Owner Frustrated with Tesla Depreciation

[Mbrockus]

My MS came with a nice discount for being an "inventory" car so that helped absorb some of the depreciation but certainly not all of it. When people remark, "That car will save you a ton" I kindly chuckle and say.. No, no it won't. Its just an amazing car to drive That in only 182 short payments will be all mine (Jk, I'm sure its a few less than that).

 

[caskater47]

Given the functionality in the Performance Model 3, you shouldn't be surprised to see a few years old Model S with AP1 to be basically worthless. People in the market for a $100k car would rather have one new.

When Tesla updated the Model S with AP2.5, they also increased the acceleration (lowered the 0-60 time by about 1s), so the novelty of the P model was significantly reduced. Also, neck injuries.

Except Tesla vehicles are not considered "luxury" by most people, even on this forum. The price for any Tesla vehicle is something like 75% battery/drivetrain and 25% for the rest of the car. That's why it drives so awesome, but the rest of the car has uneven, haphazard quality.

Any car that costs more than $40k is a luxury car.

 

[trini0t3y]

If you love the car so much, why do you care what the car would sell for now? Just continue to enjoy it. If you like the house you're living in but it dropped in value, would you be angry at the builder or would you just continue to enjoy living in the house?

Would you rather Tesla stopped innovating and improving the product so your purchase would maintain it's value longer? That's not going to happen.

Cool post

 

[Dvb51]

To be fair, this all sounds great to a person who would be interested in buying a CPO! As many others have said, if you are buying a Tesla or any car as an investment, your priorities are in the wrong place.

 

[Mke111]

I would expect someone who can afford to spend $140k on a car, to know better than to blame Musk about depreciation.
Typically, most high end luxury cars depreciate to about 50% at 3 years 50k miles; varying with brands of course. I would guess 40% depreciation after 2 years (just a rough number - going by my prior lease residual experience for Lexuses and S class).
How ever, cars with expensive options depreciate faster because the expensive options depreciate by like 70% or more in 2 to 3 years! For example, your P option - who wants to pay for the P option on a car with "older" tech? They would rather buy a new one without the P option. I am not sure how much a 90D would have costed, Vs your P90D. Was it $100k? $110k? For 90D, I would expect that the depreciation would be similar to a mercedes or bmw. Even with those two, a S55AMG costing $170,000 depreciates faster than an S550 priced at $105,000. You are losing mainly because of your P option. It is also possible that with the continuous improvement of Tesla, it is depreciating more rapidly than, say a Mercedes. Typically, the S class or a jaguar xjl remain almost the same, for about 7 years. Tesla is improving substantially every 3 years or so? I am not sure..
Anyway, anyone who spends the huge premium for a P version, should not be complaining about depreciation.. If you could afford it, you should have known well enough to expect it and not claim reliance on Musk. He guaranteed personally (in the past), the residual value in a lease.. not to buy out your car. He did say that he expects Tesla to retain value better or similar to high end luxury cars.. and it seems to be the case..
Tesla Model S, X Hold Higher Resale Value Than Rivals
Tesla Model S, X Hold Higher Resale Value Than Rivals - Tesla Motors Club

 

[Vsasson]

The devaluation doesn't make your Tesla "the worst" car you've ever owned. Wrong word. It's probably the best car you've ever owned. When I briefly considered trading in my 2015 Tesla Model S 60, the Tesla rep explained $6,000 is deducted to recondition any Tesa that is traded in. I decided to keep the car, and it's the best car I've ever owned.

 

[Pchapes]

