Hi all, long time lurker, new poster.
I thought I would share my experience buying a loaded 2013 P85 through Carvana last month since it seems like their Tesla inventory has been exploding and I’m sure others on the lookout for a used S might consider them. This will be long but I will hope to keep it instructive.
I’ll start by saying that up front I knew I wanted a 2013 P85. I personally could care less about Autopilot, so this didn’t play in my decision, I wanted it with over air update capability, I love the old grill, and I wanted a 2013 simply because these models are almost like pieces of automotive history. Even with that context in mind, an early production Model S still has more tech and features than 99% of new cars being made today, and no other new competitor has a better range than these older cars.
Originally I planned to buy through Tesla for the CPO. I had found a Model I liked that had about 59k miles on it and they were offering it for just under $50k 2 months ago. Interacting with their used staff was basically a nightmare. Although it looks like they are finally putting real pics on their website now, then they had to send me pictures, and they weren’t great quality, and was only 5 or 6 shots. After learning from the Tesla rep they don’t really refurbish or make repairs on their used offerings, I started looking elsewhere.
After never hearing about Carvana before, since they aren’t in my market, I found them through Cars.com and discovered a fairly large selection of Tesla’s.
I did some research about them to learn that they actually do make a solid effort to get their cars looking like new again, replace tires if necessary, and also never buy a car that’s been in an accident. They also will post pictures of any imperfections that do exist, which is more transparent than any other used car dealer out there
After finding a Metallic Silver with basically every option possible expect for the 21” wheels, I decided to go about buying. It was over $10k less than the Tesla CPO I nearly bought prior, with less mileage. I guess the risk is it not being covered, but I can’t imagine spending 10k on repairs in a couple of years that the CPO would have covered and I could also just buy a 4 year warranty for a little over 4K if I want to. Either way, big savings.
First, I did their finance pre-qualification, which doesn’t hit your credit, and was given terms that were pretty close to what my bank was offering.
I was trading in a car, so I just had to plug in my Vin and click a few options and questions, and they gave me an amount good for a week that they would take for my car. I was trading a Lexus CT hybrid, and they gave me $1000 over what KBB had estimated at the top end, and $2100 more than Carmax was going to give me. It said this was an adjustment for my market. Since my car was already paid off, this was a very nice surprise.
After those two things were sorted, I proceeded with the transaction, which was entirely online. I uploaded a couple paystubs to verify my income, proof that I had the deposit amount in my bank since I was adding more money beyond my trade, a pic of my license, and title/odometer/registration pics for my trade in.
All that took maybe 10 minutes to gather and upload and after pressing “submit” I quickly got a page congratulating me.
The next morning at 8am since I purchased at 10pm, I received a call just confirming my purchase and again congratulating me.
Because I wasn’t near a Carvana vending machine and had a trade in, I had to drop the Lexus off at their vending machine in Tempe, and collected the Tesla there. It was a 6 hour drive for me there and back. If you are in your market they will deliver and pickup your car for you.
The car had to be transported to the vending machine there which took 3 days, and it was completely free. Again, if you are in their market, this is free to your house, which is a nice advantage over Carmax.
Delivery was flawless. They took my Lexus without a thought, and the Tesla was perfect.
Everything disclosed in the photos online was accurate and I didn’t find any surprises. The car has been running smoothly with no issues. Because I had to drive it back home, it was a good opportunity to find any issues, which there weren’t, but I essentially voided the 7 day return since I basically eclipsed the 400mile limit.
Overall it was a flawless experience, and my Model 3 owning friend that went with me was pretty blown away after his order and delivery was a disaster.
