Tesla Unveils the Model Y

Looks nice.  Does it really seat 7?  Looks too low in the back to me. I’m sure they will sell a lot of these too. 

Fall 2020 seems a long way off.  But 7 seat Crossover Coupe could be the new hot thing.  

Looks awfully tiny to seat 7 adults.  I bet it's not 7 dfelt sized adults.   the cargo capacity w/ seat down is slightly more than the Blazer. 

Smaller than the Model X but we are expected to believe that it carries seven people? That must be some serious chronic Elon is smoking. 

2 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

Looks awfully tiny to seat 7 adults.  I bet it's not 7 dfelt sized adults.   the cargo capacity w/ seat down is slightly more than the Blazer. 

I watched the whole reveal while working till 2am this morning. I will say that the 7 people they had come out of the auto were all around 5'4" or so. They all clearly were shorter than Musk. 

What little you could see in the videos, I honestly think the 3rd row is for kids or for comfort adults that are little people, under 5' tall.

At best maybe 4 people my size can fit in it but in reality, only 2 people my size as in the Model X no one can sit behind me.

When it was teased under that black cover from the rear 3/4 shot, first thing in my mind was, Great another ugly Prius type hatchback.

Guess I was not far off on it. Yes fits the family, I hope it is successful, but I honestly think Rivian has some better cool stuff in their auto's.

With that much slope to the rear roof, I can imagine the headroom in row 2 and 3 to be pretty bad. 

The continued up-front advertising of top speed is utterly bizarre/pointless. Not braking distance or a towing capability, but top speed. As if anyone is testing this. And oh; "I'm going to pony up another EIGHT GRAND so I can go 130, because 120 JUST AIN'T GONNA CUT IT!".

Nutter observation : model Y was unveiled today, and Telsa stock dropped 5% on an up day. Wonder what investors were looking for that they didn't get?

51 minutes ago, balthazar said:

The continued up-front advertising of top speed is utterly bizarre/pointless. Not braking distance or a towing capability, but top speed. As if anyone is testing this. And oh; "I'm going to pony up another EIGHT GRAND so I can go 130, because 120 JUST AIN'T GONNA CUT IT!".

 

Nutter observation : model Y was unveiled today, and Telsa stock dropped 5% on an up day. Wonder what investors were looking for that they didn't get?

Buy on rumor, sell on news?

Mr. Balthy. 

Its part of the sex appeal of driving and owning a Tesla.  Teslas are not just same ole same ole, save the planet from ourselves electric vehicles. When unveiling the Model 3 he was quoted in saying: "At Tesla, we dont make slow cars." 

Tesla's 4 vehicles now officially spell  S-3-X-Y.  3 because Mercedes blocked him for using the letter E. 

SEXY

And speed is sexy. And speed, apparently, sells.  

And what seems to be amusing is that Tesla engineers are harnessing what electric motors can do in propelling a vehicle with much speed and getting solid range with the batteries.  Im sure that if Tesla engineers geared the motors and the batteries and the computer software towards less speed, that the range would be  slightly more than what Tesla vehicles currently actually offer, but Im also sure that talking about range without the speed might be less sexy and therefore a lot less sales. 

Its Tesla's marketing and image. And it seems to be working. I wouldnt change up the Model Y's image to be different from the other 3 Tesla models. 

As far as the shares going down...maybe its because Tesla has hinted that in the next quarter, Tesla might be losing money...again...and therefore hocus pocus smoke and mirror announcements of another model might not have deflected that reality...

I read it was Ford that blocked Tesla from using the name 'Model E'...Ford has that trademarked (probably for a future CUV EV).    And yes, performance is very much part of the marketing and brand allure of Telsa as is the 'green' EV angle.  After all, EVs like the Bolt and Leaf are sold on the 'green' hype angle and not performance.

Performance has been used to sell cars for decades, as we all should know.  Whether or not the typical driver ever fully uses that performance potential is immaterial..

I thought it was Mercedes...

Cool, it was Ford. 

3 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

I thought it was Mercedes...

Cool, it was Ford. 

Per the Book of Knowledge:

The Model 3 was codenamed Tesla BlueStar in the original business plan in 2007.^[49][50] The intended name was Model E, which was abandoned due to Ford trademark. Model 3, originally stylized as "Model ☰", was announced on Musk's Twitter account on July 16, 2014.^[51] Musk wanted the three current models to spell SEX, but settled for "S3X".^[52] In early 2017, after trademark opposition regarding Adidas's three stripes logo,^[53] the triplicate horizontal-bar stylization was abandoned and changed to a numeric "3".^[54]

I didn't know about the Adidas triple stripe aspect to the naming.   The triple stripe reminds me of the hamburger menu seen on the top left or top right of mobile websites..

