Tesla Maintenance - broken down to dollars and sense

[futurem3owner]

When I ordered my car, my OA forgot to tell me there was a delivery charge to have it shipped to the service center. So instead, I have first two years of maintenance plan fees waived off. Not sure if most people defer getting their car serviced every year and instead do every other year since more extensive check up is done on year 2 and 4.

 

[lux_cars]

The only wear items on the Tesla list are brake pads and wiper blades. The pads should last the life of the car and the blades are included.

By the 50,000 mile mark, the only wear items on most ICE/Audis would also be the brake pads and wipers. And you’d have changed the pads only once by 50,000 mile mark.

Point is, not seeing the promised substantially lower cost of regular maintainence of BEVs with Tesla service plans. Hopefully when other BEVs come out, they’ll offer lower cost maintenance plans.

 

[lux_cars]

Belts, blades, batteries, and brakes are not included on the Audi plan. The Audi plan is a once a year oil change/inspection/and fluid top off. In fact, they offer a different service plan that covers the things that their normal plan does not cover for more than double the price of their standard offering.

Which belts and batteries (other than fob) require changing in first 50,000 miles? And $30 wipers and $5 fob batteries don’t justify the more than twice cost of Tesla service plans, which should be substantially less to start with because BEVs are promised to be practically maintenance-free!

 

[lux_cars]

When I ordered my car, my OA forgot to tell me there was a delivery charge to have it shipped to the service center. So instead, I have first two years of maintenance plan fees waived off. Not sure if most people defer getting their car serviced every year and instead do every other year since more extensive check up is done on year 2 and 4.

There is a drive unit service in year 1 so I wouldn’t skip that.

 

[30seconds]

By the 50,000 mile mark, the only wear items on most ICE/Audis would also be the brake pads and wipers. And you’d have changed the pads only once by 50,000 mile mark.

Point is, not seeing the promised substantially lower cost of regular maintainence of BEVs with Tesla service plans. Hopefully when other BEVs come out, they’ll offer lower cost maintenance plans.

Try keeping an Audi to 100,000 or 150,000 miles. Water pumps, belts, valve adjustments, transmission flushes, alternators, etc. And god help you if anything on the drive train actually breaks.

 

[Max*]

Try keeping an Audi to 100,000 or 150,000 miles. Water pumps, belts, valve adjustments, transmission flushes, alternators, etc. And god help you if anything on the drive train actually breaks.

And with a Tesla it's drive units and door handles? I guess the only out of warranty item in 8 years would be door handles

 

[ucmndd]

Ignoring for a moment that some of your assumptions about the ease of DIY maintenance are false (for example the “$50” desiccant bag replacement assumes you have access to a means of refrigerant recovery, a vacuum pump to purge the system when you’re done, and fresh refrigerant to recharge with when done), you’re talking about saving ~0.8% of the purchase price over 50k miles.

That’s a lot of personal time to recover like 2.5 weeks of depreciation.

 

[lux_cars]

Try keeping an Audi to 100,000 or 150,000 miles. Water pumps, belts, valve adjustments, transmission flushes, alternators, etc. And god help you if anything on the drive train actually breaks.

That can be debated. Tesla isn’t exactly the most reliable automaker either. And Audi has v. high reliability according to Consumer Reports. I personally have kept non-Audi German vehicles for 100,000 miles and only paid service costs, no breakdown or repairs. But that’s just anecdotal so not reliable evidence.

You’d have to present evidence to support this claim that Tesla repair costs will be substantially cheaper by the 100,000mile mark. How much would MS door handles or MX falcon wings cost out of warranty?

What we do have solid evidence for in terms of service and maintainence is for the under warranty/50,000 mile period and clearly in that the Tesla service plans are not substantially cheaper as BEVs are supposed to be, they are actually more than double.

 

[Max*]

Ignoring for a moment that some of your assumptions about the ease of DIY maintenance are false (for example the “$50” desiccant bag replacement assumes you have access to a means of refrigerant recovery, a vacuum pump to purge the system when you’re done, and fresh refrigerant to recharge with when done), you’re talking about saving ~0.8% of the purchase price over 50k miles.

That’s a lot of personal time to recover like 2.5 weeks of depreciation.

While I agree with you, different people value their time differently.


There are some things I'll gladly tackle on my own because I enjoy doing them, even if it means it'll take me much more time to save $1. There are other things which I wouldn't even think of tackling on my own and would always pay for. And then there's the golden middle where I'd do a cost benefit analysis -> sure I can do it on my, but is it worth it.

For each person, those limits will be in different places.

