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[RESOLVED] Tesla Owner Delivery - False Advertisment - Advice?

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Hey Guys,

I purchased a CPO Tesla FROM Tesla itself. Prior to picking up the car they assured me there was no accidents and EVEN Provided me the Carfax indicating so, in which I have a copy. It specifically says ordered from Tesla and shows no accidents reported. This was about 6 months ago. Just last week, seeing the Auto-pilot, and being a tech enthusiast I was just curious and submitted an inquiry to Tesla about trading in the Model S for one that has Auto-pilot and perhaps a "D". The salesperson pulls my cars information and provides me with a TRADEIN form and also indicates that there is an accident reported on the vehicle.

I honestly was shocked and felt deceived. I told the trade in advisor that I was given a Carfax ordered by Tesla when I bought it as assured that it was not in an accident. Trade in advisor indicated that they'll check with their manager and let me know what they can do. So.. the result is $2,000 above their initial trade in value. $2,000 for a mistake they did ?? SMH, If I had known it had an accident I would have picked a different one.

I've been thinking about this and honestly the only thing that would make me happy, is if they take the car back, credit me WHAT I PAID for the car, for a different one of my choice ( one with NO accident history ). Thoughts?
 
Hey Guys,

I purchased a CPO Tesla FROM Tesla itself. Prior to picking up the car they assured me there was no accidents and EVEN Provided me the Carfax indicating so, in which I have a copy. It specifically says ordered from Tesla and shows no accidents reported. This was about 6 months ago. Just last week, seeing the Auto-pilot, and being a tech enthusiast I was just curious and submitted an inquiry to Tesla about trading in the Model S for one that has Auto-pilot and perhaps a "D". The salesperson pulls my cars information and provides me with a TRADEIN form and also indicates that there is an accident reported on the vehicle.

I honestly was shocked and felt deceived. I told the trade in advisor that I was given a Carfax ordered by Tesla when I bought it as assured that it was not in an accident. Trade in advisor indicated that they'll check with their manager and let me know what they can do. So.. the result is $2,000 above their initial trade in value. $2,000 for a mistake they did ?? SMH, If I had known it had an accident I would have picked a different one.

I've been thinking about this and honestly the only thing that would make me happy, is if they take the car back, credit me WHAT I PAID for the car, for a different one of my choice ( one with NO accident history ). Thoughts?
Your request seems reasonable to me.
 
If you pull a CarFax now, what does it show? If there is an accident, how close was it to when you bought the car? I am not sure what the time lag is in things being posted to CarFax, but perhaps the CarFax WAS clean when you bought it and the accident only posted later on even though it happened earlier on.

Anyway, assuming the CarFax really shows something, I'd argue they did not do their due diligence so you should not be the one penalized, rather than accuse them of fraud--if they punt you off to the lawyers, its probably not going to be helpful to a quick resolution.
 
Hey Guys,

I purchased a CPO Tesla FROM Tesla itself. Prior to picking up the car they assured me there was no accidents and EVEN Provided me the Carfax indicating so, in which I have a copy. It specifically says ordered from Tesla and shows no accidents reported. This was about 6 months ago. Just last week, seeing the Auto-pilot, and being a tech enthusiast I was just curious and submitted an inquiry to Tesla about trading in the Model S for one that has Auto-pilot and perhaps a "D". The salesperson pulls my cars information and provides me with a TRADEIN form and also indicates that there is an accident reported on the vehicle.

I honestly was shocked and felt deceived. I told the trade in advisor that I was given a Carfax ordered by Tesla when I bought it as assured that it was not in an accident. Trade in advisor indicated that they'll check with their manager and let me know what they can do. So.. the result is $2,000 above their initial trade in value. $2,000 for a mistake they did ?? SMH, If I had known it had an accident I would have picked a different one.

I've been thinking about this and honestly the only thing that would make me happy, is if they take the car back, credit me WHAT I PAID for the car, for a different one of my choice ( one with NO accident history ). Thoughts?

