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Owner Frustrated with Tesla Depreciation

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While I agree with the vast majority of the reply posters here, I do have to share our MS trade in story as a minor bit of support to the OP. We contemplated getting two late-2018's to replace our two 2017 MS's, one a P100D (~8k miles), and the other a 90D (~16k miles).

The offers from Tesla were an insult, NOT because of the depreciation--we expected that, but because of the AMOUNT and delta from what was listed on the CPO section of www.EV-CPO/Classic. We'll use the P100D as an example--with Tesla selling CPO's that were ONE year older, with and with three times the miles, at more than $20k more than their offer to us, it was nothing less than another insult from Tesla. The 90D's offer was similarly absurd.

Sure, there may be reconditioning expenses, but they would be of a minor nature on MS's that were so new and with such low miles. No effort was made to even remotely justify such insultingly low trade in offers.

I've stated it for years now: Tesla is incompetent in how they handle their own Tesla trade ins, and how they leave so much money on the table by not being more aggressive in their remarketing of CPO cars (if anything, they're moving backwards now with shameful and nonexistent "reconditioning").

I hope Elon figures out that whoever is running Tesla trade-ins is harming the brand, and pissing off customers.
 
The real lesson here is; only buy used Tesla’s.


I disagree. I was looking at CPO cars for months. I also looked at used from individuals. At the price point of used late 2016 or early 2017, the cars I saw had too many paint chips/issues, or hadn’t been properly cared for by the previous owner.

To me, it was worth it to spend the extra $25K-$30K to get a brand new beauty that no one else has driven. Got my 2018 MS 100D last month. I’m going to put 20K miles plus per year on it. I don’t care what it’s value is tomorrow, next month or next year.

I love the car, and will drive it until I sell it for scrap and then buy another one.

And this is from someone who got out of a depreciating Audi A8L and Nissan GT-R. Talk about sucking money. Not only did they depreciate like crazy, the maintenance costs were astronomical. $3500 for a brake job on the Audi!

In factoring your expense on your car, don’t forget to subtract all that money you would have spent on gas, oil changes, brake pads, etc.....

I bought my 2 Teslas used - Craigslist and eBay - and checking the used market, I see minimal depreciation.
The CPO channel is not the way to go.
The new entries to the BEV market - Jaguar, Audi, MB, etc.. - may crater the used market.
Time will tell.
 
This is the second post I've seen like this from people that have never owner an S class or 8 series. Tesla actually holds its value slightly better than BMW or Mercedes cars in the same class, but it's not like they can reverse market trends as old as cars have been sold. Six figure cars do not depreciate like your old Prius!

That's if you DON'T factor in the rebates. If you factor in the rebates, Tesla holds it's value even better.

There was a thread recently with a lot of discussion on a 2014 P85D that recently sold for $58K. I was skeptical but it turned out the buyer of that car showed up to the thread and announced they were the lucky party that bought that car which was about $10K less than the typical selling price of similar P85Ds.

The point being that a $122K car(fully loaded P85D with every option except rear facing seats, 21" wheels, and rear spoiler) sold for $58K 4 years later. I have the same car which was $109K after all the rebates I could get. First time I ever bought an expensive car that held more than half it's value after 4 years. That said, it doesn't matter to me since my goal is to put 300K miles on it in 8 years before the drivetrain warranty expires.

The OP is wrong on every fact stated.
 
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I'll give a different story that started a little over 2 years ago.

Around end of March 2016, I saw the Tesla Model 3 shown for first time, and the price of finally affordable Tesla starting at $35k.

On April 1st, 2016 I placed my deposit on the Tesla Model 3, not knowing that it will take over 2 years before I get it. While I waited, I refused to entertain any notion of trading in my existing car for anything else. All the money I saved while keeping my old car (best way to save money is to keep driving a car that is already paid off), went into steadily buying Tesla stocks.

