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Ford Spent $200,000 To Dissect a Limited-Edition Tesla Model X (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Ford Motor paid a sum of $199,950 ($55,000 more than the retail price) to buy one of the first sport utility vehicles made by Tesla Motors, reports Bloomberg, citing vehicle registration documents. The white Model X is a Founders Series with a vehicle identification number indicating it was the 64th one made at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California. The vehicle, with Michigan plates, has been spotted recently in the Detroit area. Automakers often buy cars made by competitors for road testing and for 'tear-downs' to reveal components and materials and how they're put together. But it's unusual to pay such a high price -- almost $212,000 after Michigan sales tax and title -- for such an early model.Well, this $200,000 could shave off hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development.
But these auto companies are notorious for penny pinching too. One of the Chrysler mini van tail gate latches were weak. A proposal to strengthen it was rejected because the additional cost of some 50 cents was deemed too high.
My brother consulted for Chrysler. The employees will get a beige phone with a blinking red light to show there was pending voice mail. But contractors are not allowed that expensive phone. They get a phone without the light. Stupidly the phones were all rented from the telco, for ages, decade after decade. This was not in 1970s or 80s. It was in 1999 or so. They could have bought the whole damned phone, better phone for cheaper price. But still Chrysler rented these phones and saved money by denying the consultants the blinking red light.
In general, in all bureaucracies, once a precedent is set, it will be followed, come hell or high water, costs be damned. But getting the precedent set would be very difficult.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact