The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 0

Sunday

When I walked into the Tesla store, I wasn't sure I'd actually be able to buy the car there. I know there are many states that prohibit Tesla from selling directly to the public and I wasn't sure if Washington was one of them. My plan was to visit the store, see the color my wife was raving about, get any questions answered, then go home and place my order online. That's not quite how it went down.

The Purchase

I entered the store with my wife and daughter. There were three vehicles in the store - two Model S's and one Model X. (I thought owning a Prius was bad when it came to speaking of them in the plural - Priuses? Prii? I can tell the Model S is going to be worse.) One of the Model S's was the Midnight Silver that caught my wife's eye. I had to agree, it was nice looking. We spent some time poking around the car. I sat in the front and back seats, played with the sunroof, messed with the touchscreen functions. It's a nice car. I had taken a test drive two years ago, so I was somewhat familiar with the interior. It felt good to be back in one!

My wife and daughter left to do some shopping and I hung around the store a bit more, looking at the Model X, but mostly watching other people checking out the cars. Every person I eavesdropped on sounded impressed. I also spent some time checking out the interactive displays, looking at the home charging options and how fast each can recharge the car.

I wandered around and caught the eye of a woman who asked me if I had any questions. I had one regarding the front license plate mount. (Sadly, Washington requires cars have a front license plate. My old state, Arizona, does not.) I don't like that the front plate breaks the clean lines of the nose of the car, but, at least the mounting area looks fairly well integrated. It's not like someone just screwed the license plate into the bumper, which I have seen on other cars.

I mentioned I was ready to place an order and she went of to find an "Owner Advisor" to help me. A few minutes later, a man came and took me over to a computer. He talked to me a bit about the car and Tesla in general. He pulled up my information and saw I had taken a test drive in Arizona in the past.

We then started going through the order process. It was the same as on their public website. In fact, I think it was their public website I was using. The advisor was just there to answer any questions I might have and to go over the various options you can purchase.

I decided (before even entering the store) that I would buy the P100D version of the Model S. I figure if I'm going to spend a boatload of money on a car, a bucket to two more won't make much difference. The advisor went over the car options, but the P100D comes with most of them already, so there wasn't much to decide. I opted to not get the rear facing child seats. The performance package does come with a rear spoiler that I could do without, but leaving it off didn't lower the price any, so I left it.

I did opt to change to the 19 inch wheels instead of the 21 inch wheels that come with the performance package. I have read many stories about drivers with the 21 inch wheels hitting bumps or curbs and blowing the tires or damaging the wheels. In fact, the advisor said someone took a test drive last week at the store and blew a tire hitting a curb. I have since spoken with another Tesla owner and it also turns out that 19 inch wheels provide greater range per charge than the larger wheels, so I think I made a good decision there.

I made sure to give the advisor my referral code from a previous owner, so I could get the free Supercharging. It was then that he told me about how the promotion keeps getting extended, as I mentioned last week.

I had originally decided to not trade in my vehicle and instead to sell it myself, then use the money to pay down my car loan. However, the advisor mentioned that, in Washington, the amount of your trade-in is deducted from the purchase price of your new vehicle when it comes to calculating sales tax, thus reducing the tax you have to pay. So if my new car costs $50,000 and I get $10,000 for my trade in, I only have to pay sales tax on $40,000. Later that day, I decided to go ahead and trade in my old car instead of selling it myself. If I don't like the amount they are willing to give me for it, I can always change my mind again and sell it myself.

The final step was determining where I wanted to pick up the car when it came in. I had two choices - in Bellevue, where the store was located, or Seattle. Bellevue is slightly closer to me. It is also the location the advisor recommended because the pick up facility is nicer and, being in a different city, it has a 0.1% lower tax rate than Seattle. That's about an extra $150 savings.

I put down a $2,500 deposit using a credit card and I was done! Total cost of the car: $148,700.

*Gulp* That's more than my first house!

The Tesla order summary cheats a bit and knocks off the $7,500 tax credit to try to make the price look lower. Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me!

The advisor mentioned I have three days to change my mind. I can cancel my order or change the options I selected with no penalty. After three days, the deposit becomes non-refundable and any configuration changes will incur a $500 fee.

Estimated delivery time is the end of September, although I was told that sometimes the high performance models get a higher priority at the factory, so it could come in mid-September.

The whole process was super easy and there was no sales pressure at all. Honestly, there is no need. The car sells itself.

