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Gizmotoy
Active Member
I mean, I suppose it's relative (I have 7k miles in 11 months), but the nationwide average is in the 11-12k per year range. 43k miles in 12 months is quadruple the average. That's pretty clearly a substantial amount of driving. His "4 year/50k" warranty was exhausted in less than 14 months.
Further, the extended warranty is $4k for another 14 months of coverage. Best case he's covered for just over 2 years.
4 drive train and/or battery failures is a concern. I'm sure they were handled under warranty, but repeated loss of use of vehicle would be frustrating for anyone.
All I can say is that this seems extremely rare for MS. Vast majority of owners have had no such failures. Some people have had one, MAYBE two.
Replacement of a $3,300 part on a $100k car after using up the warranty milage in such a short period? Totally to be expected, and no right to complain. My guess: if the car had not had the other failures, you would write a check with a smile... this has to do with the warranty problems.
All I can say is that this seems extremely rare for MS. Vast majority of owners have had no such failures. Some people have had one, MAYBE two.
Replacement of a $3,300 part on a $100k car after using up the warranty milage in such a short period? Totally to be expected, and no right to complain. My guess: if the car had not had the other failures, you would write a check with a smile... this has to do with the warranty problems.
On-board chargers shouldn't be failing at all, the cost to replace them seems very steep and I hope this vehicle seems to be made on Friday afternoon with so many repairs in it's first 18 months.
Tesla or any other car manufacturer can't void the warranty, because the vehicle is used for commercial purposes, 65000 miles isn't much for a car that is used on a daily bases. I usually put about 30-35000 miles a year on the cars I drive. It's sad to hear you've gone through 4 drive trains and a batter pack and now a on-board charger.
It makes perfect sense to use the Model S in a livery service at it should be saving you a ton of money.
@tomas
I don't think it's normal after just 65000 miles to have to replace an on-board charger. I understand it's a $80k+ car, but it's supposed to be reliable and not having to replace major components every 60-70k miles. If you have to shed out $3-4000 every 60k miles for major repairs, then the whole argument of no moving parts and less breakdowns, just evaporates.
Tesla or any other car manufacturer can't void the warranty, because the vehicle is used for commercial purposes, 65000 miles isn't much for a car that is used on a daily bases. I usually put about 30-35000 miles a year on the cars I drive. It's sad to hear you've gone through 4 drive trains and a batter pack and now a on-board charger.
It makes perfect sense to use the Model S in a livery service at it should be saving you a ton of money.
@tomas
I don't think it's normal after just 65000 miles to have to replace an on-board charger. I understand it's a $80k+ car, but it's supposed to be reliable and not having to replace major components every 60-70k miles. If you have to shed out $3-4000 every 60k miles for major repairs, then the whole argument of no moving parts and less breakdowns, just evaporates.
Gizmotoy
Active Member
To be fair, I can think of exactly zero situations where I'd write a car repair check for $3.3k and be happy about it, even after years of trouble-free driving.
That sucks. Hope they got you a loaner, at least. Did the slave or master fail? Presumably you have dual chargers and the slave failed? Tesla is usually really good about getting cars unable to charge high priority treatment.
There are a couple other service centers nearby. I'd call one of them.
Have you heard of Goldie Bhullar? He is the owner of Angel Worldwide Transportation. He posted in the TM forums months ago that Tesla charged him $15,000 for a new drive unit and $6,000 for failed "supercharging hardware". He was also not allowed to purchase an extended warranty due to the commercial use.
Lemme guess, you are probably also miserable about paying taxes?:biggrin::wink:
Just saying... limo in service for 65k miles made owner a pretty good buck, maintenance is to be expected and bills for out of warranty luxury car maintenance are not cheap!
Gizmotoy
Active Member
Is that right? First time I heard that. I thought it was included with service, not via warranty. Interesting.
There's a crucial difference between being happy about something (writing a check and smiling about it), and deciding the cost is acceptable (just handing over a check). :smile: I'm not whistling a tune as I send a giant check to the IRS, but I'm not complaining about it, either.
