Tesla 4 year service plan - do we need it? Is it worth it?

[BertL]

I would offer that when I owned my BMW, yes, in theory there was zero cost for preventive maintenance in the first four years, but in my research before purchasing, I found multiple BMW experts that suggested that was also the most minimal maintenance to keep the vehicle operating during the warranty period BMW had cost liability for -- not what an owner should do if they planned to keep the vehicle for longer duration (like I prefer to).

It's a great argument that BMW has zero maintenance cost for those that lease or perhaps treat the vehicle as a shorter-term disposable asset, but for those owners that purchase and want to maintain a vehicle for a longer term, they may be better served with a more intensive or complete service regime -- although most people acknowledge that the cost to maintain a BMW as they age can become prohibitive for many people. My BMW research and experience is what taught me that if I ever considered buying CPO of any brand in the future, I'd only do it if I could see the complete service history as part of my decision process.

Yes, it's subjective, and I'll say it again -- it's all about how risk tolerant an owner elects to be, the choices we each make, and the consequences that result from our decisions. Good luck to all of us!

...now back to the MS discussion.

 

[HankLloydRight]

BMW M5. ZERO Maintenance cost for 4 years or 50,000 miles. Similar cost, but MUCH better lease rate too.

And you think that's actually free? No, you're still paying for it. You just don't know how much.

 

[rcarpen22]

Someone might have answered this already, but what happens if you do zero maintenance for the first 4 years, and then try to buy the extended warranty a month before the first one runs out? Would they do it so long as you started getting service every year or 12500 at that point? I will probably put 35k miles a year on mine, so according to the Tesla plan, I'd be spending $1500/yr on inspections. I will likely be asking if I can simply bring the car in annually unless something is wrong.

PS, I am not at all risk averse;-)

 

[BertL]

Someone might have answered this already, but what happens if you do zero maintenance for the first 4 years, and then try to buy the extended warranty a month before the first one runs out? Would they do it so long as you started getting service every year or 12500 at that point? I will probably put 35k miles a year on mine, so according to the Tesla plan, I'd be spending $1500/yr on inspections. I will likely be asking if I can simply bring the car in annually unless something is wrong.

PS, I am not at all risk averse;-)

Take a peek at the agreement. I'm no lawyer, but in the agreement available on your My Tesla page after you take delivery (or ask your DS for a copy in advance), I don't remember any unusual conditions for it's purchase beyond it being available up to 30 days after the original warranty expires, then going into effect (retroactively if need be) to the day your original warranty expired, and remaining in effect for the next 4 years or 50K miles, whichever comes first. I would assume, since the agreement has exclusions, you can't put in a claim for something resulting from damage, blatant abuse doing things the Owners Manual says you shouldn't, damage or failures caused by maintenance/repairs by non-Tesla-certified techs, etc.

Of note, as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, with an ESA (extended warranty), if asked, you must be able to present proof you have had "your vehicle serviced as recommended by Tesla" -- which, from the 10-27-2015 V7 Owner's Manual p127 "Maintenance Section" is pretty basic stuff, but does call out brake fluid replacement every 2 yr/25K mi and (traction) battery coolant every 5 yr/62.5K mi - whichever comes first -- (and that battery coolant has all sort of warnings around it in the manuals, IMHO implying it really needs to be done by Tesla, not some DIY or cheap garage somewhere, but again, to each their own with the decisions they make.) In looking more closely at the Owner's Manual again just now to help answer your question, IMHO, folks figuring they will do no PM to their MS, or ones with higher mileage may want to recheck the Maintenance Schedule section of their Owner's Manual so they are making informed decisions to prevent possible future disappointment surrounding any basic warranty claims, as well as for folks like you that may one day consider purchase of an ESA.) Good luck to you.

My suggestion to you is, talk to your Delivery Specialist or a Service Advisor at the SC when you pick up your MS about your high mileage expectation and the way they recommend you proceed with service. Their input is free and may help provide clarity for your situation. Enjoy that MS!

