Tesla Model S CPO Website - Now Live

[MsElectric]

With the Mercedes CPO program they don't certify vehicles that have been in a moderate accident or vehicles that does not have a regular service history. Those vehicles are auctioned off. How is this handled by Tesla? Do they certify every single car they get or do they pass on certifying certain cars based on condition or other factors?

I guess accident damage can be looked up by pulling the CarFax because they publish the VIN number...

 

[sachin86]

Thanks a lot for giving me that disclosure!

Re: accidents - I was wondering the same. I wonder if my car had an accident prior to them listing it as CPO.

 

[TomServo]

Aren't CPO buyers given a copy of a CARFAX or other similar certification that the car has not been in a reportable accident?

 

[brantse]

Thanks a lot for giving me that disclosure!

Re: accidents - I was wondering the same. I wonder if my car had an accident prior to them listing it as CPO.

I was told by an employee at a service center that Tesla does not sell wrecked cars. Not sure I believe that in 100% of all cases, but that's what he said.

 

[BoerumHill]

S60 pano $51,100 down from $56,000

60 kWh Model S P09554 | Tesla Motors

Popped up 40 minutes ago.

Still up three hours later?

• Piano Black Décor
• Supercharging
• Twin Chargers
• Active Air Suspension

Must be everyone is too depressed TSLA dropped -14.15 today.

 

[FlatSix911]

Does anyone know if Tesla is planning to list Inventory cars online? (new with Fed/State credits)
It would be really nice if we did not have to go through the sales advisors for the regional list of cars.

 

[abasile]

Must be everyone is too depressed TSLA dropped -14.15 today.

I saw it as an opportunity to pick up a few more shares. ;-) Wish I had acted months ago when it was in the 180s, though.

One thing I'd like to see is an all-Tesla consolidator. What I mean by that is, in addition to what Hank's consolidator does, I'd like to see a consolidator that scrapes eBay, CraigsList, AutoTrader, Tesla Motors, and any other significant sources of used Tesla listings. It appears that VINs could be decoded to determine the battery size, which isn't immediately obvious on AutoTrader. Ideally, this service would provide email alerts to inform would-be buyers of brand new or updated listings that meet their criteria.

And why stop with Tesla vehicles? Searching for used EVs in general can be a pain with the existing websites. EV-specific options sort of get buried or can't easily be used as search criteria.

Obviously, we'd need to make sure there aren't any legal issues with doing this. Assuming there aren't, I think this is something that should exist (to borrow a phrase from Elon). Unless Hank or someone else is motivated to make this happen, I'll consider having a crack at it myself.

Edit: I just had a look at the "Visitor Agreement" on AutoTrader.com. This doesn't look promising:

Except as explicitly provided in this Visitor Agreement, you may not distribute, transmit, display, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, or otherwise exploit any of the materials on the Autotrader Sites.

 

[MsElectric]

Thanks a lot for giving me that disclosure!

Re: accidents - I was wondering the same. I wonder if my car had an accident prior to them listing it as CPO.

I guess you can always pull the CarFax as that will list any reported accidents. Also to some degree the CarFax will tell if the car was bought new or as an inventory car based on the mileage when it was initially registered if that is important to you. Personally I'd prefer to buy a car that was owned by someone who bought it new rather than bought as an inventory car after a bunch of initial use...

It would be nice if the CarFax was listed with the car so you know some details about the car including when the car was initially put in service.

I wonder if anyone has pulled up the CarFax for a Tesla car and what it looks like. When you take in in for service at the Tesla Service Center, do they report the service performed to CarFax like most dealers would?

- - - Updated - - -

Does anyone know if Tesla is planning to list Inventory cars online? (new with Fed/State credits)
It would be really nice if we did not have to go through the sales advisors for the regional list of cars.

They are already listing Inventory S60s. I think it is only a matter of time before they list other Inventory models as well. What they really need to do is pay Hank to take over their car listing interface or pay someone to build a more useful interface. If not for Hank, we'd all be screwed trying to find a CPO car using the clunky Tesla interface. I bet we'll see more inventory cars by the end of the year. It makes no sense for them to not list them online and increase the exposure and save their employees the hassle of emailing spreadsheets around of available cars.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Assuming there aren't, I think this is something that should exist (to borrow a phrase from Elon). Unless Hank or someone else is motivated to make this happen, I'll consider having a crack at it myself.

Go right ahead, I'm not going to start surfing the entire web for Tesla's for sale. The CPO site is quite enough with V2 of the CPOC coming out soon!

 

[abasile]

Go right ahead, I'm not going to start surfing the entire web for Tesla's for sale. The CPO site is quite enough with V2 of the CPOC coming out soon!

I understand. In software, everything usually seems to take longer than it "should". You've done a great job on the CPO consolidator. It's just that I've found myself frustrated with the difficulty of searching for EVs on the traditional automotive sites. What I'd really like to see is a general, EV-focused vehicle listing site. My challenge is that I'm more than busy enough with existing work commitments. But I've been telling myself that I need to spend some time on a project of my own (not something I'm doing for a paying customer). So if I do anything here, it might happen slowly...

