Body Repairs - The Woes of Owning a Tesla

[finout]

My Model S was hit (hit-and-run) in a parking lot in November. That's not Tesla's fault. (side note: Blackvue saved me. I have perfect video of the perpetrator's face and his license plate. He was cited and his insurance is paying).

It's also not Tesla's fault that the body shop couldn't get my car in for repair for over a month.

But it is Tesla's fault that they took 8 weeks to deliver a bumper cover - and then they delivered the wrong one. I confirmed that the body shop ordered the right part, and Tesla sent the wrong one.

That has cost me another two weeks so far. The right one is supposedly showing up tomorrow. If it's in fact the right part, my delivery date will be a few days shy of 3 months since the car was hit - mostly because Tesla does not supply parts like other car companies.

When our Audi was hit (again, paid for by someone else's insurance), the parts were in 4 days later.

This isn't a new problem, and many owners have complained about Tesla's abysmal body parts supply.

This is my third and will be my final Tesla automobile. I've loved all of them. But I canceled my Model 3 reservation a few weeks ago. I haven't seen the check but apparently the same school of parts supply chain management seems to hold for sending deposit refund checks.

 

[Patrick W]

Nice to hear Elon say in last week's earnings call that improving repair time is his top priority. Fingers crossed.

 

[Barry]

I'm on my first and final Tesla unless they fix this by the time I'm ready for another.

 

[David99]

Body work is the worst part about owning a Tesla. I had to wait 11 weeks on my car for mind body work. And I read and heard so many similar stories. Over and over it is Tesla being slow delivering parts. After 6 years in production of the Model S there is just no excuse any more.

 

[aaron0k]

Nice to hear Elon say in last week's earnings call that improving repair time is his top priority. Fingers crossed.

Yeh. Didn't Elon also imply that back in 2013?

Here: Tesla Best Service and Warranty Program

"Your time is valuable and should not be spent driving to or waiting at our service centers. Tesla is putting in place a valet service, so that your car is seamlessly picked up and replaced with a loaner and then returned as soon as we are done. There is no additional charge for this." - Elon​

...and didn't Jerome Guillen fix all this back in 2014?

"Guillen “has done an incredible job,” the company said in a statement. “He has taken Tesla to the highest service satisfaction of any company in the auto industry by far.”

"On the sales and service side, it's reckless growth." - Jerome 2014
​

or 2015?

Here: Tesla Service Centers Embrace F1 Racing Approach

“So we actually bring the car and we kind of hit with a pit crew, like a Formula One pit crew. So instead of having one person per bay, the car gets slowly worked on over several days, it actually comes in and a team attacks it, and we’re constantly improving the tools and the metrics to say, how can we get the car perfect as fast as possible. We actually bring in people from Formula One to help with the training on this. And I think there’s a real opportunity to revolutionize the way service works.” - Elon​

and of course...

"fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." oh wait.. that was - Bush.​

 

[RFernatt]

I don't feel so bad with my 3. It's at a body shop for a deer strike and needed a new bumper cover, fender, and headlight. The parts arrived in a couple weeks, but I had to wait 5 weeks for the body shop to have a spot available. Unfortunately, the fender was damaged (not clear if it was damaged in transit or defective to begin with), but the replacement of that took another week. Although, if the body shop had checked the parts when they arrived, they could have had the replacement before I was even scheduled to drop the car off. So, given the experience of others, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing. I haven't had a need to take the car back to Tesla for service since delivery (knock on wood), so can't speak on that side.

 

[Patrick W]

Nice to hear Elon say in last week's earnings call that improving repair time is his top priority. Fingers crossed.

For those who might be interested here's info on the call as featured on the Ride the Lightning podcast. The part with Elon addressing the problem starts at 10:58. Later in the podcast starting at 54:15 you'll hear him refer to how they've been handling parts distribution as "boneheaded", "foolish" and "super dumb" and outlining how they plan to fix it.
Ride the Lightning: Tesla Motors Unofficial Podcast: Episode 183: Q4 Earnings Call Recap and Analysis

 

[P100D_Me]

8 weeks for a bumper cover is so bad and that sort of thing worries insurance companies too, once they get wise to Tesla vehicles waiting months for basic parts to repair them and they need to provide you with a rental just watch the insurance prices skyrocket.
I don't have a good understanding of the supply chain to Tesla but how can it remain so bad for so long? It's like the whole spares division isn't too fussed by the misery some people have to go through. I don't know the staff they have hired but instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with certain parts of the business they just need some experience people from the traditional manufacturers to steer the ship.

 

[mylake]

I have two, and I have always loved to tell anyone who asks how great these cars are to own. But after I got rear-ended at a stop light and went through the struggle to get body work done, I do throw out a huge warning these days. Don't get in a wreck! Even if it's not your fault, don't do it!

I was quoted a 6 month repair time at Tesla certified shop. I went with a non-certified shop and Tesla sending parts was the hold-up (yes, non-certified shops CAN get parts by going through local Tesla service centers). Tesla sent parts in about 6 weeks but multiple parts were incorrect, which tacked on another 3 weeks. Using my VIN, how does this happen? One incorrect part they sent 3 times!

I hope Elon does get it corrected, it is about the only negative aspect of owning a Tesla.

 

[OrbiterTI4]

My total time from insurance approving certified repair shop estimate to last part installed on my 2015 MS 85D after a front collision with airbag deployment was 13 weeks, with the longpole being the airbag control module. Body parts (hood/nose cone/etc) were delivered in the first 6 weeks.

 

[P100D_Me]

Geez, I'm afraid to drive the car now
If it is this bad in the US I'd hate to think how much worse the delay could be when parts need to be shipped outside the US.

It brings up an interesting question though, if people are losing 3 months or so waiting on Tesla to get parts to repairers then that is 3 months of warranty eaten away just sitting there doing nothing.

 

[Kutu]

My Tesla certified body shop waited 3 weeks to order some of the parts, then it was 3 more week before they ordered the rest of the parts. Tesla didn't ship all the parts for another month. Now that my Model X is in the shop, they are saying I need a sensor that they did not know about until repairs started. Tesla will tell me only that they received the order for sensor and nothing else. This is my second Tesla but unless they improve it will be my last. As for the body shop, I am waiting to see the quality of their work, but unless the work is outstanding, I will not recommend or use them again.

I have little personal experience with body shops, but it seems that I picked a poor one. Added to that, Tesla has absolutely no excuse for their inadequate parts delivery.