Model 3 Delivered!

Deliverance

Wow... The process of buying my wife's Model 3 was so much smoother and faster than what I went through buying my Model S! We pulled the trigger and ordered the car on February 19. We drove it home on March 2 - just 11 days later. And we could have actually had it as early as February 26, only seven days after ordering it, but we weren't ready that soon. (Because both of our names will be on the title, we both had to be present to pick it up and we just couldn't find a time we were both available.) Compare this with the 6 weeks it took to get my Model S!

I suspect the increased speed is because the options for the Model 3 are severely limited. Our only options were the paint color (5 choices), interior color (2 choices), wheel size (2 choices), and the enhanced autopilot feature. All cars have the enhanced AP hardware installed, so it's just a software configuration to turn it on. There is no difference in the build process. This means there are very few changes between each Model 3 produced, so they can roll off the assembly line faster.

The trade-in process was much easier as well. No photos of the trade-in were required, contrasting with my trade-in experience. As I mentioned last time, it seems how thoroughly they inspect your trade-in is dependent on how expensive your new car is.

As was the case with my Model S, the timing worked out such that we didn't need to waste money on licensing the old car for another year. My wife's registration on her Prius was set to expire 17 days after we traded it in. Unlike some states, Washington does not give you a refund if you sell or trade your vehicle before the registration expires, so this saved us $156.

I did run into one hitch. We were scheduled to pick up our car on Saturday, March 2. On March 1, we got an email asking us to log into our account and verify our pickup location and that we were trading in a car. This was the day after Elon Musk announced the $35,000 Model 3 was now on sale.

Friday morning, the Tesla website was getting hammered. I couldn't log in to verify our purchase info! After trying to about 30 minutes, I finally got logged in, only to discover my order was not listed! Considering I had just wired my deposit over the night before, that was a smidge disconcerting, to say the least.

I called Tesla and they said the site was swamped and they were having the same issues on their end accessing it. The person I spoke with said links weren't going to the correct pages and other weird behavior was happening. He confirmed he still saw my order and that they had people working to get the website fixed. He suggested I try again that evening.

After about 2 hours, I tried again and was able to get in and confirm my order.

The pick up went just as smooth as when I picked up my Model S. We signed some paperwork, handed over our old car keys and got our new Model 3 keycards. This time, the car was parked outside, instead of in the showroom like mine was. There were several other people there picking up cars, so space was limited. Since we already knew how most of the stuff worked, there was no need for anyone to give us an overview, so we got in and drove away!

Shiny!

Accessories

Once again, I ordered the all weather interior floor mats. We also bought a second high power wall charger. This will be wired in a load balanced configuration with my existing wall charger so they can share the same 100 amp circuit.

Due to the trade-in, we actually have an extra $5,000 or so we could have applied to our down payment. I didn't want to do this for fear of messing up the loan. I was afraid if the loan amount changed, even if it went down, the approval process would have to start over again. Granted, it went super fast and was completely transparent to me, but I didn't want to do anything that might delay the purchase.

The extra money will be used for the second high powered wall connector and its installation. There should be a couple thousand left over, which will go towards paying down the car loan and I'll send it in as soon as I get the electronic payment process set up.

My wife has been enjoying the last couple of days with the car. We're still configuring some of the options like the HomeLink garage door opener and connecting her phone, but it should be all set up the way she likes it in a few days!

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The One In Which I Buy A Second Tesla

In August of last year, I gave up on my dream of buying a Tesla using passive income and just bought one using a loan. I explained all the reasons why in this post, but to sum up, there were just too many negatives in waiting to get enough passive income.

Now it's time to replace my wife's car and we opted to get her a Model 3. With this purchase, I'm likely not going to post daily details of the buying process like I did the first time around. I expect the process will be fairly similar, so I'll only post when things are different than they were before.

We've decided on getting a red Model 3 with the dual motor long range battery option. That gives us the same range as the Performance version (310 miles), albeit with a slower 0 - 60 time. But my wife isn't going to be drag racing any time soon (I hope), so we're fine saving the $11,000 extra the Performance version costs. I did want the dual motor version. I've got dual motors in my Model S and it made a big difference in the recent snowy weather we had. I also think it makes sense to buy the biggest battery you can. You never know when that extra capacity will come in handy. Look at it this way: if a gas car came with a 5 gallon gas tank or a 12 gallon tank, would you ever opt for the smaller one?

We did get the Enhanced Autopilot, which is a $5,000 option. After using it during my daily commute and during our cross-country road trip, I can't imagine owning a Tesla without this.

