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What happened to the cpo inventory?

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I've been thinking about what this could possibly mean by interpreting it with different words.

If what you meant to say is:

  • Tesla has decided to stop using new cars for loaners, and only use new cars for Demos of current offerings
  • Only Demo cars would be available for sale as Inventory cars
  • Sell off the existing fleet of Inventory Loaner cars
  • Replace loaner fleet with aging, depreciating/non-saleable CPO cars

Then I can see how that makes sense, but that's not really what you said.

i don't know what I said. I just know that I asked what happened to the cpo cars and was told that tesla decided to keep those cars they pulled as loaner cars and no longer wanted to sell them. With model X deliveries coming now and an 80% projected increase in sales this year, there will be a lot more service calls which will obviously require a lot more loaner cars...so it makes perfect sense to me. Now how they decided which cars to keep vs which cars to sell, I have no clue.
 
What it does give Tesla is the ability to write the cars off their books and add whatever revenue they got for them immediately (for example to help the quarter reporting). The wholesaler can take their time to sell off that inventory, plus they take a risk whether they make any money. Notice also that those cars go out without CPO warranty, so they can sell cheaper. If Tesla would suddenly start discounting CPO's in lieu of warranty, that could hurt their brand. So, maybe the CPO car path is this:
* CPO lists
* if CPO doesn't sell, price is lowered
* Once price is at cost + CPO Warrantly and it still doesn't sell, CPO warranty is removed and the car sold to wholesaler at cost

The above would seem reasonable for Tesla as a business.

Except assuming Tesla was not able to sell the car for cost + CPO warranty, likely because that cost was too high as deemed by the market, how can a wholesaler then expect to sell it without the additional warranty? Seems like the wholesaler will then have to discount the car by quite a bit and Tesla will have to sell it to the wholesaler at an ever bigger loss than selling it to a customer directly with a smaller discount.

Maybe what Tesla should do is reduce the selling price of each CPO car by $2,500-$5,000 for each month the car has been listed. Then the price drops are incremental and sooner or later someone will buy the car at market price without having to significantly discount all the cars to a wholesaler.
 
Well, I seriously looked into Mustang options tonight, but the options are pretty disappointing. The new ones no longer have a glass roof option, I don't like the restyled interiors much, and I'm not terribly fond of the color options. A new one would be a 3 year commitment before coming back to a Tesla, and I'm not sold enough for that. Older ones of the 2011 - 2014? era I like, and could be a shorter 1 to 2 year commitment before coming back to Tesla, but it's REALLY hard to find one of that era that has a manual transmission, let alone other options I might want. It looks like I might just have to go carless for awhile, until my available funds get high enough that I can buy the Tesla I want. Eventually, if I don't find a CPO, I will have enough money/budget for a new Tesla S and can forego the CPO route, though that could be up to 2 more years out, and I'm not sure I potentially want to go without a car for that long. I guess I could try to find a reasonably good condition but otherwise turd of a car for awhile, something that is maybe $1500. I don't know, I don't really like any of my options.

Right now, AFTER my Volt sells, I have a budget of $65K. Should be enough, right? But if I'm going to spend that much, do I really want to settle for a car that doesn't have the options I really want? Right now, with the reduced inventory, there is only 1 P85 that comes anywhere near to having the options I want (previously, there were usually 8 to 10). I decided I was willing to open up my search to include S85 cars, and guess how many matches it added in my search? None. Not one.

At this point, I can probably add about $10K to my budget each year, so I figure in 2 years, if I still haven't found a CPO car, I'll be up to about $85K, enough ... I hope ... for a new Tesla Model S. But maybe not, as prices just keep going up.
 
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Well, this whole situation has me a bit worried, just like Skotty.

I have been tracking CPO prices for a few months, and as of two weeks ago I was finally in the position to purchase a CPO Tesla. Two years ago I sold my Corvette, and invested the money, and just kept my "secondary" car. Now my secondary car is in dire need of replacement. No problem, I saw a P85 that fit all my criteria on December 30th, 2015 for $55,000. I'm sure sometime this spring another one will pop up in my price range, right?

I sure hope so. I am counting on the prices we have seen, plus a 4 year warranty. Private sellers can't offer that as an extension of the standard warranty.

I am somewhat interested in dennisayre's offer, although freight from LA is a bit pricey, I'd be interested in hearing more about your current warranty and car specs.

From 2 years ago when I made a very extensive spreadsheet, I assumed I would only be able to afford an S85. Recent prices show a P85, at least in December, was in reach, and got me excited. Actually getting performance to match my old 2001 Corvette got me salivating.
 
