Buying used from Tesla

[ukdood]

Hi all,

I'm considering buying a used Tesla Model 3 directly from Tesla and was wondering if anyone could share their purchasing experience. Tesla’s prices seem to be about 15% higher than third-party dealers, but they do include an extended warranty (4 years in total, including the original 3) and enhanced autopilot. I'm unsure if the extra cost is worth it, especially since enhanced autopilot features aren’t fully usable in the UK.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[P675]

I did look at this in depth and decided to get a new model 3 RWD at 0% no deposit, with 4 years warranty. Rather than a ~30k one with interest, and the warranty not stretching too far. The monthly was about £100 more than a used one that I'd want, for the refresh I thought was a good extra spend.

If you want a used one you have to hope the one you want is at a Tesla Centre near you. Sometimes it won't be somewhere you can actually go and look at it, there might not even be pictures on the website, so all you can do is pay a deposit and decide to reject it, if it turns out to be in poor condition. But then you lose the deposit.

Warranty is an issue for me also, motor and battery is 8 years/100k. But the everything else warranty is 4y/50k usually. A lot of the preapproved are past this, and only come with 1 year and I think 20k. Although not known to be unreliable, that was a bit of a risk for me and I wanted to have everything covered. I would rather buy used from Tesla than a part-ex from random dealer though.

It's very easy to test drive a new one at a showroom but I have no idea for used at a centre.

[ukdood]

It sounds like you've done some thorough research, and going new makes sense given the peace of mind and extra coverage you’re after. In my case, though, I’m leaning towards a used model. It’s a bit more budget-friendly for me, and given that Tesla provides an additional 12 months of warranty, that would give me two more years on a three-year-old car, which balances things out well.

I’m intrigued to see if they move on prices or trade-ins...

[Gone fishing]

Check out Tesla-info, they’ve buyers guides on used and used from Tesla and compare the used and CPO markets. They also tell you more about a CPO car than Tesla do

Tesla won’t budge on anything, and trade in values are generally worse than WBAC as they just flip them through auctions anyway

[ukdood]

Thanks for the response, as expected tbh regarding price / trade in.

I need to figure out how useful the upgraded enhanced autopilot is and what the 12 month extended warranty is worth. Plus, the 2021 Model 3 I'm looking at seems to have four newish Michelin tires, worth about £800?

Thinking to be done.

[Gone fishing]

EAP is worth maybe £200, it allows you to change lane without disengaging Autopilot, but I gave up on autopilot years ago, It also has parking which I’ve never used on any car I’ve owned with it. You might think differently, but you certainly won’t get much if anything for it when you come to sell.

As for warranty, check it’s an extra year and not a minimum of a year, they did change the wording at one point although I think they changed it back to being an extra year.

[Honeywell]

I bought a mint 21plate 3LR in red from a really professional dealer in Derby 42,000 miles, brand new Michelins on each corner £21,500 cash no part-ex. RW Cars. They have loads and are cheaper than most supermarkets. It's unmarked all over. Tesla seemed dear on all theirs.

[Pistonsquirter]

Honeywell said:

I bought a mint 21plate 3LR in red from a really professional dealer in Derby 42,000 miles, brand new Michelins on each corner £21,500 cash no part-ex. RW Cars. They have loads and are cheaper than most supermarkets. It's unmarked all over. Tesla seemed dear on all theirs.

May I ask how the change of ownership ‘product’ works within the app? Does the seller have to relinquish the ‘product’ from their app so as to let you take ownership by registering the vin etc?
(I am going to buy privately but don’t know how to do it and bit scared)…
Cheers!

[Gone fishing]

Pistonsquirter said:

Honeywell said:

I bought a mint 21plate 3LR in red from a really professional dealer in Derby 42,000 miles, brand new Michelins on each corner £21,500 cash no part-ex. RW Cars. They have loads and are cheaper than most supermarkets. It's unmarked all over. Tesla seemed dear on all theirs.

