Tesla slashes its used car warranty — killing another confidence builder

Tesla has significantly weakened its used car warranty in another strange killing of a consumer confidence builder from the automaker.

Last week, we reported on Tesla canceling its ballsy ‘no questions asked’ 7-day return policy, which was used as a confidence builder by the automaker and directly by CEO Elon Musk.

Now we’ve learned that Tesla has also slashed its used car warranty.

Tesla used to offer 2 to 4 -year warranty on used Model S and Model X vehicles:

• Model S and Model X that were under 4 years old and under 50,000 miles at the time of Tesla delivery: Used Model S and Model X are protected by a Used Vehicle Limited Warranty for 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first, starting from your delivery date. The balance of original Battery and Drive Unit Limited warranty still applies for used vehicles. The Tesla Used Vehicle Limited Warranty does not extend or otherwise alter the original warranty.
• Model S and Model X that were over 4 years old or over 50,000 miles and under 6 years old and 100,000 miles at the time of Tesla delivery: Used Vehicle Extended Limited Warranty provides coverage for up to 2 years post-delivery or up to 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. The balance of the original Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty still applies for used vehicles. The Tesla Used Vehicle Limited Warranty does not extend or otherwise alter the original warranty.

Now Tesla has updated its used vehicle warranty to only one year or 10,000 miles over the original warranty:

“Tesla used vehicles are covered by the remainder of 4 years or 50,000 miles left on the Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty. After expiration, the Used Vehicle Limited Warranty provides additional coverage of 1 year or 10,000 miles. If the Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty has already expired, the Used Vehicle Limited Warranty will provide coverage of 1 year or 10,000 miles, starting from your delivery date.”

While the new used car warranty being added on top of the new car warranty is good for more recent used vehicles purchased from Tesla, it really cripples any kind of warranty on used Tesla vehicles from 2016 and older.

Instead of getting 2 to 4 years of warranty, now they only get 1 year or 10,000 miles.

Electrek’s Take

It’s strange that Tesla made these two moves back to back. Both the 7-day return policy and used car warranty were aimed at building confidence in Tesla vehicles.

To be fair, those confidence builder initiatives put them ahead of the competition, and now removing them puts them on par, which is not bad in perspective, but it’s still noteworthy.

I bought two used Tesla vehicles, one from Tesla directly and one from a third-party, and in both cases, the warranty was really important.

Both cars had Tesla’s original 8-year unlimited mileage powertrain warranty that has proven extremely useful to me since my 2012 Model S P85 Signature is currently getting a new battery pack and electric motor just 2 months before the warranty ends.

I also got a two year used car warranty on the Model S, which covered a few repairs, but it was nothing crazy.

Now with only 1-year and 10,000 miles, I think more people will look at third-party transactions to buy used Teslas.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.