cwerdna said:
I wouldn't want to keep any Tesla beyond warranty unless you're prepared to set aside a considerable budget for repairs...
I've been mulling this one over for some time and my take is that if you can get the car inexpensively enough the savings can be used to pay for any out-of-warranty repairs.
I would suggest going the CPO route. Even the higher mileage CPOs now have a two year/up-to-100k-miles general warranty (the lower mileage — fewer than 50k — CPO cars have the same 4 year/50k miles warranty as new cars). That ought to give one enough time to get any problems worked out that crop up; after that you're on your own.
So far as the drive unit replacements, those are covered by the eight year warranty. I'm getting a bit of a whine in my 2014 S60 and am guessing that I will need one eventually. However, it isn't something that will leave me stranded by the side of the road or anything like that. My sense is that drive unit replacements on early cars have declined substantially over the last year or two, so I think that Tesla has solved the problem, although there are a few outlier cars that have had repeated DU replacements. (The TMC chatter about DU replacements has pretty much ceased and I pay attention to it, for obvious reasons.) The dual drive cars, with the smaller motors, have very good reliability for the DUs, from what I've observed, although being newer they are currently much more expensive on the used market.
The downside for service for me is that I am 338 miles from the nearest Service Center — Denver — so any service visit is a PITA. I've had only one service visit in 15+ months/27k miles: a door handle replacement that I had done at Salt Lake City — 376 miles from home — and the service was truly outstanding. They checked pretty much everything, replaced my key fob with a newer one, and the car was returned to me cleaner than it had been since first delivered. I also had to have a broken UMC replaced in Portland, but that wasn't really car related.
Stoaty said:
...
Panoramic roof - does it give extra headroom or just feel that way? Pro or con?
Pro/con on Smart Air Suspension - I have heard it is expensive to repair if it fails, may not make much difference, although abasile recommended it to me
Are earliest models (2012 or early 2013) more likely to have problems?
Would you be concerned about high mileage, and if so over what level? The battery and drive warranty is the remaining portion of 8 years, but unlimited miles.
Any other suggestions?...
I didn't want the pano roof, figured it was just something else to break that I would never use. I also live in snow country so the extra insulation of a conventional roof was a consideration. However, Tesla has discontinued the conventional roof in favor of an all glass roof and people who have it really like it. A pano roof is sort of like that.
I chose coil suspension since I considered air suspension another maintenance item. But I don't really read about repairs for SAS very often. Given his awkward road/driveway interface I can see why
abasile likes the SAS (I scraped my car on the first attempt and had to approach his EVSE at an angle to avoid doing that). [Yes,
abasile was kind enough to host me on my way home from San Diego last fall; my family used to have a house at nearby Lake Arrowhead, so the area was very familiar to me; 2000+ mile road trips are easy in a Model S.] I do have problems with scraping unusually high curb stops with my coil suspension however.
2012 and 2013 models were likely to have more problems but buying one used now I would guess that many of the problems would have already been fixed. I think it depends on the person. To me, one advantage of a used car, besides a considerably reduced price, is that I don't have the worry so much about the first ding or scratch. It runs, it is very fun to drive, and it is going to get hard use, given where I live. So long as everything works, or I can get it fixed under warranty, that's good enough. By my standards, living near Service Centers as
Stoaty (and
abasile) do, makes getting things fixed pretty easy, even if one has to wait for an appointment.
So far as mileage for used cars, if going for the new 2 year CPO/100k total miles warranty, I'd favor a car with about 55k to 70k miles. That gives you up to 100k miles to get any problems fixed. I'd be reluctant to go with a CPO car with, say, 90k miles. That's a bit more of a gamble, although I presume such cars would be at much lower cost.
A downside to a Tesla purchase is the relatively high insurance cost, with some carriers, as well as expensive and long collision repairs, due to the delay in obtaining parts and the complete lack of aftermarket parts. Try not to crash it! [My big fear, given where I live in the mountains, is deer collisions — I've already lost one car to a deer and try to never drive my S at "deer o'clock," when the danger is greatest.]
Overall, I am so pleased with my Model S, versus what I know about the Model 3, that my inclination would be to trade my car in for another CPO S, this time with a bigger battery for greatly increased Supercharging speed. I really like the space and liftback in my S. I've even put a 10 foot piece of electrical conduit inside my car with no difficulty. It also holds my mountain bike easily, so no need for racks and the like. The Model S is a great road trip car.
My 2¢.