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I must be an anomaly?! My story and instant ownership transfer for P85D from dealer.

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Wanted to say hello to everyone and share my story.

This is my first ever EV. Had looked at Audi S8, BMW M6, and Porsche Panamera. Also entertained some luxury sport SUVs as well. Ultimately decided to go for a "brand new" experience with car ownership so here I am. Had strongly considered going Taycan but was worried that I may not like EVs and trying to unload a Taycan may prove more difficult than I'm imaging so I chose Model S.

Bought it from a third-party dealer a couple of hours away and had it delivered. 2015 P85D with 15k on the clock and lots of goodies that I've yet to discover. Exceptionally beautiful in-person and I'm still a bit light-headed from the insane+ launch and still smiling too. I don't know how I'm going to end up with this car but I think it's worth the new experience altogether. It's charging right now on the regular 120v and getting 2 miles to the hour cause I turned down the amperage to 10 to not heat up the receptacle. Yea, I gotta get the level 2 charging setup. Still driving the Audi A8 until everything is in place properly.

As for the transfer of ownership?... in all honesty, I was worried since I bought it from a dealership and was thinking about all the horror stories that I've read on here and on the internet in-general. I'm usually patient so I was ready for a 5-day waiting period; here's all I did:

  1. Set up a new access point that was closer to my garage so the wifi signal to the car was very strong.
  2. Connected the car to wifi.
  3. I had the Tesla app all set to go on my phone about 2 weeks prior to actually buying a Tesla because I was curious about the app.
  4. Sat in the car and initiated the process to add a car on the app.
  5. Enter VIN, enter address, attached Bill of Sale, attached Drivers License.
  6. Change the car's name to the new temp name given on the app.
  7. Hold my breath as I tapped the final confirmation and got a message saying my car will be added soon.
So here I am preparing to wait 5 days or so and on my way out of the car, my phone dings with an email: "Your Model S has been added to your account"

WHAT!? I check the app and nothing is there so I close the app, reopen it, and sure enough the car is there showing me it's charging. I have full access to everything (or at least everything I've looked at thus far) and here I am typing this out. I'm super-surprised and super-happy.

Any clue as to how I got ownership instantly? Or does it happen from time to time and I just accidentally lucked out? Was it something I did or didn't do? Either way, glad to be here. There's is so much wealth of information on this forum. I've been lurking here these past few weeks trying to lean as much about Model S cars as possible since the plan was to buy one. I'm still lurking and still learning.

I'll close with a sad note that my warranty for battery and motors end in 2 days on March 31st. :(
 
We've sold several Teslas over the years and the new process is so much faster than what it used to be. In the past, it used to take weeks to transfer ownership. Now that the option is in the app, it only takes a couple minutes. We just sold a Model 3 last month and within seconds of us providing the buyer's info, the car was removed from our account and added to the buyer's account.
 
Welcome, especially to P85D land! 😀
Positive experience across the board for you so far, so that’s great to hear. What month was your car built, ie if before ~Apr’15 you prob have another bonus - the Plus suspension.
As for the battery, I’d def buy the $2K extended warranty from 057 Tech (@wk057 ) for peace of mind. Congrats once again.
 
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Welcome, especially to P85D land! 😀
Positive experience across the board for you so far, so that’s great to hear. What month was your car built, ie if before ~Apr’15 you prob have another bonus - the Plus suspension.
As for the battery, I’d def buy the $2K extended warranty from 057 Tech (@wk057 ) for peace of mind. Congrats once again.

According to the sticker in the door, it has a build date of March 2015. I'm still learning; what is the plus suspension? Is there a physical check I can do to find out? I've got "Smart Air Suspension" in my specs (along with 18 others that I have yet to vet through) on the app if that helps? Another odd thing is that I kept reading that all P-models came with staggered wheels but the door label is showing mine came with 245/35R21 21x8.5 wheels only? Also, the label suggest 42PSI when I keep reading 45PSI?

We've sold several Teslas over the years and the new process is so much faster than what it used to be. In the past, it used to take weeks to transfer ownership. Now that the option is in the app, it only takes a couple minutes. We just sold a Model 3 last month and within seconds of us providing the buyer's info, the car was removed from our account and added to the buyer's account.

Here's the thing. The dealer that I bought it from had very little knowledge of the car plus there was no transfer of ownership from them to me (they didn't even have my email or account at all) hence I was sweating bullets knowing that it was gonna be at least a 5-day wait for ownership but apparently not. I'm not complaining, I'm grateful. Just a welcomed surprise.
 