Actually, the reason he purchased the vehicles for the livery industry is to reduce the maintenance bill even out of warranty, but it turned out the exact opposite. If this issue starts happening in a year or 2 after lots of the 2012/13 models start running out of warranty, this would be a big concern for the value of the car. You're not buying the car as a toy, but also for it's reliability and expectation to last longer than 60k miles for repairs as there is nothing but the battery and drive train in it.
I wouldn't be happy either if my car turns 50k miles, my warranty expires and next day my HWPC, on-board charger fails or the unimaginable - the battery pack fails.
I wouldn't be happy either if my car turns 50k miles, my warranty expires and next day my HWPC, on-board charger fails or the unimaginable - the battery pack fails.
William13
Active Member
I have had two slave chargers fail. One at 10,000 miles, the second at 20,000 miles. Luckily the master did not fail. The price is fair for the current situation. New, premium $100,000 car without a secondary market. Soon (2-8 years) there will be salvaged chargers, motors, and inverters available or a few people who can repair/replace electrical parts on our Teslas at a lower price point.
I call BS. I'd suggest he bought the car for livery because it is sexy, au courant, green, and commands a premium. Makes his company sexy and cool, too. And, I'm sure he charged a premium.
PS, if your car turns 50k miles, you should have bought the extended warranty. Plus, everybody should know that the battery pack warranty is NOT limited at 50k miles. Check the website @skboston!
@tomas
He did that too of course, I doubt the premium is much more compared to a conventional car, what he does is win repeat business easier with Tesla vehicles in his fleet, however the maintenance factor is also huge one. I'm very familiar with limo business and I'm as well in the transportation business and I know how people make their fleet purchases.
As for the battery you're right, it's 8 years - this slipped through my mind. I agree here with AR - the battery system (including chargers) is one of Tesla's strengths. None of their main components should be failing just after 65k miles on them, period.
Model S is an expensive car, but in 3 years with Model 3 things change and if their chargers start to fail out of warranty prematurely, the issue will be much deeper then.
He did that too of course, I doubt the premium is much more compared to a conventional car, what he does is win repeat business easier with Tesla vehicles in his fleet, however the maintenance factor is also huge one. I'm very familiar with limo business and I'm as well in the transportation business and I know how people make their fleet purchases.
As for the battery you're right, it's 8 years - this slipped through my mind. I agree here with AR - the battery system (including chargers) is one of Tesla's strengths. None of their main components should be failing just after 65k miles on them, period.
Model S is an expensive car, but in 3 years with Model 3 things change and if their chargers start to fail out of warranty prematurely, the issue will be much deeper then.
<shrug>
Practice is different from theory, Tesla's a startup, this is an early VIN car, one data point doesn't make a curve and sometimes you just get unlucky.
I also have an early VIN car - 1 3/4 years old. The quality of the cars produced at that time may be higher since mine was built towards the tail end of the initial 3-month-long production ramp-up instead of a few months after the ramp-up.
I've had a few minor problems but nothing major. Well within the range of a high-quality but complex car made by a BMW, Mercedes, etc.
And boy did I ever buy the extended warranty. New car put out by a startup ramping production? Sign me up...
Practice is different from theory, Tesla's a startup, this is an early VIN car, one data point doesn't make a curve and sometimes you just get unlucky.
I also have an early VIN car - 1 3/4 years old. The quality of the cars produced at that time may be higher since mine was built towards the tail end of the initial 3-month-long production ramp-up instead of a few months after the ramp-up.
I've had a few minor problems but nothing major. Well within the range of a high-quality but complex car made by a BMW, Mercedes, etc.
And boy did I ever buy the extended warranty. New car put out by a startup ramping production? Sign me up...
Canuck
Well-Known Member
Why? It seems to me that anything electrical in nature is prone to failure.
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Makes sense but looking back investing in the stock instead of the warranty would likely have paid back more. But, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.
I did not get the extended warranty. We usually put about 100K miles each year on a Lincoln Towncar. So i guessed that i would be out of even the extended warranty pretty quick. But we only put 50K miles on in the first year. I also thought that most of the serious problems would be covered by the drivetrain warranty or the battery would be the problem but had a long warranty by itself.
