First time poster and here is my detailed non refurbished CPO purchase experience. And spoiler alert...it was a great.
First off, I'm a day one Model 3 reservation holder, and got the email to configure back in March, but after seeing it I decided I really liked the S more. I started looking on the Tesla site for the used Model S's. They are incredible cars but still had a hard time justifying spending $50k-60k on a used car. Every so often a car in the 40's would pop and would either not have all wanted/needed or would get sold within 5 minutes. I was looking for a panorama roof and ultra high fidelity sound so I could get Sirius/XM. I live in SoCal and half of my commute is through the canyons where I get no phone reception and therefore cannot use the app. Also wanted leather seats, looking for grey interior, but would do black if needed. Any exterior color was fine except didn't really want red, but would if it popped up with everything else. Preferred an 85 but a 60 would be OK.
I reached out to Tesla CPO team and they emailed and returned my call the same day. Explained what I was looking for and my Used Vehicle Sales Advisor (UVSA) said be patient as they are always putting new cars on the site. He said if anything interested me to let him know and he would send pictures to look at before purchasing. He was very helpful and would be throughout the process. I would always have the site open wherever I was, and on the phone when away from computer and the refresh was constantly being pushed.
After a few days, on April 30, between meetings at 11am, I hit refresh and there it was, 2013 Silver Metallic S85 with 66,700 miles, a pano roof, upgraded sound, grey leather, tech package and price was $40,400. And located in California so no transportation fee. I doubled checked everything, called the wife quickly, got the OK, and hit the BUY NOW button. Put in the CC info. It took and I had my $1000 down payment on a Tesla! All that in less than 5 minutes. So that was done and now reality set in. I had been reading the stories of bad deliveries, dirty cars, unseen damage etc. But I figured if the pictures were bad, I would refuse this one and eventually find another. The timing was interesting as my UVSA was on vacation but left numbers and emails of other advisors I could reach out to while he was gone. Later in the afternoon I reached to one of the them who was also great to talk with. He said he saw my name come across earlier when I purchased it. Looked up the VIN and said they just got the car and they don't even have pictures yet but hoped to in the next 48 hours.
The next afternoon I received the pictures. I know cars usually look better in pictures, but this looked beautiful! Especially for a 5-year-old car. I've included some pictures below. I took the night to look at them on an iPad to zoom in on every picture and could not see anything wrong with the car. I couldn’t. Told the UVSA OK to ship down (it was in Northern California I think in Fremont). Completed all the paper work online, including financing through Tesla on a pretty good rate, and after some emails back and forth had everything all set. Communication was great throughout the entire process. This was now Wednesday and was told the car would be in LA the following Wednesday. Got a call from my delivery advisor the following Wednesday, May 9, saying the car would be delivered on Thursday and wanted to set up my pick up for Saturday May 12. Prefect way to spend a Saturday.
Drove down with my wife to the Marina Del Rey facility for pick up at noon. We were warmly greeted in the lobby, made sure we had the Tesla app on our phones, and then we were taken back to the showroom a waited there for a minute or two. Then the curtains opened up (literally) and there was the massive staging area with probably 25 or so Tesla’s waiting to be picked up. Lots of Model 3's and S's and a few X's. Very impressive sight. The delivery advisor took us to our car and it looked even better than the pictures!! I couldn't believe how clean it was. I walked around it 3 or 4 times looking for something wrong with it. Nothing. Even the wheels had no scuff/curb marks. Inside was just as clean. Headliner, seats, mats, MCU, everything looked great. Got a walk through on programming phones; asked a few other questions; got answers for those few other questions and then sat in the Model X in the showroom to train us more on the settings etc. Signed the papers, bought a hat, and picked up the car out front. The employees at the MDR facility were all as nice as could be, very helpful and answered all our questions. Hopped in the car, drove back to the Valley and loved that it was a 45 minute drive back home. Loved the car on the way home and for the first week of ownership!
The whole process from start to finish was great. Everyone was helpful, communication was plentiful throughout, financing process was easy, and picking up the car was a breeze. I know there have been a lot of issues with the new CPO program, but I wanted to let everyone know, that is definitely not always the case. I feel bad for those that did not go smoothly or were downright bad. There are still a lot of nice used Model S's out there. My story was a success and hope there are many others to follow.
