Opinions about CPO cars

[Jrogville]

I'm looking at 2014 and 2015 Model S 85 CPO listings and the prices and milage are all over the place. Do 2014's really have a better reliability record than the 2015's, like Consumer Reports wrote? Can you tell something about when the car was produced during the model year from the serial number within the VIN? Do the serial numbers run continuously through the different model years?

Some cars have milage in the teen thousands. Do people really trade in a car with such low milage just to get the AP 2.0, or could there be something else going on with those low milage cars?

Have you all noticed that the CPO listings for 85D models show the milage range at 65 mph, rather than EPA as they do with the rear wheel 85's? It makes the difference 30 miles rather than what is probably around 10 miles if it were an apples to apples comparison.

 

[ev-now]

I'm looking at 2014 and 2015 Model S 85 CPO listings and the prices and milage are all over the place. Do 2014's really have a better reliability record than the 2015's, like Consumer Reports wrote?

I subscribe to the continuous improvement theory, I suspect that CR just had more data, more users and were less forgiving as the model years went on.

Can you tell something about when the car was produced during the model year from the serial number within the VIN? Do the serial numbers run continuously through the different model years?

Something, but no they are not contiguous. If you ask the DS they'll give you the ex-factory date, which you can compare with the feature list on this site to see what features/improvements were in production at that time. then if it's important confirm specific ones with the DS.

Some cars have milage in the teen thousands. Do people really trade in a car with such low milage just to get the AP 2.0, or could there be something else going on with those low milage cars?

For many the MS is a second, third or upteenth car - my experience is there are many low mileage ones out there. Mine was 2 years old with 8K - the interior and overall condition confirmed the mileage. I have not found any issues which seem like the prior owner was dumping it for.

Good luck with your search. Seems high or low mileage most people enjoy their CPO - modulo the acquisition experience which seems a little tense for many right now (poor communication usually vs poor actual vehicle).

 

[Jrogville]

I'm going to be about 2 hours away from my nearest SC. The upside to a low milage car is, of course, that the interior will have less wear. But in contrast, I wonder about the value of a high milage car having most of the kinks worked out already and therefore less likely to need trips to the service center in the future. How should I weigh that? Is 10 or 15 thousand miles enough to go through that? The oldest year I'm considering is 2014

I know that less miles will mean a better resale value down the road, but I tend to think that what matters is 'now' and not what the future value of the car might be. And anyway, the lower the milage now, the higher the price to purchase now.

 

[Buster1]

My guess is that quite a few (high percentage) of CPO cars were leases that expired and the owner turned the car in for a new lease. Most leased cars have certain restrictions imparted on the owners and if problems are found during the return phase...the owner pays for those fixes. So hopefully most leased cars were cared for.

 

[jaguar36]

Keep in mind that interior wear is really dependent on the number of trips (getting in and out) as well as the number of hours in the car, no the miles, and there is only a loose correlation between those.

I suspect that a number of low mileage CPOs were folks who decided that they just didn't like having to deal with an electric car. There are limitations to it, and small percentage of folks will want to go back to an ICE (however crazy that may seem to us).

The common thought on TMC is that quality has increased over time, however there isn't a ton of data to prove that. In addition, keep in mind that while they were certainly making engineering improvements, they were also ramping up production tremendously. That is bound to put pressure on quality.

 

[Jrogville]

Well, I found 2014 and 2015 S85 CPO's that are both equipped with the options I want, but the 2015 has half the miles and AP 1 for an extra $9,000. The milage doesn't particularly matter to me, so I feel like I'm paying the extra $9k just for the AP. I don't know if it's worth it. Normally I wouldn't care about resale value, but in this case I'm equally happy with either car, and I might only keep it for 3 years. The lower milage, AP car would be worth more as trade-in, but with a car that would be 5 or 6 years old by then, would that make much difference? Especially since AP 1 will be ancient technology be then?

 

[SmartElectric]

We bought a high mileage 2013 Tesla S 85 via CPO.
It had 60000 km in under 2.5 years, about 100 km/day average commute.
It's tight, quiet, no rattles, fast, smooth and the best car we've ever owned.
A newer 2014 85D will be even better, and AP1 even better than that ... where do you stop?
Just get a Tesla, any Tesla. ;-)

 

[Jashev]

Do 2014's really have a better reliability record than the 2015's, like Consumer Reports wrote?

According to my Consumer Reports app the reliability breakdown is this:

2013 - Below Average
2014 - Far Below Average
2015 - Average