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NEED HELP Tesla model S 2013
- Thread starter ChallengerSRT
- Start date
roblab
Active Member
With 142,000 miles? Sounds like that motor is doing well. Why would it fail now? With most electronic things, if it doesn't fail in the first 90 days, it probably won't. Since people don't "change" things until they need to, I wouldn't expect that the motor has ever been changed. I've seen electric refrigerators that are still running after 50 years. Electric cars are simple and reliable. This isn't a gas car.
That said, with that many miles one ought to drive it with an ear looking for strange noises. There's no reason to think that anything other than tires and brakes needed service, either.
Have you heard of wear and tare? This car isn't all wire and computers its got plenty of moving parts that susceptible to breaking.
This should be true, but it is not the case with Tesla, at least earlier model ones. I owned a 2014 and basically had everything replaced on it hence why I am skeptical of the car the OP is looking at
roblab
Active Member
Or not. You might be right about the 3, but the S might be a great car. If the buyer goes in looking for weak points, and gets a good price, it's the same with any car. Things might go wrong any time, even with a new one, but I doubt one should expect a "world of hurt." I've owned two Ss with over 100,000 miles on them, and they ran fine. Never had any "warranty replacements", never had any service. No oil changes, no filters, no lube jobs (!). Never experienced any "world of hurt." Never visited the dealer except to look at the new models.
And warranty replacements would still be under warranty, right? You might be right that the 3 would be safer, but you've no guarantee. You sound like a fear monger, or at least someone who has little experience with owning high mileage Teslas. My experience doesn't agree with your pronouncements.
8 years unlimited miles. 2013 + 8 = ?
I have a 170k mile 2013 model s with more issues than it was worth, documented across this forum for 5 years. I'd never ever buy a pre '15 S, and likely never another Tesla again.
He will have door handle failures yearly
a DU swap if it hasnt already.
an MCU swap if it didnt get it already.
leaking IC if they handle the MCU for him.
soft awful paint.
LED failures on the tail lights from water intrusion
DCDC failures right around that mileage range.
depending on the pack serial number he might run into severe degredation issues
poor unadjustable rear camber which causes you to eat tires
and if hes ever hit, kiss the car goodbye for like 3+ months even for minor repairs.
Yes a world of hurt. What years were your S's? Tesla has had the luxury of @#$ing early adopters for some time now. Its been a "fun" ride.
roblab
Active Member
Everything??? I owned a 2012. Drove it over 100,000 miles. The only thing that ever happened was that I had one inverter (there were two) go out, which was replaced under warranty with no problems. Your skepticism may be well grounded in your experience, but your experience may be unusual.
I'd like to find out how many "old" Teslas have died on the side of the road, or anywhere else. My experience says Teslas are reliable. Whenever buying a used car, old or new, one should expect some outlays for repairs, but at least with Teslas there are far fewer of these than with any gas car. And I've seen a lot of gas cars with over 150,000 miles on them. Some on their second or third engine.
I like many others on this forum have had many issues with older gens (already having problems with my 2021) so I would say I am not the only one. I am not trying to scare away the OP either but just giving the advice of maybe picking a slightly newer gen which will probably be more reliable.
My previous S never broke down but it definitely wasn't reliable in my books. Don't want to get into the ICE car reliability vs EVs but just helping the OP out so they don't possibly end up in a money pit.
roblab
Active Member
No
No
No
No
Never a problem
Water never caused problems
And, what is that pack number that "must" be avoided?
Never a problem on my two cars, both with over 100,000 miles.
Obviously you need to switch to Hondas. I am what some people call and "earlier" adopter, and I've never been @#$ed in any way by owning an early model Tesla. I will give you that when my car was hit in a parking lot it took a whole WEEK to get parts. WAS I EVER UPSET!! Well, no. But then, I live in CA, about 100 miles from the factory, though with trucks one can get parts quite readily all over the country.
