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Yes, another transferable supercharging question

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Just bought a used Model S from a BMW dealership. Manufacturing date is 12/16 on the door jam, but titled in 2/17. It has free supercharging (already used it a few times). I haven't setup a Tesla account yet, as I'm trying to locate the previous owner to see if he/she will do the transfer from his account for me.

My question; I need to take it in to Tesla for some recalls. Do they require an account in order to do the recall work? I'm assuming they do, and I'm concerned I may losing free SC if I do the transfer through the Tesla portal.

Any insight would be great, thanks.

Mark
 
You might need the account to setup appointment and communicate.

You are right that if you can get original owner to pass ownership to you there is a good chance you can keep free SC.

And if you force it through Tesla there is a good chance you’ll lose it.

So you pretty much have your concerns all correct.

Hold off on recall while you try to find owner.
 
Titled in 2/17 SHOULD still be within the free supercharging for life terms, that should go with orders through Jan 1 2017 and deliveries through April 2017, so you are under both.

If the car says "no recent supercharging" on the energy screen even though you know you've been to the chargers, then it should be good to go no matter how it is transferred.

IF you can find the previous owner, that will certainly simplify matters.
 
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Titled in 2/17 SHOULD still be within the free supercharging for life terms, that should go with orders through Jan 1 2017 and deliveries through April 2017, so you are under both.

If the car says "no recent supercharging" on the energy screen even though you know you've been to the chargers, then it should be good to go no matter how it is transferred.

IF you can find the previous owner, that will certainly simplify matters.

Tesla has made deals with several wholesalers such that any tesla processed by those wholesalers will have the lifetime transferable unlimited supercharging stripped from the car. Tesla also, when they own the car themselves, will strip the unlimited supercharging themselves.

There's probably a long string of batch jobs that involve Terrence in accounting faxing lists of VINs to Gladdice in vin processing before it's dumped into a google docs that's turned into a CSV. Anyhow, what that actually means is that you can buy a car that seems to have unlimited supercharging and then a couple months later it stops working because someone finally ran the job to drop the feature from this quarter's car ownership changes.

Buying a car from a dealership, any dealership, *in my opinion* means that you have a very low chance of keeping the unlimited supercharging.

It's a nice feature, but even if you rely on it really extensively, is not actually tremendously valuable, unless you're planning on spending either a lot of time driving, such as one of those mobile organ delivery services, or if you don't mind spending a ton of time at superchargers.
 
Tesla has made deals with several wholesalers such that any tesla processed by those wholesalers will have the lifetime transferable unlimited supercharging stripped from the car.

Can you substantiate this? Sounds distinctly illegal unless they're doing some kind of dance to briefly transfer ownership to Tesla. I agree 100% that the only way to guarantee preserving FUSC is to buy privately, but I haven't seen documented evidence of FUSC being removed from cars that have not passed through Tesla's ownership (even if just 'on paper').

On the car in question, if it's possible that it may have been sold as 'inventory' after 1/15/2017 then the FUSC would not be transferrable.

FWIW I had FUSC on my previous 85D but was very happy to trade it for the faster supercharging and longer range of my 2020 LR+. Everyone's experience is different, though, depends how you use your car.
 
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Tesla has made deals with several wholesalers such that any tesla processed by those wholesalers will have the lifetime transferable unlimited supercharging stripped from the car. Tesla also, when they own the car themselves, will strip the unlimited supercharging themselves.

Anyhow, what that actually means is that you can buy a car that seems to have unlimited supercharging and then a couple months later it stops working because someone finally ran the job to drop the feature from this quarter's car ownership changes.

I'm sorry - but I'm going to have to also request a source for this. I have heard / seen NO EVIDENCE AT ALL about cars losing it after the fact, and that would most definitely be a situation that would annoy the everluvin fcuk out of me as an owner if that happened.

These are options / features that a vehicle came with at initial purchase. Once that initial order is fulfilled, that particular unit's options are set, they don't change for the lifetime of that specific vehicle no matter who owns it. If the car came with leather seats, then it always has leather seats. Where does it end? The dealer / manufacturer doesn't get to go back and decide that a subsequent owner didn't order the options, therefore they will be taken away?

Further - IF that's Tesla's goal, then why aren't they just being universal about it, blacklisting ALL vehicles from free supercharging entirely? Because they know that would lead to MASSIVE outcry and class action lawsuits.

No, there needs to be substantiation to that kind of claim, or it is just worthless speculation.

From the opposite side of that argument - I personally know that I've SEEN either a video or video transcript of Elon specifically saying that the lifetime supercharging was the lifetime of that vehicle, not the owner, and that it transfers with the car to new owners. But I have not been able to find that again yet. If anyone has that link I'd love to get it saved.
 
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@geordi, it's been widely documented that Tesla began removing FUSC from its pre-owned cars in 2019 (source). A car that has been through Tesla's ownership since that point, whether sold by Tesla as pre-owned or disposed of through auction, can and most likely will lose its FUSC. This has been researched and discussed on these forums ad infinitum (not least by me, when I was looking for a FUSC car), and there are plenty of documented examples of cars losing FUSC once added to the new owner's Tesla account.

The argument, although many disagree with it, is that it's the same as a dealer removing the 21" wheels or something. Yep, Elon once said FUSC would always stay with the car, but he also said we'd be able to summon our cars from across the country, and that he'd buy Twitter, and ... you get the idea - he's not shy of breaking his promises :D

I do want to see a source for the "deals with several wholesalers" part though.
 
it's been widely documented that Tesla began removing FUSC from its pre-owned cars in 2019 (source). A car that has been through Tesla's ownership since that point, whether sold by Tesla as pre-owned or disposed of through auction, can and most likely will lose its FUSC.

I do want to see a source for the "deals with several wholesalers" part though.

I don't dispute that if they have taken something back in via trade - however they sell it on - then they have had access to it directly and can (and seemingly do) remove the FUSC. I stand by my comment that doing that is exceptionally petty.

BUT - on a car that HAS come through Tesla's hands, there should be evidence of that in the title history, or through the records that the service centers have access to. I'm dealing with one right now (a 2013) that has NO evidence that it was ever taken back by Tesla, was entirely in third party hands, yet the supercharging is pay-for-everything.

Since the purchasing process outside of private party is entirely hamstrung - you can't GET the options of the vehicle without having app access, and you famously can't get anyone at the company on the phone even IF you are already an owner.... There is an argument to be made that they are hiding the options of a vehicle and can stick a potential buyer with an unpleasant surprise since even the screen in the car may not be 100% trustworthy on the status.

I bought mine through a dealership, yet because the dealership guy was driving it himself and had no fobs for it (I don't know the story on that one)... It was effectively a private party transfer and he sent access from his app to mine when I signed the papers. That was a 2014. The other one was a very non-tesla dealer, and there's no evidence (even from the service center!) that this particular car was ever owned / auctioned / transferred by Tesla after 2013... Yet it is gone. That's petty bullshipt on their part.
 
I'm sorry - but I'm going to have to also request a source for this. I have heard / seen NO EVIDENCE AT ALL about cars losing it after the fact, and that would most definitely be a situation that would annoy the everluvin fcuk out of me as an owner if that happened.

These are options / features that a vehicle came with at initial purchase. Once that initial order is fulfilled, that particular unit's options are set, they don't change for the lifetime of that specific vehicle no matter who owns it. If the car came with leather seats, then it always has leather seats. Where does it end? The dealer / manufacturer doesn't get to go back and decide that a subsequent owner didn't order the options, therefore they will be taken away?

Further - IF that's Tesla's goal, then why aren't they just being universal about it, blacklisting ALL vehicles from free supercharging entirely? Because they know that would lead to MASSIVE outcry and class action lawsuits.

No, there needs to be substantiation to that kind of claim, or it is just worthless speculation.

