Buying a used Model S
Discussion
John-9ey9e said:
I've been keeping an eye out for a used Model S on a budget, some good vehicles popping up on the Tesla CPO - them, nothing. Something odd has happened as their site has shown no stock of any model in the used inventory for almost a week. Have they canned used car sales in the UK?
It happens from time to time, most of EU is the same. Sometimes it’s a IT system change, sometimes a clear out to auction but they’ve not popped up anywhere else yet, maybe just overrun service centres dealing with the M3 sept push hangover (you can’t book a service appointment before Dec in many places).Sign up to the email service on Tesla-info and you’ll get told when they reappear
https://tesla-info.com/UK/email.php
Heres Johnny said:
John-9ey9e said:
I've been keeping an eye out for a used Model S on a budget, some good vehicles popping up on the Tesla CPO - them, nothing. Something odd has happened as their site has shown no stock of any model in the used inventory for almost a week. Have they canned used car sales in the UK?
It happens from time to time, most of EU is the same. Sometimes it’s a IT system change, sometimes a clear out to auction but they’ve not popped up anywhere else yet, maybe just overrun service centres dealing with the M3 sept push hangover (you can’t book a service appointment before Dec in many places).Sign up to the email service on Tesla-info and you’ll get told when they reappear
https://tesla-info.com/UK/email.php
essayer said:
I borrowed Chargemaster’s 2014 P85 earlier in the year ..
It’s loaned to a different person every week so must get some serious abuse, but the interior was solid, I didn’t notice any rattling or broken bits and it drove beautifully.
If I did more miles per year I would have been VERY tempted - it was, hands down, the best car I’ve ever driven.
I would be cautious about owning without warranty though - there is a fledgling network of EV specialists (HEVRA) but I guess anything particularly complex will be Tesla only. The car I had needed a roof repair and it was £600 for the Tesla tech to just move the roof back into the closed position so it could be disabled while they got the parts. As said above, probably not dissimilar to owning a E60/F10 M5 and crossing your fingers ..
..and now it could be yours for under £30k..It’s loaned to a different person every week so must get some serious abuse, but the interior was solid, I didn’t notice any rattling or broken bits and it drove beautifully.
If I did more miles per year I would have been VERY tempted - it was, hands down, the best car I’ve ever driven.
I would be cautious about owning without warranty though - there is a fledgling network of EV specialists (HEVRA) but I guess anything particularly complex will be Tesla only. The car I had needed a roof repair and it was £600 for the Tesla tech to just move the roof back into the closed position so it could be disabled while they got the parts. As said above, probably not dissimilar to owning a E60/F10 M5 and crossing your fingers ..
142k miles
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2014-Tesla-Model-S-E-P8...
essayer said:
..and now it could be yours for under £30k..
142k miles
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2014-Tesla-Model-S-E-P8...
How many miles did it have on the clock when you had it, if I may ask? Also, are you able to tell me what kind of cruise control system is in place on that model, as I am certain that Autopilot V1.0 was only available from 64 plate vehicles onwards in UK. I'm quite tempted by this despite the high mileage...142k miles
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2014-Tesla-Model-S-E-P8...
John-9ey9e said:
How many miles did it have on the clock when you had it, if I may ask? Also, are you able to tell me what kind of cruise control system is in place on that model, as I am certain that Autopilot V1.0 was only available from 64 plate vehicles onwards in UK. I'm quite tempted by this despite the high mileage...
On that age of car its unlikely to have Autopilot hardware. You can check looking for a small window like box on the lower front grill of the car in the middle (it changed when the cars were facelifted). If it has the box then it has autopilot hardware.Given that info the following rules hold:
No box/autopilot - regular, you set a speed and it does that.
Box but autopilot not activated = regular as above
Box and autopilot activated = traffic aware cruise control (aka TACC in Tesla speak) which maintains a distance to the car in front and does the lane keep thing on appropriate roads
John-9ey9e said:
How many miles did it have on the clock when you had it, if I may ask? Also, are you able to tell me what kind of cruise control system is in place on that model, as I am certain that Autopilot V1.0 was only available from 64 plate vehicles onwards in UK. I'm quite tempted by this despite the high mileage...
In April it had around 140,000 miles.As above, it only had basic cruise control.
