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After 4 years of ownership do you plan to keep your tesla ?

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I'm close to 5 years with my Model S. My warranty ran out after just over a year as I passed 50k miles. Nothing expensive so far and I have driven 185k miles now. I have not done a single official service. The extended warranty would have been a total waste because I drive so many miles. I had a few small things that I fixed myself. You can get most parts on eBay now. The real expensive stuff is the drive train and battery. Both have 8 years warranty so no worries there.

Are you on the latest update? I've seen many people complain that newer updates introduce bugs, and they'd prefer an older version.
 
Seems like there is always something with a complaint about almost any changes.

They changed the display a couple updates ago, and some complained loudly they wanted the backup camera to be always on and in the upper portion of their display.

Tesla changed things around in the next update to allow such things.
 
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I feel like my two S's are getting more reliable as time goes on. On each of the first two annuals for each car I had a few other small repair things I had them take care of (door handles, intermittent AP errors, water in tailights and hatch, puddle light out). I've also had the DU replaced on my P85 but that was a known early design issue and dont expect re-occurrence. On my third annuals, nothing, not a single thing I could think of to take care of before warranty ran out.

I am keeping both my cars for at least the 8 year battery and DU warranty and probably longer. No extended warranty for me
 
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I passed the 4-year mark a few months ago and currently at over 96k miles. Didn't get the Extended Service Agreement given how many miles I've been putting on and how quickly the extension would've ran out (maybe 2 years). Mostly a reliable vehicle for me, but I did have a battery and screen problem which was covered under warranty. Seems reliability has been a mixed bag in recent year production units, but their service puts in the effort to take care of you (except the occasional cases which get documented in these forums). Model 3 is perhaps better in this regard ... time will tell.

My 4-year ownership write-up:
2018.09.30: And 4 Years Later

I intend to keep mine for a long time, perhaps another 6 - 8 years at least, even with AP1. Bear in mind that Tesla's main problem is scaling their capacity and their growing pains trickle down to occasionally-questionable QC, service availability, and other minor quirks. I interact mostly with the Fremont facilities for service and it's been fine for me overall (hard to complain). While some issues might be frustrating, it balances out with the fact that they do some things with better innovation or ideas (over-the-air updates, Mobile Service, etc.). A lot of people talk about less moving parts in the car but you also have to consider software complexity and the hardware's inherent dependency on it and the fact that you can't service a lot of car yourself like you can with more traditional ones.

You can get a sense of my overall ownership experience from all the various write-ups I've done over the years:
mybluetesla.com

I'd buy again, but it's good to go in with having read-up on the changes that Tesla as a company has gone through. They move very fast compared to other auto makers and it comes with some glitches in their effort. They adapt well in the long-run. I'm squarely in the camp of never going back to internal combustion though.
 
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Are you on the latest update? I've seen many people complain that newer updates introduce bugs, and they'd prefer an older version.

those software updates are a mixed bag. They added lots of great features but also broke other things. The media player worked awesome when i got the car and they messed it up and never fixed it. I also don't understand why shuffling things around in the UI is an advantage. It makes people have to relearn their car. But I wouldn't want to go back to older versions either. Especially the navigation is so much better now. It was really poor for the first 3-4 years.
It's the same with almost every software update anywhere. It is better in some ways and breaks other things or changes something that worked just fine before.
 
I'm well past the 50k mile warranty and have until about 2022 for the battery warranty (miles and years will be about the same). I decided that even expensive repairs will likely be way cheaper than trading in for a newer used S — can't afford a new one. I greatly prefer the S to the 3, so a new 3 is off the table.

My S60 battery is degrading fairly quickly, as all the 60s seem to do, and I would consider paying for a new battery if the range on the old one declines too much to be useful for road trips. Otherwise I am very happy with the car and it has some things I really like that I can't get on newer cars anymore.

... Especially the navigation is so much better now. It was really poor for the first 3-4 years...
Yes! The new nav makes road trips sooo much easier now and I have to be careful on long trip legs with my limited range and very slow Supercharging...
 
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Your honda will have issues one day, just like the Tesla might. Difference is cost.

Both cars will depreciate, the Tesla will depreciate more, because it is more expensive and is generally unproven in terms of residual values (vs brands like Honda)

If you are on the fence financially about this decision, and you have someone who is against it for financial reasons... it might not be worth the headache.

Happy wife, happy life my friend.
 
I'm well past the 50k mile warranty and have until about 2022 for the battery warranty (miles and years will be about the same). I decided that even expensive repairs will likely be way cheaper than trading in for a newer used S — can't afford a new one. I greatly prefer the S to the 3, so a new 3 is off the table.

My S60 battery is degrading fairly quickly, as all the 60s seem to do, and I would consider paying for a new battery if the range on the old one declines too much to be useful for road trips. Otherwise I am very happy with the car and it has some things I really like that I can't get on newer cars anymore.

Yes! The new nav makes road trips sooo much easier now and I have to be careful on long trip legs with my limited range and very slow Supercharging...
I too have a late 14 S60 just about to hit 50k miles and battery charges to about 198-203 so not too bad in terms of degradation. Hows your battery doing?
 
