The 2 Best Days In a Plaid Owner’s Life

[strider]

My 2022 MXP has also been flawless. I am still salty about the horn. It will be interesting to see if Tesla will make good on Elon's promise that even the older cars "have the hardware." I knew that wasn't true when I replaced the absolutely stupid yoke w/ a Hansshow wheel after weeks of dealing with that absolutely piece of trash (this was before Elon relented and offered a proper wheel) and never looked back. If the hardware is in the airbag itself then maybe there's hope that I could just swap the airbags.

And so it goes. The list of Elon's lies is long and distinguished - for me it goes back over 11 years when he lied to my face about features that our original MS would have but never did. I'm still here because I crave power and I need to be able to seat 6. Also, the local Tesla staff here are outstanding. They have always taken very good care of us.

It sounds like your car was just a disaster from the start. Perhaps you could have lemoned it or somehow talked Tesla into giving you a generous trade-in on a newer one but if you're done you're done. It's just a car and not worth being stressed out all the time.

I shredded my rear tires at 20k miles. I have since installed shims to bring the camber out a bit. Hopefully that will help with tire life.

Enjoy your MB! They make great cars. Also, if yours does end up in the shop, they are known for taking care of their customers.

 

[phaphaphooey]

I drove an EQS and really liked it, not as much as the I7 but it was great. So much better than the Tesla in many ways and it definitely tempts me. Hyperscreen is amazing as is just having a well built car. However, due to the aforementioned horrendous depreciation, I am stuck riding this bad boy out for 4 more years or so to hopefully get some more good out of the depreciation curve as surely it is slowing now, right?

As an aside, while I am salty about the depreciation as well, you didn't choose a good alternative example in the EQS AMG. The depreciation has been about as steep on them. Dealers can't give them away.

 

[Propofoln]

I’m

I drove an EQS and really liked it, not as much as the I7 but it was great. So much better than the Tesla in many ways and it definitely tempts me. Hyperscreen is amazing as is just having a well built car. However, due to the aforementioned horrendous depreciation, I am stuck riding this bad boy out for 4 more years or so to hopefully get some more good out of the depreciation curve as surely it is slowing now, right?

As an aside, while I am salty about the depreciation as well, you didn't choose a good alternative example in the EQS AMG. The depreciation has been about as steep on them. Dealers can't give them away.

All EVs depreciate horribly. Picked up my Porsche Taycan Turbo for 93k CPO’d with 8k miles for 50% of MSRP. Even had a full car PPF wrap!

 

[phaphaphooey]

I’m


All EVs depreciate horribly. Picked up my Porsche Taycan Turbo for 93k CPO’d with 8k miles for 50% of MSRP. Even had a full car PPF wrap!

True if the timeframe is extended far enough. The reason that so many Plaid owners are salty is that Tesla singlehandedly destroyed much of the resale value by slashing prices on new cars by around $50k in some cases. Traditional luxury marques like Porsche and others that give a crap about their residuals and current owners instead of chasing volume at the expense of all else would never do that. You use this example often in these types of threads but your car depreciated 50% in what, 4 years from production to you buying it? That isn't unheard of in normal luxury cars. Plaids have reached that level of depreciation in half that time. The two are not comparable.

 

[Propofoln]

True if the timeframe is extended far enough. The reason that so many Plaid owners are salty is that Tesla singlehandedly destroyed much of the resale value by slashing prices on new cars by around $50k in some cases. Traditional luxury marques like Porsche and others that give a crap about their residuals and current owners instead of chasing volume at the expense of all else would never do that. You use this example often in these types of threads but your car depreciated 50% in what, 4 years from production to you buying it? That isn't unheard of in normal luxury cars. Plaids have reached that level of depreciation in half that time. The two are not comparable.

Yeah. Good point. You’re right.

 

[sorka]

I would’ve bought it for $50k

I would have paid $60K (if it had less than 40K miles).

 

[sorka]

Luxury car depreciation. This is not unique to Tesla. Sorry you took a bath on this.

What IS unique is Tesla lowering the MSRP price by more than $46K (over $50K when you factor in taxes).

 

[sorka]

That's too bad. My Plaid has never been to service. 30,000+ miles.

Assuming yours is a 2022? 2021s seem to have had a lot more issues.....at least that's my impression from all the posts I've read in the last few years.

 

[sorka]

It sounds like your car was just a disaster from the start. Perhaps you could have lemoned it or somehow talked Tesla into giving you a generous trade-in on a newer one but if you're done you're done. It's just a car and not worth being stressed out all the time.

This is what I did with my MXP. Got every cent back. No depreciation.

 

[Durzel]

True if the timeframe is extended far enough. The reason that so many Plaid owners are salty is that Tesla singlehandedly destroyed much of the resale value by slashing prices on new cars by around $50k in some cases. Traditional luxury marques like Porsche and others that give a crap about their residuals and current owners instead of chasing volume at the expense of all else would never do that. You use this example often in these types of threads but your car depreciated 50% in what, 4 years from production to you buying it? That isn't unheard of in normal luxury cars. Plaids have reached that level of depreciation in half that time. The two are not comparable.

