First month as a Tesla Owner

[BrandonG]

I took ownership of my 2013 Model S P85 less than a month ago and have been meaning to get around to posting my experience with the car thus far.

First off, I will start with actually getting the car. My time between securing the CPO with a deposit and picking it up in Fremont was relatively quick, just over a month. However, the lack of communication between my advisor or anyone at Tesla was disconcerting. I never received any pictures of my vehicle, which caused us to not be able to secure the loan through our local credit union. I will assume some of the blame for this because I didn't confirm with the credit union what they needed and should have pressed my advisor harder when he said they can't always get pics of the car before hand.
Another problem was that when we picked up the car from the Fremont Delivery Hub, no-one there knew anything about our car. My advisor had informed me he was out of town and may not be there when I purchased the car, but I assumed my delivery specialist, who never reached out or returned my calls, or someone who had knowledge of the car would be present. Instead we were in the showroom receiving generic information about brand new Teslas and the Model X, much of which did not pertain to our vehicle. When the young woman finally took us to see our car, I mistakenly assumed she would be reviewing the 200+ point inspection sheet with us. She was very friendly, but did not have any information regarding the inspection process, nor was she able to get anyone who did. Another annoyance is the fact Tesla has you sign loan documents before you even get to see the car. Again, I will take blame because I could have demanded to see the car first or asked to talk to someone with knowledge of our car, but I have a feeling that could have taken days and we did not want to make the 300 mile round trip back to the Bay Area again.

Now to my experience with the car. I'm very pleased to announce there have been no real issues after 3+ weeks with the car. It had no cosmetic issues (sans a few very minor rock chips), runs amazing, and makes driving for work or pleasure more enjoyable. I did receive an error message regarding the steering assistance on the 2nd day of ownership and once since, but there has been no actual problems with steering and customer service @ Tesla was prompt in answering my call and giving feedback on the issue. The only other problem has been the handles not always presenting. I have had to "open" the car through my phone several times, but this problem has not persisted.

Reading that a large number of Tesla employees had been fired prompted me to post this. While I'm not happy to see anyone lose their job and livelihood, I can understand why it happened after my experience in buying a CPO. Perhaps I just had bad luck, wasn't as prepared as I should have been, or had unrealistic expectations. I would be interested in hearing from other Tesla owners regarding their experience in buying and taking delivery of a CPO model S.

 

[Akikiki]

Sales people being laid off or let go is nothing new to the business. For many years new car dealers hired young men and women and held classes teaching them how to sell and close the deal. And almost mercilessly would graduate a class and keep only the most successful. I think we hear about this because there's no independent franchised dealers to camouflage the numbers since it sounds like it coming from one company.

I've bought a few cars and financed them in my 50 years of driving. Never once did a lender want pictures. Never heard of that before.

 

[BrandonG]

Sales people being laid off or let go is nothing new to the business. For many years new car dealers hired young men and women and held classes teaching them how to sell and close the deal. And almost mercilessly would graduate a class and keep only the most successful. I think we hear about this because there's no independent franchised dealers to camouflage the numbers since it sounds like it coming from one company.

I've bought a few cars and financed them in my 50 years of driving. Never once did a lender want pictures. Never heard of that before.

I'm just glad to see they are attempting to improve their customer relations/service, whatever the reasons.

I had never heard of needing pictures, but then again, I'd never asked to borrow that much money for a car.

 

[BrandonG]

I took ownership of my 2013 Model S P85 less than a month ago and have been meaning to get around to posting my experience with the car thus far.

First off, I will start with actually getting the car. My time between securing the CPO with a deposit and picking it up in Fremont was relatively quick, just over a month. However, the lack of communication between my advisor or anyone at Tesla was disconcerting. I never received any pictures of my vehicle, which caused us to not be able to secure the loan through our local credit union. I will assume some of the blame for this because I didn't confirm with the credit union what they needed and should have pressed my advisor harder when he said they can't always get pics of the car before hand.
Another problem was that when we picked up the car from the Fremont Delivery Hub, no-one there knew anything about our car. My advisor had informed me he was out of town and may not be there when I purchased the car, but I assumed my delivery specialist, who never reached out or returned my calls, or someone who had knowledge of the car would be present. Instead we were in the showroom receiving generic information about brand new Teslas and the Model X, much of which did not pertain to our vehicle. When the young woman finally took us to see our car, I mistakenly assumed she would be reviewing the 200+ point inspection sheet with us. She was very friendly, but did not have any information regarding the inspection process, nor was she able to get anyone who did. Another annoyance is the fact Tesla has you sign loan documents before you even get to see the car. Again, I will take blame because I could have demanded to see the car first or asked to talk to someone with knowledge of our car, but I have a feeling that could have taken days and we did not want to make the 300 mile round trip back to the Bay Area again.

