Curious as I bought our 2017 Prius Prime in December 2016 from Tarbox Toyota in Rhode Island. I did my financing at my bank and flew up to take delivery. The next day I drove it 1,200 miles home. My first mile was off the dealer lot in that trim, the Prius Prime Plus. I had done a test drive of a Prius Prime Intermediate but the dealer sold it before I could get back the next day.
As for the 2010 Prius, I sold it online and delivered it to the buyer in Nashville, TN. The buyer and I were completely satisfied with the deal.
Bob Wilson
Well, I have only one diagnosis for you.
You are forgetting that you and the other person you sold it to might have test driven teh same model somewhere else.
For used car cases, he probably is just looking at price, and condition, which he probably got evaluated by a third party.
In most large US cities, you can probably rent one for under $150 a day if you are not sure. Tesla could establish a referral credit for cash or supercharging, effectively creating a low cost sales force.
I'm not sure dealerships are that big of an issue. Many folks hate going to a dealership. Once folks understand that Tesla comes to you for most service issues and that there aren't many issues with the car that actually require you to go to a service center, folks will get it.
Tesla's biggest issue right now is how many reservation holders will now buy the car. That will determine if Tesla survives until China comes online.
But it is a big deal when it comes to service. And still much easier and cheaper to take a free test drive than pay $150.
I have test driven Model S ( as many others have). Tesla regularly sends out enticing emails to them to buy new cars. Such people are automatically added to the marketing list. My test drive was 5 years ago, and I still got the "$35k model 3 is here, come save us" email.
Are you now saying those have no value? For $150 or even $20, I and many others would simply pass taking a test drive.
With referral credit gone too, what is the incentive for owners to show their cars to others , other than keeping their $TSLA from hitting $0?
And that, BTW, is illegal in most states. it is called bird dogging. They need to have proper license etc. You saw the Model 3 that hit a pole during Chinese test drive? Which owner will take these headaches?
The order may be placed online. but a lot has to happen before that to convince someone to place that order. But as usual. Elon will twist every data to whatever he says at that moment.
Wait for Elon to make an about face when he goes begging to the new Autonation CEO to sell some Teslas.
And about how many $35k they will sell? Not many. Interest is quite low already.
Tesla already pulled forward most of them into buying MR, Model S, etc.
Just look at the delivery time estimate and the page views of the $35k model 3 threads. Both abysmal. Here is a good answer from Neal while answerign to that cartoon Ross.
https://twitter.com/nealboudette/status/1102011503539077121
Ross Grber tweets:
Demand grows exponentially as price point drops due to income inequality. At $35k Tesla get exponentially more business than $42k And they can fill all the reservations now over the next year. What do these people not get????
$ts
Neal Boudette @nealboudette
Replying to
@GerberKawasaki @MrRobCapewell
If demand grows exponentially with each price cut, why has Tesla cut prices 3 times in last 2+ months? Where is the surge in demand? There hasn’t been one otherwise those soon to be closed stores would have been swamped in last 8 weeks. What do these people not get?
Are you all in shorting Tesla yet? Or don't you believe what you're selling?
I increased my short position on the mini pop. But I still am only at 50% of where I was when I covered quite a bit at $286.
With this stock, you never know when Elon and his army of followers will push the stock up again.
Besides, I need to have a lot of cash for some building projects I am planning to do.