Few Trade-in Questions

[esk8mw]

Considering trading in my M3 (not THAT M3) for a Model S. Had a few questions:

Are the prices lowballed so bad such that the tax savings do not make up for the shortfall? Taxes here are nearly 10% so I'm guessing Tesla would have to offer a pretty terrible number for it not to be worth it for the convenience factor.

Is it worth trying Carmax et al to get an appraisal? My sales guy told me their process is basically sending the car info out to 100+ paarties (incl. Carmax) and best quote wins - so it seems this would be a pointless step - but I'd be interested to know if anyone has found better trade-in quotes despite the Tesla process.

I have a small (city driving) nick on the bumper of the car I'm trading in. Is it worth fixing for $500 or leaving it as is for the appraisal? Not sure how much of an impact it has on the appraisal number.

 

[MrJones390]

I put my used WRX on ebay for a high price and someone showed up at my door with cash in no time. I'd recommend ebay if you don't mind the hassle of making the ad and showing the car.

 

[FolsomMike]

Tesla offered me $12,500 for my '08 335. I ended up selling it outright to AutoNation at the Bmw dealership for 16K and Tesla paid for an uber ride to the Rocklin store from there. The AutoNation guy said they handle all the trade ins for Rocklin and he didn't appear happy when I told him about their 12.5K offer...after he gave me the check. :tongue:

 

[esk8mw]

Ha! So it appears Tesla knocks a little off the offer prices to make some money on the deal? Can't blame them for it, but it certainly wasn't described as such to me ("Tesla sells at cost to the trade in buyer").

 

[vitaliy]

Tesla offered me $12,500 for my '08 335. I ended up selling it outright to AutoNation at the Bmw dealership for 16K and Tesla paid for an uber ride to the Rocklin store from there. The AutoNation guy said they handle all the trade ins for Rocklin and he didn't appear happy when I told him about their 12.5K offer...after he gave me the check. :tongue:

check can be canceled, just saying...

 

[lucy]

I was offered $29K for my Audi at the local CarMax, the DS told me that the Tesla offer was going to be $25K but that the would "probably" match the CarMax offer, whatever it is at the time of my delivery. Worth the 1/2-1 hour of time at CarMax for $3-4K, especially if Tesla will match it, in MN trading to to dealer will lower my sales tax too.

 

[jntn2002]

For my trade in, I got a much lower offer at tesla than I got from carmax and vroom.com. I informed my sales guy and they raised to offer; they didn't match it but it was enough that the sales tax advantage by trading it in won out. In regards to vroom.com, on their website they say that they can work through a dealer and you can still get the tax advantage but tesla said that they were not an approved partner and didn't want to work with them.

To me minor damage on a car is usually just the excuse for the dealer to lowball your car. So I don't think its worth fixing. For example if you car needed new tires and you put brand new Michelin pilots on the M3 and it costed 1500 , the dealer won't tack on $1500 just because its new tires. The only thing is they won't use it as an excuse to lowball their offer.

 

[esk8mw]

For my trade in, I got a much lower offer at tesla than I got from carmax and vroom.com. I informed my sales guy and they raised to offer; they didn't match it but it was enough that the sales tax advantage by trading it in won out. In regards to vroom.com, on their website they say that they can work through a dealer and you can still get the tax advantage but tesla said that they were not an approved partner and didn't want to work with them.

To me minor damage on a car is usually just the excuse for the dealer to lowball your car. So I don't think its worth fixing. For example if you car needed new tires and you put brand new Michelin pilots on the M3 and it costed 1500 , the dealer won't tack on $1500 just because its new tires. The only thing is they won't use it as an excuse to lowball their offer.

Oh, I definitely agree on the tires thing. I'd never get new tires only to sell it immediately. The damage thing seemed a little different to me since presumably the Carmax, dealer etc. wouldn't be able to sell the car with the visible damage so my thought was they would drop the price more than necessary to implement the fix.

 

[ndhaon91]

I just received my trade-in offer from Tesla today for $7500. On my Sonata Turbo with a blue book value of $13.5k. I just got done posting it to craigslist, and will follow up with vroom.com and carmax.

