Tesla Not Honoring Trade In Estimate

[Blaketq]

I got a trade in offer last weekend for my 2018 Model X 100D at $60,900 and placed an order for a new Model S. It was lower than the ~$66k I got from them a few months back, but figured things had changed since then. As I was going through the information they asked for in my Tesla account I sent them the requested pictures of my Model X. Today I got an email from them saying my final offer is $57,200. They did not explain why the offer changed. I drove to Tesla today and the guy looked in the system and said it was because I had added chrome delete and satin powder coated wheels. The email has conditions for the offer to be valid and I meet all of them. Even though I meet the requirements several reps from Tesla I have talked to refuse to honor the $60,900 number they just gave me last weekend. I copied the fine print below. The Model S would be my third Tesla and so far I have yet to have a good experience with the sales team. Elon seems like a good guy, the cars are great, but the company so far has been horrible to deal with. Has anyone else found a way to resolve this?

"This estimate will be valid for 7 days as long as the trade-in vehicle is free of major cosmetic and mechanical issues, has no history of any accidents, is drivable, and the odometer reading does not increase by 1,000 miles or more. For more information, request a call. If your vehicle has any non-standard options or packages not represented in this estimate, you will have the option to complete a self-inspection after placing an order."

 

[DerbyDave]

Were the chrome delete and satin wheels $3700? If so, sounds like you are whole and not losing any money, unless they are going to also charge you for these items.

 

[Blaketq]

Were the chrome delete and satin wheels $3700? If so, sounds like you are whole and not losing any money, unless they are going to also charge you for these items.

Sorry, I am not following your question. I spent maybe $1,800 on the wheels and chrome delete. Where I am having a challenge is I was offered 60,900 and then they decided to lower it down 3,700 while the existing offer is still valid. Not sure if my reply answers your question.

 

[fmm]

Sorry, I am not following your question. I spent maybe $1,800 on the wheels and chrome delete. Where I am having a challenge is I was offered 60,900 and then they decided to lower it down 3,700 while the existing offer is still valid. Not sure if my reply answers your question.

they didn't know about your modifications to the car at that time of the original estimate that they will need to reverse to eventually sell. It's really pretty simple.

 

[Akikiki]

@Blaketq, Do I understand this correctly? After you sent your pictures with the chrome delete and the aftermarket wheels, they lowered their value to you?

I know someone that had a dashcam in his. They lowered the trade in because of the camera.

And there's been reports here of lowered price because the car had aftermarket wheels. The explanation was that Tesla will not sell the car as used with aftermarket wheels. So they charge for OEM and tires, and don't bother to move the tires. This was during that period of time when they had a CPO program. So that might have made them a bit more particular.

 

[Tiger]

Why do people sell to Tesla when Tesla doesn't even have proper used var warranty anymore? Why not sell directly to the new owner or carmax or something?

 

[Blaketq]

@Blaketq, Do I understand this correctly? After you sent your pictures with the chrome delete and the aftermarket wheels, they lowered their value to you?

I know someone that had a dashcam in his. They lowered the trade in because of the camera.

And there's been reports here of lowered price because the car had aftermarket wheels. The explanation was that Tesla will not sell the car as used with aftermarket wheels. So they charge for OEM and tires, and don't bother to move the tires. This was during that period of time when they had a CPO program. So that might have made them a bit more particular.

Yes, I got an estimate from them first. I asked the sales person if they needed to see the car (which was there with me) to give me a trade in value and he said no. Then they asked for pictures after I got the trade in estimate and had placed my order for the new car. It seems it would be reasonable to assume as Tesla does this every day they would they would ask these types of questions before giving you an estimate. The other sites I went on to get an estimate all asked if there were any mods done to the car. I even had one that said they could not give me an estimate because of the mods.

I am totally cool with them lowering the price based on any modifications. Especially if they are going to take it back to factory spec for resale. That is totally reasonable. I am just not cool with them doing it after they give you an estimate and you place an order. My next concern is how much more are they going to lower the trade in price by the time my car finally comes in as the new offer expires before the car will arrive.

If you were to call a painter to get an estimate to paint your house, answer their questions, they give you the conditions of their estimate and they tell you the house will be $4,000, my assumption would be it would cost $4,000. I wouldn't expect after you give them the go ahead and a deposit (small, I know) to say, you know, I would like to see what the house looks like to give you a firm number.

My hope is not to agitate anyone on the forums. My hope is they improve the way they give you estimates to take this into account. It is not as though it is an instant quote. I think it took them 24 hours to get me a number back. So there is no reason they could not ask you for pictures when you request the initial quote or put some bold letters saying the price will change based on xyz.

 

[David_Cary]

People trade in partly because of the sales tax benefit - ie they only pay sales tax on the price difference. This can be $5000 or more. That makes it a reasonable financial decision. I think CA works this way but it definitely varies state to state.

Tesla apparently doesn't want to sell used cars. They have limited footprints and it is lower profit than new cars.

In the usual dealer model, used cars make more money than new cars. Service is also a money maker and used cars are better than new on that front.

Tesla makes a whole lot of money on new cars so that is their priority.

Sell privately if you can. If you were local, I would give you a call.

 

[cwerdna]

People trade in partly because of the sales tax benefit - ie they only pay sales tax on the price difference. This can be $5000 or more. That makes it a reasonable financial decision. I think CA works this way but it definitely varies state to state.

On the bolded part, it most definitely does NOT work this way in CA.

Since I grew up in California, I'd never even heard of this before until I moved to WA and was in the market for a new car while in WA. However, I never did end up trading in anything when I bought two new cars up there.

