No more Uber Credits or loaners after warranty expiration

[Vzxyz]

My warranty expires in a few weeks. I have a 4-year annual service planned tomorrow. I was notified by service team of the new loaner/uber credit policy (see screenshots below). Basically, if your $120k car is out of warranty and you bring it in for repairs/service, you will get diddly squat - except for a dirty car upon return No more loaners or uber credits. It is like they are actively trying to piss everyone off.

 

[ucmndd]

This has been the case for a very long time.

 

[Vzxyz]

This has been the case for a very long time.

Never ran into this problem with any of my other cars. Even my 10 year old BMW used to get a loaner vehicles when I brought it in for service.

I can understand not giving out loaners for cheaper/generic cars such as Honda, Toyota, Chrysler or Ford]. Even Chrysler gives me a ride home or arranges for an Uber voucher when I bring my minivan in for service and it has been out of warranty for 2 years.

However, teslas are being sold and advertised as premium vehicles. Completely unacceptable in my humble opinion. But what do I know. I’m sure they’re pinching pennies with the stock market drop

 

[Lukez]

Imo this would be ok if they actually work on your car at the scheduled appointment time. If they get to it when they get to it and not provide any sort of transportation that is a different story.

 

[jjrandorin]

Never ran into this problem with any of my other cars. Even my 10 year old BMW used to get a loaner vehicles when I brought it in for service.

I guess that depends on the BMW dealership, because none of the ones I ever went to in CA offered loaner cars for service out of warranty (unless they were raking someone over the coals for a ton of work perhaps).

I was always leasing them so I was always in warranty, but one of the service writers became my friend after seeing the same one over 12 years or so. He told me they didnt offer loaners for cars out of warranty as a standard practice but they could overwrite it for special circumstances (but he then had to explain those circumstances to his boss).

This is pretty standard practice.

 

[geordi]

I haven't had a warranty at all (bought used) and have not had issues getting the Uber credits, just have to ask.

I'd rather they did the work well though, and not left me each time with ANOTHER issue to resolve that wasn't there before.

 

[ucmndd]

Never ran into this problem with any of my other cars. Even my 10 year old BMW used to get a loaner vehicles when I brought it in for service.

A benefit of the independent dealership model. They have competition and make most of their money on service, so often offer perks like this on THEIR dime, not the manufacturer’s.

In any case, regardless of what others do, the loaner policy at Tesla is long standing. I was told exactly what you were at least 2 years ago.

They do seem to be cracking down on Uber credits lately… I had the, uh, “privilege” of being a fly on the wall at my local service center a couple weeks ago as I waited for my car to be completed. I got to listen to the service advisor tell like 3 different people corporate is “really cracking down” on Uber credits and there was nothing she could do to help. Well, she did offer to call an Enterprise location down the street for one guy to see if THEY would come pick him up so he could rent a car from them at his own expense. That was a great conversation.

 

[whitex]

A benefit of the independent dealership model. They have competition and make most of their money on service, so often offer perks like this on THEIR dime, not the manufacturer’s.

There a couple of reasons why dealers provide loaners for out of warranty cars:

1. They want your business (the reason you stated), but that requires them to price in the loaner into the price of the service, and with easy internet price comparison nowadays, that strategy sometimes backfires as people price shop. So whether or not they do this will depends on the type of consumer - the price conscious get no loaner, though I have seen a local Toyota simply offer loaners for an additional price - this way you can compare service prices against other dealers without the loaner, but if you want a loaner, they have them available for a fee. I very fair solution if you ask me.
2. They want to give you a free test drive, hoping you will buy the car. I've gotten brand new models of the same car I drove while my out of warranty car was in service in the past. Sometimes they even ask me if there is another model I would prefer to drive instead. This usually happens at higher end brands like Lexus, Audi or Porsche, and of course not in today's new car market where they can move anything. Elon used to preach this model for a short time, telling people how everyone who brings in their Tesla for service gets a P100D as a loaner, and can just keep the car if they like it while the car in service becomes a trade-in. It was a nice bullshit story he told on an investor call, but it was never true (ok, I get Elon is a stickler for detail, so I admit that maybe it was true for the 1ms during which he finished telling people that on the investor call, after all he never said it would be true for any duration of time). I left my Model S's in service many times, never once got a P100D as a loaner.

