2021 Model S buy to sell or sell reservation?

[Carcrazy]

Hello,

Hoping for some advice. Last June my wife and I got all excited about the new S, so we sold her performance 3 and ordered the S. We planned to share my Y for a few months while we waited. The original delivery estimate was Sept/Oct but like everyone else it got pushed way back, now to January. Sharing a car with our work/life schedule just became too much of a pain and we started to waiver on the decision. Finally, she gave up and said let’s just get another performance 3, so we did. She loves it.

Now I’m here with our 2 Tesla’s and an order for a white-on-white S long range at $15k under the current Tesla asking price. Seems like just cancelling my order is a bad move and that I should either purchase the car to resell it or try to transfer the reservation. My order price is $82k and after taxes and fees it comes to just under $90k. If I buy it at that price, is it a super safe bet that I can sell it for at least $95k? I keep seeing ads posted for these cars with some crazy prices but not sure if they are selling for those prices.

Same thing for the reservation transfer. Lots of ads out there but unclear of the process. We ordered through our original model 3 account and have our info uploaded to the S order. Our other cars have their own accounts. I can turn the user ID and PW over to someone but how do they get Tesla to swap my name and info out for theirs? Do I just need to find someone at Tesla that will hook us up? I can’t imagine the company wants this type of thing to happen.

Seems like the safe route is to buy the car then sell and hope to get around the current MSRP. Who knows, maybe they raise it another 5K in the next few months. The easier thing for me would be to just sell my account/reservation to someone and let them figure it out with Tesla. Lots of talk about this issue on the forum and ads on craigslist for reservation transfers but I haven’t seen much about how things worked out.

If you were in my spot, what would you do? Thanks

 

[kazamm]

I'm in the same spot, but there's 0 guarantee that you can sell the car for 95k; you may get lucky, but that would mean someone is paying $105k with taxes. I don't know why anyone would do that, but you may indeed get lucky.

Ideally, if you could not pay taxes and just transfer registration that'd allow you to sell, say around 90, where you make $8k and someone has incentive to buy from you.

Now, i believe registrations cannot be moved, but you can check your order agreement. IMHO, the risk is too high to try to flip it AFTER you pay for sales + registration, but that's just me. Moving $90k cash (or taking a loan and paying for costs of that) just to have a "potential" $5k return sounds too much of a hassle.

"Safest" thing is to cancel the rez and eat $100.

 

[EVRider-FL]

I agree with @kazamm, cancel the order and lose $100 rather than trying to resell it and potentially losing more. You're not a car dealer, so you'll still need to register and insure the new car until you sell it. Not worth the trouble, and unless the buyer is going to save a lot vs. Tesla's price., probably not worth it for them either.

 

[ucmndd]

Consider that we’re very likely to end up with a $7500 tax credit in the US again, possibly within days/weeks, which will basically be a wash with the sales taxes you have to pay if you take delivery yourself.

So yes, I think it’s quite likely you could fairly safely sell the car for a decent profit. New LR orders right now are almost a year out.

Edit: I just remembered there may well be a price cap on the tax credit, so that might not help.

 

[Issaction]

Consider that we’re very likely to end up with a $7500 tax credit in the US again, possibly within days/weeks, which will basically be a wash with the sales taxes you have to pay if you take delivery yourself.

So yes, I think it’s quite likely you could fairly safely sell the car for a decent profit. New LR orders right now are almost a year out.

Edit: I just remembered there may well be a price cap on the tax credit, so that might not help.

From what I have heard the cap is like $55k for sedans so the S wouldn't qualify. Neither would the X. Cybertruck might depending on final pricing.

 

[Issaction]

I think you can get $100k out of it easy considering it costs $95k right now. If I were you I would buy it and sell it. The used car market isn't coming back into orbit for a while and many people would pay the extra $5k to not have to wait half a year.

 

[kazamm]

From what I have heard the cap is like $55k for sedans so the S wouldn't qualify. Neither would the X. Cybertruck might depending on final pricing.

