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My very disappointing CPO delivery experience

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I appreciate the quantitative limits that Tesla will allow so far as cosmetic damage is concerned. "Excessive" is a useless, subjective term.
OP: you are not going to get a like-new car for 50% off. Some re-alignment of expectations is in order.
 
Isn't enough, enough? I feel very sorry for the op, but enough is enough. Tesla's behavior will not change until people refuse to buy cpos without seeing them and driving them first. When Tesla doesn't sell any, their behavior will change.
Personally, I only recommend new purchases to my friends. I advise against any purchase of a used Tesla from Tesla unless it is available for inspection and driving. To me a cpo Tesla is about the equivalent of a 10 year old Ford . Buyer beware.

My CPO had no dings , 1 chip, there was a crack in the cup holder trim that i did not see at first, and the brakes squeaked after a couple days. But they fixed everything and I love the car. So I think it depends on what service center does the inspection. But the car was also loved to begin with.
 
Cannot agree more. I tried to get updates from start to finish but was assured it'd be in stellar condition. I hope they make it right.

I hope so too. I find that Tesla service centers are also hit and miss. Unfortunately, I hear a lot more complaints from people in or around Fremont as compared to other areas. Around me, Tesla Highland Park is amazing but they do not handle CPOs (they, to the point of being somewhat rude, refused to engage in customers asking about CPOs). The service center is awesome and treats everyone well. I'm hopeful that your SvC will do what they can to make you happy. Good luck.
 
I picked up the car yesterday and must say I had a very disappointing experience. The issues are as follow:

1: I noticed at least 20 rock chips on the hood (with a giant 1 in the middle) and it didn't seem like the reconditioning crew even bother to touch it up.

2: The panoroof makes an extremely misaligned and loud motor sound.

3: The windshield has small chips in multiple areas.

4: Inside the car, there're scratches and scuff marks everywhere. Worst of all, many of scuff marks were removable as I was able to successfully remove some of them myself during the inspection process. That tells me no one cared to TRY to remove them before. There's grime and disgusting pocket areas. The touchscreen had a layer of dust or sand on top of it, very rough to the touch. The sun visor has some nasty stains on it. Shoe marks all over the seats. Scratches on the inside of the trunk door.

5: The old license plate was still hanging on the car. We had to point it out and then someone came to remove it.

6: There are fitment issues between the quarter panel and front bumper.

7: My delivery person. I have nothing personal against him, but half of the time he had to go to the back to look for answers to my questions. I was told by my CPO advisor that I'd be given a full list of items that were worked on during the reconditioning process. I was given a very uninformative list which didn't tell much. My delivery person did show me a few important things such as pairing up my phone and driving procedure but I felt like it was a very insufficient "walk through." After him walking back and forth around a dozen times I felt bad and didn't want to ask more questions including important ones about purchasing a service plan and when I'd need to get one.

8: Last but not least, within 5 mins of my driving the car off the lot, the "tire pressure system needs service" statement came on. The service center was closed and I looked at the tires and didn't see any obvious flattening. So I decided to call Tesla and report to them. I drove home with my wife and child safely. However, I wonder if it's another situation where people didn't care to recalibrate the tire pressure system before delivery which I highly suspect.

9: Actually there's more. I got home and decided to try charging the car and realized that the delivery person never showed me where the charging cable was. I was intuitive enough to look in the trunk and found it. However, as I unwrapped it, I noticed there's grease/oil coming out of adaptor portion of the cable. I went ahead with the charging and it seemed ok.

As you can tell, I'm still very upset by the experience. That's why I'm emailing at 5:30 am. I understand I didn't pay $150k on a brand new car but I was assured that the car would be in stellar condition. That's obviously not the case. I didn't expect brand new but expected some care and effort. And I saw NONE of that especially with the dirty but removable areas on the interior of the car. They promised to take care of some of the issues like re painting the hood and fixing the roof but couldn't promise what could be done about the windshield. I'll bring it in to the Burlingame SC and see.

I'd give my experience a D overall. They made us wait close to an hour before the presentation. The presentation had outdated information which the presenter herself pointed out. The customization process was lacking. The only positive thing is I got to drive home the car. But then again the tire pressure issue came up.

I consider myself a fair person and I give credit where it's due just like how I've been praising my CPO advisor to people around me about how he found me the right car. I've given out his number to at least 5 people including family members. In fact, I even posted his number on this forum.

I don't know about you but spending $52k on a car is a big deal to us. I believe in Tesla'a mission but my direct experience thus far has been disappointing. I hope Tesla will make things right for me again so I can be that big mouth guy again, but about the positive and not the negative.

Please, I don't need statements like "that's why I'd never buy a used car".
You bought a used car and you expect it to be in "new" condition?
You got it for half price.
Next time don't be so cheap and get a new one.
 
You bought a used car and you expect it to be in "new" condition?
You got it for half price.
Next time don't be so cheap and get a new one.

Come on-- it's half price because it's older, no other reason. Expecting it to be in reconditioned shape is an expectation any consumer has when buying a CPO car (e.g., Lexus, Mercedes, etc). This expectation was set by the manufacturer.
Nothing to do with being cheap by the OP.
 