Long story short, by the time I am able to take delivery, the Stocks I bought had grown in value enough that I was able to net profit over $70k. So even as I initially expected to buy a $35k car and ended up spending closer to $68k (before tax incentives / gas savings), I was able to go from one car to the next without needing to take on any car payments.

Now, just a few short months after I took delivery of mine, a Performance Dual Motor Long Range Model 3 is significantly cheaper than when i was considering my options. But I am not bitter that I could have gotten the Performance for same price as the base Dual Motor I got because I have been very happy with what I got and I love how every couple of weeks since I got it, features keep getting added or improved.

So financial decisions like buying a Tesla should probably be paired with decision like investing in Tesla. As long as the company does well, whatever premium you end up paying for being an early adopter can be offset with the investment earnings.

While the company continues to improve its products and improve its prices, more consumers come to the table, buy their products and this gives great returns on the investment side. Don't buy a market disruption at premium prices which in-fact help it become a reality without also investing so you can not only recoup your investment when it is successful, but have no ill feelings towards something like depreciation costs as improved versions of that initial products hit market at cheaper prices.
 
I see everyone trying to compare a Tesla 2017 to Mercedes, Bmw, etc 2016. Well one problem is that all the other's have 1 extra year on your tesla that you don't think is depreciating more. So if you have a 2016 there is a good chance it would be a 2017 from any other car manufacture. Your giving Tesla 1 year to 6 months of added age to try to compare too. There are a few smart people out there that actually think outside the box and look at things from both sides, other's just want to stay on the band wagon even win the wheels fell off a year ago and it hasn't moved. Try finding one research that is actually comparing true length of ownership in time. () How many years/months it;s been own rather than just looking at the year cause Tesla's are the only manufactures that are selling a 2016 the day before 2017 as a 2016 model. Please, I hope there are more intelligent people on here than just the few who agreed with me.
And as I mentioned most this depreciation just happened. News FLASH TESLA is about to be broke again but this time figuring out how to ramp up model 3 production ain't going to fix it. So, maybe elon knows time is up and is liquidating so he can keep some cash from all his used cars sitting around before he has to sale the company. In which case all these issues Tesla has will no longer be covered by their unbelievable warranty which has jaded most your minds since without it you would have spent a fortune on repairs. Let's see who ends up being right in the next few weeks when the real articles come out showing what I am referring too, which is that Tesla's have tanked in 3 months. Thanks to who, yours truly TESLA. Just like when you made that stupid decision to buy that warranty from a third party than they went out of business, well guess what that's what's going to happen to Tesla.
If you want to give Tesla a whole year handicap when comparing depreciation I sure hope they would be better than a car a year older to six months older.
MIC DROP TESLA GAME OVER
 
I purchased my MS used so Im not to concerned about depreciation but when we go and buy our new MX I know that the value will drop relatively quickly but as long as you plan on keeping your Tesla for 5 plus years then there will come a point where the depreciation slows down alot. Eventually the value will settle. Yes it will be significantly lower then what you paid but ALL vehicles depreciate over time. Its part of how it works.
 
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Deduct 10K plus 10% first month. Then 15% per year after that for two years then flattens out. Pretty standard for luxury cars. Other than the 10K you got back from subsidies. The depreciation pretty much follows an upper end Mercedes or BMW. 7 series BMW is worse.

Best value is a 3 year old car and then drive the wheels off it!
 
Deduct 10K plus 10% first month. Then 15% per year after that for two years then flattens out. Pretty standard for luxury cars. Other than the 10K you got back from subsidies. The depreciation pretty much follows an upper end Mercedes or BMW. 7 series BMW is worse.

Best value is a 3 year old car and then drive the wheels off it!

$7,500 was my deduction not $10K. I find it amusing how many current owners cannot wait till they put the 2170 cells in the S and X. Then our current tesla's will be like flip phones, that is the worst thing that can happen if you own a S or X. Better pray they don't for as long as possible. I will give credit to where credit is due in regards to the 2170 cells, if Elon could just learn how to manage the company he has the EV market basically monopolized with his supercharger network and in the technology of those batteries. Unfortunately Elon expertise is not in making profits with his Tesla's sales and therefore someone like Apple will come in and reap the rewards after they buy the company that stock is down 17% in the past week, 26% past month. Looks really promising, but hopefully the more he can continue to fool people with the roll out of the AP2 and FSD capabilities he can slow down the tanking of his company.
 