So I purchased my first Tesla just over 2 years ago. I ended buying the Tesla Model S P90DL. At first I absolutely loved the car and today I still love it but it has depreciated 50% of the original value in just over 2 years! I don’t care how much I love any car, this is completely unacceptable and I will never buy another one again! Most cars especially luxury cars lose 55% over 5 years! The 2016 P90DL that cost $145K are selling in the $60k’s and $70k’s range! And most if not all the blame falls on Tesla themselves because it’s their used vehicles that are determining the value since they are basically giving them away! On top of that they have lowered the price on the P100DL etc, which is completely the wrong thing to do when manufacturing cars. Every other luxury car slightly increases the price year after year. The people working at Tesla are either some of the dumbest individuals or they are the dumbest individuals and are ruining Every aspects of ownership of having a Tesla. I remember reading Elon Musk promise that Tesla’s would keep their value better than or equal any other manufacturer when it came to Tesla’s retaining their value. He even went as far as saying that he would guarantee that they would hold their value or they would buy the car back at top price in order to convince owners to purchase their cars and not to worry of the car depreciating like other luxury cars. Well they aren’t, they are the most depreciating in history and they need to fix this before everyone like myself decides never to buy another Tesla again! At this point the only way to not lose a fortune would be too lease the car otherwise you can expect to lose everything you put down and much more when you decide to sale. I have never seen any car go from $145K to $70k in the matter of 2-2 1/2 years. As much as I love the car they will never get my business again and this doesn’t include tons of other shady lies and restrictions they have been caught doing in order to keep them from having their batteries. At this point I have lost all faith, trust, and desire to ever be part of the Tesla family again. If your contemplating purchasing a Tesla DON’T! The resale value is nothing less than pathetic and clearly Tesla does not care, on the contrary it seems like they are trying to accomplish this and succeeding. I can’t wait to get rid of this money pit and never buy another Tesla again. With so many other ev vehicles poised to be released, it’s only a matter of time that they lose every customer since they have no clue how to keep their vehicles maintaining the value they should. Which should not be that hard considering the warranties they offer as well of the fact that they are supposed to be able to get 500k miles yet they lose 50% of their value in a measly 2 years! Farewell Tesla your time is UP!!!

 

[Pchapes]

So I purchased my first Tesla just over 2 years ago. I ended buying the Tesla Model S P90DL. At first I absolutely loved the car and today I still love it but it has depreciated 50% of the original value in just over 2 years! I don’t care how much I love any car, this is completely unacceptable and I will never buy another one again! Most cars especially luxury cars lose 55% over 5 years! The 2016 P90DL that cost $145K are selling in the $60k’s and $70k’s range! And most if not all the blame falls on Tesla themselves because it’s their used vehicles that are determining the value since they are basically giving them away! On top of that they have lowered the price on the P100DL etc, which is completely the wrong thing to do when manufacturing cars. Every other luxury car slightly increases the price year after year. The people working at Tesla are either some of the dumbest individuals or they are the dumbest individuals and are ruining Every aspects of ownership of having a Tesla. I remember reading Elon Musk promise that Tesla’s would keep their value better than or equal any other manufacturer when it came to Tesla’s retaining their value. He even went as far as saying that he would guarantee that they would hold their value or they would buy the car back at top price in order to convince owners to purchase their cars and not to worry of the car depreciating like other luxury cars. Well they aren’t, they are the most depreciating in history and they need to fix this before everyone like myself decides never to buy another Tesla again! At this point the only way to not lose a fortune would be too lease the car otherwise you can expect to lose everything you put down and much more when you decide to sale. I have never seen any car go from $145K to $70k in the matter of 2-2 1/2 years. As much as I love the car they will never get my business again and this doesn’t include tons of other shady lies and restrictions they have been caught doing in order to keep them from having their batteries. At this point I have lost all faith, trust, and desire to ever be part of the Tesla family again. If your contemplating purchasing a Tesla DON’T! The resale value is nothing less than pathetic and clearly Tesla does not care, on the contrary it seems like they are trying to accomplish this and succeeding. I can’t wait to get rid of this money pit and never buy another Tesla again. With so many other ev vehicles poised to be released, it’s only a matter of time that they lose every customer since they have no clue how to keep their vehicles maintaining the value they should. Which should not be that hard considering the warranties they offer as well of the fact that they are supposed to be able to get 500k miles yet they lose 50% of their value in a measly 2 years! Farewell Tesla your time is UP!!!

 

[Pchapes]

Perhaps the P depreciates faster, certainly Melvins did, than our 85 for which we got $32,500 on a trade for a model 3 LR. It was a 2013 with about 40k mikes in good, not perfect, shape. There was a small dent in the trunk lid which was going to be costly to repair despite being barely noticeable. We paid $82k for it before the tax credit.
For a nearly 5 year old luxury car I think the trade in price was very reasonable. I had an SL55 that depreciated $1000 a month. Makes the Tesla look pretty goid.

