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Standard Range Plus Autopilot Removed Remotely [by Tesla]

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I bought this 2020 Tesla Model 3, which the sticker indicates is a Standard Range Plus. The car was made in March 2020. The sticker clearly shows this a Standard Range Plus model with base autopilot included. The car has fog lights which only the Standard Range Plus cars were made with. The base price was $35,000 the Standard Range Plus was $4990 and the destination fee was $1,200 which matches the car's sticker price to exactly.
I bought the car from Carvana with 3,000 miles on it. The autopilot has been removed and the software screen now shoes this is Standard not the Standard Range Plus it was built and sold for. I'm going in circles with the Tesla Service App who are only saying I have to pay $3,000 to get autopilot back. Has this happened and is there recourse?
 

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I bought this 2020 Tesla Model 3, which the sticker indicates is a Standard Range Plus. The car was made in March 2020. The sticker clearly shows this a Standard Range Plus model with base autopilot included. The car has fog lights which only the Standard Range Plus cars were made with. The base price was $35,000 the Standard Range Plus was $4990 and the destination fee was $1,200 which matches the car's sticker price to exactly.
I bought the car from Carvana with 3,000 miles on it. The autopilot has been removed and the software screen now shoes this is Standard not the Standard Range Plus it was built and sold for. I'm going in circles with the Tesla Service App who are only saying I have to pay $3,000 to get autopilot back. Has this happened and is there recourse?

Can you provide some more detail around exactly what tesla is telling you (why they are saying "we see this monroney sticker but you have to pay")?. There has to be some explanation they are giving you for that.
 
Any possibility that the Moroney was wrong? My Moroney was wrong. I bought a LR-AWD in silver, and paid ~$55k back in 2018, but the Moroney says it includes EAP. I did not order EAP or pay for it, and the car did not have it, but that's what my Moroney says.
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Can you provide some more detail around exactly what tesla is telling you (why they are saying "we see this monroney sticker but you have to pay")?. There has to be some explanation they are giving you for that.
they are saying that the original buyer MIGHT have had the option to take standard range plus OFF, and chose to do so, but not providing any proof of it. They are stonewalling and saying that I have to pay $3,000 for basic autopilot which is showing as INCLUDED. Standard Range Plus also allows the battery to be charged past 250 miles... They are totally stonewalling me, and don't know what avenues I have to get the problem fixed
 
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Any possibility that the Moroney was wrong? My Moroney was wrong. I bought a LR-AWD in silver, and paid ~$55k back in 2018, but the Moroney says it includes EAP. I did not order EAP or pay for it, and the car did not have it, but that's what my Moroney says.
View attachment 658955

There is absolutely a chance the monroney is wrong, delivered by tesla in fact. They didnt even give me a monroney until I asked for it in 2018 and they went and printed one off.

The thing is (and you likely are aware of this) the monroney sticker is supposed to let the original purchaser know what the car has, so there is no bait and switch type stuff going on. Tesla has always seemed to be "fast n loose" with the monroney.

I dont think monroney stickers protect anyone but the original purchaser though, so it wouldnt help the OP in this case. I suspect that if you went to tesla and tried to get EAP based on your monroney staying it was paid for, they would dig back and see what was actually paid for and then say "sorry, nope its not paid for, even if its on your monroney" (leading to stuff like this, in fact).
 
they are saying that the original buyer MIGHT have had the option to take standard range plus OFF, and chose to do so, but not providing any proof of it. They are stonewalling and saying that I have to pay $3,000 for basic autopilot which is showing as INCLUDED. Standard Range Plus also allows the battery to be charged past 250 miles... They are totally stonewalling me, and don't know what avenues I have to get the problem fixed

People definitely had the opportunity to downgrade their SR+ cars to SR, so thats not a "might". As for "proof" that would be them providing you transaction information from another person, which I dont think they can do.

That is likely what happened (the original purchaser downgraded the car from a SR+ to an SR and got the refund, then decided they would trade the car in and upgrade vehicles due to the high resale value). The monroney only means something to the original purchaser I am fairly sure (as far as legally anyway).

Your remedy would be from where you purchased the vehicle, but I also am guessing they had some language around "no guarantee any feature will remain" as we have had people who purchase from carvana and vroom say they have seen such language recently because they have been burned. If you do not have such language in your carvana contract I would go back to them. If you do, you are probably stuck.
 
The monroney sticker can absolutely be wrong. My MY SR says I have two motors.View attachment 658965


I wonder what would happen if you were a lawyer (or had access to one who would work for free) and went after tesla because "the front motor listed on my monroney sticker for my model Y standard range is missing". I have no idea... but I bet it could get messy for tesla.
 
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I wonder what would happen if you were a lawyer (or had access to one who would work for free) and went after tesla because "the front motor listed on my monroney sticker for my model Y standard range is missing". I have no idea... but I bet it could get messy for tesla.
it is interesting, there was a brief discussion about this topic. There are laws about the monroney stickers. I do have access to a couple lawyers(I’ll have a chat with them). I’ve read instances where owners of other cars making the manufacturer install things that were stated on the sticker that were not on the car. Again, the stickers are federally required.

