Model X Financing questions

[chloedog]

Mind sharing which org is that, I can join as well.

It's this organization http://www.energyfcu.org/home/fiFiles/static/documents/CCACCMembershipForm.pdf

Your loan officer should know about that organization though since that's what they recommended for me to join. Try to call Mary Johnson from EnergyFCU at 301-670-1311. She's the loan officer that most people on the board who went with EnergyFCU used.

 

[ModelS8794]

FYI, I have gone through the process with Alliant and with Lightstream and found the following:

Alliant is very easy to work with, and approved an $80k loan for me which was 84% of the LTV as they only used $95,500 as the vehicle price. That was the base price for the 90D I ordered, I don't know exactly why they used that instead of the full price including all the options I had selected. Perhaps it just didn't matter since I wasn't trying to get 100% financing or anything.

I found Alliant's hard-ish sell on GAP insurance a bit unpleasant. I passed on it rather than signing up and having the option to cancel it up to 60-days after funding. Pretty sure it's useless to me but in any case they were not willing to send me any written terms/conditions for the program (the rep would only discuss the terms over the phone) prior to including it in the funding documents. Not the proper way to handle things in my book, so I passed.

Lightstream approved the same terms but for an unsecured loan at 3.09% for 72 months, also a very easy/quick approval process. I sent them the Alliant pre-approval email I had gotten to consider for the Rate Beat program but they said I needed an official offer letter from the other program before they'd consider the rate beat. This was a bit of a hassle, since Alliant did not provide an official offer letter nor any other documents unless they got a final MVPA from Tesla and went through the final loan approval process with me and sent the actual loan documents to sign. So I took those additional steps, had my DES set up the MVPA with Alliant as the lender (which was my plan, as I thought Lightstream would find Alliant's Tesla-only loan program was specialized and therefore didn't qualify for their Rate Beat.) I sent that along to Alliant, got the final loan documents for the Alliant loan, sent that to Lightstream... and within under 10 minutes got an approval email from Lightstream amending their loan offer to 1.39% for 72 months for an unsecured loan.

I was pretty surprised by this. But that suits me fine, as 1) it makes selling down the road a smaller hassle with no lien to satisfy, 2) it gives me some more flexibility on insurance policies (I usually do high deductibles but that'd be limited to $1000 by the Alliant terms), and 3) it offers some advantages if god forbid a catastrophe down the road lands me in financial hot water. Oh, and it saves me 0.1% in interest!

Frankly, I think Lightstream/SunTrust is totally nuts to offer anyone - even someone with excellent credit - an unsecured loan at 1.39% for 6 years (or for any term length for that matter.) But, I'm not running nor am I investing in SunTrust, and perhaps the net impact of offering this program is positive for them despite the occasional situation like this one. In any case, that looks like the path I'll be taking when I finally get my hands on my Model X (looking like May 31st delivery date.)

 

[chloedog]

FYI, I have gone through the process with Alliant and with Lightstream and found the following:

Alliant is very easy to work with, and approved an $80k loan for me which was 84% of the LTV as they only used $95,500 as the vehicle price. That was the base price for the 90D I ordered, I don't know exactly why they used that instead of the full price including all the options I had selected. Perhaps it just didn't matter since I wasn't trying to get 100% financing or anything.

I found Alliant's hard-ish sell on GAP insurance a bit unpleasant. I passed on it rather than signing up and having the option to cancel it up to 60-days after funding. Pretty sure it's useless to me but in any case they were not willing to send me any written terms/conditions for the program (the rep would only discuss the terms over the phone) prior to including it in the funding documents. Not the proper way to handle things in my book, so I passed.

Lightstream approved the same terms but for an unsecured loan at 3.09% for 72 months, also a very easy/quick approval process. I sent them the Alliant pre-approval email I had gotten to consider for the Rate Beat program but they said I needed an official offer letter from the other program before they'd consider the rate beat. This was a bit of a hassle, since Alliant did not provide an official offer letter nor any other documents unless they got a final MVPA from Tesla and went through the final loan approval process with me and sent the actual loan documents to sign. So I took those additional steps, had my DES set up the MVPA with Alliant as the lender (which was my plan, as I thought Lightstream would find Alliant's Tesla-only loan program was specialized and therefore didn't qualify for their Rate Beat.) I sent that along to Alliant, got the final loan documents for the Alliant loan, sent that to Lightstream... and within under 10 minutes got an approval email from Lightstream amending their loan offer to 1.39% for 72 months for an unsecured loan.

