The money Tesla spends on factories is not reflected on their income statement, except in the depreciation line. These are capital expenditures that show up on their balance sheet. If Tesla spends $5 billion in one quarter on building factories, that $5 billion doesn’t get deducted from their net income in the same…

Agreed, it really sucks. I have a friend who makes a good part of his living by flipping watches. He’s been one of the best customers of the AD I mentioned, and they gladly took his business for years and then suddenly banned him from buying (I guess to prove to Rolex that they were shocked, shocked I tell you, that…

The flip side is that Elon Musk has explicitly encouraged the misuse of Autopilot and FSD by flat-out lying about their capabilities. He has claimed that the cars have “all the hardware needed for self-driving,” as if this is a meaningful statement. He’s claimed a Tesla with FSD could do an autonomous cross-country…

This definitely checks out with what happened with 991.2 GT3s. For a while, even in Canada, there were probably more than two dozen GT3s languishing for sale on Autotrader after the hype died down. Different story with the Touring, since they only allocated about 30 or so to Canada.

And beyond this, there is a subset of GT3 bragging. OK, you got a GT3, but did you get a PTS GT3? If so, is your PTS one of one produced? Did you get enough Cxx options? Is your build the most expensive one posted to date on Rennlist?

The Rolex game is so sketchy. One of the ADs here regularly lets people jump the line for steel sports watches if they agree to buy other expensive but less “in demand” watches. One of their sales people even plays a game where she pretends she is removing the stickers / tags as per Rolex policy, but doesn’t. There is…

I’ve seen a grand total of one Polestar 2 on the road to date, so I wouldn’t exactly say they are doing an amazing job of delivering on this electric revolution. It doesn’t help that their EPA range is over 100km less than anticipated, and that many early buyers have reported that the car’s software is pretty much…

Came here to say this. The bucket seats are mostly a gouge by Porsche and part of the flipping game you mention. Not sure many people are retrofitting many cars with regular seats after the fact though.

Agreed, but the issue is it’s just too hard to build an EV with the range people want (even if that range is actually much more than they “need” day-to-day) at a price that is truly competitive with ICE products. Batteries are still really expensive and we aren’t seeing exponential jumps in the technology.

I just don’t buy that Tesla is better than “every other car on the market.” I’ve had a Model S. Some great attributes (interior room, range, trunk space, app connectivity), some mediocre (road / wind noise, horrible interior materials / overall build quality, no steering feel, wallowy ride, panel gaps, paint issues,…

I have no evidence at all for this theory, but I feel like for many Tesla owners, it’s by far the most expensive vehicle they’ve ever purchased. They’re perhaps making financial sacrifices to own a Tesla, purchasing a $60k vehicle instead of a $40k one because it makes them part of a brave new world of green…

Exactly. Not to mention how ludicrous it is to think that the production of an electric Ferrari somehow counters the rich being “collectively above the crises we all face.” Take that, rich people, now you’re forced to buy a $400k EV!

I can sort of see that logic with the 5GT, since it was basically a 7 series hatchback, but priced closer to a 5 series. It’s also very sensitive to colour, trim and options (e.g. an M-sport 550i GT in Carbon Black is so much better than the metallic beige and chrome monstrosity in the image).

This is like all of the worst excesses of a Maybach layered on to the body of a slightly futuristic Toyota Avensis.

I wonder if that extends to the rear drum brakes from the ID4. Not sure I could entertain buying a $45k vehicle in 2021 with drum brakes, even if there is some perfectly rational reason why they’re fine.

The last time I went to Ottawa from Toronto, I took the train. It was just amazing to see what an archaic, slow experience we have compared to virtually any industrialized country outside of North America.

There was quite a lot of anti-Tesla publicity stirred up in Ontario by Doug Ford (knuckle-dragging, sub-90-IQ, failed hash dealer and fake businessman Premier for anyone not versed in Canadian Provincial politics). When Ontario still had an EV rebate, it maxed out at $14k (CAD), and a good number of its recipients were…

You’re not reading the income statement correctly. You’re referring to their gross margin, not their profitability (this is not the “net money” Tesla makes on their car sales). They could only get this net money if they didn’t have to employ anyone, or incur any other costs other than manufacturing and raw materials.

How is it false? I’m not disputing that Tesla as a corporation makes money. If you remove the impact of emissions credits, they lose money. This is relevant because we’re discussing in part why EVs are so expensive. They’re expensive because the cost of batteries and other aspects of EV production is still a lot…

And even further up the Nissan food chain, it’s still very depressing. Last time I got a Nissan rental car, it was an Altima. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a car that felt so cheaply built and engineered down to a price. Ironically it was exactly like a caricature of a Ford sedan built by and for bean counters