Post Warranty Ownership, Repair Parts, Parts Costs, DIY?

[182RG]

What are the thoughts about post warranty ownership, especially now that the Model 3 is being positioned as a mass marketed car?

I presume S and X owners would be more likely to continue to use the Tesla SC for repair work and parts, as cost *might* be less of a concern. But what about the buyer of a $35 K Model 3, who *might* be more cost sensitive, and seek to DIY a repair?

Has this car changed this paradigm, in that these cars are too technical to be repaired outside of an authorized SC? Or will we be able one day to buy a drive motor at Napa or Pep Boys?

It will be interesting to see what the used market supports when say 7 year old Teslas with 125K on the clock are purchased off the used car lots.

 

[zenmaster]

Really depends what needs repair. All of its software will be hacked at some point. With planned production numbers, there will be a thriving aftermarket.

 

[Az_Rael]

All of its software will be hacked at some point

Hmm, I wonder if we will have to "jailbreak" our Teslas eventually to perform DIY repairs. Disabling auto-updates from the mothership until the next jailbreak release and the car can be safely updated.

Now there is a whole new paradigm for cars!

 

[heysteveh]

I'm curious as to how post-warranty repair costs and long term reliability will effect resale value as Tesla vehicles age. Most older luxury cars out of warranty that I'm familiar with have taken a pretty big hit. Right now Tesla's seem to have a pretty good resale value compared to other cars in their price range. But what happens when a larger number are out of warranty and begin experiencing issues? Will they be expensive to fix? Or will the fact that there is no engine/tranny balance out the repair expense equation in the long run? Will all the high-tech stuff age well or will it become a post-warranty money pit? I know I view post-warranty Mercedes & BMW's as vehicles best avoided due to a combination of poor long term reliability and high repair costs. On the other hand I view most Lexus post-warranty vehicles as potential good buys due to better long term reliability, etc. and I believe this is often reflected in higher resale values as well.

 

[plankeye]

Hmm, I wonder if we will have to "jailbreak" our Teslas eventually to perform DIY repairs. Disabling auto-updates from the mothership until the next jailbreak release and the car can be safely updated.

Now there is a whole new paradigm for cars!

We'll be putting custom roms on our cars.

 

[wbrumfiel]

This part scares me a little. I don't work on cars so I'm not worried about losing that but I also hate going to dealership for out of warranty repairs and generally go to local mechanics or friends. I can see a situation where as the car gets older the costs of having to take it to the Tesla SC can become too much. We dont really know right now though as most of the early Ss are just starting to hit that mark. Not sure what the experience has been for the roadster owners but there aren't really as many of them.

 

[CyberKnife]

This part scares me a little. I don't work on cars so I'm not worried about losing that but I also hate going to dealership for out of warranty repairs and generally go to local mechanics or friends. I can see a situation where as the car gets older the costs of having to take it to the Tesla SC can become too much. We dont really know right now though as most of the early Ss are just starting to hit that mark. Not sure what the experience has been for the roadster owners but there aren't really as many of them.

Someone already figure out how to load gentoo Linux on their model s, I suspect not long until we see mods on the Model 3.

I sure hope model 3 can play video on the center screen console as you see in below video it is pretty awesome.

 

[Mad Hungarian]

Well from what I've read so far on the Model S forum there seems to be the usual little niggly issues that one expects on a relatively complex high end car, the funky door handles being a not surprising one and others like the high failure rate of the 12V battery being a bit odd. There's no question that overall there's way less maintenance than any comparable ICE vehicle. The only thing that scares the ever living hell out of me though is the high number of drive unit failures. Well, "failure" is not technically correct because they don't stop working but they do start to get really noisy to the point where it sounds like it's no longer pleasant to drive (and presumably would eventually fail). The part price alone on this is like $17K, so I sure wouldn't want to be facing that bill when the warranty's up! However it sounds like the company's hard at work on eliminating it with improved replacements and hopefully will have it solved before the first warranties expire.
Now having said all that we know the Model 3 is being built on all the lessons learned in making the Roadster, S and X, and will be somewhat simpler in both design and construction, so hopefully that will also work in our favour when it comes to footing the eventual repair bills. One of the best things in keeping those costs down though is belonging to a community such as this. The Audi forums have been invaluable in helping me run what are known to be budget-eating cars for peanuts over the last 20 years. I expect TMC will be even better when the time comes to turn our own wrenches, or at find qualified and reasonable independent shops.

