Tesla experience living far from a Service Center

[SageBrush]

Boondocks then...

The middle of no-where is true enough

 

[dgo3]

I'm 6.5 hours from the nearest service center. I've been once with my 2018 3D stealth to fix the turn signal and replace windshield from a stress fracture (under warranty). I need to go again now for a windshield crack right in driver's vision from a chip that ran within a minute of the initial hit. Also, the turn signal is broken again, and I have a creak/pop at low speeds. Anyway, I've been told by the SC that rangers can't do any of these, and I have to go to the SC. On my first visit, they called 30 minutes before my appointment and said it would be a week before they could get to it. I told them that was unacceptable, and they fit me in after understanding how far I'd come. I've put off the visit because of the distance/time. I wish rangers were as accessible in SW CO as they seem to be to other posters!

 

[Rottenapplr]

I’d like to get feedback on the Tesla experience if you live far from a service center.

I would love to buy a M3 long range. I’ve probably configured what I want 100+ times on the website, gotten a trade appraisal, talked to a sales advisor, and test driven a friends M3p. The one thing that holds me back is that I live in eastern WA 200+ miles from the nearest SC and this would be my family’s only car. In doing research on this site, I noticed a lot of complaints about the SC experience. Any service not done by the mobile rangers would consume at least a full day of my time and most likely would require an overnight stay in Portland or Seattle. That would be fine if it is once a year (or less) and service only takes a day or two. BUT, If car wasn’t done promptly, staying extra days would get expensive quickly and interfere with work, I’d have to find a dog sitter, etc.

Am I worrying too much? Can people in similar situations comment on how ownership has gone for them? Are the SCs really that bad, or is this a small, but vocal, minority of people’s experiences?

Thanks.

I recently had a negative experience where my car was in the shop for 1 1/2 weeks and let me tell you, if lived more than 1-2 hrs I would have gone insane.

 

[ralph142]

I recently had a negative experience where my car was in the shop for 1 1/2 weeks and let me tell you, living .

At least here in the pnw they seem to schedule appts to take the car, but in my now 2x experience, don’t actually get to look at it for at least another day, sometimes 2-3. Once they’ve looked at mine it’s only taken another day or so to fix and have ready to return, but the big delay seems to be from intake to exam. That’s not been my experience with any other car. They did give me a rental quick and easy each time tho.

 

[Rottenapplr]

At least here in the pnw they seem to schedule appts to take the car, but in my now 2x experience, don’t actually get to look at it for at least another day, sometimes 2-3. Once they’ve looked at mine it’s only taken another day or so to fix and have ready to return, but the big delay seems to be from intake to exam. That’s not been my experience with any other car. They did give me a rental quick and easy each time tho.

In my experience 8 days. 8 days it sat on the lot.

 

[Jstro003]

I’d like to get feedback on the Tesla experience if you live far from a service center.

I would love to buy a M3 long range. I’ve probably configured what I want 100+ times on the website, gotten a trade appraisal, talked to a sales advisor, and test driven a friends M3p. The one thing that holds me back is that I live in eastern WA 200+ miles from the nearest SC and this would be my family’s only car. In doing research on this site, I noticed a lot of complaints about the SC experience. Any service not done by the mobile rangers would consume at least a full day of my time and most likely would require an overnight stay in Portland or Seattle. That would be fine if it is once a year (or less) and service only takes a day or two. BUT, If car wasn’t done promptly, staying extra days would get expensive quickly and interfere with work, I’d have to find a dog sitter, etc.

Am I worrying too much? Can people in similar situations comment on how ownership has gone for them? Are the SCs really that bad, or is this a small, but vocal, minority of people’s experiences?

Thanks.

I live 4 hours away from an SC. Day 3 of owning my car I had a coolant leak so it was towed and I got a rental car (now they do Uber credits, I think). Car was gone about a week. Then they forgot to refill the A/C coolant (middle of summer, awesome experience) and it took a week of calls to get them to take the car back. It was towed again at their expense. Got the car back a week later. This was 1.5 years ago and haven't had a major issue since. There are some minor things like paint chipping where the frame is rubbing together but for these issues I would have to drive the car up and back to the SC and it is not worth the time off work and headache. So I live with it. I was a bit uncomfortable knowing the distance from a service center when I purchased knowing it's more involved for any potential service need. Whenever anyone asked me locally about if they should get a Tesla, I always said I loved everything about the car and will never go back to an ICE but my one caution and potential deal breaker was the lack of a local service center ND its consequences. Fortunately for me, they just opened one in my city a month ago which is a huge relief.

 

[rhumbliner]

Living in Jackson Hole we are 280 miles (4½ hours) from the Service Center in Salt Lake City. We have 2 Model S’ in our household so service was definitely a concern — but no longer. Our experience has mirrored @SageBrush in that we now much prefer dealing with Tesla’s Mobile Service. We’ve never had any serious issues but we have had several minor issues that were resolved right in our garage. Jackson may be an exception since it’s Tesla-city so the Ranger is here a few days each week. He has now arranged to use the lift at a local garage and keeps a car hauler locally so he can transport cars to the lift. We couldn’t be happier with Tesla’s service.

 

[SageBrush]

I'm 6.5 hours from the nearest service center. I've been once with my 2018 3D stealth to fix the turn signal and replace windshield from a stress fracture (under warranty). I need to go again now for a windshield crack right in driver's vision from a chip that ran within a minute of the initial hit. Also, the turn signal is broken again, and I have a creak/pop at low speeds. Anyway, I've been told by the SC that rangers can't do any of these, and I have to go to the SC. On my first visit, they called 30 minutes before my appointment and said it would be a week before they could get to it. I told them that was unacceptable, and they fit me in after understanding how far I'd come. I've put off the visit because of the distance/time. I wish rangers were as accessible in SW CO as they seem to be to other posters!

Unless things have changed, Durango is serviced by Rangers who live in Albuquerque but obtain parts from El Paso. They try to keep a small inventory of common repair parts but if that fails then DRO is at the far end of their large territory. It is interesting that only some Rangers replace windshields. Denver based do not, but Albuquerque does (subject to change, of course.)

If a windshield was your only issue and it was time sensitive you could probably coordinate with the Abq Ranger to have it replaced in Albuquerque.

 

[boiler81]

I reserved my M3D on day 1, when I lived in the Seattle metro area, but knew I would be living in central Washington State by the time the car delivered. As was common on the early serial numbers, mine had several paint defects including multiple paint nibs on the frunk lid and front bumper.
I accepted the car but refused to drive it back home, and return it in a week and a half as Tesla request for repainting. They agreed to keep the car, get the needed repainting done, and deliver it to my Detailer, who was local to them. Since my Detailer accompanied me at deliver, and performed the paint and body inspection, I had confidence in having Tesla deliver the car to him, for him to perform new car detailing and add PPF to the car.
After about three weeks, the car was finished, and Tesla delivered it to the local detail shop, and I took delivery of it about a week later.

In the next couple months, I experience a few problem with the screen rebooting by itself, and a suspension noise leaving my steep driveway. I drove it over to Bellevue Service Center with the understanding that I would get a loaner to return to Chelan. I got a MS85D with Ludacris. Needless to say, I had fun with this for the four day's I had it. The screen problem was fixed with a software update, and they could not duplicate my suspension noise.

I had no other issues with the car for nearly two years and 32K miles. Then this summer I started to get intermittent "Passenger Restraint System Fault" messages. I live 200 miles from both the Bellevue WA, and Spokane, WA Service Centers, so I went with Spokane as the had the earliest appoint time. Initially they wanted me to take the car in, but later messaged me asking if I would prefer Mobile Service. I said hell yes, and even got the service tech to call me the day before, to confirm my cars symptoms. Turned out it was a common problem (Service Bulletin) and a retrofit signal filter had been designed to cure the errant message.

