Tesla p/x offers - How solid are they?

[M3P_W8]

Has anyone had their part exchange offer reduced after inspection on the day they collect their new Tesla?

I'm considering going down this route for convenience reasons, but will also be looking at all the other cash buyer options (Motorway / WBAC etc.) before making a final decision

The car I'm hoping to trade-in has a high-spec, but also has four scuffed wheels and a couple of scratches. I am looking at getting the diamond cut wheels refurbished to mitigate that unknown, but at ~£400 it's difficult to know if that is even worth it.

 

[Jason71]

I think the offers are generally so low to begin with that they don't need to.

 

[Wol747]

When I sold my Honda a year ago I sold it within 5 hrs for three times the Tesla offer: put it on Gumtree at 9am and had the cash in hand at 3pm....

 

[Llama.]

Has anyone had their part exchange offer reduced after inspection on the day they collect their new Tesla?

I'm considering going down this route for convenience reasons, but will also be looking at all the other cash buyer options (Motorway / WBAC etc.) before making a final decision

The car I'm hoping to trade-in has a high-spec, but also has four scuffed wheels and a couple of scratches. I am looking at getting the diamond cut wheels refurbished to mitigate that unknown, but at ~£400 it's difficult to know if that is even worth it.

I traded in my Nissan Qashqai with 95,000 miles in March. It had some scratches down one side and a scuffed bumper. I took photos of this damage which did take a bit longer to generate a quote because of this detail.

On collection day in Leeds, Tesla staff spent very little time looking at the actual car. I think it was just long enough to check the VIN and mileage were correct. But they did spot the big scratch and checked that I referenced this in my trade-in photos.

Clearly this was not a high value car (£3.5k trade in). So it may be that they take a closer look at yours. Tesla offered me about 5% less than We Buy Any Car. But with a fairly low value car and it being my only transport I thought this was worth the convenience of a trade-in through Tesla.

 

[M3P_W8]

I think the offers are generally so low to begin with that they don't need to.

They seem to vary a bit which I've presumed is related to how far they are off their sales targets!.

To illustrate, below are two differing p/x quotes I've had from Tesla for my 'Mercedes A220D AMG Line Premium Plus':

• Oct 2020 (41,200 Miles) = £16,600
• Jan 2021 (41,359 Miles) = £14,300

I have difficulty explaining a £2.3k drop for a 3 month older car with an extra 159 miles!

I should have ripped their arm off in Oct 2020, but I wasn't quite ready to put my order in. I'm expecting delivery in Q2, so am not too far off asking them for another offer (assuming my M3P finally arrives in May!).

 

[MrBadger]

Our offer remained stable even though in the ~5 months between getting the offer and getting the car, sods law the car service light (mileage triggered) came on a week before pickup. I contacted Tesla, they said not to bother doing anything about it and price remained the same. When car went to action, the needing a service was mentioned. We had also tried WBAC who were initially higher (on paper, before any potential tyre kicking), but by the time do collect, their price was lower than Tesla. Add in the convenience of drive old car to collection, new car from collection, it worked out OK. But this wasn't a car with a huge trade in value and was pre Covid.

 

[M3P_W8]

Our offer remained stable even though in the ~5 months between getting the offer and getting the car, sods law the car service light (mileage triggered) came on a week before pickup. I contacted Tesla, they said not to bother doing anything about it and price remained the same. When car went to action, the needing a service was mentioned. We had also tried WBAC who were initially higher (on paper, before any potential tyre kicking), but by the time do collect, their price was lower than Tesla. Add in the convenience of drive old car to collection, new car from collection, it worked out OK. But this wasn't a car with a huge trade in value and was pre Covid.

It's the convenience factor that I'm tempted by, especially in these Covid times. I live out in the sticks a little bit and it will be an irritating journey via taxis / bus / train / Uber to Bristol for me to collect. I'm therefore willing to swallow a little bit for that convenience, but only if I have high confidence that Tesla won't pull a WBAC-special and further reduce their offer on inspection for the slightest of things as a matter of routine.

As Wol747 pointed out, there is also of course the private sale route that would presumably maximise what I can get for it, but I'm (probably irrationally) wary of the whole process with tyre kickers and test drives and haggling etc.

 

[Llama.]

I decided that a max difference of £500 was the price of convenience for me. If the Tesla trade in offer was was worse than that I would have sold my car privately and limped around without transport for a week.

