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CPO verse private sale

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Phoenixhawk101

Member
Feb 28, 2015
95
96
Chicago, IL
#1
Been trying to find this answer with mix messages. What is the major advantage of a CPO over buying one from private sale? The 8 year, unlimited mileage warranty is transferable, and it seems the standard warranty is as well. Am I missing something? Aside from having tesla give the car a clean bill of health is there another advantage I am missing?

Thanks gang, feeling a little dence at the moment.
 
#2
Per the CPO web page, "Every pre-owned Model S comes with a 4 year, 50,000 limited warranty." The one issue I don't know is whether or not a CPO is also eligible for the $4,000, 4 year extended warranty. I am almost 100% certain that if you were to buy one from a private seller that you can still get the extended warranty from Tesla when the car reaches 4 years old. At least that was my understanding when I bought my used Model S. The standard warranty coverage is transferable, just like other auto manufacturers.

My feeling is that that there are some potentially expensive repairs with a Model S and that having warranty coverage is a good thing. Whether or not the $4K extended warranty is a good value is up for debate, but I am leaning towards getting it if I don't trade in for an "upgrade" before then.
 
#3
Phoenixhawk101 said:
Aside from having tesla give the car a clean bill of health is there another advantage I am missing?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I'm not sure this is worth a whole lot given other threads. If I could get the warranties I wanted (or a low mileage car), I'd rather buy from an enthusiast than from Tesla. I know that whoever gets my car when I have to return it at lease end will get a car that has been driven hard but loved, cared for and treated well.
 
#4
Shortmanz said:
Per the CPO web page, "Every pre-owned Model S comes with a 4 year, 50,000 limited warranty." The one issue I don't know is whether or not a CPO is also eligible for the $4,000, 4 year extended warranty. I am almost 100% certain that if you were to buy one from a private seller that you can still get the extended warranty from Tesla when the car reaches 4 years old. At least that was my understanding when I bought my used Model S. The standard warranty coverage is transferable, just like other auto manufacturers.

My feeling is that that there are some potentially expensive repairs with a Model S and that having warranty coverage is a good thing. Whether or not the $4K extended warranty is a good value is up for debate, but I am leaning towards getting it if I don't trade in for an "upgrade" before then.
Click to expand...

CPO vehicles are not eligible for the Extended Warranty. I wrote NA Sales and received a direct email response on that specific question.

The extended warranty is transferrable, but my understanding *(from various threads here at TMC) is it must be purchased by the original owner. The second owner will not be given the option to purchase.
 
#5
The 8 year unlimited mile only applies to the battery and drivetrain. Standard warranty is limited to 4 years.

Phoenixhawk101 said:
Been trying to find this answer with mix messages. What is the major advantage of a CPO over buying one from private sale? The 8 year, unlimited mileage warranty is transferable, and it seems the standard warranty is as well. Am I missing something? Aside from having tesla give the car a clean bill of health is there another advantage I am missing?

Thanks gang, feeling a little dence at the moment.
Click to expand...
 
#6
  1. CPO sale - new buyer gets a new 4/50k warranty from date/mileage at purchase. No option to extend for an additional 4/50
  2. Private sale, original owner has purchased extended warranty - buyer assumes existing warranties, whether original factory warranty or extended. Both are assumable.
  3. Private sale, original owner has not purchased extended warranty - buyer assumes balance of original factory warranties, if still in effect. Buyer may not be able to purchase the extended warranty. (*)

We have confirmation (BoerumHill, above) that you cannot add an extend warranty to a CPO vehicle. It does not appear that Tesla will sell an extended warranty to subsequent purchasers of a used Tesla (non-CPO, private party sale), but I haven't seen an official statement either way, nor know of anyone testing it.

Your best bet for maximum warranty is to buy private party, and have the seller purchase the extended warranty before the sale and then transfer it to you.

