So I just purchased a Model 3 standard from Lakeland CarMax. I’ve had excellent experiences with CarMax in the past when my bmw 330e has issues and they basically covered everything. Test drive and everything went great. No notable issues. Then came the drive home. Shortly after joining the highway I received an error code and my speed was limited to 58 mph. As a new Tesla owner I simply followed the instructions on the a screen which said pull over and exit the car and restart it etc. I did exactly that and then resumed highway travel back to Tampa.

And again shortly after. Same code. So by now we’re almost 25 mins into a 40 minute drive and I am questioning turning around or going home and taking it to my local Tesla service center the following day as I have one in Tampa, and CarMax really can’t do anything about it.

So we make it all the way home in turtle mode which was not fun, and given CarMax barely charged the car I’m now at about 48% battery and want to top off slowly with the mobile charger. I plug it in, get the green Tesla light and go inside. Come back out shortly after (because the Tesla app had not transferred ownership to my name yet and I can’t see the charge on my app) and see they it has not charged a drop.

Yet another error code and this alert: Unable to AC charge – Unplug and retry Or try DC Fast Charging / Supercharging.

So now I’m dumbfounded and moderately annoyed. I have my previous vehicles charge cable so I use the adapter and attempt to charge with that and nothing, same issue. So as a last resort, I wait until evening and travel a minute or two down the street where there is a destination charger at a hotel with the standard level 2 charger Tesla makes. Plug it in. Finally see some numbers and voltage, 1 hour something minutes … and then the same error code within a minute.

I go home defeated and depressed. Next day I go to Tesla on my remaining battery. Why not CarMax? Because what are they gonna do but tow the car to Tesla, and I don’t want to have to have the car towed from CarMax to Tesla when they say there is nothing they can do..

So I bring it there as a walk in as I am unable to schedule a service appointment yet due to ownership transfer, and as this is critical with the car not being able to charge and soon to be cripled. They accept my walk up obviously and attempt to charge the car to diagnose the issue. I’m told after they need to keep the car as they’ve replicated the issue, to service it obviously, but are unable to provide me Uber credits because my account isn’t carried over yet.

So off to CarMax (down the street) I go via my own Uber. After sitting there for three hours, they finally give me a loaner car and say it’s good for seven days. They “usually don’t do this but given the situation they’re allowing it.” I would hope so, provided they sold me a Tesla they clearly did not properl asses the vehicle prior to offering it for sale…

So now here I am stuck with a used Chevy Malibu as my rental car. They’re not charging me for it so I can not complain.

My discussion and question for everyone is should CarMax cover all the costs of this as they essentially sold me a broken car. And also, will Tesla’s warranty cover repairs if it falls within their coverage, even though the car was purchased as third party? Or is Tesla going to try to slam this on CarMax as I imagine they might, and I’ll be stuck in the middle.

Thanks for all input. It should be noted I absolutely am obessed with the car. Other than the fact that I was unaware the previous owners somehow had not purchased auto pilot which will now come at additional cost. I may bring this to CarMax too as the car was sold with automated cruise control, which indicates autopilot.

Thanks for all feedback. Sorry if the post has grammar issues I am on mobile.