh, why - are people lining up to buy a car they haven't driven?

State laws, in many cases, forbid them from allowing test drives. Thank the NADA and dealership lobbies for this. So they, instead, showcase the cars but cannot discuss pricing either. Legal mess they're trying to fight.

[Jager]

How much will it cost to replace the batteries in a Tesla? And I'm sure there will be a disposal fee for the old batteries too.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by Deserion

The claims of the writer were put into question when the data didn't match his statements, in that he falsified "issues" (ex. never ran out of power when called for a flatbed). A group of Model S owners did the same route and had no issues, I believe, just to prove the point.

They also had Top Gear faking a Tesla roadster break down to 'dramatize' the car running out of battery power. Tesla said there was no possible way the car could have run out of juice given the number of laps and speeds. Which later revealed that nearly all of Top Gear's tests are scripted just like a WWF wrestling match.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by Porsche Chick

The dealership in the mall is a huge gimmick, plus it keeps you from test driving the car. Seriously? Why - oh, why - are people lining up to buy a car they haven't driven?

I don't about your neck of the woods but over here they put the showroom in the NJ mall with perhaps the highest incomes in the state. I seriously doubt that there have been any visitors to that mall, who live in $1 million and above homes, who have not stopped into that showroom. Getting a person to go out of their way to otherwise visit a Tesla showroom is a whole bigger effort requiring advertising, direct marketing and manpower to execute. The funny thing is that I'm willing to bet they took the idea from the German luxury car dealers that came up with the idea to park new Porsches, Mercs and Range Rovers in the mall's corridors but didn't take the next logical steps of putting the cars in an actual store where they could sell to the customer properly and build a book of leads.
Its the Apple store equivalent of cars. Frankly I can't believe luxury car makers haven't followed Tesla's lead. You have wealthy shoppers walking inches past your product with tons of parking space to house test drive cars that can be valet'd over to the buyer in minutes.

And as far as buying the car without ever driving it, there must be many, many people who configured a Porsche online and pretty much had their mind 99% made up before the first model even came off the trailer. The showroom visit was more confirmation of the prior website experience. They only needed to confirm that trim looked as good in person as it did in all those high resolution pics. That the seat was as plush to their bascksides as they hoped. That exterior had the wow factor that they required. Most luxury buyers aren't really serious driving enthusiasts that demand some spirited driving experience during a test drive...nothing like when our big Porsche dealer here sent over two Caymans during an autocross just for us to beat on. A luxury car test drive is probably no different than a Honda test drive, drive down the street. Stop at a few lights. Maybe go crazy and go 5 miles over the sped limit. That's not really where the sale is made with a 'passive' type driver. It was back at the showroom when they imagined what their neighbor's face would look like when they pulled up in that new S class or 7 series. Tesla knock most of that right off the salesman's to do list right inside the mall.

[Perfectlap]

Originally Posted by rp17

You guys are missing the point. Why spend your hard earned money on people who DO NOT LIKE US!!! Its cheaper to run electric now but even if it goes up, I like supporting Us instead of a suicide bomber.

Have you looked at the number of products in the average household produced in a communist dictatorship where its completely legal to force a woman to have a late term abortion? Like physically taken to the abortion clinic and strapped down against her will? Seriously.
We are either sending our spending to kooks to the West or kooks to the East. And we're only going to be doing more and more of it.