Are you planning to own post-warranty?

[one2many]

I'm gonna keep mine until the battery won't hold enough charge to get me to the end of the driveway

And maybe on the 2nd or third battery. Its gona be a long while before we see cars in any number over 200k miles in
other brands. If stuff breaks, well we get it fixed under Tesla or not. The people that love there cars, keep them.
There would need to be a tech inovation so big and cheap to make me consider that anytime soon.
So until then I will just love the ride and not consider "What could go wrong".

 

[tebling]

I have a mid-2018 LR RWD, and my four year warranty literally expires tomorrow! I keep going back and forth on whether to keep it "forever" or upgrade to a well kept 2018-2020 Performance for a modest price difference.

Do I REALLY need AWD? No, but it would be nice. Do I REALLY need the extra power? No, but it sure would be fun. OTOH I'd have to re-do all the mods that I've grown to love (wheels, suspension, chrome delete, etc).

 

[dhrivnak]

Hello All,

So I currently own an older Model S, and have considered getting a Model 3 or Model Y. As I typically own cars well past their original warranty, I either consider getting an extended warranty or roll the dice and pay up for any repairs. In the past I always rolled the dice since, as a gearhead, I could handle most repairs myself (my old BMW M5 was like getting a car and car-repair hobby all-in-one).

Unfortunately, with Teslas and, I suspect, most EVs these days, anything not common (like brakes/suspension/etc.) really requires the manufacturer (or dealer for other manufacturers) address the problem, so "DIY" is a lot less viable. Sure, there are a TINY number of shops, but they are not widely available - and not exactly cheap either. This all either results in simply paying the higher dealer/manufacturer prices or ponying up for the extended warranty.

When it comes to extended warranties, you usually have the choice between those offered by manufacturers or after-market. None are "cheap", but in general I think most would agree the former can be less "hassle" than the later. Again, we have a dilemma here in that Tesla no longer offers an extended warranty for ANY new Tesla product: S, A, 3 or Y. That forces owners into the (limited?) aftermarket. Not surprisingly, we are seeing a lot of "extended warranty" questions here on the forum now as the first Model 3s start to come off warranty (for anything other than drive units and batteries).

So, that brings me to the question in the title? Are you planning to keep the car post-warranty? Options I see include:

1. Roll the dice and keep car w/o warranty
2. Look for and purchase a 3rd party extended warranty (some are reputable, others, well...um, yeah)
3. Sell it and eat the depreciation and start over with car payments

Sure, the 5 year depreciation on a Model 3 is better than, say a BMW 3 series, but as you move beyond 5 years things can get very different when you compare an option where you keep the car and drop the coin for an extended warranty vs. "buying another car" and re-entering the steepest part of the depreciation curve.

I understand. of course, that some of you just sort of build "always having a car payment" into your life and find having the latest thing worth paying for!

(note: I'm assuming the current insanity in used car prices will, of course, not be permanent!)

Anyway, interested in your plans (and any differing opinions).

At 83,000 miles I am well past my warranty and with all my other cars I am rolling the dice hoping for at least another. 80,000 miles.

 

[Apprunner]

Right now is a pretty good opportunity to order another Model 3 and sell your current car and eat a very small price difference for a new car. Just doing the math...a 100k mile M3P would probably fetch ~$40k. You can order one for about $64k. $24k to remove 100k miles sounds like a pretty good deal

 

[texas_star_TM3]

Right now is a pretty good opportunity to order another Model 3 and sell your current car and eat a very small price difference for a new car. Just doing the math...a 100k mile M3P would probably fetch ~$40k. You can order one for about $64k. $24k to remove 100k miles sounds like a pretty good deal

all about opportunity costs... you could also put $24k in the stock market if you assume the correction is over, and if you believe there's a recession... then i'd certainly wait even longer before ordering a new Tesla. The current prices are highly inflated and won't stick. I remember the days of a sub $50k Model 3 AWD...

