Bought an X from Tesla this week.
Those that don’t know the process, it goes same as buying new;
1. Pay an “order fee” (extra $100 slapped on top of the price)
2. Arrange trade-in or whatever payment method you will use (just check box in app)
3. Wait for deliver to be scheduled
4. Go to appointment, see vehicle at delivery center, visual inspection
5. Pay them and drive away...
We went through this and always “trusted” Tesla. I’ve owned 5 Teslas before (2 roadsters and 3 S), not new to the cars, but never purchased directly from them before. So when they said “no test drives and no returns” I wanted to believe everything would be just fine.
I was wrong!
We made the process as easy and painless on Tesla as we could; paid in full in cash, didn’t get overly picky at delivery on petty items, came early for appointment (they ended up an hour behind so we waited for 2 hours), flew to California (from Tempe, AZ) to pick it up where it was located, etc
The car looked fine, couple dings consistent with mileage and photos on their listing, detailing job sucked, lots of dirt and French fries in the cracks of seats... but hey that’s just clean-up, no big deal...
So, we drive off, feeling mostly good about our new X and excited to drive it home on the 6-7hrs journey.
Then it went downhill, 20 minutes into driving we had an autopilot mishap where it dove off the road slightly and said camera obstruction. Windshield totally clean, skies clear and middle of day in Costa Mesa (4pm)... thought that was odd... then a few minutes later it happened again while AP was engaged... we mostly didn’t use AP but just cruise control down to San Diego to supercharger there (taking the longer way home vs I-10, has another pickup on way home).
Once we left San Diego cruise control would not engage or respond, trying to turn on AP the car then said “cameras need alignment, contact service”, so we went on app and next available appointment is more than a week out.
We had to drive home without even having cruise control available on the car. Sales Advisor only responded with “contact service”.
So that was the first issue, now second; the car will only charge up to 233mi “rated” range at 100% SOC. This brings in another used inventory issue, other than telling us “everything is in good health” there is no real way of knowing what the range is going to be when you buy a used one from Tesla. And the kicker is their postings clearly give a rated range consistent with the new range, on ours the listing said 257mi range. We expected 257 or at least close to it (2-3% variance), not the nearly 10% less that our vehicle is actually at.
Told sales person and their response was again to ask service. Asked service and they say it’s consistent with age to have that much degradation of range... ok great, but why wasn’t I told this before buying? Why doesn’t Teslas sales listing for these vehicles tell you the actual rated range instead of the “original” range if they clearly know the two aren’t at parity?
Third issue; they left the tow receiver installed and at Costa Mesa (delivery center) told me they don’t have the key. Sales person said “contact service” so I went to our local SC (Tempe) today and they said they don’t have keys for these, they tried the 4 keys they had from units on the shelf and none worked.
So, here we are, feeling like idiots for buying a very expensive car, handing over a huge sum of hard-earned cash and no feeling like we got the raw end of the deal on items we could not have known prior to purchase (range after charging and AP failures, obviously the receiver we saw at pickup)...
I reached out to sales advisor and asked if we could return it or exchange for a different one (pay the difference) that has a healthier battery and operational AP... she only indicated that they don’t do returns...
Thus far I have only gotten “no” as an answer.
I’m wondering if others have had similar disappointments with used purchases from Tesla and if so any positive resolutions or ideas you could share with me to help me through this?
I don’t know what I can do to help alleviate the situation and walk away feeling like we came to amicable resolution where both parties feel good about the situation...
Those that don’t know the process, it goes same as buying new;
1. Pay an “order fee” (extra $100 slapped on top of the price)
2. Arrange trade-in or whatever payment method you will use (just check box in app)
3. Wait for deliver to be scheduled
4. Go to appointment, see vehicle at delivery center, visual inspection
5. Pay them and drive away...
We went through this and always “trusted” Tesla. I’ve owned 5 Teslas before (2 roadsters and 3 S), not new to the cars, but never purchased directly from them before. So when they said “no test drives and no returns” I wanted to believe everything would be just fine.
I was wrong!
We made the process as easy and painless on Tesla as we could; paid in full in cash, didn’t get overly picky at delivery on petty items, came early for appointment (they ended up an hour behind so we waited for 2 hours), flew to California (from Tempe, AZ) to pick it up where it was located, etc
The car looked fine, couple dings consistent with mileage and photos on their listing, detailing job sucked, lots of dirt and French fries in the cracks of seats... but hey that’s just clean-up, no big deal...
So, we drive off, feeling mostly good about our new X and excited to drive it home on the 6-7hrs journey.
Then it went downhill, 20 minutes into driving we had an autopilot mishap where it dove off the road slightly and said camera obstruction. Windshield totally clean, skies clear and middle of day in Costa Mesa (4pm)... thought that was odd... then a few minutes later it happened again while AP was engaged... we mostly didn’t use AP but just cruise control down to San Diego to supercharger there (taking the longer way home vs I-10, has another pickup on way home).
Once we left San Diego cruise control would not engage or respond, trying to turn on AP the car then said “cameras need alignment, contact service”, so we went on app and next available appointment is more than a week out.
We had to drive home without even having cruise control available on the car. Sales Advisor only responded with “contact service”.
So that was the first issue, now second; the car will only charge up to 233mi “rated” range at 100% SOC. This brings in another used inventory issue, other than telling us “everything is in good health” there is no real way of knowing what the range is going to be when you buy a used one from Tesla. And the kicker is their postings clearly give a rated range consistent with the new range, on ours the listing said 257mi range. We expected 257 or at least close to it (2-3% variance), not the nearly 10% less that our vehicle is actually at.
Told sales person and their response was again to ask service. Asked service and they say it’s consistent with age to have that much degradation of range... ok great, but why wasn’t I told this before buying? Why doesn’t Teslas sales listing for these vehicles tell you the actual rated range instead of the “original” range if they clearly know the two aren’t at parity?
Third issue; they left the tow receiver installed and at Costa Mesa (delivery center) told me they don’t have the key. Sales person said “contact service” so I went to our local SC (Tempe) today and they said they don’t have keys for these, they tried the 4 keys they had from units on the shelf and none worked.
So, here we are, feeling like idiots for buying a very expensive car, handing over a huge sum of hard-earned cash and no feeling like we got the raw end of the deal on items we could not have known prior to purchase (range after charging and AP failures, obviously the receiver we saw at pickup)...
I reached out to sales advisor and asked if we could return it or exchange for a different one (pay the difference) that has a healthier battery and operational AP... she only indicated that they don’t do returns...
Thus far I have only gotten “no” as an answer.
I’m wondering if others have had similar disappointments with used purchases from Tesla and if so any positive resolutions or ideas you could share with me to help me through this?
I don’t know what I can do to help alleviate the situation and walk away feeling like we came to amicable resolution where both parties feel good about the situation...