My wife also opted for the black interior, which is standard, and the red paint, a $2,500 option.

Funny story about the color. The Model 3 comes in five colors: black, silver, blue, white, and red. Black is standard and no additional charge. Silver and blue are an extra $1,500. White is $2,000 and red is $2,500. My wife doesn't like white or blue, so those were out. (Sadly. I really like the blue and wanted my car to be that color. Alas, she liked the silver and she won on that decision, but it was ultimately the catalyst for buying the car at the time, so I can't complain.) She didn't want silver for her car because that would be the same color as mine. That left black or red.

Black tends to show dirt really bad. My mom had a black car when I was growing up and I remember having to wash it all the time. On the other hand, we were worried about red attracting police and generating more tickets. That, it turns out, is an urban myth.

My wife couldn't decide between the two colors, so on our recent trip to Las Vegas she decided to let random chance determine her choice. She played roulette. If black came up, she'd get black. If red, she'd get red. Well, she played two spins and black came up both times. However, she ended up not sticking to her rules and decided to get red after all.

Things Are Different From Last Time

Right off the bat, there are two things that are different in the buying process this time around: The federal income tax credit has been cut in half to $3,750 and the loan interest rate has gone up to 3.75%.

When I purchased my Model S, the income tax credit was more than the total interest I would pay over the life of my loan, meaning I was borrowing money for free. Things aren't quite so rosy this time around. I'm putting down about 25%, so my loan amount will be roughly $44,100. On a 72 month loan at 3.75%, I'll pay $5,216 in interest charges over the life of the loan. Subtracting the $3,750 tax credit means the true cost to me of borrowing money is $1,466.

The good news is I can still get my total interest cost down to under the tax credit amount. The monthly payment for the above loan is $685. I am currently saving $967 each month towards this car. If I apply that entire amount to my loan, which I will, my total interest paid drops to $3,552 and my loan will be paid off in four years instead of six. If I do this, the federal tax credit will more than cover my interest costs, just like it did with my car.

So, just like with my Model S, even though I am taking out a loan, the cost of borrowing money for me will be zero.

I may be able to eke some more savings out of this. I am currently paying extra on my Model S loan. That loan has a current balance of $95,365 and I'm paying 1.74% interest. The loan for the Model 3 will be $44,100 at 3.75%. I'll need to run the numbers to determine where I save the most money by making extra payments - the higher balance, lower interest loan or the lower balance, higher interest one. I'll wait until we've actually taken possession of the car and everything is finalized before making that calculation.

I did notice what appeared to be a price discrepancy on the website. The price was shown in two different locations and they were not the same:

I downloaded the actual purchase agreement and it turns out the difference is due to destination and documentation fees.

I Didn't Forget The Tax This Time

This time around, I also remembered to reserve enough cash to pay sales tax on the purchase. When I bought the Model S, I assumed the tax would be included in the loan, but it was not. This left me scrambling for some extra funds.

Another change in the buying process is you can now enter a dollar amount for your down payment. Back when I bought the Model S, you could only enter a percentage of the purchase price. This is a welcome change.

Home Prep

I will be purchasing a second high powered wall charger. I could probably get by with the one I have, as I got the longer cord and it will easily reach both cars in the garage. However, that will make charging a pain in the ass because we'd have to remember to move the plug from one car to the other. I suppose we could charge one car one day and the other the next, which might not be too bad, but still.

I already had the major electrical work of getting a new electrical panel and 100 amp circuit installed done, so I won't need to pay those costs again. I will need to spend about $500 on a second wall charger plus whatever the electrician charges to hook it up. This nice thing about the wall chargers is they can be connected together in a load balancing configuration. This allows two chargers to share the same 100 amp circuit.

One thing I am completely ignoring in these calculations is the trade-in value of my wife's car. She has a 2010 Prius with 138,000 miles on it. Honestly, it has several scratches in the paint and it's not in the best of condition. I'm planning on getting about $1,000 for it, but I'm doing my calculations assuming I get nothing. I checked the Kelly Blue Book value and, even for a car in fair condition (their lowest rating), they say it's still worth between $3,500 and $5,300. Whatever I get for it will just be icing on the cake.

Wow! While in the process of writing this post, Tesla came back with a trade-in offer of $4,750! That's kinda crazy (but I'll take it). When I traded in my old car for the Model S, I had to take at least 10 photos of the outside and inside of the car, tire treads, etc. before they valued it. I had to do none of that this time around.