 

[Aellinsar]

Right now is a pretty good opportunity to order another Model 3 and sell your current car and eat a very small price difference for a new car. Just doing the math...a 100k mile M3P would probably fetch ~$40k. You can order one for about $64k. $24k to remove 100k miles sounds like a pretty good deal

With my model 3 in the shop, I was looking at the replacement cost in case insurance decided to total it. I was shocked to see that a 2018 with 50k miles is selling for more than I paid for mine in 2018 (After tax credit).

A new one would subtract those miles, but would also subtract EAP, homelink, and free streaming. But it would add range and AWD.

 

[Itswolfie]

I’m planning to swap mine out once cooled seats are added from factory or my CyberTruck order comes up.

 

[OliverM3]

I’m planning to swap mine out once cooled seats are added from factory or my CyberTruck order comes up.

Cooled seats would be so nice. I've been waiting for those in any car I've wanted for so long. The Kia has them

 

[BMWM3Man]

Cooled seats would be so nice. I've been waiting for those in any car I've wanted for so long. The Kia has them

I can see the posts now..."My butt is cool but my range is down...WHY?"

 

[texas_star_TM3]

I can see the posts now..."My butt is cool but my range is down...WHY?"

yeah. but vented seats are soooo nice. the one feature i miss from my old F150 lariat

 

[one2many]

yeah. but vented seats are soooo nice. the one feature i miss from my old F150 lariat

Well it seems that every 7/11 has ice bags. Its been a long time.
It also keeps that 6-pack of beer on your lap cold.

 

[3Volts2aTes]

Right on.

I decided not to go into full rant mode in my earlier post, where I just breezed over my thoughts on third party extended warranties, but now you've primed my pump.

/rantmode

Third party extended warranties of all flavors (not just cars, but on consumer goods) are nothing more than a way to squeeze more profit out of the sale of the item in question.

If you read the small print (all four thousand pages of it), every one of these extended warranties have lists of repairs that are *not* covered by the warranty. Why? Because they have statisticians who's job is to determine what the most likely things are to go wrong. They then give that list to the underwriters, then the underwriters put it in the small print that those repairs are *not* covered.

They also make the claim procedure so unwieldy and lengthy that many people simply give up on trying to get a claim processed. My best friend waited six weeks to get an authorization done on his car, and ended up having to get an attorney involved in order to get his auto repair claim through his extended warranty.

There's a good reason why the majority of the spam calls you guys get right now are people hawking extended vehicle warranties; they are nothing more than a legal scam.

Don't fall for *any* extended warranty on *anything* that you buy. Ever. As BMWM3Man said, put some money away if you think it'll ever need to be repaired.

IMO, you're even better off putting a repair on a high interest credit card and making monthly payments than any extended warranty out there.

/rantmode

While in general I completely agree, I have to say that I have had two that were worthwhile. 1) was a Mercedes Benz branded ew on a MB I had bought new. They simply never blinked at anything. The car went in as it did during the first 3 years and the only difference was after the visit I had (if I remember right a 50.00 deductible). Literally their point was 'if we covered it under warranty, we will cover it under this.' It paid for itself with a supercharger and exhaust manifold pretty early on...which I was somewhat expecting. However, I am not even saying they still offer that now.

The other has been the MaxCare from Carmax - although there are some variations in theirs. Again, on another Mercedes and on a Chevy Volt and they were not quite as good as the first, but generally came down to getting in writing from the service advisor that it would have been handled under factory warranty and they would honor it. I had this issue on a couple of sensor that were out of spec, but still functioning - and they replaced those, along with an ignition a couple of other things. Doubtful they actually paid for themselves. The Chevy one came close to paying for itself with some parking sensors and an ECU, and considering those were both on a 100K mile car, I wasn't too unhappy. I count those as break even. They also will pro-rate and refund unused amounts if you get rid of the car before they expire.