Those who are freaking about this should really take a deep breath and wait a few days for the dust to settle.

Realize that within about a year there will almost be about twice as many Tesla cars on the road. More people will be upgrading to the Model X and D models.

Even with this inventory of 300 CPO cars disappearing, there will be hundreds more coming on the market. Prices will only go lower and build quality/features will only get better as higher VIN CPO and private party cars enter the market.
 
Even with this inventory of 300 CPO cars disappearing, there will be hundreds more coming on the market. Prices will only go lower and build quality/features will only get better as higher VIN CPO and private party cars enter the market.

Indeed. My concern is not the disappearance in the current inventory, which I am not actually interested in (otherwise I would have bought one). It is a change in policy where they don't offer CPOs for cars that meet my criteria.
 
Those who are freaking about this should really take a deep breath and wait a few days for the dust to settle.

Realize that within about a year there will almost be about twice as many Tesla cars on the road. More people will be upgrading to the Model X and D models.

Even with this inventory of 300 CPO cars disappearing, there will be hundreds more coming on the market. Prices will only go lower and build quality/features will only get better as higher VIN CPO and private party cars enter the market.
It's just been little over 24 hours since this all shook down. Take deep breaths and step back from the ledge. While I can feel the frustrations myself as I was getting close to making a purchase in the coming months as well, we need to see where this is going. Give it a few days and see what happens.
 
I'd advise anyone seriously looking for a CPO to contact your local gallery or store, as they likely have access to many more cars that are not currently listed on the Tesla Preowned website.

Also, EV-CPO is currently tracking 39 "hidden" cars that appear to still be available, just not listed on the Preowned website. There are currently three P85s and one P85+ cars for sale for less than $70k (all in Atlanta). There's no guarantee that these are actually available, but they haven't been removed like the 300 other casualties. They still have a "BUY" button on the detail page. So it may be worth a call if you're really committed.

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Right now, AFTER my Volt sells, I have a budget of $65K. Should be enough, right? .

If you're buying at the limit of your savings, have you also factored in state sales tax and insurance?
 
I'd advise anyone seriously looking for a CPO to contact your local gallery or store, as they likely have access to many more cars that are not currently listed on the Tesla Preowned website.
when I bought my inventory car, the staff at tesla told me there were 3 cars in the whole county available. The website had 20 listed, the car I bought was one that the sales person told me didn't exist, and couldn't possibly exist. I don't put much faith in what they can find in their systems when the publicly facing website knows so much more than they do.
 
when I bought my inventory car, the staff at tesla told me there were 3 cars in the whole county available. The website had 20 listed, the car I bought was one that the sales person told me didn't exist, and couldn't possibly exist. I don't put much faith in what they can find in their systems when the publicly facing website knows so much more than they do.

Ugh, you'll argue about anything, I shouldn't even engage you.

Many, many other people have posted the exact opposite experience. Too many to count. That's why I posted this SUGGESTION for people who are seriously looking for a CPO.

If you don't like the suggestion, based on dozens of peoples' experience, fine. But that doesn't mean you have to attack it like a pitbull.
 
I'd advise anyone seriously looking for a CPO to contact your local gallery or store, as they likely have access to many more cars that are not currently listed on the Tesla Preowned website.

Also, EV-CPO is currently tracking 39 "hidden" cars that appear to still be available, just not listed on the Preowned website. There are currently three P85s and one P85+ cars for sale for less than $70k (all in Atlanta). There's no guarantee that these are actually available, but they haven't been removed like the 300 other casualties. They still have a "BUY" button on the detail page. So it may be worth a call if you're really committed.

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If you're buying at the limit of your savings, have you also factored in state sales tax and insurance?


Yes, I do have that figured in.

I could probably get a lot more search hits if I open up my search to include California, but I have California excluded right now. Their shipping charge from California to Missouri is the maximum amount, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth (feels like California being elitist again), so I cut California off. Currently limiting my search to the middle of the country and the east coast, though I know most of the cars are in California.

Even more asinine is the shipping cost from Denver to Kansas City is $1500. I'm still considering cars there though, as I have family there, and it's not a very long drive. I'll just go there to buy it if I have to.
 
Ugh, you'll argue about anything, I shouldn't even engage you.

Many, many other people have posted the exact opposite experience. Too many to count. That's why I posted this SUGGESTION for people who are seriously looking for a CPO.

If you don't like the suggestion, based on dozens of peoples' experience, fine. But that doesn't mean you have to attack it like a pitbull.
Touchy much?
 
