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Poll on how many Ranger visits to repair your Roadster

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stenkb

Roadster 938 Model S 5957 Model X ?
Nov 23, 2009
218
14
Lethbridge, Alberta
I would be really interested in having a poll like this set up. Is that possible? I know how many times I have needed repairs/upgrades and wonder if it is the same for others. Thanks.

or is that giving too much fuel for the anti-ev ppl.

Kevin
 
You could do something like this.

How often ranger visits to repair your Roadster? Choose what you feel is near to your experience.
- Never. Everything is fine.
- Once a year. Nobody is perfect.
- 2-3 times per year. Could be worse.
- 4-6 times per year. It's getting boring.
- Once a month. I consider the ranger a family member.
- Almost every freakin' week!
 
How often ranger visits to repair your Roadster? Choose what you feel is near to your experience.
- Never. Everything is fine.
- Once a year. Nobody is perfect.
- 2-3 times per year. Could be worse.
- 4-6 times per year. It's getting boring.
- Once a month. I consider the ranger a family member.
- Almost every freakin' week!
Aren't there enough biased polls in the world with leading questions? What about when the numbers fit the situation, but the emotional reaction is inappropriate?
 
Yeah, I don't think a poll will capture this. For example, the service on my car during its first year (not counting my wearing out the rears; Tesla wasn't involved in the replacement)...

1. Replaced a faulty tire sensor - they conveniently arranged for a local garage to do it (conveniently, my neighbor across the street owns a garage)

2. Recall for backup battery wiring, also did a firmware upgrade and sealed my fogging headlamp while he was here

3. A quick visit for a firmware update (not sure why it was necessary)

3.1 Our Ranger dropped by on his spare time (was in town visiting relatives!) just to check out something slightly funky about my soft top. Wow, above and beyond the call!

4. Fan replacement (technically speaking this happened just after 1 year had passed, but the fan started failing in year 1)

Certainly none of this was an inconvenience. I have found the Rangers to be very friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful people. I took these visits as a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about the car; for example on visit #3 I got some great advice about tires.
 
Dragon I liked your options too, but I know how annoying it is when the description doesn't fit the data. So I think you should start with just the numbers but I think there should be a separate poll for first year and after first year.
 
I've had to go back to Menlo Park to get a faulty tire pressure monitor fixed - I need to go back again because the fault reappeared...doh!
On the plus side, they wash and clean my car so I guess it's not too bad ;)

Augie
 
I had a little piece of gasket on my hard top that popped up and needed a repair, as well as fogged headlights. Two visits total to take care of those. When I recently drove to Madison for Green Drive Expo, I met up with a great Ranger named Tony who duplicated a couple of keys for me (which required replacing a receiver that didn't respond to the new key fobs) and that was pretty handy since I saved over $500 in mileage charges by being so much closer to Chicago. He also upgraded my firmware to allow a J1772 adapter to charge with Coulomb stations. Otherwise, knock on wood, my Tesla has been nothing but joy for over 3000 miles. The charging cables, on the other hand, have been rather wonky. I had a 40A charger go out on me and my 110V charger won't work with GFI-equipped outlets unless I lift the ground... shh! On the other hand, the 70A charging system I modified and extensively accessorized has been a total success!
 
Mine has gone back to Dania Beach to get a leaky window fixed right now (I know I've had the car 3 months now, but we've had hardly any rain). Although the Ranger tried to make adjustments here it just wasn't doing the trick. The service in FL has always been outstanding and they came to collect the car in a trailer and will bring it back that way also. Although I've seen the Ranger twice in three months: I don't feel that it's anything to complain about. (Here's hoping that they fix Mr Foggy Headlights while it's in the store).
 
6 visits in 7 months to cover 15-20 problems. Plus 3 visits to NYC. Within the first 6 months I'd owned it, I was without the car for nearly a month while it was in NYC. Nothing particularly EV-specific. Service and my CA have been very helpful through the process, but it's been a rough go. Despite the issues, I'm still getting a Model S., and have had many long conversations regarding its quality and needing to be able to withstand a better variety of environmental effects. Given they now have people who've worked in the auto industry (and not just electrical & computer engineers), I feel better. It should help they're building it in-house, too.
 
Reading about various problems reported here, I realize that probably 50% of the problems that I have had addressed by service have been things that they asked about. I'm not sure if this counts towards the original question since I have a Tesla Store service department instead of a Ranger. But the wiper blades, headlight fogging, hardtop squeaking, sun visors, and various other problem fixes were actually prompted by a Tesla employee - whether sales or service.

I really get the impression that Tesla Motors staff members care about the quality of the car and really want to fix the blemishes and minor shortcomings.
 
I've really had two Ranger visits. First was to fix fogged headlights (I was told the car would arrive with this fix but was delivered anyway with the condensation in the headlights). They came back out when my air conditioning went out and took the car to Chicago to get if fixed. I've had my car since December. Even with these problems, I still love the car. I hope when Tesla designs their own Roadster from the ground up, it will have less of these problems.
 
I hope when Tesla designs their own Roadster from the ground up, it will have less of these problems.
Tesla Motors did design these headlights from the ground up. That's probably the only reason they're more problematic than other cars.

I'm not sure about the A/C, but I assume it was designed from the ground up, too, since it cools both the cabin and the battery coolant. I'm not aware of any ICE vehicle where the A/C does double duty of cooling anything in addition to cabin air.

I do hope Tesla Motors is able to improve these niggling flaws in future vehicles, including any Roadster 3.0, but none of the above can be blamed on Lotus Cars.
 
^^^
I sorta have the same feeling. A lot of new technology means more chances for failure that gets though testing or becomes too expensive to correct and becomes acceptable or as the store puts it, "within spec".
 
I'm not sure about the A/C, but I assume it was designed from the ground up, too, since it cools both the cabin and the battery coolant...
The compressor and main components were somewhat "off the shelf" items (with a change in vendor between 2008 and 2010 models.)
Having it redirect cooling to pack or cabin was probably somewhat custom.