Now to my experience with the car. I'm very pleased to announce there have been no real issues after 3+ weeks with the car. It had no cosmetic issues (sans a few very minor rock chips), runs amazing, and makes driving for work or pleasure more enjoyable. I did receive an error message regarding the steering assistance on the 2nd day of ownership and once since, but there has been no actual problems with steering and customer service @ Tesla was prompt in answering my call and giving feedback on the issue. The only other problem has been the handles not always presenting. I have had to "open" the car through my phone several times, but this problem has not persisted.

Reading that a large number of Tesla employees had been fired prompted me to post this. While I'm not happy to see anyone lose their job and livelihood, I can understand why it happened after my experience in buying a CPO. Perhaps I just had bad luck, wasn't as prepared as I should have been, or had unrealistic expectations. I would be interested in hearing from other Tesla owners regarding their experience in buying and taking delivery of a CPO model S.

I took ownership of my 2013 Model S P85 less than a month ago and have been meaning to get around to posting my experience with the car thus far.

First off, I will start with actually getting the car. My time between securing the CPO with a deposit and picking it up in Fremont was relatively quick, just over a month. However, the lack of communication between my advisor or anyone at Tesla was disconcerting. I never received any pictures of my vehicle, which caused us to not be able to secure the loan through our local credit union. I will assume some of the blame for this because I didn't confirm with the credit union what they needed and should have pressed my advisor harder when he said they can't always get pics of the car before hand.
Another problem was that when we picked up the car from the Fremont Delivery Hub, no-one there knew anything about our car. My advisor had informed me he was out of town and may not be there when I purchased the car, but I assumed my delivery specialist, who never reached out or returned my calls, or someone who had knowledge of the car would be present. Instead we were in the showroom receiving generic information about brand new Teslas and the Model X, much of which did not pertain to our vehicle. When the young woman finally took us to see our car, I mistakenly assumed she would be reviewing the 200+ point inspection sheet with us. She was very friendly, but did not have any information regarding the inspection process, nor was she able to get anyone who did. Another annoyance is the fact Tesla has you sign loan documents before you even get to see the car. Again, I will take blame because I could have demanded to see the car first or asked to talk to someone with knowledge of our car, but I have a feeling that could have taken days and we did not want to make the 300 mile round trip back to the Bay Area again.

Now to my experience with the car. I'm very pleased to announce there have been no real issues after 3+ weeks with the car. It had no cosmetic issues (sans a few very minor rock chips), runs amazing, and makes driving for work or pleasure more enjoyable. I did receive an error message regarding the steering assistance on the 2nd day of ownership and once since, but there has been no actual problems with steering and customer service @ Tesla was prompt in answering my call and giving feedback on the issue. The only other problem has been the handles not always presenting. I have had to "open" the car through my phone several times, but this problem has not persisted.

Reading that a large number of Tesla employees had been fired prompted me to post this. While I'm not happy to see anyone lose their job and livelihood, I can understand why it happened after my experience in buying a CPO. Perhaps I just had bad luck, wasn't as prepared as I should have been, or had unrealistic expectations. I would be interested in hearing from other Tesla owners regarding their experience in buying and taking delivery of a CPO model S.

Just wanted to update this post to say I received several calls from Tesla representatives after voicing my frustrations with the delivery process and they were very helpful. Not only did they offer me a free year of service, but they gave me contact info for the finance department so I could see how long it would take to switch financing companies. It is great to see Tesla is so vested in keeping their customers happy. Also, we had our first rain since getting the car here and no leaks in the panoramic roof. My biggest struggle is in learning how to access all of the cars advanced technology.