Unlike Tesla, Apple products are either #1 close to #1 in quality. Imagine buying a missaligned $2500 iMac? On the other hand, you have people who genuinely believe spending 100k + taxes and fees + financing to save $80/month on fuel is such a genius idea they make YouTube videos about it so their fellow droolers can get validation.

This made news rounds last year.
"Tesla unlocks rear heated seats for Model 3 SR and SR Plus as paid OTA upgrade"
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-mode...tandard-range/

Even then I commented other automakers will follow suit.

They did, and faster than I expected.

"BMW wants customers to pay a subscription fee to use features the car already has installed, like a heated steering wheel or adaptive cruise control"

https://www.businessinsider.com/bmw-...eatures-2020-7

I am pretty deeply entrenched in the Apple ecosystem myself. It feels like they find ways to nickel and dime me most of the time.

So the heir apparent Cathie Wood will be on shortly on CNBC...hmmm wonder what she will have to say. No doubt a new price target for TSLA based on ummm reasons. I get the impression that the forever long TSLA buyers are out of $ now. I know my buddy who is literally all in on the company has spent all his "spare ammo" buying the dips. Perhaps the stimi $ will go to TSLA

Pretty much every MacBook pro since 2016 have been released with big design flaws. Screen that disconnect easily and require to be reattached . Horrible keyboards with return policies on release and a ton of other defects.

I got pretty lucky with my MacBook from 2017. Dropped it several times and no issues. Other than it can’t hold connection to Internet so I need to constantly run a shell script. But 4 years is good considering most cheaper $3-500 laptops only lasted me a year or two before

LOL the Cathie pump isn't working. Said that they will release a new paper on TSLA soon, possibly this weekend with a new price target....no doubt she was hoping for a double pump, one today and then another when this bogus report is released.

I think all the TSLA losers have spent their $ and there are no more fanboys left. I also believe this is the case for the vehicles themselves. Do you really think Joe America is going to buy a car from an app or website lol. It's over folks.

oh yes and regarding ARK instead of the 15% you could expect before, because of the drop recently that is now 25% annualized return going forward....is this not outright fraud???

I'm guessing a lot of TSLA bulls now figure 1.5% weight in S&P is probably about right. No need to buy the stock outright.

I don't think many Tesla bulls have any clue what the S&P weighting is

You must not have met many $tsla bulls.

Once the space ships are ready and flocks of robot taxis are on the streets, the spy and Tesla will pretty much be the same thing, only spy will have a very slight tinge of apple.

Someone's going to have to make all the computers that run the space taxis.

Purchasing a car on the internet is actually one aspect of Tesla that I really liked. Their website makes it simple to customize the car and I think it is really cool. I like reasonable simplicity and sleek design.

I went into a phone store to just look around at different types of phones. From a distance all the phones that I liked the best were all Apple. They have an aesthetic design that I like. Also all their stuff is simple. The one thing I don’t like is overly complex stuff. I usually get phones that are a few versions back over the internet because you can get a reasonable price. Right now I use iPhone 7 and it is great for my needs. As far as computers go Windows is better. Apple computers are expensive.

I plan on waiting for expiration on the put. However, if it goes down really low sooner than I expect, I may end up selling. I don’t want to do that though unless it is really close to my target. The worse thing that could happen is that it rallies again. At the current price I am willing to take that risk though.

The future is everyone will buy everything from an app or website

Bought my Tesla on phone and did pretty much everything involved in the purchase online. Way more pleasant to work with than any dealer I’ve encountered but not for everyone.

Actually think direct to customer is the future as dealerships are still living in the past with their sales tactics/angles.

At least with tsla I know it’s a stock scam but the car is fun.

There is little to no doubt the auto Dealership model is following the Retail Mall decline and its just a matter of time.

I spent much of the last decade attending all the big Auto Industry conferences and there is little denial about this in the Manufacturers even though some of the Franchise owners are still in denial.

The main reason they have more time, is because the Franchise Model still has a ton of sunk investment and power and thus the Manufacturers are restricting their products direct sale but also and MAINLY because the big ticket new car purchase tends to still be a much more wealthy and thus older client.

However the data is clear when you look at Used Cars, where the Manufacturers have very little power. In the last decade you had 'Dirt Lots' with maybe a dozen cars physically present and 'Virtual Dealerships' with zero inventory moving as much used car inventory as some of the biggest Franchise lots with hundreds if not thousands of cars sitting on lot and in inventory.

Long term the cost of sitting inventory is enormous and Virtual lots will crush them. Even most of the people wanting to test drive may go to lots with inventory but then purchase online to get a much cheaper price.

Add to that, that every decade the younger people who gutted Retail and are more comfortable doing everything from their phone will be in their prime earning years and have the bulk of disposable cash will not be moving backward. They will only increase their online purchasing.

Some Manufacturers are already moving to deal with this movement by selling direct. That said I think they still send the 'buyer' to the closest Franchise for fulfillment. But they know the future is Manufacturers selling direct (ala Tesla) and supporting a limited number of Franchise or Manufacturer lots for Fulfillment and those rare people who will still want a test drive.

Buying a car without sitting in it first is insane. It doesn't need to be the specific one you actually buy, but you need to get in the same model. Or do you think it will be like buying clothes on the internet and you just return the ones that don't fit.

Carvana would like you to believe that's the case. Last time I compared prices though, they seem to charge about $2000-$5000 in premium for the privilege.

Go to the frigging dealership and test drive the car. Then buy the car online unless you got a legit hookup. Nowadays big chain dealerships are relying more on volume (especially for new cars) and commissions on financing (in some states) than shady salesman ****.

And how do you propose we do that in the proposed future state when there are no car dealerships?

Bought some dead cat bounce puts for a few weeks out. Probably a day early, if its going to continue tanking, but I think there is a small chance this all gives back today

There may not be dealerships, but there will be showrooms.

You gotta follow the news closely if you want to trade Tesla. Today had an upgrade and more importantly, news of 18,300 cars sold in China in February, which is a much better number compared to the terrible numbers Tesla has had in China given market size.

Yeah, fair. I haven't followed the news at all, just yeeting it here. Will have to reassess if it moves against me

Virtual showrooms with VR headsets with complete immersion, you know, like the Matrix/Inception.

The companies are going to do whatever they want to do. Maybe they'll differ. The market more or less decides that. As far as test driving, they'll either do something to provide that opportunity, or they won't care about it at all. Depends on what the customers want. My guess would be all companies will want to do as much as possible online primarily, and spread out showrooms strategically if the demand makes them worth it. It might not be worth it to have any at all

I read so aimlessly that I can't remember if it was mentioned in this thread recently, but somewhere I read that there are laws in place in US states that force the existence of car dealerships, and that Tesla ran into legal problems with their business model bc they don't use middlemen, just direct sales...So perhaps in the future, other companies will lobby to get these laws/regs off the books. Either way, and while there obviously is some need/desire to have brick n mortar stores, the general trend is everyone gravitating toward convenience, not putting pants on, and having literally everything placed at their doorstep