Peteski
Active Member
When we talk about roadside assistance what do we really mean? When I had to ring I ended up speaking to somebody in Holland, had a chat, remote diagnosis, needed recovery, etc. The recovery truck wasn't Tesla or branded in any way Tesla, it was one of those companies that I think the police use to scrape cars off motorways after accidents and they seemed to offer nothing more than a lift and shift service, there was certainly no attempt to fix the car.
Other makes of car have a contract with the AA or RAC and they do it. There's zero excuse however small or large Tesla is or was not to have a decent contract with a third party recovery service to deal with this. That said, you do have to make allowances for the weather, like many things in the UK we don't gear ourselves for the 3 snowy days a year and I imagine the weather made both travel difficult and a greater call out rate with cars having minor shunts all over the place. The trick is communication, if you know you're not forgotten and that it might take 4 hours at least you can prepare yourself for that. Not knowing is a horrible feeling when you're stranded.
It would be impressive if Tesla had their very own worldwide fleet of private branded breakdown trucks, lol. I’m guessing they just use local contractors for recovery, like the one who delivered our new M3 to home during lockdown. Or the one who towed my dead Porsche to the nearest Porsche centre a few times.
I agree a deal with the AA/RAC would be better. I think that’s what my Nissan had. Anyway the solution is to have your own breakdown cover. It’s not exactly a major cost.