From the opposite side of that argument - I personally know that I've SEEN either a video or video transcript of Elon specifically saying that the lifetime supercharging was the lifetime of that vehicle, not the owner, and that it transfers with the car to new owners. But I have not been able to find that again yet. If anyone has that link I'd love to get it saved.

Oh, I've got no evidence whatsoever.

You're welcome to think whatever you want of me, it's a free internet and certainly there's a ton of bullsmoke on it from people knowingly or unknowingly spreading nonsense. I'm just regurgitating what I've read or imagined.

The *owner* of a car is welcome to do whatever they want to it. When the car is owned by tesla, they strip the unlimited supercharger from the car, just as they might replace the original tires or wheels or pullout the center arm rest or put in a center arm rest or put an MCU1 in in place of MCU2 or an MCU2 in in place of MCU1. They (tesla) have the ability and right to yank the unlimited supercharging from any car they own. *Also* there are plenty of stories of people buying wholesaled cars that have also had the unlimited supercharging yanked. I can only imagine this is done by some sort of bounty program where wholesalers give VINs to tesla in exchange for a bit of cash, and the VINs have unlimited supercharging turned off. Sales from one wholesaler to another aren't marked in the title, all that's necessary for tesla to "own" the car is for the prior owner to say tesla owns it; you can imagine, for the purposes of stripping unlimited supercharging, tesla taking ownership of the car for 20-30 seconds and then "selling" it back to the original wholesaler... Do I have evidence? Nope, not even a whiff of evidence.

Using the "search" function on this here web site will give you lots of stories of people buying used teslas from dealerships / lots, only to have features randomly turn off in the following weeks or months after the sale. Lost Supercharging on car bought from 3rd party dealer

As far as class action lawsuits and such, well good luck with that, let me know how it goes. Let twitter know if you do win...
 
Tesla has made deals with several wholesalers such that any tesla processed by those wholesalers will have the lifetime transferable unlimited supercharging stripped from the car.
No, that is illegal.
I'm sorry - but I'm going to have to also request a source for this. I have heard / seen NO EVIDENCE AT ALL about cars losing it after the fact, and that would most definitely be a situation that would annoy the everluvin fcuk out of me as an owner if that happened.
I've seen it reported her on the forum several times that it had been done by mistake. But in the ones I've seen, the new owners confronted Tesla about it, and Tesla did correct it to put the unlimited Supercharging back on. They have to.

So it has been done some (whether intentional or unintentional), but it's certainly not allowed, if the ownership has only been through third parties, which includes individuals or dealerships or wholesalers. Who the third parties are makes no difference. As long as Tesla themselves never got ownership back, they are definitely not allowed to remove that permanent free Supercharging status.
 
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Considering that I'm dealing with a 2013 that is currently under "pay-per-use" mode... I'd REALLY like to see something of evidence that isn't from a blog somewhere, that I can use to hit them with.

Then again - Just yesterday my own 2014 was crippled by Tesla "fixing Tesla's mistake" from the battery replacement that THEY did under warranty, they installed a 90 in place of the 60 and it has been running with the full range for months now. Until yesterday, where they "fixed" it without ever being near the car. My range yesterday morning was 80% charged and 245 miles (295 full).... And yesterday afternoon it was 100% charged and 209 miles.

Oh, but I can get back what I already had - if I pay the ransom of $4500. WTAF. Please tell me you know who to talk to (that isn't a faceless messaging app!) to get this un-forked. I'm about ready to spit nails, I'm so pissed at them for this.
 
Considering that I'm dealing with a 2013 that is currently under "pay-per-use" mode... I'd REALLY like to see something of evidence that isn't from a blog somewhere, that I can use to hit them with.
OK, here you go. First, this links to my comment describing it.


My comment there links to two articles where a Tesla executive confirmed it in solid iron-clad wording.


InsideEVs seems to be down right now? So here's a Wayback Machine archive of the other article:


The money quote from Jon McNeil, Tesla's president of North American Sales:
"All Teslas purchased with Supercharging for life carry that benefit for the life of the car."

And it says he also tagged Elon Musk in that Tweet as well, to show it had the highest level of backing in the company.
 
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