I recognise that this isn't strictly a Tesla specific topic, but I thought I'd share my experience nevertheless in the hope it might help others in future.
Like many others I needed to sell my current car, a '2017 Mercedes A220d Premium+' to fund the purchase of my new Tesla, an M3P that's been on order for what feels like forever!
Selling cars is not something I have ever enjoyed, so naturally I started by looking to see what Tesla would offer in part exchange and compared that with WBAC. I received several wildly differing quotes over the space of a few months with little mileage difference in between:
All the estimates I received are tabulated below:
I should have ripped Tesla's proverbial arm off in October 2020 and ordered the M3P then with their P/X offer of £16,600, but I was unfortunately not quite in a position to do so.
I did however place my order in early January, luckily shortly before the £3.5k Tesla price hike!
The final p/x offer I received from Tesla in April 2021 was simply too low for me to swallow even though I would have loved the convenience. I also had an additional issue with the tax, MOT and annual service being due in the next few weeks, likely before I get my M3P.
I therefore decide to try my luck proceeding with £15,616 estimate I was provided by Motorway.co.uk.
Using their website, I entered the full specification of the car and reported the damage (4 scuffed alloys, medium scuff on passenger door and a few minor stone chips on bonnet), I then received a link via SMS which took me to a website where I could take and upload the required photos. Following this I received a revised sale estimate of £15,024.
A day later the car was posted on their daily sales list where 3000+ dealers (allegedly!) had an opportunity to place a bid.. At 3pm on the dot, I received notification of the highest bid which I was very pleased to learn was £15,767.
I was contact by the dealer a day or so later who explained the process. I started to get a little nervous at this point as the dealer was keen to point out that if upon collection they found issues that hadn't been declared, the offer amount would be reduced accordingly. We arranged collection for today.
Yesterday I found a break in the rain to give the car a good clean (usually pay others to do that for me!) and in doing so noticed a few chips that I hadn't been aware of. To try and avoid any unpleasant surprises, I therefore took some new photos of what I'd found and shared them with the dealer. They didn't reply!
I had a nervous wait today before a pleasant chap arrived to inspect the car. This wasn't the dealer, but someone contracted by them to inspect and collect vehicles on their behalf. The inspection was quick and painless. He didn't seem to care about the additional road rash I'd found, but did notice one of the tyres had worn unevenly (borderline illegal) and also a small dent on the bumper that I was aware of, but had kind of hoped they wouldn't notice!
There was a quick call between the person who visited and the dealer and I was quickly made a revised offer of £15,500 due to the additional dent and tyre which I duly accepted. This amount was transferred into my account with 5 minutes, I handed over the two keys and waved the car goodbye. The whole inspection/hand-over process lasted no more than 15 minutes.
From start to finish, the whole process was concluded (with money in the bank) in 8 days.
In retrospect I was very happy with the Motorway.co.uk process, but I did have some anxiety related to having to potentially re-negotiate upon inspection. This anxiety turned out to be largely unfounded.
To conclude, I would recommend the motorway.co.uk route to others who want to avoid the hassle of a private sale, but be sure to accurately document all known damage to avoid any last minute 'chipping' off their accepted offer.
* I would like to emphasise that I have no affiliation with any of the organisations mentioned.
Like many others I needed to sell my current car, a '2017 Mercedes A220d Premium+' to fund the purchase of my new Tesla, an M3P that's been on order for what feels like forever!
Selling cars is not something I have ever enjoyed, so naturally I started by looking to see what Tesla would offer in part exchange and compared that with WBAC. I received several wildly differing quotes over the space of a few months with little mileage difference in between:
All the estimates I received are tabulated below:
Date | Mileage | Tesla P/X | WBAC | Motorway.co.uk |
Oct 2020 | 41,200 | £16,600 | £16,000 | N/A |
Jan 2021 | 41,359 | £14,300 | £16,000 | N/A |
April 2021 | 41,850 | £12,950 | £14,500 | £14,996 |
May 2021 | 42,143 | N/A | £15,265 | £15,616 |
I should have ripped Tesla's proverbial arm off in October 2020 and ordered the M3P then with their P/X offer of £16,600, but I was unfortunately not quite in a position to do so.
I did however place my order in early January, luckily shortly before the £3.5k Tesla price hike!
The final p/x offer I received from Tesla in April 2021 was simply too low for me to swallow even though I would have loved the convenience. I also had an additional issue with the tax, MOT and annual service being due in the next few weeks, likely before I get my M3P.
I therefore decide to try my luck proceeding with £15,616 estimate I was provided by Motorway.co.uk.
Using their website, I entered the full specification of the car and reported the damage (4 scuffed alloys, medium scuff on passenger door and a few minor stone chips on bonnet), I then received a link via SMS which took me to a website where I could take and upload the required photos. Following this I received a revised sale estimate of £15,024.
A day later the car was posted on their daily sales list where 3000+ dealers (allegedly!) had an opportunity to place a bid.. At 3pm on the dot, I received notification of the highest bid which I was very pleased to learn was £15,767.
I was contact by the dealer a day or so later who explained the process. I started to get a little nervous at this point as the dealer was keen to point out that if upon collection they found issues that hadn't been declared, the offer amount would be reduced accordingly. We arranged collection for today.
Yesterday I found a break in the rain to give the car a good clean (usually pay others to do that for me!) and in doing so noticed a few chips that I hadn't been aware of. To try and avoid any unpleasant surprises, I therefore took some new photos of what I'd found and shared them with the dealer. They didn't reply!
I had a nervous wait today before a pleasant chap arrived to inspect the car. This wasn't the dealer, but someone contracted by them to inspect and collect vehicles on their behalf. The inspection was quick and painless. He didn't seem to care about the additional road rash I'd found, but did notice one of the tyres had worn unevenly (borderline illegal) and also a small dent on the bumper that I was aware of, but had kind of hoped they wouldn't notice!
There was a quick call between the person who visited and the dealer and I was quickly made a revised offer of £15,500 due to the additional dent and tyre which I duly accepted. This amount was transferred into my account with 5 minutes, I handed over the two keys and waved the car goodbye. The whole inspection/hand-over process lasted no more than 15 minutes.
From start to finish, the whole process was concluded (with money in the bank) in 8 days.
In retrospect I was very happy with the Motorway.co.uk process, but I did have some anxiety related to having to potentially re-negotiate upon inspection. This anxiety turned out to be largely unfounded.
To conclude, I would recommend the motorway.co.uk route to others who want to avoid the hassle of a private sale, but be sure to accurately document all known damage to avoid any last minute 'chipping' off their accepted offer.
* I would like to emphasise that I have no affiliation with any of the organisations mentioned.