Again, in general I agree, and absolutely am not advocating for an extended warranty and I think that with one of the few decent ones, at best you are going to break even. Better off putting the amount in an account and earmarking it for either repairs, or down payment on a replacement vehicle if a repair is too much to handle - if a person is able to do that (both financially and self-restraint wise). However, there is a price for peace of mind in the case of a vehicle in high use for some people - and in those cases, my examples might help.

 

[cab]

OP Here - I think it is important to note that many "manufacturer's" extended warranties are actually provided by third parties. In general, however, anything provided through the manufacturer (or with their "stamp" on it) will tend to be the best bet if you venture into warranty-land.

I'd like to believe we won't see more posts like this as these cars all enter the 50-100K mile area:

Heat Pump Failure

The kicker with Tesla "repairs" is they are generally "replace the entire part" parts swaps - and the parts are expensive! Sadly, this pattern is true with a LOT of dealers these days. If a part fails often enough (like the Model S door handles), they might eventually figure out they can just replace an individual component (like the microswitch or gear on Model S door handles) for a fraction of the cost - that is usually the exception rather than the rule though in my experience.

The other annoying thing with "parts swaps" is the "mechanics" become parts swappers. They don't inherently understand the inner workings and failure modes of the parts they are replacing. Sometimes the aftermarket (and forums!) comes to the rescue and I suspect that will start to happen with the Model 3 as it is somewhat of an enthusiast car (gearheads unite!). Enthusiast forums are 100% key to this. Heck, it was practically mandatory if you wanted to DIY on your older BMW. It was those forums that allowed me to rebuild my valvetronic solenoids, solder on new HVAC circuit board components, and replace a gear in an electric seat motor - all for pennies compared to replacing the entire component.

I fear it will be a long while before we see that level of DIY for a 3/Y...but assume it will EVENTUALLY happen.

 

[Phlier]

Third party extended warranties of all flavors (not just cars, but on consumer goods)...

Emphasis added for clarity.

I do agree that a manufacturer's extended warranty can be a decent deal, as long as it covers what the original warranty did, with no exclusions.

I'd go back to that post and put in the emphasis, but alas... TMC post editing time rules...

The words are there, but they're just piddly little words... like these.

 

[NSFW]

Extended warranties are a poor financial decision. It might make sense to buy one to smooth out the cost of repairs over time (monthly payments rather than lump sums) but people should do so knowing that's exactly what they're paying for - the convenience of distributing the cost of repair over a longer timeframe rather than in lump sums. And, that convenience is indeed something that you pay for.

It makes no sense to buy one to reduce your cost. If that outcome was likely, nobody who sells them would remain in business.

Companies that sell extended warranties assume that you're going to pay them more than they're going to pay you.

People who buy extended warranties generally hope for the opposite.

One of those parties is making their decisions based on mountains of data, and doing math on that data to ensure that they make a profit more often than not. The other is just hoping to beat the odds.

Of course there are people who came out ahead on their warranty costs. There are also people who have won lotteries, but that doesn't make lottery tickets a smart financial decision.

 

[JayNJ]

I'm at 90k+ miles on my Model 3 now so, have no plans on replacing it. I am waiting on a Rivian order, but even then don't plan on trading it in.

 

[SlimJim]

ID 4 at $35000 and below $30000 after tax credit seems so attractive next year.

 

[GiantlyGentle]

I don't have a choice. I must keep my 2017 MS100D after its warranty is over. Tesla kind of forced my hand.

 

[texas_star_TM3]

with how little I drive as WFH is permanent at my employer... I will keep the Model 3 AWD from '19 post the 4yr bumper-bumper warranty for sure. The latest Model 3 only offers marginally more range and otherwise looks/feels about the same. Definitely no interest to upgrade at current prices. In 2-3 years cars should be even better with more choices. That being said - if Tesla opens up SC to other manufacturers and other OEMs have more models out ... I might switch. Currently the SC network is a must for us doing multiple road trips / year and my Model 3 has been pretty trouble-free (knock on wood)

 

[sjg98]

2018 M3 LR AWD here.. trading in for BMW iX I managed to get hands on quickly, this week before the warranty is up..