Parts availability? Car has been in for service for 5 weeks.

[Spurkey]

I have a 2013 P85 that I took in for service at the end of May, I got the 12V warning again so I took my car into the nearest service centre. It was time for new tires as well so I asked for those to be replaced, plus there was a dangling piece of plastic on the underbody I wanted looked at. I get a call a couple of days later saying that 1) when replacing the tires they noticed my tie rod ends were rusted and it would be difficult to do a proper alignment. This is the second set of tie rod ends, these cars were just not designed for Canadian winters. I agreed to have those replaced 2) the dangling plastic was from the "battery ski cover", the battery ski being a metal strip running front to back located at the outside edge of the battery on the driver and passenger sides, kinda beneath the doors. They could replace the plastic but the ski was rusted and would need to be replaced since the mounting points for the plastic cover were essentially corroded over - that Canadian winter thing again.

The tie rod ends took *3 weeks* to come in and I'm still waiting for these battery ski things to come in. This is now obscene - tie rod ends are essentially a wear item ie: they will wear out on any car and will need replacement, they should not be hard to come by. The battery ski parts I could understand taking a bit longer as I don't expect those to be damaged very often, but given that it's now 5 weeks later and Tesla *still* cannot give me any sort of delivery date this is now beyond reasonable.

My car is not that old, parts should be readily available for a 5 year old vehicle. I very much hope this isn't an indicator of future service for Tesla. have any of you other old-timers experienced anything like this?

 

[Matt C.]

I have a 2013 P85 that I took in for service at the end of May, I got the 12V warning again so I took my car into the nearest service centre. It was time for new tires as well so I asked for those to be replaced, plus there was a dangling piece of plastic on the underbody I wanted looked at. I get a call a couple of days later saying that 1) when replacing the tires they noticed my tie rod ends were rusted and it would be difficult to do a proper alignment. This is the second set of tie rod ends, these cars were just not designed for Canadian winters. I agreed to have those replaced 2) the dangling plastic was from the "battery ski cover", the battery ski being a metal strip running front to back located at the outside edge of the battery on the driver and passenger sides, kinda beneath the doors. They could replace the plastic but the ski was rusted and would need to be replaced since the mounting points for the plastic cover were essentially corroded over - that Canadian winter thing again.

The tie rod ends took *3 weeks* to come in and I'm still waiting for these battery ski things to come in. This is now obscene - tie rod ends are essentially a wear item ie: they will wear out on any car and will need replacement, they should not be hard to come by. The battery ski parts I could understand taking a bit longer as I don't expect those to be damaged very often, but given that it's now 5 weeks later and Tesla *still* cannot give me any sort of delivery date this is now beyond reasonable.

My car is not that old, parts should be readily available for a 5 year old vehicle. I very much hope this isn't an indicator of future service for Tesla. have any of you other old-timers experienced anything like this?

 

[Matt C.]

Parts certainly do appear to be a problem. I have a 6 months old MS 75D where it took 6 weeks to obtain a new bumper (which Tesla damaged while transporting the car to replace one of the motors). The company is spending so much time and money producing new cars that it seems to have much less interest in taking care of those who have already bought them. I am very torn about my Tesla experience. I absolutely love the car and cannot wait to get into it every single day. However, the company I have far more reservations about. For many of us, once we drive a fully electric car it would be difficult to ever go back to an ICE. However, Tesla will not be the only game in town for much longer.

 

[Spurkey]

The company is spending so much time and money producing new cars that it seems to have much less interest in taking care of those who have already bought them. I am very torn about my Tesla experience. I absolutely love the car and cannot wait to get into it every single day. However, the company I have far more reservations about.

This too is becoming my opinion of Tesla. I still love my '13 P85, quirks and all, and used to happily tell anymore who would listen that everyone should buy a Tesla. My experience with the company stretches back to 2010 when I was actively considering a Roadster, until the S announcement happened and I decided to wait. It's been sad to watch the decline of the quality in service over that time and I've grown weary of Elon's "seat-of-the-pants landing" approach to everything.

To add to this, the Canadian Model 3 AWD order e-mail was sent to me this week and unfortunately I'm much less excited about it than I once was.