Tesla has been chasing a $35,000 EV for the U.S. market since roughly 2015, when the Model 3’s unveiling promised to democratize electric motoring. It came close with the $36,990 Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive launched last year, and the entry-level Model Y RWD at $39,990. But for buyers who want a genuinely affordable Tesla without the feel of a stripped-out special, the used market is where things get interesting.

Read: Tesla Quietly Kills Its Flagship EVs In Europe Just After Updating Them

Once-flagship versions of Tesla’s three-row Model X are now available for around $35,000 or so, and after eight years of depreciation, they represent a rather compelling proposition.

Bring a Trailer

A 2018 Model X P100D recently sold for $36,000 on Bring a Trailer. Yes, it’s eight years old, which explains the price, but it has only covered 26,000 miles (41,800 km), which is remarkably low for its age. Barring anything catastrophic, the SUV should deliver tens of thousands of additional trouble-free miles, provided it has been routinely maintained and kept up to date with software updates.

Supercar Performance With SUV Practicality

Before Tesla’s Plaid models were a thing, the P100D-branded models represented the pinnacle of performance. In the Model X, a pair of electric motors produces a combined 680 hp, enough to send it to 60 mph (96 km/h) in just 2.9 seconds. Find an SUV buyer who claims they need something faster than that, and we’ll tell you they’re lying.

Tesla only recently announced it would stop building the Model X, hardly a surprise given how few have been sold in recent years. But when it was first launched, it was incredibly innovative.

Bring a Trailer

We’d argue the cabin of this original model is more appealing than newer models, which adopted Tesla’s landscape-oriented touchscreen, rather than a vertical one. There are also loads of carbon fiber throughout and plenty of plush black leather.

Three-row electric SUVs still have relatively limited appeal, but at this price point, with this mileage, and with this level of performance, there’s no denying that something like this offers good value for the money.

The NHTSA has intensified its scrutiny of Tesla’s Full-Self Driving system, focusing on how it copes when visibility drops. That escalation pushes the probe closer to a potential recall, one that could affect more than 3.2 million vehicles across the United States.

The agency first opened a preliminary evaluation in October 2024 to assess FSD’s ability to detect and respond appropriately in reduced roadway visibility. That probe has now been upgraded to an engineering analysis, which will examine how the vision-only system behaves in adverse conditions and whether it can alert drivers with enough time to react.

Read: Tesla Owners Furious After FSD Transfer Rules Change Again

According to regulators, Tesla developed and implemented a degradation detection system after transitioning to its camera-based vision setup in mid-2021, abandoning radar and other sensors. The company began working on an update to this system in June 2024, following a report of a fatal crash involving one of its vehicles on November 28, 2023

Rain Is FSD’s Enemy

In its preliminary evaluation, the NHTSA began piecing together how Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system behaves in less-than-ideal conditions. The agency learned from Tesla that FSD’s ability to detect and respond to poor road conditions may have contributed to 3 of the 9 incidents identified by the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI).

In the crashes reviewed, the system failed to recognize common roadway conditions that affected camera visibility and did not issue alerts when camera performance degraded until just before impact.

A subsequent review of Tesla’s responses uncovered other crashes that occurred under similar circumstances. In these cases, the FSD system also lost track or “never detected a lead vehicle in its path.” The NHTSA also notes that Tesla says internal data and labeling limitations have prevented a uniform identification and analysis of crash events with the system engaged, meaning there is a possibility of under-reporting crashes.

The probe covers an estimated 3,203,754 Tesla vehicles, including the 2016-2026 Model S and X, 2017-2026 Model 3, 2020-2026 Model Y, and 2023-2026 Cybertruck models equipped with FSD.

We all know that new car prices have surged over the past six years, but they’re not alone. The used market has followed the same trajectory. Prices have risen sharply, and vehicles are now lingering on dealer lots longer than before, partly because many owners are not shopping for cars and are holding on to their current ones. Even so, one automaker seems largely unaffected by the slowdown

Fresh data from iSeeCars sheds some light on the trend. It examined more than 960,000 transactions involving used vehicles between one and five years old during February. Across that sample, the typical used car sat on the market for 53 days before finding a buyer. A year earlier the average was just 37.7 days in the US, which means selling times have stretched by roughly 40 percent in only twelve months.

Read: Tesla’s Sales Collapsed By Nearly 90% In The Land Of EVs

Used electric models, interestingly, are moving a bit faster than their gasoline counterparts. In February, the typical used EV took 47.4 days to sell. That figure has increased from last year’s 41.8-day average, but the 13.4 percent rise is modest compared with the broader used market.

Tesla Bucks The Trend

However, there’s a little more to these figures than may first meet the eye. Because Teslas still account for the vast majority of EV sales, their typically quick resale times drag down the overall market average. Remove Tesla from the equation and the picture changes. Without those models included, the typical used EV took 57.3 days to sell in February, a 15.1 percent increase from the 49.8-day average recorded at the same time last year.

So which models disappear from listings the fastest? Comfortably leading the pack is the Tesla Model X, needing an average of just 22.6 days to sell. Surprisingly, it was followed by the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, at an average of 26.9 days, and then the Tesla Cybertruck, at 27.4 days.

