What's Your 2019 Tesla Model 3 LR Worth? Depends On Who You Ask

While Carmax said it was $39,000, KBB said you could get at least $44,000.

By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

Oct 29, 2019 at 8:14am ET

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You have recently bought a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range with FSD (Full Self Driving Capability), but you are now wondering how much you would get in case you had to sell it. If this is your case, this video from the Tesla & Chill YouTube channel may help you pay extra attention to this matter. Especially if you really need to sell your EV. You could get very different estimates from major companies, namely Carmax and KBB.

Gallery: Tesla Model 3

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The presenter, who identifies as “your girl Shannon,” named her Model 3 Kanye because her other car, a Honda Accord Hybrid, received the Kim name. And she takes her 2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range to a Carmax in Seattle to check how much Kanye’s worth.

At the beginning of the video, she says she paid $65,000 for the car six months ago, says it has a low mileage and that she expects the car to be priced at around $40,000. We later discover the car has precisely 10,020 mi on the odometer. The video below also shows the Model 3 has the FSD package.

After her visit to Carmax, she gets a $39,000 estimate that can turn to almost $43,000 in case she trades her car in for another car the company has to offer. At the end of the video, she asks if that is a fair price. According to KBB, it isn’t.

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Knowing that she lives in Seattle, we entered the info about her car at KBB and got a very different estimate. The car valuation company states the least fair value for her to negotiate her Model 3 in her region in a trade-in would be $44,201, with up to $47,650 of range for a good deal. Way more than the $39,000 offer she got.

If she decided to sell her car to someone else instead of to a dealership, the minimum fair amount would be $47,777. With an excellent deal, she would pocket $51,501, or 20.7 percent less than she spent six months ago. If she went with the Carmax deal, she would lose 40 percent.

KBB has a very solid valuation tool that deals with real business prices besides using big data to calculate ranges of fair deals. Besides that, we have already written here about the Tesla Effect, which is making traditional luxury car brands, such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have a significant dip in their resale values.

If a Tesla Model 3 Long Range with Full Self-Driving package loses 40 percent of its value in six months, how would a BMW 3 Series or a Mercedes-Benz Class-C do in the same environment? Probably much worse.

That said, pay attention to how much you are willing to accept to sell your EV. People could offer you much less than it is actually worth.

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