I called Tesla and asked about this. I was told if the value of the purchased car is under $60,000, they don't make you do all the photos on the trade in. When you pick up your car, they just do a cursory check to make sure the car functions. Either way, I think their offers on trade-ins are really fair.

One thing I am really surprised at: we placed our order on February 19 and Tesla said we could expect the car to be delivered in February! That's only 9 days max! We'll see if that holds true.

My wife has yet to decide on a name for her car... Any suggestions?

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The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 6 Plus One Day

Sunday

The last time I spoke with the delivery advisor, she mentioned that her workweek was Sunday to Thursday, so on Sunday I was waiting for the written confirmation that my trade-in quote was actually good for 1,000 miles or 4 weeks, not the 500 miles or 2 weeks the paperwork said. Sunday night came and I hadn't heard anything, so I sent her an email asking for confirmation.

Checking the weather forecast, it looks like there is a slight chance of rain next Sunday when I am due to pick up the car. I hope it's not raining because I'd like to give the car a good once over. But, it's a week away and weather forecasts usually aren't all that accurate that far out anyway. And for all I know, the delivery place might be indoors or have covered parking. I should probably check it out on Google Maps...

Thinking of the weather also got me thinking about floor mats. It rains so much here, I definitely want some all weather floor mats so I don't ruin the standard mats. (I did the same thing with my Prius.) So I ordered these OEM floor mats. They are made by WeatherTech, the same people who made the ones I bought for my Prius. It looks like they are $35 cheaper if you buy them from WeatherTech, but they charge $33 shipping whereas Tesla doesn't charge shipping at all, so it works out to about the same. Plus, if you order directly from Tesla, you get the Tesla logo on them, which you don't get ordering from WeatherTech.

Monday

I received written confirmation of the longer time frame for the trade-in quote. The advisor asked me one last time if I wanted her to go ahead and submit the final paperwork. She had been holding off submitting in case I needed to resubmit with a different mileage. I told her to go ahead.

Shortly thereafter, I received my (second) delivery appointment confirmation. Hopefully, this one will not be postponed! The email said to check my Tesla account for payment information and instructions.

I logged in to my Telsa account and had a bit of a shock. Instead of the "6/6 Tasks Complete" image (like above) that I had seen the last several times I logged in, I saw this one:

I seem to have lost 2 tasks along the way. One of the steps now gone was the trade-in step. I can't remember what the other one was. But I also now had a payment section:

Goodbye, money!

When I spoke with the delivery advisor, she said I could submit the payment details at any time. Of course, I want to hold on to my money as long as possible, so I asked her if I could wait until Friday night, even though ACH payments are not processed on weekends. She said yes, that even if the funds have not actually transferred, they can see the payment is in process. So I'll probably submit the transfer Friday.

There is one other issue I just thought of: In Washington, as I was told by a Tesla employee back when I placed my order, the trade-in value of my old car can be offset against the cost of my new car when it comes to calculating sales tax. (I verified that here.) This should result in about a $505 tax savings for me. As you can see in the image above, it's not clear that happened. I emailed my delivery advisor to confirm this was calculated correctly. I asked for a line-by-line accounting of the totals.

Tuesday

I received an email from my delivery advisor regarding my tax question. She said she passed the request on to the contract team for more information.

Wednesday

No response yet, so I sent another email.

Thursday

My all-weather floor mats arrived today. Still no response regarding taxes. Stopped off at the gas station for what I hope will be the last time ever today!

Friday

Had some heavy rain early this morning, but it's stopped now. That's the first heavy rain in a couple months. Forecast for Sunday is 67% chance of rain, with 64% chance in the 10 AM hour and 61% in the 11 AM hour. My pickup appointment is at 11 AM.

No response on taxes. At this point, I need to initiate my payment, so there's nothing I can do about this. Truthfully, I don't have any leverage to force them to address the issue. It's not like I'm going to cancel my order and lose my $2,500 deposit over a $505 tax discrepancy. Likewise, I'm not going to delay taking possession of the car because there's a good chance a new trade-in value calculation will drop the value of my car by more than $505.

The Sales Tax Issue

I decided to take another look at the documents available to me in my Tesla account and I found the purchase agreement, which contained a breakdown of the purchase costs, including taxes.

Try as I might, I can't figure out how they arrived at that tax figure. It seems to be more than what I should have been charged, but less than I could have been charged, so I'm going to go with it.

The sales tax rate in Bellevue, where I am picking up the car is 10%:

If they charged me tax on the whole purchase price, I should have been charged $14,870. If they charged me tax on the purchase price less my trade-in (which is what they should have done), I should have been charged ($148,700 - $5,050) * 10% = $14,365. If they messed up and charged me the Seattle sales tax rate (where their other pick up location is located), which is 10.1%, I should have been charged either $15,018.70 or $14,508.65.