1 minute ago, Robert Hall said:

Per the Book of Knowledge:

The Model 3 was codenamed Tesla BlueStar in the original business plan in 2007.^[49][50] The intended name was Model E, which was abandoned due to Ford trademark. Model 3, originally stylized as "Model ☰", was announced on Musk's Twitter account on July 16, 2014.^[51] Musk wanted the three current models to spell SEX, but settled for "S3X".^[52] In early 2017, after trademark opposition regarding Adidas's three stripes logo,^[53] the triplicate horizontal-bar stylization was abandoned and changed to a numeric "3".^[54]

Yeah...I heard about Adidas too!

Twice cockblocked. LOL

Ironic to the S3X part and what I just said in that when we were young , we used to say that Adidas stands for

All Day I Dream About Sex

But this is not 'performance potential'; it's specifically top speed. 120 isn't a marketing advantage, it isn't even that fast. Everyday, family cars were doing 120-125 60 years ago.

I agree with you on the top speed part, but the 0-60 and quarter mile stuff on the Model Y is pretty fast tho. Just like the other 3 Teslas.

I guess the Model Y cant be a winner on speed on all fronts then? Because I dont know what else to say about it. 

On 3/15/2019 at 8:47 PM, Robert Hall said:

Per the Book of Knowledge:

The Model 3 was codenamed Tesla BlueStar in the original business plan in 2007.^[49][50] The intended name was Model E, which was abandoned due to Ford trademark. Model 3, originally stylized as "Model ☰", was announced on Musk's Twitter account on July 16, 2014.^[51] Musk wanted the three current models to spell SEX, but settled for "S3X".^[52] In early 2017, after trademark opposition regarding Adidas's three stripes logo,^[53] the triplicate horizontal-bar stylization was abandoned and changed to a numeric "3".^[54]

I didn't know about the Adidas triple stripe aspect to the naming.   The triple stripe reminds me of the hamburger menu seen on the top left or top right of mobile websites..

Which makes one wonder if he could not have the Model E, why not the Model Ǝ and really F&*K with Ford!  

This would then have given Tesla the Following Models:

SƎXY

So then I wonder if the next two models will be Model M and Model F?  Would spell out the title of a Prince song...

Reminds me of a baby platypus.  Other words escape me at the moment to describe the level of amusement this vehicle provides.  This is Musk trolling his cult so hard, and they either don't see it or they do.not.care, they are so in love.

Tesla sent out an email inviting people to reserve the Model Y. For delivery starting in late 2021, you have to put down $2,500

On 3/18/2019 at 6:50 PM, dfelt said:

Tesla sent out an email inviting people to reserve the Model Y. For delivery starting in late 2021, you have to put down $2,500

They don't even know where they are building it yet..!

29 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

They don't even know where they are building it yet..!

Why should that matter to the faithful, It is Tesla, all is good!  

late 2021 = spring 2023.

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

late 2021 = spring 2023.

That ship will be so far out of port by then... over the horizon, even

I like buying cars I can get into that moment and test drive.  Tesla fails that test.

3 hours ago, ocnblu said:

That ship will be so far out of port by then... over the horizon, even

Chinese navigation for you!  

I will be so happy when this whole fad is done.  Fork is at the ready. 

Tesla's March sales numbers will be out in a few days- will be interesting to see if the catastrophic, cratering sales slide continues.

2 hours ago, balthazar said:

Tesla's March sales numbers will be out in a few days- will be interesting to see if the catastrophic, cratering sales slide continues.

Don't dance too much.  It looks like it is going to be a sales slide for everyone.  Early reports suggest we're going to see a lot of red in the sales ticker. 

I'm not dancing; I would like to see Tesla succeed.
However, the blood already showed up for Tesla in Jan & Feb- leading the industry, one might say.

Has anyone seen a single published blurb about Tesla's cratering sales? They are down 77% since December.

I have a feeling GM is going to need to ramp up incentive spending on the new trucks.  The recent Blazer baseball park fiasco is an indicator that people remain unhappy about Barra's ungratefulness... which shows in deeds, whatever comes out of her mouth.

