Trade in experience/ advice of a ICE for your Tesla

[JonG]

It's a joke and Tesla need to fix this:

I went to look at an inventory car listed as being at one of their stores. I got there to be told it wasn't, they don't hold inventory there but if I ordered it, I could see it before taking delivery. I wanted to see it before ordering it.

I asked for a quote for my car having already got a quote from an auction buying site which is generally seen as the bottom of the market. Firstly Tesla needed 3 days to get the price to me, and secondly it was 15% lower than the auction buying site. That leaves me with the option of selling privately.

I asked Tesla how long it would take to get the inventory car, they couldn't give a firm timescale but said about a month. This is a car they have sat somewhere! That pushes it to the end of Q3 but as the car is already registered, they'll prioritise new deliveries first so I'll be into Q4. So I have a timing risk in selling my car and taking delivery.

I walked away.

Unless they can make buying inventory cars easier they're going to lose sales. If the trade in had been parity with an auction site (which tesla could have flipped the car to, but taken the cash flow/timing issue away from me), and had the inventory car there to be seem and with me if I bought within the week, I'd have bought a P100D. I'm now waiting until after quarter end.

 

[imboom]

Personal experience here trading a C63. It really depends on your car's condition meaning, like others have said, Tesla isn't really interested in your trade in but provides it as a convenience.

They will take your vehicle's specs and mileage and send it up. Offers will come in.
If you take the offer, then they will use an internal system called Wufoo to document the vehicle's condition. This is where it gets interesting depending your vehicle's condition. Sales people, who are interested in getting the sales done, will do the documentation, right down to the thread life and etc. Because they are doing it, they are much more lax than a dealership would do it, who usually calls for their service manager.

I got a much higher value for my Mercedes than expected through Tesla and that's one of the reasons why I ended up working with them instead of getting another ICE.

 

[jjh1234]

The closest carmax to me is apparently 4 hours away, lol. I wish I lived closer to one. I'd only care to break even or close, when I get an offer from Tesla should I consider that set in stone or has anyone had luck with getting them to budge a little?

I actually traded in two cars on my Tesla. The process was a bit of a pain with all the very specific photos you need to take. I was able to negotiate another $1,000 higher than their original trade in on one of the cars. The values were pretty close to what other local dealers were offering on a couple of used Teslas. One other big point is that in PA, you get a huge tax break when you trade in your car vs. selling it privately. You only pay sales tax on the difference between you new car price and the trade in. Keep that in mind. Good luck!

 

[jjh1234]

just curious, how does one get lower sales tax for their Model S if they trade in their car to Tesla. I thought they are 2 different transactions, sell your car to Tesla then buy Model S from them.

Thanks

In some states, such as PA, you only pay sales tax on the DIFFERENCE between new car and trade in.

 

[Chief holley]

I didn't want to deal with the hassle of someone trying to haggle me down on pricing so I took my 2011 CTSV to CarMax first because I heard that Tesla lowballs you. I had an "ok" deal from Car Max but then decided to see what Tesla thought. Tesla actually ended up giving me $500 more than Car Max did. Try them both, its free.

 

[Cowbell]

I just traded in a 2016 Kia Optima SXL for a new S100D. All I had to do was send in pictures. I got top dollar and absolutely no hassle. I'm sure they flipped it easily as the Kia was completely loaded and pristine with about 16.5K miles.