Socal Burbank Service Center Joyride and BS explanation for spikes?

[Cricket88]

Dropped off my new P100D (took delivery on 5/5) at the Burbank Service Center on 05/15 for some front bumper re-finishing (due-bill related work) and for my alignment which was off on delivery.

They disclosed they outsource the bumper work to a local body shop (less than 1mile away) so I knew they'd be driving the car to/from.

Picked up my car on that Friday 05/19 and went on my way. I noticed they drove the car 8 miles or so but didnt really think much about it. A ways down, I took a look at the history and this is what showed up. I brought it up to the attention of the service manager/foreman at the service center and their explanation of the record is that its normal and routine for them to drive aggressively when verifying alignment and as he stated "to look for any clunking or irregularities in the suspension, etc). Does that sound like a reasonable explanation? My BS meter was going off, but it seems they brushed it off as "normal". I was already talking to the manager, so I am not sure who else I could get involved in this matter. I'm not really looking for any particular type of compensation, but it concerns me that they don't think its a "big deal"... Thoughts? Am I over-reacting?

At first, he asked when I took the photo, and I thought i took it around the corner from the dealership, and based on that answer, the service manager immediately stated that it looks like those spikes occured BEFORE i dropped off the vehicle... however as I left, i remembered that the photo gets geo-tagged and turns out it was actually taken about 8 miles after I left the service center... which makes sense because I was pretty much in bumper-to-bumper traffic leaving the service center.

So basically they took the car for a 6 mile alignment check if you dont include the 2 mile roudtrip to/from the body shop. What do you guys think...

 

[Az_Rael]

Mine always looks like that upon picking my car up from the Burbank location. I have always been bringing in issues that require test drives (noises, etc), so I haven't thought much of it. I figured it was legit testing

Those guys get to drive Teslas all day long, I don't know why they would joyride.

 

[Lloyd]

I would not be concerned.

 

[JPUConn]

I completely appreciate your concern as the car is your new baby but I wouldn't worry. I never let anyone (including dealer service) drive my Viper out of fear of them getting killed or damaging the car. With the Tesla the cars were designed to be driven. After you have more seat time in the car as your own I'm sure you'll be giving test drives to friends and encouraging them to hit the accelerator.

Another plus is (at least at my SC) I always leave with a higher SOC than when I arrived. Never brought my ICE car in for service and left with more gas...

And no disrespect, but if you are concerned with spikes on the energy chart you should have gotten a 60D and not a P100D

 

[Tam]

...those spikes...

I got heavy energy consumption graphs each time I picked up my car from different Service Centers for the past 5 years for my older 2012 Model S and I am fine with that.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Relax.

 

[JasJ]

You should see the energy spikes when they loaned me a P when I do not have a P MS.

 

[demundus]

Wouldn't you want them to test everything on the car they can think of before returning it to you? If they wanted to joyride, I'm sure they woulda picked one of the other 100 teslas sitting in the shop for service, loaners, delivery vehicles, etc;

Totally normal.

 

[Mike K]

Two part reply:

Part 1: Burbank sucks. Literally every single thing they've done, be it service or sales has been a train wreck. Two exceptions: One was a service advisor (Beau) who was honest about the short comings of Tesla's process and busted his ass to make sure the guys fixed what they broke (and they often broke more than they fixed). Unfortunately he's apparently no longer there. The other exception was Will who again handed me back a car that was not fixed properly and not cleaned but went above and beyond to be accomodating none the less. I don't know if it's this location or if it's just Tesla in general but the process, be it sales or service, seems to be severely lacking.

Part 2: As much as I want to blame this on Burbank sucking, these guys aren't out joyriding your car. Once you've driven one P100D you've driven every P100D and if you're doing it daily you're not even remotely impressed or looking to see what it can do. One of the best ways to check the suspension is by loading it. There's nothing about the explanation that seems sketchy to me.

 

[Cricket88]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'm just not understanding why they would need to drive it "aggressively" for an alignment check. It's a new car and I didn't ask them to check for clunking / suspension noises etc. but if the graph is not a depiction of someone "romping" on the car, then I suppose it's "normal" procedure.

 

[Cricket88]

but if you are concerned with spikes on the energy chart you should have gotten a 60D and not a P100D

Not so much concerned with spikes on the chart. Concern is someone else creating those spikes without my knowledge or consent. Maybe I don't understand the depiction of the chart itself and whether it illustrates whether the car is being "romped" on or not. The only thing that came into my mind was: Ferris Bueler and the valet guy... "trust me I'mma professional"

 

[Az_Rael]

Part 1: Burbank sucks. Literally every single thing they've done, be it service or sales has been a train wreck. Two exceptions: One was a service advisor (Beau) who was honest about the short comings of Tesla's process and busted his ass to make sure the guys fixed what they broke (and they often broke more than they fixed). Unfortunately he's apparently no longer there. The other exception was Will who again handed me back a car that was not fixed properly and not cleaned but went above and beyond to be accomodating none the less. I don't know if it's this location or if it's just Tesla in general but the process, be it sales or service, seems to be severely lacking.

