mknox
Well-Known Member
Cadillac always gives me a Cadillac when I drop my car off for oil, tire rotations etc. I think that is a GM (or at least Cadillac) policy. (Maintenance was included for 4 years, but that's another thread:smile
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Model S Technical / Mechanical Issues
- Thread starter DrComputer
- Start date
Cadillac always gives me a Cadillac when I drop my car off for oil, tire rotations etc. I think that is a GM (or at least Cadillac) policy. (Maintenance was included for 4 years, but that's another thread:smile
All these posts about loaner cars should probably move to another thread, but I think everybody is basically saying the same thing. Commonly, dealers (especially of expensive cars) will offer another car of the same make when you have to leave the car for service, especially if it's a warranty item. It can be a good marketing opportunity for them to have you drive another model, or a newer model, etc. Plus of course it is a big help in customer satisfaction.
Heck, my local Audi dealer maintains a small fleet of cars as overnight loaners, so that they can send interested buyers home with their chosen model for the day. I'm sure that that wins them sales and makes the practice a moneymaker for them.
I would not be at all surprised to see Tesla do both of these things eventually. But right now, all of their production is going to customers. Every car that they produce to be a service loaner is major money off the short-term bottom line at a time when they really need to show profitability and hit their delivery targets. It's a business decision. It's unfortunate, but it's probably the right decision at this juncture.
Later on, they can keep a few loaners available for people having service done, and sell them on as lightly-used certified pre-owned cars so that it's not a long-term money loser. But to get to that point, they need to have the business on solid footing.
I'm willing to cut them some slack on this for awhile, even though it was a big inconvenience to be without my BRAND NEW car for four days to fix items that shouldn't have needed fixing in the first day of my ownership. But my willingness to cut that slack is going to decline a little every day.
Heck, my local Audi dealer maintains a small fleet of cars as overnight loaners, so that they can send interested buyers home with their chosen model for the day. I'm sure that that wins them sales and makes the practice a moneymaker for them.
I would not be at all surprised to see Tesla do both of these things eventually. But right now, all of their production is going to customers. Every car that they produce to be a service loaner is major money off the short-term bottom line at a time when they really need to show profitability and hit their delivery targets. It's a business decision. It's unfortunate, but it's probably the right decision at this juncture.
Later on, they can keep a few loaners available for people having service done, and sell them on as lightly-used certified pre-owned cars so that it's not a long-term money loser. But to get to that point, they need to have the business on solid footing.
I'm willing to cut them some slack on this for awhile, even though it was a big inconvenience to be without my BRAND NEW car for four days to fix items that shouldn't have needed fixing in the first day of my ownership. But my willingness to cut that slack is going to decline a little every day.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Unless I've entered another universe where Tesla is a 100 year old auto company with a fleet of different models and tens of thousands of spare inventory to choose from, it's not going to happen any time soon.
The couple of times I have had to leave my Porsche overnight at the Porsche dealership, I was taken down the street to Enterprise for a loaner car. No shiny Porsche.
I think the sealant answer is just a Red Haring. David from the LA service center got me on a three way call with a tech from corporate and they ran the "limits" reset on the sunroof. This, in essence, forces the sunroof to open all the way to the track limit (farther than it would normally open during standard operation) then then close to the farthest point. This "limits" reset seems to fix the problem of it stopping after it pops up. I will try it again tomorrow morning to see if it still opens and closes properly after sitting for a day. To have this procedure done, just call your local service center and they can schedule a conference call with corporate. The entire process only takes about 5 minutes. Make sure the car is in a good AT&T cell area as they send the limits reset commands to it over the air.
Software Nits
Software nits noticed during my first drive / first road trip today, in order of priority:
Also a feature request - sounds minor but a biggie for usability:
The center cluster should show Projected Range on the Energy graph and Distance to Destination on the Nav display. These two pieces of information are extremely important because they tell me if I'm going to make it to my destination or run out of charge! As it stands I must have the main touchscreen showing both the Nav display AND the Energy graph in order to find this information. This means I can't use the rear view camera.