 

[eloder]

I'd rather have DIY fuel than DIY maintenance.

 

[Matthew Lock]

I live in Nova Scotia Canada, which is over 1200km from the nearest Tesla store/service center. I pre-ordered the Model 3 and I figure that I will be doing DIY repairs out of the gate since I am so far from a service center. I am basically gambling that nothing major goes wrong with the car in the first few years. I'm glad that the car won't have stuff like the auto-presenting door handles or auto opening doors, which seem like the stuff most likely to go wrong. I do wonder how I will deal with things like brakes, tires or wheel alignments. I figure that the handful of owners out here can band together and find one mechanic who can familiarize themselves with the car and hopefully provide basic service until an official service center arrives nearby. Any thoughts?

 

[wbrumfiel]

I live in Nova Scotia Canada, which is over 1200km from the nearest Tesla store/service center. I pre-ordered the Model 3 and I figure that I will be doing DIY repairs out of the gate since I am so far from a service center. I am basically gambling that nothing major goes wrong with the car in the first few years. I'm glad that the car won't have stuff like the auto-presenting door handles or auto opening doors, which seem like the stuff most likely to go wrong. I do wonder how I will deal with things like brakes, tires or wheel alignments. I figure that the handful of owners out here can band together and find one mechanic who can familiarize themselves with the car and hopefully provide basic service until an official service center arrives nearby. Any thoughts?

My thoughts are I wouldn't be buying a new to market car of any kind during the first model year if I didn't have a service center nearby. I wish you good luck.

 

[Matthew Lock]

My thoughts are I wouldn't be buying a new to market car of any kind during the first model year if I didn't have a service center nearby. I wish you good luck.

Well I probably won't be getting the car right away. I ordered after the 300,000 mark, I live in the north east and I probably won't be getting a high spec model. I'm guessing 2019 at the earliest. Hopefully most major production issues will be worked out by then.

 

[182RG]

Any thoughts?

Highly unlikely this is going to be feasible in any way.

First, under warranty, it's unlikely you are going to get a free replacement part that can be installed by you or a local mechanic.

Second, outside of warranty, there is no indication that there is going to be a DIY parts market. There isn't one for the Roadster, S, or X outside of getting parts from salvage vehicles. This is what drove this question. I'm wondering if this paradigm is going to shift, or is this going to impact used car sales of these vehicles, knowing that they are not DIY serviceable.

Third, even if you could get DIY parts, what is the pricing going to be? Are there going to be reman drive units, battery packs, etc.? Only from Tesla?

The key here is what people are willing to accept and expect from a $100,000 car is very different for a $35,000 car. Different price point, different buyer.

Model S and X buyers are very much in the world of "I've had problems, but the Service Centers have been great, I'm grateful to have the car". Let's call this the Early Adopter / Fan Boy segment. Model 3 will start to be very different.

 

[ChooseGreen]

I live in Nova Scotia Canada, which is over 1200km from the nearest Tesla store/service center. I pre-ordered the Model 3 and I figure that I will be doing DIY repairs out of the gate since I am so far from a service center

Firstly, thanks for your reservation Matthew! It is people such as yourself and the early Model S and early Roadster reservation holders that really help the EV movement along. I also very much appreciate it as our family loves to drive out that way and I'm excited for the Supercharger network to extend that far!

Elon did say something along the lines of: if you're in a mid-sized metro area in North America, a service centre will be built there prior to the delivery of Model 3. Halifax may not be massive, but it is the biggest city for quite a ways around. I think/hope that Halifax is on the radar for a Tesla service centre.

