My Roadster's reliability problems are really starting to get to me. I think it's been in the shop at least three months out of the past year, and after having it back for a grand total of 34 hours from the last appointment, it's headed back tomorrow. While Tesla has been wonderful about providing me service loaners, this is just getting old.
Many, many years ago I had a Porsche 914 that in lots of ways reminded me of the Roadster. First, it was a roadster itself, though with only a hard top that stored in the trunk. It was mid-engine, and it handled a lot like the Roadster. It was amazingly fun to drive and attracted a lot of attention. (And unlike the Roadster it had a frunk, which was pretty cool.) Of course, it was ICE and was grossly underpowered (not just relative to the Roadster), so there was that difference. But it was always broken. It had problems with the airflow sensor for the injection system (a stuck bearing that meant that I could set the measured airflow to one rate by hand, so I had to keep it revved at stoplights or it would stall from too rich a mixture). The clutch wore out, I replaced it, then it blew an oil seal that spread oil over my brand new clutch, ruining it. The heater didn't work at all, which was great fun in Pittsburgh in the winter. The windshield washer never worked (it was deigned to use the pressure from the spare tire, so you could imagine how there would never be any problems with that). And on and on. The bottom line was that I couldn't rely on it to get me places. As much fun as it was to drive, I wound up really happy to sell that car.
I never thought I'd say it, but I'm starting to get there with the Roadster. In the past year it's had a failure of the airbag system that required replacing the steering wheel and took weeks to resolve; a PEM failure that stranded me in an underground parking lot that also took weeks to fix; a failure of a strut that took months, and then most recently a failure of the motor fan that melted the connector from the PEM and took from June 7 to July 23 to fix.
So today I drove it maybe 20 miles and put it in the garage. Then I went out to get in it to go shopping and the red fault light is on. The screen says that it now has TWO fan failures, the motor fan (that I paid $1500 for YESTERDAY) and also the PEM fan.
Since May 16 when I took it in for service, I've had it available for 22 days total, the rest of the time It's been in the shop, and it's headed back now. The last fan failure took 46 days, and who knows how long this one will take.
In the past year, I've spent nearly $15K on service for the car (some of that is scheduled maintenance and tires, but most is not). It's three times failed within two days of getting it back from service (twice with the airbag thing and now this); in fact, one of the airbag problems happened within a mile of the service center. But worst of all, I'm starting to worry that I just can't count on it to get me where I'm going, which is usually where a car and I part ways.
All these years, I've been a huge fan of Tesla. I still am, and if I get rid of the Roadster, I'll probably replace it with a Model S. But it's really not the same. All the performance in the world + supercharging + low CG doesn't change the fact that the S is a ginormous sedan and not a convertible sports car.
Blah.
Many, many years ago I had a Porsche 914 that in lots of ways reminded me of the Roadster. First, it was a roadster itself, though with only a hard top that stored in the trunk. It was mid-engine, and it handled a lot like the Roadster. It was amazingly fun to drive and attracted a lot of attention. (And unlike the Roadster it had a frunk, which was pretty cool.) Of course, it was ICE and was grossly underpowered (not just relative to the Roadster), so there was that difference. But it was always broken. It had problems with the airflow sensor for the injection system (a stuck bearing that meant that I could set the measured airflow to one rate by hand, so I had to keep it revved at stoplights or it would stall from too rich a mixture). The clutch wore out, I replaced it, then it blew an oil seal that spread oil over my brand new clutch, ruining it. The heater didn't work at all, which was great fun in Pittsburgh in the winter. The windshield washer never worked (it was deigned to use the pressure from the spare tire, so you could imagine how there would never be any problems with that). And on and on. The bottom line was that I couldn't rely on it to get me places. As much fun as it was to drive, I wound up really happy to sell that car.
I never thought I'd say it, but I'm starting to get there with the Roadster. In the past year it's had a failure of the airbag system that required replacing the steering wheel and took weeks to resolve; a PEM failure that stranded me in an underground parking lot that also took weeks to fix; a failure of a strut that took months, and then most recently a failure of the motor fan that melted the connector from the PEM and took from June 7 to July 23 to fix.
So today I drove it maybe 20 miles and put it in the garage. Then I went out to get in it to go shopping and the red fault light is on. The screen says that it now has TWO fan failures, the motor fan (that I paid $1500 for YESTERDAY) and also the PEM fan.
Since May 16 when I took it in for service, I've had it available for 22 days total, the rest of the time It's been in the shop, and it's headed back now. The last fan failure took 46 days, and who knows how long this one will take.
In the past year, I've spent nearly $15K on service for the car (some of that is scheduled maintenance and tires, but most is not). It's three times failed within two days of getting it back from service (twice with the airbag thing and now this); in fact, one of the airbag problems happened within a mile of the service center. But worst of all, I'm starting to worry that I just can't count on it to get me where I'm going, which is usually where a car and I part ways.
All these years, I've been a huge fan of Tesla. I still am, and if I get rid of the Roadster, I'll probably replace it with a Model S. But it's really not the same. All the performance in the world + supercharging + low CG doesn't change the fact that the S is a ginormous sedan and not a convertible sports car.
Blah.