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Pre-Owned MS Pricing

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Having now driven an MS Performance, I’m thinking about upgrading from my more mundane 85kWh MS. I know, I should have gone for it originally, but I talked myself out of it then. Having driven a P for a few days I’ve changed my mind.


Not needing two, if I’m going to get a P, I have to sell my MS. It’s a 2013 with 7,500 miles on it. 85kWh | Blue | Grey Leather | Obeche Wood Gloss | 21" Wheels | Pano Roof | Tech Pkg | Sound Studio | Paint Armor| Tinted Windows. I keep the car in my garage at home, and at work. And, I’ve used a SuperCharger exactly 4 times (on the way back to Los Angeles from picking the car up in Fremont, on a drive to check out the then new SuperCharger’s in Buellton and when I stopped by Hawthorne for a few minutes to show a friend how the SuperChargers are set up). I wash the car by hand most weekends – it’s never been to a Carwash.


I’m trying to figure out a fair price and the best way to sell the MS so that I can sell it and order a P85. It's a Win Win: Someone will love this car and I'll be able to get a P85!


Thoughts?

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry for the error: I meant 19" wheels, not 21".
 
Indeed while it is a common option, I didn't really feel the need for it, so I didn't order it. I have a couple of "Gear Head" friends that both love -- and hate -- air suspension. They like the option of raising the car when necessary, but also told me that they've each had to repair it on cars (Not Teslas!) they've owned. I figured the Pano / Tech / Sound package were, to my thinking anyway, "necessary." The Air Suspension seemed less so, and I'm perfectly happy without it. One of the Gear Heads raves about the ride of the MS -- he thinks it may be the best car he's ever driven.
 
I find this an interesting question as well... how do people price used Model S.
Price of comparable new car -1% per month -$1 per mile - tax credit?
Or price when bought (tends to be lower) and same adjustments?
Other formulas?

(and for those wondering... yes... I am at least idly considering the idea or a red 85...)
 
I will play the pricing game and give an opinion what I think it is worth. This is obviously just my opinion, and has no effect on what someone will actually pay for this vehicle.

To buy this configuration brand new today would cost $93,420.
First order of business, subtract the federal tax credit. $93,420 - $7,500 = $85,920.

Now is where the tricky part begins.

Let's assume that this car will have a 100,000 mile life (will probably be more, but this is the value I like to use when pricing a car) You have put 7500 miles on the vehicle, using up approximately 7.5% of its life.
$85,920 * .075 = $6,444
Let's also assume that a portion of a new cars value comes from the car simply being a brand new car. Every new car looses value the second it drives off the lot. For most cars, I would place this initial loss at 10%-15% of the purchase price. In the case of the Model S however, due to the extremely limited supply of used vehicles, combined with the several month lead time on new purchases, I am going to give this initial depreciation a value of 5%
$85,920 * .05 = $4,296

Now that we have some values, we can do some math.

$85,920 (After tax credit value of car)
-$6,444
-$4,296
________

$75,180



If we round this down to an even $75,000, that would, in my opinion, give you a pretty realistic value of what your car is currently worth.
 
Rifleman, I admire your very rational analysis but given the current high interest in the Model S and the fact that buyers have to wait about two months after ordering an 85 to receive their car (the P model of course arrives more quickly), I bet the car in question would sell for thousands more. How much more is of course impossible to predict with much accuracy.
 
Rifleman, I admire your very rational analysis but given the current high interest in the Model S and the fact that buyers have to wait about two months after ordering an 85 to receive their car (the P model of course arrives more quickly), I bet the car in question would sell for thousands more. How much more is of course impossible to predict with much accuracy.

I could not agree more. As I said, this is just what I feel the car is worth, not what someone will pay for it :)
 
I will play the pricing game and give an opinion what I think it is worth. This is obviously just my opinion, and has no effect on what someone will actually pay for this vehicle.

To buy this configuration brand new today would cost $93,420.
First order of business, subtract the federal tax credit. $93,420 - $7,500 = $85,920.

Now is where the tricky part begins.

Let's assume that this car will have a 100,000 mile life (will probably be more, but this is the value I like to use when pricing a car) You have put 7500 miles on the vehicle, using up approximately 7.5% of its life.
$85,920 * .075 = $6,444
Let's also assume that a portion of a new cars value comes from the car simply being a brand new car. Every new car looses value the second it drives off the lot. For most cars, I would place this initial loss at 10%-15% of the purchase price. In the case of the Model S however, due to the extremely limited supply of used vehicles, combined with the several month lead time on new purchases, I am going to give this initial depreciation a value of 5%
$85,920 * .05 = $4,296

If we round this down to an even $75,000, that would, in my opinion, give you a pretty realistic value of what your car is currently worth.
Excellent - that was exactly the type of input that I was looking for. Do others agree that

Price new today - tax credit - 5% - 1%-per-1000-miles-driven

is a reasonable lower boundary for the asking price?