Fastest-Selling Used Cars In February 2026

Other strong performers uncovered by the iSeeCars study included the Mazda MX-5 Miata RF at 29.3 days, the Toyota GR Supra at 30 days, the Genesis G90 at 30.4 days, the Rivian R1S at 30.8 days, and the Toyota GR Corolla at 31.1 days. Several of these cars lean toward the enthusiast end of the spectrum, which likely helps keep demand strong.

Tesla’s higher-volume models appear a little further down the rankings. The Model 3 lands in 13th place with an average of 33.1 days on the market, while the Model Y sits in 16th at 34.9 days. However, it’s worth noting that far more Model 3s and Model Ys are sold monthly than the likes of the GR Supra, G90, R1S, and MX-5 Miata, so they help to sway the overall market.

The opposite end of the list looks very different. Some vehicles sit for months before finding a buyer. The Volvo XC60 is the slowest mover in the study, lingering for an average of 170.2 days. The BMW i5 is not far behind at 153 days, followed by the Dodge Hornet at 123.7 days and the Lincoln Nautilus Hybrid at 118 days.

Slowest-Selling Used Cars In February 2026

The loss of $7,500 federal tax credits should, in theory, have put every EV brand on an even footing, but Tesla and its customers decided to write their own script. While most electric car values have dropped since last fall, Tesla values are actually climbing.

According to a new study, used Tesla prices have risen 4.3 percent since the EV credit disappeared at the end of September 2025. Over the same period, nearly every other used EV dropped an average of 3.6 percent.

More: EV Sales Fell Off A Cliff, Yet New Car Prices Still Set Another Record

Because Teslas make up such a huge slice of the used EV pie, the average price of all used EVs actually went up 3.5 percent, painting a superficially rosy picture. Strip Tesla out of the equation and things look very different. Non-Tesla EVs slid from an average of $24,629 to $23,738. Meanwhile, used combustion cars dipped 2 percent.

Declining Share

The iSeeCars study also found that used EV market share fell 20 percent between September and January, dropping from 3.5 percent to 2.8 percent. A year earlier, that share had been climbing, but now it is heading the other way. The early adopters already have their EVs. Mainstream buyers are apparently thinking harder about price, charging, and range.

Average Prices For 1- To 5-Year-Old Used Cars

Look at individual models and the pattern gets clearer. Lower-cost EVs like the Hyundai Kona Electric, Volkswagen ID.4, Kia Niro EV and Nissan Leaf all lost between roughly five and six percent of their value. Meanwhile Tesla Model 3 and Model Y prices ticked up, as did those for the Porsche Taycan, the only non-Tesla EV to experience a jump in values.

New EV Prices Down

New EVs tell a similar story. Excluding Tesla, which iSeeCars doesn’t have data for, average new EV prices dropped 2.3 percent, while new internal combustion vehicles rose 2.5 percent. Some mainstream EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Chevrolet Equinox EV saw even steeper cuts.

Carmakers are clearly trying to replace that vanished tax credit with old fashioned discounting, but falling EV sales figures since tax credits disappeared tells us it’s not a complete fix.

Average Used EV Prices

Average New EV Prices

After years of sparring with California regulators, Tesla has agreed to stop using its famous Autopilot term in the state, neatly sidestepping a 30-day suspension that would have frozen sales in its biggest US market with nearly 180,000 deliveries last year.

More: Tesla Quietly Kills Standard Autopilot, Now Wants $99 A Month To Give It Back

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) wasn’t amused by Tesla’s marketing language, arguing that phrases like “Autopilot” and “Full Self Driving Capability”, later softened to “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)”, gave buyers the impression their cars could drive themselves. The DMV pointed out that they can’t now, and never could, operate as autonomous vehicles.

The formal accusations were filed in 2023, though regulators traced the issue back to marketing language used as early as May 2021. At the time, Tesla described its system as capable of handling short and long-distance trips with no action required by the person in the driver’s seat, a claim the DMV said crossed a legal line.

60 Days To Find A Fix

A judge agreed and proposed suspending Tesla’s dealer and manufacturer licenses for a month. That would have been awkward timing for a company trying to convince the world that robotaxis are just around the corner. The DMV offered Tesla 60 days to fix the issue before the suspension started, and instead of digging in, Tesla wisely took corrective action.

“The DMV is committed to safety throughout all California’s roadways and communities,” said DMV Director Steve Gordon. “The department is pleased that Tesla took the required action to remain in compliance with the State of California’s consumer protections.”

So Autopilot, as a marketing term, is now gone in California (though you’ll still find it on the brand’s EVs elsewhere in the world). The company had already softened Full Self Driving into Full Self Driving Supervised to make it crystal clear that, no, the car is not fully autonomous. By complying with the deadline, Tesla avoided the suspension and kept the revenue rolling in.

Autopilot Feature Phased Out

This is not just a word swap, though. We reported last month that Tesla had already begun phasing out the previously standard Autopilot system on its cars, replacing it with Traffic Aware Cruise Control and pushing buyers toward a $99 per month Full Self Driving subscription.

Lane centering that rivals include as standard now lives behind a paywall, and CEO Elon Musk has hinted that the subscription price could rise over time. From a business perspective, it’s clever, but from a branding perspective, it looks like a climbdown.

Autopilot was one of Tesla’s most recognizable terms, though it was also one due to be left behind in the coming years as the far more sophisticated FSD improves to the point where it really can deliver full self-driving.