 

[Branzo90D]

So I purchased my first Tesla just over 2 years ago. I ended buying the Tesla Model S P90DL. At first I absolutely loved the car and today I still love it but it has depreciated 50% of the original value in just over 2 years! I don’t care how much I love any car, this is completely unacceptable and I will never buy another one again! Most cars especially luxury cars lose 55% over 5 years! The 2016 P90DL that cost $145K are selling in the $60k’s and $70k’s range! And most if not all the blame falls on Tesla themselves because it’s their used vehicles that are determining the value since they are basically giving them away! On top of that they have lowered the price on the P100DL etc, which is completely the wrong thing to do when manufacturing cars. Every other luxury car slightly increases the price year after year. The people working at Tesla are either some of the dumbest individuals or they are the dumbest individuals and are ruining Every aspects of ownership of having a Tesla. I remember reading Elon Musk promise that Tesla’s would keep their value better than or equal any other manufacturer when it came to Tesla’s retaining their value. He even went as far as saying that he would guarantee that they would hold their value or they would buy the car back at top price in order to convince owners to purchase their cars and not to worry of the car depreciating like other luxury cars. Well they aren’t, they are the most depreciating in history and they need to fix this before everyone like myself decides never to buy another Tesla again! At this point the only way to not lose a fortune would be too lease the car otherwise you can expect to lose everything you put down and much more when you decide to sale. I have never seen any car go from $145K to $70k in the matter of 2-2 1/2 years. As much as I love the car they will never get my business again and this doesn’t include tons of other shady lies and restrictions they have been caught doing in order to keep them from having their batteries. At this point I have lost all faith, trust, and desire to ever be part of the Tesla family again. If your contemplating purchasing a Tesla DON’T! The resale value is nothing less than pathetic and clearly Tesla does not care, on the contrary it seems like they are trying to accomplish this and succeeding. I can’t wait to get rid of this money pit and never buy another Tesla again. With so many other ev vehicles poised to be released, it’s only a matter of time that they lose every customer since they have no clue how to keep their vehicles maintaining the value they should. Which should not be that hard considering the warranties they offer as well of the fact that they are supposed to be able to get 500k miles yet they lose 50% of their value in a measly 2 years! Farewell Tesla your time is UP!!!

So you believe that some traditional automaker will make a vehicle that truly competes with Tesla including all its features and technology, its charging network, its software updates, overcome its lead in autonomous driving, make better batteries and better battery management systems, better range, better acceleration, safer, and retain its resale value sometime soon? Exactly what things do you see happening in the marketplace to lead you to that conclusion? Enlighten us please.

 

[mmafighter78]

So I purchased my first Tesla just over 2 years ago. I ended buying the Tesla Model S P90DL. At first I absolutely loved the car and today I still love it but it has depreciated 50% of the original value in just over 2 years! I don’t care how much I love any car, this is completely unacceptable and I will never buy another one again! Most cars especially luxury cars lose 55% over 5 years! The 2016 P90DL that cost $145K are selling in the $60k’s and $70k’s range! And most if not all the blame falls on Tesla themselves because it’s their used vehicles that are determining the value since they are basically giving them away! On top of that they have lowered the price on the P100DL etc, which is completely the wrong thing to do when manufacturing cars. Every other luxury car slightly increases the price year after year. The people working at Tesla are either some of the dumbest individuals or they are the dumbest individuals and are ruining Every aspects of ownership of having a Tesla. I remember reading Elon Musk promise that Tesla’s would keep their value better than or equal any other manufacturer when it came to Tesla’s retaining their value. He even went as far as saying that he would guarantee that they would hold their value or they would buy the car back at top price in order to convince owners to purchase their cars and not to worry of the car depreciating like other luxury cars. Well they aren’t, they are the most depreciating in history and they need to fix this before everyone like myself decides never to buy another Tesla again! At this point the only way to not lose a fortune would be too lease the car otherwise you can expect to lose everything you put down and much more when you decide to sale. I have never seen any car go from $145K to $70k in the matter of 2-2 1/2 years. As much as I love the car they will never get my business again and this doesn’t include tons of other shady lies and restrictions they have been caught doing in order to keep them from having their batteries. At this point I have lost all faith, trust, and desire to ever be part of the Tesla family again. If your contemplating purchasing a Tesla DON’T! The resale value is nothing less than pathetic and clearly Tesla does not care, on the contrary it seems like they are trying to accomplish this and succeeding. I can’t wait to get rid of this money pit and never buy another Tesla again. With so many other ev vehicles poised to be released, it’s only a matter of time that they lose every customer since they have no clue how to keep their vehicles maintaining the value they should. Which should not be that hard considering the warranties they offer as well of the fact that they are supposed to be able to get 500k miles yet they lose 50% of their value in a measly 2 years! Farewell Tesla your time is UP!!!

dang... lots of anger there... lol

 

[Jashev]

And all cars increase in price year after year for several reasons, one being inflation and so you don’t have upset buyers who paid $170k P100DL in 2017 and then ones paying $150k in 2018 for the exact same thing.

