Cross Country Road Trip - Car in Service

[thisisdiddy]

Hello All,

During the holidays we decided to take some time off work and do a cross-country road trip from NJ to southwest national parks (CA/NV/AZ) in our Model Y long range (June 2020 build). The car performed well during most of the trip except on the drive back.

While on Interstate 15/70 from LV to Denver, the temps dropped into the signal digits between Richfield UT and Grand Junction Colorado - the car started throwing up the "Vehicle may not restart" sporadically and usually when temps dropped below 20 degrees F. Considering we did not want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere western Colorado, we decided to get to Denver as quickly as possible to drop it off for emergency service at the Littleton Service Center.

Long story short the Littleton Service Center diagnosed the car and it turns out there was a short in the "subframe harness" and the part was backorder a week. Since we had a time commitment to come back home, we decided to leave the car at the service center and fly back to NJ in the meantime. Luckily, the car is still under 50k miles and all the work will be covered under warranty. I cant imagine how much these repairs would cost out of warranty.


So at this point we are in NJ and the car is in Littleton, CO getting serviced. Here are my questions:

1. Once the car is serviced, what would be the best way of getting it back? Obviously flying back to Denver and driving back to NJ is not time/economically efficient.
2. As this happened to anyone before? Does Tesla offer cross country shipping for serviced cars?

Any feedback would be appreciated!

 

[jcanoe]

Reminds me of the plot of the movie Vanishing Point? Kowalski!

 

[LoudMusic]

Sounds like someone is trying to avoid driving across Kansas again Having done that more than a dozen times myself (twice in a Model Y) I don't blame you.

It sounds like a three day ordeal, suffering through airports/airplanes, and hundreds of dollars. Shipping could easily be its own frustration. I think it's definitely worth calling Tesla and offering to split fees with them.

But me personally, I'd look into actually doing the drive. Plan a route different from your trip west. Maybe back through Chicago if you haven't been that way? I love road trips and would be bummed about not being able to finish the one where you started.

 

[thisisdiddy]

Sounds like someone is trying to avoid driving across Kansas again Having done that more than a dozen times myself (twice in a Model Y) I don't blame you.

It sounds like a three day ordeal, suffering through airports/airplanes, and hundreds of dollars. Shipping could easily be its own frustration. I think it's definitely worth calling Tesla and offering to split fees with them.

But me personally, I'd look into actually doing the drive. Plan a route different from your trip west. Maybe back through Chicago if you haven't been that way? I love road trips and would be bummed about not being able to finish the one where you started.

haha yes, after driving via route 80 and 70 through the Rockies, the plains can be "boring".

I am going to talk to my service guy at Littleton and see if we can split the difference on a transport, or if tesla can give free supercharging for a week or something (for the drive back - not sure if this is even an option).

 

[Puma2020]

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Road TRIP!!! Having done several 1,000+ mile road trips in my LR Y, it's just a great car for it. Having to stop every 2-2.5 hours to charge, actually made the trip so much easier. The back, knees and bladder really, really appreciated the breaks. On a long trip, the charging stops were usually about 15 mins, which provided enough charge to get to the next charger with at least 10% (roughly 30 miles).

However, with time, tolls and charging, shipping the car east might be better for you. Less time consuming. Ask Tesla if they want to road test a Semi across country. At this time of year, I'd probably go with shipping due to weather concerns.

 

[Tress]

I have used Top-Rated Auto Transport Company | Montway Auto Transport many times. Last time I used them was to move my model x from California to Texas in 2018.

 

[Doublea88]

I'd be willing to go drive it back to NJ for you Just get me the ticket to fly there.

 

[thisisdiddy]

I have used Top-Rated Auto Transport Company | Montway Auto Transport many times. Last time I used them was to move my model x from California to Texas in 2018.

I got a quick quote from CO to NJ and its looking like around ~$1200. I am assuming this is the norm since tesla charges $1000 to ship new inventory cars.

 

[chris2222]

I got a quick quote from CO to NJ and its looking like around ~$1200. I am assuming this is the norm since tesla charges $1000 to ship new inventory cars.

Sounds about right. Cost me closer to $1800-2000 to ship a car coast to coast.