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ESA - now eligible even with dealer in chain of ownership?

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that does not make sense to me either for 2 reasons...1. as deaddog states a private person who is not in the business of selling cars on a regular basis is not a "dealer" and 2. I was under the impression that you could not buy an extended warranty on a CPO... does this mean that you could buy a 2014 CPO with 40K on it and buy another 4 years when the car is 8 years old and has 90K miles on it?????


I would fight back on that one... I am also sure you could find multiple people that have purchased the ESA AFTER they bought from a private seller...

At the time I bought mine the deal was only the original owner.. but I had him buy it first before he transferred ownership to me...

Keep us posted
 
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Just make more clear that it isn’t a CPO car.

I’ve already escalated to the executive support level. The executive care told me they are working on it but somehow, Tesla representative keeps calling me and tells me that I can’t buy.

Will let you guys know the result. Thanks for your suggestions.
 
Just make more clear that it isn’t a CPO car.

I’ve already escalated to the executive support level. The executive care told me they are working on it but somehow, Tesla representative keeps calling me and tells me that I can’t buy.

Will let you guys know the result. Thanks for your suggestions.

To clarify - is it correct that Tesla sold a brand new car to individual X who owned it the entire time before selling the car to you? Or, alternatively, the car went Tesla to individual X, X to individual Y, Y to you -- no dealers (as the word is commonly used) in the chain?
 
Ask another rep. You need to phrase it differently the next time. Keep asking until you to get to yes. Revenue is revenue. Are they really trying to get cash positive with this stupid response. Always take cash today for events that could happen later.
 
To clarify - is it correct that Tesla sold a brand new car to individual X who owned it the entire time before selling the car to you? Or, alternatively, the car went Tesla to individual X, X to individual Y, Y to you -- no dealers (as the word is commonly used) in the chain?

Tesla sold the new car to a person X, he registered the car under his company name. His company isn't a car dealer.
Because of the financial problem, he sold the car to me.

Besides that, when I got the car, he only put +10 miles on the car and I had to bring the car into SC for the due bill. It is almost new when It came to me.
 
So, this isn't legal advice and you should always hire your own lawyer and not take advice from the internet. You should ask your lawyer whether he/she believes that the CA Vehicle Code makes clear that your scenario is not a purchase from a "dealer."

2010 California Code
Vehicle Code
Division 1. Words And Phrases Defined

VEHICLE CODE
SECTION 100-680

286. The term "dealer" does not include any of the following:

(e) Persons not engaged in the purchase or sale of vehicles as a
business, who dispose of any vehicle acquired and used in good faith,
for their own personal use, or for use in their business, and not
for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of this code.
 
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Tesla denied my eligibility to buy the ESA. They still use this message to reponse:
“We do consider a private-party purchase a 3rd party purchase, and under these conditions a person would not be able to purchase the ESA.”
“We consider the seller of a vehicle to be a 3rd party dealer in all situations except when the vehicle is a certified pre owned vehicle being sold by Tesla. For any further information and clarification you can reach out to your local service center.“

Does anyone have experience with this?

I can't help but to chime in with everyone else, but the above is complete BS. It's clearly someone new and/or who doesn't understand the policy.

that does not make sense to me either for 2 reasons...1. as deaddog states a private person who is not in the business of selling cars on a regular basis is not a "dealer" and 2. I was under the impression that you could not buy an extended warranty on a CPO... does this mean that you could buy a 2014 CPO with 40K on it and buy another 4 years when the car is 8 years old and has 90K miles on it?????

Totally this.

Just go call up a different service center and say "I'd like to buy the ESA on my car, can you help me?"

Hopefully you'll get someone who actually knows what they are talking about.
 
FYI,
I had to have my screen replaced a few weeks ago and I asked the service manager about buying the extended warranty even though I bought my car from a 3rd party dealer. He said it didn't matter, and that I should be able to buy it... That coupled with the fact that the option to purchase the extended warranty (2yr or 4yr) shows up on my account, makes me think they either A: they don't care anymore and just want the revenue or B: my car wasn't "flagged" as being bought from a 3rd party, or of course C: the service manager has now idea what he is talking about...
 
