Trading in current BMW to Tesla

You’re going to know what they’re offering you prior to going to pick up your Tesla. You have to accept the offer in the app (or you can decline)

Your'e in control, until you relinquish it by accepting what they offer. You can back out at any time until you accept.

Would the $250 order fee forfeited?

OP is asking about trade in. The only way you forfeit the 250 is if you cancel the purchase.

But I do have to do the process of purchasing a new Tesla before I can go through the full offer process?

Thanks! But I do have to do the process of purchasing a new Tesla before I can go through the full offer process?

As has been said, Tesla doesn't do any bait and switch. Everything is very transparent. You'll get a preliminary trade-in estimate based on the information you fill in. After you do the order, as part of your pre-delivery tasks you'll finalize the trade-in offer by re-entering basic details and they'll ask you some for some photos (interior, exterior, dash with mileage, etc). Once that's done you'll get a final trade in offer that you can confirm. Once you confirm that offer it's locked in for a period of time (I think 60 days). You actually don't need to decide whether to go with that trade-in offer or sell the old car to someone else until pickup. You can cancel the trade-in at any time prior to delivery, it'll just change the financials. Tesla isn't like other dealerships. No shenanigans.

I did a trade in. I accepted their offer, they took that amount off the purchase, I wired the money and went I went to pickup the Tesla we signed both sets of paperwork. There was no “buying the Tesla” before they’d give me the trade in money.

By the way, Tesla was very generous with the trade-in value for my 15 year old ICE vehicle. Way above what I could've gotten elsewhere. I think they just like to incentivize the switch from ICE to EV. You'll also get a bunch of free super charging miles.

You do the trade in first, if you’re satisfied with the offer

I mean what if for example my purchase is dependent on Tesla's trade in, and if they lowballed me enough, I wouldn't want to go through it, my order fee is gone then I supposed?

Yes, they give an estimate at first. But when you pick a car and pay the $250 order fee, then they’ll ask you to send photos of your car and then they’ll give a formal offer.

They offered me well under what I couldn’t gotten private sale, so I declined and ended up selling privately. I would say their offer is very very very close to the estimated offer. If you’re in no rush, try to private sale first if you’re worried about losing the $250 order fee. Hope this helps.

It’s similar to Carmax and Carvana, that initial valuation is an estimate until you either bring it in (Carmax) or send in pictures etc. It’s hit or miss with trades, values can swing weekly. Keep in mind with Tesla they don’t sell trades so it’s just about them flipping it to a wholesaler. I don’t remember Carvana but I think they gave a week or so, same with Carmax, the closer you can get to your drop off the better. With Tesla your $250 is gone if you don’t purchase so it’s got nothing to do with the trade in. As others stated you’ll have that hard number before your delivery date but keep Carmax and Carvana on the side if you can, timing wise.

Yes correct, but that should never be the case where your trade in to Tesla make or breaks your purchase. It should be looked at as two transactions. 1. Do you want to buy this car? If yes, put deposit in for 250. 2. Trade in car to Tesla Do you like their offer if not sell it yourself or use another company to sell car for a better price. You should know ahead of time what your car's value is, there are tools all over the internet. I think people feel like they get low balled is they have grand expectations of their cars current value.

Thanks everyone! Helped me realize I’m not purchasing the Tesla before they give me the final trade in value, just ordering it with a $250 order fee. Appreciate the help!

But it’s for a limited time and if you have to wait for delivery of your Tesla they might knock it down by a couple thousand dollars.

Beg to differ. Got my first Tesla 5 years ago when waiting longer than 60 days was common. My trade-in offer dropped by over $1000 because of those two months.

They’re trying to screw you over… They will offer you less and take your deposit if you decide to not go the with it. Best advice is sell your BMW private party and go from there, if you’re looking at a used Tesla, look private party or at 3rd party dealers first. I’ve been told by numerous Tesla employees that they only really want other Teslas as trade-ins, so if you aren’t trading in a Tesla, don’t waste your time

I said there's an expiration date to the offer. Double checking my app, it's 30 days. Every 30 days they re-evaluate.

This just simply is incorrect

Yes. I didn’t get my offer until yesterday evening and paid the deposit on Saturday morning. But you do have the option of changing your financing to reflect whatever you’ll put down based on trade in value. Data point, my initial offer for my car was nearly 50% higher than their actual offer.

Was your official offer much lower than the initial one Tesla gave you before the final one came?

Initial offer $9500 actual offer $5k

To my mind, if Tesla made the best offer, it is foolish not to take it. Particularly if, as in my case, the delivery center was three hours away. If you take the Tesla offer, you drive there in your trade and leave in your Tesla. Easy peasy. In my case, the Tesla offer was 300 bucks lower, but the ease of the process was well worth that.

Absolute bullshit. And I’ve traded for three different Teslas.

This isn’t 5 years ago anymore.

I got a formal trade-in offer online. I didn't have to do anything else. When I went to the store for a test drive and placed the order with the help of an advisor, the app walked me through it and had me take pictures just to verify the car wasn't in pieces. But the offer was already in place. When I picked up the new Tesla, they didn't even look at my trade other than confirming it wasn't wrecked or on fire, just had me hand over the keys, sign the title over, and that was that. No haggling, no low-balling, nothing. By far the easiest car buying experience w/trade-in I've ever had.

I’m picking up my new Model Y on Saturday. I first said I was going to trade in my car to tesla and did the whole process of taking photos and everything in the app. Their offer wasn’t the best deal, even factoring in the sales tax savings so I declined the offer and I’m having the other company pick my car up on Friday. The only thing you risk loosing if you back out completely is your $250 order fee. But if you are going to buy the car regardless, then it doesn’t matter who you sell / trade in to.

Yes, it is perfectly logical for my car to depreciate $1000 in 30 days. It’s still shenanigans.

Perfect answer thank you!

No problem. Glad I was able to help. Congrats on the new car.

The only way to not forfeit your $250 is if you did not qualify for financing. I just went through this with them. They gave initial trade in estimate of 18k for my 2013 bmw m3. I paid the $250 and then got the official trade in offer of $14k.. that’s a pretty substantial difference. I was okay with financing they offered me, but I was not okay with the official trade in offer so I forfeited my $250. I would have never gave the $250 if they wouldve estimated at $14k. I 100% feel like they bait and switched me. I ended up going through a different company to buy a used tesla and they gave me the 18k trade in I was looking for.

There is no low ball offer. You find out the trade in value VERY EARLY and then it is set in stone basically within all the financials in the app through the buying process. Everything is very smooth and on point. Just picked up my Model 3 AWD with a trade in last week. All went very easy and smoothly

It's also based on the used car market as a whole. Look, nobody can assume that a value put on a car today will be the same value you get in the future. But this is still nothing like traditional dealers who will not only change trade-in estimates at the last minute, but also tack on silly fees and mark downs on the trade in at the last minute and dare you to walk away. Tesla is a boyscout compared to the rest of the auto industry.