Tesla CPO prices

[CapeOne]

Apologies if this has already been asked or discussed elsewhere but.....

Does anyone know how Tesla determines prices for their CPO cars? Some of their values seem relatively in-line with "the retail market" while others seem a bit off. As one quick example, I picked two same year cars in the same location (DC): they have a 2014 Model S 60 with 23K miles for $54K and another 2014 Model S 60 with 4K miles for over $70K. Yes, the $70K car has more equipment and fewer miles but should it really be valued over $16K higher?? Seems like too much of a price difference.

2014 Model S 60 - $70,245
60 kWh Model S P52499 | Tesla Motors

2014 Model S 60 - $53,900
60 kWh Model S P34133 | Tesla Motors

 

[Boourns]

From what I have gathered from reading extensively on CPOs and my own personal experience, mileage is the biggest factor in price. Equipment is probably second, and I think we'll see a big jump between AP vs. non-AP cars as well as RWD vs. AWD cars. Year of manufacture has little to do with price, since year of manufacture for Tesla doesn't tell you much -- i.e., a car built on December 15, 2014 is a "2014" model year, whereas a car built a month later is a "2015" model year, despite both cars having the exact same equipment.

 

[sorka]

CPO prices seem to fluctuate. If nobody wants the more expensive one they will eventually lower the price. However, it sounds like that's the one you want but you don't want to pay that much more for it.....but you still want it. My experience when I see something over priced by what I think is way too much, I just skip over it and I don't want it. If I don't, then the price is probably something I'm willing to pay even if I'm annoyed because I still think it's too high.

So it sounds to me like they've priced it right.

The reality is there are other things that effect the value that aren't in the listing which you can only see by examining and driving the cars in person. Perhaps the more expensive one is just in over all better cosmetic shape?

 

[Drucifer]

With CPO prices, if a low mileage car is too expensive to sell (like the $70k 60 which you could just get a new one built to spec at that rate), Tesla will often put the car into the loaner fleet for 6 months or longer, and then when the car is say about a year older with another 15k miles on it, reprice it lower and reintroduce it to the CPO sales pool.

Judging by the wide gap in VIN numbers, I would bet there are some significant difference between these two as well.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

The difference in miles alone explains a large part of price difference for those CPOs. The more expensive one also has cyclone wheels, Primacy tire upgrade, subzero, premium interior lighting and air suspension.

 

[CapeOne]

Thanks for the comments. I don't question that there should be a price difference but rather the amount of the difference. By my calculations, the original retail prices of the two cars would’ve been approximately $7K apart. Factoring in depreciation would bring that difference down to around $4K-$4.5K retail, perhaps? That still leaves around a $12K price difference for less than 20K more miles. I just wouldn’t think the difference would be that great.

Anyway, I wasn't really looking to focus too much on the two cars in my example (I just used that as I thought the difference was unusually wide given equipment, mileage, etc.) but rather how in general Tesla prices their CPOs.

 

[Boourns]

^ There is definitely a man-behind-the-curtain factor to CPO pricing, so I don't think your feeling is unfounded.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

With Inventory models, the discounts formula used to be $1 per mile and 1% per month. That's changed somewhat since April but I think the mileage can't be ignored with CPOs. In this case, one CPO 18500 miles more than the other so I bet that accounts for a large part of the price difference. Something that is missing is the actual condition of the car. The more expensive one could be in pristine condition and perhaps the cheaper one has some minor wear. It's hard to say without seeing them in person.

If you want an easy way of searching all CPO and Inventory cars listed on Tesla's site, take a look at teslaInventory.com . You can quickly narrow down from hundreds of cars to just the ones that have the features you are looking for. The free email alerts also make it easy to get notifications when new models are added or when prices drop. Tesla does still have other CPO cars that aren't listed on their site yet, but as they add them, they will show up at teslaInventory.com.

 

[cab]

So my theory is that Tesla isn't really that keen on selling CPO cars - period. Honestly, it seems to be little more than a way to unload their loaners once the mileage creeps into the mid 40K range. Indeed, most of the original fleet of CPOs were all just turned into loaners one day. Heck, there are still hardly any publicly available and the prices are no better than the fire sale prices we saw in December.

The cars that are out there are priced so that you often think "Maybe I should just get a new one"...which is, of course, exactly what Tesla wants. Remember that when Tesla had the CPO program full populated they had over half of all used Teslas for sale in the U.S...they essentially CONTROLLED the market in terms of pricing. Still, their bigger play seems to be the aforementioned new cars. Indeed, I have been shopping for a CPO P85/P85+ for a while now, but the advent of the new Model S 60 has me at least rethinking that position...in short, Tesla's plan is working.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

So my theory is that Tesla isn't really that keen on selling CPO cars - period. Honestly, it seems to be little more than a way to unload their loaners once the mileage creeps into the mid 40K range. Indeed, most of the original fleet of CPOs were all just turned into loaners one day. Heck, there are still hardly any publicly available and the prices are no better than the fire sale prices we saw in December.

The cars that are out there are priced so that you often think "Maybe I should just get a new one"...which is, of course, exactly what Tesla wants. Remember that when Tesla had the CPO program full populated they had over half of all used Teslas for sale in the U.S...they essentially CONTROLLED the market in terms of pricing. Still, their bigger play seems to be the aforementioned new cars. Indeed, I have been shopping for a CPO P85/P85+ for a while now, but the advent of the new Model S 60 has me at least rethinking that position...in short, Tesla's plan is working.

I spent a year shopping the CPO and Inventory cars myself. When there were hints of a refresh last April, I went ahead and ordered an S90D. I could get an almost new inventory S for several thousand dollars less but I'll stick with the refreshed S that I ordered.

 

[BEEZR]

Apologies if this has already been asked or discussed elsewhere but.....

Does anyone know how Tesla determines prices for their CPO cars? Some of their values seem relatively in-line with "the retail market" while others seem a bit off. As one quick example, I picked two same year cars in the same location (DC): they have a 2014 Model S 60 with 23K miles for $54K and another 2014 Model S 60 with 4K miles for over $70K. Yes, the $70K car has more equipment and fewer miles but should it really be valued over $16K higher?? Seems like too much of a price difference.

2014 Model S 60 - $70,245
60 kWh Model S P52499 | Tesla Motors

2014 Model S 60 - $53,900
60 kWh Model S P34133 | Tesla Motors

It was explained to me by my CPO Advisor that the two biggest factors affecting CPO price are miles and time in service. The car I am awaiting delivery on is also a P34xxx, so about the same age (3/2014) as the 2nd one above. My price is $51,800. The differences between mine and this one: Mileage 51K, Air Suspension, Nappa leather (vs. Performance), Ultra Hi-Fi, Prem Int Lighting, Paint Armor, and Blue Metallic paint. New it was over $89K.

Based on the VIN of the top one, it's likely in-service date was late 2014 but just before AP hardware was added. So it's much younger with hardly any miles. You can ask your advisor for the Monroney report (original window sticker) for any car so you can see what it cost new with all options.

I think the top one is overpriced for a CPO simply based on the fact that you can get almost the exact same configuration new, with AP, for about the same money net of the tax credit. Or less if you don't want all of the options. But I expect Tesla sticks to the formula for consistency. (And it tells you that maybe all CPO car pricing is inflated.) The only reason to buy this CPO would be to get a car sooner, and unless you're close to DC it's not going to be that much sooner.