Why are Tesla owners afraid of non-Tesla dealers

[ajs76]

Hey guys,

I've been buying used cars (sometimes well outside of warranty) for a long time now, but I think my favorite play is to buy cars with just a little warranty left to get a good deal mixed with peace of mind that I can get some defects fixed if my mechanic missed anything.

I've read thread after thread that makes it sound like if you're buying from a non-Tesla dealer you might as well have gone to this guy (semi NSFW for language):

Joking aside, I understand that you don't get the CPO warranty if it exists, but the factory warranty and powertrain still transfer right? As long as the car isn't salvaged or lemoned then what's my downside? The crazy fear around these cars seems to drive dealer prices down even further making it more attractive.

So my theories:
1) Tesla owners don't want to own a car out of warranty at all
2) The tech is so new people are just freaked out about things breaking more than ICE cars
3) Constant HW updates make buying used teslas seem like buying iphone 5's

Fill me in guys. What's the fear factor here

 

[Lukez]

I think most people in this price range want to have a worry free experience. They want to call tesla the minute they may think they may have an issue! They are willing to pay a huge premium for that piece of mind.
If you don't mind touching the car yourself for basic things then a used out of warranty tesla is the way to go imo

 

[Nick B]

Tesla's will probably cost more than average out of warranty because of all the technology in the car. However, this doesn't mean that having an out of warranty Tesla is a catastrophic event waiting to happen. I calculated everything and I figured that I would need to have significant (5k+ a year) costs to offset the depreciation my car would have if I traded in with a newer model. So, according to my calculations, it's still worthwhile the keep the car for the long term (and especially in my situation where I drive 25 000 miles per year).

 

[Lodo1000]

I thought about a used one from a third party but ended up buying new which is not my usual style when purchasing a car. The Tesla is unique enough for me that it just felt better starting from scratch with a known warranty and a relationship with a local SC.

 

[Spidy]

I think the biggest fear people have is that the car was sitting around on the lot with a low or empty battery for an extended time.

 

[David29]

Every other car I had owned (about a dozen or so, i think) in my entire life was bought used, until i bought the Model S. So I am not inherently prejudiced against used cars. When I looked briefly at used cars two years ago, it was clear that the sellers often had no idea what the model designations meant, had no idea how to tell what features/options were on the car, and often listed them with obvious errors. Many were listed as "Performance" models when they were not, for example. So I figured if the sales folks did not know what they had, then their mechanics would not have, either, and it made me apprehensive about what they might have done to the car. At that time, I had no working knowledge of the cars myself, but I knew there was a lot of technology and assumed that the battery needed special care. So, the idea of buying a used one seemed like a larger risk than it would be for an ICE car. And then there was the whole issue of the fast-changing technology. So I took the plunge and ordered a new one. Now that i have two years of experience with Tesla, I might be more open to a used one in the future.

 

[jelloslug]

In the shopping that I have done, it was rare to see a used Tesla at an independent lot that was even close to being priced properly or even described correctly. They seem to be more concerned with naming off the standard features than telling you the battery size.

 

[Jim O'Kane]

I spent months looking at prices on AutoTrader and other sites, carefully trying to spot cars that were probably just off-lease and under 50,000 miles. Two weeks ago, I found a 2014 Model S P85 with 43,000 miles on it. The car's previous owner was Tesla, which meant it was a lease car sold at auction. This was the dealer's first time selling an auctioned Tesla, and he was severely uninformed about the equipment onboard. I wound up purchasing a P85 with Premium Audio, Sub-Zero package, dual chargers, air suspension, 21" Turbine wheels, and a pano sunroof for ~$50k. Comparable vehicles on Tesla's CPO site ran about $68-72k, so I figure I've saved more on an under-warranted vehicle than I'd ever get from Tesla's used cars.

Bottom line: do your homework, don't be afraid to travel to examine the hidden gems, and always remember that it's not your job to tell the dealer what they've overlooked. Good luck!

 

[SSedan]

I bought mine from a Ford dealer, previous owner must have gotten a bad trade-in offer from Tesla because story was he had another one on the way but trade the old one in on an F150 for winter trips to the cabin.
It sat there for something like 8 months before I bought it, I watched it for 3 months before I pulled the trigger. Did have a charger issue out of warranty so I am down to a single charger which is fine for me driving 15-30 miles a day. At 65K miles battery degradation seems to be 3.5% so it seems to have been treated well by the previous owner and the Ford dealer.

During that three months I only saw one near home, the day before I bought mine which was 2 hours from home, this week I saw different ones monday and tuesday. Supercharger went in 30 minutes north a few weeks after I bought and superchargers will open 30minutes south of me in a couple weeks based on construction progress. Local numbers seem to have spiked.

