Possible EV 🙄🙂

[Bobby Dazzler]

If test drives are unaccompanied (are they?), they have plenty of registered demonstrator stock (they probably do), you don’t need a sales person piling on the pressure to make sure you don’t use their cars for the test drives and then buy from another dealer who can sell it for £10 per month less, and Tesla sell directly to the customer with a few taps on glass without a salesperson taking the order, then the only real bottleneck in the system is the customer’s availability.

And if there’s availability immediately when the customer has decided to take action - and they must have in order to go to the bother of arranging a test drive - then the likelihood of converting the enquiry into a test drive, and the test drive into an order must be much higher if the test drive is available immediately. Tesla are making it a retail experience which feels deliberately different to other car dealerships - when you walk into a retail store you expect to see and touch the product and buy it there a then.

Whilst many of us hold on to past and present mindsets when it comes to motoring - and why wouldn’t we, because that’s a human thing to do - the future of motoring (or “mobility” as car manufacturers have referred to it for some time) will be very different, and will require a different mindset. That shift will apply to how to refuel, how to buy, how to finance, shared ownership, hiring different types of vehicle for different types of journey, using public transport more, etc.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

If test drives are unaccompanied (are they?), they have plenty of registered demonstrator stock (they probably do), you don’t need a sales person piling on the pressure to make sure you don’t use their cars for the test drives and then buy from another dealer who can sell it for £10 per month less, and Tesla sell directly to the customer with a few taps on glass without a salesperson taking the order, then the only real bottleneck in the system is the customer’s availability.

And if there’s availability immediately when the customer has decided to take action - and they must have in order to go to the bother of arranging a test drive - then the likelihood of converting the enquiry into a test drive, and the test drive into an order must be much higher if the test drive is available immediately. Tesla are making it a retail experience which feels deliberately different to other car dealerships - when you walk into a retail store you expect to see and touch the product and buy it there a then.

Whilst many of us hold on to past and present mindsets when it comes to motoring - and why wouldn’t we, because that’s a human thing to do - the future of motoring (or “mobility” as car manufacturers have referred to it for some time) will be very different, and will require a different mindset. That shift will apply to how to refuel, how to buy, how to finance, shared ownership, hiring different types of vehicle for different types of journey, using public transport more, etc.

For sure, Markjay and BD, who knows the explanation? Will comment more later. (Oh, and it is August Bank Holiday, after all)

As for whether £50k motors can be sustainably sold without "sales intervention," can't say that I'm too convinced about that. Like Purple Bricks, there's more to closing deals than putting stock up online.

It'll be interesting. I've already learned something new last night when talking about it to "very clever" and affluent 30 year olds who aren't car people. Their lack of knowledge and scepticism about BEV's was jaw dropping. We live in silos.

 

[ALFAitalia]

@Bobby Dazzler . Only if you want it to ..the vast majority don't buy new cars. And since I will never go EV I won't be able to buy new after 2030 anyway. So for "how to refuel, how to buy, how to finance, shared ownership, hiring different types of vehicle for different types of journey, using public transport more, etc." won't change one bit!.....and regardless of which way you go the public don't actually like public transport.....its the very last resort for me and many others!

 

[Steveml63]

Tesla test drive is like no other.
In Dubai we visited the Tesla Centre - filled out a form and gave them driving license to check.
They then handed us the card key and pointed out where the demo car was along with “see you in half an hour - have fun”
Nobody came with us on the test drive and no sales pressure on our return.
After we bought the Model 3, we later went to test drive a Model Y Performance from the Abu Dhabi Centre. I took that on the motorway and noticed that they had implemented the pin locked speed limiter - you could not take it above the UAE national speed limit of 140km/h.
No idea what speed limit they put on UK cars

 

[clk320x]

Possible explanations:

1. They have allocated loads and loads of cars for test drives.

Or

2. No one wants a Tesla hence why so many slots are available.

Or

3. Teslas sell themselves so to speak - people are ordering them online in droves without bothering with a test drive.

No idea....

Mainly 3 but also 1 IMO.

