Thread by @Pivotal_Capital

1/ Thread on my visit to the $TSLA store in Austin, TX today.

2/ First impression: Somewhat quiet in there. Two or three families with kids looking at the different showroom cars. There was one X P100D, S P100D and a Model 3 performance on the floor. No noticeable quality issues on any of the showroom cars.

3/ Sales guy was very friendly. Told him I was interested in the Model 3 and he took me over to the computer to look at configs. He was definitely a true Tesla believer - said best way to describe it was "fast moving, constantly changing" (older guy, had only been there 6 months)

4/
Q: "Is there any way I could still get the full $7,500 tax credit?"
A: "Yes, but only if you pay in cash today, since the car would need to be delivered tomorrow. Is that a possibility for you?"

5/
Q: "So if I pay cash, you would be able to get the car to me by tomorrow?"
A: "Yes, depending on the configuration you want. We have a variety of configurations nearby that you could choose from"

6/ So, I asked him if I could test drive. He said absolutely, and booked me a test drive for a Model 3 AWD Performance. We had to wait 5-10 minutes for the test drive associate, so we sat and talked during the wait.

7/ Interestingly enough, he began to brag about the Tesla Semi (I didn't ask). He pulled up the Semi on the website and pointed to the performance stats on it. Described them as "unbelievable."
I agreed, they are quite unbelievable.

8/ I asked him how long it would take to charge the Semi and if he thought that would be an issue for logistics. He said they would be doing battery swaps on the Semi and that it would actually be faster than filling up with diesel (thought this was interesting)

9/ I asked him about the tent, and if there were any quality issues with those cars. He said "its amazing, we just couldn't keep up with demand for the Model 3, so Elon built a tent in the parking lot and it fixed everything"
He spoke very highly of Elon.

10/ He didn't really answer my question about the quality of those cars, but implied that there were no problems. At this point, the test drive associate came and took us to the car. She was very friendly and had also only been with the company for about 6 months.

11/ We got in the car and it took us a few minutes to get set up. She mentioned that she normally doesn't do test drives and was still getting used to the instructions. She doesn't drive one herself, but said her next car would be a Tesla.

12/ The car itself was nice, but the interior felt a bit cheap to me (plastic steering wheel, no heads up display, etc.)
I did not like the touch screen. I found it distracting and hard to use, especially while driving. The heated seats were nice though.

13/ I can't lie: the car was fun to drive. When we got on the highway I could really feel the power while accelerating (pushes you back in your seat, like an airplane taking off). It was pretty cool.

14/ Tried out the autopilot. I was a little nervous while using it, but it worked well. Even had it switch lanes for me, which was cool (though a little scary).

15/ When I asked her about the service issues (parts, wait times, etc.) she admitted that the SCs were overworked because the company was so focused on production. She assured me that those issues would be fixed in the next few months.

16/ When I asked about the issues with temp. plates she said "well the temporary plates aren't the issue, its getting the actual plates. We send the registration off and for some reason the state has trouble registering the car"
Couldn't get much more detail than that.

17/ After the test drive, I asked the original sales guy if I could see the inventory they have available today. He went in the office and came back with a manager (who I hadn't seen before) and a sheet of paper, which he described as "a list of the inventory cars assigned to us"

18/ It was a list of 12 cars: 9 LR performance AWD and 3 MR RWD. 6 black, 3 silver, 2 blue and 1 red.
The location for all of them was simply "At service center" with code "US"
Except for one, LR AWD which had "Dallas" handwritten over the country code.

19/ Typed into the search bar under "status" was "at ser" which is why it only showed these 12 cars which were "at service center." I'm not sure what the other options for "status" were, or why he only wanted me to see the "at service center" cars.

20/ The manager gave me a weird vibe the whole time, as if he was suspicious of my motives for asking to look at the inventory. When I asked if I could hang on to the sheet, they immediately said no. However, I was able to sneak a partial picture of the list.

21/ I don't know if there is anything of interest here. It seemed pretty insignificant to me, but here it is:

22/ Overall, everyone was friendly and only the manager seemed suspicious of me. I didn't really learn anything new, other than the fact that there are inventory cars "assigned" to different stores. I may delete the above tweet later, for obvious reasons.
<end thread>

23/ One more interesting note: when the sales guy pulled up the website, it showed the RWD price as $34,200. I pointed it out and said "Wow, I didn't think the $35K version was available yet!"

24/ The sales guy replied "Oh, that isn't the actual price. I actually have no idea how they got to that number." He then pointed to the bottom corner of the screen, where it showed the actual price of $52,000.