Thread by @Benshooter

***Invasion Of The Short Range Shit Heaps***
1/ Las Vegas #SGFreport

This is gonna be a little long since I have a lot of thoughts on this that are a little nuanced. Also, apologies for missing last week's check. For starters, here's the updated VIN sheet.

2/ The sheet is getting pretty long but they still have some ancient inventory sitting around that hasn't rolled off the sheet yet and keeps reappearing, so I broke it into three sections above to make it easier to see. So, first off, you'll notice several sequential and nearly

3/ sequential VINs. This indicates that those vehicles are just being batch built, rolled onto a truck, and dumped at a certain location. IE, inventory, not built to order. Looking at the sheet, the SRs are easy to identify by having a very high number range on the VIN as such:

4/ Which brings us to...

A very large jump up/gap in the VIN numbers with the SRs. Vehicles are not being produced in sequence and there's going to be another gap, as @TeslaCharts pointed out in the past when the Lemur came out. This is gaming the VIN tracker of our favorite

5/ bootlicker, @tsrandall, and probably production estimates in general. Example: These two VINs (one being an SR and one being an AWD) are both a March 2019 MFG date, yet are over 100,000 apart. I think the gap will be much bigger this time around. Also, CC: @evdefender

6/ Still plenty of auction rejects, this one back from at least it's second run through. And another one from the San Diego Adesa auction? No idea here. @CovfefeCapital also noted that he's been having out of state auction vehicles show up.

7/ There was definitely plenty of Model 3s sold with the recent price cuts in the last 2 weeks. But S&X is still largely stagnant. The red 75D has been sitting here since at least Feb 3rd. The rusty bois help me keep track of what's moving and what's not.

8/ Back to the SR+. None of them had cloth interiors, so we know they're not the true 35k. I couldn't make out any noticeable differences between the interior of an SR+ and, say, a Lemur. I didn't even think to check a Monroney to see if there were any SR cars until I realized

9/ how many black Model 3s were sitting around. Then I found this haphazard Monroney sitting in the back of one of them, and I was stunned to see the "Standard Range" designation displayed on it. Let me explain why...

10/ In the past, when new models are released, Vegas always lags the major markets in getting some of those new models in. Whether it's the LR AWD, the Lemur, or whatever. I didn't expect to see any SR cars for several more weeks. I would imagine Tesla sells those new models by

11/ sending them off to areas with the highest concentration of orders first and then filling out the smaller markets next. It makes a lot of sense to handle logistics that way. So between Vegas getting SR cars this fast, the sequential VINs, and virtually all of the cars lacking

12/ any indications of being reserved for a customer, I'm confident that these are already inventory vehicles. Typically you'll see an inspection sheet and a marking on the windshield that denotes it being a car that a customer ordered. I think I saw two with such markings.

13/ Also, most of the SRs are being stored at "satellite lot B" which is 7 miles from the Tesla store. There's room at both the "satellite lot A" and the dealer itself to get these cars ready for delivery (if they actually had buyers), so why are they way over here?...

14/ A trade in oddity: Matte black Model 3. VIN is 80k-ish, so it's a fairly new car from last fall, approximately. Also, why is there an inventory Model 3 in Las Vegas with a California temp tag?

15/ One thing that hasn't changed though, is the piss poor build quality. This is a black SR+ with a 3/19 build date. Rear trunk corner. WOULD YA JUST LOOK AT IT. They've been making these cars for over a year now at scale, and they still can't get it right. I mean, COME ON.

16/ Lastly, whoever the hell traded in an Acura NSX for a Tesla; I wish your life was a stock so I could short it. And to the jackass who drew the Tesla logo in the dust on the hood, I hope you realize you scratched the paint on a $160,000 car, you window-licker.

When I talk about "sequential and near sequential VINs" this is what I mean: