1st annual check up fee? $450??

[HankLloydRight]

At the end of the day though the reason I do it is because I actually enjoy working on the car.

I get that part for sure, but I still can't believe that your car only cost $1,800 in parts over 8 years. Synthetic oil and oil filters alone would cost half of that. Brake pads? Air filters? Cabin filters? Rotors? Clutch? Belts? O2 or MAF sensors? Battery? Timing chain? That must be one magical BMW. I've never seen a car battery -- especially a BMW battery -- last 8 years.

Last year I had to replace the driveshaft in my M5... the driveshaft alone was $1000 for a remanufactured one, plus $2,500 in labor to replace it because the entire dual exhaust had to be dropped to access the driveshaft.

But my original point still stands.. for the general automative public driving ICE cars (and not doing 100% of the repairs themselves), the annualized repair and maintenance costs are at least $1400 per year, and I think on average, could easily be 2,3 or 4 times that. So Tesla's promise of extremely low maintenance and repair costs is not broken by $500 annual maintenance visits.

 

[jaguar36]

I get that part for sure, but I still can't believe that your car only cost $1,800 in parts over 8 years. Synthetic oil and oil filters alone would cost half of that. Brake pads? Air filters? Cabin filters? Rotors? Clutch? Belts? O2 or MAF sensors? Battery? Timing chain? That must be one magical BMW. I've never seen a car battery -- especially a BMW battery -- last 8 years.

Oil changes with Mobil 1 are $40, Clutch is still in good shape. Battery was $160. My full service is here if you're curious. (there is one or two things missing but it is mostly complete) Also remember that its really only the costs for 4 years, as the first 4 years were free.

I also disagree that even if all that work had been done at any indy shop that it would have been close to $1400 a year. At least around here. Perhaps in California where labor rates are higher it might be.

 

[HankLloydRight]

) Also remember that its really only the costs for 4 years, as the first 4 years were free.

Well, come on -- "free" as in you didn't pay for it at the time of service, but you certainly paid for it in the price of the car new. Tesla could do that too, but the price would go up but they could offer everyone "free" annual service for four years. Let's really compare apples to apples.

And maybe you're just extremely lucky that you didn't have any major failures outside of the warranty period.. depending on the model, even a water pump replacement (very common failure item on BMWs) could run more than $1000 to fix. I had a stuck fuel sending unit in the M5, which required both fuel tanks to be dropped to replace a $20 part... that wasn't cheap. All my BMWs have been extremely reliable going years without a single repair, but boy oh boy, when they need a repair, it's at least few grand each time.

 

[GatorGuy]

By comparison, the cost of servicing an Audi A8 for FIVE years is $1,179. And this is to service a grossly over complicated ICE. That works out to $235 a year. I have to say that premium ICE manufacturers have really cleaned up their act with service charges. The only game they play is by offering "custom" service schedules but if you go with what is mentioned on the service manual, the service costs are quite reasonable.

The Tesla service schedule is absolutely overpriced but I pay because where else can you take it and I definitely need to keep the ESA valid for myself or the subsequent owner of the car. There's no reason an Audi A8 should cost less to service over 5 years than a Tesla.

Their costs have actually gone up. In 2013, Audi Care for my Audi S6 was only $800 versus the ~$1200 there.

I was pretty surprised to see Tesla's maintenance costs, which says something coming from premium german vehicles.

 

[P85Dave]

Their costs have actually gone up. In 2013, Audi Care for my Audi S6 was only $800 versus the ~$1200 there.

I was pretty surprised to see Tesla's maintenance costs, which says something coming from premium german vehicles.

That's why I've said the Germans have really cleaned up their act with the service expenses. The average cost of $235/month to keep an A8 serviced for 5 years almost makes me feel sorry for the Audi dealer. The Tesla, which should cost less to service as an EV, costs more than twice that.

 

[P85Dave]

I actually meant to say $235/year -- not month

 

[RAW84]

Does anyone know the annual service costs for the Model 3? I wonder how they compare.

 

[GatorGuy]

Does anyone know the annual service costs for the Model 3? I wonder how they compare.

Great question

 

[bktiger86]

Does anyone know the annual service costs for the Model 3? I wonder how they compare.

I am curious too. Hopefully not too expensive like the S or X.

 

[bktiger86]

I brought my car to the service center and the rep actually mentioned don't do year 1 or year 3. Bring it in for year 2 and year 4. He suggests get the extended 4 year warranty tho.

 

[RAW84]

I am curious too. Hopefully not too expensive like the S or X.

