This community has been so helpful to me in my Tesla purchasing process that I thought I would share some recent lessons learned for future CPO/used buyers on the 2015 85D I picked up last week. This is obviously just based on my ONE experience, which could differ with a different vehicle or different sales rep.
Here we go..
- Really do your research on not just the year of the car you are buying but preferably pinpoint to the exact month that it was manufactured to understand what options you are really getting. Tesla, unlike other manufacturers, constantly make changes to their cars. The same year car manufactured a month apart, or even in the same month, may have differences in them that you would actually care about. In my case, the seats from original standard to nextgen which 2015 had both. Once you know the cars manufactured month/year, use this website to see what options you may have/not have: Model S - Options by Year - Tesla Motors Club Wiki. Alternatively, use the VIN number to try to find some clues via research on these forums of what you may/may not have.
- Good used cars do go fast. I've seen vehicles I wanted take down the same day it was listed. Do your research, know what you want, and be ready to pull the trigger. Tesla seems to use some sort of time based discount system where I see a lot of vehicles get cheaper every day it is not sold. Good strategy to keep down inventory.
- The $2,500 towards the used vehicle that you're required to make prior to even seeing the car is a down payment towards that specific vehicle and NOT a deposit. The sale rep originally make it sound like a deposit and if I don't like the car I see in person, I could easily change that deposit to another used vehicle. He even told me that of the 150+ used Tesla's he's sold, only a few refused the delivery, and one was an example where they decided to get another Tesla instead (forgot it was another new or used one), making it sound like it was easy to swap my "deposit" from one Tesla car to another. Later on when I was hesitating about the seat (gen 1 /1.5) potentially not meeting my needs and asked if it wasn't comfortable for me, can I move my deposit to another used vehicle with Nextgen seats, he then changed his tone from that first call and said that the $2,500 is a down payment and the seats are not fitting my needs would not be a valid reason to refuse delivery, even though I tried to test these seats out before I purchased, but they were not available at the centers for me to try, and I also said I would drive to the car's location to try out the seats, but the sales rep refused to let me do that. So I was committed to buying a car that I can not test out the seats for, because of the impression he gave me on the first call that it was easy to switch the "deposit/down payment" as long as it was a car directly through Tesla. Luckily I didn't have to push to return since my wife ultimately preferred the standard seats over the more restricting bucket type nextgen seats.
- The pictures they send may not at all capture the damages of the vehicle, even ones that are significant/obvious. Of the pictures they sent me, it only depicted one of the damages which were scratches on the body near the tire, I looked through the pictures with the sales rep and we both agreed that it looks good except for that one picture. The day I inspected it, these were the issues I noted: 1) 2 rims had severe curb rashes, which event though there were pictures of each rim, they were really low quality and impossible to tell (they later indicated that they would fix it for free at a later service date and noted it in my account for this), 2) scratches on the right back side of car (this was the pictured damage; however, the picture of this had water drops all over it still and it was impossible to tell the extent of the scratch, which was much worse than depicted. They took the car back after i mentioned it and and later on buffed most of it out), 3) Big scratches inside the trunk lift gate (they indicated they can't fix this and it was part of normal wear. I wasn't too concerned with this as the items I carry would eventually scratch this part up anyways, and being black interior, it wasn't super noticeable), 4) big white scratch on back seat leather (they took it back and probably used some type of liquid leather repair or something, but they fixed it enough that it wasn't noticeable anymore, it helped that it was black leather I guess, 5) looked like a bunch of damage of sorts on the driver side silver door trim (scratches, discoloration, hard to tell at the time). They indicated that they cannot fix that damage, I was ready to have to have that trim replaced, but when I got home, took a magic eraser to it, and it came right off
.
- On delivery day, do not rush to sign the agreements/forms, take your time to inspect the vehicle and call out all the imperfections and have them attempt to fix them (or put it on a Due Bill on your account which they will fix for free on a later visit). Take a good flash light with you to inspect the interior carefully, Re-inspect what they "fixed" when they come back and make sure it is satisfactory to you or else have them fix it again. There's a 37 point check list posted on these forums some where that I used as a checklist to run through. DO NOT let them rush you to sign.. the person tried to get me to do the paper work while they where fixing it, I refused and insisted on waiting until all fixes are done and the car is in a condition satisfactory to me. Don't sign anything until they have fixed it to your satisfaction.
