The best way to Increase the Worth of Your Tesla? Drive It Off the Lot

Now, Mr. Heniche, who relies in Milan, Italy, says demand is so charged he repeatedly faces bidding wars. Some potential sellers have so many provides they’ve taken to organizing them in Excel spreadsheets. These trying to promote flippantly used Mannequin 3s can anticipate to pocket upward of $4,500 in revenue, he mentioned.

“I’ve by no means seen something like this earlier than,” mentioned Mr. Heniche, 26, who has been promoting automobiles for about eight years. He bought his nickname, Tesla Pimp, from one in all his suppliers.

The automotive market has taken a pointy flip: Some used automobiles, together with flippantly used Teslas, value greater than new ones. Folks can’t get sure new fashions due to elements shortages and different supply-chain bottlenecks. That’s driving up costs of used automobiles—and upending the adage that automobiles lose worth the minute you drive off the lot.

Wait occasions for brand spanking new Teslas within the U.S. vary from weeks for the Mannequin S Plaid sedan to roughly a 12 months for one configuration of the Mannequin X sport-utility car.

One-year-old Mannequin Ys, one in all Tesla’s most-popular fashions, offered for a mean of greater than $65,000 in December, some $2,100 greater than generally configured new variations of the compact sport-utility car, in keeping with U.S. gross sales knowledge offered by J.D. Energy.

Tesla, which didn’t reply to a request for remark, is an excessive instance of the turbocharged marketplace for used automobiles.

“It’s surprising,”

Jim Farley,

chief govt of Ford Motor Co., mentioned of the used-car market in a latest interview.

Flippantly used variations of different fashions, such because the Toyota RAV4 and Kia Telluride, are additionally repeatedly promoting above sticker costs, in keeping with car-shopping web site Edmunds.com.

The urge for food for used Teslas has pushed some homeowners to a fork within the highway. Michael McKee paid greater than $48,200 for his new Tesla Mannequin 3 automotive which he picked up final March. Inside seven months, a seller was providing greater than $50,000 to purchase it from him.

Mr. McKee, a 42-year-old undertaking supervisor, wasn’t trying to promote the automotive. However, with hopes of retiring early, he was looking out for alternatives to pad financial savings. A seller ultimately provided round $55,600 for the automotive, which had some 21,500 miles on it. “I simply couldn’t cross it up,” he mentioned.

Mr. McKee, who now drives a 2015 Hyundai Sonata, mentioned he misplaced greater than only a comfy experience when he parted along with his Tesla. The automotive was additionally his on-ramp to a tightknit group of Tesla followers. “For those who ever noticed somebody driving a Tesla the place I’m at, you’d wave. You’d park subsequent to them in a parking zone,” he mentioned. His present experience, he mentioned, is “only a boring previous automotive.”

When Amit Malhotra, a 48-year-old entrepreneur, went to get the bumper on his 2018 Mannequin 3 fastened final fall, his mechanic urged he see what the native Texas dealership would give him for the automotive.

“That is one in all your quintessential he went out to get bread and offered my Tesla” tales, mentioned his spouse, Radhika Malhotra, a 48-year-old mom of two.

Ms. Malhotra mentioned she remembers getting her husband’s name: “Hey, can I promote this automotive now? We’re getting a incredible deal.” The reply to her was apparent. “No…You’ll be able to’t simply exit and actually promote our automotive,” she advised him.

She demanded her husband proper then order a alternative Mannequin Y and ship the proof earlier than going by with the sale.

Their new Tesla is about to be delivered this summer season.

Ready has been robust for Ms. Malhotra, who beloved how her Tesla’s driver-assistance system served virtually as a backup driver. “At first, actually it was like somebody coming off a sugar habit,” she mentioned.

Juan Miranda, a 39-year-old mechanical take a look at engineer in San Diego, didn’t wish to wait till July to safe his household’s second Mannequin Y. So in December, he tried to shell out roughly $71,600 for a used one with almost 10,000 miles—a number of thousand {dollars} greater than he paid earlier within the 12 months for a brand new Mannequin Y with extra bells and whistles.

However Tesla, which operates a marketplace for used variations of its automobiles, would solely maintain the car for 3 days, mentioned Mr. Miranda. He had offered Tesla inventory to purchase the car and couldn’t get the money collectively that rapidly. By the point he was prepared, the automotive was gone and Tesla didn’t have others out there that match his standards.

“A few occasions I discovered one, I clicked ‘purchase now’ after which it was gone,” mentioned Mr. Miranda, who spent weeks trying to find one other Mannequin Y. “I’d name them they usually’d be like ‘oh yeah that one bought snatched up’ and I used to be like ‘dammit.’ ”

Because the hunt dragged on, he grew exasperated. “That is ridiculous. Can somebody simply promote me a used Mannequin Y?” he fumed, earlier than lastly settling for purchasing a used Tesla Mannequin 3.

The used-car market is forecast to stay scorching earlier than softening towards the top of 2022, when supply-chain bottlenecks are anticipated to ease, mentioned Ivan Drury, an analyst for Edmunds.com.

Teslas have lengthy retained their worth comparatively effectively. That’s partially as a result of the corporate invested in battery capability and electronics early on, enabling it to improve older automobiles in a means conventional automotive makers couldn’t, mentioned

Mark Wakefield,

a managing director at consulting agency AlixPartners LLP.

Shane Andrews waited 18 months or extra for her household’s Teslas previously and didn’t wish to do this once more. She signed on with a car-leasing firm, Autonomy, that launched late final 12 months in Southern California and she or he is leasing a Mannequin 3. “We actually wanted one thing rapidly,” mentioned Dr. Andrews, who wished one other automotive in order that she may give her daughter, then about to show 16, one of many household’s older automobiles.

For Mr. McKee, who nonetheless regrets promoting his Mannequin 3 to pad financial savings, the love affair with Tesla isn’t over. In the future, in retirement, he goals to once more personal a Tesla.

Write to Rebecca Elliott at rebecca.elliott@wsj.com and Meghan Bobrowsky at Meghan.Bobrowsky@wsj.com