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Roadster Future - Time for a Wake Up Call?

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Just went through another bad experience at Palo Alto service. From putting the wrong TPMS sensors, through waiting four months for a wiper arm, to picking up a dirty, damaged car. Could go on but will leave it at that. Hard to imagine this is a Palo Alto service specific problem and since my experience there with Model S and two Model 3s service has been completely different, I can safely conclude that Tesla is not doing what it should to maintain these amazing cars and provide us the service we and the car deserve.

Finding a third party solution is unacceptable to me and I truly believe that sooner or later Elon Musk will personally see to that Roadster owners get the best possible service. The math is very simple, servicing a Roadster should fall under marketing budget since as much as we enjoy driving these cars, the benefit to the Tesla brand, from us driving the Roadster on the roads, is much, much bigger. Ten years after launch, these historical, hand assembled cars still look and drive the same as the day they left the show room. Ten years later, there’s still nothing else like it!

The question is, how can we as a community get Tesla to notice us sooner rather than later?
 
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When your knocking out over 5000 cars a week. Admittedly at a small profit margin. How much devotion can you really give to 2000 vehicles. I hope I’m wrong but other than vague hopes and promises for upgraded battery packs, what exactly does the future hold. I feel lucky I have faith in my SC but they know their limitations. I just called just in case they had a vacuum pump. No dice and at $1200 they felt I could probably look and find it cheaper. They could get one in in 4-6 weeks. That’s going to be the standard now. When I was building for 100E’s we always had a spare parts car for that part you just couldn’t buy or had to modify on each conversion. That may be what we end up doing, buying the cheapest between a few owners to have a car to harvest from.
 
@Onepointfive I think you need to rethink your perspective on what is acceptable. Taking your car to Tesla SC and leaving it for 3-4 months while they get parts is not an option I'm taking. Tesla may want to keep these original roadster in service, but they just don't have the capability to maintain a knowledge base across all service centers to service a very small population of vehicles and are not keeping spare parts around.

That may be what we end up doing, buying the cheapest between a few owners to have a car to harvest from.
...buying totaled or bricked for salvage parts, having 3rd party (Gruber or Carl or other) take what they can salvage, renting a storage location nearby 3rd party, cataloging what is available, and going from there...could be a reasonable path. Might go against the the "return to service" thoughts from both Gruber and Carl, though...Absolutely need to prevent any roadsters from being sent to scrap before salvaging whatever can be of use...

Having a fund that Gruber/Carl could pull from to buy these salvage roadsters so it doesn't cost them out of pocket and allows them to have parts available to supply our roadsters might be something they would be interested in...they have the most knowledge of part value and car salvage value.

Well, we can still dream about these cars lasting forever.... :)
 
Just got the email below from Tesla. Thank you Tesla and Elon for standing by these amazing cars!

“We appreciate your continued and pioneering support for Tesla. We realize that we need to improve service for Roadster – we are putting in place a dedicated channel to help you with all your Roadster needs. This means dedicated Service Advisors, Service Technicians, and repair centers.”

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Just got the email below from Tesla. Thank you Tesla and Elon for standing by these amazing cars!

“We appreciate your continued and pioneering support for Tesla. We realize that we need to improve service for Roadster – we are putting in place a dedicated channel to help you with all your Roadster needs. This means dedicated Service Advisors, Service Technicians, and repair centers.”

View attachment 484442

There's a thread about that Roadster Service E-Mail

My dedicated SA had little to no Roadster knowledge.

Also, had +7 miles on the ODO when I picked up the car . . . seemed excessive for annual service, but my first since owning the car so not sure of what's typical? :confused:
 
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I have to give credit when credit is due!
Just got the car for back from service at the Palo Alto service center. Seems like Tesla listened to our complaints and is now treating Roadsters the way they deserve to be treated! Service was done professionally and quickly and car was kept well and indoors. Great experience!