The battery/drivetrain warranty (8/unlimited or 8/125k for an S60) is a separate thing. It is not impacted by a sale, CPO or private party.
 
#7
tga said:
  1. CPO sale - new buyer gets a new 4/50k warranty from date/mileage at purchase. No option to extend for an additional 4/50
  2. Private sale, original owner has purchased extended warranty - buyer assumes existing warranties, whether original factory warranty or extended. Both are assumable.
  3. Private sale, original owner has not purchased extended warranty - buyer assumes balance of original factory warranties, if still in effect. Buyer may not be able to purchase the extended warranty. (*)

We have confirmation (BoerumHill, above) that you cannot add an extend warranty to a CPO vehicle. It does not appear that Tesla will sell an extended warranty to subsequent purchasers of a used Tesla (non-CPO, private party sale), but I haven't seen an official statement either way, nor know of anyone testing it.

Your best bet for maximum warranty is to buy private party, and have the seller purchase the extended warranty before the sale and then transfer it to you.

The battery/drivetrain warranty (8/unlimited or 8/125k for an S60) is a separate thing. It is not impacted by a sale, CPO or private party.
Click to expand...

This is my experience as well. Either way, I would suggest Phoenixhawh101 get a thorough external party review of the car before accepting delivery. If you find problems after purchase (even on a CPO car), you will pay for it out of your own pocket.
 
#8
As I have outlined on a number of occasions here on the forums:

Our personal experience with Tesla and the CPO purchase of our fine 2013 Tesla Model S85 has been tremendously positive.

At 57000 km, the car had been well used prior to trade in, and the previous owner transported dogs in the car, and had not brought the car in for service on a number of obvious items, so the condition of the vehicle was concerning. The car was %15 cheaper than any private sale price I was able to negotiate, likely due to the high mileage and imperfect condition of the vehicle at trade in time.

Tesla was determined to make our experience positive, and took 3 weeks to prepare the car.
The car was delivered with a clean interior, brand new tires, brakes, rear headlamps and charging cable (UMC).
We took the car immediately (the next day!) on multiple long distance road trips and put on 3000 km in the first week, and 5000 km in the first two months.
They booked us in for a subsequent service recently where they picked up the car from our house and provided a P85 (with autopilot) loaner.
During this service, they did another full detail of the interior/exterior, added the titanium under-body shield, updated the front brakes for winter with new pads and caps, added the "85" badge (early 2013 cars didn't have these), and otherwise performed additional service on wipers and safety items.
I drove the heck out of the P85 loaner that day, demonstrating it for work buddies, and Tesla returned our car that same evening and took the loaner back.
Total cost $0 and so convenient.

Couldn't be happier.
 
#9
SmartElectric said:
As I have outlined on a number of occasions here on the forums:

Our personal experience with Tesla and the CPO purchase of our fine 2013 Tesla Model S85 has been tremendously positive.

At 57000 km, the car had been well used prior to trade in, and the previous owner transported dogs in the car, and had not brought the car in for service on a number of obvious items, so the condition of the vehicle was concerning. The car was %15 cheaper than any private sale price I was able to negotiate, likely due to the high mileage and imperfect condition of the vehicle at trade in time.

Tesla was determined to make our experience positive, and took 3 weeks to prepare the car.
The car was delivered with a clean interior, brand new tires, brakes, rear headlamps and charging cable (UMC).
We took the car immediately (the next day!) on multiple long distance road trips and put on 3000 km in the first week, and 5000 km in the first two months.
They booked us in for a subsequent service recently where they picked up the car from our house and provided a P85 (with autopilot) loaner.
During this service, they did another full detail of the interior/exterior, added the titanium under-body shield, updated the front brakes for winter with new pads and caps, added the "85" badge (early 2013 cars didn't have these), and otherwise performed additional service on wipers and safety items.
I drove the heck out of the P85 loaner that day, demonstrating it for work buddies, and Tesla returned our car that same evening and took the loaner back.
Total cost $0 and so convenient.

Couldn't be happier.
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, my car goes in for its fourth rounds of warranty repairs since I got it (driver door and rear passenger door problems now). My interior was recleaned and my brakes rotors and calipers were just replaced, but that was after Tesla publicly getting called out on it and escalating to the head of the CPO program for the East Coast. If all this stuff was taken car of for you w/o having to go back and forth like I did, then that isn't too bad.
 
#11
Phoenixhawk101 said:
Been trying to find this answer with mix messages. What is the major advantage of a CPO over buying one from private sale? The 8 year, unlimited mileage warranty is transferable, and it seems the standard warranty is as well. Am I missing something? Aside from having tesla give the car a clean bill of health is there another advantage I am missing?
Click to expand...


A car you can inspect, then sleep on, always holds some advantage. With another post claiming more non-CPO sales, by Tesla, that also raises the bar of what you can expect from a more recent Tesla CPO. You didn't say if the personal sale was 20-40k miles. 4yrs of CPO warranty on one with 40k is obviously worth more than ~1 year on a personal sale. Extending the warranty of a personal sale car is another interesting question. Has a second owner ever been granted an extension?
 
#12
when i bought a used model s from a private party i emailed tesla, i was told in an email where i was getting the all my tesla information transferred to my name that i would be able to purchase an extended warranty for 4 years an another 50,000 miles as long as you purchase the extension within 30 days of the expiration of the original warranty. Why would they tell that to a customer who bought a used model s if you couldn't do it?
 
#13
I found a private party 2013 model S locally that fits very nicely with what I am looking for. A little nervous about doing private party because I am uncertain on how much support I will get from Tesla. The current warranty on the car will expire in 10/2017

1. Has anyone confirmed whether I can buy the extended warranty after taking the car. Previous posts state that this was NOT possible and that it needed to be bought by the seller, but the post above states that it can be bought by me in the future. If possible I would prefer to wait 3-6 months to decide if I want to purchase the extended warranty.

2. When buying used ICE vehicles it has always been recommended to me that I have a mechanic inspect it prior to purchase. Is this usually done with Teslas?

I welcome any other thoughts or experiences about buying private party vs CPO. Thanks!
 
#14
DRasheed said:
I found a private party 2013 model S locally that fits very nicely with what I am looking for. A little nervous about doing private party because I am uncertain on how much support I will get from Tesla. The current warranty on the car will expire in 10/2017

1. Has anyone confirmed whether I can buy the extended warranty after taking the car. Previous posts state that this was NOT possible and that it needed to be bought by the seller, but the post above states that it can be bought by me in the future. If possible I would prefer to wait 3-6 months to decide if I want to purchase the extended warranty.

2. When buying used ICE vehicles it has always been recommended to me that I have a mechanic inspect it prior to purchase. Is this usually done with Teslas?

I welcome any other thoughts or experiences about buying private party vs CPO. Thanks!
Click to expand...

It would be good to have positive confirmation on item 1 above. Honestly, I think every other car maker does it like Maaz above describes: If you buy a car under factory warranty, the warranty transfers from the original owner to you, and then (just like the original owner) you can buy an extended warranty so long as you do so BEFORE the original factory warranty expires. It is a bit hard to believe Tesla would be an exception to this. Now since almost all Teslas are still under warranty, the whole "how much money will they make off selling extended warranties" is a bit of an unknown. Indeed, a buddy who recently bought a new 85D was a bit taken aback that they did not try to sell him the extended warranty at the time of sale...so much so that he pinged me to find out if they even have them (he was concerned about long term ownership w/o a warranty).

Honestly, as I browse ev-cpo and autotrader, the biggest deterrants in buying non-CPO have been the dang pricing and lack of cars. Non-CPO cars are often priced Higher than their cpo equivalents and the selection (here in Texas anyway) is pretty modest when you want a specific combo.
 