To those who are saying they were removed because of the cost being too high - that completely contradicts Elon from the most recent conference call when he stated he was getting better returns on CPO Teslas than he expected...unless I misunderstood him.

This has been quite a mind-boggling situation though. Anything other than "website is ****ed up" seems too unrealistic.

Would someone come in and make a deal to buy a few hundred of these? Seems unlikely.

Would they suddenly decide to remove hundreds of cars from the market? Seems just as unlikely for a company that is in the business of selling cars.

But profit margins on these does not seem to be a reason that has any logic behind it. As I said, if anything, they would be purposely pushing these given that they have better returns on them than they expected.
 
Yes, I do have that figured in.

I could probably get a lot more search hits if I open up my search to include California, but I have California excluded right now. Their shipping charge from California to Missouri is the maximum amount, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth (feels like California being elitist again), so I cut California off. Currently limiting my search to the middle of the country and the east coast, though I know most of the cars are in California.

Even more asinine is the shipping cost from Denver to Kansas City is $1500. I'm still considering cars there though, as I have family there, and it's not a very long drive. I'll just go there to buy it if I have to.
They get $500 to transfer from one location in California to another, $500 for 20 miles.
 
They get $500 to transfer from one location in California to another, $500 for 20 miles.


Well that's also ridiculous. I'll drive 20 miles just for lunch some days.

Looks like the biggest punch in the gut for the CPO inventory change is the prices. I just looked over ev-cpo site manually (as opposed to just running my search engine), and I see that if I stick to a $65K budget, there are only 5 cars in the entire country now to select from, without considering any other options at all. I also see almost all of the 100 cars that are there show price changes, which seemed a bit unusual to me. Curious why that is.

Another thing I would find eye brow raising is if they removed older cars out of increased warranty cost concerns, as some people have suggested. What would that say about the supposed lower maintenance and repair costs for EVs?
 
I enjoy lurking on this site, but we just put our $2500 down. I'm going to be super sad that if the March 31st event introduces a new S that has the same delivery expectancy (our current lease expires in June) with upgraded hardware.

If that happens hopefully the chassis is the same to retrofit :D (I can dream)
 
Well that's also ridiculous. I'll drive 20 miles just for lunch some days.

Looks like the biggest punch in the gut for the CPO inventory change is the prices. I just looked over ev-cpo site manually (as opposed to just running my search engine), and I see that if I stick to a $65K budget, there are only 5 cars in the entire country now to select from, without considering any other options at all. I also see almost all of the 100 cars that are there show price changes, which seemed a bit unusual to me. Curious why that is.

Another thing I would find eye brow raising is if they removed older cars out of increased warranty cost concerns, as some people have suggested. What would that say about the supposed lower maintenance and repair costs for EVs?

Check out Elon's most recent shareholder letter. Each year, warranty costs have dropped dramatically, even as cars produced has increased. A 2015/2016 will certainly be better than a 2013. But another quote from his conference call contradicts the idea that older models are not worth selling, because he stated the returns on CPOs have exceeded their expectations.

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The "dream" scenario here would be Tesla entering a rental car type business - they are beginning to position a large amount of cars at major airports around the country, to benefit from high margins on renting the cars out to well-qualified customers. And at the same time, increasing brand awareness. Adam Jonas "Tesla Mobility" idea with a slight twist.
 
Also, even though I need a bigger battery than the minimum, it kind of irks me that right now, the cheapest used car costs more than the cheapest new car did in 2012.

I know the current used cars are much better equipped and have bigger batteries, but when you are talking middle class that has to stretch to buy such a car, buy in price trumps all. It doesn't matter how nicely appointed a car is if it's too expensive to buy. Right now, the CPO cars were just entering middle class land where middle class folks could really start considering it, and now it looks like the bar was just raised up again to make sure these cars are not available to the middle class.
 
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Also, even though I need a bigger battery than the minimum, it kind of irks me that right now, the cheapest used car costs more than the cheapest new car did in 2012.

I know the current used cars are much better equipped and have bigger batteries, but when you are talking middle class that has to stretch to buy such a car, buy in price trumps all. It doesn't matter how nicely appointed a car is if it's too expensive to buy. Right now, the CPO cars were just entering middle class land where middle class folks could really start considering it, and now it looks like the bar was just raised up again to make sure these cars are not available to the middle class.

I just dont see that as Elon's intention. We are missing something. 45k-55k cars will return at some point. Too many cars originally purchased for 60k-70k will be coming off leases for that to be the case here.