I was pretty surprised by this. But that suits me fine, as 1) it makes selling down the road a smaller hassle with no lien to satisfy, 2) it gives me some more flexibility on insurance policies (I usually do high deductibles but that'd be limited to $1000 by the Alliant terms), and 3) it offers some advantages if god forbid a catastrophe down the road lands me in financial hot water. Oh, and it saves me 0.1% in interest!

Frankly, I think Lightstream/SunTrust is totally nuts to offer anyone - even someone with excellent credit - an unsecured loan at 1.39% for 6 years (or for any term length for that matter.) But, I'm not running nor am I investing in SunTrust, and perhaps the net impact of offering this program is positive for them despite the occasional situation like this one. In any case, that looks like the path I'll be taking when I finally get my hands on my Model X (looking like May 31st delivery date.)

Thanks! This is super useful. So after you got the offer from Lightstream did you then have to go back to Tesla again to generate a new MVPA since you weren't going with Alliant as the lender anymore? Any hassles from the Tesla side for generating another MVPA?

Also - how far in advance of your delivery date did you start getting all this financing in order?

 

[ModelS8794]

Thanks! This is super useful. So after you got the offer from Lightstream did you then have to go back to Tesla again to generate a new MVPA since you weren't going with Alliant as the lender anymore? Any hassles from the Tesla side for generating another MVPA?

Also - how far in advance of your delivery date did you start getting all this financing in order?

Yes, I will have to have them generate a new MVPA to show a fully cash paid purchase with no lien holder. I haven't done that yet as my delivery is still two weeks away. I do not think I'll run into any problems with that.

I started this all quite early, 3 weeks before delivery, because I am a bit neurotic about this stuff and just wasn't sure how timing would all work. But everyone's been very responsive (I gather auto lenders are used to providing pretty quick turnarounds) and everyone uses email and online eDocument for signatures, so it's quick. I imagine you could wait until 3-5 days before your delivery and still get it all done with time to spare, given clean credit and willingness to respond to any inquiries promptly.

 

[CmdrThor]

I sent that along to Alliant, got the final loan documents for the Alliant loan, sent that to Lightstream... and within under 10 minutes got an approval email from Lightstream amending their loan offer to 1.39% for 72 months for an unsecured loan.

I was pretty surprised by this. But that suits me fine, as 1) it makes selling down the road a smaller hassle with no lien to satisfy, 2) it gives me some more flexibility on insurance policies (I usually do high deductibles but that'd be limited to $1000 by the Alliant terms), and 3) it offers some advantages if god forbid a catastrophe down the road lands me in financial hot water. Oh, and it saves me 0.1% in interest!

Frankly, I think Lightstream/SunTrust is totally nuts to offer anyone - even someone with excellent credit - an unsecured loan at 1.39% for 6 years (or for any term length for that matter.) But, I'm not running nor am I investing in SunTrust, and perhaps the net impact of offering this program is positive for them despite the occasional situation like this one. In any case, that looks like the path I'll be taking when I finally get my hands on my Model X (looking like May 31st delivery date.)

Good work! I didn't bother with the rate beat because we are only financing $30k for 36 months and potentially will pay it off early. Plus I only had 2 days from when my delivery date was confirmed and when delivery actually happened. But it is good to hear Lightstream made good on their promise. I'm sure very good credit is required for the unsecured loans. I suppose it would have made a few hundred dollar difference for me if we got the 1.39% and kept it the full 3 years but my hope is to pay it off after a year or so.

 

[johnc11050]

I do not see much in this forum about the Residual Value Guarantee available if you finance thru Tesla. What will tech bring in 3 years--that is the /???. Our 2014 P85 (prior to auto pilot) cost $115k and I am getting it appraised next week for Tesla financing. Anyone guessing how much it is worth? 23k miles, not a scratch etc. Give me a guess and I will let you know next week. Anyway, I am definitely going with Tesla financing for 5 years at about 2.49 or so. Not much of a premium for the guarantee which who knows?????

 

[loganintx]

Do you plan on selling your car and buying another car in the 36-39 month window? Otherwise the guarantee doesn't help you. There's also been very few Model X's delivered so in 3 years, the number of X's that will be 3 years old will also be quite few so the market won't be flooded with them. I'd get the cheapest financing I could and figure out the best time for you to sell it. Are you really concerned that the car will only be worth something less than 45% after 3 years?

