Negativity bias?

[AB4EJ]

I agree with the negativity bias, in the media, they say "if it bleeds, it leads."
Hope all goes well with your car. I also am a long way from service ctr (220 mi.), but after 4 months of ownership (11,000 miles), no problems to report.

 

[STbreaker]

I live about 3 hours from a service center. So far I've had a few easy problems. They sent a ranger to fix it, only had to wait a few days total.

The issues with rattles and fit/finish seem to have improved so hopefully you won't have issues with that. More importantly though, as others have noted, there are very few problems which make the car undrivable, so you can wait for a ranger appointment or "collect up problems" before making the drive to the SC.

 

[fasteddie7]

I live about 3 hours from a service center. So far I've had a few easy problems. They sent a ranger to fix it, only had to wait a few days total.

The issues with rattles and fit/finish seem to have improved so hopefully you won't have issues with that. More importantly though, as others have noted, there are very few problems which make the car undrivable, so you can wait for a ranger appointment or "collect up problems" before making the drive to the SC.

I assume a ranger comes to you, is it a fairly painless process?

 

[alexvirital]

I've had mine for about a month. One problem requiring a trip to the service center, who were professional, courteous, and generally awesome. They drove me to work, ffs, despite being incredibly busy.

Haven't posted much since I've been... y'know... enjoying the car.

I think the negativity bias is absolutely real.

 

[Vitold]

Hi everyone! I take delivery of my model s tomorrow so I have been more aggressively combing through the forums to learn as much as I can, one thing has stood out though: I couldn't help but notice the high volume of posts with nightmarish stories. From autopilot parking crashes and spontaneous acceleration, to service center woes, it honestly makes me a tad nervous. Part of me wants to believe it is negativity bias, where people are more likely to post negative experiences then they are positive ones, but one can only see so many autopark crashes and read so many glitch and "pull over immediately" posts before the brain gets to worrying. My real concern is that I live 243 miles from the closest service center, so any small issue could be a big old pain in the rear. Any others out there who live far from a center care to share experiences, or positive ones in general? Thanks everyone!

With 160000 Tesla's on the road amount of negative news is quite low, especially considering that clicks are guaranteed with Tesla in the title.

 

[Electroman]

240+ miles from the nearest SC. I would be very wary of buying a Tesla. This comes from a someone who absolutely loves his car.

In my 10 months of ownership I had to make two trips - a driver handle that won't open, a window that came fully open by itself and won't close. Both of those conditions forced me to take it to the SC immediately, which is 20 miles away. Just imagine how difficult would that have been for you.

 

[STbreaker]

I assume a ranger comes to you, is it a fairly painless process?

In my 10 months of ownership I had to make two trips - a driver handle that won't open, a window that came fully open by itself and won't close. Both of those conditions forced me to take it to the SC immediately, which is 20 miles away. Just imagine how difficult would that have been for you.

Actually, this is pretty much exactly what happened to me:
- First the driver side door handle broke. It would work intermittently (basically when it wasn't hot outside) otherwise I would have to reach across from the passenger side or the back seat to open it from within. Ranger came and fixed it while I was at work, had to wait about 3 days for an appointment.
- A few days after the door handle was fixed, I noticed the window would go down, but get stuck on the way back up. I kinda pulled on it to help it get up and called ranger service again. Ranger came to my house the next day. Turned out the door handle harness was in the way or something.

Was it annoying? Certainly. But it was definitely not difficult by any means.

Meanwhile I had to take my wife's car to the Honda dealership (which is 5 or so miles away) today and they want to charge almost $1K to drop the engine and drill out a timing belt tensioner bolt that mysteriously broke. Almost $1K to replace a $10 bolt! I can't do it myself and I don't want to risk further damaging the car driving it around to comparison shop. THAT my friends is difficult.

Get the Tesla. There are no timing belt tensioner bolts to break.