If you buy a car from them and then want to trade it back in later, the value should be reduced. With used cars dealers buy them at a lower price, then put in some work to fix them up and then sell them at a higher price. That is the way the game works. However if they provided you with a Carfax that was clean when they sold it to you that said it was clean, you haven't had an accident, and now they claim you have a lower trade in value because it was in a accident, one of three things is going on here: Tesla lied when you bought the car, Carfax messed up, of the trade in guy is lying to you trying to get a low ball price. If you have the documentation from when you bought the car, you could probably win in small claims court, if either Carfax screwed up or Tesla lied to you when you bought the car. I would think one of those two should owe you the $2K for the reduced value of the car. If the trade in guy is lying to you, I would take it up the management ladder.

You could get a Carfax yourself which would indicate when the accident was if there was one and compare it to the original report Tesla showed you.
 
I'd go with that others suggested, get your own carfax report and see when the accident was reported, then try to figure out what might have happened. Your options will depend on what the laws say about this in where you live. If carfax messed up (likely scenario), then Tesla is in the clear and it's possible your only recourse may be getting the carfax report fee back ($20?). In some places (I think Quebec Canada is one of them) you get to sue Tesla, they get to sue the guy who traded the car and that guy may sue the previous owner if the accident was his - can turn into a VERY long process as nobody get paid until the chain of lawsuits is concluded. Remember that Tesla may be extending the $2K to you out of good will, and if you start any legal action that offer will likely disappear, so I'd get more information before threatening legal action - pay for the carfax of your own to start with, compare the two.
 
You certainly have a right to be angry and upset. By why the reaction that you demand they take back the car and give you another one the same? Until now you were happy with it, right? If they somehow compensate you for the diminished value, you can now trade up, which is what you were looking at doing in the first place...
 
OP, asking for your entire bit of money back is quite unreasonable. You've driven the car for 6 months, I'd guess have enjoyed doing so, and whatever crash the car was in has apparently not impacted your use or enjoyment of the car. Ideally you should not be penalized for whomever's mistake this is but you shouldn't get a free ride. An extremely fair outcome for you would be Tesla offers you a trade-in value based on what you paid less 6 months use which I would guesstimate to be about US$3,000.
 
Two items:

First, if CarFax's guarantee does not cover their missing the single most important datum for which one purchases it, of what use is CarFax? That's not a rhetorical question.

Second, although I do sympathize with the OP's plight, does anyone - including OP - believe that the words "False Advertisement" in the thread title are appropriate? I find them inflammatory, but won't take it into the Mod section if others can suggest that they're at least close to being on target.
 
Two items:

First, if CarFax's guarantee does not cover their missing the single most important datum for which one purchases it, of what use is CarFax? That's not a rhetorical question.

Being sometimes on top of things is better than being never on top of things? I'm not sure if that's rhetorical or not.

Second, although I do sympathize with the OP's plight, does anyone - including OP - believe that the words "False Advertisement" in the thread title are appropriate? I find them inflammatory, but won't take it into the Mod section if others can suggest that they're at least close to being on target.

I vote inflammatory (if we're voting).
 
Two items:

First, if CarFax's guarantee does not cover their missing the single most important datum for which one purchases it, of what use is CarFax? That's not a rhetorical question.

Second, although I do sympathize with the OP's plight, does anyone - including OP - believe that the words "False Advertisement" in the thread title are appropriate? I find them inflammatory, but won't take it into the Mod section if others can suggest that they're at least close to being on target.

Tesla had to have known there was damage as they require an inspection upon completion, right? It was advertised as clean title and it wasn't. I doubt this was intentionally deceiving, but, OP will suffer damages. Even if he keeps the car, it won't be the same.
 
You also have to realize that Carfax is not immediate. Sometimes there can be quite a delay in posting to Carfax. That may have been the issue.

- - - Updated - - -

Carfax misses a lot and basically their only response is to shrug and say nothing is guaranteed.

Also remember that Carfax is not better (or faster) than what is reported to them.

I do not work for Carfax by the way....just know of others who have also depended on Carfax only to later find out information was added much later on....
 
If feel like the whole point of a CPO is that Tesla would do such an inspection and if they miss something it's on them.

Depending upon the nature of an accident, repaired damage may very well not be something anyone would find on inspection. I wonder now if the seller rushed to sell a repaired vehicle, knowing they had a small window where CarFax would not pick up the accident and the car would show as clean. I doubt Tesla would bother with hiding something like that by forging a CarFax report - not the company I know & even if they were a diff kind of company, the risk/benefit ratio wouldn't support doing something so stupid.