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B: my car wasn't "flagged" as being bought from a 3rd party, or of course

I think this is the most likely cause.

. That coupled with the fact that the option to purchase the extended warranty (2yr or 4yr) shows up on my account,

If the option to buy the ESA shows up on your TESLA ACCOUNT page, just do it and don't ask any more questions.

:)
 
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Yeah, that's the plan if I decide to keep it and if I decide to pay up for the warranty.
Side Note: I'm 90% sure the ESA wasn't available on my account when I first bought the car. I say 90% because it was a while back, but I remember reading a thread saying you couldn't purchase it if you bought 3rd party, and I'm almost positive I checked to see if it was available on my account when I paid for unlimited supercharging and the LTE upgrade. Hence the reason I was surprised when it showed up as available for purchase...
 
Or one could simply check the Tesla website, today, instead of dragging out this forum ad infinitum.

This is what is posted as of today, June 28th, 2018. 12:17 pst:

"Can anyone purchase an Extended Service Agreement?
Owners (excluding 3rd party dealers and vehicles purchased from a 3rd party dealer) with Model S or X vehicles subject to the New Vehicle Limited Warranty which are still within the eligible purchase period can purchase the Extended Service Agreement."

Vehicle Warranty | Model S and Model X

Note: Nothing contained herein addresses whether you can scam Tesla after buying a car from a 3rd party dealer, but that's not what this forum is supposed to be about, per the forum's own title.
 
Or one could simply check the Tesla website, today, instead of dragging out this forum ad infinitum.

This is what is posted as of today, June 28th, 2018. 12:17 pst:

"Can anyone purchase an Extended Service Agreement?
Owners (excluding 3rd party dealers and vehicles purchased from a 3rd party dealer) with Model S or X vehicles subject to the New Vehicle Limited Warranty which are still within the eligible purchase period can purchase the Extended Service Agreement."

Vehicle Warranty | Model S and Model X

Note: Nothing contained herein addresses whether you can scam Tesla after buying a car from a 3rd party dealer, but that's not what this forum is supposed to be about, per the forum's own title.

Yep, the language hasn't changed. But r0xx0r says Tesla is now taking the position that any non-Tesla owner is a "dealer" as that term is used in this language, with the result that only original owners can buy the ESA. I don't know if that is correct, but if it is, its a huge change back to the old days.
 
Yep, the language hasn't changed. But r0xx0r says Tesla is now taking the position that any non-Tesla owner is a "dealer" as that term is used in this language, with the result that only original owners can buy the ESA. I don't know if that is correct, but if it is, its a huge change back to the old days.

Let's just make sure who said what.. based on what r0xx0r said (below), it was just one person responding to an email who clearly didn't know or understand the current ESA policy. It's not "Tesla taking a position." I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that Tesla didn't change their policy without telling anyone, issuing a blog post, an Elon tweet, or revert the ESA policy back in time two years to be more restrictive for no reason whatsoever.


Tesla denied my eligibility to buy the ESA. They still use this message to reponse:
“We do consider a private-party purchase a 3rd party purchase, and under these conditions a person would not be able to purchase the ESA.”
“We consider the seller of a vehicle to be a 3rd party dealer in all situations except when the vehicle is a certified pre owned vehicle being sold by Tesla. For any further information and clarification you can reach out to your local service center.“

 
I bought my 2013 Model S from a dealer in 2014 and successfully purchased the ESA last year. It was not a slam dunk and I had to point out to them that there was no CPO program at the time and that there were also essentially no private sales taking place at that time. They agreed with me and let me keep it. I did purchase it from the website before asking a bunch of questions, though. I have used the ESA twice so far, one of which included replacing the entire center screen console, so it probably has paid for itself (I remember seeing somewhere that a center console is about $3750).

My advice would depend on your situation. If you haven't bought a car from a dealer, I would probably pass on it and buy either a CPO or a car from an individual without a dealer in its history (unless you can get Tesla to commit to let you get the ESA before hand). I would then just purchase the ESA from the website. You may have to call them to get it added to your account. That is what I had to do. I also had to send them "proof of purchase", which basically amounted to sending them a copy of my ESA purchase confirmation email. I don't know if this was something only I had to do or it this is how it works for everyone.