1 hour ago, ocnblu said:

I have a feeling GM is going to need to ramp up incentive spending on the new trucks.  The recent Blazer baseball park fiasco is an indicator that people remain unhappy about Barra's ungratefulness... which shows in deeds, whatever comes out of her mouth.

You sound like all the other entitled brats out there, Mary at least knows how to run a business for profit, not losses and self destruction. At least she is making a profit unlike some leaders that only made their money by bankrupt after bankrupt and stole it from hard working folks.

No one is entitled to a job, no one is entitled to anything, you work hard, save, and earn the privilege to own something, have the service, etc.

Face the facts that we are a global economy and I have yet to see you or anyone else bitch about no American TV set maker, phone maker, computer maker, etc.

America is past the economy days of manufacturing. We are now a service and intellect provider. 

We all have choices, you can choose to go to college and have a college degree job, go to trade school and have a trade school job or bounce from job to job with a high school or no school education.

One gets out of life what they put into it. Welcome to the Multi-Cultural all encompassing society of products built from around the world with various languages, thoughts, beliefs, etc.

Enjoy the Rainbow! ?

I HATE that there's no mainsteam, volume American TV maker, phone maker, computer maker. There!

But wait- how do we quantify this?? Apple is an American company, builds their phones in China. Does that make the phones Chinese??
Toyota is a japanese company that builds some of their raggedy vehicles in the US, does that make the raggedy vehicle American? Are South Carolina mercedes' now American vehicles? How come that never seems to be the case?

Because Toyota BULLSHYTS the American public by LYING to them being American.

Mercedes WANTS to be KNOWN to Americans that they are INDEED German...they BULLSHYTE AND LIE in OTHER ways to get Americans to buy their raggedy vehicles.

Not that Americans SHOULD ONLY buy American, they SHOULD buy the vehicle they desire, need, meets their demands and if that means to buy foreign, then so be it.

BUT...Americans should REFRAIN from labeling FOREIGN  car makes as American...

Americans SHOULD start to buy American cars again because in reality, American cars are better  are NO WORSE than their foreign counterparts... (I crossed out "are better" so as to NOT offend the ones that buy foreign that think foreign is better than American...)

And because American cars are NO WORSE than foreign makes, then there is NO NEED to keep pumping up the wallets of other nations...

@Drew Dowdell  said something about certain brands are regional in the FCA/Renault-Nissan merger thread.

@oldshurst442, ME, always says that same thing...

The French buy French cars...

The Germans buy German cars...

The Japanese buy Japanese cars...

The Swedes buy Swedish cars...(they collect great classic American cruisers and muscle cars by the ton load though...)

We Americans, well some,  acknowledge...that some French cars are shyte, some German cars are shyte, some Japanese cars are shyte, some Swedish cars are shyte, some American cars are shyte...

If us, in North America, KNOW that some French cars are shyte, some German cars are shyte, some Japanese cars are shyte, some Swedish cars are shyte, some American cars are shyte, then undoubtedly those same shyte cars are shyte in their homelands too...

The difference between the French, Germans, Swedes, Japanese and  Americans?

Is that 

The French buy French cars...

The Germans buy German cars...

The Japanese buy Japanese cars...

The Swedes buy Swedish cars...

And that their respective foreign makes in THEIR home land do NOT have a significant market share...

Some Americans have abandoned American cars... and in North America, foreign makes HAVE a significant market share...

Without going too much into this...

Maybe Americans should STOP crying about how GM, Ford and Chrysler have left most of their home land manufacturing for other places...

Some blame should be made, as a Blazer could EASILY be made in the USA...but...the damage has been done...

OK...A Chevrolet Citation II and a Ford Pinto and a Chrysler K Car were a very good reason why some Americans left for foreign makes...but that was a looooong time ago...

The Camry, the Jetta, most M-Bs and BMWs , Audis, HYUNDAIS all had EQUAL amounts of problems like those Citations, Pintos, K Cars, and MORE RECENTLY TOO...so I just do NOT get it???!!!

Id like to know WHO are those morons that backlashed GM for its Blazer being promoted at the stadium....Id like to know what kind of car(s) they got in their drive-way...because if they are driving foreign....pre-owned or new....it dont matter to me...they got NO RIGHT to bitch...

Since when do Americans buy American 24/7 when foreign-made products are cheaper? Try never. 