Mobile Service showed up on time and he did a great job fixing the problem, in about 30 minutes. He also brought me my 3D badge which had not been available on early delivery models, and he performed a charge port pin replacement (Service Bulletin) which I was not aware of and had not requested. Since he had come all that way, only for my service call, I ask him about a minor fender gap issue at the frunk lid which had bother me. He said, lets take a look, and proceeded to adjust the front fender, with my help to pull the fender out while he retighten the hold down bolts. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the Service call.

I did have to take my car back to Seattle for body work, after it got "keyed" at a local restaurant, as there are no Tesla certified body shops within 150 miles. Thankfully, sentry mode, captured the vandalism, and the culprit was identified, charged, and paid full restitution.
None the less, not having local body work, is inconvenient, but it comes with the territory if you live in Central Washington, miles from any major cities.

However Tesla Mobile Service make it less so, if your problem qualifies for this. Remember the cars are pretty reliable after the initial build quality issues are resolved. This is the best car I've every owned, and I the inconvenience of living distance from service center has not been a significant issue.

Go for it...you'll love driving a Tesla.

 

[Bandwidth]

I reserved my M3D on day 1, when I lived in the Seattle metro area, but knew I would be living in central Washington State by the time the car delivered. As was common on the early serial numbers, mine had several paint defects including multiple paint nibs on the frunk lid and front bumper.
I accepted the car but refused to drive it back home, and return it in a week and a half as Tesla request for repainting. They agreed to keep the car, get the needed repainting done, and deliver it to my Detailer, who was local to them. Since my Detailer accompanied me at deliver, and performed the paint and body inspection, I had confidence in having Tesla deliver the car to him, for him to perform new car detailing and add PPF to the car.
After about three weeks, the car was finished, and Tesla delivered it to the local detail shop, and I took delivery of it about a week later.

In the next couple months, I experience a few problem with the screen rebooting by itself, and a suspension noise leaving my steep driveway. I drove it over to Bellevue Service Center with the understanding that I would get a loaner to return to Chelan. I got a MS85D with Ludacris. Needless to say, I had fun with this for the four day's I had it. The screen problem was fixed with a software update, and they could not duplicate my suspension noise.

I had no other issues with the car for nearly two years and 32K miles. Then this summer I started to get intermittent "Passenger Restraint System Fault" messages. I live 200 miles from both the Bellevue WA, and Spokane, WA Service Centers, so I went with Spokane as the had the earliest appoint time. Initially they wanted me to take the car in, but later messaged me asking if I would prefer Mobile Service. I said hell yes, and even got the service tech to call me the day before, to confirm my cars symptoms. Turned out it was a common problem (Service Bulletin) and a retrofit signal filter had been designed to cure the errant message.

Mobile Service showed up on time and he did a great job fixing the problem, in about 30 minutes. He also brought me my 3D badge which had not been available on early delivery models, and he performed a charge port pin replacement (Service Bulletin) which I was not aware of and had not requested. Since he had come all that way, only for my service call, I ask him about a minor fender gap issue at the frunk lid which had bother me. He said, lets take a look, and proceeded to adjust the front fender, with my help to pull the fender out while he retighten the hold down bolts. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the Service call.

I did have to take my car back to Seattle for body work, after it got "keyed" at a local restaurant, as there are no Tesla certified body shops within 150 miles. Thankfully, sentry mode, captured the vandalism, and the culprit was identified, charged, and paid full restitution.
None the less, not having local body work, is inconvenient, but it comes with the territory if you live in Central Washington, miles from any major cities.

However Tesla Mobile Service make it less so, if your problem qualifies for this. Remember the cars are pretty reliable after the initial build quality issues are resolved. This is the best car I've every owned, and I the inconvenience of living distance from service center has not been a significant issue.

Go for it...you'll love driving a Tesla.

Thank you for this post Boiler. I have recently been considering an M3 and also live in Central WA, but south of you. My thoughts about the possibility of mobile ranger service had me searching here for stories from anyone in the same general area about having service done when all service centers are so far away.

I feel better with the thought of an M3 purchase now (assuming these facts are still true in 2023).