Lutz is so nuts!

Discussion in 'Tesla' started by bwilson4web, Mar 2, 2019.

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  1. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web Well-Known Member Subscriber

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  3. TeslaInvestors

    TeslaInvestors Active Member

    Yeah, most will say that it is Elon who is nutz! You can't test drive or trade in your car online.
    It's sunset time for Tesla.
     
  4. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web Well-Known Member Subscriber

    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
     
  5. marshall

    marshall Well-Known Member

    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.

    Are you all in shorting Tesla yet? Or don't you believe what you're selling?
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
  6. TeslaInvestors

    TeslaInvestors Active Member

    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.

    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
    [​IMG]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?



    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.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
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  8. Pushmi-Pullyu

    Pushmi-Pullyu Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
  9. marshall

    marshall Well-Known Member

    "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."

    What you're not all in!!! Do I detect doubt?
     
  10. Pushmi-Pullyu

    Pushmi-Pullyu Well-Known Member

    Sure. But in the same press release where Tesla announced it would be closing its stores, it said it would continue to expand its service centers.

    But hey, good attempt at FUD there, Mr. Shorty Pants. :rolleyes:

    This new policy of "You can't take a test drive (in many areas), but you can return the car up to 7 days after purchase if you don't like it" seems to me to be a grand experiment. Maybe it will work for Tesla; maybe it won't. I won't be surprised to see Tesla re-open some Tesla Stores after a time, while leaving others closed. But then, I won't be surprised if they don't re-open any of them, either. I think we need to wait and see how it develops.

    But either way, Mr. Shorty Pants, Tesla is already a solid success. It's now merely tinkering with the business model to see what works best for them. Your increasingly desperate attempts to paint every single change that Tesla makes as leading inevitably to catastrophe... well, you've made yourself the joke of the entire forum. Congratulations, I guess! :rolleyes:

    But unless you're getting paid for Tesla bashing by some Russian troll farm or some hard-right-wingnut "think tank", then it seems you could find something much more productive to do with your time... like those
    "building projects I am planning to do" which you mentioned.

     
  11. TeslaInvestors

    TeslaInvestors Active Member

    LOL. You must have mistaken me for one of the 'total prick" fanboys from Tesla fan sites.
    https://sniffpetrol.com/2018/05/08/ask-a-total-prick-from-a-tesla-forum/

    All in or in, they always say they are all in.
    I have no doubt Tesla is a scam. But we live in scam nation America :)
    No one should be all in in anything.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2019
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  13. Pushmi-Pullyu

    Pushmi-Pullyu Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
     
  14. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web Well-Known Member Subscriber







    Bob Wilson
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2019
  15. Pushmi-Pullyu

    Pushmi-Pullyu Well-Known Member

    Re the 2nd video posted above:

    It's stunning to see CNBC repeating the old, tired anti-EV B.S. about GM "losing $49,000 on every Volt it sells!" And they repeated that FUD at least twice in that one video. I stopped watching after their second attempt to lower my I.Q. :rolleyes: ...so who knows if they repeated it again?

    I guess CNBC isn't just anti-Tesla; they seem to be anti-EV in general.
    (◣_◢)
     
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2019
  16. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web Well-Known Member Subscriber

    I was catching up on my YouTube videos and saw this scattering of Lutz videos. It gives me no pleasure to see the Volt go but the original goal of displacing the Toyota Prius was a bridge-to-far. The Honda Clarity appears to be fine replacement. Meanwhile, I'm replacing our Prius Prime with a standard range Model 3.

    Bob Wilson
     
  17. marshall

    marshall Well-Known Member

    You keep telling us how great your cooking is, but you won't eat it! However, there may still be a time for you to gorge yourself today. Tesla management did another seesaw.
     
  18. Pushmi-Pullyu

    Pushmi-Pullyu Well-Known Member

    The decision a few weeks ago to close most Tesla Stores was clearly a sudden one. Someone posted an excerpt, in one of the comment threads over on IEVs News, that showed Tesla announcing an expansion to its stores a short time before; I think it was only about 2 weeks prior?

    I regarded Tesla's plan to close its Stores as an experiment, and it doesn't surprise me they changed their minds in response to the surge in demand for... I guess... the Standard Range Plus Model 3 being significantly higher than expected. (Presumably Tesla had a good idea of the demand for the Standard Range Model 3, so I'm guessing it must have been the SR+ demand that caused them to change plans.)

    Shocking to see an overwhelming number of negative comments in response to the news over on IEVs News... and I don't mean just from the Tesla bashers among the Usual Suspects, either. It surprises me to see such lack of critical thinking by people who normally seem to have their heads screwed on straight. Something in the air? Spring fever? At least, I'd like to think such lack of common sense, so many people ignoring a lot of fairly plain evidence, is unusual for those posting to IEVs.

    Yeah, Tesla announced major, sudden changes to its business plans twice within a few weeks. That's what "agile" companies do, and such ability to change plans swiftly in response to changing market conditions is considered a positive thing.

    You'd never know it was a positive trait from all the negative comments posted today!

    I gotta say, though, that it can't be good for employee morale, or the employee retention rate, at Tesla Stores. :(

     
  19. interestedinEV

    interestedinEV Well-Known Member

    One thing about, Musk: He is not shy about taking risks and is always ready to do something out of the box. And when you do that, new ideas sometime fail. But if he wins, he wins big.

    For example, he sold cars without dealers, and Lutz and others thought he was nuts. He sold a lot cars that way so he was not nuts. Then he opened showrooms. He then possibly looked at the numbers and said "why do I need showrooms, when most orders come on the internet". Based on an analysis he or other may have thought "In quite a few states, I cannot open showrooms but I still sell a lot of cars there, what does the showroom do for me". He has taken a gamble on closing showrooms and if it fails, he can always re-open showrooms or appoint dealers. If this model works, he does not have the overheads that others have. Just because you have a dealer does not mean there are no overheads. The dealer needs to cover their overheads (and this cost that is recovered stays with the dealer), you have a big dealer management staff etc.. If you can move all buying to the internet, you have saved a ton of cash. And you will never know if it will work, if you don't try. Yes, there risk that if he fails, it will cost more to get the showrooms back, but it a risk worth taking.

    GM and other companies do not want to take risks. If the risk fails, someone will lose their job. That is corporate bureaucracy. Lutz is a die-hard from the old mold. He is still living in the 1990s. He does not see the customer changing, he does not see the impact of environmental degradation, he does not understand the younger customers, he does not see a need to change. Douglas MacArthur said "Old Soldiers don't die, they just fade away". In my opinion, Lutz is a tired old soldier, he just needs to ride into the sunset.
     
  20. Pushmi-Pullyu

    Pushmi-Pullyu Well-Known Member

    Actually, Tesla said (before walking back those plans) that it would convert a small number of Tesla Stores to Galleries/ Showrooms, but close the rest of the Stores. Tesla certainly hasn't said it was going to close any Galleries/ Showrooms.

     
  21. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web Well-Known Member Subscriber

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