$7,500 was my deduction not $10K. I find it amusing how many current owners cannot wait till they put the 2170 cells in the S and X. Then our current tesla's will be like flip phones, that is the worst thing that can happen if you own a S or X. Better pray they don't for as long as possible. I will give credit to where credit is due in regards to the 2170 cells, if Elon could just learn how to manage the company he has the EV market basically monopolized with his supercharger network and in the technology of those batteries. Unfortunately Elon expertise is not in making profits with his Tesla's sales and therefore someone like Apple will come in and reap the rewards after they buy the company that stock is down 17% in the past week, 26% past month. Looks really promising, but hopefully the more he can continue to fool people with the roll out of the AP2 and FSD capabilities he can slow down the tanking of his company.


Hmmm two years ago you should have gotten the CA state rebate also.
 
That's if you DON'T factor in the rebates. If you factor in the rebates, Tesla holds it's value even better.

There was a thread recently with a lot of discussion on a 2014 P85D that recently sold for $58K. I was skeptical but it turned out the buyer of that car showed up to the thread and announced they were the lucky party that bought that car which was about $10K less than the typical selling price of similar P85Ds.

The point being that a $122K car(fully loaded P85D with every option except rear facing seats, 21" wheels, and rear spoiler) sold for $58K 4 years later. I have the same car which was $109K after all the rebates I could get. First time I ever bought an expensive car that held more than half it's value after 4 years. That said, it doesn't matter to me since my goal is to put 300K miles on it in 8 years before the drivetrain warranty expires.

The OP
That's if you DON'T factor in the rebates. If you factor in the rebates, Tesla holds it's value even better.

There was a thread recently with a lot of discussion on a 2014 P85D that recently sold for $58K. I was skeptical but it turned out the buyer of that car showed up to the thread and announced they were the lucky party that bought that car which was about $10K less than the typical selling price of similar P85Ds.

The point being that a $122K car(fully loaded P85D with every option except rear facing seats, 21" wheels, and rear spoiler) sold for $58K 4 years later. I have the same car which was $109K after all the rebates I could get. First time I ever bought an expensive car that held more than half it's value after 4 years. That said, it doesn't matter to me since my goal is to put 300K miles on it in 8 years before the drivetrain warranty expires.

The OP is wrong on every fact stated.

Do you know how many miles? I just picked up something similar but more loaded for less than that. 52,000 miles on mine though.
 
Moderator note: Moved a post (and a non-snippy response) to Snippiness. Please keep all comments respectful. Insulting (or attempting to insult) other forum members is against TMC rules, and repeated violations of this rule will lead to a ban.

Thanks,

Bruce.
 
The worst Teslas for depreciation are the highest dollar ones.

2 years ago, the P90DL was the fastest practical sedan available (I think). People were willing (you for example) to pay top dollar for that. And then Tesla came out with a faster car. I can't remember the exact delta in speed but either way the P90DL was not top dog anymore.

There are lots of people waiting to pay $140k for the latest and greatest. Hopefully, they go in with eyes open that Tesla may up the ante the day after they purchase it and they lose a lot of money if they want to sell.

The average Tesla does very well in the depreciation department. I have a 70D that has done quite well. Still above the 50% mark at almost 4 years.

Why would Tesla dump their P90DL's? They want top dollar for them since that makes them money. If they don't have buyers - whether it is AP1 or the 90 battery or whatever, they lower the price. That is supply and demand.

Yes - you got unlucky. So unlucky that you are driving one of the fastest cars available. I feel for you a little but you had to know that your car was a splurge. My suggestion would be to not sell. Your depreciation curve at this point is probably really good.
 
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