CarMax sold me a broken model 3?

[pikeman]

I’d return the car and let them sort it out. Life is too short to waste it with this kind of crap.
There is another car waiting for you somewhere.

 

[maclean525]

Take that back right away. Now you know why the previous owner traded it in.

 

[Hooked]

I had an issue with a car I purchased from CarMax before. I just returned it within the 30 day money back guarantee and they refunded every single cent.

 

[CertLive]

I think I fall on the side of caution here. While the power is with you on the new purchase it might be a good idea to throw it back at CarMax and find a better example.

What this does highlight is peoples rights to see logs on battery usage history and condition history. This allows users to make a much more informed decision about their purchase and reward users who take care of their cars with a higher value price to sell on. The telemetry is there, its your car so why not Tesla? Condition of battery is vital to any second hand car sale in the EV age.

So the end result go to buy a second hand Tesla, its logs are available to see before purchase via the site with a battery health rating. Wow look! We got rid of purchase bad battery lottery!

 

[srs5694]

What this does highlight is peoples rights to see logs on battery usage history and condition history. This allows users to make a much more informed decision about their purchase and reward users who take care of their cars with a higher value price to sell on. The telemetry is there, its your car so why not Tesla? Condition of battery is vital to any second hand car sale in the EV age.

So the end result go to buy a second hand Tesla, its logs are available to see before purchase via the site with a battery health rating. Wow look! We got rid of purchase bad battery lottery!

IIRC, Tesla has said that they don't keep vehicle logs for the long term. For that, an owner needs to use a third-party monitoring tool like TeslaFi, or use the API calls to do it themselves. For a potential buyer of a used Tesla, this means that the logs might or might not be available, and of course third-party sellers like CarMax aren't likely to have them even if the original owner kept meticulous records. (I once sold a gas-powered car to CarMax, and they weren't interested in my maintenance records. I expect they'd have even less interest in TeslaFi logs.) Legally mandating that logs be kept would have problematic privacy implications, since it would mean that Tesla (or GM, Toyota, etc.) would be required to keep logs about how their customers use the cars. Even if GPS data were removed from the logs, they'd show patterns of use that owners might not want to be kept, with the ever-present possibility of data leaks. Of course, using TeslaFi et al. does the same, but that's voluntary.

As a practical matter, the best that potential buyers of used EVs can do is to educate themselves and use diagnostic tools like Scan My Tesla to try to ascertain the condition of the car at the time of purchase, just as buyers of used ICE cars do -- it's just the tools and specific signs of problems that differ. Just as with an ICE vehicle, taking a used EV to a trusted mechanic for an evaluation is a worthwhile precaution if the buyer is unfamiliar with EVs. The main problem with this is that there are relatively few mechanics who are familiar enough with EVs to do the evaluation. For a sale unaffiliated with the brand's dealer network, taking it to a dealer's shop may be the best option.

 

[Boston_Pilot]

If I was even going to consider buying a used Tesla you better believe I would hook up a Scan my Tesla on the test drive.

Sure you would. Like it’s so easy to access the OBDII port. Lol, just hook it right up in a car lot, on a car you don’t own.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

Sure you would. Like it’s so easy to access the OBDII port. Lol, just hook it right up in a car lot, on a car you don’t own.

If I was buying a used Tesla I would ask the owner if I could hook it up. It isn't hard to do even in the Teslas. If they said no I wouldn't buy that car.

 

[stabgotham]

So....what did you end up doing @Jamison Shaw?

 

[BigNick]

IIRC, Tesla has said that they don't keep vehicle logs for the long term. For that, an owner needs to use a third-party monitoring tool like TeslaFi, or use the API calls to do it themselves. For a potential buyer of a used Tesla, this means that the logs might or might not be available, and of course third-party sellers like CarMax aren't likely to have them even if the original owner kept meticulous records. (I once sold a gas-powered car to CarMax, and they weren't interested in my maintenance records. I expect they'd have even less interest in TeslaFi logs.) Legally mandating that logs be kept would have problematic privacy implications, since it would mean that Tesla (or GM, Toyota, etc.) would be required to keep logs about how their customers use the cars. Even if GPS data were removed from the logs, they'd show patterns of use that owners might not want to be kept, with the ever-present possibility of data leaks. Of course, using TeslaFi et al. does the same, but that's voluntary.

As a practical matter, the best that potential buyers of used EVs can do is to educate themselves and use diagnostic tools like Scan My Tesla to try to ascertain the condition of the car at the time of purchase, just as buyers of used ICE cars do -- it's just the tools and specific signs of problems that differ. Just as with an ICE vehicle, taking a used EV to a trusted mechanic for an evaluation is a worthwhile precaution if the buyer is unfamiliar with EVs. The main problem with this is that there are relatively few mechanics who are familiar enough with EVs to do the evaluation. For a sale unaffiliated with the brand's dealer network, taking it to a dealer's shop may be the best option.

I once scanned maintenance records for a car I traded, burned them along with some "driving music" to CD-ROM and put that in the glovebox (hidden in the same CD sleeve with the factory owner's manual CD-ROM so the used-car-dealer-prep team wouldn't pitch it) at trade-in along with my contact information for the next owner if he/she had any questions to ask me.

