Purchasing used MS from Tesla vs 3rd party

[Tdblanchard]

Does anyone here have any experience buying a used Tesla from a 3rd party dealership?
My search thus far has been solely within Tesla’s used inventory but I just found a pretty nice deal on a 2016 70D with some nice options from another dealership.
Will Tesla still honor the warranty and give me all the support?
Should I just wait until I find a gem on the Tesla site?

 

[Tam]

...Will Tesla still honor the warranty and give me all the support?...

Yes. Standard 4 years / 50,000 miles whichever first from the date of the original first owner.

 

[cookie99]

vs Tesla used inventory which is 4 years / 50,000 from the date YOU purchase it from them (if the vehicle has less than 50,000 miles), or 2 years up to 100k total miles if the vehicle has over 50k miles.

I actually value this warranty alot, because you actually cannot even purchase this extended warranty from tesla unless you were the original owner.

 

[AjrUleZ]

I got mine used 2016 MODel s from third party and i got tesla warranty of 4 years and 50k miles from the date of my purchase Sep 2019

 

[Tdblanchard]

How the heck did you swing that??
I thought the warranty was from the date of original purchase if you bought from anyone other than Tesla.

Please share how you went about this!!

 

[AjrUleZ]

if you are buying from 3rd party it should say still under tesla warranty and then I did chat with tesla regarding this and i see in my account it shows 50k or 4 years. But no free supercharging sadly.

 

[cookie99]

if you are buying from 3rd party it should say still under tesla warranty and then I did chat with tesla regarding this and i see in my account it shows 50k or 4 years. But no free supercharging sadly.

then you are simply mistaken. it is 50k miles or 4 years from original purchase date. this is for ALL cars sold as required by law. you do not have 50k miles or 4 years from the date you purchased it. only if you purchase from Tesla will you get this.

 

[thegruf]

3rd party - you should get the car as originally sold, unless there is any feature that was declared non-transferable to a future owner (some Tesla CPO have non-transferable free supercharging for example).

Tesla CPO - you get what Tesla sells you - but be warned this may differ significantly from the original spec, so you do need to read the advertised spec very carefully.
In particular check type of AP - none/AP/EAP/FSD, free supercharging status, wheels etc. You also rarely get a chance to physically view the vehicle in the flesh prior purchase and there has been numerous accounts of buyers getting vehicles with unexpected cosmetic damage.

Tesla are constantly fiddling around with CPO specs as demand levers. You may also get a new/extended warranty which has others have said can be of considerable value and is not something a 3rd party vendor can add (although there are 3rd party warranty companies ofc but the are not Tesla original warranty).

 

[Big Toys]

I bought used from Tesla specifically for what is essentially the new car warranty starting from the date and mileage YOU purchase it.

 

[Tdblanchard]

Of course once I’ve test driven a Model S and have 98% decided we’re pulling the trigger, all the black or midnight silver versions of my perfect match have disappeared from Tesla’s inventory!
I guess I have to wait...
There is one third party dealership with a 70D that looks nice but that Tesla warranty seems like a legitimate deal breaker.

 

[Tdblanchard]

Spoke with my advisor yesterday and he confirmed that there will be 1000+ added to inventory in the next few days!!

 

[riles246]

You would need to get a price that is $3k less if you're buying a MS from a 3rd party. A new 4 year warranty probably costs about that, and that's the big difference between buying from Tesla vs. buying 3rd party.

When I was looking, all 3rd parties were the same price or higher compared to buying from Tesla, so it was a no-brainer. Might as well get the free 4 year warranty.

Side note, the purchase experience stinks buying from Tesla, but once the car is in your hands you're way better off. So you just have to get through the pain

 

[Prachatice]

A touch off topic but if I sell my CPO with additional 4 year warranty, does this transfer to new owner? Also, I had a little servicing issue and they claimed I had a $200 "deductible" with my CPO warranty. Is this really a thing each time I bring it in? Luckily, it was still under the original warranty at the time so I didn't pay but would like to know for the future.

 

[snorp]

Spoke with my advisor yesterday and he confirmed that there will be 1000+ added to inventory in the next few days!!

That's great news as I'm in the market for a used MS myself. Was wondering why inventory was drying up.