It drove great, it's the only one I've driven but didn't feel like it had such a high mileage. people would 'win' it for the week through the Polar scheme so it'll have had some cheerful use.
It was reporting about 220 miles fully charged. Charged at 113kw fine.
It was a bit scuffy but nothing too bad for the age. Needed a decent clean inside and some of the inside plastic was worn.
Only major downsides I noticed
the offside windscreen wiper was rubbing against the bonnet and had cut into it slightly
the panoramic roof didn't work although it was due to be fixed
Thank you Here's Johnny and Essayer!
Both very useful posts. I expected there not to be AP with this model but struggled to find what it did have, so good to get confirmation. Not sure I'll go for it as the mileage is indeed high and having been passed around quite a bit, not much faith inspired! I also think I'm better off waiting for more CPO ones to come up and getting the warranty - it is likely worth more to me than free supercharging.
Again, appreciate the really helpful replies!
Both very useful posts. I expected there not to be AP with this model but struggled to find what it did have, so good to get confirmation. Not sure I'll go for it as the mileage is indeed high and having been passed around quite a bit, not much faith inspired! I also think I'm better off waiting for more CPO ones to come up and getting the warranty - it is likely worth more to me than free supercharging.
Again, appreciate the really helpful replies!
Good call,
If you charge at home, free SuC isn't worth much. In metric it came down to 6 EUR/100km, which for me would be about 200 eur/year.
Shopping for a second hand Model S must be a nightmare in my opinion. Tesla has changed so much on the Model S over the years that a month in production can make all the difference.
Anything at <40k EUR here (BE) will have over 200k km's, so I can see the new model 3 argument being valid.
3.8s to 100km/h is about the same than an F430, so I'm ok
.
If you charge at home, free SuC isn't worth much. In metric it came down to 6 EUR/100km, which for me would be about 200 eur/year.
Shopping for a second hand Model S must be a nightmare in my opinion. Tesla has changed so much on the Model S over the years that a month in production can make all the difference.
Anything at <40k EUR here (BE) will have over 200k km's, so I can see the new model 3 argument being valid.
Dave Hedgehog said:
My problem with the S is it would simply not be possible for me to buy any model other the a P100D with ludicrous lol
It was an extra 12k on my 100D, just for the launch and wheels basically.3.8s to 100km/h is about the same than an F430, so I'm ok
.Beware of the non-warranty faults on older Teslas. For example there is a problem with the flash memory in the car's computer that will cripple the entire vehicle when it inevitably fails. It's not a matter of if, it's a question of when.
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/17/worn-out-emmc-chip...
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/17/worn-out-emmc-chip...
kuro68k said:
Beware of the non-warranty faults on older Teslas. For example there is a problem with the flash memory in the car's computer that will cripple the entire vehicle when it inevitably fails. It's not a matter of if, it's a question of when.
https://hackaday.com/2019/10/17/worn-out-emmc-chip...
A while back I bought an AMG C43. It was a 90's Merc so had some good points and some bad points when it came to costs and maintenance. Having 8 cylinders but yet 24 spark plugs to change or gap the least of it.https://hackaday.com/2019/10/17/worn-out-emmc-chip...
The electrics all went wrong. The drivers mirror stopped working. The sun roof used to go bananas, the LCD display for the air con gave up the ghost. so I had to put the front reading light on to select the right setting. Replacement was £600 so I laughed and didn't bother.
Germany and Mercedes were known for bad electronics in the 90's but you could normally drive around them. But can you do that in a modern car if the electronics fail, such as your entire dashboard rather than just the air con unit? Or the microchips?
People say cars now are better electronically. But my experience of electronics all the way up to the modern day is that they still fail. They are so cheap now you either do quick fixes " reboot" reseat cables, download update " and then just bin them and justify it with getting a better laptop or phone.
Can you do that with an expensive car though? We are entering a now phase in cars becoming "electronic goods" with the replacement of mechanical items.
Failures might be more rare, but might be harder to fix for the 3rd or 4th owner 8-10 years down the line.
Edited by Gandahar on Friday 18th October 15:11
For anyone new to buying EVs its important to know there are 3 different rapid charging plugs in the UK, Tesla, CHADEMO and CCS.
These plugs are not compatible with each other and a car that's been designed to rapid charge with CHADEMO like a Leaf cannot use a CCS or Tesla charger.
