Late November I pulled the trigger on a 2014 S85 from the CPO list. I worked directly with one of the CPO specialists in Fremont since I am located in the Bay Area and I quickly identified a vehicle that fit my needs and was pretty close to my ideal spec list. The price was reasonable and although the vehicle had both been privately owned and had been a loaner for the last couple of months, I felt this was the right vehicle for me. I chose to take delivery at the Fremont factory due to two main reasons: A) I wanted to take the factory tour and B) I was hoping that they might be able to recondition the car better at the factory than at a local SC (pure speculation on my part)
On December 27th we drove our i3 down to Fremont and did the factory tour - and it was a fantastic experience in two ways. Seeing the operation, assembly lines, the level of automation, etc was eye-opening and fascinated the entire family. In addition it was also really cool to get to experience the pride and the "sense of family" that the entire Tesla crew exhibited. It was a unique experience and I would recommend it to anyone who lives close enough by for it to be feasible to go to Fremont and have that experience.
All the paperwork was done in less than 5 minutes - they had everything ready for signatures and it was probably the most pleasant car-buying experience I have ever had.
After the tour we did the short video-introduction to operating the vehicle, charging, etc - mostly stuff I already knew, but good for the wife to sit through that and pick up a few things she didn't know.
Finally we got to see the vehicle - I have to admit I was a bit nervous about buying a pre-owned car unseen and based on a few blurry pictures. The delivery takes place in a tent and the lighting is "so-so" in there but the car looked great. The exterior had clearly been cared for - I noticed a few small dings but they were all less than 3/4" and something I can live with knowing that I saved a good chunk of cash on buying CPO instead of new. I cannot expect a "new car" when I'm only willing to pay for "CPO".
We left the factory and I headed home in the i3 and the wife took the Model S. After about an hour of driving I got a phone call from "wifey" and she was very pleasantly surprised at the driving experience (first time driving the Model S) but also a little disappointed at the interior cleanliness. After she got the car out of the tent and into the sunlight the interior looked dirty and not up to what we had expected. After we got home, I parked the car outside and went through the interior in more detail in better light and the best way to describe the interior was that it looked like it had been vacuumed very quickly. There were 5-6 spots on the headliner - some of them looked like make-up (around the sun-shades). The frunk and trunk had small pebbles and some dirty footprints, the plastic and leather trim had small spots and just wasn't as clean as I would have expected.
Overall my buying experience was very positive, but I wanted to share my experience with the cleaning to see if other CPO buyers have had similar experiences and to help set expectations for future buyers. It detracted a little from our overall experience but I took the car to our local detailer and had him do the interior - it now looks almost brand new and I'm a happy camper. I wish Tesla had a crew that could do what my local guy did in a few hours - that would ensure that future CPO'ers would be even happier than I was.
Now, I will go enjoy the car, drive it and love it... Thanks for listening.
Lars in Santa Rosa, CA
On December 27th we drove our i3 down to Fremont and did the factory tour - and it was a fantastic experience in two ways. Seeing the operation, assembly lines, the level of automation, etc was eye-opening and fascinated the entire family. In addition it was also really cool to get to experience the pride and the "sense of family" that the entire Tesla crew exhibited. It was a unique experience and I would recommend it to anyone who lives close enough by for it to be feasible to go to Fremont and have that experience.
All the paperwork was done in less than 5 minutes - they had everything ready for signatures and it was probably the most pleasant car-buying experience I have ever had.
After the tour we did the short video-introduction to operating the vehicle, charging, etc - mostly stuff I already knew, but good for the wife to sit through that and pick up a few things she didn't know.
Finally we got to see the vehicle - I have to admit I was a bit nervous about buying a pre-owned car unseen and based on a few blurry pictures. The delivery takes place in a tent and the lighting is "so-so" in there but the car looked great. The exterior had clearly been cared for - I noticed a few small dings but they were all less than 3/4" and something I can live with knowing that I saved a good chunk of cash on buying CPO instead of new. I cannot expect a "new car" when I'm only willing to pay for "CPO".
We left the factory and I headed home in the i3 and the wife took the Model S. After about an hour of driving I got a phone call from "wifey" and she was very pleasantly surprised at the driving experience (first time driving the Model S) but also a little disappointed at the interior cleanliness. After she got the car out of the tent and into the sunlight the interior looked dirty and not up to what we had expected. After we got home, I parked the car outside and went through the interior in more detail in better light and the best way to describe the interior was that it looked like it had been vacuumed very quickly. There were 5-6 spots on the headliner - some of them looked like make-up (around the sun-shades). The frunk and trunk had small pebbles and some dirty footprints, the plastic and leather trim had small spots and just wasn't as clean as I would have expected.
Overall my buying experience was very positive, but I wanted to share my experience with the cleaning to see if other CPO buyers have had similar experiences and to help set expectations for future buyers. It detracted a little from our overall experience but I took the car to our local detailer and had him do the interior - it now looks almost brand new and I'm a happy camper. I wish Tesla had a crew that could do what my local guy did in a few hours - that would ensure that future CPO'ers would be even happier than I was.
Now, I will go enjoy the car, drive it and love it... Thanks for listening.
Lars in Santa Rosa, CA