 

[Gumball]

Can only speak for myself here, but after warranty expires, I never got a free loaner, not at BMW, not at Audi. Only free loaners we only got was at my wife’s Hyundai dealer, go figure.

 

[Vzxyz]

I guess it depends on the dealer then. I must have lucked out so far until now. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

 

[PCMc]

This has been the case for a very long time.

This would appear to vary to location. I know in my situation I have been offered Uber service on repairs for my mid-2016 MS90D since my warranty expired.

My most recent experience with this is just 3 weeks ago. I had my car in for replacement of the 12V battery as well as getting my windshield replaced (crack halfway across my windshield). Clearly neither of those are warrantable on a 6 year old vehicle with no extended service agreement. Upon arrival I was asked if I was going to wait on the car or needed transportation. I told them I was going to wait (was expected to be about 3.5 hours). Service advisor went on to say if I needed transportation to go get lunch or something to just let him know and he'd arrange an Uber for me. Exact same scenario made when I had my car in for a door handle repair/replacement about a year ago.

So as much as people expose all the virtues of no dealership model as removing all the variation in service experience out of the equation, that does not fit my experience with my service center versus what others have experienced.

 

[jaguar36]

I've gotten a loaner or uber credits for my out of warranty 2014 recently.

 

[airborne spoon]

my car has been out of warranty for 3 years and every time i take it to the SC they give me a loaner or uber credits. I live 2 hours from the SC so depending on how long the service is they give me whichever is more suitable. There has never been any question on that, i just show up and they say how long its gonna take and i say ok i need a car, or ok ill take uber credits.

 

[golfpilot]

Their new policies are pretty stupid. Just 3 months ago when I had a windshield replaced, they gave me uber credits. That was an out of warranty repair, so this no credits thing is real new. They destroyed the headliner during that install and I went to get it fixed, they only wanted to issue uber credits if I had nothing else done. I also had a couple small items, like the window button being broken, I wanted done at the same time. The service center is 1.5 hours away so it makes sense wanting the work done at once. Telling me I need to drive 3 hours and pay $150 for uber to fix their mistake and can't merge that with other paid work is asinine. They need to re-evaluate their policy. I'm not asking to Uber everywhere I go for 3-4 days, I just want to get home. Issue a $100 credit on drop-off and pick-up days only. and valid for only 1 ride each day. Our Toyota they don't issue any credits or give a car, but they have a service center like every 20 miles.

 

[Tman458]

There is no relation between cost of the car and loaners. In socal, Ferrari dealers do not provide loaners for cars under warranty, let alone out of warranty vehicles.

 

[whitex]

Dealers will usually do whatever they can get away with to make the most money. Contrary to what Elon says, Tesla is just a very large dealer with monopoly on most parts and service, and shared P&L with the manufacturer who puts heavy emphasis on profit - "every penny counts". At least with dealers, there is competition, so if one dealer doesn't give you a loaner, another one might to earn your business. With Tesla service you only have one choice, get it serviced on whatever terms they give you, or don't.

 

[MP3Mike]

Would you want them to raise the price of service to cover the Uber credit or rental car costs?

Personally I would rather manage that myself as I can do it much cheaper.

 

[Vzxyz]

OP here. Sometimes the need for a loaner is due to childcare obligations. I am fortunate enough to have 3 cars (will be soon selling the Tesla- so will be down to 2 cars). When the Tesla is in service for something mundane and takes 3-5 days before the Service center even starts working on it, I didn’t have a kid hauler for 5 days. Taking Uber for 1 day makes sense but taking your kids back and forth to 2 different schools for 5 days using Uber is not my idea of fun. Most of the ICE car service is done in 1-2 hrs of the appointment time unlike Tesla. I literally had to take the car in to the service center because mobile service did not screw in a bumper screw properly (during headlight replacement) and Orlando SC refused to send mobile SC back to fix it at my house.

This was an actual reason we bought our 3rd car. I can only speak for the Orlando SC but Having a Tesla in Orlando is currently a nightmare from a service perspective

 

[ucmndd]

Would you want them to raise the price of service to cover the Uber credit or rental car costs?

Personally I would rather manage that myself as I can do it much cheaper.

Well stated. Loaners and Uber credits aren’t free.

 

[SneepeZ]

Did the MCU 2 upgrade and was given $100/day Uber credit. Car’s out of warranty.