The actual tax rate I was charged is $14,795.96 / $148,700 = 9.95%. Go figure. So the difference between what I think I should have been charged and what I was charged is $14,795.96 - $14,365 = $430, in their favor. But they charged me $74.04 less than the flat out 10% tax rate I think they might have charged. It's not worth raising a stink about, in my opinion, so I went ahead and made the payment.

If only that were true, Tesla. If only that were true...

On the positive side of things, I timed this purchase just right for my existing license. The current license for my Prius is due to be renewed exactly one week after I get the Tesla, so that saved me $150 or so in licensing fees.

Saturday

Less than 24 hours to go!

I took a look at the pick up location on Google maps. It's a Tesla showroom as well. Still a 61% chance of rain at 11 AM tomorrow.

Spent some time getting my paperwork together (I need to bring my title, registration, and proof of insurance). Also cleaned out my old car. Then I spent about 2 hours watching You Tube videos from the Teslavangelist.

Too bad my weekly posts run Sunday to Saturday. You'll have to wait for next week for the big delivery!







Just kidding!! I wouldn't do that!

Sunday

The day is finally here! It was overcast, but not actually raining - yet. The clouds were definitely thinking about it though.

With my wife and daughter, I drove out to the Tesla service center in Bellevue. It was a pretty big building with a parking lot on two sides filled with Teslas. The building functions as a showroom, delivery center, and service center. We were greeted by an associate holding the door open for us and, when we entered, it looked like we were the only ones there. We were about 15 minutes early for our appointment, so the associate had us wait in a little lounge area, which had a big screen TV displaying a football game, a Koering coffee machine with a selection of flavors, and two big jars of Life Savers candy. The overall color theme of the place was white and the whole building had an Apple Store vibe to it.

After about 10 minutes, an older couple came in and started waiting as well. They were also there to pick up their Tesla. After another few minutes, a different person came in an introduced himself. He said they were just finishing up detailing my car and, while they were doing that, we could finish the paperwork.

He first asked for the keys to my trade in and went out to check it out and get the mileage. When he came back, he had a couple forms my wife and I needed to autograph. We had to sign over the title to our trade in, then a couple of papers giving Tesla power of attorney to file paperwork for the car on our behalf, then some ownership transfer papers.

The next group of papers were for the new car. One was for the loan, another was for the registration and license. The last piece of paper we were given was a cheesy little award that looks like it was made from a Microsoft Word award template and printed on regular paper, not even card stock. I mean, it didn't even have a facsimile of Elon Musk's signature, just had a tiny "Tesla SoDo" down where a signature might be. I'll forever be wondering what that means.

And that was it! It was really painless and we did it all right there at a little table in the lounge area in about 5 minutes. There were maybe 15 pages in all to sign. Based on what I had read online, I expected the process to be entirely electronic, but maybe the state of Washington doesn't allow electronic contracts yet.

We had to wait about 5 more minutes for the detail work to be done, during which time a family of four came in to pick up their car as well. Finally, a woman came and escorted us back to our car.

The Reveal

There were two cars parked inside the building in the back part of the showroom. This was obviously where they delivered the cars to their new owners and went over the brief demonstration of how to use some of the features. The woman had my wife and I sit in the car while she walked us through the basic controls.

I had read the manual many times and had watched lots of videos, so there wasn't really anything she told me that I didn't already know. One thing I did find out was that the Auto Pilot and Auto Steer functionality isn't enabled until the car has been driven at least 50 miles. This, she told me, was to allow all the sensors to calibrate themselves.

She told us how the key fobs operate (they look like little Teslas) and went over the charging adapters that come with the car. She also explained how to plug the charging cable into the car and how it locks and unlocks to the charge port. I then checked out the car to make sure everything looked fine, which it did. Finally, we got in and drove off into the sunset! Err, sunrise.. Well, high noon, partly cloudy sun, actually.

Our first stop was just 5 miles down the road to get some lunch. On the way, my daughter told me to "punch it," which I gleefully did. Holy crap! Everyone screamed at the surge of power. And that wasn't even in ludicrous mode!

We made it safely to the restaurant, where I parked and took some pictures.

We hit a little bit of rain on the way home, but for the most part, the sun shone on my new car all day!

