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The Saga continues.....Regretting this purchase

What should i do?

  • This is the normal "Tesla" experience

    Votes: 13 17.8%
  • Hire a attorney

    Votes: 36 49.3%
  • Keep wasting time and letting them try to fix

    Votes: 24 32.9%

  • Total voters
    73
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While I understand that there are quite a few issues with your discounted used Tesla purchase, claiming that Tesla is the worst, is a bit over the top.

All auto manufacturers have issues like this. They, for one reason or not, end up with a less than pristine vehicle with some miles on it and a storied history. They shine it up, go over it mechanically and sell it as a demo, used, pre-owned, loaner, executive car or some such. They rarely will disclose all the negative things about it, as honestly, sometimes the ones selling the car do not know all the details themselves. While they should know this, they are often just tasked with getting the thing sold, and told to let service take care of any push back.

They deal with hundreds of thousands of cars, and each one of them has it's own story. Items that have happened going down the assembly line, in testing, in storage, in shipment, in delivery prep. Lots and lots of issues that need to be addressed in the early stages of a cars life.

Everybody wants to do a good job, but not everybody does.

Your frustration is understandable. Sounds like your Tesla was abused or in an accident by someone other than Tesla. They are stuck with trying to get it back into shape, and may themselves be un-aware of all that the car has gone through before you ordered it.

As your experience is worst than most, perhaps the best course of action is to let Tesla work through all these issues and bring your car back to the condition you expected. Not all that fun for you, but other than magic, I do not know any way to accomplish your goal.

Al least they are now accepting responsibility, dispatching Rangers, providing loaners and continuing to work their way through each item.

As a consolation to you, I have seen posts like these on many other manufacturers forums. Believe it is the nature of the automotive industry. Most all the customers are satisfied, but occasionally one like yours slips through the cracks. If you would look at the Corvette forums you will realize that this could have turned out much much worse.


It appears to of been lightly driven , most the issues are factory related
While I understand that there are quite a few issues with your discounted used Tesla purchase, claiming that Tesla is the worst, is a bit over the top.

All auto manufacturers have issues like this. They, for one reason or not, end up with a less than pristine vehicle with some miles on it and a storied history. They shine it up, go over it mechanically and sell it as a demo, used, pre-owned, loaner, executive car or some such. They rarely will disclose all the negative things about it, as honestly, sometimes the ones selling the car do not know all the details themselves. While they should know this, they are often just tasked with getting the thing sold, and told to let service take care of any push back.

They deal with hundreds of thousands of cars, and each one of them has it's own story. Items that have happened going down the assembly line, in testing, in storage, in shipment, in delivery prep. Lots and lots of issues that need to be addressed in the early stages of a cars life.

Everybody wants to do a good job, but not everybody does.

Your frustration is understandable. Sounds like your Tesla was abused or in an accident by someone other than Tesla. They are stuck with trying to get it back into shape, and may themselves be un-aware of all that the car has gone through before you ordered it.

As your experience is worst than most, perhaps the best course of action is to let Tesla work through all these issues and bring your car back to the condition you expected. Not all that fun for you, but other than magic, I do not know any way to accomplish your goal.

Al least they are now accepting responsibility, dispatching Rangers, providing loaners and continuing to work their way through each item.

As a consolation to you, I have seen posts like these on many other manufacturers forums. Believe it is the nature of the automotive industry. Most all the customers are satisfied, but occasionally one like yours slips through the cracks. If you would look at the Corvette forums you will realize that this could have turned out much much worse.


You are missing the point , I am willing and eager for them to get it right but so far they have proven unable to do so.
 
If the car was sold as new then you have some protections. There a handful of cases where owners have gotten Tesla to buy back the car. If this is the case then I'd push for Tesla to buy back the car. There might be some arguing over how the $7500 tax credit plays in (as has happened before), but at least you'll be rid of a car that doesn't meet your perfectly reasonable expectations.

But, it looks to me you technically bought a used car sight unseen, and you didn't test drive it. You could very well have a car Tesla bought back without knowing.

Tesla's CPO program right now is a complete mess, and there is a complete lack of confidence in Tesla's ability to sell a pre-owned vehicle to a customer. It doesn't matter if there is 2000 miles on the odometer or 20K miles. In either case you have to be able to inspect the car, test drive the car, etc before handing the money over.

To my knowledge the CPO program doesn't really allow you to this. It's done instead on faith, and the customer is the one that takes all the risk.

The only way I see Tesla restoring faith in the CPO program (or inventory cars) is to have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.
 
