I was told that a local Tesla owner was told by Tesla that the Ranger Service we were promised when we bought our Tesla's for people outside the area was or has been discontinued... Is this really true? If so, I will definitely NEVER purchase or lease another vehicle from Tesla! I was specific about asking this question before purchasing. I hope what I heard was not true.
With given reliability record, removing ranger service would be the beginning of the undoing of the company. IMHO And needless to say, I wouldn't be buying my second Tesla S after that.
They probably are meaning that you can't do the prepaid plans with prepaid ranger service anymore. The people that have those plans of course continue to get ranger service as part of that, but you can't buy them anymore. You can of course still get ranger service, you just have to pay the extra fee for it on a per use basis.
Ranger service has been cancelled in the UK. In fact I don't think it ever actually existed here. People who paid for it when they reserved their cars have had the cost refunded.
We still get Ranger Service here in the New Orleans area since we have no Service Center (and there's no additional charge for the Ranger). Nearest Service Center to us is 365 miles away in Houston.
Let's hope that Tesla isn't going into some kind of cost-cutting phase, because I don't think that would bode well for the future.
The ranger service was offered because tesla didn't have many service centers around during the roadster-days. They will certainly cut down this expensive service now when they have the service center infrastructure in place. You who decide not to buy a Tesla again because of this - it's your loss, tesla will survive without you.
You can't buy the Ranger-included service plans any more. You simply have to pay $100 every time you need a Ranger. A friend of mine was rather surprised to discover this when he upgraded to a D.
Worth noting: Tesla *does not* have the service center infrastructure in place in the US. Still waiting for that; it'll be quite a few years. It's unfortunate that Tesla is no longer selling unlimited Ranger service plans; it basically means there are large swaths of the country where one *should not buy a Tesla*. But I suppose in a few years they will build out the service center network, so people in those places should just wait. (It does mean that rural Canadians and Alaskans shouldn't buy a Tesla period, though. They'll never expand service centers there.) The unlimited ranger plan was a requirement for my purchase due to my location.
You know what - $100 is chump change. (Is that is really all it costs per use). I have a service center 20-25 minutes away. That means if I need service, it is 1.5 hours of my time if I can't coordinate it with other trips. Not to mention a few minutes on drop off and pick up. I might hit some traffic so we can call it 2 hours for the sake of argument. $100 is chump change. If you don't value your time at $50 an hour, maybe you shouldn't be buying a $100k car? But I realize that 2 hours is not torture or lost to oblivion and some people can't increase their "billable hours", but still. The other issue is that an average number of service visits if you had to pay $100 for each one is probably on the order of 3 a year. So $300 a year means you shouldn't buy a Tesla? And of course, ranger visits have a luxury value so that $300 is getting you something pretty nice. Now if ranger couldn't replace a DU and you had to pay X$ in addition, that might get annoying. I see the website says $100 min - well that might be an issue. Looks like valet service is coming - for free. Now we are talking... I suppose a rural Canadian shouldn't buy a BMW either? Certainly not an Aston Martin, Maserati etc. I'd probably buy a Toyota if I was a rural anything - and I mean truly rural. People who live in small areas buy rare cars all the time - they just drive a distance for service. I met someone the other day who had driven 140 miles to service their Smart car. I mean can you imagine dealing with that inconvenience for a Smart car? A Tesla maybe but a Smart car?
How much was it? Perhaps Tesla simply decided the plan had reached the point where they simply didn't want to price gouge people? The first year or so, there was a higher rate of issues, thus an unlimited plan made sense, both economically (for the customer) and for piece of mind. Reliability has increased so the economic argument is now reversed, as has the psychological one. After all, with that package offered, I am sure more and more people are asking themselves "just how often are they expecting the car to need maintenance?". While the service center infrastructure isn't everywhere yet, it is built out a lot more than it was two and a half years ago. The need for ranger service is dramatically reduced. To me, the move makes sense, as long as ranger service is still available, which it sounds like it is.
I'd rather have the loaner anyway and then Tesla usually gives a wash and quick detailing too. I was told I am more than 200km from a service centre so they will bring a loaner right to my door and take my car, then reverse for drop off.
Ok... this came from a friend here where I live and it was exactly what Tesla told him when he called to have the ranger service come to pick up his Tesla Model S for it's 1 year service! He was told to bring the car in and stay over night and pick up the car the following day. They told him the Ranger Service will not go further than 50 miles from the service center. Not made up and not fiction. After he raised a stink with them they agreed to come this time but told him Tesla is looking at changing the Ranger policy... I asked here online to see if anyone else had the same thing come up... I didn't need any of your rude comments. - - - Updated - - - This is exactly what I am talking about... My friend called to pay the $100 ranger fee and was told they will go no further than 50 miles from now on. We live 160 mi + and were told when we purchased the cars they had this service... This was the one concern I had before purchasing the car. That sold me and I made the purchase as did most of the Tesla owners in our city.
Is it possible the service center was confused? The 50 mile limit is for concierge service, not ranger service. - - - Updated - - - I just spotted this on Tesla's web site under the ordering options for service plans: "Tesla Ranger service may be available in your area. Service begins at $100 per visit and increases based on your distance from the nearest Tesla service center." So it isn't going away, but the price is going up!