It’s refreshing not to listen to the usual salesman bs or have any sort of pressure.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

@Bobby Dazzler . Only if you want it to ..the vast majority don't buy new cars. And since I will never go EV I won't be able to buy new after 2030 anyway. So for "how to refuel, how to buy, how to finance, shared ownership, hiring different types of vehicle for different types of journey, using public transport more, etc." won't change one bit!.....and regardless of which way you go the public don't actually like public transport.....its the very last resort for me and many others!

Times change. I remember when people laughed out loud at my Nokia 7710 in 2005 because it had a great big screen, no keys, I could browse the Internet, send emails, watch videos, listen to music, listen to radio, take photos, make payments, use apps to perform specific tasks, etc.

Lots of people said “I’ll never buy one, they’re too big, too expensive, the battery life is too short, takes too long to charge, I’ll never do anything other than make phone calls or send an occasional text message, and I have TV for watching films, CDs for music and cash/cards to pay for stuff”.

Some people were even rude to the point of being aggressive about their dislike for my phone - if you cold even call it a phone - and would actively try to dismiss and even belittle it in front of other people. And of course they were right. I bet not even one of them bought a Nokia 7710..

Here we are now 20 years later, and phones are just phones, which we keep in our pocket until they ring, or have time on our hands and so we have quick game of Smake. Thank goodness that those vocal naysayers kept up the fight and saved us from a future of big phones.

They’d never have caught on anyway.

 

[markjay]

If test drives are unaccompanied (are they?), they have plenty of registered demonstrator stock (they probably do), you don’t need a sales person piling on the pressure to make sure you don’t use their cars for the test drives and then buy from another dealer who can sell it for £10 per month less, and Tesla sell directly to the customer with a few taps on glass without a salesperson taking the order, then the only real bottleneck in the system is the customer’s availability.

And if there’s availability immediately when the customer has decided to take action - and they must have in order to go to the bother of arranging a test drive - then the likelihood of converting the enquiry into a test drive, and the test drive into an order must be much higher if the test drive is available immediately. Tesla are making it a retail experience which feels deliberately different to other car dealerships - when you walk into a retail store you expect to see and touch the product and buy it there a then.

Whilst many of us hold on to past and present mindsets when it comes to motoring - and why wouldn’t we, because that’s a human thing to do - the future of motoring (or “mobility” as car manufacturers have referred to it for some time) will be very different, and will require a different mindset. That shift will apply to how to refuel, how to buy, how to finance, shared ownership, hiring different types of vehicle for different types of journey, using public transport more, etc.

I test drove the Hyundai and the ID.4 and they were both unaccompanied. I also drove the Model X and I asked for the salesperson to come with us, but it would have been unaccompanied otherwise. Also, MB used to offer a 24 hour test drive, not sure if they still do though.

 

[markjay]

@Bobby Dazzler . Only if you want it to ..the vast majority don't buy new cars. And since I will never go EV I won't be able to buy new after 2030 anyway. So for "how to refuel, how to buy, how to finance, shared ownership, hiring different types of vehicle for different types of journey, using public transport more, etc." won't change one bit!.....and regardless of which way you go the public don't actually like public transport.....its the very last resort for me and many others!

... because a cheaper and easier alternative exists. Public transport will be fine once people who sit in the bus or train no longer fantasise about using their own car for nothing but the cost of fuel. There are too many cars on our roads, and everyone driving their own cars into town all the same time isn't sustainable, as we all know.

That, or bring back the days when the privileged few upper class types used all of the resources and everyone else had to make do with what was left, and then the chosen few could drive their private cars everywhere anything without issue. Sounds like a plan

 

[clk320x]

Some people were even rude to the point of being aggressive about their dislike for my phone - if you cold even call it a phone - and would actively try to dismiss and even belittle it in front of other people. And of course they were right. I bet not even one of them bought a Nokia 7710..

Sounds familiar! Seems these Nokia 7710 haters have now moved onto EVs.

