Buying a 2017 Model S 75 - Newbie, need advice!

[gea888]

Good morning all,

Please be kind as this would be my first EV. My family and I need a second vehicle and I thought this would be a good daily driver. I wanted to see if I was getting a good deal or if I should steer clear. Here are the details:

- 2017 Model S 75
- Built 11/2017
- 63,868 miles
- No free supercharging
- Has full self driving computer and EAP installed
- approximately 210 miles at full range
- Carfax shows one owner but one “minor accident” no airbags deployed in 1/2020 on the drivers rear quarter panel. There are some surface scratches there which the dealer has agreed to repair with sale.
- Air suspension, premium connectivity

I drove it and it appears to run fine. The dealer originally wanted 36k before tax etc.

I negotiated it out the door to 32k, including all my Georgia taxes. The sales price of the car is $29,750. The dealer has also agreed to bring it to the nearby Tesla dealership for a pre purchase inspection, at my cost.

Is this a decent deal? Please give me any advice!

 

[PCMc]

One hesitancy I have is your reference to "dealer". Do you know how the dealer got possession? Did they buy from auction or did they take it in as trade directly from the original owner? The reason for my question is whether the premium connectivity and EAP will be retained once you transfer into your name/set the car up under your Tesla account. If the car had gone back to Tesla, and then Tesla sold at auction, it's quite possible that both premium connectivity and EAP might be stripped off.

Other thing you did not mention is whether the car has been updated to MCU2. If not, then that's something you likely may want to do, but could then use the cost for you doing that as another leverage point to see if dealer will maybe take off another $1500-2000 from the price.

 

[henderrj]

The price seems only okay, not great. No question but that you could get a better deal if you looked around further. Check only used Tesla's, EV cpo.com places like that. Even Craigslist and eBay often have really good deals on used vehicles. By the way if you do buy directly from tesla, you do get a 1-year warranty on the used vehicles. It's worth considering. Also, Tesla sometimes gives full self-driving for free with their used vehicles. Again, use evcpo.com to look up the used Tesla vehicles. It probably be better off buying from a private party then a third party dealer.

Good luck, and welcome to the party!

 

[gea888]

One hesitancy I have is your reference to "dealer". Do you know how the dealer got possession? Did they buy from auction or did they take it in as trade directly from the original owner? The reason for my question is whether the premium connectivity and EAP will be retained once you transfer into your name/set the car up under your Tesla account. If the car had gone back to Tesla, and then Tesla sold at auction, it's quite possible that both premium connectivity and EAP might be stripped off.

Other thing you did not mention is whether the car has been updated to MCU2. If not, then that's something you likely may want to do, but could then use the cost for you doing that as another leverage point to see if dealer will maybe take off another $1500-2000 from the price.

Thank you so much for the info. It’s at an Audi dealership and it came in as a trade. The additional info screen shows Intel Atom processor. I think that means MCU 2?

 

[henderrj]

I did forget, your battery and drive unit warranty is 8 years. That means 17s will soon have no warranty there at all. So you do want to check with 057 tech.com on their extended warranty for batteries. Figure that into the cost of the vehicle, along with the MCU update as noted above.

 

[vcor]

Thank you so much for the info. It’s at an Audi dealership and it came in as a trade. The additional info screen shows Intel Atom processor. I think that means MCU 2?

Yes, it has MCU2. Seems like a good deal. I sold a 2016 S75 last year for $52K (with MCU2, FSD, and FUSC), with 38K miles. Used prices were a bit higher back then, but your potential car was manufactured a year later than mine too.

 

[henderrj]

Yes, it has MCU2. Seems like a good deal. I sold a 2016 S75 last year for $52K (with MCU2, FSD, and FUSC), with 38K miles. Used prices were a bit higher back then, but your potential car was manufactured a year later than mine too.

Wow, you did get a good price for your car! Geography might have something to do with it though. I would think cars in Georgia go for somewhat less than they do in california. Maybe not.

 

[ucmndd]

Sounds like a decent deal for a MCU2 car, especially if you keep the EAP which it sounds like you will.

Range on the low side of normal - my 2016 S75 charges to 210 these days but I have 100,000 more miles than the car you’re looking at.

 

[gea888]

The price seems only okay, not great. No question but that you could get a better deal if you looked around further. Check only used Tesla's, EV cpo.com places like that. Even Craigslist and eBay often have really good deals on used vehicles. By the way if you do buy directly from tesla, you do get a 1-year warranty on the used vehicles. It's worth considering. Also, Tesla sometimes gives full self-driving for free with their used vehicles. Again, use evcpo.com to look up the used Tesla vehicles. It probably be better off buying from a private party then a third party dealer.

Good luck, and welcome to the party!

Thank you for the info. I can’t find a 2017 model s 75 w FSD computer and EAP for less than 35k, even expanding search nationwide.

 

[jankratochvil]

Thank you for the info. I can’t find a 2017 model s 75 w FSD computer and EAP for less than 35k, even expanding search nationwide.

The question is whether you want to pay for FSD/EAP. I bought M3P with EAP and I regret it. The auto-parking in 95% of cases does not work and in 5% of cases it is dangerous anyway (it can easily hit a curb according to internet reports). Staying in a lane is useful but that is now always included even without EAP. And FSD is not worth a dime in its current state of reliability. YMMV.

 

[gadgetfreak]

I have a 2015 Model S with 84k miles and as a trade in, I’ve been offered a mere $18-19k. Mine has unlimited super charging. Offering perspective, if it helps.

 

[jmcdono362]

Good morning all,

Please be kind as this would be my first EV. My family and I need a second vehicle and I thought this would be a good daily driver. I wanted to see if I was getting a good deal or if I should steer clear. Here are the details:

- 2017 Model S 75
- Built 11/2017
- 63,868 miles
- No free supercharging
- Has full self driving computer and EAP installed
- approximately 210 miles at full range
- Carfax shows one owner but one “minor accident” no airbags deployed in 1/2020 on the drivers rear quarter panel. There are some surface scratches there which the dealer has agreed to repair with sale.
- Air suspension, premium connectivity

I drove it and it appears to run fine. The dealer originally wanted 36k before tax etc.

I negotiated it out the door to 32k, including all my Georgia taxes. The sales price of the car is $29,750. The dealer has also agreed to bring it to the nearby Tesla dealership for a pre purchase inspection, at my cost.

Is this a decent deal? Please give me any advice!

Price wise, I think you're getting a good deal, assuming the car is in good physical condition. I just did a national search for a 2017 S 75 with under 50K miles. Average price is between $35-40K. And all those were 1-owner no accident car fax. As far as supercharging goes, I've calculated at most the value of that is $5000 over 3 years. So it's not a huge deal to not have that feature for free.

 

[btcounts]

Sounds like a very good deal.