 

[HankLloydRight]

BTW, there are a ton of sites that scrape autotrader and cars.com. I've listed a couple of cars for sale there, and within a few days, they show up on a dozen other auto sales sites. I'm not sure what they get from it (other than maybe advertising), but it's a huge business. I also know what I had to go through to reverse engineer Tesla's CPO site to extract the data -- no way I want to do that for a dozen more other, and very different websites.

Also, thanks for your comments about the CPOC. I'm almost done V2, and I'm very happy with how it came out. V1 was literally a "quick and dirty" thing I threw together. V2 is what it really should have been. I hope to do a soft launch in a day or two.

 

[BoerumHill]

I saw it as an opportunity to pick up a few more shares. ;-) Wish I had acted months ago when it was in the 180s, though.

My average TSLA buy this year has been 234. Oddly - this is like the reverse of getting stuck on sunk cost - I haven't wanted to add shares since the breakout. Don't want to mess up that awesome unrealized gain %. LOL. DIS has been good to me, but not that good. I should have just bet the house on red.

Hank, I view this thread and CPOC on a device 95% of the time. Would you be kind enough to point me to a glossary of codes I can use to search the CPOC? i.e., White Alcantara = xxxx, Dual Chargers = xx.

Related (I think) - if I click on the opts hyperlink, does the popup box have the codes?

TIA

 

[HankLloydRight]

Hank, I view this thread and CPOC on a device 95% of the time. Would you be kind enough to point me to a glossary of codes I can use to search the CPOC? i.e., White Alcantara = xxxx, Dual Chargers = xx.

Related (I think) - if I click on the opts hyperlink, does the popup box have the codes?

TIA

The "Opts" popup does have the codes, but just for that car. I got most of the codes from this source: Tesla Model S Options Decoder I manually filled in dozens more that were missing from that list, which I think is dated.

When V2 launches, it includes a quick-acces page of all option codes available.


Also, what device are you using?

 

[abasile]

I'm looking forward to CPOC V2! I've been keeping on eye on your consolidated listings, with an eye toward a future Tesla purchase.

As for scraping and re-using AutoTrader in particular, perhaps it'd be feasible with permission. My thinking would be to start by scraping just a couple of major sites, and also accept listings directly. Someone I know has scraped auto listings, so perhaps if they're willing to help, it wouldn't be necessary to start from scratch.

In the long term, it needs to become easier to buy and sell EVs, and I fear it'll take years for the big players like AutoTrader to tailor their sites appropriately. EVs are still such a small niche.

 

[BoerumHill]

The "Opts" popup does have the codes, but just for that car. I got most of the codes from this source: Tesla Model S Options Decoder I manually filled in dozens more that were missing from that list, which I think is dated.

When V2 launches, it includes a quick-acces page of all option codes available.


Also, what device are you using?

Great, thanks

 

[tga]

Aren't CPO buyers given a copy of a CARFAX or other similar certification that the car has not been in a reportable accident?

Despite CarFax's claims otherwise, a clean CarFax does not mean the car is accident-free. I bought a CPO'ed Porsche with a clean CarFax, and discovered a couple of years later that the car had repaired front-end damage.

 

[MsElectric]

Despite CarFax's claims otherwise, a clean CarFax does not mean the car is accident-free. I bought a CPO'ed Porsche with a clean CarFax, and discovered a couple of years later that the car had repaired front-end damage.

Given the astronomical cost of repairing any moderate damage to a Tesla I think chances are good that there will be an insurance claim and associated CarFax record for accident damage. Of course it is possible the repair was done "offline" but I think it's worthwhile checking CarFax before buying a CPO car so that if there is any prior accident damage you know about it. You can also likely determine how many past owners the car has had and if it was bought new or an inventory car as well for what that's worth...

 

[andrewket]

Despite CarFax's claims otherwise, a clean CarFax does not mean the car is accident-free. I bought a CPO'ed Porsche with a clean CarFax, and discovered a couple of years later that the car had repaired front-end damage.

Was it used or CPO? Most certified pre-owned programs offer two things: 1/ Inspection by the (shutter) dealer, stating the car has not been in any accidents and is good working order, and 2/ A warranty

I have a friend who discovered within a week of buying a "CPO" car that it had been in an accident, and the dealer bought the car back (after an attorney got involved). They clearly they didn't "inspect" the car as they had stated.

 

[Cyclone]

Also, what device are you using?

90% of my browsing and comments on this forum are via my iPhone 6+.

 

[TomServo]

Despite CarFax's claims otherwise, a clean CarFax does not mean the car is accident-free. I bought a CPO'ed Porsche with a clean CarFax, and discovered a couple of years later that the car had repaired front-end damage.

True, guess the next question is when is a repair reported? I.e. are reputable repair facilities REQUIRED to report repairs that cross some $$$$ threshold even if insurance is NOT involved? I have paid for minor repairs several times one was over $2500 and NONE of these repairs showed up on subsequent CARFAX reports.

seems like a grey area, so maybe there is no way to 100% guarantee your CPO Tesla is "accident free". But a CARFAX report provided to you from Tesla would at leave provide some semblance of due diligence.