This is nuts. And tbqh hard to believe. Part of me thinks the lack of mechanic knowledge around Teslas make it really easy to exploit owners. With most other vehicles, you can usually cross check with other mechanics
> Part of me thinks the lack of mechanic knowledge around Teslas make it really easy to exploit owners.
This has nothing to do with Tesla or mechanic knowledge, as actual mechanics working on non-Teslas routinely scam owners. Scumbags are just always going to exploit people without knowledge.
> All that's required is a visit to a service centre. Doesn't seem like a big deal.
This is probably true for now when the Teslas in production are mostly in the hands of people who can work out time and have a job secure enough to allow for that kind of thing.
Tesla keeps having issues like this - and if they don't fix it by the time the Model 3 hits, this kind of thing could be their killer. They're basically throwing money at the problem right now - and I could be wrong, but that probably won't scale so well. They really need to up the ante on their quality control.
EDIT: Wow, some serious Tesla fan boys around here... should have expected that I guess.
>Sure, except Tesla has a history of performing just as janky repairs on their cars themselves. Its even stated in the article.[0]
Drilling and tapping a broken off plastic barb for a brass (or steel, or plastic, or whatever) barb is a very, very, very, standard procedure in any trade where you repair things.
I wouldn't call this hack. Appealing to authority is fashionable. People will poo-poo anything if they think they can get a few cheap virtue points for appealing to authority. Heck people will poo-poo the aftermarket versions of OEM stuff that's designed to fix specific issues with the OEM stuff on the basis of if the OEM wanted it that way they would have done it that way.
>Another question to consider is why the repair is 16k
Because the service writer couldn't get that part separately so they chose to quote for the whole assembly rather than ask the tech who did the diagnosis if there's any other options. They are not accustomed to having to think for themselves and do a quick fix. The environment of a service center is set up for a part replacing workflow. When all you have is a hammer everything is a nail. Whatever, shit happens. Rookie mistake.
> But with Tesla, there are lots of rumors that the queue for getting stuff fixed it really long, and that after warranty expires, really expensive.
Rich rebuilds did a great video on the out of warranty costs of older Teslas [1]. The summary is: they're surprisingly expensive to run; major systems break much more frequently than I would expect of say... a Japanese car.
>>Soon, a body shop found a quarter-size hole in the undercarriage he hadn’t seen before, which led to revelations of deeper issues inside. “The high-voltage battery pack is damaged and could cause extreme safety concerns,” a Tesla technician texted him. Because the hole was “exterior damage,” it wasn’t covered by the warranty, which meant a $13,078.58 repair bill.
Looks like selective quoting to me, the quarter sized hole was under the battery pack, which was damaged.
Since the hole was punched upward from the ground, it counted as exterior damage.
So $13,078.58 to fix the hole and battery pack issue.
> Tesla sells things, and they can't just give you a new one when it breaks.
Actually, they can. And legally, they have to (or offer a refund), if the car breaks as much as that one did. I don't think you quite grasp the magnitude of the issues being alleged.
> I once bought an suv. It had a problem [...] Eventually my car was repaired
Right, good story, but totally different than the OPs story, where he had tons of problems and they were never fixed.
> Teslas are the only American-made cars that are somewhat high-quality.
As the owner of one, this is absolutely not the case.
But I don't even think this is the biggest problem. It wouldn't matter so much if they'd just fix them when they break, but they don't. They go out of their way, and do everything possible to avoid fixing them, to the point of being rude. I hate it.
>While it might take a hundred hours to do a restore of a normal car Tesla can swap a pack, some body panels, electronics and interior in a days labor.
Any source for this?
I spend some time on the Tesla forums. There are threads of people get into minor collisions and receiving estimates of 100+ hours of labour to replace some front end parts and paint, along with bills over $20,000[1][2].
So, I don't think it's as simple to replace these parts as you suggest.