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If the car was sold as new then you have some protections. There a handful of cases where owners have gotten Tesla to buy back the car. If this is the case then I'd push for Tesla to buy back the car. There might be some arguing over how the $7500 tax credit plays in (as has happened before), but at least you'll be rid of a car that doesn't meet your perfectly reasonable expectations.

But, it looks to me you technically bought a used car sight unseen, and you didn't test drive it. You could very well have a car Tesla bought back without knowing.

Tesla's CPO program right now is a complete mess, and there is a complete lack of confidence in Tesla's ability to sell a pre-owned vehicle to a customer. It doesn't matter if there is 2000 miles on the odometer or 20K miles. In either case you have to be able to inspect the car, test drive the car, etc before handing the money over.

To my knowledge the CPO program doesn't really allow you to this. It's done instead on faith, and the customer is the one that takes all the risk.

The only way I see Tesla restoring faith in the CPO program (or inventory cars) is to have a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.
Car was sold as new to me , never been titled and tax credit was also included as it’s new. I did NOT buy a used cpo to be clear.
 
Car was sold as new to me , never been titled and tax credit was also included as it’s new. I did NOT buy a used cpo to be clear.

In that case I'm assuming you have the same protections that a new car owner would have.

If I was in your shoes I'd stop with the mobile service stuff. The problem with that is it's harder to reject a car when the guy is dropping it off versus you picking it up.

Heck at this point I'd rent a car on my own dime for the freedom it allows. That way I could simply give them time to get it to an acceptable point.

Acceptable being there might be a few nitpicky issues, and maybe some annoying rattles (I've never experienced a Model S that didn't have some rattle over some road types).

It's a bit early for a buyback. It's probably about halfway there if one used other buy backs to gauge from. But, it's definitely time to begin the process while giving them a bit more time to fix it.
 
I am really sorry to hear of your bad experience. I purchased a new 2015 85D in June 2015 through the Indianapolis store. Had a great sales experience. There was not a Service Center in Indy then so the car was delivered to my home in perfect condition from Cincinnati. I had a few items needing service over the first 6 months or so and they either sent a ranger or picked up the car (leaving a loaner) and took to their local temporary service facility. I have only had one item needing repair since the Indy Service Center opened and they handled it well. However there has been a lot of turn over at the store and service center since my purchase and the sales reps really do not seem as engaged or helpful now. I believe the service manager has changed as well. I certainly understand your frustration and hope they can make your car right. At this point I do not think that I would buy an inventory car or a CPO, just because I would not trust Tesla to tell the truth about the car.
 
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It was $9000 , but the sales person who was fantastic all around and still is told me the car is pristine and the discount was for mileage and expect the car to be just like new. I wanted to walk away and tried i was told it was a done deal because of the purchase agreement I signed the day earlier despite not signing for delivery. At that point during delivery they brought a couple managers over as I was pissed off and told me they would get the issues taken care of. I guess I am half way there at this point. It just seems like I’m working with such incompetent people. If you work in service for 3+ years on just a couple models you should know them inside out and do a spectacular job with fit and finish especially considering the customer is complaining about such issues. The whole process is just full of *sugar* all around . Service advisor gives your the warm and fuzzy , tells you it’s all good. Get the car back half the stuff is fixed , half not , 1-2 new issues created from the guys working on it. Rinse and repeat.


It’s a cool car and I do like it ALOT
I kind of of understand it, Tesla makes great cars which are fun to drive and after a wait it's hard to say no. I bought 4 of the so far, my experience was great, but I always told myself that for any major issues I would not accept delivery. I would like to think I could have done it, lucky for me it never came to that. Sorry you had such a bad experience.
 
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Loaner ...... awesome job Tesla ( tags and registration expired 4-20-18 on the loaner, got pulled over for this. Then got stranded the next day as the fob battery died out of nowhere. could not unlock car since its a loaner not linked to my phone. Spent 40 mins on hold for roadside till my battery died on phone. Walked to menards , begged at door to let me buy a battery after hours , thankfully they did and a new 2032 battery fixed it. AC in loaner smelled so strong of urine whenever it was turned on , heat was fine. done and done

You don't need a battery in the fob to use the fob to unlock the and start it. Tesla should have told you how to get in and start the car with a dead fob battery.
 
There is a chance that this car was involved in an accident, fixed and sold to you. Take it to an independent shop for inspection on the paint and frame.
I would expect when I ask the delivery specialist and sales person this very question and the response from them is NO that they are telling the truth , to find out later that they will not disclose this is utter bullshit. To date I don’t have anything on paper saying if it was involved in a collision or not. Tesla seems somewhat shady to me. Everything I do with them now is on paper and documented with pictures and video , it’s sad it has to be this way.
 
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