With how interconnected the global car market is, you never know where your once wrecked car will end up.
A member of the Tesla Model Y Facebook group got a strange notification from her Tesla App earlier last week that her door was open when, in fact, it was not. It turns out the notification she got was for her old Tesla Model Y that was unfortunately wrecked a year ago (of no fault of her own) and, as mentioned in the title, her wrecked Tesla was now in Latvia?
Check out a screenshot of her post and where her Tesla app told her her old Tesla now was.
“I wanted to share a strange thing that happened with my Tesla that was totaled in January 2022,” Jenn Liu Hansen captions her post.”
Hansen’s Model Y was parked on the side of the Pacifica Coast Highway when someone rammed into it. No one was inside. As you can see, it was totaled.
Since then, she’s found a new, similar Tesla Model Y to replace her wrecked one.
“I guess I never removed the car from my account, but I did get another Model Y, so they were both on my App, but I obviously only accessed my new car.”
“Last night I started getting notices that my car door was left open. I checked my car and it wasn’t. My husband noticed it was for the old car and when I looked at where it was located, it’s showing that it is in Latvia.”
Latvia is in Eastern Europe between Lithuania and Estonia, and across the Baltic Sea from Sweden. It’s also about 5,600 miles from California.
Based on where her app told her her old Tesla was and using Google Maps fellow group members figured out Hansen’s old Tesla was at an independent Tesla service shop in an industrial area in Grobina, Latvia. (link to the shop here.)
According to the shop’s site, they’ve fixed over 170 Teslas from eight different countries.
So, how and why did Hansen’s Model Y end up in Latvia?
If you want the half hour explanation, NPR’s Planet Money shared a similar story about how a flooded Lexus SUV from New Jersey ended up in Turkmenistan (Central Asia.)
The slightly shorter answer is, even before the pandemic, there is a used car market that ships wrecked cars that are somewhat desirable from the United States where they’re repaired and resold.
With some of the cheapest labor rates in the EU (less than 10 euros or $10.75 an hour) a reseller in Latvia can take advantage of cheap labor and, even after shipping (roughly $1,000 per car) and parts, when resold, still comes out ahead.
Compare that to labor rates between $75-$130 in the United States, repairing and reselling wrecked cars beyond a certain amount of damage, even in this car market, is just bad business.
Hansen says she’s since figured out how to remove the old Tesla Model Y from her account, freeing it up for the soon-to-be new owner.
Whether that new owner is in Latvia or elsewhere or if the damage and history is even disclosed to the new owner, that is not clear.
One thing’s for certain, Hansen’s Model Y is finding new life far, far away from where she first bought it.
Source: I wanted to share a strange thing that happened with my Tesla that was totaled in January 2022