 

[GreenT]

Be sure you are keeping the two agreements separate. You may be getting things mixed-up.

One is for warranty extension that is (in very simplified terms) "for years 5-8, up to 100K miles, costs $200 deductible for each unique problem needing to be resolved, but otherwise covers everything that your basic warranty does beyond the traction battery that already has its own 8-year warranty; this DOES NOT include preventive service" and presently (or at least last month when I paid for it) costs $4K flat fee that can be purchased in the US until 30 days after your basic warranty expires (which is far more liberal in timeframe than any other luxury brand I've ever owned allows). I believe this is what you are considering.
​

Isn't that insane? So if I bring my car in for 5 items to be fixed, I pay out of pocket $1,000 when I have already paid $4k?

 

[HankLloydRight]

Someone might have answered this already, but what happens if you do zero maintenance for the first 4 years, and then try to buy the extended warranty a month before the first one runs out? Would they do it so long as you started getting service every year or 12500 at that point? I will probably put 35k miles a year on mine, so according to the Tesla plan, I'd be spending $1500/yr on inspections. I will likely be asking if I can simply bring the car in annually unless something is wrong.

There have been several communications from Tesla top management about this with other TMC members (they can chime in). The bottom line is that if you buy the 4-year plan, you're just pre-paying for 4 "Annual" inspections @$475 each instead of $600 each. You can use those four inspections in one year if you want, or spread them out however you see fit, but I think you need to use them all within 4 years (i.e you can't buy the 4-year plan and spread it over 8 years, although I'm not 100% sure on that). It used to stipulate that you *HAD* to have the annual inspections done within 100 miles of each 12,500 mile mark, but that was relaxed from said top TM management to be "whenever you want to". I put a little less than 12.5k on my car each year, but I'm still taking it in about the same time every year (late winter).

d then try to buy the extended warranty a month before the first one runs out? Would they do it so long as you started getting service every year or 12500 at that point?

No, I don't think so. The Pre-paid service plan and the ESA are pretty much unlinked (yes, I know the contract says differently).

 

[ChadFeldheimer]

It's a great argument that BMW has zero maintenance cost for those that lease or perhaps treat the vehicle as a shorter-term disposable asset, but for those owners that purchase and want to maintain a vehicle for a longer term, they may be better served with a more intensive or complete service regime -- although most people acknowledge that the cost to maintain a BMW as they age can become prohibitive for many people.

Great point. On makes (e.g. BMW) that are prone to leases, it makes sense to include prepaid maintenance.

I lease my Model S and plan to return it to US Bank at the end of the term. I see no reason to pay for the 4 year service agreement (even if the unused service visits would be refunded). At most, I would do annual service at the end of each of the first two years, then return the car "due" for the next service.

 

[Mike Strauss]

I think it is worth it. If you need to service your car and have to pay for it out of pocket every time it will cost you more than the service plan

 

[BertL]

Isn't that insane? So if I bring my car in for 5 items to be fixed, I pay out of pocket $1,000 when I have already paid $4k?

Yes, I agree. This is a very odd anomaly with the Tesla "extended warranty" unlike what I've encountered with BMW, MBZ or Lexus T&C -- but then again, those 3 mfgrs wouldn't allow you to buy their agreement for 30 days after your basic warranty expires, which Tesla does.

We have no way of knowing for sure what Tesla's logic is doing this, but IMHO, I strike it up to their inexperience as a new mfgr and lack of TRUE (not just desired or what some engineer estimated) confidence with what long-term costs and service exposures may well be, as well as their hedging their bets trying to head-off and financially shift more post-warranty costs away from their own bottom line. (I've read plenty of comments suggesting some customers call, email and go into SCs a lot, and not all those issues result in a real fix of something that was in fact broken. Some have speculated this may be one of the reason some SCs seem to be as swamped as they are -- Tesla trying to be super-responsive to customer service demands under warranty, but not always having personnel and perhaps a sufficient budget to sustain that model forever as some investment firms seem to suggest ad-infinatum. Adding an incident change to an optional extended warranty, basically shifts some of that cost back to the customer or completely prevents it, vs Tesla having to absorb as much gratis customer service against their bottom line. It's all supposition on my part, but given I've played this game trying to set, administer, and deliver against warranties for hardware & software computer services, I bet there is something along those lines as to why it is what it is -- like it or not. Fortunately, an extended warranty is an option, and not something owners must pay-for baked into the cost of the base vehicle like everyone does with warranty.)

