As I'm due to have my warranty expire soon (@ 46.5k miles), are fixes in Techincal Service Bulletins still free after a car is out of warranty? I was always under the impression that TSBs indicate a manufacturer defect or improvement of some kind and were always free, but looking at my service paper line items, all TSBs are billed as 'warranty' which makes me think that TSBs will cost money post-warranty. Does anyone know if they will still be free once you are out of warranty?
I don't think TSBs are free after the end of the warranty. A TSB is engineering telling service how to fix a specific problem. If the problem is safety related the fix may be free, or Tesla may choose to do a repair for free as "goodwill". But regular TSBs for rattles and stuff I would expect them to charge us after the end of warranty.
Yes, once the warranty expires you are no longer eligible for TSBs unless it's part of a recall that applies to your specific vehicle. Do you have opportunity to purchase the extended warranty? While it's a bit costlier than when I purchased my car, it might be worth some peace of mind.
You drive so many miles in a year you'd blow through the next 4 year warranty quickly as well. Wonder if it is worth getting or not but would add some more time.
I am within hours of crossing 50k - I plan to purchase the warranty extension - still too many unknowns for me. And I am not sure about TSBs but I will ask Rockville service center when they do the 50k service.
I think the Extended Service Agreement (aka extended warranty) is a no-brainer. Those pesky door handles could cost a fortune to repair out of warranty. I got the ESA at $2,500 days before the price jump last July. I'm going to keep this car a while so, peace of mind.
You'd have to ask Tesla for the official answer, but since the yearly maintenance includes "hardware upgrades", I would think TSB's would be included if you pay for the yearly checkup.
Yeah that's why I didn't buy it. I'd be paying $4k for 12 months. I could have bought it before the price increase but didn't. Still didn't think it was worth it because each repair still has a $200 deductible. So at $4k now, there's really have to have something major go wrong in the next 12 months for me to make it worthwhile. Not worth the risk.
The above seems like fairly standard industry practice... at least that seems to be the case for Toyota and Nissan. Some of them (from those 2 car companies) specifically spell out the warranty period within the TSB document (e.g. covered by 5 year/60K powertrain warranty). In a few cases, besides a recall, there have been "limited" or "special" service campaigns where the automaker decided to extend the warranty but it's not a safety recall. Examples below: LSC A0N - HV (Inverter) Water Pump; Dealer Letter and Technical Instructions | PriusChat Combination Meter Warranty Enhancement | PriusChat http://www.nissanassist.com/ - whole bunch here I have a Prius which is covered by the above. My mother's Altima Hybrid is fortunately/luckily covered by a 10 year/120K mile CVT warranty even though the Altima Hybrid has a transmission that is NOTHING like the belt and cone/pulley system (from Jatco) used by all other Nissans w/CVTs. Altima Hybrid uses Toyota's power split device (2 motor/generators + 1 planetary gearset) and has no belt and no cones/pulleys. My former 04 350Z got its alignment warranty extended at least once. It was due to the infamous front tire feathering issue that affected 03 and 04 350Zs that got a fair amount of press attention too. My front tires were replaced for free and I got an alignment out of it as well.
Yes, although it ought to pay for more than just TSBs. A while back someone tried to get Tesla to go on record stating which hardware upgrades would qualify under the service plan. It was previously thought that if a feature is included by default on newer models that Tesla would retroactively apply that feature to older cars under hardware upgrades. That turned out to be false. Interesting, I never knew about the deductible but then again I don't have the ESA. So they're basically selling you insurance rather than extending your warranty. If it were warranty then all repairs would be free.
The newer P85s have a better suspension that the Signature P85s but that's a $5,000 upgrade. Wouldn't expect that to be free though.
Yeah, I suppose they can't do a 5 K suspension upgrade or replace A packs for free under hardware upgrades, but then that begs the question of how much is too much? So far no one at Tesla has defined that for us. I'm not going to be happy if I find out that I poured $3600 into a service contract that just gets me a tire rotation and new key fob batteries every year. I give Elon credit for coming out and recognizing that service is overpriced, but I wish he'd get around to doing something about it.
Since the warranty is specifically for manufacturer defects, it makes sense that TSBs are a warranty items.
yeah I just can't see Tesla letting everyone drive around with known defects though. They've been fixing everything for everyone because they are just trying to be the best of the best, that's why I'm not sure if this excellent (debatable) service is going to continue post-warranty or if they are going to start nickel and diming everyone. And with the way Tesla's collision repair bills are looking as well as quotes for retrofits and quotes for replacing drive units and center consoles, it's not nickel and diming but more along the lines of "mob-like" pricing schemes lol. seriously though I can buy 3 or 4 new cars for the prices that I've seen some of their repair and upgrade quotes. it's far beyond absurd pricing and this is my biggest worry with Tesla now, very uncharted territory.
The ESA has so much fine print, it's really not a deal after one reads it. - - - Updated - - - To add further to this, Tesla doesn't seem to make buying parts very easy for someone who is DIY. Some SC's you will have no problems buying parts, others give BS excuses. Not good for the "better than a dealership" model mantra. In 20+ years, I have never had any trouble obtaining parts from any dealership.
I had about 4 TSBs fulfilled after my warranty expired on my VW GTI. But I had service records complaining/noticing the issues fixed by the TSBs, before my warranty expired. But my understanding was that I would have to pay for them if I hadn't noticed them before my warranty expired. I also had to fix a fuel line rattle myself because they didn't think my numerous complaints of 'loud rattle under passenger footwell when cold' matched up with the fuel line shifting in cold weather and causing a loud rattle, when the fuel line was run under the passenger footwell. So I would take the car in at 58k miles and get it tip top shape, and list every single nagging item you can come up with, so if a TSB comes out later, you can point that you had a similar issue before the warranty expired.