 

[johnc11050]

\As I say above, who knows? My pre auto pilot cost $115 in June 2014 and am trading it in now. Appraisal next Tuesday so we will see....yes, I do think that the current X could well be worth less than 45% of today oust. Will let you know next week. But also take a look at the tesla financing as it is not much of a premium at all.

 

[loganintx]

\As I say above, who knows? My pre auto pilot cost $115 in June 2014 and am trading it in now. Appraisal next Tuesday so we will see....yes, I do think that the current X could well be worth less than 45% of today oust. Will let you know next week. But also take a look at the tesla financing as it is not much of a premium at all.

including the $7500 federal tax rebate??? that's easily 5-6% depending on config cost and in 3 years that won't be available for New Model X purchases.

 

[loganintx]

I would do this. Go to something like Edmunds or KBB and do a search for model year cars that are 3 years old and are worth 45% of the cost of your Model X. Then see if you think your Model X in 3 years from now will be more or less valuable than the cars you see in the search results. Also, see what a 2012/2013 CPO Model S is selling for compared to what it cost new. This to me would be the best assurance of what the reality will be 3 years from now.

 

[johnc11050]

Have done what you suggest. KBB trade in for my 2014 P85 (not D) with 23k miles and generally pristine, is $60k. Considering the federal tax rebate I got on the car, my net cost was $107,500 not including sales tax. So that is a 2 year old car (registered in June 2014) getting about 60 percent (little less) than cost. Agree that X in 2018 or later will not likely have rebate (but Feds could extend it), but I think that Tesla RVG is not bad for a conservative old person(s) like me (us). Will let you know what Tesla offers when inspected and valued next week.

 

[loganintx]

Cool. Thanks for looking that up. I was going to but was so tired last night. I don't have any stake in you choosing either option but being a "numbers" guy I always like to see the numbers on all the options and then figure out what to do and how much "emotion" I let weigh in on the decision. I think that if I got to the point where at 36 months the car was only worth 45% then at 42 months it wouldn't be much less than that. It won't continue to decline at the same rate as it does early on in its life. So if it was a really low resale value, i would just have to hold on to the car for another 6-12 months and then be able to sell at a better price compared to loan payoff.

 

[loganintx]

Your gap in the 2014 is also going to be a bit bigger because of lack of AWD and lack of any form of AutoSteer. The number I use for yearly depreciation isa bout 17% so 3 years would be 51% or a residual of 49%.
Based on my spreadsheet found here: Tesla Model X Finance
My 72 month loan at 1.49% with $0 down (paying TTL out of pocket) would have me owing 51.1% of original loan amount after 36 months and that does NOT include the $7500 fed rebate that I'll get in 2017. So between the $50 month cheaper loan payment from 1.49% vs 2.49% which will be $1,800 after 36 months and the $7500, that $9,300 that's another 8% of MSRP which means my residual would have to be below 43% before I would be in the red on my loan after 3 years.
In the end, I just don't see it being an issue of more than a few grand and what's a few grand if you're going to buy another $110k car
I get a better feeling from squeaking out the lowest interest rate on my loan.
I also do not intend to sell my X after 3 years unless the used market is yielding very good prices. I will most likely keep 4-5 years.
Either way you do it though, you still get to own and drive a Tesla Model X so we both win!!!

 

[ModelS8794]

I do not see much in this forum about the Residual Value Guarantee available if you finance thru Tesla. What will tech bring in 3 years--that is the /???. Our 2014 P85 (prior to auto pilot) cost $115k and I am getting it appraised next week for Tesla financing. Anyone guessing how much it is worth? 23k miles, not a scratch etc. Give me a guess and I will let you know next week. Anyway, I am definitely going with Tesla financing for 5 years at about 2.49 or so. Not much of a premium for the guarantee which who knows?????

I will guess Tesla will offer you $63k for it or 55% of your original cost (not counting tax rebates)

You would likely sell it for low 70s private party right now. Overall the RVG is nice but expensive peace of mind. But unlikely to be ultimately useful.

Let us know what they say!

 

[digicool]

Lightstream approved the same terms but for an unsecured loan at 3.09% for 72 months

So you say unsecured loan, but I only see 3.09% for a New Auto Purchase. Doesn't that mean they will need them as a lien holder in the title?