As for cars, there was a time when a lot of car buyers experienced Fixed Or Repaired Daily and that frustrated them.  Subsequently, they chose to buy a Toyota or a Honda instead.  Those car buyers will never return to Ford or GM.  The correct question is whether their children and grandchildren will actually buy new Ford and/or GM vehicles.  Ford and GM have come a very long way from their struggles 30 and 40 years ago, and that is only because they had no choice.  Change or Die.

Foreigners care more about buying patriotically than they do about getting the best for their bottom dollar when they have a choice.  Americans expect the best when they buy stuff (or at least the best deal).

14 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

Since when do Americans buy American 24/7 when foreign-made products are cheaper? Try never.

I don't know about that. Snap-On does a roaring business with ridiculous, top tier pricing even though there are scads of cheap, reconstituted-crap Chinese tools on the market. Yeah- they sell too obviously, but quality can and does trump price in many instances.

45 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

Since when do Americans buy American 24/7 when foreign-made products are cheaper? Try never. 

As for cars, there was a time when a lot of car buyers experienced Fixed Or Repaired Daily and that frustrated them.  Subsequently, they chose to buy a Toyota or a Honda instead.  Those car buyers will never return to Ford or GM.  The correct question is whether their children and grandchildren will actually buy new Ford and/or GM vehicles.  Ford and GM have come a very long way from their struggles 30 and 40 years ago, and that is only because they had no choice.  Change or Die.

Foreigners care more about buying patriotically than they do about getting the best for their bottom dollar when they have a choice.  Americans expect the best when they buy stuff (or at least the best deal).

I get the Walmart mentality that many Americans have adapted.  Even with cars. Especially with cars. This explains Nissan and even Hyundai.  But like Balthy said, there are many instances that quality has trumped price.   Which also explains cars...but to use Toyota and Honda is mis-leading. 

Honda and Toyota RECENTLY have had issues with their vehicles. As bad, if not WORSE than what the ORIGINAL Big 3 had...

Common man!  You just said it yourself. The Big 3's debacles have been 40 years ago...OK, the 1990s for some cars were also crappy....But...its not as if Toyota and Honda and ESPECIALLY Mercedes and BMW did not have issues in the 1990s...Why NOT the backlash for Toyota and Honda? 

Listen, I own a Honda product. But I certainly did not buy it because I blindly believed it was a better product than a Chevy or Buick. its just that Chevy, Buick or Cadillac did not have a model that I met my needs. 

THAT excuse just gets old...  Hey! I use it too when I get frustrated with Cadillac, but on that market, regarding luxury vehicles, its a lot harder to reclaim your fame. 

Chevy and Ford, there is NO reason for Americans NOT to buy them. 

Quote

Foreigners care more about buying patriotically

1. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

2. Should Americans do the same thing? 

I dont see that as a bad thing and yes, maybe Americans should start buying American again...I dont see why not?

Quote

than they do about getting the best for their bottom dollar when they have a choice.

Choice is always good.  Americans SHOULD buy what they want and/or need!  Those are the freedoms we get to enjoy. But those freedoms sometimes also come at a price...

American cars are priced very competitively with the best of the best in the industry. And there is NOTHING wrong with that.

Union worker versus non-union worker? Who builds the better quality stuff? 

I dont know...but that discussion is too complicated to debate actually.   There is no wrong opinion or right opinion on that because all points for and against are all valid. And each valid point also has an equal amount of limitations... 

Quote

 

Americans expect the best when they buy stuff (or at least the best deal).

 

As they should. But...the best deal does not always mean the best deal. There are hidden consequences to that kind of thinking.

Think about what that means.

You get what you pay for. And sticker price may not be the only thing that "you get" with "getting the best deal"

American made usually means the best of the best. But that means an American skilled worker gets paid top dollar for that work.

You buy cheap stuff, possibly foreign made, then that means NO American skilled worker gets paid...

OK...you (generally speaking, not directed to "you")  want American workers, skilled or not, to be paid next to nothing so that you (generally speaking, not directed to "you") could over consume?

Is THAT how you (generally speaking, not directed to "you") view your fellow neighbour and how you (generally speaking, not directed to "you") view your country going forward? 

Therefore, an American worker should NOT be entitled to get paid an honest day's pay for an honest day's work?  A fellow American should NOT be entitled to work in general? 

Manual labour?

Should THAT only be for 3rd world countries?

I mean...there are 400 million Americans (about), we should ALL be in the tech world? We should ALL be doctors and lawyers?  That is it?  No manual labour?

Hell, we view hamburger flippers as degenerate losers that did  not get an education and we dont want these hamburger flippers earn more than minimum wage so they should just get an education and earn the big bucks...doing what exactly? 