According to the sticker in the door, it has a build date of March 2015. I'm still learning; what is the plus suspension? Is there a physical check I can do to find out? I've got "Smart Air Suspension" in my specs (along with 18 others that I have yet to vet through) on the app if that helps? Another odd thing is that I kept reading that all P-models came with staggered wheels but the door label is showing mine came with 245/35R21 21x8.5 wheels only? Also, the label suggest 42PSI when I keep reading 45PSI?



Here's the thing. The dealer that I bought it from had very little knowledge of the car plus there was no transfer of ownership from them to me (they didn't even have my email or account at all) hence I was sweating bullets knowing that it was gonna be at least a 5-day wait for ownership but apparently not. I'm not complaining, I'm grateful. Just a welcomed surprise.
With the new ownership transfer process, you don't even need to have the seller initiate the transfer if you have physical possession of the car. The steps that you took show that you had access to the car and were able to change the name. That's not necessary if the seller initiates the transfer. If the seller initiates it, they just add your Tesla account info and enter a confirmation code in the app. Then the car is removed and the buyer then logs in and completes the transfer process.
 
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With the new ownership transfer process, you don't even need to have the seller initiate the transfer if you have physical possession of the car. The steps that you took show that you had access to the car and were able to change the name. That's not necessary if the seller initiates the transfer. If the seller initiates it, they just add your Tesla account info and enter a confirmation code in the app. Then the car is removed and the buyer then logs in and completes the transfer process.

Ahh, so that's the thing. The transfer process has changed and gotten better.

I would always read stories about people erroring out when changing the car's name and I was always dumbfounded on what exactly was happening there so when the app asked me to change the name of the car within the car itself, I was for-sure thinking "okay, I'm past the naming error issue" and now it's time to wait the "mandatory 5-day waiting period".
 
According to the sticker in the door, it has a build date of March 2015. I'm still learning; what is the plus suspension? Is there a physical check I can do to find out? I've got "Smart Air Suspension" in my specs (along with 18 others that I have yet to vet through) on the app if that helps? Another odd thing is that I kept reading that all P-models came with staggered wheels but the door label is showing mine came with 245/35R21 21x8.5 wheels only? Also, the label suggest 42PSI when I keep reading 45PSI?



Here's the thing. The dealer that I bought it from had very little knowledge of the car plus there was no transfer of ownership from them to me (they didn't even have my email or account at all) hence I was sweating bullets knowing that it was gonna be at least a 5-day wait for ownership but apparently not. I'm not complaining, I'm grateful. Just a welcomed surprise.
Actual physical check is via the sticker on the front struts. Should be visible through the wells/raising too high. FDSS on the label means you have the tighter suspension from the P85+ cars that came before ours. They used up all the stock by April of ‘15.
 
Actual physical check is via the sticker on the front struts. Should be visible through the wells/raising too high. FDSS on the label means you have the tighter suspension from the P85+ cars that came before ours. They used up all the stock by April of ‘15.

I've got them! Should I be happier? :) Is there more to this plus suspension and how it ties in with the smart suspension? Looks like I can geo-assign auto-raising my car, interesting stuff!

fdss.jpg


Also, you were absolutely right about raising the suspension to max to see it. I almost gave up looking at normal height.
 
I'll close with a sad note that my warranty for battery and motors end in 2 days on March 31st. :(
I suggest reading this thread b/c it's possible your car has the A/C condensate drain dump on top of the HV battery: Vendor - Preventative Maintenance regarding Battery Failures in early Model S vehicles (2012-2014)

If so, since your car is so low mileage, it would be worthwhile for you to reroute the drain to eliminate this problem. My car is a few months older than yours, and it had an early HV battery failure (7 years, <50K miles). I don't know the exact cause because it happened before my ownership, but the thread above describes a main culprit of early battery failure.
 
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I've got them! Should I be happier? :) Is there more to this plus suspension and how it ties in with the smart suspension? Looks like I can geo-assign auto-raising my car, interesting stuff!

View attachment 923626

Also, you were absolutely right about raising the suspension to max to see it. I almost gave up looking at normal height.
Very nice! It’s just a firmer/sportier suspension that we swear by/are glad Tesla doesn’t go by strict model year changes.
 
So here I am preparing to wait 5 days or so and on my way out of the car, my phone dings with an email: "Your Model S has been added to your account"

WHAT!? I check the app and nothing is there so I close the app, reopen it, and sure enough the car is there showing me it's charging. I have full access to everything (or at least everything I've looked at thus far) and here I am typing this out. I'm super-surprised and super-happy.
What probably happened here is that Tesla was able to contact the previous owner and have them remove the vehicle from their Tesla App. I have heard of this happening before. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for my transfer that I initiated this morning on my M3LR purchase. Hopefully soon!