Software nits noticed during my first drive / first road trip today, in order of priority:
- Every time I try the voice command, my iPhone 4S starts playing music. Through its own speakers. And I can't stop it because the shuffle controls won't come up. The only way I've been able to get it to stop, short of rebooting the phone, was to tell Siri to "Stop Music".
- When units are set to kilometers, the line on the Energy graph for Rated Range is in the wrong place. The numerical value of Wh/km would only be correct if the graph was showing Wh/mile. This really confused me at first until I realized it was 60% high.
- Navigation display: at one point I hit the little Flag button to see what it did. It moved the display to the end of the trip. Okay. Hit the target button to put it back on the car. For the rest of the trip it would keep flipping back to the destination map every ten minutes or so.
- If you are playing from your iPhone music, then hit pause, the sound system is completely disabled. If you now try to tune the radio, whenever you hit FM the menu just disappears and it goes back to the iPhone album display. Eventually it occurred to me to hit the play button, and only then could I switch to the radio.
Also a feature request - sounds minor but a biggie for usability:
The center cluster should show Projected Range on the Energy graph and Distance to Destination on the Nav display. These two pieces of information are extremely important because they tell me if I'm going to make it to my destination or run out of charge! As it stands I must have the main touchscreen showing both the Nav display AND the Energy graph in order to find this information. This means I can't use the rear view camera.
Arnold Panz
Model Sig 304, VIN 542
That's how the local Mercedes dealer does it here (although Enterprise is on the lot). Lexus gave loaner cars, but Tesla obviously can't do that, so using a rental car company seems the best option. Having just rented a car on a business trip, I know how much it sucks getting gas and driving an ICE, but its going to be inevitable, unless you can buy a spare EV!
Norbert
TSLA will win
I won't have any updates for at least two weeks. My local service center is all booked up over two weeks out. They do "dealer prep" there and seem to be devoting all their resources to delivering as many cars as possible by Dec 31st (probably for stock price reasons). I'll keep you guys updated.
SUN-day Driver
Member
An extension panel that can be pulled down from the small visor would be a good solution to this problem. Tall drivers woulsn't use it, and we shorties could get the extra coverage we need.
znino
Member
I had read other people complaining about exactly the same thing Doug. On the roadster the Projected Distance to Empty number on the cluster is always there (as it should be). The Ideal range is a nice number but much less valuable.
Sad to say that the calibration fix didn't fix the problem. When I tried to open the sunroof again a few hours later it went back to the same problem of popping up and stopping. It doesn't seem to make any straining sound like it's getting stuck, but now that pictures of the sealant issues have been posted I'll go look at it more closely. I e-mailed my service rep and told him the bad news about the calibration not working.
ddenboer
MODEL X #1770
This is similar to one of the problems my car is in Menlo for (the excess sealant is also spreading itself like tar on top of my roof). From what I understood during a phone call about the car tonight, they did some significant work on the roof to correct this. I will find out all tomorrow when I pick up the car (unfinished).
I usually get a 3 as a loaner for my 5. Serviceable but uninspiring. Fairly recently I got a 5 instead, almost as if they were tempting me to buy a replacement for my wonderful if aging car. It kinda worked, too. The engine and the six speed on my current car are still going strong, but there is now a dearth of simple features that would make my life better. I've been chomping at the bit for the S.
Please let us know what they say. My car was just at Menlo to have the sunroof fixed, so it would be disappointing if there were a sealant issue that could have been addressed at the same time, but perhaps this is an emerging problem that they are only coming to understand. Early days, early days.
My service rep e-mailed me this morning saying that a new firmware is being developed that is supposed to address the sunroof issue and will be available in late January.
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
I held off on the sunroof becuase of previous experience with BMW, MB and Volvo units. It was not a matter of if but when it broke and how expensive the repair would be. I had no idea the roofs would start fighting back so early.
mknox
Well-Known Member
Interesting. I've never had a problem with any of my power tilt/slide sunroofs over the years. My biggest fear was water leaks, but all have been flawless. It was on that basis that I decided I wanted the pano on my (future) Model S. Will be watching these developments closely as it becomes time for me to configure.
