Don't bring your car to oversea from the US, my car is dead

[kaidou]

Hi,

Due to my military order, I brought the 2015 Model S to South Korea. Although many features of cars do not work, I enjoyed driving it for a year.
However, terrible things happened to the car.

The car losing its power and control while driving. It becomes more frequent, and I stopped driving.

I brought the car to the service center, and they found it out as Driving Unit + Main battery problem.
Warranty? because this is US imported, there is no warranty on this car.

The cost of Driving Unit alone was around 5-6k, and battery was around 20k. They are not even sure if the parts are available.
Service center also mentioned that this car does not belong to South Korea network, means they are not obligated to fix the car.

I've seen many people bringing the car to oversea, but probably I am the first one who has this type of problem. I've been trying to contact Tesla USA, and nobody ever answers ever.
Someone told me a while ago about warranty guaranty if you bring it under SOFA status. NOT TRUE. Please do not believe this. SOFA has nothing to do with the vehicle warranty.

My two options at this moment.
1. Salvage the car
2. Send it back to the States, fix it under warranty, and either sell it or bring it back (hell no)


6 years old car shouldn't have this type of problem. I am bummed.

Hopefully, nobody imports a car.

 

[jparksd317]

what did you end up doing with it?

 

[el-guapin]

...........Warranty? because this is US imported, there is no warranty on this car......

Would bringing the car outside the country(USA) void the warranty?

 

[cwerdna]

Would bringing the car outside the country(USA) void the warranty?

I'd guess it's likely a policy due to a combination of reasons: legal, complications with exchange rates and accounting, training and possible differences in versions sold in South Korea vs. elsewhere and liability. For anything that's different, the service center may have never dealt with that before. Basically, they don't want to deal with it and they're doing so because they can.

Ages ago, when I lived in WA, I considering buying a new Nissan Maxima from Canada due to the price and exchange rate. I wrote about the complications at Moving Leaf from Europe to USA - My Nissan Leaf Forum so I nixed that idea.

In the current warranty at https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/tesla-new-vehicle-limited-warranty-en-us.pdf, they have stuff like:

Tesla, Inc., or the relevant entity listed below in Who is the Warrantor? on page 2, ("Tesla”)
will provide repairs to Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y new vehicles sold by and
delivered directly from Tesla during the applicable warranty periods for the Warranty Regions
specified below in accordance with the terms, conditions and limitations defined in this New
Vehicle Limited Warranty. Your rights and Tesla’s obligations under this New Vehicle Limited
Warranty apply only within the Warranty Region where this New Vehicle Limited Warranty was
first provided with Model S, Model 3, Model X and Model Y new vehicles sold by and delivered
directly from Tesla. The terms of this New Vehicle Limited Warranty will not apply if you bring
your Model S, Model 3, Model X or Model Y vehicle to a different Warranty Region, unless
otherwise required by local law. The Warranty Regions are listed below.

This New Vehicle Limited Warranty applies to vehicles sold by Tesla in your specific Warranty
Region. For purposes of this New Vehicle Limited Warranty, your Tesla specific Warranty Region
is defined as the region that your vehicle is first registered in, provided that you return to your
specific Warranty Region in order to receive warranty service. Any subsequent purchasers or
transferees must return to your specific Warranty Region in order to obtain warranty service
regardless of the country in which such purchaser or transferee may have purchased the vehicle

OP could try to find the revision of warranty booklet for his car to see if it says anything different. I doubt it.

 

[kaidou]

what did you end up doing with it?

I ended up buying a new car, obviously not a Tesla anymore. My Model S is currently at the garage and I drive 1-2 times a month in very short distance to let it alive. Hopefully I will ship it back soon.

 

[kaidou]

Would bringing the car outside the country(USA) void the warranty?

No, I talked to my (US local) service center supervisor about this. He (or she) mentioned that there should be a no problem fixing the car as long as it's under warranty.

 

[kaidou]

I'd guess it's likely a policy due to a combination of reasons: legal, complications with exchange rates and accounting, training and possible differences in versions sold in South Korea vs. elsewhere and liability. For anything that's different, the service center may have never dealt with that before. Basically, they don't want to deal with it and they're doing so because they can.

Ages ago, when I lived in WA, I considering buying a new Nissan Maxima from Canada due to the price and exchange rate. I wrote about the complications at Moving Leaf from Europe to USA - My Nissan Leaf Forum so I nixed that idea.

In the current warranty at https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/downloads/tesla-new-vehicle-limited-warranty-en-us.pdf, they have stuff like:



OP could try to find the revision of warranty booklet for his car to see if it says anything different. I doubt it.

This is a little bit complicated situation. Since 2018 or 2019, Tesla announced the grey market law. Even though Korea has its own Tesla store and service center, my car still belongs to US territory warranty.
I should have sold the car before moving here, instead of listening to the random person from TMC stating that our vehicle is under warranty as long as it is under SOFA status. Wrong.

I could buy a used Drive Unit from ebay and ask Service center to replace it. However, this is a risky decision, and I have decided to move on other vehicle.

 

[ivory_diadems]

Which things don't work, specifically? AFAIK, maps and GPS + LTE stuff. But I've also heard SIM swaps could be done. Not entirely sure. That's what I plan on doing if I move my 3.

Additionally, your car is an older model - was the drive unit and battery warranty for "8 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period" back in 2015, as well? Back in 2015 I'm sure Tesla hadn't worked everything out to ensure the vehicles would last as long.....

 

[Joonp82]

Its same for all car manufacturers. Not just Tesla. Brought my BMW to Korea and they refused to repair even though i had upgraded warranty.
BMW NA vs BMW Korea is two different company. Just like Tesla NA is different from Tesla Korea.
Some companies have World warranty(ford 3 yrs, volvo 3 yrs, bmw 2 yrs) to cover manufacturer defects.
Learned this hard way and cost me around $10k.
Its best to buy or lease a car in korea.

 

[ivory_diadems]

Its same for all car manufacturers. Not just Tesla. Brought my BMW to Korea and they refused to repair even though i had upgraded warranty.
BMW NA vs BMW Korea is two different company. Just like Tesla NA is different from Tesla Korea.
Some companies have World warranty(ford 3 yrs, volvo 3 yrs, bmw 2 yrs) to cover manufacturer defects.
Learned this hard way and cost me around $10k.
Its best to buy or lease a car in korea.

who are you replying to?

 

[iMYP]

This is a little bit complicated situation. Since 2018 or 2019, Tesla announced the grey market law. Even though Korea has its own Tesla store and service center, my car still belongs to US territory warranty.
I should have sold the car before moving here, instead of listening to the random person from TMC stating that our vehicle is under warranty as long as it is under SOFA status. Wrong.

I could buy a used Drive Unit from ebay and ask Service center to replace it. However, this is a risky decision, and I have decided to move on other vehicle.

Were you not able to have Tesla Korea honor the US warranty? Maybe it's time to DM Elon!
I assume everything is still the same - no map, no OTA, no warranty, regardless SOFA or not?

 

[kaidou]

Were you not able to have Tesla Korea honor the US warranty? Maybe it's time to DM Elon!
I assume everything is still the same - no map, no OTA, no warranty, regardless SOFA or not?

Tesla Korea and Tesla US are just two different organization. They won’t fix ur car.

 

[markwj]

Were you not able to have Tesla Korea honor the US warranty? Maybe it's time to DM Elon!
I assume everything is still the same - no map, no OTA, no warranty, regardless SOFA or not?

Simple answer is that it is not an international warranty.

Details can be found here:

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/quick-guide-for-ownership-experience-grey-market-grey-vehicles_NA.pdf