I had some questions about the various AP descriptions etc... for the used MS's and received the following info from Tesla in case anyone is/was wondering the same thing:

"Autopilot debuted in September 2014, and during that time, it was only mostly put into P85D’s that were built. It didn’t start being put into 85D’s , 70D’s, 90D’s etc in large quantities until 2015. So the bulk of 2014 non performance cars will not have Autopilot.

I’m not sure what features you think ID it as having Autopilot, but my guess would be the front radar sensor under the front nose cone / grill area. This isn’t strictly an autopilot feature, and was in some cars without autopilot hardware at the time. We incorporated it into parking sensors and improved collision avoidance safety systems that were separate from Autopilot features at the time, but later incorporated into Autopilot functionality.

When it comes to Autopilot listings on the website for AP1 ( September 2014 – November 2016) it doesn’t matter if it’s Autopilot Hardware or Autopilot with convenience features – it’s the same thing. We’re mandated by the Federal government to display the features of the car as they came originally. So if the first owner didn’t order the car with Autopilot features turned on, it lists as Autopilot or Autopilot hardware. If they bought it with the features turned on, it’ll say “Autopilot with convenience features”.

However, when we resell a vehicle from this time, whether the first owner had it turned on or not, we activate it to its full AP1 array of features. It’s actually a good deal when compared to AP2 cars, as some features are still behind the full self driving capability pay-wall for things like auto park and summon, when that’s baked into AP1."

 

[Greg29]

Best answer is to buy private party from a Tesla owner - preferably one who has already obtained a lowball trade-in quote from Tesla.

 

[Tdblanchard]

So I found a 70D with 21" wheels with 22k miles for $46k.
I'm having a tough time getting a straight answer about what specific options it has. I'm assuming that if it has those 21 inchers, the owner opted for some other stuff but...
The factory warranty is good until August 2020 so I imagine I can have Tesla give it a once over prior to warranty expiration but this car is 200 miles away so I'm reluctant to take the road trip without a complete idea of this car...

 

[thegruf]

another thing to watch out for in my experience with Tesla CPO is missing cables + adapters + first aid kit etc. (and a broken UMC cable)
Not earth shatteringly expensive in themselves but an irritating addtional cost when you just spent a ton on the car only to find stuff that should have been included is missing, and then just be impressed at how hard Tesla ignore you after sale when you gently and politely request them to include the missing parts. Caveat emptor yet again.

 

[Twells1]

For some reason in Vancouver the CPO deals are superior when you factor in the added warranty. On a 2016 75 D with 51k , I received another 4 year / 80k bumper to bumper plus the remaining years on the 8 year battery. I also got the free battery unlock and performance uncork as well as full AP1 enabled.

Value 4 $ was exceptional compared to dealers but their isn’t a ton of supply.

The buying experience and communications however, was a whole other story.......

 

[azblue]

I ended up buying a used MS from a dealer 1300 Miles away. After tons of research on tesla cpo , ev-cpo and of course this forum.
At the time of buying there were two almost identical cars with the specifications I wanted. a CPO and Dealer.
I went with the dealer. Here is what I followed
Tons of Research, Year and Month of manufacture, HW/SW.
I called the dealer, had a couple of face time sessions, went through every single option on the screens twice.
Took the VIN to the service center spoke to the delivery manger who was kind enough to run the vin. Checked the build sheet and how many times it was into a service center. Asked his opinion about the two in consideration and he steered me towards the dealer one as it was a later build and of course it had EAP as well ( which I was not expecting ). It took me a while to find a car as I was looking for a Deep Blue 2017 or later with premium white and AP and 2.5 Hardware
I then sent market research notes as to what I was willing to pay. The dealer did negotiate.
Bought it drove it home, the car was everything I wanted, Supercharged about 9 times on the way back. Took about a month to have access to the tesla app. Now I hardly think about the extended warranty , and I guess I will cross the bridge when I come to it. After buying made a service appointment , had a few rattle and squeaks , the yellow screen fixed under warranty.

Hope this helps and happy hunting. Most dealers are clueless when it comes to tesla's on their lot. It is changing though as there are a few dedicated EV res ellers out there.

 

[Kandiru]

Beware, third party from private seller allows you to purchase ext. warranty, Tesla will refuse to sell ext. warranty for cars that have been listed under an ICE dealer.