Background: We have had a Model X since June 2017. I have put almost 20k miles on it and driven it all over Texas. This will become the wife’s car to lug 3 kids around, so I needed wanted a replacement.
3 vs S: I had a 3 reservation since middle of 2016 and I had thought I would buy a 3 when time came. When I saw CPO prices were comparable to a performance Model 3, I started to contemplate between the two. My short pros list was the following:
3: Pros: New car, new tech, more fun to drive, AP2
S: Pros: Rear facing seats (3 kids under 5, I’m sure I’ll get use out of these), comfier ride, if I found a P85DL, faster than the 3.
I eventually made the unpopular decision to go with the S. My biggest factor was I wanted the fastest car I could afford. Also, this will be a commuter car and I think AP1 will do just fine. I figured we have the X with AP2 and FSD so we would have at least one vehicle where we could stay current.
CPO search: The first thing I did was paid for a subscription to Ev-cpo.com. A 6 month subscription is something like $40 and will more than pay for itself. Shout out to @HankLloydRight for a great product. If you’re serious about purchasing a CPO, I think this is absolutely crucial for a few reasons.
I decided I wanted a P85D as these cars seem to be priced pretty competitively right now. In some cases, they are only about $5k more than their 85D counterparts, despite having a $20k+ difference in their sticker price. Also, I decided that I would wait for a car with Ludicrous. Searching ebay and all other used car outlets, I was finding about 1 in 10 P85Ds had the ludicrous upgrade. I used the underline on the rear badge as my confirmation. I had read some posts here that Tesla was purposefully removing the L from all the P85Ds that had it, but I didnt find this to be the case currently. There are definitely Ls coming into the CPO pool. This ratio held for the CPO process too, but I since I wanted rear facing seats, which were also about 10% prevalent, the chances of finding one with both was low. But in the end I found it. Keep reading!
Overall, the prices on the CPO cars are tough to beat. Keep in mind you get a full 4 year 50k warranty (or 2yr up to 100k in some cases). In all my search, the lowest P85Ds were around 62-63k from dealers all the way up to $75k+. Local private party sales were also usually overpriced as prices started in the mid 70s. The dealer cars that they obtain through auction are cars typically rejected by Tesla CPO. For example, I found this car and was pretty close to pulling the trigger as it is a L with rear facing seats. It had a clean carfax. But I called a Tesla service center to get some information and they told me that the car had been in an accident and had some body work done to the rear quarter panel. I decided to pass.
Finding a sales advisor: This can make or break your CPO experience. If you don’t have a responsive CPO advisor, you may not get pictures of cars or more information quick enough to make a decision. I found a great advisor, Saber. He was responsive and helpful, and put me in touch with his superior when he was gone for a week, who was even more responsive. I talked to him several times on the phone and explained exactly what I was looking for. He understood that I wanted an L car with the rear seats and said he doesn’t see many but will definitely keep an eye out.
Since I had an ev-cpo subscription, I would send him every vin notification I would get for him to send me pictures which he would happily do.
Tracking and buying the CPO: Once I found the car that matched my criteria, I emailed for more pictures. The CPO manager was very helpful here as he sent more detailed pictures of the car with all the damage. It had a worn drivers seat, some curb rash, and small scratches on the bumper. All in all, I was content with the damage. After that, I set up a notification in ev-cpo for just that one car to track it’s price. When it was listed, it was priced at $79k. My budget was under $70k so I decided to wait. From looking through the archives and current P85Ds on sale, I decided that most stayed on the market for at least two weeks and dropped anywhere from 5k to 15k before being sold. So I patiently waited for 12 days until I saw the price drop to $66,300. Almost a $13k change from the initial price! As soon as I got the ev-cpo notification on the 12th day around 12am central time, I went on tesla’s website and bought the car. The initial search price is the most updated, but a few of the menus and pages usually will show the price of the car from the day before. Rest assured, on your confirmation (at least on mine), the most current price was listed.
Delivery and tax sidebar: There are 3 or 4 delivery regions for Tesla and if you’re within it, there’s no fee. For Texas, cars all the way up to Chicago and Colorado don’t have delivery fees. I was planning on potentially flying out to pick up the car somewhere else to avoid the $2500 fee. The problem was the car I bought is in California. In CA, the used car tax has to be paid to the state regardless of if you will register it there. This is 7.5%. TX tax is 6.25%, and while they will count any taxes paid out of state, I would still be stuck paying an extra 1.25% if I picked up the car in CA. That amounted to over $800. My benefit gained by picking up would decrease by that much, so I didn’t think it was worth it and ended up paying the $2500 fee.
Trade in: I traded in my 2007 Honda Accord. Tesla gave me a quote for $4000, but matched carmax’s quote for $5000. As an aside, I tried to sell it on craigslist for $6500 but didn’t put much effort into it. I think if I would have cleaned it and made a good listing, I may have gotten the asking price. The trade in makes it easy to drive to the service center in your current car and drop it off as you pick up your CPO.