This is right, and without knowing anyone's specific situation, there's 2 more things to think about:

1. There's an income cap that's definitely going to be there. It's already slashed to 250k/500k (s/m); my gut says, we're going to end with 200k/400k - and someone dropping this much on a car could be making more than those thresholds.
2. If you buy/sell; the car is now considered a "used car" and even if the car was somehow in the "price cap"; used cars have much lower caps, and the tax rebate is much much lower, basically non-existent

So if someone is dead-set on Model S, sure if you get lucky you may make a few grand profit, but they're better off going with Rivian, Model Y or something else to take advantage of the tax rebate; and you'll likely make very little amount but will have the headache of registering, insuring, listing, cleaning, doing test drives etc.

Of course YMMV, and if you find someone who will buy this on the spot from you, and you live in a place that doesn't have sales tax (e.g. OR) I'm sure you can make some easy dough!

Riskless = cancel
YMMV = keep and find a buyer

 

[rocketshipp85]

If anybody has a reservation at the previous price, I would be interested in purchasing it

 

[kazamm]

I do, PM me, but I don't know how it will work. If you do, I'm all ears.

 

[Carcrazy]

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone!

 

[TSLA Pilot]

While not exactly our desired colors (White on white), we'd be interested in taking it off your hands, with a premium to you, of course. All that has to be done is modifying the delivery center location.

Cancelling the reservation is just silly--don't do that.

I can talk you through transfering the reservation; it's not very hard.

PM me if you're interested and perhaps we can work out a deal that's a win-win for both of us.

That said, it may be better to find a CA buyer as I'm not sure if they'll defer the CA taxes for a non-CA buyer. They probably will if it shipped to an out of state buyer (as in: you never take ownership), but not 100% sure.

Thx.

p.s. The odds of the Model S being covered by some sort of EV tax credit are very, very low. First, the price is far too high. Second, income limits will likely be set too low. Third, the Build Back Better legislation is targeted for killing by every fossil fuel interest that has two cents to help kill it, which is all of them . . . .

 

[azifalix]

If you still have the reservation, I would be interested in taking it over. I am based in El Dorado Hills, very close to Rocklin..

 

[bnsfengineer]

I think you can get $100k out of it easy considering it costs $95k right now. If I were you I would buy it and sell it. The used car market isn't coming back into orbit for a while and many people would pay the extra $5k to not have to wait half a year.

That would mean in Ca where I live to purchase from him @ 100k = $8,500 in sales tax for me? Not sure if that makes sense

 

[shamoo]

Or....you can take delivery of the Model S when it comes and sell your Model 3 Performance.

 

[Vdass]

I am in the same situation with the Model X--any interest from anyone to take over reservation and do they know how process works?

 

[yousufzaidi]

I am in the same situation with the Model X--any interest from anyone to take over reservation and do they know how process works?

You will need written permission from Tesla

 

[keni-jinga]

Just checking if transfer of reservation still currently a doable thing. Have model S gray/black res for April-June delivery that no longer need (ordered X). New to it all. thx

 

[WilsonWilbur85]

While not exactly our desired colors (White on white), we'd be interested in taking it off your hands, with a premium to you, of course. All that has to be done is modifying the delivery center location.

Cancelling the reservation is just silly--don't do that.

I can talk you through transfering the reservation; it's not very hard.

PM me if you're interested and perhaps we can work out a deal that's a win-win for both of us.

That said, it may be better to find a CA buyer as I'm not sure if they'll defer the CA taxes for a non-CA buyer. They probably will if it shipped to an out of state buyer (as in: you never take ownership), but not 100% sure.

Thx.

p.s. The odds of the Model S being covered by some sort of EV tax credit are very, very low. First, the price is far too high. Second, income limits will likely be set too low. Third, the Build Back Better legislation is targeted for killing by every fossil fuel interest that has two cents to help kill it, which is all of them . . . .

Would you mind DMing me what you know about the process? I know someone that may be willing to give me their reservation.

 

[WilsonWilbur85]

I am in the same situation with the Model X--any interest from anyone to take over reservation and do they know how process works?

Still have the reservation?

 

[WilsonWilbur85]

Just checking if transfer of reservation still currently a doable thing. Have model S gray/black res for April-June delivery that no longer need (ordered X). New to it all. thx

Still have it?