 

[bancroftc]

Considering trading in my M3 (not THAT M3) for a Model S. Had a few questions:

Are the prices lowballed so bad such that the tax savings do not make up for the shortfall? Taxes here are nearly 10% so I'm guessing Tesla would have to offer a pretty terrible number for it not to be worth it for the convenience factor.

Is it worth trying Carmax et al to get an appraisal? My sales guy told me their process is basically sending the car info out to 100+ paarties (incl. Carmax) and best quote wins - so it seems this would be a pointless step - but I'd be interested to know if anyone has found better trade-in quotes despite the Tesla process.

I have a small (city driving) nick on the bumper of the car I'm trading in. Is it worth fixing for $500 or leaving it as is for the appraisal? Not sure how much of an impact it has on the appraisal number.

So I just went through this exact process with a 2012 Toyota Sequoia. I have sold two cars to CarMax and have always been very pleased with their pricing compared to trade in values (and factoring in the tax savings of a trade in). Tesla quoted me $41,500 for my Sequoia, which was a true cash value of roughly $46,500 when you factor in the tax savings of the trade in. I thought that felt low, so I went to CarMax and got an appraisal and they came back at $40,000 even. Made me feel MUCH better about the trade in, not to mention the there is some value in the trade in process regarding logistics and so forth. Took my Toyota to my Tesla delivery, and left my Toyota there and drove off with a new Tesla.

FWIW I was told the same thing regarding Tesla's process with trade-ins, meaning they price it out to a network of dealers. Always worth it to shop around a little bit. In my case it reinforced the pricing Tesla gave me.

 

[tstafford]

Another data point - Tesla beat Carmax by $3K on my 2013 535i.

 

[esk8mw]

Interesting - there seems to be quite a divergence. Is it possible a change in Tesla's methodology has been applied at some point?

 

[bancroftc]

Interesting - there seems to be quite a divergence. Is it possible a change in Tesla's methodology has been applied at some point?

It probably varies depending on what market you are in, what the demand is for your particular car, etc. Meaning my giant Sequoia may have received a much lower price from Tesla in say - California - than here in Texas. Purely speculation but geography may have something to do with pricing variations between Tesla and Carmax or any other dealer. I suspect that Carmax was NOT on Tesla's list of dealers they bid out to on my trade in, given the pricing delta between the two of them.

 

[zwede]

Interesting - there seems to be quite a divergence. Is it possible a change in Tesla's methodology has been applied at some point?

Tesla's trade-in program has been a work-in-progress all along with multiple changes. Early on they used autonation and there were many reports of low offers. When I got my car in early 2014 they had changed it to where they got bids from 4 local dealers instead. I ended up getting a good offer and was happy with the trade-in experience.

I don't know what the current trade-in program is and if it's uniform across the states. Wouldn't surprise me if they are experimenting with it in some states.

 

[max amp]

I had the same dilemma with my 2007 BMW 650i. I ended up putting it on Craigslist, carsdotcom, autotrader, and ebay. The trade price Tesla offered with $7k lower than I ended up selling it to a private party. It is a pain the rear, but if you can stomach it, would definitely put it on ebay. Depending on your color combination, M3's can garner out of state interest.

 

[demundus]

Tesla GROSSLY lowballing trade ins seems par for the course... Perhaps they do it on purpose, as to not be in the business of flipping used cars? Basically forcing you to go elsewhere to sell if you have half a brain

 

[socalty]

Another data point for you:
I sold my 2012 Audi A7 to the Autotrader buying service for $39.7k. Carmax offerred $38k. Tesla trade-in offered only $34k. Tesla indicated that they provided my car info to a network of dealers for bidding.

 

[esk8mw]

My initial estimate from Tesla came in about $4k below where I think it should be (based on a network of bidders). I'll try Carmax as a sanity check but the usual case seems to be Tesla at about 3-5k below market. Wonder if they'd increase the estimate if I bothered to fix my bumper ding (or, you know, actually wash my car before having it appraised)?

 

[Sparktz]

Carmax offered me $1,500 less than Tesla for my trade in.

 

[Thundalicious]

2012 BMW X5 xDrive50
38,000 miles
KBB suggested $33-36K. Carmax offered $32,000. Tesla matched over the phone. We'll see who's in the running in December when my 85D comes in.

I agree with the few who've suggested you try to Ebay or private sale, especially for the M3. If you have time???