I suspect P85 prices will come down, a current 75D is only $75K basically as fast and has AP hardware which can always be unlocked even if not done at first, only benefit a P85 has over them is free supercharging.

 

[Kuhz]

In my area, most seem to be priced around or above what Tesla sells CPOs for

 

[Chaserr]

Dealers make you do their "hang on a second let me see what my manager says" song and dance routine. Tesla sold me my car with less than an hour spent on their property, the first time I test drove, the second time I was there I took delivery, signed some paperwork, and and had an in-car tutorial as part of the delivery experience that was similar to my test drive. Dealers seem to think we have a lot of freetime, I have almost none so I enjoy the fast purchase while they did all of the paperwork in the weeks between those visits. I'll recommend any other manufacturer that does away with the dealer experience as well, it was nice buying a car like I would a laptop.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

I've always bought used cars, but never from a dealer. They don't usually have maintenance records and they jack up the price too much. I would buy a used Tesla from a private party, though.

 

[Az_Rael]

My fear was the fact that only Tesla can service the cars for many things right now. So repair costs out of warranty are high. And many things require access to Tesla’s software to replace DIY unless you are willing to root your car or work with one of the community hackers to get things fixed. So, if(when?) the MCU goes bad, you are stuck paying Tesla prices for example. (And it’s looking like MCUs are going to be very common failures on older cars)

 

[David29]

I've always bought used cars, but never from a dealer. They don't usually have maintenance records and they jack up the price too much. I would buy a used Tesla from a private party, though.

Sometimes you can make out buying a used car from a dealer. I always bought used until the Tesla, and usually from private sellers but 2 or 3 times from dealers. Once I bought Mercedes Benz 300D turbodiesel sedan with something like 90K miles on it, from a Mercedes dealer. It was not a CPO car, but they must have known the car because they were willing to resell it despite the high miles. The only warranty was 30 days on the drive train.
As it happened, the car developed transmission trouble almost immediately after I took delivery. They stood by the warranty and rebuilt the transmission. The service manager told me there had been an argument about how much work to do on the car because the warranty work had eaten all the profit, and more. But he apparently won and rebuilt it correctly. I had the car for several more years and never had any more trouble with the transmission. Needless to say, I continued to bring the car to them for service.

 

[demundus]

Hey guys,

I've been buying used cars (sometimes well outside of warranty) for a long time now, but I think my favorite play is to buy cars with just a little warranty left to get a good deal mixed with peace of mind that I can get some defects fixed if my mechanic missed anything.

I've read thread after thread that makes it sound like if you're buying from a non-Tesla dealer you might as well have gone to this guy (semi NSFW for language):

Joking aside, I understand that you don't get the CPO warranty if it exists, but the factory warranty and powertrain still transfer right? As long as the car isn't salvaged or lemoned then what's my downside? The crazy fear around these cars seems to drive dealer prices down even further making it more attractive.

So my theories:
1) Tesla owners don't want to own a car out of warranty at all
2) The tech is so new people are just freaked out about things breaking more than ICE cars
3) Constant HW updates make buying used teslas seem like buying iphone 5's

Fill me in guys. What's the fear factor here

A fair amount of people on these enthusiast forums don't fully understand their car (specs, features, warranty, repair, etc). I would expect a used car dealer to know less. Unless you are a fan boy of some certain make or model, you usually use things like your DMS/Inventory management tool to help you with the vehicle's talking points (as well as the mfg website).

Add that to Tesla's aggressive stance on third party dealer purchases (extended warranty is un-transferable), and the lack of any real history for residual value, and you've got a weird mix. People asking themselves "am I sure this is the right move?"

 

[Bebop]

I actually attempted to buy a used P85D at a third party dealership before I got my current new 90D. The car was in rough shape. You had water leaking out of the back tail lamps when you open the trunk, it wasn't clean, they didn't know jack about the car. it was very disappointing even when the photos looked stunning.

It's really a trust issue. Better to stick to someone on here selling their car or buy CPO directly through Tesla. You'll get a better deal/value buying from someone on here usually.

 

[Olds442]

my first drive was at a non-tesla dealership. it was one of the small dealers based in an industrial park kinda things. 100% shady and barely a step removed from a chop shop in my opinion. still, i wanted to drive one.

i've never purchased a new car so i was only considering used. i know a MS owner who purchased directly from Tesla and he raves about how they take care of their customers (i wonder if he's seen this site). i felt the warranty on the CPO was worth the couple thousand more i spent on a CPO vs a car at "LOL AUTO".

so for me it was mostly peace of mind. knowing that the CPO program "re-furb" will come with a bumper to bumper for 2-4 years depending on the year of the car, and the additional drive train that all the cars have. maybe even new tires, a proper buffing out, and a good look at the battery/DU.