I feel your experience was unusual, that you expect too much from a new car company (which is just 20 years old), and love to fear monger. But Honda is a nice, safe car that, unfortunately, pollutes a bunch and needs to visit the gas station every now and then, and needs oil and filter changes every few thousand miles, while Teslas charge up in your own garage at night and need virtually no service. Teslas are quicker and quieter, too., But with all your concerns, Honda may be your best bet. Or Toyota! Or Ford or Chevy! Doesn't sound like you're ready for electrics.
roblab
Active Member
Your worry about buying a money pit is interesting. Any gas car is a money pit, and any car might have issues, but electrics have fewer problems for no other reason than that they are simpler. And you say your S never broke down but wasn't reliable. Interesting. My cars were always reliable and they never broke down either.
Oh, well, I'm done. I highly disagree with your telling prospective buyers how their prospective purchase MIGHT be a problem. But I've said that.
Hm lets look at brands like Toyota that run for hundreds of thousands of kms with absolutely no issues. Have you seen where Tesla sits in terms of reliability in consumer reports? How does reliability = breaking down? Sure if I hadn't fixed some of the issues early on the car would've eventually broken down.
Not trying to invalidate your experience with your car, just giving the OP my input neither is it false. Like you said "I highly disagree with your telling prospective buyers how their prospective purchase MIGHT be a problem" I could easily go and say I highly disagree with you telling perspective buyers that they will have no issues at all!
This is why the OP started this thread, to get everyone's input good or bad. All of the claims I have made can be backed up by service records too, so what's the harm giving my input?
davidc18
Active Member
As the OP is still a student I would strongly suggest finding out how much insurance is going to be, before buying any Tesla.
Thanks guys. I pay 205 a month for my challenger. (Rebuilt v8 @ 19) I will put some more research in and hopefully wait for a model 3 to drop in price.
Sounds like you live on the investor and fun forums and not the problem areas of the site. Here are basic searches with thousands of threads for each of the listed issues. You literally know not what you speak of, or you choose to ignore the thousands of people who have had issues on here. One of which is so great the NHTSA forced Tesla to do something about it.
I don't need to fear monger, I paid 92000 for a car and got one of the worst customer service experiences of any product I'd ever purchased. I've owned this electric far longer than you, I believed in the vision while you were unsure. I've given them good grace, patience and understanding, and even fixed some of these things myself. Tesla's reputation as a company who takes care of their vehicles post purchase is in the toilet and its no secret anymore, just stings that it took so long for everyone else to see it while folks like me were being treated poorly
Think of the associated costs of repairs and determine if you can stomach owning out of warranty...
HV Battery = $20,000-22,000 (
Drive Unit = $10,000
Sunroof Update = $2,500
Those are the three major repairs that the Teslas of that generation will have at some point in their life. It does not matter if the car has 10,000 miles or 100,000 it is out of warranty. If you cannot afford to repair/replace those parts, then look for something with warranty (2021 - 8yrs). So you should stay away from 2012, 2013, and instead look at late 2014 and above (2015+ ideally to buy yourself some time).
HV Battery = $20,000-22,000 (
Drive Unit = $10,000
Sunroof Update = $2,500
Those are the three major repairs that the Teslas of that generation will have at some point in their life. It does not matter if the car has 10,000 miles or 100,000 it is out of warranty. If you cannot afford to repair/replace those parts, then look for something with warranty (2021 - 8yrs). So you should stay away from 2012, 2013, and instead look at late 2014 and above (2015+ ideally to buy yourself some time).
AMPd
Well-Known Member
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
You may want to Google MTBF, Mean time between failures - Wikipedia for a better understanding of the subject.
Okay.. but then how does this explain my 2014 P85 needed continual fixes?You may want to Google MTBF, Mean time between failures - Wikipedia for a better understanding of the subject.
FlatSix911
Porsche 918 Hybrid
The key point is this... if the major components on this 2013 Model S have not failed in the first 50K miles, the probability is lower for subsequent failure.
Those cars that fail early like your 2014 P85 may require more frequent repairs.
While this may be true, the dollar amount for the out of pocket expenses won't change. So either way, the owner of an out of warranty Tesla just needs to be aware of the potential costs when something does fail.
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