First Tesla purchase turning sour.

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atikovi

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Bought a nice looking 2013 Model S with 140,000 miles today for a seemingly reasonable price. It was sold with an auction guaranty to be free of major defects. I go to test drive it and its in a reduced power mode and there are messages to get it charged immediately. I'm able to limp it to the charger at the auction going 5 mph. Of course they are occupied and it's after 3 pm now. You have until 5 pm to submit a claim, but it will be a few hours before it's charged up enough so I can even take it for a drive. I was able to convince a manager of the issue, that I can't even drive it, and she said that after it's charged in the morning, they will check it out and go from there.

Ideally, the seller brought the car there without enough charge, and all it needs is recharging and then it will show there is no problem. I can't fathom anyone bringing a car in like that. My pessimistic thoughts say there is something wrong with the battery or electronics on the car. What's the track record of these early Teslas? I have always read on the internet that the batteries are good for at least 20 years or more and the car should be able to go over 500,000 miles on the original battery. Any actual Tesla owners here with insight?
 
atikovi said:
Bought a nice looking 2013 Model S with 140,000 miles today for a seemingly reasonable price. It was sold with an auction guaranty to be free of major defects. I go to test drive it and its in a reduced power mode and there are messages to get it charged immediately. I'm able to limp it to the charger at the auction going 5 mph. Of course they are occupied and it's after 3 pm now. You have until 5 pm to submit a claim, but it will be a few hours before it's charged up enough so I can even take it for a drive. I was able to convince a manager of the issue, that I can't even drive it, and she said that after it's charged in the morning, they will check it out and go from there.

Ideally, the seller brought the car there without enough charge, and all it needs is recharging and then it will show there is no problem. I can't fathom anyone bringing a car in like that. My pessimistic thoughts say there is something wrong with the battery or electronics on the car. What's the track record of these early Teslas? I have always read on the internet that the batteries are good for at least 20 years or more and the car should be able to go over 500,000 miles on the original battery. Any actual Tesla owners here with insight?
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I don't believe for one minute that the batteries are good for 20 years or 500K, more fantasy stuff, its a bunch of 18650 cell batteries for cripes sake. Even if it charges 11 years is a long time for any battery.
 
Auction should have given it a partial charge at least. If they did then it’s diagnostics / googling time. Looks like you can get a replacement battery for between $5k and &15k.

Would be interesting if someone can make a generic battery that is much cheaper which has a computer that emulates / spoofs a new battery / serial number.

Probably would have been invented by now though. Maybe future ight to repair laws can take this into consideration.
 
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I’m curious what is going on with it so keep us updated. Hopefully the charge gets things going but this was made in the early days and is 11 years old. 500k and 20 years is a fantasy. I’m hoping to get to 10 years / 150k and see how it’s performing but I’ve still got 9 years, 135k to go. I’ve seen people buy and install a device on Teslas when selling to trick people into thinking the battery is healthy when it actually isn’t.
 
RhondaHonda said:
I’m curious what is going on with it so keep us updated. Hopefully the charge gets things going but this was made in the early days and is 11 years old. 500k and 20 years is a fantasy. I’m hoping to get to 10 years / 150k and see how it’s performing but I’ve still got 9 years, 135k to go. I’ve seen people buy and install a device on Teslas when selling to trick people into thinking the battery is healthy when it actually isn’t.
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My 12 year old LEAF works fine for it's intended purpose.
 
atikovi said:
What's the track record of these early Teslas? I have always read on the internet that the batteries are good for at least 20 years or more and the car should be able to go over 500,000 miles on the original battery. Any actual Tesla owners here with insight?
Click to expand...
According to Consumer Reports, Model Ss have somewhat below average reliability. I wouldn't think that early models would have been any better (or even as good).

I'm a Tesla owner and I have never heard that people are getting 500,000 miles out of the original Tesla battery. But it seems that something like 250,000 miles would be possible. As for getting 20 years - I really don't know.

What I have heard is that high mileage (400,000 - 500,000 miles) Model Ss still look good, ride well, etc. So there's that. It seems that limousine services just replace their Tesla batteries when it's time and keep going.
 
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