The reason my car was lemon-law’d? Excessive wind noise.
Honestly. You can’t make this up.
If you look at the Carfax, the original owner bought a 2022 Tesla Model S, put 4,500 miles on it, had it in the service center three times for wind noise in 30 days, and Tesla bought it back from her. The car’s MSRP was $109K. There was nothing wrong with it…the body on the Model S hasn’t changed since 2016. It sounds exactly like every other one on the road.
I bought that car for $36,500. Similarly specced Model S cars on Carvana, CarMax, and every other dealer are selling for $56,000 right now.
Here’s how I got there.
How I Fell in Love with Tesla the First Time
In 2022, I’m driving Cleveland to Chicago every week for work. Five hours each way. One night on the drive home I have a thought…”I wish I could just press a button and have the car drive me home.” Then I think…“wait, that’s a thing now.” I start noticing Supercharging stations at just about every rest stop on I-90. I buy a Tesla Model S the next week.
I drive it on that route for the next two years. 2018 P100D. Two 15-20 minute charging stops per direction. About $25 in energy each way. Charger at my apartment in Chicago, charger at my house in Cleveland, always starting at 100%. I loved that car.
Fast forward to 2024. I’m moving to Alabama. Tesla doesn’t have a presence in Alabama at all…they aren’t allowed to sell cars there. The closest service centers are Atlanta or New Orleans. Not that I ever have issues with the car, but being 3-4 hours from the nearest service center isn’t something I’m interested in. I go back to my other favorite brand…Land Rover.
Then last year I’m in Birmingham and I see a Tesla service center and sales office. I google it. It opened in 2025. The first Tesla dealership and service center in Alabama. Score.
My truck is already paid off and Dana and I need an SUV in the house, so I keep the Range Rover. But then Dana got an X5 back in June, and now we have two SUVs. I can go back to a sedan…and I know exactly what I want. But I’m not interested in spending more money on a new car. The Rover is paid off, and I’m not interested in going out of pocket for what I want…and it’s not like I’m driving a shitty car.
But I’m also driving Alabama to Ohio every month. Twelve hours each way. At Range Rover gas mileage, that’s about $150 per direction. $300 oil changes every other month. I put 20,000 miles on the truck last year. The wear and tear is real.
The Discovery
I see an article about people in California using lemon law buybacks as a way to get out of taking depreciation on vehicles. That gets me reading. In some consumer-friendly states, all you have to do is bring the car in for the same complaint two or three times and you qualify to have the manufacturer buy it back. No depreciation hit to you.
So what happens to those cars?
There are dealerships all over the US that specialize in buying these cars at auction and reselling them at a steep discount. There is literally nothing wrong with most of these cars other than they had an original owner who changed their mind.
Walking the Lot
I find a dealer in Atlanta called Drive-A-Dream. All they do is buyback cars. Walking onto that lot is an experience. Fifteen G-Wagons lined up in a row. A whole section of Porsche 911s…likely people who bought them as investment opportunities, couldn’t capitalize, and bailed. About 90 Teslas. Row after row of late model luxury cars, all with buyback titles, all at 30-40% off.
And the reasons for the buybacks? They tell you up front on every car. They’re almost all ridiculous. Wind noise. Infotainment glitch. Seat creak. Minor cosmetic imperfection. These are not cars with blown transmissions. These are cars that had owners who knew how to work the lemon law system in a consumer-friendly state.
As I’m writing this, they’ve got a 2023 Land Rover Defender X that MSRP’d at over $96K listed for $50K. Fifty-two thousand miles, fully loaded, Hakuba Silver. I’d bet anything the lemon law reason is something stupid. $20K off of what that car would cost without a branded title. Think anyone looking at it from afar would know that it’s got a branded title? Think the owner is going to care?
Why the Model S (and Not the Plaid)
They had Plaids. Lower mileage too. But I chose the Long Range for a couple of reasons.
First…”Insane Mode” on the Long Range is plenty fast enough for me. The Plaid is a rocket ship, but I’m not drag racing on the way to Ohio. The Long Range does 0-60 in 3.1 seconds. That’s more than enough car.
Second…the Plaid models they had all came with the yoke steering wheel. I don’t want the yoke. The round wheel on the Long Range is the right call for a car I’m driving twelve hours at a stretch.
My Car: $36,500
2022 Tesla Model S Long Range. White on black. 38,000 miles.
The original owner bought it, put 4,500 miles on it, and lemon-law’d it for wind noise. What happens next is interesting. When I get the car home and go through the settings, I notice there are 45 keys assigned to the car. Forty-five. That’s puzzling until I get the title and see the previous owner listed: Tesla Motors.
The pieces fit together. Tesla buys the car back, then uses it as a manufacturer loaner or courtesy car until it ends up at auction. That explains the mileage gap between 4,500 and 38,000. My car spent its life being driven by Tesla executives or people waiting for their own Teslas to come out of service. Not exactly hard miles.
The Practical Stuff
Insurance? Not an issue. I called my carrier before I bought it. They had no problem insuring a buyback title.
Warranty? I got the car inspected by Tesla and they approved me for their bumper-to-bumper warranty. $125 a month, $100 deductible, 60 months or 50,000 additional miles. Peace of mind, done.
The wind noise? The manufacturer has to document what was done to mitigate the original lemon law issue. In my case, Tesla replaced the windshield and front bumper. It sounds exactly like my 2018 did…because the body is identical. There is no wind noise problem.
Resale value? It’s always going to be a branded title. No way around that. I plan on driving this car into the ground and don’t really care. I have a car that’s identical to the last 2026 Model S that comes off the line later this year when they sunset the model. Reasonable mileage. Still has a new-car smell. For a fraction of the price.
This is the Best Car I’ve Ever Owned
I’ve owned dozens of luxury cars over the years. BMWs, Land Rovers, Porsches. I love cars. And I love this one more than any of them.
The 2022 interior finally delivers on the promise that the older Teslas made. The original Model S interior was plastic and “close”…it felt like a tech company’s first attempt at luxury. The 2022 is actually luxurious. The materials, the screen, the fit and finish…it’s there. It’s finally there.
The Math
In the end, it was nearly an even swap getting out of my 2020 Range Rover and into the 2022 Tesla. A few thousand out of pocket I was fine to spend. The original MSRP on the Rover was $110K. The MSRP on my Tesla was $109K. I’m driving a two-year newer car of equal original value, and it feels like a massive upgrade.
No more $150 gas bills per direction on my Ohio trips. No more $300 oil changes. Each leg to Ohio now takes three or four 10-minute stops and costs about half of what I was paying in gas. No maintenance schedule to worry about. No oil. No transmission fluid. No timing belt.
I see no downside to my lemon law purchase. At all.
What I’d Tell You
If you’re in the market for a car and you’re open to a branded title, look into lemon law buyback dealers. The cars are inspected, the original issues are documented and mitigated, and the discounts are real. Drive-A-Dream in Atlanta is where I went, but there are dealers like this all over the country.
Not every lemon law car was lemon’d for a real reason. Some of them were lemon’d because someone in California didn’t like the way the wind sounded on a car that sounds exactly like every other one on the road.
Their loss. My gain.