For model 3 owners, I hope not....but if it's not, it'll again leave us wondering why.

What would make the model 3 inspection significantly cheaper than the S? I can't see why it would be much of a different process.

 

[sakimano]

Hi all. My Model S is about to go through its first annual check up. My buddy went to a service center and he said they charged him $400 something dollars. Is that correct? I thought it is covered or am I wrong.

This is what makes me laugh when people say 'German car maintenance is so expensive, and teslas have only 1 moving part thus they're better/cheaper!'

Those people don't own teslas.

 

[zwede]

I've had my MS for over 4 years. I've skipped the services and have done the maintenance myself (cabin filter, wiper blades, brake fluid flush and drive unit fluid change). All the supplies for the 4+ years have totaled less than $100.

The only thing I had the SC do was the coolant flush which they charged me $230. I think that's reasonable but I'm still looking into the possibility of DIY.

 

[sakimano]

I've had my MS for over 4 years. I've skipped the services and have done the maintenance myself (cabin filter, wiper blades, brake fluid flush and drive unit fluid change). All the supplies for the 4+ years have totaled less than $100.

The only thing I had the SC do was the coolant flush which they charged me $230. I think that's reasonable but I'm still looking into the possibility of DIY.

kudos to you but that means you're either skipping some of the work or hoping you do it right. For example when you did the drive unit inspection what did that entail? How about the road force wheel balance and wheel alignment... You have that equipment in your garage? No? So you're skipping some stuff. Is your time worth $0? Then you might not be honest about what you 'paid ' Personally I'd be surprised of all of the parts for service cost less than $100 too. Maybe you can surprise me.

Either way it's not entirely relevant for the folks who won't diy, which is what this thread is about.

Personally I used to do my own work on my RS4, but that doesn't mean it was a cheap or easy car to maintain. Just means I wasted my time doing it.

 

[smilepak]

The fundamental is people don't eant to pay Tesla to maintain their vehicle and rather do it themselves. All while the same time, Tesla can just keep pumping out cars to keep the company afloat. Revenue comes in different stream. One of it is their SC. Tesla is bleeding money. Making cars and selling isnt fast enough while demand for Supercharger, not counting abuses of them, burn cash

 

[RAW84]

The fundamental is people don't eant to pay Tesla to maintain their vehicle and rather do it themselves. All while the same time, Tesla can just keep pumping out cars to keep the company afloat. Revenue comes in different stream. One of it is their SC. Tesla is bleeding money. Making cars and selling isnt fast enough while demand for Supercharger, not counting abuses of them, burn cash

So you're saying that service is, in fact, a profit center?

 

[smilepak]

So you're saying that service is, in fact, a profit center?

It’s a company and a business. Heck even charity so called non profit needs to make money. Anyone think Tesla SC is doing it to breakeven or at cost is a bit naive. TEsla SC isn’t like Costco 1.5 hotdog, doing it to attract customers

 

[sakimano]

It’s a company and a business. Heck even charity so called non profit needs to make money. Anyone think Tesla SC is doing it to breakeven or at cost is a bit naive. TEsla SC isn’t like Costco 1.5 hotdog, doing it to attract customers

Based on their quarterlies they're probably losing money at service

 

[RAW84]

It’s a company and a business. Heck even charity so called non profit needs to make money. Anyone think Tesla SC is doing it to breakeven or at cost is a bit naive. TEsla SC isn’t like Costco 1.5 hotdog, doing it to attract customers

That's cool, but that directly contradicts yet another selling point Tesla made.

 

[zwede]

kudos to you but that means you're either skipping some of the work or hoping you do it right. For example when you did the drive unit inspection what did that entail? How about the road force wheel balance and wheel alignment... You have that equipment in your garage? No? So you're skipping some stuff. Is your time worth $0? Then you might not be honest about what you 'paid ' Personally I'd be surprised of all of the parts for service cost less than $100 too. Maybe you can surprise me.

Either way it's not entirely relevant for the folks who won't diy, which is what this thread is about.

Personally I used to do my own work on my RS4, but that doesn't mean it was a cheap or easy car to maintain. Just means I wasted my time doing it.

I do my own alignments since both the alignments the SC did ended up with wheels pointing in random directions and destroying a set of rear tires. For tires I go to discount tire. As far as the time is concerned I'm one of those weird people who enjoy working on my cars.

Anyway, my post was more to point out that the supplies for maintenance don't cost much. Also that the work is pretty easy. If you don't want to DIY, see if you can get a local shop to do it.

Also: The drive unit fluid change is absolutely essential. Whatever you do, don't skip the first service!