Pick up: I purchased the car July 19th. Paid with credit union by July 24th. For CPO cars, I was told they wouldn’t even start the transfer to TX before full payment. SInce i had seen all the detailed pictures, I didn’t mind, but this could be an issue for some. Delivery specialist called on July 31st to set up delivery time to pick up on Aug 2nd. I had documents overnighted to me which were received on Aug 1st with clear instructions.
I showed up for my appt on 8/2 45 minutes late and was able to pick up the car in and out in 15 minutes. I dropped off the trade in, took a look around the car, and drove off. They charged it to 100% for me so I got to see the miles remaining which was at 245, which seems like a solid 100% number for a P85D judging by other posts here.
Quality: Basically I am extremely happy with the car. I did go into it knowing what I was expecting and little bumps and dents dont bother me. There are a few scrathes by the wheel wells, and a couple tires have some curb rash. The paint has some pretty bad swirling and I may invest in a good paint correction and ceramic coating down the road. One damage that wasn’t in the picture was on the rear bumper near the bottom, almost exactly where the CA hov sticker was (it was still on in the pictures). It almost looks like someone gouged and dented the car trying to take that off. But again, it doesn’t bother me. Lastly, the driver’s seat leather looked pretty worn in the pictures they had sent me, but surprisingly it doesnt look as bad as I thought when I saw it in person. I will try to post some pictures
Honestly, if you go into the purchase expecting to put in $1000 to refurbish it yourself, I think you will be extremely happy with the deals.
Overall: I thought it was a great process and there are definitely some deals to be had and value to be found in the CPO market. The car drives great and it’s everything I had hoped for.
TL/DR: Bought a P85DL with rear facing seats for $66,300 + $2500 delivery fee.
Bonus: This P85DL is in Chicago with free delivery in most central time zones. It has ludicrous and from the initial pictures I’ve seen is in decent shape. It even has the rare rear next gen seats. If you look at the price history, it has been as low as $64,400 and is currently listed at $66,000. My thoughts based on history is that it should drop by $1k daily for the next few days until it sells.
3 vs S: I had a 3 reservation since middle of 2016 and I had thought I would buy a 3 when time came. When I saw CPO prices were comparable to a performance Model 3, I started to contemplate between the two. My short pros list was the following:
3: Pros: New car, new tech, more fun to drive, AP2
S: Pros: Rear facing seats (3 kids under 5, I’m sure I’ll get use out of these), comfier ride, if I found a P85DL, faster than the 3.
I eventually made the unpopular decision to go with the S. My biggest factor was I wanted the fastest car I could afford. Also, this will be a commuter car and I think AP1 will do just fine. I figured we have the X with AP2 and FSD so we would have at least one vehicle where we could stay current.
CPO search: The first thing I did was paid for a subscription to Ev-cpo.com. A 6 month subscription is something like $40 and will more than pay for itself. Shout out to @HankLloydRight for a great product. If you’re serious about purchasing a CPO, I think this is absolutely crucial for a few reasons.
- First, you can set up customized filters and searches and have emails sent to you whenever there’s a new car added that matches your filters. I set one up for: performance, dual wheel drive, rear facing seats, and would get emails once every two to three days with new vehicles being added.
- Second, you will get email updates with price changes on your vehicles that match your filters. You will quickly learn there’s a general time in the night that almost all car prices change almost daily.
- Third, the subscription will allow you to go through the archives of the cars and if you study this, it should help guide how much you should pay, how long you can expect a CPO car to stay on the market, and how often new cars are added.
I decided I wanted a P85D as these cars seem to be priced pretty competitively right now. In some cases, they are only about $5k more than their 85D counterparts, despite having a $20k+ difference in their sticker price. Also, I decided that I would wait for a car with Ludicrous. Searching ebay and all other used car outlets, I was finding about 1 in 10 P85Ds had the ludicrous upgrade. I used the underline on the rear badge as my confirmation. I had read some posts here that Tesla was purposefully removing the L from all the P85Ds that had it, but I didnt find this to be the case currently. There are definitely Ls coming into the CPO pool. This ratio held for the CPO process too, but I since I wanted rear facing seats, which were also about 10% prevalent, the chances of finding one with both was low. But in the end I found it. Keep reading!
Overall, the prices on the CPO cars are tough to beat. Keep in mind you get a full 4 year 50k warranty (or 2yr up to 100k in some cases). In all my search, the lowest P85Ds were around 62-63k from dealers all the way up to $75k+. Local private party sales were also usually overpriced as prices started in the mid 70s. The dealer cars that they obtain through auction are cars typically rejected by Tesla CPO. For example, I found this car and was pretty close to pulling the trigger as it is a L with rear facing seats. It had a clean carfax. But I called a Tesla service center to get some information and they told me that the car had been in an accident and had some body work done to the rear quarter panel. I decided to pass.