 

[lux_cars]

And with a Tesla it's drive units and door handles? I guess the only out of warranty item in 8 years would be door handles

Forgetting falcon wings? Or even a 100 other parts that can go bad. Again, you’d have to present evidence that Teslas will be substantially cheaper past warranty. Tesla’s reliability and build quality record do not inspire confidence in the absence of evidence.

 

[jelloslug]

Ignoring for a moment that some of your assumptions about the ease of DIY maintenance are false (for example the “$50” desiccant bag replacement assumes you have access to a means of refrigerant recovery, a vacuum pump to purge the system when you’re done, and fresh refrigerant to recharge with when done), you’re talking about saving ~0.8% of the purchase price over 50k miles.

That’s a lot of personal time to recover like 2.5 weeks of depreciation.

People want the maintenance plans to be overpriced. They want to compare them to the ones that ice manufacturers use to get you in the shop to sell you fuel injector cleaner, throttle body service, and a fresh blinker fluid flush. In reality, they are not overpriced for what they actually do. I have NEVER been a person to let someone else work on my car, ever, period and I have let Tesla service my car for me and plan to at least until the warranty is up.

 

[Max*]

Forgetting falcon wings? Or even a 100 other parts that can go bad. Again, you’d have to present evidence (see my post above). Tesla’s reliability and build quality record do not inspire confidence in the absence of evidence.

I'm not forgetting anything, hence the wink face.

So far in my car, under the 50k mile warranty - 5 door handles, 2 12V batteries, AC condenser fan, GPS antenna, GPS gyro behind/on the MCU, and a slew of other things. My cars reliability is *sugar*. But again, anecdotal evidence.

I'm debating the ridiculously overpriced $4k extended warranty. If it was for 4 years, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But it's for 50k miles (or 4 years), and I'll hit 50k in about 2-2.5 years.

 

[Max*]

People want the maintenance plans to be overpriced.

You lost me here.

 

[lux_cars]

I'm not forgetting anything, hence the wink face.

So far in my car, under the 50k mile warranty - 5 door handles, 2 12V batteries, AC condenser fan, GPS antenna, GPS gyro behind/on the MCU, and a slew of other things. My cars reliability is *sugar*. But again, anecdotal evidence.

I'm debating the ridiculously overpriced $4k extended warranty. If it was for 4 years, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But it's for 50k miles (or 4 years), and I'll hit 50k in about 2-2.5 years.

Have you tried 3rd party warranties such as Endurance?

 

[Max*]

Have you tried 3rd party warranties such as Endurance?

They don't have Tesla listed.

Most extended warranties are for suckers (at least that's what I believe, and has been true in my experience). But my car is such a POS in terms of reliability, this is one of those times if the trend continues that I'll come out ahead if I buy one, heh.

 

[jelloslug]

You lost me here.

People keep saying "$450 for wiper blades and key fob batteries, what a rip off!"

 

[Max*]

People keep saying "$450 for wiper blades and key fob batteries, what a rip off!"

You still lost me. Did you forget a "don't"?

People want the maintenance plans to be overpriced.

As in
People don't want the maintenance plans to be overpriced.

 

[Max*]

To be fair, while saying $450 for wiper blades and key fobs is obviously not the case, they do a lot at each maintenance. The real question is of the things they do, for years 1, 2 and 3 - how much is necessary?

This boils down to the wiper blades and key fob batteries comment. Though they also replace the DU fluid year 1, and brake fluid on year 2. So while they do a lot, it's not necessarily necessary work.

This reeks of regular ICE dealership work. "We need to replace your engine air filter for $75, today, your engine will seize if you don't replace your air filter". True story, a sales guy told that to my wife when I was within earshot.

While Tesla generally doesn't make stuff up, I give them a lot of credit for that - they don't push extra unnecessary work when you bring it in for repairs. What they still do is try to push the extra unnecessary stuff in their scheduled maintenance plans.

 

[jelloslug]

You still lost me. Did you forget a "don't"?


As in
People don't want the maintenance plans to be overpriced.

I'm referring to the people that keep complaining about the price of the maintenance. That is their argument.

 

[whitex]

There is a drive unit service in year 1 so I wouldn’t skip that.

Why not? It wasn't even mentioned for cars pre-2016, so what happened, they got rid of a maintenance-free DU? Also, and more importantly, since it is not required to keep the 8 years of warranty, and they didn't recall older cars, I suspect Tesla is not worried about much negative effect of skipping it since if it did increase the chance of breakdown that would be a direct cost to Tesla to cover it under 8 year, unlimited mileage warranty. This 1 year DU service coincided with the service price increases, maybe they needed something to justify a higher price?