For me it is like bidding on Ebay, I am watching the total reservation numbers and will place mine very close to 40,000 so I can still reserve $1,000 all-in and get the $6,800 price and the $500 discount. As I understand it (correct me if I am wrong) After the 40,000 reservations, the 40,001, even the $1,000 ones, will follow all the other "All-in" and "Refundable" reservations of all amounts inside the 40,000 reservations. Plus the Price may go up.
I am okay getting the Elio in early to mid 2016. As stated above, let all the bugs be worked out prior to my Elio being built. I expect to be somewhere around the 10,000 number.
Elio has never officially given a direct answer to what reservation numbers they intend to reach before cutting off the initial production numbers, and/or the bonus money, and/or raise the price. 40,000 has been mentioned by some people however the official EM line remains that at some point they will cut things off however they will give some warning before they do. This pretty much tells me that the $40K number is not a hard number and is subject to change so if you plan on timing your reservation your best bet is to pay closer attention to EM as the reservation numbers continues to rise.