In CA, trading in a car has 0 effect and 0 savings on the sales tax you pay on a new car. Yes, it varies by state. What New Car Fees Should You Pay? | Edmunds has a table "Trade-in sales tax credit?3".

3. Trade-in sales tax credit? A "Y" in this column means that you will pay sales tax only on the difference between your new car purchase and the value of your trade-in. An "N" in the column signifies that you will pay tax on the full amount of your new car purchase.

Why do people sell to Tesla when Tesla doesn't even have proper used var warranty anymore? Why not sell directly to the new owner or carmax or something?

For "new owner", it can be time consuming and troublesome. You need to waste time answering questions, meeting for test drives and you take some risk in terms of personal safety and possible damage during a test drive. And, you might get a much of lowball offers and even weird offers. I've been thru this before. This assumes you even get any interest.

Long ago, before my move back to CA, I had two cars and I wanted to sell one, a Nissan 350Z. I put it up in Craigslist and got almost no interest and even some weird offers like: hey, I'll give you some cash and trade you an Isuzu Rodeo. Uh.... no. I would never want a Rodeo and I'm trying to reduce how many vehicles I have as I'd be driving one back to CA and I'd need to ship the Z. Why would I want to trade I actually like for a car I don't want and have to ship that too?

As for Carmax, places like that might not give you a great offer. After all, they have to take a risk and try to turn around and sell at a profit.

 

[CapeOne]

I am totally cool with them lowering the price based on any modifications. Especially if they are going to take it back to factory spec for resale. That is totally reasonable. I am just not cool with them doing it after they give you an estimate and you place an order. My next concern is how much more are they going to lower the trade in price by the time my car finally comes in as the new offer expires before the car will arrive.

Since Tesla typically views aftermarket changes as a negative (can lower value), perhaps they should specifically ask about aftermarket adjustments as part of the initial appraisal process.

Your "next concern" regarding them further lowering the trade offer is a valid one. Someone in another recent thread had their 30 day offer expire and Tesla lowered the offer by $3,200 right after!

These trade estimates/final offers are kind of meaningless if a customer doesn’t take delivery within 30 days, especially if Tesla is going to notably change the trade offer as soon as they expire.

 

[cypho]

Yes, I got an estimate from them first. I asked the sales person if they needed to see the car (which was there with me) to give me a trade in value and he said no. Then they asked for pictures after I got the trade in estimate and had placed my order for the new car. It seems it would be reasonable to assume as Tesla does this every day they would they would ask these types of questions before giving you an estimate. The other sites I went on to get an estimate all asked if there were any mods done to the car. I even had one that said they could not give me an estimate because of the mods.

I am totally cool with them lowering the price based on any modifications. Especially if they are going to take it back to factory spec for resale. That is totally reasonable. I am just not cool with them doing it after they give you an estimate and you place an order. My next concern is how much more are they going to lower the trade in price by the time my car finally comes in as the new offer expires before the car will arrive.

If you were to call a painter to get an estimate to paint your house, answer their questions, they give you the conditions of their estimate and they tell you the house will be $4,000, my assumption would be it would cost $4,000. I wouldn't expect after you give them the go ahead and a deposit (small, I know) to say, you know, I would like to see what the house looks like to give you a firm number.

My hope is not to agitate anyone on the forums. My hope is they improve the way they give you estimates to take this into account. It is not as though it is an instant quote. I think it took them 24 hours to get me a number back. So there is no reason they could not ask you for pictures when you request the initial quote or put some bold letters saying the price will change based on xyz.

I think you may need to look up the word "estimate" in a dictionary.

You seem to have a very different understanding than I do about the meaning of this word. I have always understood it to mean a rough guess that probably will change a bit on the final bill. If I ask the painter for an estimate, I would know that the final price will not be exactly that. If I want the actual price I would ask for a quote.

60k estimate and 57k offer sounds totally reasonable to me. The estimate was within 5% of the actual offer.

I can understand wanting a firm offer prior to ordering, but when they told you they were giving you an estimate you should have known that that your final bill would likely not exactly match the estimate.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Lesson to everybody is only to buy based on a firm offer. Even then they'll use any excuse to lower the offer afterwards.
Read carefully the conditions of the trade-in offer.

They'll always try to profit from your desire for the new car, and the tax benefit or convenience of trading in directly.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Why did Tesla do it? Because they can. They don't want to be in the used car business and they don't care about customer satisfaction and this should be quite obvious by now to anyone. Why anyone chooses to get raked over the coals and reward this bad behavior is beyond me.

 

[DanCar]

I'll buy it, if it has FSD.

 

[David_Cary]

About a mile from me about 3 months ago, a 30 something guy got killed selling a 2012 Range Rover. Some common friends. So I totally get the personal safety issue selling a car privately. They caught the guy, used a fake name and a burner phone.

When my father lived in Berkeley, there was a lot that was kind of a consignment situation. Maybe not the place for a $40k car, but maybe. Do these exist in your area.

The nice thing in a Tesla is you could make it so that a test drive required your permission but not your presence.

I would think you could sell your car for $60k in 5 minutes depending on seating config and mileage.

 

[dannycamps]

When I purchased my first Tesla in 2019 (a used 85D), I traded in my three year old Chevy Volt. Tesla gave a reasonable trade in offer (if you factor in the convenience) but I still had negative equity on the Volt as it wasn't fully paid off.

That negative equity helped me when I registered my Tesla because it somehow reduced the DMV fees. Delaware doesn't have a sales tax per se but they have what they call document fees which are basically the same thing.