Up on Soapbox...
This situation strikes me as the development of plain old bad "(used) car dealer" behavior by Tesla. I would rather see them maintain the "factory showroom" (Apple store)
approach to selling new cars and stay away from any dealings in used cars. (Apple won't take your used mac or old junky Dell in trade in their stores).
Tesla's "best efforts to broker" your ICE trade is more than enough effort on their part for me (although in my case their ICE trade in offer to me was low balled also).
Selling used cars (CPO or otherwise) is a fools game, and competing with other "plain old car companies" will require the adoption of more of their bad practices.
Next well see "guaranteed offers on your late model car" and "end of month clearance sales" requiring "NO MONEY DOWN!" Tesla must have let a OSCG (old school
car guy) get into Palo Alto. I hope they root him (or her) out quickly.
BOO! to the whole revolting development.
Back down from the soapbox ...
I would politely press the point that you are an outstanding customer (5 Teslas and counting) and you'd like a little better than sleazy used car dealer behavior from
an "awesome car company". Ask them to take the trade and accept the external offer you arranged for the vehicle (perhaps less a couple hundred bucks for their trouble).
This a). Earns them a new D sale, b). saves you (most) of the sales tax and c). Gets the (independent) dealer the used car he wants to resell. Why would Tesla want to keep
that car out of his hands ... hes just going to sell it to (another new) Tesla convert who will come back for a new one next time. If that approach fails (likely) then I'd sell your
P85+ private party, buy the D and drive the hell out of it ... you'll feel better soon.
Best of luck.
30seconds,
I've had many good in-depth discussions with Seneca over the years. Once I learned he was responsible for the CPO program I reached out to him and we talked. At that point I had a good competing number for my car and was simply trying to get a courtesy trade for the sales tax credit. For the first time, the conversation was devoid of any real substance. It was more like speaking to a politician. However, it was clear that Tesla knew exactly what it was doing. He did offer to have the car evaluated to see if they could up their number. I asked him what that number would be if the car was a perfect 18K mile car. It was a direct question and yet I could not get an answer. I had already reached agreement with the other wholesale party and was not comfortable going back on my word so I declined.
This is where things have gone off the rails for me-
Tesla learned that competing wholesale bids are a requirement to get a correct trade valuation.
Tesla provides this service if you are coming to them with an ICE trade.
Tesla will not provide this service if you are coming with a MS trade. If you trusted Tesla and bought their product, you will receive a lesser service.
Tesla will underbid your MS trade. If you are not familiar with the whole process, you trust Tesla while they are taking money out of your pocket.
Tesla's relationship with my wholesale bidder killed the offer on my car.
Tesla knows exactly what they are doing here and they are doing it on purpose.