Finding a sales advisor: This can make or break your CPO experience. If you don’t have a responsive CPO advisor, you may not get pictures of cars or more information quick enough to make a decision. I found a great advisor, Saber. He was responsive and helpful, and put me in touch with his superior when he was gone for a week, who was even more responsive. I talked to him several times on the phone and explained exactly what I was looking for. He understood that I wanted an L car with the rear seats and said he doesn’t see many but will definitely keep an eye out.
Since I had an ev-cpo subscription, I would send him every vin notification I would get for him to send me pictures which he would happily do.
Tracking and buying the CPO: Once I found the car that matched my criteria, I emailed for more pictures. The CPO manager was very helpful here as he sent more detailed pictures of the car with all the damage. It had a worn drivers seat, some curb rash, and small scratches on the bumper. All in all, I was content with the damage. After that, I set up a notification in ev-cpo for just that one car to track it’s price. When it was listed, it was priced at $79k. My budget was under $70k so I decided to wait. From looking through the archives and current P85Ds on sale, I decided that most stayed on the market for at least two weeks and dropped anywhere from 5k to 15k before being sold. So I patiently waited for 12 days until I saw the price drop to $66,300. Almost a $13k change from the initial price! As soon as I got the ev-cpo notification on the 12th day around 12am central time, I went on tesla’s website and bought the car. The initial search price is the most updated, but a few of the menus and pages usually will show the price of the car from the day before. Rest assured, on your confirmation (at least on mine), the most current price was listed.
Delivery and tax sidebar: There are 3 or 4 delivery regions for Tesla and if you’re within it, there’s no fee. For Texas, cars all the way up to Chicago and Colorado don’t have delivery fees. I was planning on potentially flying out to pick up the car somewhere else to avoid the $2500 fee. The problem was the car I bought is in California. In CA, the used car tax has to be paid to the state regardless of if you will register it there. This is 7.5%. TX tax is 6.25%, and while they will count any taxes paid out of state, I would still be stuck paying an extra 1.25% if I picked up the car in CA. That amounted to over $800. My benefit gained by picking up would decrease by that much, so I didn’t think it was worth it and ended up paying the $2500 fee.
Trade in: I traded in my 2007 Honda Accord. Tesla gave me a quote for $4000, but matched carmax’s quote for $5000. As an aside, I tried to sell it on craigslist for $6500 but didn’t put much effort into it. I think if I would have cleaned it and made a good listing, I may have gotten the asking price. The trade in makes it easy to drive to the service center in your current car and drop it off as you pick up your CPO.
Pick up: I purchased the car July 19th. Paid with credit union by July 24th. For CPO cars, I was told they wouldn’t even start the transfer to TX before full payment. SInce i had seen all the detailed pictures, I didn’t mind, but this could be an issue for some. Delivery specialist called on July 31st to set up delivery time to pick up on Aug 2nd. I had documents overnighted to me which were received on Aug 1st with clear instructions.
I showed up for my appt on 8/2 45 minutes late and was able to pick up the car in and out in 15 minutes. I dropped off the trade in, took a look around the car, and drove off. They charged it to 100% for me so I got to see the miles remaining which was at 245, which seems like a solid 100% number for a P85D judging by other posts here.
Quality: Basically I am extremely happy with the car. I did go into it knowing what I was expecting and little bumps and dents dont bother me. There are a few scrathes by the wheel wells, and a couple tires have some curb rash. The paint has some pretty bad swirling and I may invest in a good paint correction and ceramic coating down the road. One damage that wasn’t in the picture was on the rear bumper near the bottom, almost exactly where the CA hov sticker was (it was still on in the pictures). It almost looks like someone gouged and dented the car trying to take that off. But again, it doesn’t bother me. Lastly, the driver’s seat leather looked pretty worn in the pictures they had sent me, but surprisingly it doesnt look as bad as I thought when I saw it in person. I will try to post some pictures
Honestly, if you go into the purchase expecting to put in $1000 to refurbish it yourself, I think you will be extremely happy with the deals.
Overall: I thought it was a great process and there are definitely some deals to be had and value to be found in the CPO market. The car drives great and it’s everything I had hoped for.
TL/DR: Bought a P85DL with rear facing seats for $66,300 + $2500 delivery fee.
Bonus: This P85DL is in Chicago with free delivery in most central time zones. It has ludicrous and from the initial pictures I’ve seen is in decent shape. It even has the rare rear next gen seats. If you look at the price history, it has been as low as $64,400 and is currently listed at $66,000. My thoughts based on history is that it should drop by $1k daily for the next few days until it sells.
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