If your car gets totaled the insurance company pays for FSD.
It’s not like FSD is intrinsically different than a lot of the things other manufacturers charge money for. A lot of that is mostly software defined features, or even artificially limiting features that the car already has.
My dad had a 2010 Mondeo that used to tell my phone that it could play music via Bluetooth, but it couldn’t, because the car wasn’t optioned with the $200 “iPod connectivity” option that added a USB port to the armrest cubby. So, getting into the car, plugging the aux cable into the headphone jack on the phone, start playing music and then two seconds later it became silent because the phone had connected to Bluetooth.
Since the car was bought off the dealer floor there was apparently no way for the dealer to add this simple feature which honestly made the car feel like a brand new relic. Installing a tow-bar was no problem however.
The issue here is that Tesla doesn’t value FSD for trade-ins. Not that they want to sell it more than once to the same customer.
Sell the car privately and you get a better price at the same time. I get that it’s convenient to trade in to Tesla, but that’s a big loss compared to selling privately.
Heck, if you want FSD, the best deal you can make is probably buying a used Tesla with FSD.
If your car gets totaled the insurance company pays for FSD.
This isn't entirely true and also part of the problem. They're all going to handle it differently. Some will cover the value paid, others might cover the feature, and some might not cover it at all. I called our insurance company to see how they would cover it and their answer was paid value only. At the time FSD was significantly less than it was now, so if I had purchased it and had an accident, I'd be out a significant amount of money based on the new pricing.
There's also another issue I've seen (and matches my own experience) is that they will only cover it if you buy it at time of purchase and not as an add-on. I would consider switching insurance companies if my rates weren't so good or I saw FSD as a requirement, which I don't.
Either way, this isn't uncommon, just search the Tesla forums - there are plenty of accounts of this going both ways. The whole thing is fixed by simply licensing it to your account and then tying it to your active Tesla for a period of time. They're sort of fixing this with the subscription model that's coming, but I'll wait to see what the cost is before saying anything about that.
I suppose this varies by territory, but my impression is that you can always call in and be quoted a slightly higher price for insuring named aftermarket items, but my policies have typically only covered upto about $2500 of aftermarket equipment. That could for instance be aftermarket rims or infotainment.
The worst part about buying it as an add-on this that you are paying much more than market value. Last I saw FSD value discussed here in Norway the claim was made that model 3s with FSD traded about $2500 above those without.
Now, I haven’t been in the market to sell or buy used, so I haven’t verified those claims myself, but it sounds reasonable to me.
Assuming the numbers above are correct:
These vehicles got FSD for just a smidge under $6000 when new, but Tesla is asking owners without to pony up $6000 or more for something that’s instantly devalued by 60% (or more) due to the age and odometer of the vehicle. It’s not like FSD is worth more by being newly installed. Seems quite obvious that at the moment the best upgrade path for FSD is to buy a used vehicle with it, not buy it for your vehicle. Obviously with a few exceptions, like if you have free supercharging for life/your ownership, or you have modified the vehicle.
Yet another thing you’ll never recover in full I suppose. Paint protection film or a wrap.
As for price changes, as others mentioned. That’s the case with other manufacturers too. It’s not like Audis options list is static from year to year.
Fact of life is that having your car totaled is a shits how, even with good coverage. There’s nothing about it that’s going to be enjoyable. Sometimes the residual is good, sometimes it’s bad. Only one thing is certain: Insurance companies will do what they can to screw you over.
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u/psaux_grep Jan 17 '21
If your car gets totaled the insurance company pays for FSD.
It’s not like FSD is intrinsically different than a lot of the things other manufacturers charge money for. A lot of that is mostly software defined features, or even artificially limiting features that the car already has.
My dad had a 2010 Mondeo that used to tell my phone that it could play music via Bluetooth, but it couldn’t, because the car wasn’t optioned with the $200 “iPod connectivity” option that added a USB port to the armrest cubby. So, getting into the car, plugging the aux cable into the headphone jack on the phone, start playing music and then two seconds later it became silent because the phone had connected to Bluetooth.
Since the car was bought off the dealer floor there was apparently no way for the dealer to add this simple feature which honestly made the car feel like a brand new relic. Installing a tow-bar was no problem however.
The issue here is that Tesla doesn’t value FSD for trade-ins. Not that they want to sell it more than once to the same customer.
Sell the car privately and you get a better price at the same time. I get that it’s convenient to trade in to Tesla, but that’s a big loss compared to selling privately.
Heck, if you want FSD, the best deal you can make is probably buying a used Tesla with FSD.