> Tesla sometimes makes you do weird things like ship the old arms/linkage/etc.. back to them. Other times you might need to take pictures expressly for them, or call them after work is completed.
to be fair, mazda had the same requirements when my dealership was making engine repairs on my mx5 ... in their case, there was something wrong and they were actively trying to get to the bottom of the failures. i can understand if tesla were doing the same thing: tracking failure modes of specific parts.
> Another question to consider is why the repair is 16k. Does is actually cost Tesla that much or do they just quote that much because they are realistically the only ones who can fix it so they can charge the price?
The quote is to replace the whole battery pack so I really doubt that they are making a profit on it since it's one of the actually expensive part of the car.
As GP pointed out this is hardly right to repair, if Tesla quoted a whole pack that means there aren't any official operating procedures to replace to fix that part without replacing it while you can 100% blame Tesla for that, right-to-repair is about making parts available to do official repair, it's not about letting you figure out clever fixes on your car.
> Non-Tesla customers have virtually infinite options, and someone to actually take care of them.
This conflates dealerships with the ability/right to repair. I think dealerships are absolute scum but am completely on-board with enabling 3rd party mechanics to repair vehicles.
Dealerships don’t even ensure you don’t have the same vendor lock-in issues (getting modern ICE foreign cars repaired in small cities/towns can be a nightmare).
> screwing customers with exploitive dealer networks
Haha.
My buddy just waited for Tesla to finish repairs on his Model 3 for 4 months and in the mean time had to have a rental.
The reason? They couldn't acquire certain bolts.
Give me "exploitative dealer networks" that can source parts properly to Tesla's outrageous incompetence of a service network.
> The problem outlined in this article was so absolutely banal
This article | thread is about the Tesla PR response to a long form Reuters report.
> That's what this whole article is about squeaky bushings.
Maybe you read a different report, not the Reuters one that highlighted premature failures of suspension or steering parts described as:
chronic failures, many in relatively new vehicles, date back at least seven years and stretch across Tesla’s model lineup and across the globe, from China to the United States to Europe, according to the records and interviews with more than 20 customers and nine former Tesla managers or service technicians.
> 200$ that's the only maintenance cost my Tesla had in the first 4.5 years. What a scandal!
Oddly the Reuters report wasn't all about you.
I'm glad for you that all you've personally seen or experienced is squeaky bushings and $200 out of pocket.
As this is HN, a technical forum, I'm sure no one needs to explain how your personal anecdote has no real bearing here and fails to negate the documented stories of many many others.
> Your peddling FUD. Just because you touched something in a way that wasn't specifically authorized by the original manufacturer of that something doesn't make you liable for anything that something does in perpetuity unless there is evidence that it's actually your fault.
I dunno. I think if I walked in with some random "brake rotor" that wasn't like any of the OEM or aftermarket ones they were used to seeing, the mechanic didn't know much about and couldn't verify would work sufficiently, even if it bolted into place, they might tell me to take a hike. I expect they would do a similar thing if I wanted airbags that went off replaced with something that looked like it wouldn't work right. Or a gas tank that looked suspect.
I know I would turn people away if I was a mechanic and they came to me with those requests. Maybe those items worked perfectly fine, but if I don't have assurance I'm making a good call (like, for example, by knowing I'm replacing components with parts that are trusted by the OEM or have a proven rack record), why would I take that risk, legally or morally (if I think the person is making a bad decision)? Some decisions impact safety (especially when dealing with components that have a lot to do with safety), and I think those deserve some consideration.
That doesn't mean Tesla should be the only entity allowed to repair though. Perhaps some of these components are perfectly fine, and you just need to find a mechanic that has enough experience with them to know that (but good luck finding the experienced mechanic instead of the one that doesn't care when looking around I guess, I'm not sure how you tell them apart). Competition is generally good.
This is nuts. And tbqh hard to believe. Part of me thinks the lack of mechanic knowledge around Teslas make it really easy to exploit owners. With most other vehicles, you can usually cross check with other mechanics
reply