First off, I'm a day one Model 3 reservation holder, and got the email to configure back in March, but after seeing it I decided I really liked the S more. I started looking on the Tesla site for the used Model S's. They are incredible cars but still had a hard time justifying spending $50k-60k on a used car. Every so often a car in the 40's would pop and would either not have all wanted/needed or would get sold within 5 minutes. I was looking for a panorama roof and ultra high fidelity sound so I could get Sirius/XM. I live in SoCal and half of my commute is through the canyons where I get no phone reception and therefore cannot use the app. Also wanted leather seats, looking for grey interior, but would do black if needed. Any exterior color was fine except didn't really want red, but would if it popped up with everything else. Preferred an 85 but a 60 would be OK.
I reached out to Tesla CPO team and they emailed and returned my call the same day. Explained what I was looking for and my Used Vehicle Sales Advisor (UVSA) said be patient as they are always putting new cars on the site. He said if anything interested me to let him know and he would send pictures to look at before purchasing. He was very helpful and would be throughout the process. I would always have the site open wherever I was, and on the phone when away from computer and the refresh was constantly being pushed.
After a few days, on April 30, between meetings at 11am, I hit refresh and there it was, 2013 Silver Metallic S85 with 66,700 miles, a pano roof, upgraded sound, grey leather, tech package and price was $40,400. And located in California so no transportation fee. I doubled checked everything, called the wife quickly, got the OK, and hit the BUY NOW button. Put in the CC info. It took and I had my $1000 down payment on a Tesla! All that in less than 5 minutes. So that was done and now reality set in. I had been reading the stories of bad deliveries, dirty cars, unseen damage etc. But I figured if the pictures were bad, I would refuse this one and eventually find another. The timing was interesting as my UVSA was on vacation but left numbers and emails of other advisors I could reach out to while he was gone. Later in the afternoon I reached to one of the them who was also great to talk with. He said he saw my name come across earlier when I purchased it. Looked up the VIN and said they just got the car and they don't even have pictures yet but hoped to in the next 48 hours.
The next afternoon I received the pictures. I know cars usually look better in pictures, but this looked beautiful! Especially for a 5-year-old car. I've included some pictures below. I took the night to look at them on an iPad to zoom in on every picture and could not see anything wrong with the car. I couldn’t. Told the UVSA OK to ship down (it was in Northern California I think in Fremont). Completed all the paper work online, including financing through Tesla on a pretty good rate, and after some emails back and forth had everything all set. Communication was great throughout the entire process. This was now Wednesday and was told the car would be in LA the following Wednesday. Got a call from my delivery advisor the following Wednesday, May 9, saying the car would be delivered on Thursday and wanted to set up my pick up for Saturday May 12. Prefect way to spend a Saturday.
Drove down with my wife to the Marina Del Rey facility for pick up at noon. We were warmly greeted in the lobby, made sure we had the Tesla app on our phones, and then we were taken back to the showroom a waited there for a minute or two. Then the curtains opened up (literally) and there was the massive staging area with probably 25 or so Tesla’s waiting to be picked up. Lots of Model 3's and S's and a few X's. Very impressive sight. The delivery advisor took us to our car and it looked even better than the pictures!! I couldn't believe how clean it was. I walked around it 3 or 4 times looking for something wrong with it. Nothing. Even the wheels had no scuff/curb marks. Inside was just as clean. Headliner, seats, mats, MCU, everything looked great. Got a walk through on programming phones; asked a few other questions; got answers for those few other questions and then sat in the Model X in the showroom to train us more on the settings etc. Signed the papers, bought a hat, and picked up the car out front. The employees at the MDR facility were all as nice as could be, very helpful and answered all our questions. Hopped in the car, drove back to the Valley and loved that it was a 45 minute drive back home. Loved the car on the way home and for the first week of ownership!
The whole process from start to finish was great. Everyone was helpful, communication was plentiful throughout, financing process was easy, and picking up the car was a breeze. I know there have been a lot of issues with the new CPO program, but I wanted to let everyone know, that is definitely not always the case. I feel bad for those that did not go smoothly or were downright bad. There are still a lot of nice used Model S's out there. My story was a success and hope there are many others to follow.
