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> Buying from them is a nightmare. So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? I assume you could have refused to take it and they wouldn't be

> Buying from them is a nightmare. So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? I assume you could have refused to take it and they wouldn't be bothered because they could just sell it to the next person to walk in. Is it inherent to Tesla or is it just that all cars are scarce now and hard to keep in stock.

vkou 5y ago
> So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? Marketing. > Is it inherent to Tesla or is it just that all cars are scarce now and hard to keep in stock. Are you going to break a deal you invested so much into over a missing USB port, phone charger, and a fucked up bumper? Most people won't. They just want all that shit to be over with, so that they can drive their car home.
- fallingknife 5y ago
  Tesla is known for doing less marketing than any other car company.
  - vkou 5y ago
    It does less traditional ads-on-search-results-and-television marketing, it does its marketing through submarine articles in a favorable press, and social media. Elon Musk is also fundamentally incapable of staying quiet for more than five minutes, and for various reasons, has a large following of groupies, that do his marketing for him.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    That sentiment is just part of their marketing, and it's working.
speedgoose 5y ago
> So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? They are better cars overall. And you can actually buy them.
- tmh88j 5y ago
  Teslas are wonderful powertrains strapped to extremely underwhelming cars. Everything other than the battery tech that makes it a car is severely lacking for the price. Outside of the EV realm the Model S might as well be a Camry when compared to other full sized cars in its price range like the S class or 7 Series.
hn8788 5y ago
At this point I think the cars are popular because it's considered a cool status symbol, not because it's any good. I've got a co-worker who bought a Tesla and kept having issues with it, but still bought a new Model S a couple of weeks ago. It's already having electrical issues and other false alarms popping up on the phone app. He still gushes about how Tesla's are great cars, and how Musk is a genious that is leading humanity into the future. It honestly reminds me of when I was in Iraq in the early 2000s, and you'd see police chiefs and mayors with iphones. The phones didn't work on the cell network, but they were still highly sought after because it was an expensive piece of technology that almost nobody there could afford.
- tempestn 5y ago
  The quality isn't good, but the performance and features of the car are. We just got a Model Y Long Range in September, and have found it fantastic as a family vehicle. Handles far better and has considerably more storage than any comparably sized vehicle. Great acceleration even in the long-range. I could go for more physical controls for things like hvac, but the UI is still better than most other vehicles I've owned. Aside from the quality control issues, the cars are legitimately great. Regarding quality control, we had one interior trim piece that was installed with the wrong pegs and so kept falling out - fixed by a mobile tech. It also had a small ding in the front fender, which Tesla had us take it to a local PDR shop to repair. That got it to about 95% - the spot is still technically possible to find, but you need to know where it was and carefully inspect from close range. Slightly irksome, but definitely wasn't worth trying to get the whole fender replaced. Edit: For what it's worth I also own a 997.1 911 Turbo and a Honda S2000, so I'm far from just a Tesla/electric fan. In fact I really didn't want to want a Tesla as I'm no fan at all of the company for reasons like the OP. Tested all the competitors. But they're just legitimately good cars.
  - pbronez 5y ago
    > In fact I really didn't want to want a Tesla as I'm no fan at all of the company for reasons like the OP. Tested all the competitors. But they're just legitimately good cars. That's exactly where I am. I want to go electric. I didn't like Tesla/Musk for all the obvious reasons. I test drove every electric car I could get my hands on. I decided to test drive a Tesla just for completeness. They gave me a Model Y overnight. It was amazing. I ordered one. I hope it has all its parts. Seems like a coin flip. We'll see how I feel this time next year.
ChrisClark 5y ago
>So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? Because the buying process is super simple and easy, you pick what you want, buy it, no haggling. They get it ready, you pick it up. The cars are rated the safest on the road, have the fewest accidents per mile, practically no maintenance ever needing to be done, maybe change the brake pads every 5-10 years, battery will last 500k KM or more, autopilot is amazing, pre-warm up the car in a closed garage, and more. I've never once had a problem in the past 3 years of owning it, it's just a joy to have and drive. I even got an OTA update that tweaked the motors a bit and gave me faster acceleration and increased range compared to when I first picked it up, for free.
- jasonladuke0311 5y ago
  > I even got an OTA update that tweaked the motors a bit and gave me faster acceleration and increased range compared to when I first picked it up, for free Wait, are you bragging about your car being intentionally nerfed which was then reversed “for free”?! The kool aid must be great.
  - jcpham2 5y ago
    Cannot imagine purchasing a car that can be nerf’d OTA or features added or removed at the whimsy of a car manufacturer. An example would be purchasing a second hand wrecked Tesla, fixing it, and having features removed because you do not subscribe to them or did not pay the premium.
heavyset_go 5y ago
> So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? They're very popular with the type of person who genuinely believes that their Tesla vehicle will receive updates that will turn it into a robotaxi any day now, just like Musk has been promising for years.
- bhauer 5y ago
  That must be why the take rate for FSD Beta is so low.
lm28469 5y ago
It's a statement, like having the latest iphone or apple watch. Go on a tesla forum, they behave exactly like tech gadget fanatics.
FireBeyond 5y ago
Pretty much. If you refuse delivery, they'll just shrug and put you back in the queue. And then try to offload it on someone else, without disclosing why a previous buyer refused delivery.
jayd16 5y ago
I have one and I'm happy with it. No manufacturing issues. Sometimes I think I overpaid but I pass more than one $5.99 premium gas station and that puts me at ease. I charge at work, even. Hard to not be satisfied with that.