If not, they should shut the phoque up and flip burgers for a living, but not earn a paycheck that could get them a good living...

Back to manual labour...

No factories in the US because apparently, those jobs are for 3rd world countries that those workers should get paid slave wages...and America does not want to pay their factory workers neither good wages to actually get a leg up on life so they could buy a 50 000 Chevy Blazer, but as Amercians, we also recognize that being paid 5 cents/day to build (exaggeration, yes) said Blazer is not constitutional, so...who do we want to build our Chevy Blazers then?

This problem...runs deep. Its not as clear cut and dry....

Its NOT only about the Big 3 building crap in the 1970s and 1980s.

Its not only about "Buy American"

Its not only about value for our dollar

But, as a society going forward, Americans have to decide for themselves what it is that they want...

Im on the fence...

No...GM workers are NOT entitled to a job. Therefore, if GM closes a factory in the US for the greater good of the company, well, so be it.

Yet on the other hand, GM is American. Therefore, for good of the nation, the American nation, then yes...a GM AMERICAN factory worker IS entitled to a GM factory job...

I do not believe union and non-union workers are differently abled... a quality car starts with engineering, and that includes setting up the assembly process for the workers to succeed.

I do believe there is a lot of pride...still... in autoworkers buying (and sticking up for) the brand they work for.  For GM to not even consider how it might affect loyal workers by displaying the Blazer in such a manner amplifies the point that they expect loyalty (and all that goes with it... job attendance, lack of sabotage on the line, etc.) out of their workers... but they do not feel beholden to them for the same courtesy... IN MICHIGAN, OF ALL PLACES.

Yes... I drive a Mexican-built Jeep Compass right now.  I have not forgotten that fact.  But I am a patriotic American, and I will NOT denigrate American workers who have been betrayed.  You see what GM did in response... they put a Traverse up there and took the Blazer down...

15 hours ago, ocnblu said:

I do not believe union and non-union workers are differently abled... a quality car starts with engineering, and that includes setting up the assembly process for the workers to succeed.

I do believe there is a lot of pride...still... in autoworkers buying (and sticking up for) the brand they work for.  For GM to not even consider how it might affect loyal workers by displaying the Blazer in such a manner amplifies the point that they expect loyalty (and all that goes with it... job attendance, lack of sabotage on the line, etc.) out of their workers... but they do not feel beholden to them for the same courtesy... IN MICHIGAN, OF ALL PLACES.

Yes... I drive a Mexican-built Jeep Compass right now.  I have not forgotten that fact.  But I am a patriotic American, and I will NOT denigrate American workers who have been betrayed.  You see what GM did in response... they put a Traverse up there and took the Blazer down...

Yet if you look at the pictures of the GM, Ford, FCA, etc. assembly lots, I do not see the bulk of the workers buying the auto they build but seems to be allot of Asian and European auto's.

Yes many workers take pride in their job but still own another manufactures product.

GM responded to the people who screamed the loudest, not the bulk of who is actually probably buying it. I doubt those that screamed actually own a GM product.

On 3/30/2019 at 7:53 PM, riviera74 said:

Since when do Americans buy American 24/7 when foreign-made products are cheaper? Try never. 

As for cars, there was a time when a lot of car buyers experienced Fixed Or Repaired Daily and that frustrated them.  Subsequently, they chose to buy a Toyota or a Honda instead.  Those car buyers will never return to Ford or GM.  The correct question is whether their children and grandchildren will actually buy new Ford and/or GM vehicles.  Ford and GM have come a very long way from their struggles 30 and 40 years ago, and that is only because they had no choice.  Change or Die.

Foreigners care more about buying patriotically than they do about getting the best for their bottom dollar when they have a choice.  Americans expect the best when they buy stuff (or at least the best deal).

While there has been without a doubt garbage built by American, Asian and European auto companies, one point that needs to be made very clear is the LAZY Americans who DID NOT follow maintenance schedule and when their American made auto needed repairs cause they ignored the 30,000 mile service schedule, they complained and went to the Asian auto's that Engineered the product to work till 100,000 miles.

Then they complained about the bad American built auto's that actually worked just fine as long as you did the service schedule. I know this as I ran into many such people who bitched about this and never took responsibility for following a service schedule.

Yes all auto makers built some crap auto's, but just as many worked long lives just fine when you followed the every 30,000 mile service schedule. I still have my 1994 GMC Suburban which has such schedule.