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Looks like the Tesla does better on depreciation than other luxury cars
https://electrek.co/2016/09/13/tesl...ading-segment-losing-only-28-after-50k-miles/
value-retention-study-autolist.png
 
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To the OP, my wife was pissed when she found out I was thinking of getting a Tesla. It was way more than any other car I have bought. I Spent 51k and she was so mad untill she started driving it lol. Now she loves the car and her only complaint is that I take it to work everyday. My advice is to buy the Telsa, you only live once and life without a Tesla is so much worse driving wise than life with a Tesla. Side note my CPO warranty is up in 2 years or 14k miles. I have had 0 repairs paid with the warranty. Only gotten a new DU so far and that comes with the 8year warranty.
 
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At roughly 5.5 years here, 2013 Model S with nearly 93K mi on it. I bought the Extended Service thing and it's probably paid for itself already considering they replaced every single box, chip, circuit board, and device between the chargeport and the 85kWh battery, including replacing the chargeport. Also have had yet another drive unit replacement since I passed the 50K mi point.

Wanna get a newer S but figure at this late date I will wait for the redesigned S with the Model 3 style display and dashboard. I assume they'll go that direction. And maybe they'd offer a 110D version of the car. As a long-distance driver I craaave range. :)
 
Planning to keep my 2014 AP1 Model S for 8 years and re-evaluate in 2022. The car's main issues (early drive unit with milling noise; water leaking into tail lights; faulty window regulator) were all resolved when it was still under warranty. I wouldn't trade it in for a new Model S right now because the current generation has significantly less frunk storage and AFAIK there's no option to omit the center console. Also, my "old" car has unlimited supercharging – not something I often take advantage of, but which is a perk I'm unlikely to ever have again.

I thought quite a bit about whether to purchase the extended warranty, and in the end decided against it. As others have said, it's essentially an insurance policy that you won't have to spend more than the cost of the policy plus required annual $600 service visits for the next 50K miles. I don't expect the next 4 years to be completely issue-free, but I think the MCU computer, HVAC system, and both of the onboard chargers would need to fail in order to approach what I would be spending on the extended warranty + service, and I get to keep the money until that happens, if it happens at all.
 
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I would find it hard to agree to not buying another car for the next 6-8 years.

The reason is so many things are changing quickly as various companies ramp up their EV offerings and their semiautonomous offerings.

If I had to pick a car to stick with for 6-8 years it would likely be a Tesla.

I could have easily kept my 2015 AP1 Model S that I had no issues with. I ended up trading it in on a P3D+ because I succumbed to the performance and EAP/FSD stuff.

If I had kept it I would have gotten the ESA.
 
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I'm close to 5 years with my Model S. My warranty ran out after just over a year as I passed 50k miles. Nothing expensive so far and I have driven 185k miles now. I have not done a single official service. The extended warranty would have been a total waste because I drive so many miles. I had a few small things that I fixed myself. You can get most parts on eBay now. The real expensive stuff is the drive train and battery. Both have 8 years warranty so no worries there.

David99. Thanks for sharing this. I purchased a 2014 MS85 as a CPO and really glad to see this. I think the most crazy thing hopefully is the door handles, and that isn't too bad. Have you had any other issue you care to share? Is yours MS AP1?
 
David99. Thanks for sharing this. I purchased a 2014 MS85 as a CPO and really glad to see this. I think the most crazy thing hopefully is the door handles, and that isn't too bad. Have you had any other issue you care to share? Is yours MS AP1?

Door handles can be fixed pretty easy with parts off eBay. Any decent mechanic can do it. Doesn't have to be Tesla. Mine are fine. I have done a few minor repairs myself. Headlight bulbs, a small part in my charge port, a valve went bad that Tesla fixed for $300. I fried my UMC in the rain which cost $500 to replace. The 12 Volt battery needs to be replaced after 5 years: $240. I accidentally broke off my blinker stalk and had to replace it. It's one unit with all stalks. Got a used unit and I did it myself. Turned out to be pretty easy. But again any auto mechanic can do those things if you prefer. But those are things I caused myself so I can't blame Tesla for it.

Other than that, nothing that cost me anything. Tesla fixed a few minor things I had in the beginning under warranty. In the first 2 years, I went through 6 drive units. They kept swapping it out and it had the same issue over and over. Finally I got the new revision which runs flawless now for 100k miles. Those are covered under the 8 year warranty so I never payed for any of these. I guess the only unresolved issue is the main screen has a bubble. It's hardly visible but Tesla wants $3000 to replace the entire unit. I declined.

All in all, the cost for running my Model S for 185k miles has been the lowest of any car I have owned. I payed a lot more for all the regular maintenance on my previous (gasoline) cars. My tires last 40k miles on average. Brake pads look almost like new. The only thing I'm unhappy about is the paint. My car looks pretty beat up. The paint quality is poor. Same with the windshield glass. Both have thousands of tiny specs from sand or small rocks. Maybe because I drive a lot through deserts here in California and Arizona/Nevada.