I never expected my CPO purchase to be in new condition. I've bought a CPO Lexus before. Great car and great experience so I know what to expect. However, I think Tesla is setting itself up with the whole buying the car sight unseen idea because sets people up with the expectation that it'd be at least on par with its competition. Honestly, I did high expectations because of the CPO advisor's ongoing reassurance that it'd be in stellar condition but again I wasn't expecting a perfect car.
What bothered me most was the lack of effort. I don't think expecting a clean car was unreasonable for a CPO. There were dirt marks everywhere on the interior. Again, dirt marks that I cleaned off with kisr a damp paper towel!!!! Where the hell was fhe effort?? And the panoroof. I tried opening it 5 times and every single time it made that loud clanking noise which made me wonder how it passed the inspection.
I'll bring it in for the laundry list of issues. Hopefully it'll all work out in the end as I still want to be a fan.
 
So sorry to hear about all this. I am confident from reading past blogs and issues that Tesla will make this right by you just sounds like it will require some care and attention to finding the right contact at your SC. Keep us posted we are pulling for you!
Also quick question do you know the city or state of origin that the car came from to have all those rock or pebble chips? Sounds like maybe AZ or Nevada?
Thanks for your support!!
It's hard to say but when I saw the link to the car, it said the Bay Area. And SF roads are actually quite bad.
 
Thanks for everyone's input and support. I didn't get an actual due bill although the delivery person said he would. He asked a supervisor-type person to contact the Burlingame SC for me. The email contained request to repair the hood and roof. I still have enough faith that they'll at least keep their word on these repairs. I hope they'll take care of the windshield as well. Will keep everyone posted.
With this many issues, you should have insisted on a Due Bill. Offering the car with the previous plates on and user-removable scuffs, and no one appearing to know what was addressed in reconditioning internally likely highlights this was lacking the usual disciple and quality control. I'm hopeful Tesla will make this right, though ensure you have photos, go back asap and be unafraid to email [email protected] soonest. This isn't their usual standard and I'm sure @JonMc would like to help track this down to root cause.

Good luck and keep us informed. As the CPO program is being used to help those considering 3 moving into an S or X having lower standard to the point where expectation is refuse delivery, isn't what anyone needs.
 
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You can send an owner feedback to Tesla but from my experience you likely won't get a reply. Anyway, as Tesla expand there are many new employees who's not familiar with the car so I am not surprise he need to look up answer. I had the same experience with a. New Tesla they even get service to look as no one sure how the weather stripping suppose to be like. Just keep on insisting Tesla fix all your problems while they might not get it right the first time they will eventually get it done
 
@KL670, just out of curiosity, did you have an option to leave the car there to get things fixed (either finalize the financials and get a loaner, or not finalize the sale, i.e. don't pay them, until everything is fixed and keep driving your trade-in)? Or, did they offer you the chance to simply get your deposit back, and/or transfer it to another car, since this one was not in a great condition?
 
I wondering why Tesla doesn't just contract out a restoring service on all CPO cars. Take a look at at what $700 did in this example (notice the holes in the front hood that were repaired):

Perfect | Fort Wayne Auto Detail & Paint Correction- Polishworks Auto Detail

Just think how happy the buyer would be with a show room result like that. I know if I ever bought a CPO car, a shop like this would be my first stop. There must be hundreds of shops like it in all the major cities.
 
Tesla has several self-inflicted wounds in their CPO process, the main one being the no photos and no previews at location (let alone test drives) policy.

This is completely unheard of IMO in the used car business and a big part of Tesla setting wrong expectations as well as the customer having no reasonable way to temper their own expectations beforehand or select between unique examples of used cars the one that fits their needs.

I can not imagine buying a used car like that. A factory render... sheesh. Seeing e.g. paint and leather quality beforehand is usually very important and can easily make or break the deal between two different used cars...
 
I don't understand how anyone buys a used car sight unseen.

I'd have personally inspected the car... wherever it was, before signing anything.

I'm 2 new Model S's in and spent literally an hour looking over the cars days before they were even scheduled for delivery
For many, it's not possible to go inspect a CPO-listed Tesla first. I live 2.5 hours away from the nearest Tesla stores & SC. Okay, so if they happen to have one on the lot that matches my specs, maybe I can take a day to go there. But more likely than not, they don't have one that matches. I can't fly across the country to check out a car on a lot, if I'm not sure I'm going to buy it or if it'll even still be there by the time I arrive. This is where I wound up -- the CPO S we picked out is over 2000 miles away, and we had no choice but to buy it sight-unseen if we were to get it. Worst case, when it shows up, I can refuse delivery if it is in terrible shape.
 
Seems like majority of these CPO deliveries with issues come out of Fremont. They need to get their act together if they can't even bother to remove an old license plate or at least do rudimentary cleaning of the inside before someone picks the car up. Yes, it's a used car, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect better than these stories tell us.

Just think of time and money wasted not only for Tesla, but for the customer as well. I'm sure it would be beneficial for all parties to have it done right the first time, even if it means an extra day or so.