Tesla Now Selling Used, Non-CPO Cars From The Looks Of It

While Tesla’s Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program was revealed quite awhile back, and the general thrust of the company selling “used” vehicles certainly isn’t a new idea, an interesting new wrinkle in that situation recently came to our attention.

Thanks to a discussion on the Tesla Motors Club forum (big tip of the hat to “mrjedistud” for the very interesting discussion/observation), it appears that Tesla is now offering vehicles for sale termed “used” that aren’t part of the CPO program. In other words, the company is offering vehicles that it doesn’t consider to be fit for resale as “certified” (this is what it looks like to me anyways) owing to the condition of the vehicle in question.

Here’s the original comment that kicked off the discussion:

Hey folks, before you go ahead and start calling me names like “Captain Obvious”, I wanted to point out something that I noticed.

A sales advisor has been helping me out with CPO cars. In the process, he has been sending me a number of pre-release cars (not yet on the CPO site). Most of these will state CPO or certified in the description, but every now and then he will send me one that simply says “used”. These used vehicles tend to have higher miles or come with a story. One had cosmetic damage that Tesla didn’t want to fix, one had accidents, etc. As I asked more about these, I was told that they would not be certified and that the refresh on the warranty would not apply. As a result, they only had the balance of the original warranty left. I was told that if I were interested in any of them I could buy the ESA, but I know that there are other threads out there that discuss the issues with the ESA. I’ve seen some deeply discounted cars noted as “used”.
Apologies if there is already a thread on this, but from my searching I have not seen anyone discuss this before.

I just want to make sure that anyone else looking into CPO cars like me is aware of the difference.

What this implies is that the company is imposing somewhat strict guidelines on which vehicles can be resold as certified — good news for those looking to buy a certified used Tesla, as this implies that those sold as certified are likely to be in great condition. (A point also noted by “MsElectric” in the discussion.)

Also, it means that those who have a bit of a gambling spirit to them can potentially purchase a Tesla for a far lower price than would otherwise be possible — if they don’t mind it being a non-certified used one, that is. (Of course, considering how expensive Teslas are to repair, perhaps this isn’t such a good idea?)

Interesting development… Anyone tempted?