First Thoughts

Wow. The car really is amazing! It takes some getting used to because when you take your foot off the accelerator, the car really slows down with the regenerative breaking. The first dozen or so miles, you can easily get nauseous because you have to learn how to moderate your foot pressure. You don't take your foot of the gas and coast before stepping on the brake like a gas car. In fact, you very rarely have to step on the brake at all!

One thing that really feels weird is there is no ignition or even an on / off switch. Being a Prius owner, I was used to no ignition key, but I still had to push a button to turn the car on and off. Not the Tesla. If you've got the fob in your pocket, you just get the in car, sit down, and put it in drive. When you arrive at your destination, you put it in park and just get out and walk away. It will shut itself off and lock all on its own. If I ever have to drive a regular car again, I know I'm going to just walk away and leave it unlocked and running....

When we got home, I spent the next couple hours playing with all the various settings in the car and doing things like connecting my phone, programming my garage door opener, connecting the car to my WiFi network, installing the all-weather floor mats, etc. The car notified my that there was a pending software update.

During software updates, you can't drive the car or do anything with it. I had the option of scheduling it to install at night (it estimated 1 hour and 40 minutes to install), but we were getting ready for dinner, so I told the car to go ahead and install it now. I was worried that if I left it to install overnight, I might wake up in the morning to find the update failed and the car unable to be driven. (Can you tell I'm a Windows user?) Later in the night, I got a notification on my phone from the Tesla app saying the update was successful.

This post is already running long, so I'll end it here. Next time, I'll talk about my first week of driving.

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The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 5

Wednesday

Monday was the Labor Day holiday. Not much going on so far this week. Truthfully, I expected some sort of information, as I consider the "very beginning of September" to be the first week of September. But maybe that's just me.

My daughter started high school today. I was hoping I could drop her off in the Tesla, but I guess that will have to wait now. She was dropped off with my Prius. All her friends say Prius drivers are horrible and she has made it quite clear that when she starts driving, she does not want a Prius for a car. She may change her mind once she has to start paying for gas.

Delivery Scheduled!

Well, that was serendipitous! Forty-five minutes after writing that first paragraph, I got a call from Tesla to set up my delivery appointment. I get my car Sunday at 12:30 PM!

Things Start Moving Really Fast

The Delivery Scheduler who called confirmed my car color and wheel type (which seem to be random things to confirm out of all the options on the car, but OK) then said my Delivery Advisor will be contacting me to go through the loan and trade-in paperwork. Minutes later, I got an email confirming my delivery appointment.

I logged in to my Tesla account and filled out the online loan application. It's a bit confusing when a married couple is applying for the loan. It asks each person what their mortgage payment is. Should I split the amount between me and my wife? Enter the full amount for each of us? The full amount for one and zero for the other? I don't know. I entered the full amount for both, figuring if they did an automated check with a credit bureau that would be the most likely match.

The application also lists the price of the car and asks what percentage I will be putting down. This defaults to 10%. The price does not include tax, license and delivery, so you'll need to keep that in mind when figuring out how much you want to put down. Honestly, it would be easier if they let you enter a dollar amount for a down payment.

The first time filling out the application, I hit Submit and got a spinning wheel that said "Processing" for 10 minutes. A Google search indicated this is a common occurrence for many Tesla buyers. I guessed it may or may not have been related to my ad blocker, so I disabled that and filled the application out again. This time it submitted successfully and told me I should have a response in 24 hours.

I also entered my trade-in details. Just as I finished that, my Delivery Advisor called me. She confirmed my loan application was received and it had a status of "Manual review," which is normal. They are in the process of matching me up with a lender. She said not to worry about the mortgage amount thing. If there is a question, the mortgage specialist will give me a call.

For the trade-in, she said I needed to complete a self-inspection. I told her I was good looking but was carrying a few extra pounds. J/K! The self-inspection is for my trade-in and involves taking several pictures of the car. She suggested it be done during daylight hours. There's a couple of hours of daylight left, so I'm off to the car wash to make the car all shiny.

While at the car wash, I get an email from Tesla financing. Our loan has been approved! (It's been a total of maybe 1.5 hours since I submitted the application.) The email includes the bank who is providing the loan (Wells Fargo), the interest rate (1.74%, as quoted the day I placed the order), my estimated monthly payment, and the amount I need to bring when I pick up the car.

The amount we have to pay at signing is a bit higher than I expected. Turns out, taxes and fees are not included in the loan amount. That's not what I remember being told when I put my deposit down, but it seems like that's how it's been with other car loans I have gotten. Thinking back on the application process, that kinda makes sense too. However, it would be nice if they gave you an estimated tax amount during the loan application process so you can figure that in when determining your down payment percentage. Luckily, I have some funds in reserve that can cover it. This also means my monthly loan payment will be lower than I planned. And the amount quoted does not yet take into account my trade-in.

