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Model 3 Totally DEAD can't open doors key or phone

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docdeb27

M3 LR AWD Pearl White Prem Int.
Aug 16, 2018
246
144
SHOREHAM
Ok tonight, at the most inopportune time, my M3 would not wake to unlock doors. Not with phone-which says disconnected- not with key. Tesla tech sees car isn't responding at all. Sending a mobile service person. This was great as a firefighter trying to respond to an MVA (motor vehicle accident) and I couldn't get out of my garage with my $60,000 6 week old hunk of junk. Took the Subaru, missed the ladder truck at the firehouse anyway. Not feeling this is a very reliable or useful car if this happens again. Even dead batteries on ICE cars could be jumped. This is a real problem. Anyone else have this experience?
 
It is indeed obviously in your mind a totally unreliable car and as such, you should probably sell it.

Every other new car should be considered reliable and will never have any issues, so replacing it shouldn't be an issue.

As a firefighter, don't you prescribe to the concept of always having a backup, because everything will always fail when you most need it?
 
As a firefighter, don't you prescribe to the concept of always having a backup, because everything will always fail when you most need it?
If you had read his post in full you would have understood that he made the trip with his other car.

@docdeb27 I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Based on my reading of TMC for the past 5 years, what you describe is very rare. No car is perfect, as far as I know. To call the car a “hunk of junk” is, I think, an exaggeration. You had a major failure at a very inopportune moment. Don’t give up on the car yet. Tell us what Tesla Service does for you.
 
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Well, I have been stranded by a dead Tesla and more than once. Once in my Roadster while driving home from work and once a Model S Signature. My Roadster also failed a second time, and it had to be flat-bedded from my home when it refused to go into drive or reverse. It happens. Unfortunately, it can happen in any car. I have been stranded by an ICE car when my battery failed and I needed to get a jump—even when I had cables—because I needed to get someone to get to me to be the other battery!

So I agree that hunk of junk is an exaggeration, but I do understand the frustration when a new vehicle lets you down. I'd be upset too, but I would want to hear from Tesla what the problem was. As our vehicles become more and more like computers, it only takes one circuit board to fail to knock out a lot of systems.
 
If you had read his post in full you would have understood that he made the trip with his other car.

@docdeb27 I’m sorry to hear about your problem. Based on my reading of TMC for the past 5 years, what you describe is very rare. No car is perfect, as far as I know. To call the car a “hunk of junk” is, I think, an exaggeration. You had a major failure at a very inopportune moment. Don’t give up on the car yet. Tell us what Tesla Service does for you.
So I did post an update, 2 hours later. According to Tesla mobile service this is not rare lately. He has been to many homes where the plug for the rear seat warmers simply wernt plugged in. Battery cable 2 other times. This is local here. Tesla service was great walking us through this, but, had this not been in my garage, and had I not had another vehicle, this really would've been a nightmare.
 
It is indeed obviously in your mind a totally unreliable car and as such, you should probably sell it.

Every other new car should be considered reliable and will never have any issues, so replacing it shouldn't be an issue.

As a firefighter, don't you prescribe to the concept of always having a backup, because everything will always fail when you most need it?
I have never ever had this issue with either any toyota, honda or subaru over the past 40 years. I have had a dead battery due to my failure to turn off lights. An easy jump. That said, this failure from factory carelessness is the second I've had in 6 weeks with a $60,000 car! I have a right to be upset. How about some quality control like a check list at the factory ? I also had that error message "this car may turn off unexpectedly, call service" All within 6 weeks. You are ok with that? And had you read more carefully, you would have noted that I in fact took the subaru to the call. Had a backup. So I guess your philosophy is that a $60,000 car needs a backup?
 
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Price isn't an indicator of reliability. In fact, luxury cars often tend to be less reliable and more expensive to repair and maintain compared to economy cars.

I'm going into my car fully expecting more issues than my previous economy cars.
 
So I did post an update, 2 hours later.
What I see in this thread is your first post, dated Dec 11 at 5:22PM. I do not see a post 2 hours later, or any subsequent posts on Dec 11.

Your next post in this thread is dated Dec 12 at 7:56AM.

According to Tesla mobile service this is not rare lately. He has been to many homes where the plug for the rear seat warmers simply wernt plugged in. Battery cable 2 other times. This is local here. Tesla service was great walking us through this, but, had this not been in my garage, and had I not had another vehicle, this really would've been a nightmare.
So you are saying that the reason your car was “dead” was the rear seat warmers were not plugged in? (I don’t see how that can be the explanation for the issue you described) Or the “battery cable” was not plugged in? Does that mean the 12V battery somehow got disconnected?
 
I have to side with DocDeb27 on the experience and frustration over issues with a new Model 3. My car is also just a few months old, and before having it 6 weeks I was locked out twice and one time quite the opposite happened -- I actually unlocked and drove my car to my destination before I realized that I did not have my phone OR the card key (left my entire bag at home). Having stopped at my destination, THEN the car realized there was no key, so I was stuck. Had to flag down a person to drive me home to get my key (with my car unlocked on a public road). I considered that the car read my phone in my house, but I have not been able to prove that after several tries to recreate what happened. Now I fear the same thing can randomly happen to some common thief looking for small change and discovering he can get himself an expensive ride as well.

I have never owned a "luxury" car and didn't realize I was buying a "luxury" car when I purchased the Model 3. I believed the price tag was for the high-tech battery. I've been surprised to learn what the person said earlier-- that luxury cars actually tend to be more unreliable than non-luxury cars. Kinda makes me sick to my stomach.
 