 

[SmartAmg]

Back from the Tesla Model 3 Performance, test drive.
Got there early before it opened, had a really good look around it, car was lovely, panel gaps, great.
Inside the car, again was lovely. The actual test drive was great, a good half an hour again. Thought the acceleration on the MG 4 X Power was mind boggling, but the Tesla is something else again, staggering.
Pics of the actual car. £34,000 - 17,000 miles.

 

[markjay]

...Thought the acceleration on the MG 4 X Power was mind boggling, but the Tesla is something else again, staggering.

Just when you thought it can't get any faster....

 

[Bellow]

Just when you thought it can't get any faster....

EVs aren't faster. Quicker - much quicker - yes. But rarely faster.

 

[Ted]

That looks really nice. As you say, panel gaps - which for me are the first sign of how the car had been put together are consistent and tiny.
And 34k/17k miles sounds pretty good.
Keep us updated!

 

[ALFAitalia]

... because a cheaper and easier alternative exists. Public transport will be fine once people who sit in the bus or train no longer fantasise about using their own car for nothing but the cost of fuel. There are too many cars on our roads, and everyone driving their own cars into town all the same time isn't sustainable, as we all know.

That, or bring back the days when the privileged few upper class types used all of the resources and everyone else had to make do with what was left, and then the chosen few could drive their private cars everywhere anything without issue. Sounds like a plan

Public transport only works on big cities........there is physically no direct link from where I live to were I work. Nearest trains are 4 miles away (by the time I driven there are paid to park I might as well have driven to work!).....then its a mile walk from the station to work....nice in winter! No direct buses....so I'd have to take one into Chichester bus station and then another into work.....and they are slow and take ages to get anywhere.....might be something to do with the drivers habit of annoyingly stopping even few hundred yards!!! No matter how good it gets (and it wont get better with next to zero investment) public transport will NEVER replace a car when it comes to getting from door to door at exactly the time I want, at the temperature I want, with the music I want.....and be able to pop me to the garden centre/bank/post office in my lunch hour. When public transport can do all that and as a sensible price, the vast majority MIGHT be interested....but not until then. People who live in large towns or cities completely forget how rubbish public transport is everywhere else.

 

[markjay]

Public transport only works on big cities.......

One third on the UK population live in the 10 biggest cities.

If we got just these people off their cars and onto public transport, that will be a massive change for the better.

The rest can continue and drive their polluting cars in the countryside and away from population centres until - over time - public transport improves also in rural areas.

 

[ALFAitalia]

It wont improve (they cant make money out in the sticks where we all have cars)......not enough people will use it if they do.....we still need cars to get about. The village I used to live it had one bus a week into Chichester....on a Thursday! Next to no one used it....so now there are none.....so the old dears who did occasionally use it to have to get a lift a mile up the road to the next village.

 

[markjay]

It wont improve (they cant make money out in the sticks where we all have cars)......not enough people will use it if they do.....we still need cars to get about. The village I used to live it had one bus a week into Chichester....on a Thursday! Next to no one used it....so now there are none.....so the old dears who did occasionally use it to have to get a lift a mile up the road to the next village.

Fine - but can we agree that we need to get city dwellers off their cars and onto public transport?

I.e., just because some people can change their mobility solutions doesn't mean that no one should.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Agreed 100% percent. Will it ever happen? I doubt it......unfortunately a car offers freedom of movement that nothing else can.....and people will pay for that. So Im not sure that punishing them for using them does anything more than make them poorer.....people just pay.

 

[markjay]

Agreed 100% percent. Will it ever happen? I doubt it......unfortunately a car offers the illusion of freedom of movement that nothing else can.....and people will pay for that. So Im not sure that punishing them for using them does anything more than make them poorer.....people just pay.

FTFY

See also:

London ranked seventh worst city in the world for traffic jams

The UK is ranked the third worst traffic congestion country in Europe.

metro.co.uk

What freedom?

 

[ALFAitalia]

If they thought the alternative was better they would mostly be on public transport.....that fact that they would all rather sit there kinda tells you all you need to know about what people think of our train and bus services!!!!