Where do I begin? I won't bore all of you here but I will tell you small parts of this absurdity.
1) delivery was BS won't get in ti detail but they acted like they were doing me a favor just letting me purchase one of their precious vehicles. No courtesy or customer service at all. Might as well buy at a kiosk.
2) I get vehicle we here what sounds like rattling in front drivers wheel well. I am told it is frunk noise ignore it.
3) Go to get my NH state inspection two days ago. Guy tells me to come in to service area and I notice he has the car up on a lift. I thought that was weird but he was a Tesla owner himself and I brought it to this shop to get inspected because of recommendations on this site - NH has no Tesla dealers. This guy was amazing - no charge for him finding that noise was a loose jam nut on the Tie Rod end.
4) as he shows me I see the torque QC markings all over place on the suspension - but NOT on the jam nuts on either tie rod. Luckily the other tie rod jam not did not come loose. He says he tightened it but tell Tesla to do an alignment under warranty and make them aware if this so they check care. I did NOT hit anything to cause this - car has 1000 miles and I baby it avoiding even sewer indentations. I am not an aggressive driver at all. And, even if I did hit something, to knock a jam nut loose there would be other damage. He documents the finding.
5) I open - reluctantly - a service ticket. I was scared now because I kind of suspected that I would be in to a "prove it" scenario.
6) I get a lovely "estimate" of $275 from the SC and I have to pay this estimate to keep my Appt. The estimate has a "Goodwill " $0 to look at the loose nut then they gave me a really great deal on an alignment - they have a line item if $275 for a "4-wheel alignment"
7) I wrote numerous notes - cuz you can't talk to anyone you have to work asyncronoysly to who knows who is writing back to you on the app. I wrote this is bullsh$& and I am under warranty and the jam nut IS part of an alignment therefore the alignment should be free.
Why am I trading this car?
1) I can't "battle" on an app chat for warranty work. Imagine what this would be like if the repair were 10k? Why can't I talk to a person?
2) even if they solved number 1, how the heck do they get away charging $275 for a 4-wheel alignment - WTF!!!! That's a $185 item at every shop that works on Teslas around here except a few. And I am in a high cost area. I could do the alignment myself by why should I spend hours doing that!!!
3) the serviceability of the vehicle is poor - not only are things hidden but as I post on the battery threads - the battery warranty is good but after that you are in time bomb. No shops can do component level repair because Tesla refuses or makes it difficult to get component parts or subassembly parts unless you are friends with people there. Try getting a circuit board in an inverter - you will get a backurder at best for 12 months. I know this from someone who had tried who owns a shop.
4) Costs of service are not "at cost" as I was led to believe buying the car by Elon - if an alignment is $275 then that explains why I have seen repairs on this site for things that actually that should cost only $500 but cost $4k. Between extortion fees for service and cost of only replacing full assemblies rather than subassemblies or components you drive the car in to high cost repair's unnecessaryily.
5) this car clearly is not designed to run past 5-7 years based on above items. Could it - yes - and engineering for Tesla is amazing! But no engineer can fight laws of numbers - human or computer error will cause failures. These are complex systems. We paid goid money for these, therefore we should have a say as consumers based on our feedback that future service ability matters. Otherwise these cars are simply marketed to the rich or very well to do as you need to replace every 5 years at 70k a pop.
6) Elon seems preoccupied with Twitter rather than focusing on Tesla.
7) Quality is not what I expected although it's not super bad. I couldn't test drive befire so I was surprised at the inability to change regen braking like the i4 BMW can. They took that away. I bought thinking that could be there but software removed it. Detrimental reliance? Not going there...and don't get me started in the Uktrasonic or radar.
8) 4680 packs - the new structural pack which I don't have but what they are doing proves my points. They only care about the battery pack as a whole. You can't service a battery pack on the 4680 structural approach. Watch Munro live he proves it. Therefore - it proves to me Tesla thinks wheh a battery pack fails we all can have 25k at the ready to pop in. That's insanity.
I am sad because I love the car. I have babyed it and kept SOC between 30 and 70 % never use superchargers etc. I wanted to know I did everything I could to ensure that battery lasted me 200K miles and if I needed more charge I would do it ahead of my trip. I did not view managing the battery like that as some catastrophic inconvenience as some have alleged it is.
I am very sad - hopefully someone younger who has the patience for this and is a fanboy of Elon more than I enjoys the car. They will be lucky to get it with the care I have put in.
