Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Buyer beware. Buying a CPO Tesla feels like a SCAM.

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I dont understand why no one contacts Elon when this happens? Peons out in the wild cannot fix those problems, or will not, unless ordered to by Fremont management. Period, end of story. Someone has to pay, your local SC will not eat that cost. Fremont has to pay the local SC to fix car. Period. Im not being msan, Im stating a fact. My neigbor is a GM of big dealership. He says he makes factory pay for anything wrong when car is delivered.

Not exactly. Since the distribution is controlled and owned by "Fremont", Tesla should/empower the folks at the SC do the right thing (within set guidelines) and figure out the internal "accounting", well, internally.
 
too expensive to send a truck to pick the car up but not too expensive to ask 70 grand for it...

I was talking to used sales rep out of Montreal bout a 2014 CPO....
Sales guy pretty much says they have more customers than cars so if I want it, I can give $1000 non refundable deposit.

I say, well I'm buying a $100,000 car sight unseen.
I said I'd like to know if its been in any accidents.
He says it doesn't matter because its a CPO with 4 year warranty.

To make matters worse I think he was using some VOIP phone connection because call quality was horrible.

I asked about servicing the car and warranty work as i am not close to service center. He was too busy to answer those questions as well.

I have no idea how Tesla customer service is going to handle all the extra vehicles???

I pulled up Tesla salaries. Elon pays the sales guys $14-$18 an hour..... this might be a problem!!!???!!!
 
I was talking to used sales rep out of Montreal bout a 2014 CPO....
Sales guy pretty much says they have more customers than cars so if I want it, I can give $1000 non refundable deposit.

I say, well I'm buying a $100,000 car sight unseen.
I said I'd like to know if its been in any accidents.
He says it doesn't matter because its a CPO with 4 year warranty.

To make matters worse I think he was using some VOIP phone connection because call quality was horrible.

I asked about servicing the car and warranty work as i am not close to service center. He was too busy to answer those questions as well.

I have no idea how Tesla customer service is going to handle all the extra vehicles???

I pulled up Tesla salaries. Elon pays the sales guys $14-$18 an hour..... this might be a problem!!!???!!!

I absolutely love Tesla and could not imagine buying a car that was not a Tesla. I really want them to succeed and obliterate their competition who dragged their heels on building EVs as long as they could.

Having said that, I hate to say this, but the attitude you experienced and the new Tesla policy of not refurbishing cars reflect the same sentiment and that is that of lack of respect for customers who buy these quite expensive few year old cars. It's like they can't be bothered to sell a car in respectable condition.

Can you imagine the outrage if a car dealer sold cars like that? If you called a car dealer about buying a used car and they told you: "Look we have many people interested in these cars. I can't really tell you much about this car or show it to you but if you want it, put down a $1,000 deposit." If a car dealer treated people like this would you not consider that horrible service with a side of arrogance?

I wish Tesla was more transparent, fair, and respectful for their customers who buy CPO cars.

I wish Tesla would do the right thing and disclose the damage to cars they sell and how much it would cost to fix that damage if they are not going to refurbish cars. I can't imagine anyone thinking knowing the condition of the used car you are about to buy is an unreasonable request.
 
Look at the first picture There is fraying of the headliner. How the heck does that happen? I guess I can understand someone using the headliner as a napkin for dirty hands but it coming apart?

That car was rode hard and put away wet. It is beat.

That's actually sort of normal IMO. It can come untucked, and it looks like that along the edges. Mine does that too (a 2014 model).

They definitely missed a few steps in cleaning, and they probably should have put some effort into trying to clean the headliner that someone got surprisingly dirty, but a few scuffs should be expected. It's a used car.
 
But this refrain should not apply when you buy a car from Tesla. Tesla should do better and the low bar to clear is what a car dealer would do and in this case car dealers sell cars in a much more transparent and reasonable way.

What I find really disappointing about this new CPO policy of neither refurbishing cars nor disclosing existing damage is that you have no idea what you are buying any more. I can;t believe next to used cars costing nearly $100,000 they have a link referring customers to a body shop for fixing undisclosed/unknown damage. :(
I reached out Carol at Tesla who handles CPOs in the Seattle area to find out what has changed and how to think about CPOs going forward. Will let everyone know what I hear. My experience buying a CPO was that the refurb and shipping took a long time, but Tesla bent over backwards to make everything right for me including waiving the shipping charge and doing a ton of additional repairs as I found issues with the car. Maybe the Bellevue, WA service center is a cut above or Carol just goes that extra mile.

All that said I don't care what you are buying if you are spending this kind of money you have to do your due diligence as it is way easier to get things solved at the dealership before you take possession than once you leave. So yes even with a great company and a great prodict this refrain applies. Tesla is a great company but they do make mistakes, the nice thing is that they always seem to make things right. Hopefully they will see everyone's feedback on the new CPO program and take steps to correct it.
 