Super long winded.. but hope that helps prospective buyers! With all this considerations and stress I went through with the process, I am still beyond giddy with my beautiful Tesla!
Here we go..
- Really do your research on not just the year of the car you are buying but preferably pinpoint to the exact month that it was manufactured to understand what options you are really getting. Tesla, unlike other manufacturers, constantly make changes to their cars. The same year car manufactured a month apart, or even in the same month, may have differences in them that you would actually care about. In my case, the seats from original standard to nextgen which 2015 had both. Once you know the cars manufactured month/year, use this website to see what options you may have/not have: Model S - Options by Year - Tesla Motors Club Wiki. Alternatively, use the VIN number to try to find some clues via research on these forums of what you may/may not have.
- Good used cars do go fast. I've seen vehicles I wanted take down the same day it was listed. Do your research, know what you want, and be ready to pull the trigger. Tesla seems to use some sort of time based discount system where I see a lot of vehicles get cheaper every day it is not sold. Good strategy to keep down inventory.
- The $2,500 towards the used vehicle that you're required to make prior to even seeing the car is a down payment towards that specific vehicle and NOT a deposit. The sale rep originally make it sound like a deposit and if I don't like the car I see in person, I could easily change that deposit to another used vehicle. He even told me that of the 150+ used Tesla's he's sold, only a few refused the delivery, and one was an example where they decided to get another Tesla instead (forgot it was another new or used one), making it sound like it was easy to swap my "deposit" from one Tesla car to another. Later on when I was hesitating about the seat (gen 1 /1.5) potentially not meeting my needs and asked if it wasn't comfortable for me, can I move my deposit to another used vehicle with Nextgen seats, he then changed his tone from that first call and said that the $2,500 is a down payment and the seats are not fitting my needs would not be a valid reason to refuse delivery, even though I tried to test these seats out before I purchased, but they were not available at the centers for me to try, and I also said I would drive to the car's location to try out the seats, but the sales rep refused to let me do that. So I was committed to buying a car that I can not test out the seats for, because of the impression he gave me on the first call that it was easy to switch the "deposit/down payment" as long as it was a car directly through Tesla. Luckily I didn't have to push to return since my wife ultimately preferred the standard seats over the more restricting bucket type nextgen seats.
- The pictures they send may not at all capture the damages of the vehicle, even ones that are significant/obvious. Of the pictures they sent me, it only depicted one of the damages which were scratches on the body near the tire, I looked through the pictures with the sales rep and we both agreed that it looks good except for that one picture. The day I inspected it, these were the issues I noted: 1) 2 rims had severe curb rashes, which event though there were pictures of each rim, they were really low quality and impossible to tell (they later indicated that they would fix it for free at a later service date and noted it in my account for this), 2) scratches on the right back side of car (this was the pictured damage; however, the picture of this had water drops all over it still and it was impossible to tell the extent of the scratch, which was much worse than depicted. They took the car back after i mentioned it and and later on buffed most of it out), 3) Big scratches inside the trunk lift gate (they indicated they can't fix this and it was part of normal wear. I wasn't too concerned with this as the items I carry would eventually scratch this part up anyways, and being black interior, it wasn't super noticeable), 4) big white scratch on back seat leather (they took it back and probably used some type of liquid leather repair or something, but they fixed it enough that it wasn't noticeable anymore, it helped that it was black leather I guess, 5) looked like a bunch of damage of sorts on the driver side silver door trim (scratches, discoloration, hard to tell at the time). They indicated that they cannot fix that damage, I was ready to have to have that trim replaced, but when I got home, took a magic eraser to it, and it came right off
.- On delivery day, do not rush to sign the agreements/forms, take your time to inspect the vehicle and call out all the imperfections and have them attempt to fix them (or put it on a Due Bill on your account which they will fix for free on a later visit). Take a good flash light with you to inspect the interior carefully, Re-inspect what they "fixed" when they come back and make sure it is satisfactory to you or else have them fix it again. There's a 37 point check list posted on these forums some where that I used as a checklist to run through. DO NOT let them rush you to sign.. the person tried to get me to do the paper work while they where fixing it, I refused and insisted on waiting until all fixes are done and the car is in a condition satisfactory to me. Don't sign anything until they have fixed it to your satisfaction.
Super long winded.. but hope that helps prospective buyers! With all this considerations and stress I went through with the process, I am still beyond giddy with my beautiful Tesla!
