Preparing Model S for third party trade in

[Saabstory88]

I'm getting ready to part with my beloved Model S unfortunately. It appears that it's not eligible for any more autopilot updates, which was a big part of the reason I bought it, so I'm going to head back to Volvo, as they have the next best ADAS for my needs. I want to get this done well before the market really responds to this config no longer seeing AP improvements.

I've only ever traded in one other car before, a Nissan Leaf, and it was to Tesla who really don't care about the condition of a trade-in apparently. I'm still searching for the perfect Volvo wagon, but I'm not entirely sure whether I'm going to be able to find something locally, or use one of the national chains which ship, like Carvana, Vroom, etc... What can I do to make sure that the trade-in offer I receive will be honored when the car carrier arrives at my door to pick up the car? Are there little things I need to be worried about which they will ding? The car is in pretty good shape, with no real cosmetic blemishes, and un-curbed wheels. Just curious if there are any gotchas with trading in to a traditional dealership, or a national chain.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Your trading in your car because it is no longer eligible for Autopilot updates? Can you elaborate on this? It seems as though the solution isn't going to be trading for a car that doesn't have Autopilot if your concern is no longer getting updates to the feature.

 

[Saabstory88]

Your trading in your car because it is no longer eligible for Autopilot updates? Can you elaborate on this? It seems as though the solution isn't going to be trading for a car that doesn't have Autopilot if your concern is no longer getting updates to the feature.

I'm fine with a fixed feature set if that's the deal going in. I'm not fine when the deal changes. I have FSD, but the company clearly never intends to honor it. No cars of my config (Former HW2.0, Currently HW3.0, MCU2) have the following
- Fully working stoplight recognition
- Any Vision based improvements
- FSD Beta (which requires vision)

Given this, and Tesla's explicit response that they will not upgrade my config to the more modern 2.5 cams to support vision, I don't want to own the car anymore. So anyway, yes, I've used the Volvo ADAS system and it's quite competent. It's not possible to be nerfed over the air, as far as I know. It hasn't seemed to really sink into the market that these cars are being left behind, so I want to capitalize on it quickly before people realize it's a dead end car. That's another reason why I want to go with a big chain rather than private party, or anyone specializing in Teslas. But again, I have little experience with trade-ins, so advice on how to trade in a Tesla to a "normal" car dealing entity would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sandollars]

What year is your car?

 

[Saabstory88]

What year is your car?

Build was in August 2017

 

[mp0i]

I have a 2017 Model S purchased in May 2017 with FSD and am currently running 2021.32.22 with HW 3.0, MCU2. I had Tesla upgrade my computer to HW 3.0 and I paid $1500 for the MCU2 upgrade (thanks to the gains in my Tesla stock) and currently my car sees traffic lights, slows for them when on AP etc.. I am not sure what you are referring to when you mention Tesla will not update your car any longer. Am I missing something?

 

[SoCal Buzz]

I'm fine with a fixed feature set if that's the deal going in. I'm not fine when the deal changes. I have FSD, but the company clearly never intends to honor it. No cars of my config (Former HW2.0, Currently HW3.0, MCU2) have the following
- Fully working stoplight recognition
- Any Vision based improvements
- FSD Beta (which requires vision)

Given this, and Tesla's explicit response that they will not upgrade my config to the more modern 2.5 cams to support vision, I don't want to own the car anymore. So anyway, yes, I've used the Volvo ADAS system and it's quite competent. It's not possible to be nerfed over the air, as far as I know. It hasn't seemed to really sink into the market that these cars are being left behind, so I want to capitalize on it quickly before people realize it's a dead end car. That's another reason why I want to go with a big chain rather than private party, or anyone specializing in Teslas. But again, I have little experience with trade-ins, so advice on how to trade in a Tesla to a "normal" car dealing entity would be greatly appreciated.

I would not overestimate the value the average buyer of a used Tesla will place on FSD (and future upgrades). IMO, the majority of buyers care more about EV tech, range, performance and design. Your car should be very marketable if it's in good condition, and these days may even sell at a premium. I agree that Tesla has broken many FSD promises (which is why I will never purchase a feature that does not yet exist), but your target buyer won't have this baggage and can enjoy all the benefits of as-is AP. So my advice would be to get a nice detail job and market the condition, battery range, etc. Most people buy what they can see, touch and drive.

 

[Saabstory88]

I would not overestimate the value the average buyer of a used Tesla will place on FSD (and future upgrades). IMO, the majority of buyers care more about EV tech, range, performance and design. Your car should be very marketable if it's in good condition, and these days may even sell at a premium. I agree that Tesla has broken many FSD promises (which is why I will never purchase a feature that does not yet exist), but your target buyer won't have this baggage and can enjoy all the benefits of as-is AP. So my advice would be to get a nice detail job and market the condition, battery range, etc. Most people buy what they can see, touch and drive.