I have to side with DocDeb27 on the experience and frustration over issues with a new Model 3. My car is also just a few months old, and before having it 6 weeks I was locked out twice and one time quite the opposite happened -- I actually unlocked and drove my car to my destination before I realized that I did not have my phone OR the card key (left my entire bag at home). Having stopped at my destination, THEN the car realized there was no key, so I was stuck. Had to flag down a person to drive me home to get my key (with my car unlocked on a public road). I considered that the car read my phone in my house, but I have not been able to prove that after several tries to recreate what happened. Now I fear the same thing can randomly happen to some common thief looking for small change and discovering he can get himself an expensive ride as well.
Next, time, just ask if you can borrow someone's phone instead. You can then use the Tesla app to start your car and drive yourself back home to get your phone and keys. Alternatively, you could borrow a phone and call someone else who already has the app and have them start the car remotely.
 
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So I did post an update, 2 hours later. According to Tesla mobile service this is not rare lately. He has been to many homes where the plug for the rear seat warmers simply wernt plugged in. Battery cable 2 other times. This is local here. Tesla service was great walking us through this, but, had this not been in my garage, and had I not had another vehicle, this really would've been a nightmare.

Sorry to hear about the issue you had. So this hunk of junk issue was just with an unplugged cable? If so then the car's reliability isn't really in question here, it's QA. Tesla's QA definitely can get better, hopefully they can address that soon.
 
Just my two cents but we have a BMW i3 as well which has been in the shop now three times in 1.5 months. One of those times we we're stranded on side of road. We've only driven roughly 3500 miles on that. On the other hand, our model 3 we have had 0 issues (knock on wood) and have driven just over 10,000 miles now in 5 months. By far I feel Tesla is a more reliable car than a BMW. We previously had a newer Honda that had serious electric issues as well. Our past Toyotas seemed to be reliable however.
 
I have never ever had this issue with either any toyota, honda or subaru over the past 40 years. I have had a dead battery due to my failure to turn off lights. An easy jump. That said, this failure from factory carelessness is the second I've had in 6 weeks with a $60,000 car! I have a right to be upset. How about some quality control like a check list at the factory ? I also had that error message "this car may turn off unexpectedly, call service" All within 6 weeks. You are ok with that? And had you read more carefully, you would have noted that I in fact took the subaru to the call. Had a backup. So I guess your philosophy is that a $60,000 car needs a backup?
I sympathize with coming to a dead car. In fairness though, even EVs have a 12V battery which can be jumped. Accessing the 12V battery to jump the Model 3 is also possible and detailed in the manual.
 
I have to side with DocDeb27 on the experience and frustration over issues with a new Model 3. My car is also just a few months old, and before having it 6 weeks I was locked out twice and one time quite the opposite happened -- I actually unlocked and drove my car to my destination before I realized that I did not have my phone OR the card key (left my entire bag at home). Having stopped at my destination, THEN the car realized there was no key, so I was stuck. Had to flag down a person to drive me home to get my key (with my car unlocked on a public road). I considered that the car read my phone in my house, but I have not been able to prove that after several tries to recreate what happened. Now I fear the same thing can randomly happen to some common thief looking for small change and discovering he can get himself an expensive ride as well.

I have never owned a "luxury" car and didn't realize I was buying a "luxury" car when I purchased the Model 3. I believed the price tag was for the high-tech battery. I've been surprised to learn what the person said earlier-- that luxury cars actually tend to be more unreliable than non-luxury cars. Kinda makes me sick to my stomach.

Your experiences are completely different than the the OP's.
 
What I see in this thread is your first post, dated Dec 11 at 5:22PM. I do not see a post 2 hours later, or any subsequent posts on Dec 11.

Your next post in this thread is dated Dec 12 at 7:56AM.

So you are saying that the reason your car was “dead” was the rear seat warmers were not plugged in? (I don’t see how that can be the explanation for the issue you described) Or the “battery cable” was not plugged in? Does that mean the 12V battery somehow got disconnected?
Update- 2 hrs later. So I get a very nice tow truck guy who has never seen a TESLA. We use a wire to manually open door. Nothing. So ow we have to pry open the front bumper charge port. Not easy. Tabs on eye cover break in the cold. Both wires are marked RED, one with tape, one with paint. Figure out with phone support which is which and jump the interior 12 volt. Open frunk finally and guess what. The friggin nut on the negative battery terminal was barely hanging on!! They were in such a rush to get this out of the factory they didn't tighten, even hand tighten the damn nut. Glad this was in my garage not the expressway. Now have the eye cover taped to the front bumper. Waiting to get through the wait at service, again.
 
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I did update but it went on another thread-my fault. Here was the post:
Update- 2 hrs later. So I get a very nice tow truck guy who has never seen a TESLA. We use a wire to manually open door. Nothing. So ow we have to pry open the front bumper charge port. Not easy. Tabs on eye cover break in the cold. Both wires are marked RED, one with tape, one with paint. Figure out with phone support which is which and jump the interior 12 volt. Open frunk finally and guess what. The friggin nut on the negative battery terminal was barely hanging on!! They were in such a rush to get this out of the factory they didn't tighten, even hand tighten the damn nut. Glad this was in my garage not the expressway. Now have the eye cover taped to the front bumper. Waiting to get through the wait at service, again.
 
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