Trade-in offer definition of major cosmetic and mechanical issues

[DayTrippin]

I just received a trade-in offer. It looks like the typical fine print.

"This estimate will be valid for 7 days as long as the trade-in vehicle is free of major cosmetic and mechanical issues, has no history of any accidents, is drivable, and the odometer reading does not increase by 1,000 miles or more. For more information, request a call. If your vehicle has any non-standard options or packages not represented in this estimate, you will have the option to complete a self-inspection after placing an order."

All in all the offer while not great is good enough to trade in one of our vehicles. My questions concern what does Tesla consider "major cosmetic" issues? I have read through a lot of threads and haven't really found a good answer to my dilemma. There has been no paintwork, no accidents, but there is a scratch about 6" long on the quarter panel. It wasn't keyed or anything like that and I have no idea how it happened.

What is the best way to approach this? Should I just touch up the scratch? Leave it alone? Take it to a body shop to do it professionally? I haven't accepted the offer yet and as I understand it, sometime after I accept and order I'll need to upload photos. The car is excellent condition other than this one scratch.

Did anyone wash or detail their car before taking photos of it? Any sort of leading practice so to speak around this? I plan to get a quote from online and local dealers to see if there are better offers but I would lose the sales tax advantage if I don't trade it in. It is about a 45k trade-in value so the other dealers would have to offer me at least 3k more just to be a wash for the value Tesla is offering.

 

[T3SLAROD]

They don't even check the condition of your trade, I mean unless it really beat up. You hand them the keys and they park it somewhere else without even looking at it. At least that was my experience when doing my trade in.

 

[DayTrippin]

That is good to know about the actual handoff. I am concerned about the part before that where I haven't uploaded any photos yet.

It looks like if I order a M3P, probably July at this point. Do they revalue (i.e. devalue) your trade while waiting or are you pretty much good as long as you don't drive too many miles between initial valuation and actual trade-in?

 

[T3SLAROD]

That is good to know about the actual handoff. I am concerned about the part before that where I haven't uploaded any photos yet.

It looks like if I order a M3P, probably July at this point. Do they revalue (i.e. devalue) your trade while waiting or are you pretty much good as long as you don't drive too many miles between initial valuation and actual trade-in?

They give you a number of days to trade in or about 600 miles if I remember correctly. But yeah, you would have to re-do the trade in request when you get closer to delivery.

 

[DayTrippin]

Good to know. For those that went through the process, was there a significant change in the value or was it pretty linear such as about 1% per month? Can you trade it in earlier, even if your car isn't in yet? Obviously that totally locks you into a Tesla but I don't see anything else out there I am really interested in.

 

[calidreamz808]

For what its worth.. i traded in my previous EV for my Model 3. Same as another post above stated.. they never looked at it. They had me park it and handed over the keys. It was the easiest trade I have ever done. Never heard a word about it and they promptly paid my loan off within the week.

 

[brkaus]

Good to know. For those that went through the process, was there a significant change in the value or was it pretty linear such as about 1% per month? Can you trade it in earlier, even if your car isn't in yet? Obviously that totally locks you into a Tesla but I don't see anything else out there I am really interested in.

there have been pretty significant changes as evidenced by various posts here. The used car market has been jumping around quite a bit.

 

[Star Platinum]

Kind of off-topic but somewhat related. Has anyone who traded their model 3 kept the charging cables with them. I figure either these hit auction or Tesla resells it but don’t care if their missing.

 

[nametaken]

We traded in with Carvana marked our damage as a scuff, it was much more
Guy came out glanced at it, drove it up the street came back and signed off. I wouldn't worry about it, and also Carvana gave us $2000 more then Tesla offered super easy process

 

[Star Platinum]

Not sure where you live but some states have sales tax credit if you trade in your car for another car in this case through tesla. So if my car trade in is 43k I get 6% sales tax credit on my trade in in PA. That’s an additional 2.5k that isn’t factored in the trade in value and doesn’t show on the invoice.

 

[DayTrippin]

Here I get a credit toward sales tax of the value of my trade. That is why I'd prefer to trade it in if they are competitive with Carvana, Carmax, etc.

 

[nametaken]

Here I get a credit toward sales tax of the value of my trade. That is why I'd prefer to trade it in if they are competitive with Carvana, Carmax, etc.

They won't be...