And that the 5% can then be argued about, based on the waiting period for a new car? On a P85, which tends to be available in usually under six weeks the number might be slightly higher, for an S60 which right now has a ~3 month wait it might be lower?
 
That seems like a good, logical assessment. Also, as it gets older and more and more cars come off the line, the value will only go down. While someone might be willing to pay more now there is a near point when it will become worth less than $75,000. One other thing not factored in is the premium "car enthusiasts" will pay for the ability to customize a car 100% to their liking. So, unless the options are 100% what someone is wanting they probably will just order a new one exactly how they want it.

$75K is probably what I'd be comfortable paying for it but not more.


I will play the pricing game and give an opinion what I think it is worth. This is obviously just my opinion, and has no effect on what someone will actually pay for this vehicle.

To buy this configuration brand new today would cost $93,420.
First order of business, subtract the federal tax credit. $93,420 - $7,500 = $85,920.

Now is where the tricky part begins.

Let's assume that this car will have a 100,000 mile life (will probably be more, but this is the value I like to use when pricing a car) You have put 7500 miles on the vehicle, using up approximately 7.5% of its life.
$85,920 * .075 = $6,444
Let's also assume that a portion of a new cars value comes from the car simply being a brand new car. Every new car looses value the second it drives off the lot. For most cars, I would place this initial loss at 10%-15% of the purchase price. In the case of the Model S however, due to the extremely limited supply of used vehicles, combined with the several month lead time on new purchases, I am going to give this initial depreciation a value of 5%
$85,920 * .05 = $4,296

Now that we have some values, we can do some math.

$85,920 (After tax credit value of car)
-$6,444
-$4,296
________

$75,180



If we round this down to an even $75,000, that would, in my opinion, give you a pretty realistic value of what your car is currently worth.
 
doesn't Tesla use the formula of 1% per month and $1/mile to discount their cars? is that fair to apply on other used MS's? I think either rifleman's method or Tesla's would come close to that $70-75K range.
 
I don't agree with this pricing. By that model, my 8 months old P85 with 30k miles that cost $103k which would cost you $118k today is only worth $52k??. honestly - no way. the car is brand new. - $1/mile - 1%/month -5% is absurd. my car is not "halved" in value already.
 
I don't agree with this pricing. By that model, my 8 months old P85 with 30k miles that cost $103k which would cost you $118k today is only worth $52k??. honestly - no way. the car is brand new. - $1/mile - 1%/month -5% is absurd. my car is not "halved" in value already.
fair enough. i guess it only works since the tesla loaners usually only have 5k-10k miles on them.
 
Loaners are designed to gradually improve in value over time to basically guarantee they sell within months.
Hence you would expect that after the first few months a loaner would be significantly cheaper than a similar second hand car (after tax credit etc are taken care of of course)
 
I don't agree with this pricing. By that model, my 8 months old P85 with 30k miles that cost $103k which would cost you $118k today is only worth $52k??. honestly - no way. the car is brand new. - $1/mile - 1%/month -5% is absurd. my car is not "halved" in value already.

I am not sure how you have up with $52k.

By my model :

$118,000
- $7,500
_______________
$110,500

30k miles = 30% depreciation = $33,150
5% drive off penalty = $5,525

Car Value = $110,500 - $33,150 - $5,525 = $71,825

My model comes up with $71,825, and honestly, with 30,000 miles on your car, that is a pretty fair price. Most 8 month old cars will have less than 10,000 miles on them. To reach 30,000 in such a short time, one would have to assume that you have likely used almost an entire battery cycle every day, and would most likely have taken frequent advantage of the supercharger network. Using the battery in this way has the potential to significantly increase the rate capacity degradation. (note, you may not have done this, or that your car has suffered any range decay, but without any details one way or another, most buyers will make this assumption).
 
Yobigd20's calculations are:

$103,000 - $7500 (tax credit) - $8240 (1% per month depreciation) - $33,150 (mileage depreciation) = $54,110

If you put on 30k miles in 8 months, you bet your car has depreciated really really bad. Your warranty is just about up. At your rate, warranty will be out in another 5 months.

Tesla will use the "original purchase price" for their calculations and not the "current MSRP". I assume that because when I got Roadster's trade in value, they used the original 2009 purchase price not the latest 2011 model price. Which makes sense because who knows what the "current car" has for options and design changes.
 
If you put on 30k miles in 8 months, you bet your car has depreciated really really bad. Your warranty is just about up. At your rate, warranty will be out in another 5 months.
This is part of what upsets me about the WA warranty extension taking so long to become available. I'm doing about 20k a year (so far) which maps to 2.5 years on the original warranty for the car vs. the unlimited 8yr on the battery. A lot can get unhappy in 5.5 years making those years...more stressful. At least extending it to 5 years would close that gap somewhat.