#15
cab said:
It would be good to have positive confirmation on item 1 above. Honestly, I think every other car maker does it like Maaz above describes: If you buy a car under factory warranty, the warranty transfers from the original owner to you, and then (just like the original owner) you can buy an extended warranty so long as you do so BEFORE the original factory warranty expires. It is a bit hard to believe Tesla would be an exception to this. Now since almost all Teslas are still under warranty, the whole "how much money will they make off selling extended warranties" is a bit of an unknown. Indeed, a buddy who recently bought a new 85D was a bit taken aback that they did not try to sell him the extended warranty at the time of sale...so much so that he pinged me to find out if they even have them (he was concerned about long term ownership w/o a warranty).

Honestly, as I browse ev-cpo and autotrader, the biggest deterrants in buying non-CPO have been the dang pricing and lack of cars. Non-CPO cars are often priced Higher than their cpo equivalents and the selection (here in Texas anyway) is pretty modest when you want a specific combo.
Click to expand...

Tesla is very strange about the Extended Warranty. They refuse to sell it for even CPO cars even if you buy a 2016 CPO car. Makes zero sense that they don't let you purchase an extended warranty before the factory warranty runs out to cover the car for up to 8 years from the original in service date. Why is this so hard for them?

From what I gather if you are buying a used Tesla the only way to have coverage for full 8 years from the initial in service date is for the original owner to buy it for the car before you buy it from the original owner.

And then there is the little bit about an apparent provision that the extended warranty is only valid if the original owner took the car in for all the annual services.

This single issue is really causing us to not considering buying a CPO car as we absolutely don't want to own a Tesla out of warranty. All things being equal we prefer a private party purchase with the Extended warranty with the additional of having the car inspected at a high end body shop for any past damage/repairs.

If you pay Tesla would they do a Pre Purchase Inspection on a used car before it is bought?
 
#17
Personally, I'm looking at buying a CPO but not from a 3rd party private.

Possible advantages to CPO (though some may not be applicable, depending on the situation and personal preferences):

1) CPO purchase gets reconditioning by Tesla.
2) CPO gets it's own warranty.
3) CPO purchase presumably comes with Tesla financing and trade-in services, if so desired.
4) CPO purchase more directly benefits Tesla. This matters to me as I want to contribute to the success of the company as directly as possible.
 
#18
The number one reason to go CPO is price. After literally months of scouring basically every listing in the US, day after day, I determined that the prices of probably 90% of the Model S's out there have no basis in reality. People seem to think it's still 2013 and that they can name their price and people will pay it. There are 40kwh cars for $55,000, 60kwh low VIN cars for $65,000, a bunch of 2013 P85's still looking for 80k, etc.

It got to be so disheartening every day to have 20 - 30 new ads and maybe 1 was priced reasonably. At least right now, it's exponentially easier to find a good deal through Tesla than private party.
 
#19
Skotty said:
Personally, I'm looking at buying a CPO but not from a 3rd party private.

Possible advantages to CPO (though some may not be applicable, depending on the situation and personal preferences):

1) CPO purchase gets reconditioning by Tesla.
2) CPO gets it's own warranty.
3) CPO purchase presumably comes with Tesla financing and trade-in services, if so desired.
4) CPO purchase more directly benefits Tesla. This matters to me as I want to contribute to the success of the company as directly as possible.
Click to expand...

Regarding #1, what exactly does the reconditioning involve? I never saw a detailed description. I thought I read somewhere that you get new tires and that they will buff any scratches out of the rims. I'm sure they give the car a good detailing. Anything else?
 
#20
DRasheed said:
Regarding #1, what exactly does the reconditioning involve? I never saw a detailed description. I thought I read somewhere that you get new tires and that they will buff any scratches out of the rims. I'm sure they give the car a good detailing. Anything else?
Click to expand...

The tires are replaced only if they need to be replaced, it's really no different than any other dealership They fix what is needed within reason.
 
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