 

[DayTrippin]

Just got my offer back from Vroom. Surprisingly when I factor in the sale tax advantage, it is better to give it to Tesla even though their actual offer is lower. Even more surprising was the offer I got from Carvana is even worse than Vroom's offer by quite a bit. So far the winner is Tesla when I factor in the sales tax savings.

Can you go ahead and give Tesla the car now so to speak rather than waiting to trade it in when the Tesla arrives? I can easily get by without it now and less chance of a big impact on the trade valuation.

 

[Star Platinum]

Just got my offer back from Vroom. Surprisingly when I factor in the sale tax advantage, it is better to give it to Tesla even though their actual offer is lower. Even more surprising was the offer I got from Carvana is even worse than Vroom's offer by quite a bit. So far the winner is Tesla when I factor in the sales tax savings.

Can you go ahead and give Tesla the car now so to speak rather than waiting to trade it in when the Tesla arrives? I can easily get by without it now and less chance of a big impact on the trade valuation.

Nope you can only drop off your car on the day of your delivery. It’s looking like the end of June if you order recently and keep in mind your trade in value is only good for 30 days. My trade in valuation is expiring in 10 more days ... sigh.

 

[DayTrippin]

Good to know. and that sucks, to put it mildly. So then it is sort of a crapshoot to what it will be worth sometime in June. I'll probably just take the offer from someone else. I still have two more companies to check out. We'll see what Carmax says.

If I am looking at end of June, possibly July, I'll save 2-3 months of car payments too as well as insurance. My license plates are up for renewal as well. Another service is due soon. When I add it all up probably another 3-4k of cost avoidance.

 

[mjwh]

Good to know. and that sucks, to put it mildly. So then it is sort of a crapshoot to what it will be worth sometime in June. I'll probably just take the offer from someone else. I still have two more companies to check out. We'll see what Carmax says.

If I am looking at end of June, possibly July, I'll save 2-3 months of car payments too as well as insurance. My license plates are up for renewal as well. Another service is due soon. When I add it all up probably another 3-4k of cost avoidance.

FWIW— we are “trading” a ‘15 BMW i3 — Tesla offered 12k, Vroom offered 16k… it was enough of a difference to overcome the tax advantage and still have a few k left over, so we are going with Vroom… that being said Vroom so far has been really easy to work with, but they are SLOWWWW.

After accepting their offer we heard nothing for 5 days, called them only to be told that they were backed up and hasn’t requested the loan payoff yet. I got that from my bank for them… 3 more days they assigned a logistics company… 4 more days to get an email from the logistics company, responded the same day… 4 more days logistics company emails that they are assigning a carrier… still waiting to hear from them lol

 

[DayTrippin]

Wow, I am surprised it is that long. At this point the Vroom offer is second best after Tesla. Do they still limit the miles you can drive while they are taking all this time to finalize the deal? So you started this over 2 weeks ago and they still haven't picked up your car?

So when do they actually send you payment, once the car is picked up by the carrier?

 

[mjwh]

Wow, I am surprised it is that long. At this point the Vroom offer is second best after Tesla. Do they still limit the miles you can drive while they are taking all this time to finalize the deal? So you started this over 2 weeks ago and they still haven't picked up your car?

So when do they actually send you payment, once the car is picked up by the carrier?

Right…

great offer though… actually offered more than we paid for it.

Yes if you go over 250 miles from the accepted offer they can revise the offer.

We are just at 2 weeks in and no it hasn’t been picked up yet. Hopefully any day now.

The payment process is initiated when you email them a copy of the bill of lading from the transport company.

 

[mjwh]

@DayTrippin -- Just as an update -- Vroom subcontracted the pickup to RPM (Michigan), RPM then turned around and subcontracted it to MPM (Oregon). Looking up MPM's DOT number shows that it's just one guy with a truck and 2-car trailer. He shows up to pickup the car yesterday. After everything is loaded up he tells me that he can't provide me with a bill of lading. Now Vroom has put a hold on the payment because they don't have the bill of lading. Not sure if this sub-sub-contracting is common on Vroom, but I would be very cautions of them if it is. The sub-sub-contractor clearly had no clue what needed to happen and now I'm going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops and have delayed payment because of it.

 

[DayTrippin]

@mjwh - That is quite a story. Based on your profile, you are in a major market. I was going to go with their offer as it was the cleanest. I'll keep that in mind as it progresses. Hopefully it will all work out in the end.