You should do some homework before you buy a car like this. Tesla is not anything like MB, BMW or any other manufacturer for that matter. They are a new company and guess what? They are driving down their manufacturing costs each year especially as their volume increases. The most expensive component of the car, the battery pack, is constantly improving in technology and they have already stated that they expect to get those costs below $100/kw. That gives them the opportunity to cut their prices accordingly as they work to capture more market share. Your comment about inflation is also ill-informed since that has been pretty much non-existent for the past 10 years.

I have owned dozens of high end vehicles over the years and it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that the best deals would be on CPO vehicles. I used to be like you and always wanted the latest and greatest, but you reach a point where that isn't as important anymore. Regardless, I always knew that I would pay the price for wanting to be first (in most cases) unless it was a very limited release vehicle (of which I still own a few of those).

Sorry, if this sounds harsh, but I am always stunned when I see people who have more money than brains and buy cars like this and get shocked when they lose money on them. As a previous poster pointed out, grow up.

 

[Corsair]

This thread is currently ranked 4th on the Most Disagreed Post .. just saying....

 

[Chancellor32]

This thread is currently ranked 4th on the Most Disagreed Post .. just saying....

We need to bump those numbers up! Should be 1st on the list lol

 

[ASMills85]

The devaluation doesn't make your Tesla "the worst" car you've ever owned. Wrong word. It's probably the best car you've ever owned. When I briefly considered trading in my 2015 Tesla Model S 60, the Tesla rep explained $6,000 is deducted to recondition any Tesa that is traded in. I decided to keep the car, and it's the best car I've ever owned.

The “recondition any Tesla” made me laugh. This was either a while ago or they were straight up lying to you. If they but even half of that into reconditioning their preowned cars their current program wouldn’t be the joke that it is now.

 

[WdstockWizard]

No has nothing to do with supply and demand. Tesla is choosing to decide their CPO pricing. They are the ones that want too dump all AP1 Tesla’s for absolutely nothing. The prices are a complete reflection of what they are selling their CPO’s for. No one who paid $145k would sale their car for $70k. But when Tesla has 20 in every state then you the owner has no choice since they are setting the market value

Yes, luxury car depreciation is painful, and can be surprising to people that haven't bought new cars on this end of the market before. The rest of your rant is badly misplaced. The S actually does significantly better than it's natural competition, as noted by comparisons like this one:

Tesla Model S retains its value better than gas-powered cars in its segment, losing only 28% after 50k miles

Ah yes. The magic of numbers. Love it.

 

[BE_M3]

I sold my Caddi SRX AWD to buy my Model 3. I lost 50% of its value after 3 years.

 

[Fairchild]

So I purchased my first Tesla just over 2 years ago. I ended buying the Tesla Model S P90DL. At first I absolutely loved the car and today I still love it but it has depreciated 50% of the original value in just over 2 years! I don’t care how much I love any car, this is completely unacceptable and I will never buy another one again! Most cars especially luxury cars lose 55% over 5 years! The 2016 P90DL that cost $145K are selling in the $60k’s and $70k’s range! And most if not all the blame falls on Tesla themselves because it’s their used vehicles that are determining the value since they are basically giving them away! On top of that they have lowered the price on the P100DL etc, which is completely the wrong thing to do when manufacturing cars. Every other luxury car slightly increases the price year after year. The people working at Tesla are either some of the dumbest individuals or they are the dumbest individuals and are ruining Every aspects of ownership of having a Tesla. I remember reading Elon Musk promise that Tesla’s would keep their value better than or equal any other manufacturer when it came to Tesla’s retaining their value. He even went as far as saying that he would guarantee that they would hold their value or they would buy the car back at top price in order to convince owners to purchase their cars and not to worry of the car depreciating like other luxury cars. Well they aren’t, they are the most depreciating in history and they need to fix this before everyone like myself decides never to buy another Tesla again! At this point the only way to not lose a fortune would be too lease the car otherwise you can expect to lose everything you put down and much more when you decide to sale. I have never seen any car go from $145K to $70k in the matter of 2-2 1/2 years. As much as I love the car they will never get my business again and this doesn’t include tons of other shady lies and restrictions they have been caught doing in order to keep them from having their batteries. At this point I have lost all faith, trust, and desire to ever be part of the Tesla family again. If your contemplating purchasing a Tesla DON’T! The resale value is nothing less than pathetic and clearly Tesla does not care, on the contrary it seems like they are trying to accomplish this and succeeding. I can’t wait to get rid of this money pit and never buy another Tesla again. With so many other ev vehicles poised to be released, it’s only a matter of time that they lose every customer since they have no clue how to keep their vehicles maintaining the value they should. Which should not be that hard considering the warranties they offer as well of the fact that they are supposed to be able to get 500k miles yet they lose 50% of their value in a measly 2 years! Farewell Tesla your time is UP!!!

