Also would appreciate input on purchasing CPO late 2014+ models.
Thanks.
What input do you want about late 2014 models? AP1 hardware was added int late 2014, so there are many 2014 models that can do AP1. If the last six of the VIN is P60000 or greater, you're pretty much guaranteed it has AP1 hardware. If the VIN is P50000-P59999 it's hit or miss. I've seen VINs with P51XXX have AP1, and VINs with P56xxx not have it. If it's model year 2015 it's virtually guaranteed to have the hardware. If you have a good picture of the front of the car, you can often see the rectangular radar transducer in the middle of the honeycomb vent, right below the nosecone (or lic plate if it has one).
If it's a CPO car from Tesla, they will (as of Feb 2017) install and activate AP1 in any car that has the hardware. This takes the guesswork out for you for late 2014 CPO cars. For used cars outside of Tesla it can be tough to confirm AP1 or not. If you find a non CPO used model S that has AP1 hardware, but not the software, it's $3000 (currently) to buy the AP1 software upgrade, so figure that in to the value / price of the car. If the owner is basing their asking price off KBB or edmunds or something, those sites don't consider this scenario. The historical CPO data are good to help you judge price/value of used models s.
If buying a used car outside of Tesla CPO, know that only cars that have never been held by a 3rd party dealer can get an extended warranty (aka extended service agreement or ESA) from Tesla. So if you want an ESA for your used car, it can only have ever been sold private-party. If you find a good private party car, that has much of its original warranty left, this can be a better deal than a CPO from Tesla, because you get the remainder of the factory warranty, plus you can add on an ESA for another 4 years / 50kmi of similar coverage. If you get a low mileage CPO, you get the original factory warranty (restarted from the date you take delivery) and then that's it. They won't sell an ESA for a CPO car, amazingly enough. If it's a high mileage car (close to the 50kmi mark) then CPO is the better deal (all other things equal of course).
As others have stated, any car with AP1 hardware (no matter how new) will never be able to get AP2/EAP/FSD software, unless you can get this guy to do it:
Autopilot Retrofit on Classic P85 | wk057's SkieNET
;-)
