Potentially 1st Tesla

[samuelffrancis]

Hi, everyone! Kind of new to this, so I appreciate the patience. To cut to the chase, I'm a 25 yr old mechanical engineering student that LOVES these cars. My dad got one of the first 100 Model S's in Vegas (where I grew up) and on top of my already oozing love for good engineering I was in love. I was hooked.

Now I'm finally in a place to potentially pick up my first one. There is a used one about 30 minutes from me. 2016 70D with 142,000 miles on the odometer. It still gets around 241 miles on a full charge. Clean title (see CarFax below), autopilot, premium connectivity, etc. It has a couple of dents (something that 1. I think could be popped or fixed easily and 2. At this point, I don't care that much haha) but other than that, it looks pretty good/nice (see pictures below).

My wife and I live in an apartment complex, but there is a destination charger and 4 charge points across the street. However, we will most likely move halfway across the country a year from now and even live in an apartment for another year after that or so. POINT IS: I'm very nervous that even after getting into my first one (barely), I'd be hit with a motor or battery failure or HUGE repair that I simply can't afford. It doesn't have the lowest mileage, and even though I know that there is extremely confident data/studies of high mileage Model S builds, I still get really scared that mine might be...... "the one".

I would really appreciate any wisdom or insight from anyone who has a 2016 with similar or even more miles. Or even have had experience with some heavy or more expensive repairs. Please lemme know if you think it's worth it or if I'm being young, dumb, and setting myself up for failure in just a few years haha.

Cheers, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to read/help!

https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/ar20/Z1yDOH-QYNtcSAq-X_3oO1kRoCRGel43RQdyVo9NeO7zIF09NcohQ8PaZrkdcmwvx0q1jyVyq5zIA-43a-WpHloNlmWnUdON6j4

 

[D.E.]

Unwary bargain hunters have always been the low hanging fruit for disreputable sales people. When I was young my parents bought a car that was known in our family as “the pink”. It was a station wagon, a “woody”. The transmission failed shortly after the purchase. It had been filled with sawdust.

My mother and her sister bought a boat, the Panda. It sank a couple of days later.

Be wary if you buy this car, lest your child have an interesting story to tell even long after you are gone.

 

[samuelffrancis]

This is actually way more interesting than a responsible, young adult wondering if he should buy his 'dream' car... The price of 17.5-19K is close to the salvage value with the battery functional.. I think the used car dealer would get almost the same if they just put up at Copart on auction. There is some information that is unknown by OP

Thank you for understanding where I'm coming from. I know if it's "too good to be true" it probably is but...... I'm really trying to grill this one, and it could just be a golden ticket. Idk. Either way, thank you for understanding my excitement of this discovery and potential win. Half the reason I'm so torn on this is because I'm fascinated by what this could mean. I don't know why they're willing to list this low when it could be in a pretty normal condition.

What are you suggesting I do or attempt to find out? Thanks again for seeing it from my view.

 

[samuelffrancis]

Could have been a wreck that they had their body shop repair and not report, or it was reported but will take months to show up on a CarFax report…. Run Forest, run!

I doubt it was a wreck. The original owner that brought it into them said it had never been in an accident and the dents were from hitting things. I doubt he'd have the cocos to lie to the dealership's face like that when they also do pretty rigorous homework when they buy a vehicle for themselves. The dealership has had it since last year, so I doubt anything major has happened since then.
Again. I freakin hate these entities with the full force of a supernova. Not trying to defend them here. However, if the car is potentially ok for the most part, I don't wanna speculate every bad thing that could have ever happened to the car lol.

 

[samuelffrancis]

Unwary bargain hunters have always been the low hanging fruit for disreputable sales people. When I was young my parents bought a car that was known in our family as “the pink”. It was a station wagon, a “woody”. The transmission failed shortly after the purchase. It had been filled with sawdust.

My mother and her sister bought a boat, the Panda. It sank a couple of days later.

Be wary if you buy this car, lest your child have an interesting story to tell even long after you are gone.

Yeah, I don't know what motive a used dealer would have sabotaging one of their own vehicles on the lot when the one and only original owner gave it to them a few months ago. They wanna sell it. They gain nothing from doing anything like that to the car. I doubt a wreck or any sawdust has happened in that time haha. But that's a really good story with a really good lesson.
Like I said, I'm undecided. Still squeezing information in every way I can from these guys and THEN I'll make the call. It's why I'm on here in the first place. Knowledge is power, and I plan to get as much of it for this situation as possible.

 

[WyoDude]

So let’s tally things up, it appears to be 32 people saying it’s a bad idea and 0 people saying its a good idea.

Putting our engineering hats on, what is the math telling us….

 

[gaswalla]

You could ask the dealer for their bill of sale - say it’s to check for free supercharging.
You could also go into the service menu and see the current and historical service alerts - might be something there if a major issue exists.
I still think this is less dangerous than others imply. You have a 1 year warranty and could (at worse) auction it off and only lose a few thousand

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Yeah, I don't know what motive a used dealer would have sabotaging one of their own vehicles on the lot when the one and only original owner gave it to them a few months ago. They wanna sell it. They gain nothing from doing anything like that to the car. I doubt a wreck or any sawdust has happened in that time haha. But that's a really good story with a really good lesson.
Like I said, I'm undecided. Still squeezing information in every way I can from these guys and THEN I'll make the call. It's why I'm on here in the first place. Knowledge is power, and I plan to get as much of it for this situation as possible.

