Denied Classic Car Trade-in

[WebbSpeed]

Hey guys,

Looking to purchase a Model 3 and was planning on trading in an old 77 Corvette.

In the past I had been planning to do the same thing but ended up cancelling my reservation.

At that time I filled in a trade in form and received an offer of $7500 for the Vette (Which i thought was low)

Fast forward to now, Tesla has said they are unable to pull the history of the vehicle due to the short VIN and therefore cant provide a value for the car?!

Has anyone ever had something similar happen to them or know why this might be happening. Everything I’ve read and heard points to Tesla accepting Classic Car trade ins, the same as all car dealers would.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[garsh]

Tesla doesn't have a used-car business (with the exception of used Teslas). When they accept a trade-in, all they do is sell it to an auction house. Therefore, you're not going to get a good offer for any trade-in.

You could try getting an offer from another company that buys used cars. Tesla will usually match a trade-in offer that you receive from CarMax, CarSense, Carvana, and similar places.

If you have a classic car in good shape, try selling it through other means - perhaps privately via the classifieds, or the online equivalent.

 

[JasonF]

Tesla will usually match a trade-in offer that you receive from CarMax, CarSense, Carvana, and similar places.

They do? You mean I travelled all over town twice on delivery day for nothing??

In 2018, I got a $3000 higher offer from CarMax than from Tesla. So I went on a complicated journey of leaving my old car parked at CarMax, taking an Uber to Tesla, picking up my car, and then going back to CarMax to collect payment (fortunately I had an oversized down payment saved up, so I was able to dip into that). The reason for the extra step in between was in case Tesla couldn't deliver the car that day for some reason, I could always reschedule and return to CarMax and retrieve the car.

 

[garsh]

They do? You mean I travelled all over town twice on delivery day for nothing??

You need to hang out here more often.

The Tesla trade-in offer for my Volt was $2,200 less than CarMax. After I emailed them the CarMax offer they did match it. Also got the benefit of the sales tax savings going with Tesla.

I am purchasing a dual motor AWD and Tesla offered me 35k for my trade in (non-Tesla) and CarMax offered me 36,500. Tesla immediately matched their offer.

Go get a quote from CarMax and also submit for a quote from Tesla. Worst case they match what CarMax is offering

@Jason F I forgot to mention, when I traded in my Honda for my 3, the SC stated that they'd offer me whatever KBB offered for trade-in "very good" value. That was really low for my Honda so I had them match CarMax.

 

[serpico007]

I’ve had that before with my 76 Porsche 911 but not from Tesla. Couldn’t find all the history of the car due to the short VIN.