 

[davidc18]

Picked up our 70D in May 2015. Had many issues and made many, many trips to the SC. We got to know the staff at Dania quite well (really fantastic people). 27,000 miles later and we just brought home a new P90DL to keep it company. So, I would say that in spite of the issues we had with the 70D (2 minor issues outstanding), we voted with our wallets and purchased another. The car is just a delight to drive. You will love your new Tesla.

 

[fasteddie7]

Ranger came and fixed it while I was at work, had to wait about 3 days for an appointment.
- A few days after the door handle was fixed, I noticed the window would go down, but get stuck on the way back up. I kinda pulled on it to help it get up and called ranger service again. Ranger came to my house the next day.

Will a ranger come 200+ miles to service a vehicle? Or are they from say my local Pittsburgh store that doesn't have a service center? Is there an obscene cost? Or is it reasonable?

 

[kort677]

If you live 243 miles from your nearest service center DO NOT BUY THIS CAR. That is my advice based on experience. DON'T DO IT.

despite being hoodwinked by tesla, they have been promising a local SC for 3 years, I still bought the car and then a second one. the fact that the SC is far away is problematic if you are having minor issues and need to be a regular at the SC. my first tesla had to be flat bedded the 165 miles to the SC twice for major issues, and they had no problems doing that and fortunatel my '15 has been problem free. the car requires so little maintenance that proximity to the service center isn't that big of an issue for me.

 

[STbreaker]

Will a ranger come 200+ miles to service a vehicle? Or are they from say my local Pittsburgh store that doesn't have a service center? Is there an obscene cost? Or is it reasonable?

If you don't live near a service center they try to have rangers available to that area. There are no service centers in MI at all. I'm guessing they are specially trained/certified independent contractors that live in their service area. Since mine have been warranty repairs I haven't had to pay. There is some fee for non-warranty repairs (based on distance I think) but the actual cost is unclear. Seeing as that the handle broke within 2 weeks of having the car, I plan to be under warranty as long as possible.

 

[fasteddie7]

despite being hoodwinked by tesla

How were you hoodwinked? Do you mean by the promise of a local SC?

 

[MXadopter]

I live in the New Orleans metro area and there aren't any service stations for 350 miles. There are 3 Tesla service Rangers in our area that take care of our service needs. Its actually kind of neat to have the direct cell of what feels like my own personal service ranger.

So far I have only had small items to deal with so I have no experience for larger items. (wheel housing trim clip and passenger visor needed replacing.)

 

[RogerHScott]

[Tesla] have been promising a local SC for 3 years,

What form was that promise in? From whom?

 

[Xenius]

Hi everyone! I take delivery of my model s tomorrow so I have been more aggressively combing through the forums to learn as much as I can, one thing has stood out though: I couldn't help but notice the high volume of posts with nightmarish stories. From autopilot parking crashes and spontaneous acceleration, to service center woes, it honestly makes me a tad nervous. Part of me wants to believe it is negativity bias, where people are more likely to post negative experiences then they are positive ones, but one can only see so many autopark crashes and read so many glitch and "pull over immediately" posts before the brain gets to worrying. My real concern is that I live 243 miles from the closest service center, so any small issue could be a big old pain in the rear. Any others out there who live far from a center care to share experiences, or positive ones in general? Thanks everyone!

Hey fellow Pennsylvanian. I've had my S since Aug 11th, and no issues to speak of. So here's my "everything is fine" post. I love this car and the change of thinking/lifestyle that has come along with it. I think I've finally found my drive.

 

[RogerHScott]

here's my "everything is fine" post

Including your dog?

 

[Xenius]

Including your dog?

Well she's a dope as always, but yeah

 

[bonnie]

I've bookmarked this thread to use as a reply to the next few people who post 'don't say anything negative, this is just a fanboy site, they'll eat you alive'.

 

[calisnow]

2016 70D, 14,500 miles and zero issues so far.

 

[Max*]

Everything is fine.