Timing-wise, it's going to be tight. I have to sell some stock to get the additional funds, The market has already closed today, so my order won't get executed until tomorrow, Thursday. The trade has to settle, then I have to transfer the funds to my checking account. If I need to provide a cashier's check, I'm screwed. But since I'm picking the car up on a Sunday, I don't think they will ask for that, considering banks will be closed. Monday is also a payday for my wife, so I should be OK riding the float for a day or two.

Self-Inspection Process

The self-inspection asks for photos of the following:

• Title
• Tires (using penny to show tire depth, Lincoln's head pointing down)
• VIN Plate
• Left side of vehicle
• Right side of vehicle
• Front of vehicle
• Rear of vehicle
• Seats
• Dash
• Odometer

Shouldn't be too hard. They say I should have a quote back in 48 hours. That's cutting it close to the delivery date. I took pictures and uploaded everything in the evening. I had to resize all the images because the site (which was a third party site) cannot accept more than 25 MB of images. My phone defaults to image sizes of about 4 to 5 MB each and I had 18 to upload.

In addition to uploading pictures, you also have to answer questions about the condition of the car, provide the VIN, year, make, model, etc. They ask if any warning lights (check engine, tire pressure, oil change, etc.) are lit on the dash. They say the Tesla delivery person will verify that the condition you report matches the condition of the car when you turn it in. They also only asked for pictures of one tire, so if you bought your tires at different times, photograph the one with the most tread.

Wow.. It's 8:20 PM and I just got an email from my Delivery Advisor saying she got all my photos and information and they are just waiting for a price for the trade-in. She's based in Nevada, which is the same time zone as me, so she's working late!

Seriously, this has been a hectic last 6 hours. Things are changing literally as fast as I type them up here.

Thursday

After the commotion of yesterday, today seemed like nothing happened. I did not receive any calls or email. Just for the heck of it, I decided to log in to my account and see if anything had changed. It had!

The value of my trade-in came back at $5,050. As I discovered two weeks ago, that's near the middle of the Kelley Blue Book trade-in range of  $4,400 to $6,200, although a bit towards the low side. To be fair, I did specify (truthfully) that there are a couple spots of chipped paint on the hood, so that probably lowered the value. I'm comfortable with that amount. I could probably get a bit more selling it myself, but I'll go with the trade-in just to make things easier for me.

I had to accept the value and answer a couple more questions - was I making payments on the car, etc. They asked me to upload a copy of my registration and the title. This is now the third time I have had to upload a copy of my title. That's seems a little ridiculous to me and is the only place for improvement that I have found in the whole purchase experience.

After that, the final step was to indicate acceptance of the final details. I had to mark five check boxes confirming: I was trading in a car, I was getting Tesla financing, where I was picking up the car, who my insurance company is, and how I want the car to be titled. Once I did that, all the steps were complete! Now I just have to wait for Sunday to pick up the car!

Or not.

I got a call at 8 PM from my delivery advisor. She tells me my car will not be delivered on Sunday. The truck transporting it will not arrive until Monday afternoon. Then they have to charge it and detail it, so the soonest I can pick it up is Tuesday. Unfortunately, since my wife is on the loan and registration, she has to be there to pick it up with me and she is not available during the week. So the delivery has been moved back one week to the 16th. (If you haven't figured it out by now, these posts are not quite real time.)

The delivery advisor asked if I had received a confirmation of my delivery date. I checked my email and I did receive a confirmation - I received it yesterday. She said that, unfortunately, there is a second team handling the delivery schedules and, quite frankly, they don't quite know what they are doing. Gee, that's great to hear.

This raises a couple of issues. My trade-in quote is good for 2 weeks or 500 miles, or so I was told. That's what my documentation says. The delivery advisor says that has changed and it is actually good for 1 month or 1,000 miles. She claims "everyone" within Tesla knows this. Nevertheless, I asked her to put that in writing, which she said she would do. I shouldn't go over 500 miles in a week, but I want to cover myself just in case.

She tried to make me think this was no big deal and that if I went over the mileage, they would just re-do the trade-in estimate. That's all well and good except for the fact that I'm sure the value would drop and I'd end up paying more. She had no answer to that.

We also talked about payment, which no one has mentioned to me before this. She admitted that was her fault. Payment is made via automated clearing house (ACH) transfer - just like paying a bill online. If the amount due is $10,000 or less, they will accept a personal check.