FWIW as a side note: One of the things I do when shopping for a new vehicle is I always inquire about costs for their best extended warranty and get a copy of the terms to read before making a purchase decision -- even if I have no intent of buying the optional agreement. To me, the cost of the extended warranty and what is covered, says something about a mfgr's confidence in their product post-warranty, what their own expected costs are to maintain it, and perhaps that provides me some sort of subjective view as to a mfgr's longer-term reliability expectation of their product. Owning my vehicles 5-7 years on average, long-term cost of ownership matters to me, where is does not to others that flip their rides more often and are happy to just do the minimum to keep it alive.

e.g. IMHO with broad summaries: Lexus, who is generally recognized for their solid reliability, consistently had one of the least expensive (zero deductible) and most comprehensive factory extended warranties, and offered up to a full 4 additional years beyond basic warranty if that's what you wanted; Whereas MBZ had full coverage but cost nearly 40% more than a similar Lexus model and would only go out to 3 years; and BMW, well, their costs were also high and for my 335i convertible back in the day, their own extended warranty didn't even include the hardtop convertible roof and related components when you dissected the list of what was covered -- I had to verify my suspicion with BMW NA HQ as my dealer thought I was nuts in how I read their own terms, but I was right. The higher costs and lesser coverage with MBZ and BMW sorta lined-up in my head with what the Average Joe would tend to say about escalating costs with longer-term ownership of those brands. Tesla, well, is somewhere between all that -- nearly full and similar coverage, with the basic cost for the agreement being perhaps similar as a percentage of the price of the vehicle and it's available for a full 4 years only, but the $200 unique incident deductibles were a bit of an alarm that went off in my head as to what that really meant ...and despite that you know where I landed on this subject from above and I still purchased my MS. ​

 

[David_Cary]

Interesting speculation - that extended warranty costs are based on some manufacturer's predicted reliability.

How about, it costs are based on how much of a sucker they think they have. It has a lot to do with how much dealer profit they allow for this particular transaction. My case in point, my last new dealer car puchase was a Leaf. The dealer offered the extended warranty and I don't remember the details but probably 4 years, 50k. It was $2700. I said no. They came down in several steps to $1400. Nissan's invoice price is under $1000. Presumably Nissan makes a profit so the bean counters probably put less than $600 in the bank for the extended warranty. When the retail price of a piece of paper is 75% profit, the manufacturer anticipated cost is a small part.

Take a different manufacturer who thinks 100% markup is reasonable so lists the same car at $1200. Wow - this think must be built like a tank!

Different manufacturers are dealing with a different level of sophistication among their buyers and you know quite well that they know that.

And to counter your BMW doing inadequate maintenance, what about the fact that the lease turn ins mostly become CPOs that they warrant to 100k miles. Would they really skip an oil change that was "needed" since they are, for the majority of cars, liable for 100k miles? I'm quite sure that they don't do an engine tear down to put a car into CPO. Nor do they replace engines often under 100k miles. I'd also speculate that BMW "experts" are older and are used to old car maintenance schedules and can't believe that they aren't needed anymore. But if the experts have a nice randomized double blind study on engine life based on maintenance intervals, I would love to be corrected. I can tell you it is far more likely that BMW has that study.

As far as Tesla being more electric and maintenance and failure being different, the 2 most expensive parts of the car are different. Engine/tranny vs battery/drivetrain. Sure a/c can fail and costs thousands. But engine and transmissions are the things that can hurt and make a car less than 100k miles not worth fixing. So yes - there are still lots of mechanicals on a Tesla. Ok - someone remind me the a/c maintenance schedule? Or tell me the story that some inspection found a leak on the a/c unit that prevented failure?