People underestimate the impact of this I think.

Price cuts are great for prospective owners and possibly investors. Not great for existing owners though, or ones looking at finance for the new car.

If the market doesn’t have some assurances of future residual value, then at best it’s going to err on the side of caution and give pessimistic quotes, or decline to quote/take in part-ex at all. Apocryphal but I’ve heard of numerous stories of dealers refusing to take in Teslas simply because they don’t know if they’re going to go from making a modest profit to being underwater if Elon wakes up one day and decides volume targets aren’t high enough.

Taycans have had ruinous depreciation (as said all EVs seem to) but at least Porsche try to manage supply. Other manufacturers too. Tesla’s attitude to existing owners is that “we’ve got your money, you’re useless to us now”.

I don’t expect mass market cars not to depreciate, but at the same time Tesla’s price cuts don’t happen in a bubble. They have a knock on effect that reverberates across the market.

 

[Propofoln]

This is what I did with my MXP. Got every cent back. No depreciation.

Same as my 2023 model s plaid. Build a car so shitty, you lose no money!

 

[adcustom]

People underestimate the impact of this I think.

Price cuts are great for prospective owners and possibly investors. Not great for existing owners though, or ones looking at finance for the new car.

If the market doesn’t have some assurances of future residual value, then at best it’s going to err on the side of caution and give pessimistic quotes, or decline to quote/take in part-ex at all. Apocryphal but I’ve heard of numerous stories of dealers refusing to take in Teslas simply because they don’t know if they’re going to go from making a modest profit to being underwater if Elon wakes up one day and decides volume targets aren’t high enough.

Taycans have had ruinous depreciation (as said all EVs seem to) but at least Porsche try to manage supply. Other manufacturers too. Tesla’s attitude to existing owners is that “we’ve got your money, you’re useless to us now”.

I don’t expect mass market cars not to depreciate, but at the same time Tesla’s price cuts don’t happen in a bubble. They have a knock on effect that reverberates across the market.

My counter to this though is that you need to consider what the price history has been for the S. The top spec S was in the $90Ks for a couple years. Tesla bumped up the price so much during the post covid bubble because they could. High demand, not able to make enough supply. Anyone who paid $120K+ for a Plaid probably should’ve known that they were overpaying for what they were getting, and that prices would come down. That said, it still sucks to get hosed like that on depreciation.

 

[phaphaphooey]

Yeah. Good point. You’re right.

I will say that I had trouble sleeping last night and began to think about following you down the path of pursuing a buyback on my car if service continues to fail in repairing some suspension issues that my car has.

 

[Propofoln]

I will say that I had trouble sleeping last night and began to think about following you down the path of pursuing a buyback on my car if service continues to fail in repairing some suspension issues that my car has.

They gave me full price what I paid ($114k) plus the taxes

 

[Izzyz28]

It seems like most of you haven't bothered to check the actual used Plaid market. 2021's with 10K miles are going for low $70's at dealers, while 20K-40K mile cars are in the mid-$60's. Many are 1-owner, no accidents, pristine condition.

 

[Jayskywalker21]

It seems like most of you haven't bothered to check the actual used Plaid market. 2021's with 10K miles are going for low $70's at dealers, while 20K-40K mile cars are in the mid-$60's. Many are 1-owner, no accidents, pristine condition.

Nah they have, he still has yet to tell us how many miles he had on the car but he shouldve got in the 60s on the open market. Especially since he was cutting an additional check to pay off his loan, not sure why he went to carvana or anywhere else if he wasn't having the dealer buy him out

 

[ginmqi]

Early 2021 Plaids are not going to be great resale value....it was pretty clear when they launched...Tesla already known to not be a great "car maker" per se...they do EV and charging well but some of the manufacturing QA (its better now) wasn't great...and that was NOT some secret. Plus a refresh of the S with the new Plaid drivetrain means potentially more problems with the new model/refresh...which in traditional car makers....you hear people always recommend you to avoid a new model/new gen build in ANY car maker....and with Teslas unique position to be able to cut MSRP more so than other car makers....i can see how some people feel totally screwed if they bought early year Plaids at the height of their price.....

But such is the price you pay for being an early adopter AND for a street car that can accelerate so fast.....it really shouldn't be super surprising. WHile I'm not a coprorate bootlicker or any kind of Tesla/ELon 'fan'.....they are a corporation set out to maximize profit and sales volume as much as possible and they will do things to aim for those goals. They probably don't give a rats behind about 2nd hand market resale value as once their car leaves their factory and sold they've captured that profit and will be moving

 

[Ostrichsak]

I've seen stuff on this forum for years now where someone sees a single deal for car A (It could be a 100D, P85D, Model 3... whatever) and now that becomes "most cars" whenever they're referring to other similar cars. The reality is that the actual market is much higher than that one-off deal so it's not the actual market. You may have seen a single deal of which you don't know the actual condition of (I've seen some stinkers upon inspection that showed amazingly well in photos & even video) plus it could be a scam which always have a low price to entice people to send deposits to out-of-state scammers.