Yeah, I always feel like Burbank is trying to dismiss my problems when I bring them in. I will say its doing something, and they will be all, I am sure that's normal, instead of saying "yes, we will check that out". Will is pretty good though.

Is Van Nuys better? I hate their location so far off the freeway so I don't go over there.

 

[xyeahtony]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'm just not understanding why they would need to drive it "aggressively" for an alignment check. It's a new car and I didn't ask them to check for clunking / suspension noises etc. but if the graph is not a depiction of someone "romping" on the car, then I suppose it's "normal" procedure.

Perhaps they had it on some sort of dyno or something. I mean when i first got my model S, the average consumption was like 750wh/mi. A Tesla service center sees many different Teslas everyday and has access to numerous loaners and showroom vehicles. Dont think your car is special enough for them to go "whoa! lets go have fun with this!"

 

[SomeJoe7777]

This is normal after any service, even if they don't drive the car at all. Here's what happens:

• They drive the car into the shop to do the work.
• While doing the work, they typically leave the doors open and have the A/C on so that the interior of the car is more tolerable for working on it. This uses energy.
• If they work on it for an hour, and the A/C is consuming say 4 kW, that uses 4 kWh from the battery.
• The Tesla energy graph algorithm can't display this energy use, because the car hasn't been driven anywhere.
• The next time the car is driven, the energy graph algorithm uses about 5-10 miles to "distribute" the backlog of consumed energy among the miles that are now being driven, making the Wh/mile values for those miles artificially high.

Yes, they drove the car, but the car really wasn't using 600 Wh/mile on those miles. It was using like 350-400, and the algorithm was then distributing an extra 200 Wh/mile to those miles to clear the backlog of used energy while it was sitting still in the workshop.

You'll frequently see the same thing yourself if the car's been sitting for several hours. Your first 5 miles driven will show up with an abnormally high Wh/mile because the algorithm is distributing the backlog of vampire drain to those miles. You can also see it if you've been sitting in creeping traffic for a half hour on a hot day with the A/C running. Once you clear the traffic jam, the next few miles will show extra energy that the A/C used while the car was covering very little distance.

 

[skip8jj]

Samejoe, Thanks for the detail above. I have noticed the increases as noted below too.

• "The Tesla energy graph algorithm can't display this energy use, because the car hasn't been driven anywhere.
• The next time the car is driven, the energy graph algorithm uses about 5-10 miles to "distribute" the backlog of consumed energy among the miles that are now being driven, making the Wh/mile values for those miles artificially high."

 

[tezzla]

Tesla service people have access to p100d's every day, loaners & cars in for service. I seriously doubt they'd risk their jobs to "joyride" in a customer's car.

 

[McRat]

The car is AWD. The front alignment can be affected by strong acceleration, especially the toe.

Personally I'd want to verify the alignment is still good after stressing the fronts.

 

[grigory1]

I had the same happen to me at the Burbank Service Center.

Except, when I went to pick up my car, it had curb rash on one of the rims, and scratches on the rear bumper.
While the car was in their possession, before they started work on it, the battery went down from 77% to 52%. And when I asked them, they gave me the "Car cooling the battery" spiel. How did the car cool itself for 25% battery, and why is the rim and bumper damaged.

To anyone saying "Relax", this is not OK. I payed a LOT of money for this car, babied it, and had a coating on. Now I have to remove the coating, have the bumper painted. And these cars are SO expensive to fix.

 

[T3slaMecca]

This is from City Collision Center that was outsourced by Tesla Costa Mesa Service center..

Yeah I'm not understanding the "relax" "it's ok" sentiment.. my car was taken for a joyride for about 5 miles.. it went from 160 miles left in the battery to 43 miles.. (I know some of the miles are because it was left outside, but there was a significant drop in miles when it was returned to tesla service center)

I'm going to check later the consumption.. I'm not understanding why they'd have to test the car when it was a body issue.

I've a feeling that it's tough for others to understand this issue when it's not happening to them. I mentioned this to a friend and he joked about it -- gave me a bit of a crappy feeling.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I had the same happen to me at the Burbank Service Center.

Except, when I went to pick up my car, it had curb rash on one of the rims, and scratches on the rear bumper.
While the car was in their possession, before they started work on it, the battery went down from 77% to 52%. And when I asked them, they gave me the "Car cooling the battery" spiel. How did the car cool itself for 25% battery, and why is the rim and bumper damaged.

To anyone saying "Relax", this is not OK. I payed a LOT of money for this car, babied it, and had a coating on. Now I have to remove the coating, have the bumper painted. And these cars are SO expensive to fix.

Why do you have to do those things? Tesla should do the repair on its dime, including paying for the re-application of any coatings.