I do realize there is a coolant maintenance interval and I'm not suggesting that should be skipped. I was referring to a typical car's ICE a/c unit.

 

[aus]

And you think that's actually free? No, you're still paying for it. You just don't know how much.

I still didn't pay anything when I went it. BMW's are comparably priced to competitors, but they don't offer "free" maintenance.
Tesla charging $600 for essentially an inspection is RIDICULOUS. Most dealers are more than happy to do a FREE inspection so they can find stuff wrong with your car, and if they don't find stuff wrong with it, they'll send you a letter later saying it's time for this service or that service based on that inspection.

.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I still didn't pay anything when I went it. BMW's are comparably priced to competitors, but they don't offer "free" maintenance.

But it's still built into the price of the car. It's not free. If they didn't offer it, the car would cost less.

 

[aus]

I would offer that when I owned my BMW, yes, in theory there was zero cost for preventive maintenance in the first four years, but in my research before purchasing, I found multiple BMW experts that suggested that was also the most minimal maintenance to keep the vehicle operating during the warranty period BMW had cost liability for -- not what an owner should do if they planned to keep the vehicle for longer duration (like I prefer to).

It's a great argument that BMW has zero maintenance cost for those that lease or perhaps treat the vehicle as a shorter-term disposable asset, but for those owners that purchase and want to maintain a vehicle for a longer term, they may be better served with a more intensive or complete service regime -- although most people acknowledge that the cost to maintain a BMW as they age can become prohibitive for many people. My BMW research and experience is what taught me that if I ever considered buying CPO of any brand in the future, I'd only do it if I could see the complete service history as part of my decision process.

Yes, it's subjective, and I'll say it again -- it's all about how risk tolerant an owner elects to be, the choices we each make, and the consequences that result from our decisions. Good luck to all of us!

...now back to the MS discussion.

The only extra maintenance that a BMW owner should consider is an extra oil change between the ridiculously long 15,000 interval. Having said that, many people have done an oil analysis after 15,000 miles and the oil is pretty much done, but no damage done to the engine. My buddy has a 2004 M3 he's been doing 15,000 mile intervals (despite my warnings), and he has well over 100,000 miles with may trips to the track.

But it's still built into the price of the car. It's not free. If they didn't offer it, the car would cost less.

I understand that, but why doesn't Tesla, or any other premium manufacturer include it?
And as i said before, their vehicles are comparable priced compared to the competition. Their lease deals are even BETTER then the competition.
My point is, if the vehicle costs the same as others, then the service is essentially "free."

.

 

[f-stop]

I was at the local Service Centre yesterday for my trade-in inspection and had a chance to talk to a Tesla employee at length about the prepaid service plans and to clear up various questions I had. I asked what most customers do about the plans, and as you'd expect the answer was that some buy the prepaid plan and other do not. Some customers buy the plan but only come in every other year to use one of their prepaid visits - I was told you can do that, even though looking at the written agreement it seems to say you must use each prepaid visit at 1 year or 20,000km(12,500mi) intervals, whichever comes first.

Later while I was talking to my DS about other things, I was called back to the employee I was speaking to earlier about service plans - I was introduced to a long-time customer who happened to just drop in - turns out he didn't buy any prepaid plan and has never gone in for regular/annual service but has over 140,000km - no problems. I guess he only brings it in if there's some specific issue and pays à la carte. So I guess there's an example on one end of the spectrum on regular service.

a couple other tidbits I picked up... the service labour rate posted on the wall was CDN$125/hr, also diagnostic rate the same C$125/hr. For reference, here in Canada the 4yr prepaid plan is C$2000. I was told wheel alignments are included with the service plans - it also says same in the written Cdn service agreement. Also tire rotations are covered if you buy the prepaid plan - you can go in any time for those rotations (8,000km recommended interval) independent from one of the prepaid visits.

