tips on how to sell Model S without too much hassle? Trade-in options?

[supernova87a]

Hi all --

For a slew of reasons having to do with a change commute / job, I am interested in selling my Model S (from 2013) and I am familiar with the listings for example in the forum here.

But my question is whether any of you have come across a relatively easy way to sell a Model S without having to do a private party sale and all the time it takes?

My car is an early VIN, like xxx085xx so it doesn't have many of the features of the new models so I imagine there won't be as much interest in it, so I'm thinking of whether to take it to a car dealer and try to trade it in before it loses much more of its value ahead of the Model 3. Like to an Audi or BMW dealer and trade it for a cheaper used regular car - do these dealers buy Teslas? Or other car-buying services (such as the Shift car buying service), but many seem to not want to touch a Tesla vehicle because it seems to be "specialty".

Am I wrong to want to sell it this way? I have never sold a car before, and I have just observed that it takes a bunch of time to have people visit you and see it, test drive, get documents in order, handle the actual payment / lien / trust details, etc. And I don't have a lot of time during the week, or don't want to blow a bunch of weekends doing this.

Any advice appreciated, thanks!

 

[supernova87a]

Oh, and I did not get Tesla financing, so I don't qualify for the buyback option -- which was a regretted move now.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Try iSeeCars.com; great site and easy to list your car. Otherwise, why not just support the cause by trading it in for a Model 3 instead?

 

[alevek]

Try iSeeCars.com; great site and easy to list your car. Otherwise, why not just support the cause by trading it in for a Model 3 instead?

That has to be the most ridiculous reason to buy a Model 3!

 

[Atlantan]

Selling retail is a hassle. Not sure what the state law is in CA, here in Georgia, buyer pays taxes on the difference between the trade and the purchased car. See if a high end dealer will take it. Trading in might save you on state taxes, vs selling yourself and having to pay state tax on the full purchase amount. This delta might make up for the possible trade in hit. Good Luck with the sale.

 

[gavine]

I sold my Model S to my local BMW dealer. Very simple transaction and they offered me more than I thought it was worth (trade-in value-wise). I didn't trade it in...I sold it to them outright.

In fairness, they said someone in their dealer organization was looking for one so I'm thinking they didn't need to make a profit on it so that's why they offered me more. I told them I was getting bids on it and the highest bidder gets the car. I didn't even go anywhere else because their offer was so good.

If not, Carmax will buy your car. I'm not sure how good their offer will be, but it will be simple.

 

[Shock-On-T]

That has to be the most ridiculous reason to buy a Model 3!

Any reason is a good reason!

 

[Yarder]

When I was looking for my used MS, a dealership in Texas kept popping up on Craigslist and eBay with a large inventory of used MS's. You may get a reasonable price as they were consistently above private sale retail prices. When you do make the sale, make sure to do the necessary paperwork to the state that you have made the sale. Otherwise you will be on the hook for any number of violations if the new owner gets parking tickets, HOV violations, or anything else that is tied to the legal owner.

 

[thefortunes]

I have sold all but one of my previous cars privately (and that is a lot of cars) so I may have a slightly different viewpoint, but here's my advice.

Take the car to CarMax (I have never done this, but it appears to be fairly painless) and request a trade-in value from the dealer from which you will be buying the new car.

Take the higher of those two and post the Tesla for sale here for that plus an amount that makes it worthwhile to you to sell it privately ($1k, $2k, $5k - only you can decide that). Make it clear that the car is for sale at that price to the first to take it.

If someone buys it, great, you made $x for probably 2-5 hours of work. If not, trade it or sell it to CarMax.

P.S. That is actually how I bought my wife's Model S - someone was trading their car in 5 days from posting, unless someone paid $x. I bought it.

 

[zer0cool]

Porsche, BMW, MB, Audi dealer would definitely buy your car. It's very easy to trade in to a dealer like that, takes virtually no additional time to buying a car from them. I have also tried vroom.com. It takes about 20 mins, you just need to send them some pictures, which is all part of their app, super quick.

 

[ChadS]

I have sold all but one of my previous cars privately (and that is a lot of cars) so I may have a slightly different viewpoint, but here's my advice.

Take the car to CarMax (I have never done this, but it appears to be fairly painless) and request a trade-in value from the dealer from which you will be buying the new car.

Take the higher of those two and post the Tesla for sale here for that plus an amount that makes it worthwhile to you to sell it privately ($1k, $2k, $5k - only you can decide that). Make it clear that the car is for sale at that price to the first to take it.

If someone buys it, great, you made $x for probably 2-5 hours of work. If not, trade it or sell it to CarMax.

I have sold all of my cars privately. I did try CarMax when I sold my Roadster (it was indeed a pleasant experience - except for the fact that at the time I had to drive quite a ways to get to one), and then went through the process that thefortunes describes.

Having CarMax or some other trade-in value is a good backstop, and lets you decide exactly how much money you need to make on a private sale for it to be worth the hassle.

 

[zer0cool]

So there's a guy currently selling his 2013 P85 with 54k miles for the past week or two at the For Sale forum. He's asking mid 40's since he got a 41k trade-in offer. Car hasn't sold yet and he said in his last post that he is going to trade it in this Saturday unless he gets a reasonable local offer. I say go to CarMax, the dealer where you are planning to buy your next car, and may Vroom. You can do what the above posters suggested, or I personally feel if you get an offer in the high 30's (say 37-38), you should just trade it in. This is especially true if your state allows you to offset sales tax with trade-in. If your mileage is much higher or your car's condition is not that good, then expect much lower.

 

[ChadS]

By the way, I don't find placing ads to be much trouble. Answering email questions can occasionally be slightly annoying, but is minor. Most people are really worried about the hassles involved with doing test drives. Where to meet, what documentation to ask for, safety issues, etc.

I've found that if I take good care of the car, price it reasonably, and do some minor screening via email, I almost always sell the car to the first person that looks at it. (Getting somebody to look at it can be the hardest part, at least with a specialty car like the Roadster or my wife's old camper van). So I haven't had to give many test drives.

 

[jmsurpri]

You will always make more money trying to sell privately but it's not easy. Carmax and Tesla offered an embarrassingly low value for my like new 2016 85D. I've got a post on the for sale forum here. I'll probably also go the eBay and Craigslist route if I don't get any interest here.

 

[zer0cool]

For nearly new ones, private vs. trade-in diff will be HUGE, like 15k diff. For 2013, you are talking about much less, maybe ~3k...

 

[supernova87a]

Thank you all for your replies. I have also talked to a few Audi/BMW dealerships and they said they will evaluate my car, and some of them do not even require a car purchase from them (but I wonder if this generally leads to a lower valuation).

I will report back the kind of $ quotes I get, and thanks for any continued suggestions about other options that are relatively easier to sell a Model S for a reasonable value!

 

[xyeahtony]

People who buy Teslas generally expect a lot more. I would consider eBay as an option as well. Normal car selling avenues probably are not the best for a specialty car such as this.