Manufacturer buy back but Airbag check light remains on, red flag?

[SFBay94708]

I found a nice deal on a 2017 long range Tesla 3 with 8k miles. Carfax report shows it is a manufacturer buy back with three services to fix an issue with the airbag.

However, after test driving the car today, the check airbag warning light remains on. That is a red flag for me. If the issue was resolved, why didn't the service center turn off the warning light? The used car dealership says they have an appointment to bring the car back to the service center to get the warning light reset. But the dealership would not give a definitive date as to when that will happen.

The report says there is still 25 months or 42k miles remaining on the manufacturer warranty. Dealership provides no warranty of their own.

Anyone heard of this problem before? Thanks.

 

[jjrandorin]

It might be good to stop and think about this for a moment....

Buyback vehicles in general can be problematic, but one should remember that, in teslas specific case, a vehicle that was returned during the 7 day return period would not be a buyback. This means something happened with this vehicle in which tesla had to take it back (and brand the title). In order for a vehicle to qualify as a buyback (branded title buyback), otherwise known as "lemoned", or "lemon law", the vehicle would have had the same issue be unfixable at least 3 times.

It would be my guess that the airbag issue is why it was lemon law'ed in the first place.

Even if there is warranty left on it, you might want to check and see if that applies specifically to the buyback issue, or does it just apply to the battery?

Unless you are mechanically inclined enough to think you will be able to fix the airbag issue yourself, you should expect that tesla is not able to. If they could have, easily, the car would not have been lemon lawed.

Especially since you are looking at this at a "used car dealership", that doesnt sound like tesla, so ....

This isnt one red flag, its 100 red flags, at least to me. I would not even consider that vehicle at all, personally.

 

[C141medic]

I found a nice deal on a 2017 long range Tesla 3 with 8k miles. Carfax report shows it is a manufacturer buy back with three services to fix an issue with the airbag.

However, after test driving the car today, the check airbag warning light remains on. That is a red flag for me. If the issue was resolved, why didn't the service center turn off the warning light? The used car dealership says they have an appointment to bring the car back to the service center to get the warning light reset. But the dealership would not give a definitive date as to when that will happen.

The report says there is still 25 months or 42k miles remaining on the manufacturer warranty. Dealership provides no warranty of their own.

Anyone heard of this problem before? Thanks.

So, was this vehicle considered a “lemon?” I can speak from experience of a Hyundai SantaFe I purchased new, years ago with an airbag light issue. The dealer wasn’t able to fix the issue after three attempts and I settled with Hyundai for a monetary amount. I later traded in the vehicle. In my experience these issues can be difficult to pinpoint. If it was me I’d look for another vehicle without these type of issues.

 

[qdeathstar]

i agree with all the comments here, except, how much do they want for the car? I mean, if you could get it for 15-20k maybe it’s worth risking it on the airbags. Tesla’s already are pretty safe with autopilot ect, if the difference was 10-15k maybe roll the dice. Cars didn’t have airbags for a long time...

Plus, you got a real case against the dealership if you do get into an accident and the bags don’t go off because they told you the airbags were working #opportunity

 

[Kimo]

Is this being sold by Tesla? Or did they buy it back, and auction it off. I would ONLY consider buying this vehicle if the A) deal was extremely good, and B) if it still had the full warranty by Tesla so they can keep trying to fix the airbag issue.

That being said, if Tesla can't figure out why the airbag light keeps coming on, on a super computerized vehicle like a model 3, then that is concerning. I assume they already replaced the air bags, so what would be next, the overall computer, and then the entire wiring loom.

 

[OCR1]

Based on what the OP has stated this thing better be about 50% off the original retail price to justify the potential headaches one takes on by buying it.

 

[DJVoorhees]

A nice deal on a lemon law car? It had better be a heck of a lot more than a nice deal. Better be 50% of retail, less if they still can’t fix the issue.
Lemon law cars usually have no warranty.

 

[SFBay94708]

Thanks everyone for your insight and advice which helped me to decide to pass up on this car. Although autopilot may prevent a crash, I still I wouldn't want any risk injury if the airbags ever failed to deploy.