--------------------------------------------------------
Mel buddy,

That's what happens when you gotta have that expensive perfomance model. It is not the car's fault. It is the ego of the consumer that needs to be fed. I had a Model S 85 that I bought for $83K and sold after 18 months and 29K miles for $71,000. Have 60K miles on my Model X and I am still playing Christmas music and flapping my wings. Hope to have it for another 400K miles. Wonder just how much depreciation it will have by then. Just sold my Model 3 at a meager profit. Yes meager, but PROFIT.

If you can't afford it, don't buy it or,
you can always dial 1 800 Wah...wah...wah!

Kia's and Ford F 150's have the least depreciation. Why don't you buy one today and put a smile on your face.....and ours too!

 

[TMeister]

Have y'all noticed the OP's last post was a week ago?

Objective to stir the hornet's nest achieved I'd say.

 

[jewilson2]

So I purchased my first Tesla just over 2 years ago. I ended buying the Tesla Model S P90DL. At first I absolutely loved the car and today I still love it but it has depreciated 50% of the original value in just over 2 years! I don’t care how much I love any car, this is completely unacceptable and I will never buy another one again! Most cars especially luxury cars lose 55% over 5 years! The 2016 P90DL that cost $145K are selling in the $60k’s and $70k’s range! And most if not all the blame falls on Tesla themselves because it’s their used vehicles that are determining the value since they are basically giving them away! On top of that they have lowered the price on the P100DL etc, which is completely the wrong thing to do when manufacturing cars. Every other luxury car slightly increases the price year after year. The people working at Tesla are either some of the dumbest individuals or they are the dumbest individuals and are ruining Every aspects of ownership of having a Tesla. I remember reading Elon Musk promise that Tesla’s would keep their value better than or equal any other manufacturer when it came to Tesla’s retaining their value. He even went as far as saying that he would guarantee that they would hold their value or they would buy the car back at top price in order to convince owners to purchase their cars and not to worry of the car depreciating like other luxury cars. Well they aren’t, they are the most depreciating in history and they need to fix this before everyone like myself decides never to buy another Tesla again! At this point the only way to not lose a fortune would be too lease the car otherwise you can expect to lose everything you put down and much more when you decide to sale. I have never seen any car go from $145K to $70k in the matter of 2-2 1/2 years. As much as I love the car they will never get my business again and this doesn’t include tons of other shady lies and restrictions they have been caught doing in order to keep them from having their batteries. At this point I have lost all faith, trust, and desire to ever be part of the Tesla family again. If your contemplating purchasing a Tesla DON’T! The resale value is nothing less than pathetic and clearly Tesla does not care, on the contrary it seems like they are trying to accomplish this and succeeding. I can’t wait to get rid of this money pit and never buy another Tesla again. With so many other ev vehicles poised to be released, it’s only a matter of time that they lose every customer since they have no clue how to keep their vehicles maintaining the value they should. Which should not be that hard considering the warranties they offer as well of the fact that they are supposed to be able to get 500k miles yet they lose 50% of their value in a measly 2 years! Farewell Tesla your time is UP!!!

Have you owned many luxury cars? I ask because as much as it sucks, none of them hold the value like you are describing.

I have a Range Rover (MSRP $130k) that is now worth $60k after 3 years. I had an Audi A8L (MSRP $105k) that sold for $40k after 3 years. I've owned BMWs, etc etc....all the same story.

The only thing in my garage that didn't fall like a rock is a Ford F150. Get you one of those if you care about resale. Otherwise, be the buyer of a used luxury car, and not a seller. Cars are an expense, not an asset.