article: Previous owner retains control over Tesla

[Hall]

Not surprised by this at all. Unless the vehicle was traded into a dealer of the same brand, most aren't going to know or know how to "clear" this.

Alot of companies mot just Tesla are guilty of not wiping personal information even though it's supposed to be part of the reconditioning process.

There's certainly no standard for this and this will vary by dealer. How many people have bought used cars and the previous owner's Bluetooth phone details were still loaded ?

 

[y_p_w]

Not surprised by this at all. Unless the vehicle was traded into a dealer of the same brand, most aren't going to know or know how to "clear" this.


There's certainly no standard for this and this will vary by dealer. How many people have bought used cars and the previous owner's Bluetooth phone details were still loaded ?

From the sound of things, the previous owner might have been intentionally doing all this stuff.

 

[Hall]

From the sound of things, the previous owner might have been intentionally doing all this stuff.

I agree. My wife's Toyota has these features and if I'm not mistaken, if we sold it or traded it in to a non-Toyota shop, we could keep access (remote control) and in fact, prevent the new owner from having access to the same functions (only 1 person (account) can have access). Toyota dealers have the ability to de-link but no one else besides the owner does.

Won't deny it, I LOVE that the new owner figured it out and ran up those charges like that !!

 

[y_p_w]

I agree. My wife's Toyota has these features and if I'm not mistaken, if we sold it or traded it in to a non-Toyota shop, we could keep access (remote control) and in fact, prevent the new owner from having access to the same functions (only 1 person (account) can have access). Toyota dealers have the ability to de-link but no one else besides the owner does.

Won't deny it, I LOVE that the new owner figured it out and ran up those charges like that !!

I'm interested in how access was done. Because without linking to the car to an account, one can't really set up a phone key unless it's a fleet vehicle that can set up a short-term phone key.

I would hate to just have access via the card key.

 

[Hall]

I'm interested in how access was done. Because without linking to the car to an account, one can't really set up a phone key

You're presuming the new owner even bothers with the app. If they bought it from a non-Toyota dealer, you can be 100% that selling dealer doesn't mention it either (they might be asked to 'help' or set it up, etc). My co-worker has had a brand new Camry for ~6 months and hasn't set up the phone app or even mentioned it.

 

[Arc]

Is there nobody reprogramming these cars yet so the owner has complete control over all functions? Even cell phones can fake locations, ID and even block connections so why not cars?

 

[RhondaHonda]

The GM app is so bad it still shows the 2021 Suburban that was totaled in my account and active as well as 2 other vehicles I no longer own. I click to remove them from my account and they go away for a split second and return.

 

[Hall]

The GM app is so bad it still shows the 2021 Suburban that was totaled in my account and active as well as 2 other vehicles I no longer own

My niece still has a Suburban in her that she sold maybe 2 years ago. Well, she may have removed it by now but she only noticed or realized when it popped up a notification that an oil change was due. Between the app or OnStar and Carfax, we discovered that the buyer manipulated the odometer from around 120k miles down to only 36k miles and it ended up for sale (well, "coming soon") at an AutoNation dealership.

 

[Pelican]

This is an easy solution. Why someone wouldn't remove a sold car from their profile is beyond me. Not only that if the new owner submitted ownership info to Tesla, the previous owner would have been kicked off access to the car.

That's the Crux of the matter! The new owner did not make the ownership change in a timely manner!
I see it as a buyer's responsibility not a seller's.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I hate computers.

 

[Torrid]

That's the Crux of the matter! The new owner did not make the ownership change in a timely manner!
I see it as a buyer's responsibility not a seller's.

Sure, but the seller can’t even log into the app for the car to use it as a key without an invite from the owner of the vehicle if they don’t submit ownership info to Tesla. Why you wouldn’t do that first day to use the phone app is beyond me.

I had to send an invite to my wife for her to get a key to my car because only my name is on it in Tesla’s system.

 

[97prizm]

From the sound of things, the previous owner might have been intentionally doing all this stuff.

He was. The article states that the Second owner was able to dig out his info and address stored in his model s.

 

[Pelican]

Sure, but the seller can’t even log into the app for the car to use it as a key without an invite from the owner of the vehicle if they don’t submit ownership info to Tesla. Why you wouldn’t do that first day to use the phone app is beyond me.

I had to send an invite to my wife for her to get a key to my car because only my name is on it in Tesla’s system.

I think the inmates are running the asylum!

 

[Brons2]

Could the car have been heating the battery? or maybe also the cabin? I think it's well possible to need more than 75kWh to fill a 75 kWh battery, when you consider battery heating and the natural charging losses. but what he claims is a huge difference.

There are definitely charging losses, but it's in the teens percentage wise. It wouldn't be anything close to what he stated cost wise.

It's unlikely he had heat on while charging at home on L2, that would imply that he was sitting in the car in the (garage/outside) while charging overnight at home. You'd defintely keep your heat on in cold weather when DC fast charging if you're in the car, but that would not be at home.

 

[Jetronic]

There are definitely charging losses, but it's in the teens percentage wise. It wouldn't be anything close to what he stated cost wise.

It's unlikely he had heat on while charging at home on L2, that would imply that he was sitting in the car in the (garage/outside) while charging overnight at home. You'd defintely keep your heat on in cold weather when DC fast charging if you're in the car, but that would not be at home.

well, he must've been new to the car, so don't know if he knew what he was doing....

 

[KrisZ]

Buying a used car will be like buying a used apple device, you will have to ensure they remove the product from their account and provide proof of it.
Just like removing an iPhone from the iCloud account.

 

[Bladecutter]

Torque News just posted an article about a guy who bought a used Tesla Model S only for the original owner to still have full control over it.
Apparently the original owner would make the horn go off, blast the air conditioning, and run the battery down etc for ten days.

Sounds to me like the original owner probably had his car repoed, and he was just being a jerk to whomever bought his repossessed car just out of (misguided) principal.

 

[97prizm]

My niece still has a Suburban in her that she sold maybe 2 years ago. Well, she may have removed it by now but she only noticed or realized when it popped up a notification that an oil change was due. Between the app or OnStar and Carfax, we discovered that the buyer manipulated the odometer from around 120k miles down to only 36k miles and it ended up for sale (well, "coming soon") at an AutoNation dealership.

Unless they had very expensive proprietary software/hardware it's extremely difficult to roll back odometers now, not impossible However.

 

[Hall]

Unless they had very expensive proprietary software/hardware it's extremely difficult to roll back odometers now, not impossible However.

My understanding is, on many vehicles, swapping the instrument cluster with one with lower mileage still works.

 

[Torrid]

My understanding is, on many vehicles, swapping the instrument cluster with one with lower mileage still works.

I think that’s going to be very much manufacturer dependent.

As far as retaining control of a sold Tesla, I had this conversation with the Carvana driver the day I sold the Model 3. I had to show I released the car in the app to a 3rd party for ownership and that the car no longer showed on my app. He said they had a car on their lot someone did not do this on and they’re unable to move the car. The owner required a PIN to start and the owner after two weeks was still not answering the phone.

It’s a problem if the proper procedures aren’t followed. The sad thing is it’s really easy to do the right thing. I looked it up before pickup to make sure I properly relinquished ownership in the app.