I got home to find a couple emails - confirmation of my order, what to expect as the process moves forward, etc. I also got my own Tesla online account as well as my own referral code. So if you are looking to purchase a Tesla, use my code and we'll both get something (although what that might be seems to change periodically): https://ts.la/shaun54723

Wednesday

A very long three days passed. On the second day, I got a reminder email that my three day deadline was approaching. I thought that was a nice touch. I don't think many other car dealers would send you a reminder saying "Hey! Today is the last day you can change your mind and cancel the sale!"

On the fourth day, I got an email stating my configuration had been sent to the factory and my car was being scheduled for production. A VIN number was assigned.

It looks like most of the paperwork can be handled through my Tesla account. I was able to upload images of the front and back of my driver's license, as well as proof of insurance.

The Trade-in section of the account was marked as Completed since I said I was not making a trade in. There was no option to change this online, so I called the company and was told that was not a problem. A delivery coordinator will be contacting me in a day or two and he can make that change for me.

(One thing I noticed: Tesla really is a tech company that just happens to be selling cars. Not only was the original advisor I spoke with able to tell I made a test drive years ago, when I called in today, I didn't have to give them my reservation number or VIN number. They had my phone number from Caller ID and brought my account up from that. I realize a lot of companies can do this now, but I always like when it happens. It makes the customer experience so much nicer. I don't feel like I am reduced to a number.)

The loan approval process was not started because a loan approval is only good for 30 days. Since my delivery date is more than 30 days out, we're holding off on starting that.

Similarly with the trade in. Once they have given me a value for the trade in, that figure is only good for 2 weeks or 500 miles, whichever comes first, so that will have to wait as well. For the trade in calculation, they want two pictures of the exterior, two of the interior, the VIN, and mileage.

My online account has a nice checklist showing how many steps I have left to do before taking delivery:

Thursday

Prepping The House

Like most people, I will need to have an additional outlet installed in my garage to charge the car. I have two options. Well, three actually, but one is too slow to even consider. There are a wide range of variables to consider when selecting how you want to charge your car, including how much current the service to your house is rated for, if your car has dual chargers or not, etc. (I finally get to put my electrical engineering degree to some use!) Full details can be found on Tesla's charging page, but the below numbers are the ones that apply to me:

1. A standard 120V outlet. This is an outlet just like you have everywhere in your house. You probably also already have one in your garage. Charges at a rate of 4 - 6 km (2.5 - 3.7 miles) per hour. Not a realistic option.
2. NEMA 14-50 outlet. This is similar to a clothes dryer outlet, but can supply more current (50 amps). This is the type of outlet most RVs use and you need an electrician to install it. Charges at a rate of 37 km (23 miles) per hour. This is one possibility.
3. Tesla High Powered Wall Charger. Special unit sold by Telsa that can support varying output levels, up to 80 amps. Requires an electrician to install. Charges at a maximum rate of 84 km (52 miles) per hour. This is the other possibility.

After speaking with a Tesla owner, I decided I probably can get by with option 2. My house appears to have a 200 amp circuit coming into it, so I should be able to go with option 3 if I want.

Here's the deal: The car comes with a charging cord. If I go with option 2, I'll use that cord in the garage at home and have take it with me on trips to charge in case there isn't a Supercharger nearby. (Most RV sites have a NEMA 14-50 outlet you can use to charge.) If I go this route, I know I will forget to bring the cord on a trip at some point, so I thought I'd buy an extra cord to keep in the car all the time. Then I saw this:

A spare cable with adapters is $100 more than the wall charger! Looks like I'll go with the wall charger and keep the cables that come with the car in the trunk for when I travel.

I should also note that these prices seem to change quite a bit. I'm pretty sure when I looked at these 3 days ago, they were $500 for the wall charger and $525 for the cable, so there might be some shennanigans going on there. I do know that when I was running the numbers for saving up for a Tesla years ago, the wall charger was priced at $1,000.

I've scheduled an electrician to come out next week and give me a quote on installing both types of charging options. We'll see how big the price difference is.

Had a hard time sleeping tonight. I woke up at 1 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. Part of it is the fact that I'm about to take out a huge loan. I keep going over the numbers in my head and everything always comes out good, but just the fact that it's still up in the air is making me nervous. I think once the loan approval process is started and / or completed, I'll feel better.

Friday

Ran some more numbers today and it's possible I can pay the loan off in 2.5 years, well ahead of the 6 year term. That requires some serious cutting back though, especially on my retirement savings. I'm not sure that is something I want to do.

Also discovered that even if I don't pay the loan off early, I'll end up paying about $6,800 in interest payments. The $7,500 tax credit more than offsets that, so it's like I'm able to borrow money for free.

Of course, until the final numbers and rates are locked down, this is all subject to change.

Counting down to the end of September...