So the delay actually makes things a bit easier for me. I don't have to worry about stock trades settling and funds being transferred in time. The extra week gives me time for all that to settle.

Still, I'm disappointed I have to wait another week. And didn't I just type that I only saw one place for improvement in this process? I see lots of room for improvement now!

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The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 4

Monday

Getting impatient now that delivery is supposed to be sometime next week.

Wednesday

Got an email from my electrician saying my permit inspection has been requested and that it may take up to 72 hours to get scheduled. Hmm. I requested the inspection be performed tomorrow. The email gave a number to call that turned out to be for the Washington State Licenses and Inspections Department. According to the person I spoke with, the inspection was requested this morning to be performed tomorrow. I guess the way the process works is the inspectors call in each morning to see where they need to go that day. So I don't actually have an appointment, per se. Great.

The email also stated the inspector will call me to give me a time s/he will show up. The call will be from a restricted number and they will not leave a call back number. So I'm sure if I miss the call, the inspection will be delayed at least one day.

Thursday

No phone call all morning, so I was expecting the inspection would not happen today. Then I got a call around 1:00 PM from the electrical inspector saying she was on her way over and was about 15 minutes away. I'm glad I can work from home some days!

Once she arrived, she took the cover off the electrical panel and looked inside, checked out the two grounding stakes that were put in outside my house, and the water pipe bond - the connection between the grounding wire and the water pipe. The whole inspection took about 10-15 minutes and most of that time was spent unscrewing and then screwing back on the electrical panel cover.

I spent some time reading about other Tesla buyers' delivery appointment experiences. Most recommended really going over the car when it is delivered for things like paint scratches, loose panels, etc. You could get the impression that the cars are in crappy shape when they are delivered, but I realize people who post to forums usually do so because they have some sort of complaint. Rarely do people post online that everything went swimmingly. Nevertheless, I will make sure I do a pretty thorough inspection when my car is finally delivered.

Friday

Start of the long Labor Day weekend! My wife's twin and her family are coming up to visit. We'll be renting a boat and tooling around on Lake Washington on Sunday and just hanging around the other days.

Logged in to my Tesla account today and noticed they updated the Owner's Manual in the Documents section of my account. The one that was available before was posted as soon as my deposit was accepted and was dated March, 2018. This new one is dated August, 2018. I'm hoping the update means my car will be delivered soon!

Saturday

Took another trip to the Tesla store to show the in-laws what I will be getting. Someday.

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The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 3

Sunday

My parents made a surprise visit to see me for my 50th birthday (which was actually yesterday). We took a trip to the Tesla store so they could see the color and model I bought. I got a handmade card from my daughter in the shape of a Tesla, complete with a functioning door. I wish I could draw as well as she can!

I'm either 50 or 100. Or, god forbid, 50^50. Either way, sprinkles make a party!

Wednesday

Electricians came today and installed the new electrical panel and Tesla wall charger. My power was off for about 5 hours while they did the work. Here's the new panel:

Plenty of room for expansion

And here's the wall charger:

Now I just need something to plug this into

I just realized that I've been calling this thing a wall charger all the time, but officially, it's a wall connector. Wall connector sounds stupid to me, so I'm sticking with wall charger.

A city code inspector will be stopping by next week to make sure the work meets city codes.

Thursday

Good news! I got an email from my Tesla Delivery Advisor saying my car has started production and the ETA is the "very beginning of September!" Once the car is on its way to the delivery center, they will start the loan approval and trade-in process. I guess they aren't too worried that someone might not get approved for a loan.

Friday

I decided to check out the Kelley Blue Book site and see the rough estimate of of what my current car is worth. Wow! Mint.com is way off on the value. Mint values my car at $9,000. The Kelley Blue Book value is between $4,400 and $6,200 for trade-in value and between $5,800 and $8,000 for a private party sale. For sale by owner ads on Craigslist show my model with similar mileage selling for $7,400 to $9,000. This is strange because Mint says it gets the car value from Kelly Blue Book.

It turns out Mint was still using the mileage I put in for my vehicles when I first added them to Mint several years ago. When I updated the mileage to the actual value (which was about double what was in there), the value dropped back down to what Kelly Blue Book said it was worth.

Friday night, Elon Musk backtracked on his plan to take Tesla private. Now he said it will stay a public company.

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The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 2

Sunday

Returned from Las Vegas. We won some money this trip and I'll put it towards the electrical work that's going to be done next week. Got an alert from Fed Ex letting me know the wall charger will be delivered on Monday.