Tesla is unique in offering both a CHADEMO and CCS adaptor for all their cars ever sold in the UK, so a used S/X with the right adaptors can charge at Tesal, CHADEMO and CCS chargers.
I finally got round to trying out the CCS adaptor for our X, not quick but pleasantly surprised it worked even on an old Ecotricity charger, also pretty compact compared to CHADEMO adaptor.
Anyone thinking of keeping their pre 2019 S/X longterm, its a worthwhile retrofit to get, especially with increasing number of CCS rapids now appearing.
Interms longterm compatibility and good real life access to as many rapid charge options as possible, a used Tesla is hard to beat. A older S/X will also be able to charge at 17KW on 'rapid' AC where as even a brand new iPace can only do 7KW on AC.
These plugs are not compatible with each other and a car that's been designed to rapid charge with CHADEMO like a Leaf cannot use a CCS or Tesla charger.
Tesla is unique in offering both a CHADEMO and CCS adaptor for all their cars ever sold in the UK, so a used S/X with the right adaptors can charge at Tesal, CHADEMO and CCS chargers.
I finally got round to trying out the CCS adaptor for our X, not quick but pleasantly surprised it worked even on an old Ecotricity charger, also pretty compact compared to CHADEMO adaptor.
Anyone thinking of keeping their pre 2019 S/X longterm, its a worthwhile retrofit to get, especially with increasing number of CCS rapids now appearing.
Interms longterm compatibility and good real life access to as many rapid charge options as possible, a used Tesla is hard to beat. A older S/X will also be able to charge at 17KW on 'rapid' AC where as even a brand new iPace can only do 7KW on AC.
Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 19th October 16:59
Almost correct gang.. and I broadly agree with the sentiment but you know I like th8ngs to be accurate..
Tesla roadster doesnt support all types so not all a Teslas sold in the uk do.
A number of networks are currently not working with Teslas implementation of CCS. Hopefully it will be fixed one day but it can be hit and miss, awkward if you were depending on it
And older MS and MX were 11kw max on AC, pre facelift MS with dual chargers could charge at 22kw on a suitable type 2 charge point, and facelift MS and MX needed the high power option to get 17kw, something they eventually made standard.
Tesla roadster doesnt support all types so not all a Teslas sold in the uk do.
A number of networks are currently not working with Teslas implementation of CCS. Hopefully it will be fixed one day but it can be hit and miss, awkward if you were depending on it
And older MS and MX were 11kw max on AC, pre facelift MS with dual chargers could charge at 22kw on a suitable type 2 charge point, and facelift MS and MX needed the high power option to get 17kw, something they eventually made standard.
Also for anyone buying a used S affected by capped battery capacity, this is the comment from the one guy outside Tesla about whats going on....
'I'm still not convinced Tesla is going to do the absolute right thing by owners as far as actually correcting the underlying issue (which requires a pack replacement to fix 100%, no way around it). I'm convinced they are working in the best interest of safety by pushing the updates they have pushed..........
.....From what I've gathered, the number of people who could possibly still be affected by conditions X or Z (ie, have not updated) is less than 100... out of tens of thousands.'
Essentially if you buy a used S affected with an affected battery the only way to resolve the issue is with a pack replacement which Tesla currently aren't doing, and don't have any legal obligation to do as technically Tesla has not officially recognized any problems with these packs.
The actual number of people affected in the UK is likely small, but if you buy a car with bad pack than the number woudlnt matter.
So buyers of used S 85 cars beware....
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/sudden-los...
'I'm still not convinced Tesla is going to do the absolute right thing by owners as far as actually correcting the underlying issue (which requires a pack replacement to fix 100%, no way around it). I'm convinced they are working in the best interest of safety by pushing the updates they have pushed..........
.....From what I've gathered, the number of people who could possibly still be affected by conditions X or Z (ie, have not updated) is less than 100... out of tens of thousands.'
Essentially if you buy a used S affected with an affected battery the only way to resolve the issue is with a pack replacement which Tesla currently aren't doing, and don't have any legal obligation to do as technically Tesla has not officially recognized any problems with these packs.
The actual number of people affected in the UK is likely small, but if you buy a car with bad pack than the number woudlnt matter.
So buyers of used S 85 cars beware....
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/sudden-los...
Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 19th October 17:54
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