This is TL;Do not read. It will not make you happy.
I've read every post of every MCU related thread on TMC and TM. Reading from the beginning as some of them cover years; one can see the changes and see a pattern why things today are as they are. Here's a couple of things that might put part of the MCU issue into perspective for those that are trying to understand. That means there's quite a few people that are simply angry and not interested in a why. Sorry they feel that way.
Keeping the old MCU. If you read the old posts here on TMC and TM starting back about late 2016 coming forward, you will see that when S's came out of warranty and the owner had to pay for the MCU replacement, the cost was $4,000 U.S., plus labor and tax. Since Feb '20, the price is $1300 U.S. plus labor and tax. Why was it $4,000? Well, it was new. There was no supply of re-manufactured MCU1's. They had new (not yet installed) MCU's until 1QTR 2018. Yes, those people that paid for a new one and could have asked to keep the old one. Did anyone? I saw no request on complaints in those early posts that they asked for and were denied their old MCU1. Seems no one cared to ask. But Tesla used those old ones to start building a supply to re-manufacture. And pretty soon for the people paying for out of warranty the price was $2400-$2600 U.S. because the MCU was re-manufactured.
Its bad enough having to pay $2400, but it must have been heart-breaking to pay $4,000. This thread has lots of reports/posts of people talking about paying $2400-$2600-$3,000 for a MCU1 and then wanting the old one. It looks like Tesla was letting them have them, but charging a core charge. Those folks demanding to take the old one, were not helping anyone but themselves. Because months later it delayed adding to the re-manufacture core stock and kept the cost up as it maintained the higher cost for the REMAN MCUs longer. It looks like Tesla started finding a way to do it cheaper and with a stock of old ones, since they brought the price down again in Feb '20 to $1300 plus labor and tax. Who knew?
We may not want to hear it, but Tesla just as easily could have left the price at $2400 and not dropped it in Feb '20. Maybe if less people had demanded the old one, the price could have been lowered sooner.
Yes, I agree, Tesla could bring the price down again, by refurbishing the CID/Tegra board versus swapping out the entire MCU with the CID/Tegra board inside. How much cheaper would it be if they were opening the MCU, removing the old CID/Tegra board, put the refurbished one with a new eMMC in it and buttoning it back up, to put it in the car. Oops, they also need to swap out the LTE modem. Oops, some are going to need a new touchscreen because of bubbles or goo or yellowing. nVidia is not making the CID/Tegra board any more, so this means Tesla has to refurbish old ones. So even though it may be a $25 Swissbit chip being put on there, the old one has to be de-soldered, new one soldered, tested, check, held up to the light, whatever they do. The SC's are not doing that. That takes skill and Re-work station. So the small supply of these has to go back to some place to be worked on.
We know "fixers' are charging about $500-700 for the CID/Tegra board repair, and they should because its more difficult for them to recover files than it is for Tesla to pull fresh files down from a Tesla server. But let's say Tesla charges less at $400. Then they add the LTE modem, which they sell separately for $120, but installed for $500. Then what if it needs a new screen? What's that price? $500? $800? Labor?
I've torn my dash down and removed my MCU twice now. Takes me about 1.5 hours round trip. Maybe techs can do it in 1.0 hour. How much time is charged for disassembling and re-assembling the MCU with swapped CID/Tegra board, new LTE modem, and maybe new screen? 1 hour? 2 hours? This is average time remember? So add that up, are we now at 2.5-3.0 hours at what price $175-$200 an hour? Remove and swap refurbished and new components into the original MCU; $400 + $ 120 + 3 X $175 : $525 = $ 1045. That's not counting swapping and charging for extra $500-$800 new/re-manufacture touchscreen. So, yes, it will be about $300 less per if Tesla tears down the MCU in the SC and replaces components. Maybe someday they will, not today.
In this thread people were asking for, expecting it to be available, almost demanding MCU2 as far back as 3QTR 2018 (about). It was not available. (You already know this). Tesla started making the MCU2 upgrade available in Mar '20. Its worth the $2500.00 for a number of reasons, one of which is it kicks the failing eMMC issue down the road and around the curve and over the next hill. And I knew when the eMMC/MCU was replaced on my schedule not when its a untimely headache for me. If you don't want to pay for it, that's okay with me.
Complain all you wish, but I predict that there will be no free MCU2 replacements for failed MCU1's. Not until at least sometime next year - after Tesla has offered the MCU2 upgrade to 2015 AP1, 2014-12's pre-AP cars - and in all markets. There's going to be enough demand of people standing in line to pay for it to get it. Here we are three months deep into making MCU2 available; I know of two owners that have successfully persuaded Tesla to let them jump from failed MCU1 directly to MCU2. BUT, both paid for the upgrade and avoided having to pay for MCU1 first, and both were out of warranty.
Go ahead jump on me.
