New Tesla Owner – first 45 days and 6000 miles later

[JenniferQ]

I really appreciate the time you spent to detail your experiences both with buying and driving the car. It has given me some valuable information for my first road trip up to OR from SD. Thanks!

 

[Mclark]

Great write up. Definitely informative. I also love the little details you've added to your car.

 

[FlatSix911]

Good review ... well done!

 

[Khatsalano]

Good post. I agree with most of the OP's points, except curb rash. Curb rash is not a car design fault. It's driver error. It's easier to make this error on a car with low-profile tires and 21" rims, but the car does not run itself into a curb. I have driven 22,000 miles in the last 7 months, including daily drives to San Francisco. My 21"s are still pristine because parallel parking and pulling up to the side of the street is always executed with extreme curb discipline. It's just practice.

 

[2krazykats]

Thanks for the information you provided buying a CPO. That helps me a lot as I'm looking to get either an Inventory or CPO Model S within the next 6 months. I guess with that much lag time in the purchasing, I should start the process soon! How did you finally find the car you got? Will the service rep keep an eye out for the car with the specs and price range you wanted or do you have to call them every so often and ask if they had anything new in?

Great write-up on your experiences with the car - makes me want to take a road trip when I get my Tesla even if I have nowhere to go!

 

[m2140]

Thanks for the information you provided buying a CPO. That helps me a lot as I'm looking to get either an Inventory or CPO Model S within the next 6 months. I guess with that much lag time in the purchasing, I should start the process soon! How did you finally find the car you got? Will the service rep keep an eye out for the car with the specs and price range you wanted or do you have to call them every so often and ask if they had anything new in?

Great write-up on your experiences with the car - makes me want to take a road trip when I get my Tesla even if I have nowhere to go!

It really depends on the sales rep. In my area the sales reps are really busy so having them keep an eye out is not an option. It was better to schedule some time with them to run the search live and pick the car. Inventory cars get updated every day and if your not quick enough to reserve them they get snatched up quick. CPO cars also get updated daily and the list available to the sales team is much bigger than what is published online.

We were looking and would pick 5 cars to pick from and within 5 mins of getting the list at least one of those cars would have been taken off the available list as it was reserved by someone else. Be ready to reserve and put a deposit same day.

Searching for an inventory car can be very frustrating so make sure you have a firm list of what color and options you absolutely have to have to expedite the search. Also be prepared to put a deposit and reserve right away once you find exactly what you want.

If you plan to buy or finance you can get just about any inventory car and I saw discounts as high as $18,000 for some cars with high mileage.
If you want to lease, the car has to be current model year and under 10,000 miles.

Also, sales reps are not allowed to search inventory cars that are not in their region as company policy. Have your sales guy focus on just their region. We found one outside our sales team region and the Tesla team could not get it for us. Outside the sales area requires the buyer to pay for the transfer of the car and as a policy Tesla has stopped it because of too many buyers not liking the car when it arrived and want their money for transfer back. Stay within your sales area. Even if it's out of state the transfer costs will be absorbed by Tesla if it's within the same sales region.

Once you find the car expect to wait a couple of weeks. Like is said before, they are in no rush to get the car to you. A transfer can take 2-3 weeks and final prep can take 1-2 weeks.

Once you put a deposit on the car it's yours so one else can get it. If it's an inventory car make sure your sales team calls the facility they have it at right away so it does not get used anymore. We reserved an 85 and drove to check it out only to find it had been taken to a car show for demo. Really sucked.

 

[dsm363]

I know, but it's the only showroom that has inventory for sale same day and they guys I worked with there also called it a dealer. I know Tesla likes to call it a Showroom and service center. But the Buena Park showroom feels and looks more like a dealer.

Congrats on the car. It's entirely possible it looks like a dealership because Tesla sometimes buys old dealership that went out of business. Not sure about that particular location though.