Tesla provides the car, it’s up to you to pay for it. If you don’t have cash and have to arrange financing, that’s up to you. If you want to trade in your old car as partial payment, that’s up to you as well. You have to make those arrangements. If you turn over your car, it’s up to you to remove everything that’s yours from the car including personal items and your tags. The 3 days to finalize your payment arrangement and take the car was specified in advance. Your arrangements with any bank or finance company is between you and the company loaning you the money, it has nothing to do with Tesla. That’s unless Tesla is providing the financing.
It’s up to Tesla to provide the new car. At the time you do the paperwork and all payment is done, it’s up to Tesla to hand over the keys and the new car to you, then it’s up to Tesla to provide warranty coverage for the specified duration. It you find things that are wrong with the car, covered by warranty, it’s up to Tesla to provide repairs.
A car company will usually submit the paperwork to the state to arrange the title transfer to you.
You should not blame a car company for issues on your side of the purchase. They provide the new car, you provide payment for it. If it’s a 3 day window, it’s up to you to make sure you can comply with that time window. If you need a longer time, you can try to negotiate a longer window but it’s up to them whether or not to grant it.
I’ve been buying cars for half a century now. Nothing has changed nor should it. Furthermore it’s up to you to read the paperwork you sign. It’s no good signing that you agree to something if you have no idea what it is you agreed to. That paperwork with your signature is binding. If there’s something to which you don’t agree, write that on the document you are signing. If you feel rushed, take a big breath and realize the rush is on the other side of the table, not yours. You have the right to read every word on every paper. If you don’t, it can come back later and bite you, and there’s no one else to blame, they provided the information to you.
None of this is mean as a rebuke, it’s just to clarify what your obligations are when you enter into the purchase.
Further:
The car should be clean and dry when you inspect it. Never buy a wet car, paint flaws cannot be seen in the rain. If you see flaws, take a picture so you can show those flaws were there when you accepted the car. I’d insist that corrections be made before I accepted the car, the money you have is everything. Once you hand that money over, your leverage is gone.
Good luck.
Tesla told me the car was coming sometime in mid Oct to mid Dec.... So they were almost 2 months early. I kind of feel like I should have had 2 months + three days to get the financing done...
Anyway, it's not about per the written document who should be responsible about what, it's about doing a great job or not. Maybe per the technical documents Tesla was absolutely right with everything they did... did it result in a terrible buying experience, yes. That's the big take away. Tesla isn't in their first year or two. They're not selling to huge early adopter nerds that have been waiting three years for a car. They're starting to sell to Joe across the road that has never owned an EV before, never bought a car online, never financed themselves, etc. Will Joe tell his coworkers at work to buy a Tesla, or will he be like "Man, stay away from that, it was a mess! The car is good, but wow it's not worth it, just go over to the VW dealer and buy their EV."
That's my big takeaway with this.
I read the documents. There wasn't a check list for removing the plates on my car. They require basically full payment BEFORE you pick the car up, so kinda the power is in Tesla's hands (at least it feels that way). I guess I could have held a check in my hand, but Tesla wouldn't wait long enough for that and literally the only way I could have snagged this car was with a wire transfer, which Tesla actually didn't know how to handle and the told me "we never do these, that's why the system isn't really set up for it" yet on their 3rd party lender document help sheet it actually says wire transfer is *preferred* by Tesla...
Again, first year they're selling the car, fine whatever. But we're years down the road. They're so close to actually being fully digital and not needing to talk to someone if they just got a few more things right.
Wire transfers should work perfectly. Tesla should consider those as a payment towards the cost of the car. Whatever bug in the system that caused the payment to show but not actually deduct from the amount due should be fixed.
There should be a little reminder in the app when dropping off a trade. Just a few simple questions that require a physical tap to acknowledge.
"Please remove all personal items from the vehicle you are trading in" (tap to accept that)
"You have elected to transfer your plates to your new car, please remove them from you trade in vehicle" (tap to accept that)
"Your trade in vehicle is a Tesla, please reset it to factory defaults (link to video instructions)" (tap to accept)
Something simple like that would have avoided my issue and likely smooth the process out for others that don't buy/sell dozens of cars.
Tesla absolutely changed the buying experience and I'm very happy for that.... but they still can't nail it, just like they can't nail the panel gaps and QC on the cars. I want them to be the best and they are so close to being that... but third time for me and still major bugs in the buying process. Would my mom be able to navigate that stuff? Likely not, I probably would send her to a traditional used lot to get a Tesla or tell her to get a different brand. It shouldn't be like that...
