My EDD is now 9/16-9/30, and my account is open with the "Prepare for Delivery" prompt. No VIN yet, though.
I am trying to get an updated trade-in estimate from Tesla for my 2018 Long Range Model 3. One of the stipulations is that the car has not been in an accident. The car did have a minor accident in 2019, and it was repaired at a Tesla authorized shop. They actually fixed some very small things that didn't work properly on the car originally. Since it was repaired there, it kept the full warranty until April 2022. I have not been able to get a reply from Tesla about what to do with the online submission if the car had been in an accident.
The circumstances of that accident helped break my naivete about Tesla. The car had over 10k miles, and my spouse and I had been using it regularly for long road trips. We thoroughly enjoyed driving it and still do. However, we got conditioned to TACC responding well in traffic. We had it set to 2 and figured that it would still manage things. This was in one of those situations on a 4 lane highway where the slow lane has 18-wheelers that are spaced a good distance apart and the fast lane generally has a steady flow of traffic that is, usually, faster. Except for when someone decides to use the space between trucks to race up between them and cut back into the fast lane. Then, the "fast lane" drops by about 30 or more miles per hour as someone cuts in and everyone in the line ends up braking in a chain reaction to them. TACC set to 2 did not handle this situation, and by the time we could hit the brakes ourselves, the stopping/slowing distance was too short.
I highly recommend against ever rear-ending someone in a Tesla. I also will now not use TACC set below 5, even in stop and go traffic. I'm also not about to pay for FSD again.
I've seen that people are getting much lower offers from Tesla on their trade-in than what they were told a month or so ago. They said we'd get between $39.5k-$43.7k with a trade in back at the beginning of August. I still want to find out what they would give us now, but I feel it's more likely we'll deal with Carmax or the like.
The other issue is that I paid for FSD for the 3, and I was one of those salivating fools who stood in line on 3/31/2016 to put down my deposit. Thus, the car has lifetime premium connectivity. If I trade it into Tesla, I imagine those features will likely disappear (though it still has the updated FSD computer). If I sell it without it passing through the Spotless Mind treatment of the Tesla mothership, I think it keeps those features. The car is paid off, and charging it to 100% still gets a range estimate of 308 miles.
Any advice on waiting for the updated trade-in estimate from Tesla vs. saying no trade-in and just dealing with it after we have the Y?
We'd considered keeping the 3 and getting the Y, but if we can get something around $45k for the 3, there are other projects we can use the extra funding for. Plus, I have a reservation for an Aptera, which would make a much better 2nd car for us than the 3. I just hope Aptera makes it to production.