My target market is dealers, not private parties. I'm looking to do a trade-in.

 

[SoCal Buzz]

My target market is dealers, not private parties. I'm looking to do a trade-in.

Same advice; they are simply going to resell, so make it look immaculate. Battery range and feature highlights are the other things they can market. A private sale will probably net you + $4K or so, but that does take some work.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Don’t forget to do a factory reset when you give up the car, to erase all your settings and personal data.

 

[PCMc]

Same advice; they are simply going to resell, so make it look immaculate. Battery range and feature highlights are the other things they can market. A private sale will probably net you + $4K or so, but that does take some work.

RE Private sale netting more ... in some states you only pay sales tax on the net purchase price of a new vehicle. In these situations, depending upon the value of the trade-in, the savings in state sales tax can offset most of the private party sales differential.

State I live in with 7% sales tax on net cost, trade-in of a $45-50k vehicle like the OP is taking is worth $3-3.5K is tax savings. So while in some situations private party sale may make a lot of sense, in other situations some will view the hassle factor is not worth the minimal economic benefit.

All that is to say I can understand the OPs perspective of why they might be wanting to look at trade-in versus private party sale. Personally I've been in both situations over the past 20 years; sold a couple cars private party and traded a couple in. Which was the right approach depended a lot on the situation at the time.

 

[ucmndd]

Am I missing something?

No, you’re not. OP is drawing their own conclusions based on a week of the FSD beta being in the wild and presenting said conclusions as fact.

 

[Unclepaul]

The manager that sets the price of your trade in will most likely never see your car when you bring it in. He will look to see what your model/year/mileage is selling for at auction and know it's value. Little emotion in these guys, but the facts. They know which colors bring the most, how much it will cost to recondition it and what price they will bring in resale. They will decide to keep it on their lot, but if it does not quickly sell they will send it to an auction. They also know that there is a shortage of used cars and that ordering a new one will take many months.

 

[Saabstory88]

The manager that sets the price of your trade in will most likely never see your car when you bring it in. He will look to see what your model/year/mileage is selling for at auction and know it's value. Little emotion in these guys, but the facts. They know which colors bring the most, how much it will cost to recondition it and what price they will bring in resale. They will decide to keep it on their lot, but if it does not quickly sell they will send it to an auction. They also know that there is a shortage of used cars and that ordering a new one will take many months.

That's very useful information. Luckily the vehicles I'm looking at are actually still pretty undesirable (wagons), so their prices seem to have stayed pretty low. Time to capitalize on the high value of my vehicle, I've got trade-in offers for the same price I bought it for!

 

[swt2c]

I'm fine with a fixed feature set if that's the deal going in. I'm not fine when the deal changes. I have FSD, but the company clearly never intends to honor it. No cars of my config (Former HW2.0, Currently HW3.0, MCU2) have the following
- Fully working stoplight recognition
- Any Vision based improvements
- FSD Beta (which requires vision)

Given this, and Tesla's explicit response that they will not upgrade my config to the more modern 2.5 cams to support vision, I don't want to own the car anymore. So anyway, yes, I've used the Volvo ADAS system and it's quite competent. It's not possible to be nerfed over the air, as far as I know. It hasn't seemed to really sink into the market that these cars are being left behind, so I want to capitalize on it quickly before people realize it's a dead end car. That's another reason why I want to go with a big chain rather than private party, or anyone specializing in Teslas. But again, I have little experience with trade-ins, so advice on how to trade in a Tesla to a "normal" car dealing entity would be greatly appreciated.

Do you have any evidence to back up your claims about this? I have a similar configuration car. What is not working about stoplight recognition that differs from other configuration cars? What vision based improvements have been made to other cars? I agree that FSD beta doesn't appear to be released to any original AP 2.0 cars, but what evidence do you have that it will never be?

 

[Saabstory88]

Do you have any evidence to back up your claims about this? I have a similar configuration car. What is not working about stoplight recognition that differs from other configuration cars? What vision based improvements have been made to other cars? I agree that FSD beta doesn't appear to be released to any original AP 2.0 cars, but what evidence do you have that it will never be?

I'm just giving into the fear and hyperbole, seeing my S drift further from the capabilities of my 3. Catastrophizing makes that actually more calculated underlying financial reason emotionally bearable. At the end of the day, the real, non hyperbolic reason is that I want to capitalize on the unusually high value of this vehicle, into an otherwise tolerable short term substitute, and wait a year or so until the value of more recent S's has come back down a bit.