While I'm significantly closer to a current service centre (~200 km), I'm hoping that most issues will be repairable by myself or a local ICE mechanic. Things like tires, alignments, brakes, basic interior fixes, basic wiper issues, etc. are all fairly universal. I'm hoping that any niggling issues that are proprietary to Tesla will be minor enough to live with such that an annual or even every two years if everything is going well can fix all of those. My main responsibility will be keeping a list of them such that I don't forget to tell the service personnel about it when I drop it off (i.e. on the way home: "crap, I forgot to mention X. Oh well, they'll address it in another 2 years").

Let the expansion continue!

 

[ChooseGreen]

The key here is what people are willing to accept and expect from a $100,000 car is very different for a $35,000 car. Different price point, different buyer.

Very true. Also a different volume which changes the game a bit.

On that note, The CPO stock seems to have disappeared in both US and Canada. Does anyone know what has happened to those vehicles? Have they all been snapped up? The reason I ask is because that is potentially a source of spare parts. The qualifications to salvage them and properly install them on another vehicle...well that is a different question.

Once the Model 3's are off warranty, there will be many which will be off lease and (I hate saying this) more time and units to have gotten into accidents, fallen victim to significant weather events, etc. I can't think of a precedence for this situation. There must be one. Anyone else?

 

[Matthew Lock]

Firstly, thanks for your reservation Matthew! It is people such as yourself and the early Model S and early Roadster reservation holders that really help the EV movement along. I also very much appreciate it as our family loves to drive out that way and I'm excited for the Supercharger network to extend that far!

Elon did say something along the lines of: if you're in a mid-sized metro area in North America, a service centre will be built there prior to the delivery of Model 3. Halifax may not be massive, but it is the biggest city for quite a ways around. I think/hope that Halifax is on the radar for a Tesla service centre.

While I'm significantly closer to a current service centre (~200 km), I'm hoping that most issues will be repairable by myself or a local ICE mechanic. Things like tires, alignments, brakes, basic interior fixes, basic wiper issues, etc. are all fairly universal. I'm hoping that any niggling issues that are proprietary to Tesla will be minor enough to live with such that an annual or even every two years if everything is going well can fix all of those. My main responsibility will be keeping a list of them such that I don't forget to tell the service personnel about it when I drop it off (i.e. on the way home: "crap, I forgot to mention X. Oh well, they'll address it in another 2 years").

Let the expansion continue!

Thanks for your message and enthusiasm! I am excited to own this car and help push the envelope for electric cars. I am hoping that there will eventually be an Eastern Canada service center and at least superchargers by the time the car arrives.

 

[SageBrush]

I'd rather have DIY fuel than DIY maintenance.

Shouldn't that be MYO fuel -- make your own ?

Pronounced 'Mayo'

Joking aside, I'm looking forward to a much simpler 12v in the M3.
I'm quite pampered by the uber-reliability and ultra-cheap running costs of my Prius cars these last 10 years that I would hate to give up. It is still amazing to me that I have spent about a penny a mile for maintenance and repairs combined over the last decade+

 

[182RG]

On that note, The CPO stock seems to have disappeared in both US and Canada. Does anyone know what has happened to those vehicles?

There are numerous threads in the Model S section. Tesla apparently converted some to loaners, and also unloaded a lot of them for sale by 3rd parties (apparently in a move to generate revenue for reporting purposes).

Apparently, they are starting to come back:

CPO's are Back

 

[ChooseGreen]

There are numerous threads in the Model S section. Tesla apparently converted some to loaners, and also unloaded a lot of them for sale by 3rd parties (apparently in a move to generate revenue for reporting purposes).

Apparently, they are starting to come back:

CPO's are Back

Aha! Thanks for the tip. I'll have to do some digging around there tonight.

 

[Az_Rael]

I just hope the 12V battery will be located in a position that can be changed out easily at a Pep Boys or Sears if I want to. Part of the problem with the Model S is not that any mechanic can't do basic things, its the stuff you have to remove to access the part that can get crazy. The RWD 12V batteries were buried and pretty difficult to remove.