Model S trade-in value

[TrevTremaine]

Good Morning,

I'm wondering if anyone has recently done a trade-in of a Tesla Model S for a newer Tesla and did you feel you got decent value for it? I've got a 2017 100D abd I'm looking at the values on AutoTrader and know Tesla won't match, but am curious to hear how much variance. You can message me if you don't want to make it public - even a general sense of the value.

 

[xG35]

I have a 2016 75D (facelift).. Tesla wants to give 37.5K... Autotrader, 60-70k.

I reckon i can sell it for 50-55k privately.

 

[Soul Surfer]

FWIW, I sold my 2018 Chevrolet Volt Premier edition on Autotrader rather than trade. I got nearly 2x what Tesla was offering. IMO Tesla is in the business of making money = profit. When you buy a CPO car from them, you can be certain that they paid a paltry sum and the seller couldn’t be bothered or didn’t care because of either money not being an issue or time. Either way, you’d be better off selling it privately, I think.

 

[Vawlkus]

FWIW, I sold my 2018 Chevrolet Volt Premier edition on Autotrader rather than trade. I got nearly 2x what Tesla was offering. IMO Tesla is in the business of making money = profit. When you buy a CPO car from them, you can be certain that they paid a paltry sum and the seller couldn’t be bothered or didn’t care because of either money not being an issue or time. Either way, you’d be better off selling it privately, I think.

Personally I think it has more to do with Tesla not wanting to deal with traded in cars. They're not a tranditional dealership, so they can't get rid of traded in cars easily.

 

[Threader]

My advice to anyone is NEVER trade in ANY car to Tesla unless you don't care about handing over a lot of cash to them. This was in Aug 2021 before price hikes and loss of Fed Rebate $5000 for SR+. I sold my my 2019 SR+ privately for $21,000 MORE than what Tesla offered. You'd think Tesla would offer you dinner with the trade in offer.

 

[TLej]

Good Morning,

I'm wondering if anyone has recently done a trade-in of a Tesla Model S for a newer Tesla and did you feel you got decent value for it? I've got a 2017 100D abd I'm looking at the values on AutoTrader and know Tesla won't match, but am curious to hear how much variance. You can message me if you don't want to make it public - even a general sense of the value.

I traded in my 2015 S 90D for a new Y LR back in August. Tesla gave me around $35k for the S, which I felt was $10-15k low. I went with it anyhow to avoid the hassle of trying to sell it privately, Alberta isn't exactly a hotbed for used EV sales. As well, my car was pre-facelift, AP1 (never purchased or enabled), and the charge port lights had started being blue and pink instead of white. Around 130,000 km on it. A few small stone chips on the hood from before I got the Xpel installed. I figured the early cars wouldn't hold their value, and my time and patience wasn't worth the extra cash I felt I should be able to get. The trade was simple, drove the S to pick up the Y, left in the Y and never looked back. Well, once... I really loved that S. Overall a very stress-free experience, which is why I did it.

Call me lazy, doesn't bother me. I hope someone got a great deal on that S and is happily driving it today.

 

[TrevTremaine]

Well, I do appreciate all the insight and advice that you all have given me. Gives me something to ponder. I'm not all that surprised at the low figures - it's essentially what happened on my trade-in of another manufacturer. I was wondering whether Tesla was giving a bit better break for returning customers but I guess not. It's hard looking at the comparable pricing on Teslas south of the border and not think you'd be getting something a bit better than a cut rate. C'est la vie.

 

[Tony_YYZ]

You’ll get a garbage value from Tesla, especially when trying to trade another Tesla.

Tesla doesn’t take the trades themselves. They are just a middle man between them and the wholesalers that bid on your car with the info you provide them. All they do is take the keys/ownership from you and pass it along to the third party service that actually bought the car from you with some paperwork between them. For non-Tesla trade-ins they give them to the wholesaler right away. For Tesla trade-ins they inspect them to see if they can flip them with minimum $$$ having to be put into the cars. If the cars are high mileage, rough condition, out of warranty then they pass them to the wholesaler.

 

[TrevTremaine]

You’ll get a garbage value from Tesla, especially when trying to trade another Tesla.

Tesla doesn’t take the trades themselves. They are just a middle man between them and the wholesalers that bid on your car with the info you provide them. All they do is take the keys/ownership from you and pass it along to the third party service that actually bought the car from you with some paperwork between them. For non-Tesla trade-ins they give them to the wholesaler right away. For Tesla trade-ins they inspect them to see if they can flip them with minimum $$$ having to be put into the cars. If the cars are high mileage, rough condition, out of warranty then they pass them to the wholesaler.

The reason I asked is that south of the border some Model S owners claim to be getting above average prices on trade-ins. I saw this on the refresh Model S thread. Used car prices are supposedly up because of the ongoing production problems (particularly with Telsa). I was hopeful that *maybe* it would happen north of the border, but I couldn't see any evidence and was skeptical - hence this thread.

All of your replies have basically answered my concerns, which unfortunately means it's not conducive to consider a buyout of a lease and do a trade-in.

 

[Tony_YYZ]

The reason I asked is that south of the border some Model S owners claim to be getting above average prices on trade-ins. I saw this on the refresh Model S thread. Used car prices are supposedly up because of the ongoing production problems (particularly with Telsa). I was hopeful that *maybe* it would happen north of the border, but I couldn't see any evidence and was skeptical - hence this thread.

All of your replies have basically answered my concerns, which unfortunately means it's not conducive to consider a buyout of a lease and do a trade-in.

Yeah you can definitely get top dollar for your S these days just not from Tesla directly. Even south of the border Tesla is offering higher numbers but still less than what other outlets are paying.

Try clutch.ca. They are a car buying service like Carvana, Carmax, etc in the US. I recently used them to sell my Rav4 before taking delivery of my Y and they offered me a great price.