I have a day one reservation for a model 3. However, 6 months ago I test drove a model S and immediately ordered one. I've decided that some people just are not ready for a Tesla; however I haven't met any yet. I warn people to not test drive one unless they are prepared to buy one. It is the best car I've ever owned and will never go back to anything else. Oh, and by the way, I traded in my Porsche for the Tesla and have never been happier.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brettski and bonnie
I reached out Carol at Tesla who handles CPOs in the Seattle area to find out what has changed and how to think about CPOs going forward. Will let everyone know what I hear. My experience buying a CPO was that the refurb and shipping took a long time, but Tesla bent over backwards to make everything right for me including waiving the shipping charge and doing a ton of additional repairs as I found issues with the car. Maybe the Bellevue, WA service center is a cut above or Carol just goes that extra mile.

All that said I don't care what you are buying if you are spending this kind of money you have to do your due diligence as it is way easier to get things solved at the dealership before you take possession than once you leave. So yes even with a great company and a great prodict this refrain applies. Tesla is a great company but they do make mistakes, the nice thing is that they always seem to make things right. Hopefully they will see everyone's feedback on the new CPO program and take steps to correct it.

I too love Tesla and hope they do the right thing by changing this policy of telling customers to buy a CPO car and then take it to a body shop to fix anything wrong at the customer's own expense because they no longer refurbish the cars.
 
I too love Tesla and hope they do the right thing by changing this policy of telling customers to buy a CPO car and then take it to a body shop to fix anything wrong at the customer's own expense because they no longer refurbish the cars.

This is the more transparent message which was on the CPO site last week when this new policy was first implemented:

"non refurbished" CPOs?

upload_2018-4-20_9-48-56.png


They then changed the verbiage to the current verbiage that solely messages the "positive" part of the program which is that the car went to a 70 pts inspection. I suppose the idea is that a newcomer won't know that there ever was a refurb angle as part of the previous flavor of CPO program, but this is really not the way a high-end car manufacturer should operate, esp. Tesla which has built its image along the lines of "we're different and better because we care about our customer more etc".

One has to hope that the car that started this thread is the exception, not the rule, but this is clearly not a way to build trust in the entire program and ultimately, the company as a whole.

(good related thread here: "non refurbished" CPOs?)
 
I totally agree with you that Tesla should do a better job treating their customers than suggest they take the car they just bought to a body shop for repair o_O

I feel a bunch of Tesla customers who expect Tesla to sell cars like Mercedes, Audi, Porsche in the same price range are going to be shocked and dismayed when they find out that unlike those other brands, Tesla does not refurbish cars any more.

What bothers me is that after the OP's horrible experience they actually made a policy change to make the CPO program MUCH worse. Earlier people bought these cars based on blind trust that Tesla will refurbish CPO cars but now the policy is to still buy the car based on blind trust but customers will now have to pay to fix damage that's not even disclosed in the car listing.

I seriously can't imagine anyone telling with a straight face that this policy is fair and it really diminishes the brand. Just look at this car that they are selling for $96,500 but they can't be bothered to refurbish the car?

Inventory Search | Tesla
 
  • Like
Reactions: Troy
Isn't the new system how every other OEM/dealership does things? When dealing with a used car, how often do people go to their local dealer to have them ship a car from some other dealer? I've always used car shopped by going to where the car was and checking it out. The Tesla CPO/like new from anywhere was a very different style of doing things. It seems like this will result in people only considering cars from their geographic area.
 
Isn't the new system how every other OEM/dealership does things? When dealing with a used car, how often do people go to their local dealer to have them ship a car from some other dealer? I've always used car shopped by going to where the car was and checking it out. The Tesla CPO/like new from anywhere was a very different style of doing things. It seems like this will result in people only considering cars from their geographic area.

Oh my god no. You really must not have ever bought a CPO car to say that. It is well documented that every automaker who sells cars in the US completely refurbishes the CPO cars that they sell to look as if they were like new and they back that up with photos to show the refurbished state of the vehicle.

Every time we bought a CPO car we emailed the dealer and not only did they completely refurbish the car, they would also send us a list of everything that they refurbished with the car making everything super transparent.

Tesla neither refurbishes the car nor tells you what needs to be refurbished.

One thing I agree with you is that yes, you should I suppose only look at cars in your areas as under the current policy it would be silly to buy a car unseen when you have no clue what condition the car is in. I really think Tesla should do better and Tesla customers deserve better than this current policy.
 
  • Love
Reactions: neroden
Oh my god no. You really must not have ever bought a CPO car to say that. It is well documented that every automaker who sells cars in the US completely refurbishes the CPO cars that they sell to look as if they were like new and they back that up with photos to show the refurbished state of the vehicle.

Every time we bought a CPO car we emailed the dealer and not only did they completely refurbish the car, they would also send us a list of everything that they refurbished with the car making everything super transparent.

Tesla neither refurbishes the car nor tells you what needs to be refurbished.

One thing I agree with you is that yes, you should I suppose only look at cars in your areas as under the current policy it would be silly to buy a car unseen when you have no clue what condition the car is in. I really think Tesla should do better and Tesla customers deserve better than this current policy.

