Seeking opinions and recommendations post-repair strangeness

[jwtseng]

My Tesla Model S was rear-ended back in Aug 2018. Since the car was still drivable, I waited almost a full-month before Brooks Motor Cars of Walnut Creek, CA was able to get all the parts in from Tesla. On Sept 18, 2018, I deposited my Model S to Brooks for repair. After 129 days and an insurance cost of almost $37k, the car was repaired. Since I was at work yesterday (Friday) and wouldn't be able to pick up the car during business hours, I arranged to have the car parked outside in the parking lot of Brooks.

Today, I went to go pick up my car, and I happily drove off. As I headed for home I was poking around on the screen and noticed that the odometer read 39908 miles....and I confirmed on all the paperwork that the car was at about 33400 miles when I deposited it with Brooks for the repair. Frankly, I'm kind of shocked. They originally estimated 48 days for the repair, and when it went past that timeframe I did not receive any definite answer for why the repair was taking such an extended amount of time. Now I see more than 6000 miles put on the odometer since I dropped the car off at the body shop, and I'm not thinking very nice things.

I can't contact Brooks Motor Cars because they aren't open on the weekend, but before I contact them on Monday.... What do you all think? What recommendations do you all have? I'm right to be outraged, right? Is there any reason why there should have been 6000 miles put on my car during repair....maybe calibrating things or something??? Please, give me a reason to not be so upset!

 

[Damager99]

That is outrageous, honestly. You have every right to be upset. The only reasonable resolution would be for them to acknowledge the issue, put in place some process to avoid it in the future, and pay you a fee per mile for the usage. You should also make sure you add comments on BBB and Yelp about this experience.

 

[GreenT]

I know nothing about them but my only concern is that ... are you positive it was 33400 when you dropped it off?
Reason I ask is that a 3 and 9 can be very similar?
Remove the top left vertical?
If you are sure ... that would be, IMO a criminal complaint.

 

[Nick B]

Honestly you should call them first and if the answers don't make sense then file a complaint. Maybe they did not right he initial mileage correctly?

 

[BerTX]

If nothing else, Tesla knows when and how much the car was driven.

 

[jwtseng]

Yeah I am positive that the odometer was in the 33400 range when I dropped it off. I had been planning to rotate my tires at 35k. When I saw the odometer at 39900 this morning I was surprised and doubted my own recollection until I further checked my original insurance claim as well as the mileage listed in the body shop intake form. Yep, no doubt...over 6000 miles added to the odometer.

I called Tesla to ask about the possibility of getting some sort of log of charging times and locations, but they were not helpful. I’m gonna poke around the maps app some and see if there are any clues.

So mileage reimbursement is the most I can ask for? What about depreciation of value? I mean, 6000 miles at the very least eats Into warranty and stuff.

 

[jwtseng]

If nothing else, Tesla knows when and how much the car was driven.

I’ll try to pursue this angle more. My initial calls into Tesla were not helpful.

 

[BerTX]

I’ll try to pursue this angle more. My initial calls into Tesla were not helpful.

At one point, there was supposed to be an app for owners to read the black box data after an accident. I don't know if that ever became reality or if it was available for any reason other than an accident. More likely it was just an Elonism.

 

[Doanster1]

First see what the shop says/how they react. I always take a pic of the mileage before I drop any car off for service out of fear for this exact scenario. If they deny it and you’re absolutely positive, make a report with the police, which will def help you get data from Tesla. You don’t even need specifics, just data that shows mileage steadily increasing over the days/months.
Easy check... have you gone over the “last destinations” list on the nav? What do the trip computers say? I’d pop a fuse if my car gained 6K miles while under possession of a shop. I also would’ve checked in with the app daily to see where the car was, whether it was locked, etc.
Good luck!

 

[ibdb]

There is a way to check previous charging locations in the car. Might tell you something more. From the manual:

"Touch the map's charging icon to display all nearby charging stations of the map. In addition to the Superchargers that are always displayed, the map shows destination chargers and any public charging stations that you have previously used. Display details about a charging location by touching its pin."​

 

[Damager99]

Also - consider (for the future) subscribing to a service like Teslafi. It will log everything and let you review the history. I had a situation where I used a valet service to keep my Model S while doing some business travel. I logged into Teslafi a few days into my trip and saw that someone from the valet company had taken my car for a 10 mile ride a few days later. I was able to take a screenshot, send it to the company owner, and it was a no-brainer for him to make it right.

As far as the usage miles, I'd set the "per mile" rate high enough to include all costs you think are reasonable. The business owner has zero to stand on, so as long as you are reasonable, he/she should take care of it.

 

[KyleDay]

6,500 miles!!?? Holy crap.

Did you never connect to your t and check on it?

 

[jwtseng]

Of course one of the first things that happens when I bring my car in for service is that they turn off Mobile access and also disconnect power to the dashcams.

I put another call into Tesla and a helpful rep is pulling the car logs for me. He could already see in the last 10 days the mileage driven (minimal), so he thinks that the extended logs will shed light on the 6000 missing miles. I also inquired about pushing 9.0 software and he said that it looks like my car was taken off the OTA network (different from just not being on a WiFi network for updates) on Sept 18, which coincides with the day i brought the car in.

 

[David.85D]

Hope you figure it out. It will be hard to set a fair value on the miles.

Some ideas:

The IRS reimbursement rate of 54.5 cents per mile for 2018. That gets you to $3500 without even trying.

If you can figure out how many days the car was used, then look to Turo for daily rates on Teslas.

 

[Vitold]

Hope you figure it out. It will be hard to set a fair value on the miles.

Some ideas:

The IRS reimbursement rate of 54.5 cents per mile for 2018. That gets you to $3500 without even trying.

If you can figure out how many days the car was used, then look to Turo for daily rates on Teslas.

With this many miles...maybe this car was on Turo.

 

[mvotb]

If you can show that the suspicion is true, they owe you a bunch a money. That mileage is practically across the country and back. Let us know what happens either way.

 

[PhilDavid]

Hope you figure it out. It will be hard to set a fair value on the miles.

Some ideas:

The IRS reimbursement rate of 54.5 cents per mile for 2018. That gets you to $3500 without even trying.

If you can figure out how many days the car was used, then look to Turo for daily rates on Teslas.

The IRS deduction is the same if you were driving Corolla so it does not take into account the depreciation of a high end car.

I'm still hoping the OP somehow made a mistake with the mileage assumption as otherwise it is totally outrageous. I think the proper reimbursement would be about $.60 to $1 a mile, based on the age of the car.

 

[KyleDay]

So what became of this?