You're too new to this world to know that they added sawdust to an automatic transmission not to sabotage it, but to get it to work long enough to sell it.

Used car dealers do these sorts of shady thing all...the...time...

Sawdust In The Transmission: Does It Work?

Adding sawdust in the transmission to make it work smoother is an old trick that was quite common back in the day, but did it really help? Let's find out.

blogproautomotive.com

 

[samuelffrancis]

So let’s tally things up, it appears to be 32 people saying it’s a bad idea and 0 people saying its a good idea.

Putting our engineering hats on, what is the math telling us….

You might wanna check your math on that one, partner. I don't actually believe it was 0 people saying it was a good idea. Reread the first page or two of the thread. I remember there being a few.
Anyways, I get the point. No need to point these things out to me . Don't forget..... I am the one that started this thread for this very reason and have kept record myself. Don't misinterpret my curiosity of such a listing for being convinced it's the best idea in the world. lol

 

[jebinc]

So let’s tally things up, it appears to be 32 people saying it’s a bad idea and 0 people saying its a good idea.

Putting our engineering hats on, what is the math telling us….

We all know the OP is buying the car, right?!

 

[samuelffrancis]

You're too new to this world to know that they added sawdust to an automatic transmission not to sabotage it, but to get it to work long enough to sell it.

Used car dealers do these sorts of shady thing all...the...time...

Sawdust In The Transmission: Does It Work?

Adding sawdust in the transmission to make it work smoother is an old trick that was quite common back in the day, but did it really help? Let's find out.

blogproautomotive.com

Interesting. I mean.......they can't really do that to a Tesla, but I'm curious what the equivalent of a "quick fix" such as this would be.

 

[samuelffrancis]

We all know the OP is buying the car, right?!

I'll let you get on a phone call with my wife. Then afterwards you can hop back on here and let everyone know if that's still the case.

 

[brkaus]

Interesting. I mean.......they can't really do that to a Tesla, but I'm curious what the equivalent of a "quick fix" such as this would be.

The trick I read with a leaf is to reset the BMS and sell before it recalibrates.

 

[samuelffrancis]

You could ask the dealer for their bill of sale - say it’s to check for free supercharging.
You could also go into the service menu and see the current and historical service alerts - might be something there if a major issue exists.
I still think this is less dangerous than others imply. You have a 1 year warranty and could (at worse) auction it off and only lose a few thousand

Thanks, gaswalla. I appreciate the advice and insight. As well as your cautious realism. Turns out my Fusion had a few recalls on it and just to play it safe, I usually make a service appointment as soon as I hear about em, so I doubt I'll actually be able to check it out tomorrow since I'll be without wheels for the day.

 

[jebinc]

I'll let you get on a phone call with my wife. Then afterwards you can hop back on here and let everyone know if that's still the case.

It’s clear from your posts you are getting this thing, which is fine if that’s what you really want and counter to the advice given here and by the wife! All the best! We look forward to hearing how it goes tomorrow, and then…. Your reports and posts, say a month from now. Signing off.

 

[samuelffrancis]

The trick I read with a leaf is to reset the BMS and sell before it recalibrates.

Woof. That's no good.

 

[WyoDude]

You might wanna check your math on that one, partner. I don't actually believe it was 0 people saying it was a good idea. Reread the first page or two of the thread. I remember there being a few.
Anyways, I get the point. No need to point these things out to me . Don't forget..... I am the one that started this thread for this very reason and have kept record myself. Don't misinterpret my curiosity of such a listing for being convinced it's the best idea in the world. lol

I was just kidding around but seriously the response is overwhelming against it and for all the right reasons

 

[WyoDude]

The question nobody asked yet is, what does your wife drive and who’s gonna drive your baby around most of the time when the time comes?

 

[samuelffrancis]

It’s clear from your posts you are getting this thing, which is fine if that’s what you really want and counter to the advice given here and by the wife! All the best! We look forward to hearing how it goes tomorrow, and then…. Your reports and posts, say a month from now. Signing off.

So you think I'd go through all the work of posting on here, and humbly and truthfully wanting to hear everyone's opinion and advice just to blow it off and give the wise majority the finger and tell myself I know better than all of them? Let's pump the brakes before we start acting like we all know what I'm gunna do.
I know I sound biased in some of my comments. I know it may look like I'm gunna do it. But that's not the case. As I've said before, I'm trying to get as much info as possible. Everyone is saying all of these ifs and what if and this could be the case kinda stuff without any evidence. I just think it's worth trying to prove if that's actually the case. I'm not even going tomorrow. The sale's rep hasn't even gotten back to me with half the stuff that's been brought up here or that I've asked for yet. I'm sorry I'm a hopeful and optimistic kid that wants this to be real. Anyways..... sorry to disappoint

 

[samuelffrancis]

The question nobody asked yet is, what does your wife drive and who’s gonna drive your baby around most of the time when the time comes?

She's currently in a 2014 Range Rover Evoque. We'll probably put the baby in there most of the time as it'll be safer with the higher ride height.

 

[samuelffrancis]

She's currently in a 2014 Range Rover Evoque. We'll probably put the baby in there most of the time as it'll be safer with the higher ride height.

I'm glad I can continue to amuse you, @jebinc
I know I'm new to this, but come on man. I came here in honest and open spirits.