I've dealt with the range from new to CPO to sub $500 specials. I'm thinking it's like going out to the theater, there are flicks, films, and movies. As long as your expectations of which you are going to see matches which it actually is, you're mostly happy. Tesla switching things up is like going from a film to a movie (apparently with some flicks thrown in).
 
  • Like
Reactions: MIT_S60
I've dealt with the range from new to CPO to sub $500 specials. I'm thinking it's like going out to the theater, there are flicks, films, and movies. As long as your expectations of which you are going to see matches which it actually is, you're mostly happy. Tesla switching things up is like going from a film to a movie (apparently with some flicks thrown in).

You say you have dealt with buying CPO but I find your comments really surprising because then you would know that every car dealer reconditions CPO cars that they sell. Car dealers have really cleaned up their CPO business. We've bought a few and they are almost like buying a new car and that's bar that has been set for Tesla.

Instead Tesla has lowered the bar with the current policy.
 
You say you have dealt with buying CPO but I find your comments really surprising because then you would know that every car dealer reconditions CPO cars that they sell. Car dealers have really cleaned up their CPO business. We've bought a few and they are almost like buying a new car and that's bar that has been set for Tesla.

Instead Tesla has lowered the bar with the current policy.

I am thinking in terms of the old system being super-CPO and the current being average used car. If one expects the used car setup, then they can set expectations appropriately.

The contrast between the old and new approaches is quite a severe one, and could be better communicated, especially with how good (to the purchaser) the old way was. Tesla may need to readjust their strategy based on what the starting quality is and where the demand/ price points line up.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skitown
If Tesla doesn‘t inform about the condition of the car and doesn‘t do any refurbishing, then people will buy used Teslas only after having inspected them by themselves.

Which means, there will be less buyers as everyone will shop in their vicinity and prices will fall.
 
I wonder if this applies to Europe too. They couldn't get away with it here.

If enough people reject these cars then they might have to start fixing them again.
 
Unfortunately it seems Tesla is going the short term thinking route. As of today they have more customers than cars, so they maximize profits. They can do that until the supply/demand ratio flips. It will likely hurt their reputation, but they've got a lot of existing good will they can monetize as well.
 
Unfortunately it seems Tesla is going the short term thinking route. As of today they have more customers than cars, so they maximize profits. They can do that until the supply/demand ratio flips. It will likely hurt their reputation, but they've got a lot of existing good will they can monetize as well.

That's what makes this horrible policy so sad :(

The thing is I have nothing against maximizing profits as long as they treat their customers well. I honestly don't see how this policy neither maximizes their profit (with all the ill-will and tarnishing of their reputation and trust) nor treat customers looking to buy used car in like new condition in a reasonable way.

And just wait for all the stories from people used to buying impeccable CPO cars from German manufacturers that are now presented with cars that just work "mechanically."

Why not build the cost of refurbishing the car into the purchase price?
 
Last edited:
That's what makes this horrible policy so sad :(

The thing is I have nothing against maximizing profits as long as they treat their customers well. I honestly don't see how this policy neither maximizes their profit (with all the ill-will and tarnishing of their reputation and trust) nor treat customers looking to buy used car in like new condition in a reasonable way.

And just wait for all the stories from people used to buying impeccable CPO cars from German manufacturers that are now presented with cars that just work "mechanically."

Why not build the cost of refurbishing the car into the purchase price?

Possible senario:
Tesla is too busy ramping up 3 deliveries to deal with CPO refresh. So they drop the refresh process and let anyone who still wants the car at today's prices buy them. Down the road 6 months, the EV credit starts expiring, now the used-new price differential shifts by $3,750 then 6 months later by $5,625 on the way to $7,500 (no credit on new cars). Now it's profitable to spend 3-5k to refresh all the off lease cars along with uping their price, and things will have settled down some in terms of having the increased deliveries figured out.

In other words, Tesla will be able to sell the used cars for more once the credit starts expiring. (Doesn't apply to new loaner inventory of course)
 
  • Like
Reactions: bhzmark
Possible senario:
Tesla is too busy ramping up 3 deliveries to deal with CPO refresh. So they drop the refresh process and let anyone who still wants the car at today's prices buy them. Down the road 6 months, the EV credit starts expiring, now the used-new price differential shifts by $3,750 then 6 months later by $5,625 on the way to $7,500 (no credit on new cars). Now it's profitable to spend 3-5k to refresh all the off lease cars along with uping their price, and things will have settled down some in terms of having the increased deliveries figured out.

In other words, Tesla will be able to sell the used cars for more once the credit starts expiring. (Doesn't apply to new loaner inventory of course)

I hear what you are saying but even the most unscrupulous car dealer has figured out how to sell used cars that are refurbished and still make a nice profit. Tesla should be able to offer a quality refurbished product at least as well as a used car dealer o_O

What makes this especially worse for Tesla is they don't show photos of the actual car or list the damage to the car nor how much it would cost to refurbish the car so you can drive home a car that you are not embarrassed by...

Oh and PS: I don't think they can sell used cars for any more than what they are trying to sell them for now :p
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: neroden and mongo