 

[WMAC]

The only extra maintenance that a BMW owner should consider is an extra oil change between the ridiculously long 15,000 interval. Having said that, many people have done an oil analysis after 15,000 miles and the oil is pretty much done, but no damage done to the engine. My buddy has a 2004 M3 he's been doing 15,000 mile intervals (despite my warnings), and he has well over 100,000 miles with may trips to the track.



I understand that, but why doesn't Tesla, or any other premium manufacturer include it?
And as i said before, their vehicles are comparable priced compared to the competition. Their lease deals are even BETTER then the competition.
My point is, if the vehicle costs the same as others, then the service is essentially "free."

.

This was a decision by BMW a long time ago to boost long term reliability of their cars. A while back, many owners were not doing enough maintenance and then selling the cars. Their reliability was suffering, so, they bundled it into the cost so they were in better shape at higher mileage and improved their brand image and reputation.

 

[WMAC]

I'm expecting delivery of my Model S between 12/17 & 12/31 and the Services Sign Up button just appeared on mytesla page. I suspect this means my vehicle just made it through some check point and that makes me really excited! On the other hand, I will say this service plan is disappointingly expensive. I'm a big fan of Tesla and am extremely excited about my car, but, one of the things I love about the idea of this car is "no maintenance other than tires and brake pads." Well, that may be true, but, there is a really expensive inspection :cursing:

I've read this and other threads on the topic and am still unconvinced that purchasing the plan has any value at all. I'm also questioning whether or not bringing it in for the annual inspection has any value at all.

I read somewhere that Elon hated the idea of Service Centers being a profit center and that he'd run them at no profit and no loss. It seems most people are buying these plans, so, is the amazing customer service and post delivery customer experience just funded through this program? Is it possible that this program is just a way for Tesla to fund the amazing post delivery customer experience?

Am I really paying for something of value to me or could I just not do it, get the amazing post delivery experience and let other people pay for it? Is it possible that people who have paid for the plan get a different customer experience than those who haven't?

What has anyone with the plan received beyond wipers, an alignment and fluids?

 

[David_Cary]

Don't forget the fob battery.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Think about this. The pre-paid service plan is $475 per visit -- let's just say that's once per year for four years. As of right now, I believe the pre-paid service plan still includes the wheel alignment. I think that runs $150 as a separate service. The $600 pay-as-you-go service visit does not include the wheel alignment, so if you choose that route, it's actually $750/visit.

So if you subscribe to the $600 service visit once every two years, including the alignment, that amounts to a total of: $750 every two years.

For just $200 more, (or $950 total) you could buy the pre-paid service plan, have a service visit every year (instead of every two years), get the wheel alignment included, and lock in the price of the service visits for 4 (or 8) years (that's what I did). And Tesla can't change the terms of the agreement next year, or raise the price of the annual inspection to $700 or start to exclude other things (tire rotations, etc).

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[WMAC]

Think about this. The pre-paid service plan is $475 per visit -- let's just say that's once per year for four years. As of right now, I believe the pre-paid service plan still includes the wheel alignment. I think that runs $150 as a separate service. The $600 pay-as-you-go service visit does not include the wheel alignment, so if you choose that route, it's actually $750/visit.

So if you subscribe to the $600 service visit once every two years, including the alignment, that amounts to a total of: $750 every two years.

For just $200 more, (or $950 total) you could buy the pre-paid service plan, have a service visit every year (instead of every two years), get the wheel alignment included, and lock in the price of the service visits for 4 (or 8) years (that's what I did). And Tesla can't change the terms of the agreement next year, or raise the price of the annual inspection to $700 or start to exclude other things (tire rotations, etc).

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I don't disagree that the pre-paid is a better value than the pay as you go - I'm wondering if the third option (do nothing) is even better. Sounds like a $475 alignment and rotation that you may or may not need.

 

[mmccord]

Think about this. The pre-paid service plan is $475 per visit -- let's just say that's once per year for four years. As of right now, I believe the pre-paid service plan still includes the wheel alignment. I think that runs $150 as a separate service.

I was quoted $455 for a wheel alignment last weekend, and charged $525.