May I ask how the change of ownership ‘product’ works within the app? Does the seller have to relinquish the ‘product’ from their app so as to let you take ownership by registering the vin etc?
(I am going to buy privately but don’t know how to do it and bit scared)…
Cheers!

The easy way is for the seller to transfer, if they don’t then you can email the V5c to Tesla and claim it. The previous owner gets hit with supercharging costs until they relinquish control so they probably will quite quickly

[ukdood]

They're not making things easier.

I checked this morning, and they've raised the price by £300 on the three-year-old model I've been monitoring for the past few weeks.

Information on Tesla info suggests prices are dropping for this year/model car so presumed prices would start to decrease.

Edited by ukdood on Friday 27th September 10:51

[Gone fishing]

ukdood said:

They're not making things easier.

I checked this morning, and they've raised the price by £300 on the three-year-old model I've been monitoring for the past few weeks.

Information on Tesla info suggests prices are dropping for this year/model car so presumed prices would start to decrease.

Edited by ukdood on Friday 27th September 10:51

Tesla use algorithms for everything, prices go up if a similar car sells then start to fall again every few days. It won’t be a person setting the price.

[ukdood]

I observed a £100 reduction initially, but then a comparable vehicle with higher pricing surfaced in another region. Despite the COP cars I've been tracking for the past month failing to sell and the overall market prices dropping, there was an increase to match.

However, it appears the number of available cars is currently at its lowest point for the year...

At this rate, I might shift my attention back to a Polestar 2.

[Gone fishing]

You may find that after quarter end there are more cars. Other tactics Tesla use are raising CPO prices to make new cars look better value, and to hold off advertising CPO for similar reasons. There might also be more part ex cars coming through as Tesla tend to push new sales towards the end of each quarter, although this is nowhere near as pronounced as it was in previous years. Tuesday things may start changing

[ukdood]

Many thanks, appreciate the advice.

Hopefully October brings more than just darker nights.

Cheers.

[Honeywell]

The changeover happened swiftly just by sending images of the sales invoice via the App. I did have access to the previous owners Spotify Premium music for a week though and he'd done nothing to remove all his user rifles, call logs, messages etc. after a couple of days that all went as I presume he realised I was streaming all sorts of different music and podcasts.

You need to treat returning your leased Tesla like selling your old smartphone, wipe it first.

[ukdood]

I'm now fairly certain I won't be buying used from Tesla.

While it's always nice to have the extended warranty, I've been keeping an eye on a 2021 model for the past three weeks. It started at £25,400 and gradually dropped to £24,000 as of last night. However, when I checked this morning, the price had jumped to £26,000!

I understand the concept of 'dynamic' pricing, but this is ridiculous!

[Gone fishing]

ukdood said:

I'm now fairly certain I won't be buying used from Tesla.

While it's always nice to have the extended warranty, I've been keeping an eye on a 2021 model for the past three weeks. It started at £25,400 and gradually dropped to £24,000 as of last night. However, when I checked this morning, the price had jumped to £26,000!

I understand the concept of 'dynamic' pricing, but this is ridiculous!

This one?

https://tesla-info.com/car/GB-LRW3F7FA5MC334627

Does seem odd to have jumped back up, they’ve done it on a few cars, but there’s also a rumour they’re trying to clear our Standard range RWD cars but your guess is as good as mine as to why.

[ukdood]

That's the one.

It does appear they are price looping the SR+ cars over a 2 week period.

Teslainfo price tracking fo this car....

[Tindersticks]

ukdood said:

I'm now fairly certain I won't be buying used from Tesla.

While it's always nice to have the extended warranty, I've been keeping an eye on a 2021 model for the past three weeks. It started at £25,400 and gradually dropped to £24,000 as of last night. However, when I checked this morning, the price had jumped to £26,000!

I understand the concept of 'dynamic' pricing, but this is ridiculous!

I’d be looking at RSymons first for a used Tesla

[Gone fishing]

Tindersticks said:

I’d be looking at RSymons first for a used Tesla

There are loads of great dealers now, some are less preoccupied by their YouTube channels.