3 ms·

Obviously, but the reason is unclear. Quality issues? Or people abusing it by taking a 5 day citytrip and bringing it back? etc

myself248 6y ago
I think you can only do it once, so using it as a "rental" seems unlikely. Given how excited I was for the Model 3, and how disillusioned I got after handling one for a few days when a client brought one in to have some equipment installed in it, I'd suspect it's some combination of quality issues and simply varying expectations. Tesla makes a LOT of decisions differently than other automakers, and there are plenty of people who love that, but also some who realize they're not comfortable with the car trying to outsmart them so often. And that's the sort of thing that might not sink in on a 20-minute test drive, but which you'd definitely feel after a few days.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  I got a new 2021 vehicle, not a Tesla, but with the latest assistive tech that they are putting on even low-end cars now, and while it is pretty neat, even from a "traditional" manufacturer it doesn't seem fully baked. My first drive on a rainy, foggy night, everything went haywire, although given the limited ambitions of the systems, it wasn't serious. The recognition of speed limits somehow failed so that it thought it was 70 mph everywhere. It couldn't recognize the lane markings, so it's jiggling the wheel and flashing warnings when I'm in the fast lane on the interstate, and for an instant I think I'm hydroplaning. Not helpful. I think it has radar cruise control, which I haven't tried out yet, but I'm not sure if I trust it. And I sure hope the auto-braking doesn't do anything weird. It did warn me a couple days ago that someone stopped in front of me to turn left, but if I couldn't see that, I would still have had an accident.
  - myself248 6y ago
    Yeah, I work in advanced safety systems, and I'm pretty comfortable with most of those things. They have their limitations, and there are times when they should be turned off, but on the whole I appreciate them. Blind-spot warning in particular, but that's pretty old now. (Incidentally, the auto braking likely would've kicked in if you hadn't reacted on your own, but it's set to not touch anything until it's at the panic-stop point. This is partly to keep drivers from getting lazy and relying on it.) What bugged me about the Tesla was the controls more than anything. There's no "off". There's no manual anything, and the overrides are buried so deep in the touchscreen, heaven help you if you forget where one is located. The car knows when it should be on, and when it should lock and unlock, and if you have different ideas about those things (heaven forbid you want to leave it unlocked while it's parked in a garage), you're going to have a bad time. I gotta call those folks up and ask for my deposit back, I'm never gonna use it.
jowday 6y ago
How many people do you think, realistically, would risk tying up $30k+ for more than 5 days dealing with return processing to take a car on a road trip? Do you really think that's more likely than excess returns due to quality issues?
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  Eh, rich people can be both high liquidity and fickle. Maybe you get an annual bonus that puts $30K in checking, and you lend that to musk for a week.
- maccard 6y ago
  My credit card has a limit of just shy of £30k (insanity, I know). In the UK (and I'd bet in Europe) there's a 14 day cooling off period on all financing. You could take out a £30k car loan, drive it for a week, and cancel the loan?
  - FireBeyond 6y ago
    Most (all) dealerships are not going to let you pay for a 30K car on credit card without someone soaking up the 3% merchant fee.

myself248 6y ago

I think you can only do it once, so using it as a "rental" seems unlikely. Given how excited I was for the Model 3, and how disillusioned I got after handling one for a few days when a client brought one in to have some equipment installed in it, I'd suspect it's some combination of quality issues and simply varying expectations. Tesla makes a LOT of decisions differently than other automakers, and there are plenty of people who love that, but also some who realize they're not comfortable with the car trying to outsmart them so often. And that's the sort of thing that might not sink in on a 20-minute test drive, but which you'd definitely feel after a few days.

perl4ever 6y ago
I got a new 2021 vehicle, not a Tesla, but with the latest assistive tech that they are putting on even low-end cars now, and while it is pretty neat, even from a "traditional" manufacturer it doesn't seem fully baked. My first drive on a rainy, foggy night, everything went haywire, although given the limited ambitions of the systems, it wasn't serious. The recognition of speed limits somehow failed so that it thought it was 70 mph everywhere. It couldn't recognize the lane markings, so it's jiggling the wheel and flashing warnings when I'm in the fast lane on the interstate, and for an instant I think I'm hydroplaning. Not helpful. I think it has radar cruise control, which I haven't tried out yet, but I'm not sure if I trust it. And I sure hope the auto-braking doesn't do anything weird. It did warn me a couple days ago that someone stopped in front of me to turn left, but if I couldn't see that, I would still have had an accident.
- myself248 6y ago
  Yeah, I work in advanced safety systems, and I'm pretty comfortable with most of those things. They have their limitations, and there are times when they should be turned off, but on the whole I appreciate them. Blind-spot warning in particular, but that's pretty old now. (Incidentally, the auto braking likely would've kicked in if you hadn't reacted on your own, but it's set to not touch anything until it's at the panic-stop point. This is partly to keep drivers from getting lazy and relying on it.) What bugged me about the Tesla was the controls more than anything. There's no "off". There's no manual anything, and the overrides are buried so deep in the touchscreen, heaven help you if you forget where one is located. The car knows when it should be on, and when it should lock and unlock, and if you have different ideas about those things (heaven forbid you want to leave it unlocked while it's parked in a garage), you're going to have a bad time. I gotta call those folks up and ask for my deposit back, I'm never gonna use it.

jowday 6y ago

How many people do you think, realistically, would risk tying up $30k+ for more than 5 days dealing with return processing to take a car on a road trip? Do you really think that's more likely than excess returns due to quality issues?

srtjstjsj 6y ago
Eh, rich people can be both high liquidity and fickle. Maybe you get an annual bonus that puts $30K in checking, and you lend that to musk for a week.
maccard 6y ago
My credit card has a limit of just shy of £30k (insanity, I know). In the UK (and I'd bet in Europe) there's a 14 day cooling off period on all financing. You could take out a £30k car loan, drive it for a week, and cancel the loan?
- FireBeyond 6y ago
  Most (all) dealerships are not going to let you pay for a 30K car on credit card without someone soaking up the 3% merchant fee.