This was nearly two decades ago, and I never received a call or email. The new owner probably didn't want to put a random "burned" CD into his/her computer for cybersecurity reasons.

 

[BBen]

So I just purchased a Model 3 standard from Lakeland CarMax. I’ve had excellent experiences with CarMax in the past when my bmw 330e has issues and they basically covered everything. Test drive and everything went great. No notable issues. Then came the drive home. Shortly after joining the highway I received an error code and my speed was limited to 58 mph. As a new Tesla owner I simply followed the instructions on the a screen which said pull over and exit the car and restart it etc. I did exactly that and then resumed highway travel back to Tampa.

And again shortly after. Same code. So by now we’re almost 25 mins into a 40 minute drive and I am questioning turning around or going home and taking it to my local Tesla service center the following day as I have one in Tampa, and CarMax really can’t do anything about it.

So we make it all the way home in turtle mode which was not fun, and given CarMax barely charged the car I’m now at about 48% battery and want to top off slowly with the mobile charger. I plug it in, get the green Tesla light and go inside. Come back out shortly after (because the Tesla app had not transferred ownership to my name yet and I can’t see the charge on my app) and see they it has not charged a drop.

Yet another error code and this alert: Unable to AC charge - Unplug and retry Or try DC Fast Charging / Supercharging.

So now I’m dumbfounded and moderately annoyed. I have my previous vehicles charge cable so I use the adapter and attempt to charge with that and nothing, same issue. So as a last resort, I wait until evening and travel a minute or two down the street where there is a destination charger at a hotel with the standard level 2 charger Tesla makes. Plug it in. Finally see some numbers and voltage, 1 hour something minutes … and then the same error code within a minute.

I go home defeated and depressed. Next day I go to Tesla on my remaining battery. Why not CarMax? Because what are they gonna do but tow the car to Tesla, and I don’t want to have to have the car towed from CarMax to Tesla when they say there is nothing they can do..

So I bring it there as a walk in as I am unable to schedule a service appointment yet due to ownership transfer, and as this is critical with the car not being able to charge and soon to be cripled. They accept my walk up obviously and attempt to charge the car to diagnose the issue. I’m told after they need to keep the car as they’ve replicated the issue, to service it obviously, but are unable to provide me Uber credits because my account isn’t carried over yet.

So off to CarMax (down the street) I go via my own Uber. After sitting there for three hours, they finally give me a loaner car and say it’s good for seven days. They “usually don’t do this but given the situation they’re allowing it.” I would hope so, provided they sold me a Tesla they clearly did not properl asses the vehicle prior to offering it for sale…

So now here I am stuck with a used Chevy Malibu as my rental car. They’re not charging me for it so I can not complain.

My discussion and question for everyone is should CarMax cover all the costs of this as they essentially sold me a broken car. And also, will Tesla’s warranty cover repairs if it falls within their coverage, even though the car was purchased as third party? Or is Tesla going to try to slam this on CarMax as I imagine they might, and I’ll be stuck in the middle.

Thanks for all input. It should be noted I absolutely am obessed with the car. Other than the fact that I was unaware the previous owners somehow had not purchased auto pilot which will now come at additional cost. I may bring this to CarMax too as the car was sold with automated cruise control, which indicates autopilot.

Thanks for all feedback. Sorry if the post has grammar issues I am on mobile.

How was it even possible you have no ownership after picking up your Tesla?

 

[kaimanson]

According to the legend the OP is still driving in turtle mode back to CarMax.

 

[Manuelsp]

Would be nice to know how it ended

 

[Birdsfan]

Seriously, how does the story end?

 

[3geekfamily]

Seriously, how does the story end?

Yeah, this person has never posted outside of this thread, and joined on the day they posted this. They're not coming back for updates, they obviously got what they needed from us and moved on.

 

[XPsionic]

Yeah, this person has never posted outside of this thread, and joined on the day they posted this. They're not coming back for updates, they obviously got what they needed from us and moved on.

Yep, sounds like he really wanted to keep the car, so maybe Tesla fixed it and it's fine now. Maybe he took the sound advice of taking advantage of the Carmax return policy and got something else.

File this under "Thread random people find on google in the year 2030 about certain issues that turns out to be a dead end"

 

[jawnly211]

Seriously, how does the story end?

he ended up loving the chevy maibu and kept it!

 

[father_of_6]

He paid full price for a used Model 3 and on day one brought it to Tesla for a remanufactured battery, that's what he did.

 

[deepblue1337]

what a cliff hanger @Jamison Shaw , i can't deal with the suspense.

 

[JimboSl1ce]

Yep, sounds like he really wanted to keep the car, so maybe Tesla fixed it and it's fine now. Maybe he took the sound advice of taking advantage of the Carmax return policy and got something else.

File this under "Thread random people find on google in the year 2030 about certain issues that turns out to be a dead end"

funny enough, this is the future and I'm equally sad it has no end.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

Doesn't CarMax have a 7 day return policy? That car would have been returned the same day if it were me.. literally would have turned around and gone back soon as the error came up. That's way too much drama to buy a car.

100%. This.