Tesla no longer accepts CarMax appraisals for trade-ins!

[Matutino]

Tesla offered me more for my trade in than Carmax, I was happy to take their offer.

 

[ReturnZero]

Probably not the same way as with a lease the sales tax is baked into the lease payment, so you haven't paid the full sales tax. So you might get credit for what you have paid for, but it probably differs from state to state.

Things are weird in Texas, you pay sales tax up front on the full sales amount even on a lease, it's not just on the payment like in other states.

 

[buttershrimp]

I'm a current owner of a early 2016 90D (link in the for sale section) and am buying an inventory 100D.

I wanted to look at trading in in case I can't get a good private sale price.

My Tesla Owner Advisor told me that Tesla would honor a CarMax appraisal, so I got one today. Then, when I talked to the Tesla Delivery Specialist after finishing with CarMax, she said in no uncertain terms that Tesla does NOT honor CarMax appraisals.

I was very surprised. I called the OA, and he looked into it. An hour later, he called me back to apologize and say that he was wrong. What he said was that, while Tesla may have accepted CarMax appraisals in the past, they stopped as CarMax was appraising too high, and Tesla was losing money on the trade-in deal when they could not sell the car with the desired markup. Of course, CarMax was perfectly willing to write me a check for 66K on the spot today, so they must have been confident in the accuracy of their appraisal.

What experiences have others here had with CarMax appraisals and Tesla trade-ins?

My guess is the opposite occurred... I had a good experience with Carmax in the past, but when I took my car in to carmax prior to buying my car as it was being delivered, they knew I was buying a tesla and proceeded to lowball me far below the blue book value... in other words, they smelled blood. It almost derailed my tesla purchase, if it wasn't for a very active sales person at Tesla, I'd still be a lurker on the thread.

 

[quicksilver99]

So can anybody in California confirm if I use a trade in for a car, say I purchase a $50K car and trade in $5K, I pay only taxes on $45K? Thanks

 

[Matutino]

You will pay taxes on the full purchase price, in your example would be 50k.
Trade in is as if you are bringing 5k cash, you would still pay taxes for the full purchase price.

 

[quicksilver99]

Thanks

 

[SucreTease]

Suffice it to say that the title of this thread is factually incorrect. Tesla does accept still CarMax offers for all cars except Teslas (they did so in mid December for me). Tesla has an arrangement with CarMax to take cars on which CarMax has made an offer when they are traded into Tesla, since Tesla does not sell such cars.

However, Tesla does sell Tesla vehicles, and they expect to make profit on those on resale, especially since they are sold as a CPO (with warranty), so Teslas are excluded from that arrangement.

 

[P85Dave]

Things are weird in Texas, you pay sales tax up front on the full sales amount even on a lease, it's not just on the payment like in other states.

Many other states are like that where the full sales tax for the car is collected at the time you lease.

All that money is gone if you are unfortunate enough to have the car totaled soon after you begin the lease... If your lease company allows the sales tax to be rolled into the monthly payments that is safer when you also get gap insurance for a lease.

 

[ReturnZero]

Many other states are like that where the full sales tax for the car is collected at the time you lease.

All that money is gone if you are unfortunate enough to have the car totaled soon after you begin the lease... If your lease company allows the sales tax to be rolled into the monthly payments that is safer when you also get gap insurance for a lease.

Yep. Always do zero down (or as close as they'll let you) on a lease!

 

[Iwaboc70]

I'm a current owner of a early 2016 90D (link in the for sale section) and am buying an inventory 100D.

I wanted to look at trading in in case I can't get a good private sale price.

My Tesla Owner Advisor told me that Tesla would honor a CarMax appraisal, so I got one today. Then, when I talked to the Tesla Delivery Specialist after finishing with CarMax, she said in no uncertain terms that Tesla does NOT honor CarMax appraisals.

I was very surprised. I called the OA, and he looked into it. An hour later, he called me back to apologize and say that he was wrong. What he said was that, while Tesla may have accepted CarMax appraisals in the past, they stopped as CarMax was appraising too high, and Tesla was losing money on the trade-in deal when they could not sell the car with the desired markup. Of course, CarMax was perfectly willing to write me a check for 66K on the spot today, so they must have been confident in the accuracy of their appraisal.

What experiences have others here had with CarMax appraisals and Tesla trade-ins?

She's lying, I literally just confirmed my CarMax trade-in with Tesla yesterday, it was uploaded and approved and everything through my Tesla portal.

 

[DaveK.]

I just traded a BMW at the Dania Beach, FL store using a CarMax appraisal. They were happy to take it and the CarMax offer was significantly higher than Tesla or the BMW dealer had offered on the same car.

 

[bearjue]

I'm a current owner of a early 2016 90D (link in the for sale section) and am buying an inventory 100D.

I wanted to look at trading in in case I can't get a good private sale price.

My Tesla Owner Advisor told me that Tesla would honor a CarMax appraisal, so I got one today. Then, when I talked to the Tesla Delivery Specialist after finishing with CarMax, she said in no uncertain terms that Tesla does NOT honor CarMax appraisals.

I was very surprised. I called the OA, and he looked into it. An hour later, he called me back to apologize and say that he was wrong. What he said was that, while Tesla may have accepted CarMax appraisals in the past, they stopped as CarMax was appraising too high, and Tesla was losing money on the trade-in deal when they could not sell the car with the desired markup. Of course, CarMax was perfectly willing to write me a check for 66K on the spot today, so they must have been confident in the accuracy of their appraisal.

What experiences have others here had with CarMax appraisals and Tesla trade-ins?

Carmax gave me a lower quote than Tesla did for my 2012 Toyota Highlander w/ ~80k miles and all service updates needed. It just had a little paint issue that needed fixing. Other than that I've had it detailed and etc.