Couple questions before ordering.

[James72]

I will be ordering a M3 LR soon but I had some questions.

1. When do you fill out the financing application? I know it's only valid for 30 days but the earliest I'd get the M3 is probably the fall.
2. I *might* be trading in my RAV4 which is well above water on what I owe on it. It's part of the reason why I'm doing this. Might sell it outright but again, since the delivery is so far out how does it work with a trade in? I read they send you an offer in something like 30 days?

Thanks in advance.

 

[pipp]

My advice from experience gained last summer: fill out the finanacing application when you get your vin. When you make your order, stipulate that you are paying cash. You can change that aspect of the order without any threat to when your car will arrive. The vin typically arrives a week or so before the car, and the financial application took me less than an hour to be completed.

I have read a few posts from people saying that Tesla gave them the best price for their used car, but I believe those are rare cases. I think they don’t really like being in the used car business so they tend to low ball trade-ins. So at the very least compare Tesla’s trade-in offer to one of the major used-car buyers like Carmax, Driveway, Vroom, Carvana, etc…And as a person who sold his car immediately after ordering an SR+, then waited 6 weeks without a car, I would again wait until the vin was received before giving up the old car.

 

[ATPMSD]

You will get better financing from your Bank or Credit union, and they will be a hell of a lot easier to work with. As to trade-in, when you get close get quotes from places several places, like CarMax, as well as Tesla.

 

[rpiotro]

Depending on your state, don't forget to include your sales tax liability which may reduced with a trade in vs selling to CarMax etc.. You will probably only pay tax on the trade difference.

I was very satisfied with the trade allowance I got from Tesla. Of course, YMMV.

 

[James72]

You will get better financing from your Bank or Credit union, and they will be a hell of a lot easier to work with. As to trade-in, when you get close get quotes from places several places, like CarMax, as well as Tesla.

Yeah I have USAA and after running some numbers I will probably go through them. USAA isn't what it used to be but they still offer really good rates. Tesla puts in a rate of 3.74% when you use this car configurator and I can get USAA down to 2.54%. I just want to go visit the local Tesla dealer to make sure they know how USAA works when buying a car.... I just hand them a piece of paper. A friend of mine wants to buy my RAV4 at the top end of the KBB trade in chart which I think is good. I don't think Tesla would give me anywhere near that and when I did Carvana their offer was insulting..lol

Pretty much settled on ordering the M3 with "Cash" then buying it through USAA and selling my RAV4 to a friend. I'm above water by a lot on it thanks to the present used car market.. use that as the down payment.

Timing will be a little tricky so I'm not without a vehicle. lol

 

[ATPMSD]

Timing will be a little tricky so I'm not without a vehicle.

More than you know. Tesla cannot meet a delivery date to save their life. Good luck!

 

[James72]

More than you know. Tesla cannot meet a delivery date to save their life. Good luck!

Yeah at worst I'll have two car payments for a short amount of time. The current time frame is Sep - Dec but realistically I'm think Dec at the earliest. The M3P I could get way sooner but it's not something I want or need. I can't fault Tesla for that since it's a higher margin vehicle. Once I know my local dealer understands how USAA works I'll place my order.

 

[afadeev]

Yeah at worst I'll have two car payments for a short amount of time.

Why?
You should NOT initiate financing on an asset you neither own nor possess yet. Literarily nothing good can come out of that.
IIRC, it took me about 15 minutes to fill out the financing paperwork with my credit union (always better rates then whatever Tesla is reselling), and another 5 minutes to email the paperwork to the Tesla sales person.
In all likelihood, you will NOT be able to complete financing application until after you've obtained a VIN, and that happens pretty close to delivery anyway.
Still, I would not rush the financing paperwork until AFTER your SC has confirmed that they have received your vehicle and that it has not been damaged during transport.

The current time frame is Sep - Dec but realistically I'm think Dec at the earliest. The M3P I could get way sooner but it's not something I want or need. I can't fault Tesla for that since it's a higher margin vehicle. Once I know my local dealer understands how USAA works I'll place my order.

You should not have to explain anything to the Tesla sales person about USAA.
Just inform them that you will be brining your own financing, regardless of the name of your bank. That should be sufficient.

HTH,
a

FWIW, I financed with PenFed: https://www.penfed.org/auto

 

[James72]

Welp placed the order so we will see what happens.

M3 Long range, aero wheels, blue metallic with white interior. Sep - Dec 2022.

 

[KenC]

I will be ordering a M3 LR soon but I had some questions.

1. When do you fill out the financing application? I know it's only valid for 30 days but the earliest I'd get the M3 is probably the fall.
2. I *might* be trading in my RAV4 which is well above water on what I owe on it. It's part of the reason why I'm doing this. Might sell it outright but again, since the delivery is so far out how does it work with a trade in? I read they send you an offer in something like 30 days?

Thanks in advance.

Try the ordering subsection, you'll probably get lots of more relevant answers.

 

[FindMyElectric]

My advice from experience gained last summer: fill out the finanacing application when you get your vin. When you make your order, stipulate that you are paying cash. You can change that aspect of the order without any threat to when your car will arrive. The vin typically arrives a week or so before the car, and the financial application took me less than an hour to be completed.

I have read a few posts from people saying that Tesla gave them the best price for their used car, but I believe those are rare cases. I think they don’t really like being in the used car business so they tend to low ball trade-ins. So at the very least compare Tesla’s trade-in offer to one of the major used-car buyers like Carmax, Driveway, Vroom, Carvana, etc…And as a person who sold his car immediately after ordering an SR+, then waited 6 weeks without a car, I would again wait until the vin was received before giving up the old car.

Tesla generally tends to be the lowest (although not 100% of the time). We'd also agree with your statement about them "not liking" being in the used car business!

A lot of the "big box" buyers (CarMax, Carvana, Vroom, etc.) are very heavily algorithmically-based, and you may find that offers vary wildly from week-to-week. Also, you don't have the ability to negotiate with them (something we do allow in our IO program).