6/14 - Placed deposit and given the 4-6 week estimate. Brent told me to contact him directly if I don't hear anything after a week
6/14 - Brent connected me with local Columbus DS Scott with a summary of my order
6/18 - Received email from
[email protected] stating that my car was In Transit with links to confirm my payment. Forwarded to DS asking if there is anything else I need to do (showing 5/5 on my tesla status for the car).
6/19 - DS got back to me to confirm my payment method. Confirmed the car had arrived at the Indianapolis service center and was being worked on today
6/21 - Received another email from delivery@tesla that said 'We noticed that you still have yet to enter your payment method...'. Forwarded to DS and asked if I needed to do anything.
6/23 - DS wrote back and said everything looks in order for payment. Updated status to say that the car is waiting on a drive motor from Fremont that they decided to replace due to noise. After it is replaced they will ship the car to Columbus.
6/29 - Received an email from Tesla stating that my Final Price Sheet is available and now I have the option to fully pay for the car on the website. Forwarded it to DS in Columbus to see if this meant there was a status update on the car. He did not respond (suspect they are busy with end of quarter squeeze...)
7/7 - DS contacted me to say that the car had completed the CPO inspection process and was ready to be shipped to Columbus from Indianapolis. He said this can take up to a week.
7/24 - Big update today! DS is back from PTO and called me to schedule delivery and sent me pictures! Car still needs to be detailed but it is in Columbus. I'm on vacation with the family in the deep woods of NW Michigan, scheduled delivery for this Friday 7/28, aka Model 3 reveal day. We are driving home that day so 8 hours in the car, quick shower to get the camp fire smell off me, then uber to the service center for a 5pm delivery.
7/28 - Delivered!
The delivery went great. Right away the DS pointed out a botched touch-up job on the rear hatch that the inspection service center marked passed but my local center didn't agree; they will fix this at my convenience at the local body shop whenever I want to schedule it, they will provide a Tesla loaner and handle shuttling the car to/from the body shop for me. It has some rock chips here and there as well but everything looks within spec and for a car with almost 70k miles it looks stunning. 235 miles of range on the display @90% charge (85kWh). Confirmed the drive motor was replaced during inspection (brand new according to the tech). I paid for the car minus the deposit through the My Tesla website with savings account direct debit after inspecting the car which worked great; no need to go get a bank check super convenient.
I'm still nervous driving the car around because it still doesn't feel like the car is actually mine
Drives great, no obvious rattles / odd noises, silky smooth (feels new). It isn't the performance model but floored it a few times on the way home and wow wow wow. On the highway accelerated 60-80 in a blink. Plenty fast for me, can't imagine launching in a P100D.
Maybe this is a given but I haven't seen it mentioned: I didn't feel like I was treated differently as a customer because I was buying a heavily used car instead of a brand new S or X. Not pushy, no pressure, and I had a 5pm delivery appointment on a Friday and they close at 6 (drove away around 6:30). I met the service manager and a couple of techs in addition to meeting my DS for the first time in person. Everyone seemed great and really happy for me and excited about the car I was buying. Overall I suspect the same presentation / delivery setup was done for me as they would do for someone buying a new S or X. Yes I know that is part of their job but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Summary of the overall buying process: buying a used car sight-unseen for a (large) amount of money is not for the faint of heart. The wait is real, and during that wait you will obsess over the leap of faith decision you made when reserving the car. There were at least two separate weeks where absolutely nothing happened and communication channels were quiet. Emotionally I went from over the moon after ordering the car ("Welcome to Tesla!" OMG I did it!) to obsessive anxiety and mild buyer's remorse and then back up to a more even and moderated joy after delivery. I'm really happy with the car but not out of my mind gushing like I kind of was after placing the order and I suspect this is a result of burning through some portion of the honeymoon period obsessing over every detail for six weeks waiting for delivery. If Tesla could improve on anything I'd say the simplest thing would be to respond to email / phone calls more quickly even if there is no update to provide. Advice I'd give to someone in this process currently: try your best not to obsess over things and trust the car will be great. This forum provided a sounding board for me and others during the process which I very much appreciate (thank you all!). However mentally I think the wait would have been more pleasant if I found a way to just ignore everything about the car. I know this is a tall order (I failed miserably) but I do think it is your best bet. In the end I got an absolutely amazing car at a great price and I feel very confident if something does go wrong they will do their best to take care of me.
Pictures!
