Before I even decided to order my Model S, I had read that Tesla "low-balled" trade-in offers. They don't stock or sell other models of cars, so they just have a 3rd party broker buy the car immediately upon trade-in. This made sense to me, and all of the Tesla reps I spoke with during the ordering process were very up-front about it.
Keeping this in mind, I told the reps (dealing with an Owner Advisor and Product Specialist at this point) that I was going to take my car to CarMax and get a quote from them. When I mentioned that, the OA told me that Tesla would match the CarMax quote for trade-in value. Great! I could drive my old car up to Cincy, pick up the Tesla, and leave the old car. So I thought...
The CarMax quote came in at $6500. I notified my DS of this, and he didn't seem to have a problem with it. About a week before delivery, my DS told me that a rep from Alliance Inspection Management (AIM) would be contacting me to appraise the trade-in car. They did, and I scheduled the appraisal for the next week. My Tesla ended up beating the delivery window, so the appraisal happened one morning when I was scheduled to pick the car up the next afternoon (appraisal on Thursday morning, delivery scheduled for 2 pm on Friday). My DS calls me at about 2 pm on Thursday and informs me that AIM found a lot of "abnormal wear and tear" on my vehicle, so the most they could offer me was $4500.
I was pretty upset at this. First of all, the AIM inspector just did a visual inspection of the car. There was no test drive or analysis of the mechanical condition of the car. Second, there were multiple line items on the appraisal where I was docked $500/each for scratches or scrapes over 12" long and more than 10 rock chips on the hood. There are several scratches and scrapes on my car, but none of them are anywhere near 12" long (longest probably about 3"). There were several photos embedded in the report, but there were no photos of the supposed scratches that were worth a $500/each deduction on the offer.
CarMax did a full visual and mechanical inspection of the car, plus they took it for a test drive. I didn't end up trading in my car to Tesla, so I took it back to CarMax. By the time I took it back, a month had passed and their appraisals are only good for a week. They re-inspeced the car, and again, came back with a $6500 offer. If CarMax could buy it at that price, then why couldn't Tesla? Tesla could just turn around and sell it to CarMax...and I could get the tax break for trading in a car.
I'm not really that upset at Tesla or any other people I dealt with there. My DS arranged for a rental car at Tesla's expense to get me to Cincy for delivery. I'm really only out ~$350 in taxes due to not having a trade-in on my MVPA. I just wanted to put a cautionary tale out there for people considering buying a Tesla and trading in their car to Tesla. Make sure that Tesla's appraisal comes back with an agreeable number before you plan on trading it to them.
Keeping this in mind, I told the reps (dealing with an Owner Advisor and Product Specialist at this point) that I was going to take my car to CarMax and get a quote from them. When I mentioned that, the OA told me that Tesla would match the CarMax quote for trade-in value. Great! I could drive my old car up to Cincy, pick up the Tesla, and leave the old car. So I thought...
The CarMax quote came in at $6500. I notified my DS of this, and he didn't seem to have a problem with it. About a week before delivery, my DS told me that a rep from Alliance Inspection Management (AIM) would be contacting me to appraise the trade-in car. They did, and I scheduled the appraisal for the next week. My Tesla ended up beating the delivery window, so the appraisal happened one morning when I was scheduled to pick the car up the next afternoon (appraisal on Thursday morning, delivery scheduled for 2 pm on Friday). My DS calls me at about 2 pm on Thursday and informs me that AIM found a lot of "abnormal wear and tear" on my vehicle, so the most they could offer me was $4500.
I was pretty upset at this. First of all, the AIM inspector just did a visual inspection of the car. There was no test drive or analysis of the mechanical condition of the car. Second, there were multiple line items on the appraisal where I was docked $500/each for scratches or scrapes over 12" long and more than 10 rock chips on the hood. There are several scratches and scrapes on my car, but none of them are anywhere near 12" long (longest probably about 3"). There were several photos embedded in the report, but there were no photos of the supposed scratches that were worth a $500/each deduction on the offer.
CarMax did a full visual and mechanical inspection of the car, plus they took it for a test drive. I didn't end up trading in my car to Tesla, so I took it back to CarMax. By the time I took it back, a month had passed and their appraisals are only good for a week. They re-inspeced the car, and again, came back with a $6500 offer. If CarMax could buy it at that price, then why couldn't Tesla? Tesla could just turn around and sell it to CarMax...and I could get the tax break for trading in a car.
I'm not really that upset at Tesla or any other people I dealt with there. My DS arranged for a rental car at Tesla's expense to get me to Cincy for delivery. I'm really only out ~$350 in taxes due to not having a trade-in on my MVPA. I just wanted to put a cautionary tale out there for people considering buying a Tesla and trading in their car to Tesla. Make sure that Tesla's appraisal comes back with an agreeable number before you plan on trading it to them.