It seems the earlier built SR MY says two motors but the later ones, the sticker states single. Tesla probably caught on and noticed their blunder.
 
I wonder what would happen if you were a lawyer (or had access to one who would work for free) and went after tesla because "the front motor listed on my monroney sticker for my model Y standard range is missing". I have no idea... but I bet it could get messy for tesla.
I think you're right.

I vaguely remember my Dad going the rounds with a Chevy dealer shortly after Monroney stickers became law. I don't remember exactly what was missing off of the old Chevy Suburban that got Dad all twisted around the axle with them, but it was substantial enough that he got a lawyer involved.

Due to the fact that the car was delivered in a condition different to the specs stated on the Monroney, Dad got whatever was missing from the vehicle, and the dealership paid Dad's legal fees.

Tesla needs to get their act together on stuff like this. The government doesn't take the Monroney lightly; they shouldn't, either.
 
Disclosure: not a lawyer


The important bit is: "However, this law does not apply to the purchase of a used car. In theory, the sticker was already delivered on the vehicle when it was first sold to the original buyer. Therefore, installed options could have been removed from the car since that point when the accessory actually had to be there."
well if Tesla removed the features on a car they didnt own then its essentially theft... Tesla can't take 19 inch wheels off when someone sells a call and put 18 inch wheels back on in their place...
 
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I think you're right.

I vaguely remember my Dad going the rounds with a Chevy dealer shortly after Monroney stickers became law. I don't remember exactly what was missing off of the old Chevy Suburban that got Dad all twisted around the axle with them, but it was substantial enough that he got a lawyer involved.

Due to the fact that the car was delivered in a condition different to the specs stated on the Monroney, Dad got whatever was missing from the vehicle, and the dealership paid Dad's legal fees.

Tesla needs to get their act together on stuff like this. The government doesn't take the Monroney lightly; they shouldn't, either.

Yeah, tesla has always seemed to play fast n loose with these. They are not even stickers on the car, or at least they were not when I got mine in late 2018. None of this helps the OP though, because the monroney only protects / is applicable to the original purchaser.

Doesnt matter what the monroney says when you buy it used, legally anyway.

@RedWhite19 , when you have a chat with your lawyer friends let us know what they think, but post a separate thread for it rather than in this one, so we dont take this OPs post further off topic.

Back to OP, your choices as I see them are to continue to ask tesla, or to go back to carvana provided carvana did not have stipulations in their contract that say something about "we make no representation any vehicle feature will remain, etc". The monroney doesnt protect you or prove anything in your case, because you bought the car used. With that being said, this is one of thise things that kind of sucks about "always online software updates" for a vehicle.

If I were buying a tesla used, I would not be valuing in any software feature into the price, unless I was buying from tesla itself directly for reasons such as this. There isnt anyplace that we here are aware of that you can "escalate" to.
 
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well if Tesla removed the features on a car they didnt own then its essentially theft... Tesla can't take 19 inch wheels off when someone sells a call and put 18 inch wheels back on in their place...

You are new here, but this discussion has gone on here for quite some time (whether they can remove something or not). That wasnt your original question, though. If you want to discuss that, I can find one of the threads that discussion has happened in and link you there.
 
You are new here, but this discussion has gone on here for quite some time (whether they can remove something or not). That wasnt your original question, though. If you want to discuss that, I can find one of the threads that discussion has happened in and link you there.
yes definitely new here, I usually just read and not comment. ill read any post that you got thats relevant. thanks, and let me know if you have advice on recourse...
 
yes definitely new here, I usually just read and not comment. ill read any post that you got thats relevant. thanks, and let me know if you have advice on recourse...

Well, as I (and a few others in this thread) mentioned, the monroney does not help you at all, from a legal perspective. It only is applicable to the original purchaser.

The issue of "tesla cant remove it even if its not supposed to be on the car", is one that has been beaten to death here (and elsewhere online) and the end result is that they do software audits when cars change hands, so its impossible to know whether some software feature or other will stay with the vehicle.

As I mentioned, the only real path forward I see is to either continue to ask tesla (in which case they can continue to say no) or to go back to carvana where you purchased it and say " I was told this car I purchased was a standard range plus vehicle, but tesla claims it is a standard range vehicle, thus the vehicle delivered is not what I purchased."
 
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Back to OP, your choices as I see them are to continue to ask tesla, or to go back to carvana provided carvana did not have stipulations in their contract that say something about "we make no representation any vehicle feature will remain, etc". The monroney doesnt protect you or prove anything in your case, because you bought the car used.
Completely agree, JJ, but there's one last little hiccup that might (or might not... I'm not an attorney) help the OP out.

If Carvana was using the Monroney sticker to represent what features were on the car in their advertisement of the vehicle, and upon which they based their purchase price.... well, I think you can see where I'm going with that. ;)
 
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