 

[mnobleuk]

Very similar experience to the above. The quote remained in place for the 3 months I waited for delivery. Initially it was £500 lower than WBAC and so I decided the convenience of just driving to Tesla, changing cars and leaving was worth it (also slightly suspicious that WBAC would drop the price due to scuffed alloys).

The Tesla SC took the documentation and checked the registration matched (full stop).

 

[PR-UK]

The PX quote I got from Tesla was a little more than WBAC for my Audi A4, but more importantly more than covered the final balloon payment on the PCP so I was happy to take it, I think they went and took a look at it when I was inspecting my Model 3 at pickup but nothing was raised to change the quote.

The only issue I had was I picked the car up on the 19th December and Tesla didn't complete the payment (to Audi) until the 26th January, this might not be an issue for you but it meant I ended up in January paying my Tesla Model 3 lease payment and the Audi A4 PCP payment. Plus the final balloon payment to Audi was the 31st January meaning they cut it pretty fine, and it required several calls to Tesla to find out why they weren't paying it and several calls to Audi to check if Tesla had actually paid the final payment.

If it's just convenience for you and there's no outstanding finance on the car you are trading in I wouldn't expect there to be an issue.

 

[M3P_W8]

I asked Tesla for a new p/x estimate for my 2017 Mercedes A220D AMG Line Premium Plus. I've shown it below alongside the others I've had from them.

• Oct 2020 (41,200 Miles) = £16,600
• Jan 2021 (41,359 Miles) = £14,300
• April 2021 (41,850 Miles) = £12,950

I should emphasise that these are all estimates (pre-photos) so made on the same terms. The £3,650 drop over 6 months for just 650 miles does seem excessive to me.

I also have been given an initial estimate from Motorway.co.uk of £14,950.

I think like most others, if the Tesla p/x delta was no more than £500 then I would probably have gone that route for convenience. As things stand, I'm going to have to proceed with Motorway and put up with the inconvenience of being without a car for a while and a far from ideal journey involving taxis, busses and trains to Bristol to collect. Hoping the excitement of a new M3P on the horizon will get me through it!

Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences.

 

[Peteski]

I would sell it privately. You will be saving multiple thousands here. If you advertise it on AT there's a good chance indy dealers will contact you directly with offers if you don't want to bother with individuals. But IME it usually ends up being a lot less hassle than you think it might be. Just price it realistically and it will probably sell very quickly.

 

[SpareHeadOne]

I'm not entirely sure what drives Tesla's trade-in prices, in January 2020 I was offered £10,500 for my car so I decided that Tesla probably wasn't going to get my business because Parkers and Autotrader both said it was worth about £14,000 trade-in.

In August 2020 I started looking a bit more seriously and the local Land Rover dealer offered me £13,700, but in the end they didn't have anything I wanted in their promotion so I didn't change.

In October 2020 I decided to have another look at Tesla when I read about the face-lift of the M3 because I liked some of the changes as they were things I wanted, so imagine my surprise when they offered me £15,400. I metaphorically bit their hand off.

 

[Peteski]

I'm not entirely sure what drives Tesla's trade-in prices, in January 2020 I was offered £10,500 for my car so I decided that Tesla probably wasn't going to get my business because Parkers and Autotrader both said it was worth about £14,000 trade-in.

In August 2020 I started looking a bit more seriously and the local Land Rover dealer offered me £13,700, but in the end they didn't have anything I wanted in their promotion so I didn't change.

In October 2020 I decided to have another look at Tesla when I read about the face-lift of the M3 because I liked some of the changes as they were things I wanted, so imagine my surprise when they offered me £15,400. I metaphorically bit their hand off.

They will be driven mainly by sales targets. They were pushing very hard at the end of 2020 to shift as much metal as possible. The various offers M3P_W8 has had for his trade-in suggests the same i.e. highest (by far) quote in October 2020.

 

[SpareHeadOne]

They will be driven mainly by sales targets. They were pushing very hard at the end of 2020 to shift as much metal as possible. The various offers M3P_W8 has had for his trade-in suggests the same i.e. highest (by far) quote in October 2020.

Ah yes, I wasn't thinking about their end of year push. I guess that if you're not in a hurry then checking back every quarter until you hit another push is probably a good strategy.