Monday

Expected the wall charger to arrive today. Turned out I read the email wrong and it's due tomorrow. Scheduled the electrical work to be performed a week from Wednesday, on August 22. I had to put down a 50% deposit for the work. Did I mention I also had to pay $65 just to have the electrician come out and give me an estimate? I'm in the wrong business...

Tuesday

Wall charger was delivered.

Wednesday

Thinking about what personalized license plate I should get. Washington has a bunch of rules about what characters can be used on a personalized plate, so it limits things somewhat. There's a 7 character limit and you cannot use any of the below formats.

Those rules knocked out out a couple of my choices, but I believe I have one picked out that meets these requirements and is not already taken.

Oops! Sorry!

Ack. I discovered a ton of blog comments that were queued waiting for my approval to published - some from as far back as June! Sorry! I thought I used to get an email notification when some were waiting for approval, but I guess I don't.

Thursday

Called my insurance company to check on what it will cost to insure this car. To be honest, I was dreading this call because I thought my premium would rise significantly. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my insurance will only go up by $8 a month!

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The Tesla Purchase Experience: Week 1

Sunday

I spent four hours today reading the Model S Owner's Manual. I did find out some new info. Most people know about the crazy acceleration modes "Insane" and "Ludicrous" that allow the Model S to have more power to take off quickly. Today I discovered there is a mode that limits power so you accelerate more slowly. It's called "Chill." I imagine this would come in handy if you have a teenager. Maybe I should tell my wife we need to Tesla and chill.

I spent some time researching locations to place my toll road transponder in the new car. Owner forum posts from 2013 to 2015 or so indicated people where having difficulty getting toll roads to pick up the signal from their transponders due to the metallized front windshield of the Tesla. Newer Teslas now have a special area on the windshield near the rear view mirror without metal to overcome this problem. In fact, as I read further into the manual, I found the page with this info on it.

Tuesday

Checked on the price of the wall charger and cables again. Yup. I wasn't imagining things last week. The price is back down to $500 and $520.

Holding off on ordering until I find out if my house can support the wall charger.

Tesla was in the news today as Elon Musk tweeted about possibly taking Tesla private, then elaborated in a blog post on the company site. I have own about two dozen shares of Tesla that I picked up back when it was in the $70 or so range. I've made a nice profit so far. My initial reaction to this news is positive. I agree with Musk's assessment that going private will allow the company to focus more clearly on the future instead of trying to maximum short term earnings. I think this announcement should also strike some fear into the heart of all the Tesla short sellers.

Wednesday

The electrician came out today and verified I have 200 amp service to my house, so  can get the wall charger if I want. But he did give me some kinda bad news.

My panel box is small and pretty old. I only have 2 empty slots, which would be used up by the circuit for the car charger, whether it's the wall unit or a regular 50 amp NEMA14-50 outlet. If I ever want to add anything in the future I'd need a new panel.

Furthermore, my panel has aluminum bussing inside of it. I have had experience with aluminum wiring before. It was used during the late 60s and early 70s for wiring when copper prices skyrocketed. The problem is aluminum is not as safe a copper. It heats easier and melts easier when high currents are put through it. It also has corrosion problems with connected to a dissimilar metal, such as copper. While aluminum wiring is no longer used (and I don't have it in my house), some electrical panels still use aluminum bussing and builders use these types of panels because they are cheaper than all copper ones. My panel is, unfortunately, of one of the cheap ones. The panel I have has a manufacturer's expected lifetime of 20 years and my house is 28 years old. Yeah, time to replace that.

The new panel will be all copper and have an unlimited lifetime warranty. It will also have more spaces for additional circuits so I can expand in the future. Cost for the new panel: $4,150. I opted to get the panel replaced because, besides the car charger, we also plan to install a tankless water heater in the future. I had one of these in our house in Arizona, but up here, where the weather (and hence, the ground water) gets much colder, a much bigger circuit is needed to power it. The electrician told me the old panel would definitely have to be replaced when I get that installed.

The difference in installing the wiring for the wall charger versus the NEMA outlet is about $500. I went ahead and opted for the wall charger and the cost for that was $1,775 plus another $200 in permit fees (including the permit for the new panel).

Now that I know which charging option I am going with, I went ahead and placed the order with Tesla for the wall charger. Luckily, the price was still $500 with free shipping. As soon as that arrives, I'll schedule the electrical work to be done.

Thursday - Sunday

Time off in Las Vegas! We got free tickets to see Amy Schumer at the Cosmopolitan, so we're spending the weekend there.

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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...

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