In our case the Tesla service is vastly more expensive than the service for a Mercedes S Class on certain years (which makes absolutely no sense). The S class needs service once a year and on some years it calls for little more than an oil change. We are able to get these "small services" done at the Mercedes dealer for less than $200, less than 1/3 what Tesla charges to maintain the Model S on those odd years that require very little to be done.
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Prepaid vs. Pay-As-You-Go Service Plans: The Financial Analysis
- Thread starter gordo
- Start date
In our case the Tesla service is vastly more expensive than the service for a Mercedes S Class on certain years (which makes absolutely no sense). The S class needs service once a year and on some years it calls for little more than an oil change. We are able to get these "small services" done at the Mercedes dealer for less than $200, less than 1/3 what Tesla charges to maintain the Model S on those odd years that require very little to be done.
smsprague
Member
That's really odd. Do you have only 1 Mercedes dealer in your area? We have 3 plus an absolutely reasonable independent Mercedes shop. So there is plenty of competition. Our A Services are just around a couple of hundred dollars. We learned a small trick early on in our Mercedes ownership experience. Do you let the dealer just quote you whatever they want to charge or do you go by the service book? We saved a bunch by telling them to do only what is requested to do on the owner's manual. Things like cabin filters we change ourselves in about 5 minutes and it saves us about $50 right there.
It's interesting that our Mercedes dealer let's us pay for a la carte what we need to have services at a reasonable cost where with Tesla whether you do the most basic service or the most involved service, they still charge the same very high amount.
The comparison with Mercedes is further worsened by the fact that Mercedes have constant specials going on where they cover the scheduled maintenance for 3 years. Even for CPO cars, they cover 2 years of scheduled maintenance under a current special. Price wise it is not a good place to be when Mercedes starts to look far cheaper
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Nope we live in Chicago suburbs. Maybe I was just a naive Mercedes owner. When they said it was time for Service A, B or C we simply said OK. Do what is called for. This with the poor reliability of the car means never going back to Mercedes. We also were never happy how they didnt wash the car when we brought it in. When we had BMW and Lexus cars in the past whenever we dropped the car off for service we always got it back with a fresh wash and vacuum.
Ah you got taken in with the Mercedes A, B, C, letters game
They make it vague like that so people just say yes just do it. I had a PDF of the owner's manual and I did all my services a la carte and following to the letter what was required by the owner's manual. To the credit of my Mercedes dealer, they had no problem doing that and charging me only for the work performed and this is what is so disappointing with Tesla's approach as you have no option to do that. This is why I've said this is odd as Mercedes dealers are notorious for screwing people over for money but in this particular case with how services are performed and paid for, it makes our Mercedes dealer seem quite reasonable compared to what Tesla charges and the lack of flexibility to pay for the actual work performed.IMHO on years that call for very little to do be done you are wasting a good part of that $600.
I didn't mean to take over this thread with a discussion on how Tesla's service approach and cost compared to Mercedes but I think it is relevant to some extent. Based on my financial analysis I think you should either pay for all 4 services if you plan to keep the car for at least 4 years or if you are paying per each service you are likely better off doing the Tesla service every other year or once every 25,000 miles assuming your brakes, and tires are in good condition.
brucet999
Active Member
??? Will you expand on that please? Somehow the Toyota dealer doesn't know how much oil to put into a Prius?
smsprague
Member
kuttakamina
Member
Tesla should just raise the price of the car, and offer free service once a year - just like they offer free superchargers. Its not like people are not gonna service their pricey Teslas. If anything, it will guarantee every car on the road is meticulously checked (for an included price), and it improves the general perception.
This is what BMW does, and it works well for them.
Personally, I will get 4 years of service at 475 each and use it once a year. 4 years later, I'll ride my luck.
BTW, definitely count me amongst those who feel Tesla's services are overpriced and really go against the "EV is simple and therefore less maintanence" tagline. $600 for a service is ********.
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<-- I'd love to know as well. Most other car manufacturers try to sell you the 4+ years at a higher price than what you'd pay for brand new with 8 years.
This is what BMW does, and it works well for them.
Personally, I will get 4 years of service at 475 each and use it once a year. 4 years later, I'll ride my luck.
BTW, definitely count me amongst those who feel Tesla's services are overpriced and really go against the "EV is simple and therefore less maintanence" tagline. $600 for a service is ********.
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<-- I'd love to know as well. Most other car manufacturers try to sell you the 4+ years at a higher price than what you'd pay for brand new with 8 years.
brucet999
Active Member
I'm inclined to do just the even years. Wiper blades will last two years anyway.
kuttakamina
Member
What about tire rotation? I don't feel comfortable handing over a 100k car to a Volkswagen mechanic. And tires need rotation every 5k miles, the first rotation is at 1.5k miles.
smsprague
Member
brucet999
Active Member
Actually, after the first rotation, you can rotate every other cycle.
Assume ridiculous case where fronts wear twice as fast as rears; so 5,000 mi you rotate; now rears are 50% worse than fronts. At 10k mi, tire wear has evened out, so no need to rotate. At 15k mi fronts are again worn twice as much as rears, so rotate. At 20K, tires have evened out again, so no rotation. And so on.
I haven't yet worked out how to synchronize that with even-year service though.
tliving
Member
The thread seems to have mixed comments on extended warranty vs service plans. But as a higher mileage driver (30K miles/year) I think the following:
1) Pre-paid service plans are not worth it as written. There are informal statements about them just prepaying for 4 "annual" services but the written paperwork doesnt say that.
2) Extended warranty - after 30k miles things are still breaking, leaking etc. Small things but i'd hate to have to pay for things like ball joints (which should never fail) etc just because quality control on a few odd bits was wrong. My understanding is 20K miles from now i'd be paying for all these things that shouldn't be breaking. Seems like the extended warranty is a no brainer.
1) Pre-paid service plans are not worth it as written. There are informal statements about them just prepaying for 4 "annual" services but the written paperwork doesnt say that.
2) Extended warranty - after 30k miles things are still breaking, leaking etc. Small things but i'd hate to have to pay for things like ball joints (which should never fail) etc just because quality control on a few odd bits was wrong. My understanding is 20K miles from now i'd be paying for all these things that shouldn't be breaking. Seems like the extended warranty is a no brainer.
Absolutely. I can't imagine owning a Model S out of warranty.
Given that the cost of serving is already more expensive than at our Mercedes dealer, I'd hate to know the cost of repairs out of warranty, especially considering that all parts must come directly from Tesla and only Tesla can work on the car.
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