I pulled the trigger last night and put a deposit down on a 2015 P85D with 23K miles. The car is located in Atlanta and I'm in New Jersey, so we'll see how the delivery will happen. I have another post talking about that and will update that situation there. I just wanted to give people some insight on my experience shopping for this car.
I have been looking for an 85D for a couple months now. I was looking on the Tesla site, EV-CPO and teslainventory. I would check these sites a bunch of times a day. I had even registered my options on one of the sites and was getting cars emailed to me. At one point I found a car I liked and clicked on the "request photos" link under the description of the car. After a few days, I didn't hear from anyone. I checked to see if the car was still for sale and it wasn't. So I lost out on that one.
I then contacted Tesla, via the website, about setting up a test drive since I had never even driven one before. I was contacted by someone in the new car sales department to set up a test drive. I told him that I was interested in buying a used one and he ended up forwarding my information to a used vehicle sales advisor in the New York metro area. We emailed back and fourth about what I was looking for and the fact that I wanted to trade my car in. She asked for my cars info and sent me back a quote for the trade in. She then proceeded to tell me how the Tesla used car purchases worked. I had already been aware of it since I had been lurking around this forum for a while. After our initial conversations via email, she fell out of contact. I would email her cars I was interested in, asking for pictures and I would hear nothing. This went on for about a week and a half to two weeks. I was a little turned off by this, actually a lot turned off. Finally out of the blue, she responded apologizing and asking if anyone else helped me with my requests. It was obvious to me, and she admitted as much, that she was REALLY overwhelmed with requests. Tesla needs a ton of used sales advisors. I think they underestimated the used car market.
After reconnecting with the SA, she has been great. She educated me in a couple areas regarding buying a used car in different states. I would email her cars I was interested in and she would send me links to pics. I will say after seeing pics of about 10-15 cars, they really do vary in condition. I saw some cars that had the usually wear and tear. Like driver side bolsters wearing down or the color rubbing off. Some with small scratches and paint chip marks. Others with glass chips in the windshield. Some with a good amount of damage like bumpers scraped, lots of wheel rash and door dents. These were all visible from the pics I was sent. They were really good about pointing this stuff out. There was one I saw, that is still for sale in Massachusetts, that has a ton of options but it's really beat up. My SA even said, "Not sure about this car, this one has a good amount of scuffs".
After weeks of looking I found an 85D in Mount Kisco, New York. Its had pretty much everything I wanted. I kept watching the price. I noticed that every couple days, it would drop about $400 or so. I would watch it go down but then on the weekends it would go up again. I think that Tesla probably realized that people were most likely looking at cars to buy on the weekends and would raise the prices a little. Then sure enough, on Monday mornings the prices would go back down to what they were before the weekend. So I was getting optimistic that the car I was following would drop to a number I had in my head, even though it was pretty low already, and I checked previous sales for that model and that was very low already considering the options. But I got greedy. And sure enough yesterday morning, someone bought it! DAMMMITTTT!!!! I was not happy.
Maybe that was a blessing in disguise. Because last night, after drowning my sorrow in a single malt scotch and back on the search for another car, a P85D I was looking at, dropped in price. I had seen it before and asked for pics, but it was out of my price range. Now it was only a couple grand more than the one I lost out on and it had fewer miles and more options! I didn't waste anytime. I hit the purchase button and here I am.
I hope my experience will help others here looking to do the same. I would advise buyers to insist on pics. Do not put a deposit down without looking at it first. Really check the pics. Talk with your SA and confirm with them what happens if I don't like the car when I go pick it up. Make sure you are 100% comfortable with what you are getting. It's easy to get caught up with the emotions of it all, be level headed. Once you hand over that check and drive out, you no longer are in control.
I have been looking for an 85D for a couple months now. I was looking on the Tesla site, EV-CPO and teslainventory. I would check these sites a bunch of times a day. I had even registered my options on one of the sites and was getting cars emailed to me. At one point I found a car I liked and clicked on the "request photos" link under the description of the car. After a few days, I didn't hear from anyone. I checked to see if the car was still for sale and it wasn't. So I lost out on that one.
I then contacted Tesla, via the website, about setting up a test drive since I had never even driven one before. I was contacted by someone in the new car sales department to set up a test drive. I told him that I was interested in buying a used one and he ended up forwarding my information to a used vehicle sales advisor in the New York metro area. We emailed back and fourth about what I was looking for and the fact that I wanted to trade my car in. She asked for my cars info and sent me back a quote for the trade in. She then proceeded to tell me how the Tesla used car purchases worked. I had already been aware of it since I had been lurking around this forum for a while. After our initial conversations via email, she fell out of contact. I would email her cars I was interested in, asking for pictures and I would hear nothing. This went on for about a week and a half to two weeks. I was a little turned off by this, actually a lot turned off. Finally out of the blue, she responded apologizing and asking if anyone else helped me with my requests. It was obvious to me, and she admitted as much, that she was REALLY overwhelmed with requests. Tesla needs a ton of used sales advisors. I think they underestimated the used car market.
After reconnecting with the SA, she has been great. She educated me in a couple areas regarding buying a used car in different states. I would email her cars I was interested in and she would send me links to pics. I will say after seeing pics of about 10-15 cars, they really do vary in condition. I saw some cars that had the usually wear and tear. Like driver side bolsters wearing down or the color rubbing off. Some with small scratches and paint chip marks. Others with glass chips in the windshield. Some with a good amount of damage like bumpers scraped, lots of wheel rash and door dents. These were all visible from the pics I was sent. They were really good about pointing this stuff out. There was one I saw, that is still for sale in Massachusetts, that has a ton of options but it's really beat up. My SA even said, "Not sure about this car, this one has a good amount of scuffs".
After weeks of looking I found an 85D in Mount Kisco, New York. Its had pretty much everything I wanted. I kept watching the price. I noticed that every couple days, it would drop about $400 or so. I would watch it go down but then on the weekends it would go up again. I think that Tesla probably realized that people were most likely looking at cars to buy on the weekends and would raise the prices a little. Then sure enough, on Monday mornings the prices would go back down to what they were before the weekend. So I was getting optimistic that the car I was following would drop to a number I had in my head, even though it was pretty low already, and I checked previous sales for that model and that was very low already considering the options. But I got greedy. And sure enough yesterday morning, someone bought it! DAMMMITTTT!!!! I was not happy.
Maybe that was a blessing in disguise. Because last night, after drowning my sorrow in a single malt scotch and back on the search for another car, a P85D I was looking at, dropped in price. I had seen it before and asked for pics, but it was out of my price range. Now it was only a couple grand more than the one I lost out on and it had fewer miles and more options! I didn't waste anytime. I hit the purchase button and here I am.
I hope my experience will help others here looking to do the same. I would advise buyers to insist on pics. Do not put a deposit down without looking at it first. Really check the pics. Talk with your SA and confirm with them what happens if I don't like the car when I go pick it up. Make sure you are 100% comfortable with what you are getting. It's easy to get caught up with the emotions of it all, be level headed. Once you hand over that check and drive out, you no longer are in control.