vkou 5y ago

> So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? Marketing. > Is it inherent to Tesla or is it just that all cars are scarce now and hard to keep in stock. Are you going to break a deal you invested so much into over a missing USB port, phone charger, and a fucked up bumper? Most people won't. They just want all that shit to be over with, so that they can drive their car home.

fallingknife 5y ago
Tesla is known for doing less marketing than any other car company.
- vkou 5y ago
  It does less traditional ads-on-search-results-and-television marketing, it does its marketing through submarine articles in a favorable press, and social media. Elon Musk is also fundamentally incapable of staying quiet for more than five minutes, and for various reasons, has a large following of groupies, that do his marketing for him.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  That sentiment is just part of their marketing, and it's working.

speedgoose 5y ago

> So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? They are better cars overall. And you can actually buy them.

tmh88j 5y ago
Teslas are wonderful powertrains strapped to extremely underwhelming cars. Everything other than the battery tech that makes it a car is severely lacking for the price. Outside of the EV realm the Model S might as well be a Camry when compared to other full sized cars in its price range like the S class or 7 Series.

hn8788 5y ago

At this point I think the cars are popular because it's considered a cool status symbol, not because it's any good. I've got a co-worker who bought a Tesla and kept having issues with it, but still bought a new Model S a couple of weeks ago. It's already having electrical issues and other false alarms popping up on the phone app. He still gushes about how Tesla's are great cars, and how Musk is a genious that is leading humanity into the future. It honestly reminds me of when I was in Iraq in the early 2000s, and you'd see police chiefs and mayors with iphones. The phones didn't work on the cell network, but they were still highly sought after because it was an expensive piece of technology that almost nobody there could afford.

tempestn 5y ago
The quality isn't good, but the performance and features of the car are. We just got a Model Y Long Range in September, and have found it fantastic as a family vehicle. Handles far better and has considerably more storage than any comparably sized vehicle. Great acceleration even in the long-range. I could go for more physical controls for things like hvac, but the UI is still better than most other vehicles I've owned. Aside from the quality control issues, the cars are legitimately great. Regarding quality control, we had one interior trim piece that was installed with the wrong pegs and so kept falling out - fixed by a mobile tech. It also had a small ding in the front fender, which Tesla had us take it to a local PDR shop to repair. That got it to about 95% - the spot is still technically possible to find, but you need to know where it was and carefully inspect from close range. Slightly irksome, but definitely wasn't worth trying to get the whole fender replaced. Edit: For what it's worth I also own a 997.1 911 Turbo and a Honda S2000, so I'm far from just a Tesla/electric fan. In fact I really didn't want to want a Tesla as I'm no fan at all of the company for reasons like the OP. Tested all the competitors. But they're just legitimately good cars.
- pbronez 5y ago
  > In fact I really didn't want to want a Tesla as I'm no fan at all of the company for reasons like the OP. Tested all the competitors. But they're just legitimately good cars. That's exactly where I am. I want to go electric. I didn't like Tesla/Musk for all the obvious reasons. I test drove every electric car I could get my hands on. I decided to test drive a Tesla just for completeness. They gave me a Model Y overnight. It was amazing. I ordered one. I hope it has all its parts. Seems like a coin flip. We'll see how I feel this time next year.

ChrisClark 5y ago

>So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? Because the buying process is super simple and easy, you pick what you want, buy it, no haggling. They get it ready, you pick it up. The cars are rated the safest on the road, have the fewest accidents per mile, practically no maintenance ever needing to be done, maybe change the brake pads every 5-10 years, battery will last 500k KM or more, autopilot is amazing, pre-warm up the car in a closed garage, and more. I've never once had a problem in the past 3 years of owning it, it's just a joy to have and drive. I even got an OTA update that tweaked the motors a bit and gave me faster acceleration and increased range compared to when I first picked it up, for free.

jasonladuke0311 5y ago
> I even got an OTA update that tweaked the motors a bit and gave me faster acceleration and increased range compared to when I first picked it up, for free Wait, are you bragging about your car being intentionally nerfed which was then reversed “for free”?! The kool aid must be great.
- jcpham2 5y ago
  Cannot imagine purchasing a car that can be nerf’d OTA or features added or removed at the whimsy of a car manufacturer. An example would be purchasing a second hand wrecked Tesla, fixing it, and having features removed because you do not subscribe to them or did not pay the premium.

heavyset_go 5y ago

> So what is it about the car that makes them so popular now? They're very popular with the type of person who genuinely believes that their Tesla vehicle will receive updates that will turn it into a robotaxi any day now, just like Musk has been promising for years.

bhauer 5y ago
That must be why the take rate for FSD Beta is so low.

lm28469 5y ago

It's a statement, like having the latest iphone or apple watch. Go on a tesla forum, they behave exactly like tech gadget fanatics.

FireBeyond 5y ago

Pretty much. If you refuse delivery, they'll just shrug and put you back in the queue. And then try to offload it on someone else, without disclosing why a previous buyer refused delivery.

jayd16 5y ago

I have one and I'm happy with it. No manufacturing issues. Sometimes I think I overpaid but I pass more than one $5.99 premium gas station and that puts me at ease. I charge at work, even. Hard to not be satisfied with that.