 

[chloedog]

So you say unsecured loan, but I only see 3.09% for a New Auto Purchase. Doesn't that mean they will need them as a lien holder in the title?

No the terms say you need to use it for an auto purchase but it's kind of like a scouts honor kind of thing. They ACH the money directly into your checking account and don't require that you put them on the title or anything.

 

[loganintx]

There is also one user on here who got them to beat the Alliant rate by .1% making it 1.39% unsecured loan aka CRAZY TOWN!

 

[chloedog]

FYI, I have gone through the process with Alliant and with Lightstream and found the following:

Alliant is very easy to work with, and approved an $80k loan for me which was 84% of the LTV as they only used $95,500 as the vehicle price. That was the base price for the 90D I ordered, I don't know exactly why they used that instead of the full price including all the options I had selected. Perhaps it just didn't matter since I wasn't trying to get 100% financing or anything.

I found Alliant's hard-ish sell on GAP insurance a bit unpleasant. I passed on it rather than signing up and having the option to cancel it up to 60-days after funding. Pretty sure it's useless to me but in any case they were not willing to send me any written terms/conditions for the program (the rep would only discuss the terms over the phone) prior to including it in the funding documents. Not the proper way to handle things in my book, so I passed.

Lightstream approved the same terms but for an unsecured loan at 3.09% for 72 months, also a very easy/quick approval process. I sent them the Alliant pre-approval email I had gotten to consider for the Rate Beat program but they said I needed an official offer letter from the other program before they'd consider the rate beat. This was a bit of a hassle, since Alliant did not provide an official offer letter nor any other documents unless they got a final MVPA from Tesla and went through the final loan approval process with me and sent the actual loan documents to sign. So I took those additional steps, had my DES set up the MVPA with Alliant as the lender (which was my plan, as I thought Lightstream would find Alliant's Tesla-only loan program was specialized and therefore didn't qualify for their Rate Beat.) I sent that along to Alliant, got the final loan documents for the Alliant loan, sent that to Lightstream... and within under 10 minutes got an approval email from Lightstream amending their loan offer to 1.39% for 72 months for an unsecured loan.

I was pretty surprised by this. But that suits me fine, as 1) it makes selling down the road a smaller hassle with no lien to satisfy, 2) it gives me some more flexibility on insurance policies (I usually do high deductibles but that'd be limited to $1000 by the Alliant terms), and 3) it offers some advantages if god forbid a catastrophe down the road lands me in financial hot water. Oh, and it saves me 0.1% in interest!

Frankly, I think Lightstream/SunTrust is totally nuts to offer anyone - even someone with excellent credit - an unsecured loan at 1.39% for 6 years (or for any term length for that matter.) But, I'm not running nor am I investing in SunTrust, and perhaps the net impact of offering this program is positive for them despite the occasional situation like this one. In any case, that looks like the path I'll be taking when I finally get my hands on my Model X (looking like May 31st delivery date.)

I just got the same deal from lightstream. Both Alliant and lightstream have been incredibly easy to work with and the process has been nothing but smooth with both lenders. The 0.1 rate reduction is nice from lightstream but the deciding factor for me was the unsecured loan. Less paperwork and hassle with the title and insurance.

Curious though - with the unsecured loan you don't have an option of buying gap insurance I assume? Did you do anything special about that?

 

[ModelS8794]

I just got the same deal from lightstream. Both Alliant and lightstream have been incredibly easy to work with and the process has been nothing but smooth with both lenders. The 0.1 rate reduction is nice from lightstream but the deciding factor for me was the unsecured loan. Less paperwork and hassle with the title and insurance.

Curious though - with the unsecured loan you don't have an option of buying gap insurance I assume? Did you do anything special about that?

My loan was 72% LTV. So My expectation is I will not ever be in a position where I'd find value in gap coverage. That said, one thing I will look at this week is whether I can find competitive rates for an auto policy with full-value coverage or new car replacement or whatever it's called. Not sure how common or expensive such policies are.

 

[johnc11050]

Got our Tesla trade-in value today and got $58,200 for a car that listed at over $100k in May 2014 when we bought the P85. Yes, pre- auto pilot, all wheel drive but the bid was low (at least I thought) so I researched it on KBB, Ebay and Auto Trader (who offered less than Tesla). Believe it or not, these pre auto pilot cars are going for cheap!!! Well, we will get Tesla financing and at least get the RVG if we sell in 36-39 months. At least that is an option.