I've been watching the Plaid market for a couple of years now with the intent to find a great deal to buy. I can tell you that the best current deals I've seen are just under $70k w/FSD paid for. They go quick. I've seen mid to low $60's w/o FSD paid for. This isn't the market. It's more like $10k above that in both respects. You can commonly find Plaids w/o FSD paid for in the mid $70k range and those w/ FSD routinely in the $80k range. That IS the market. They actually sell at those prices. The lower-end ones I mentioned are outliers, not the standard. This is NOT the market regardless of what some post publicly online, mostly due to wishful thinking and trying to bash prices to land themselves a good deal. It's a self-motivating and ugly way to try to get a deal themselves.

This is an important designator because I see people all the time talking about "The market is $XX,XXX on that car" when in reality, it isn't. That's the one single magical unicorn deal they say that was either snapped up quickly or taken down due to being a scam. I know the market very well so these #'s I've posted are based on hundreds if not thousands of listings and sales I've seen/been a part of over the years across several Model S platforms.

I'd love someone to prove me wrong though. If you have a legitimate Plaid in "mid-$60's" w/20k-40k miles and a clean title post a link. If they're as common as some seem to think it should be easy to do, right?


Dealerships are in the business to make money. They take whatever that used market range is, drop it a massive amount (even more now with the interest rates and uncertainty of the used car market overall, especially the luxury-adjacent market) and then pad it even a little bit more. This their margin and how they make money. I'm amazed people still take them up on these offers TBH. That margin (which can be tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the market and is ALWAYS $5k-$10k minimum even in the best seller's market) is what the "seller" is willing to give up for convenience. For me, I can't stomach leaving that much money on the table. Especially w/Teslas lowball offers that are even below those of the others. Understandable as Tesla doesn't want to be in the used car business which is the other's bread and butter. It's their entire business model as they don't make their own inventory. Even a fire sale (those $60k/$70k No FSD/FSD prices I mentioned) is still far ahead of what you're going to get in any of these scenarios though. It's worth it IMO.

That said....

Nah they have, he still has yet to tell us how many miles he had on the car but he shouldve got in the 60s on the open market. Especially since he was cutting an additional check to pay off his loan, not sure why he went to carvana or anywhere else if he wasn't having the dealer buy him out

If someone has a Model S Plaid w/white interior & low miles, FSD paid for (or not for the right price) w/clean title that's prepared to take low $50's from a car buying outfit, PM me. I'll better the offer and I can close faster than even they can. Cash in-hand. This is the motivated seller I'm looking for for my next purchase and I can provide a quick & painless cash transaction plus the knowledge to get us both through it safely & eaisly. Win win if they're willing to take $53k like the OP of this thread, allegedly. That's the seller I'd be willing to buy from as it would meet the metrics of my next purchase and I'm not in a hurry. For the right car at the right deal I can move quicker than the bigger names though. So if you're reading this and are considering a lowball offer hit me up via PM w/the deets and we'll talk.

 

[emailforbrett]

Mercedes basically gave me the car, so they eat the depreciation this time. That’s why I leased it. EVs aren’t selling. Tesla‘s (3 and Y) are selling, but not other EVs. That may change depending how much Tesla integrates their charging network with the other makes.

$170,000 car for 0 down and $1,400 per month over 36 months. Win.

My 2021 Plaid had issues from day 1. I would have still kept it, but it got to the point where my family refused to ride in it due to the roughness over every single ripple on the road. The final nail was when we were on the expressway doing about 75 at night, and 9 separate warnings popped up which disabled almost all things suspension, regen, and some other stuff I can’t recall.

Fortunately I am financially able to eat the depreciation and move on. Tesla did some stuff in the service mode menu, cleared the faults, and it was time to part ways with my Plaid. I wasn’t about to list it in Autotrader so every Tom, Dick, and Harry can come to my home and test drive it. I wanted it gone. Out of three online buying services, only one said they would buy it. This was before Vroom stopped buying cars So Carvana got it.

The car had 21,000 miles and was in perfect condition.

Get this, the Merc has SiriusXM and you can scroll ONLY through your Favorites if you chose to! My Plaid had that, kinda off and on as long as I never updated the software.

Knowing what is out there, and the fact that I don’t take road trips in an electric car, I would never buy another Tesla. No car depreciates like this one. Not in two years. That isn’t even my main beef. My issue is the car always had issues. And to have to put on and take off after-market parts on a $130,000 car just so it doesn’t cause unexpected tire tread separation, while keeping it a secret from Tesla is total BS and I didn’t have the energy to keep doing it. I sold the N2itive arms months ago and now I am glad I sold my Tesla.

 

[HighPotential]

I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla did not care about resale value much at all. Elon is denied is $56B CEO payout- for now. $56B. Tesla used to be about tech, now I wonder if it only about investors, the C-Suite, and making money off market valuation rather than longer term company health. Cynical I know. But reality?