Tesla 's Number One Fanboy Neutered

[racerx43]

Still can't comprehend the concept of doing what sounds like a reverse mortgage, living on a tight social security income and then dumping 1/2 of my retirement income into a vehicle purchase.

Love is blind....

 

[whttiger25]

Funny! The car is our only valuable possession, sold house on contract and rent it back, other property sold on time and SS equal about 35K / year. retirement $ is for travel / fun. Save the pain killer pills.

So....you basically sold all your assets and bought a Tesla, and are now depending entirely on social security to survive?

 

[slipnslider]

I notice none of your problems were with the electric drivetrain. Tesla has proven how great these drivetrains are. They've also proven how they suck at building everything BESIDES the drivetrain. And a lot of it is just stupid idealistic design, like popout door handles and motorized charge doors - these things just create maintenance nightmares on parts that could have been cheaper and more reliable if tesla weren't so obsessed with seeming techie and futuristic.
It just sucks that tesla is hurting the reliability reputation of EVs, but it's not because of the EV part. It's because of all the extraneous techno-toys they insist on putting in the cars.

 

[Solarwind]

The problem is, a car that gets regular use is nothing but a (rapidly) depreciating asset. People do put big $$ into cars as part of their retirement strategy. Classic very high value and rare cars that almost never get driven... not mass produced cars that depreciate quickly.

Get the car repaired and get out of it before it degrades in value any more.

I think you've set yourself up to be in a tough spot here as you insist that a gas burner car is unacceptable. There just aren't many options.

Still can't comprehend the concept of doing what sounds like a reverse mortgage, living on a tight social security income and then dumping 1/2 of my retirement income into a vehicle purchase.

Mind boggling.

So instead of enjoying myself I am supposed to cheap out and take it with me. Please explain how you do that??

 

[Solarwind]

I notice none of your problems were with the electric drivetrain. Tesla has proven how great these drivetrains are. They've also proven how they suck at building everything BESIDES the drivetrain. And a lot of it is just stupid idealistic design, like popout door handles and motorized charge doors - these things just create maintenance nightmares on parts that could have been cheaper and more reliable if tesla weren't so obsessed with seeming techie and futuristic.
It just sucks that tesla is hurting the reliability reputation of EVs, but it's not because of the EV part. It's because of all the extraneous techno-toys they insist on putting in the cars.

I believe you are mostly correct and maybe the model 3 is simpler and will have fewer problems. But please note about 50% of the problems were inducted by poor service or poor service knowledge.

 

[voip-ninja]

So instead of enjoying myself I am supposed to cheap out and take it with me. Please explain how you do that??

Do whatever you want to do, but maybe don’t share this kind of info with complete strangers if you won’t be comfortable with their reactions.

 

[cwerdna]

I notice none of your problems were with the electric drivetrain. Tesla has proven how great these drivetrains are. They've also proven how they suck at building everything BESIDES the drivetrain.

They aren't real good at that either, at least from a long-term reliability point of view.

I already pointed out the 7+ drive unit folks and the 5th drive unit guy at Fear of the 100,000 miles milestone...in a Tesla

I know of many more semi-recent DU failures than the ones I listed at
hypothetical Question-Life Span of a 3? and hypothetical Question-Life Span of a 3?.

This guy took delivery in late 2016: New P100d model S failed!!!

Here's a Model X: Just took delivery of my new Model X 90D - Not At All Silky Smooth.... He took delivery in June 2017.

We've seen a bunch of failed drive units on the Model 3 already.

Although this car is older than the OP's, 2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Wrap-Up | Edmunds had their 1st DU replaced for noise, 2nd for total failure including replacement of the big HV pack and 12 volt and 3rd for noise again. This is all within about 30K miles over 17 months.

And a lot of it is just stupid idealistic design, like popout door handles and motorized charge doors - these things just create maintenance nightmares on parts that could have been cheaper and more reliable if tesla weren't so obsessed with seeming techie and futuristic.
It just sucks that tesla is hurting the reliability reputation of EVs, but it's not because of the EV part. It's because of all the extraneous techno-toys they insist on putting in the cars.

Agree on this. Tesla is about hype.

 

[Tiger]

No. Well built means that a greater percentage of cars are good. There are exceptions, always. Manufactured goods deal in percentages.

Exactly. Percentages show Tesla has poor quality, see polls linked here.

 

[scottf200]

Do whatever you want to do, but maybe don’t share this kind of info with complete strangers if you won’t be comfortable with their reactions.

We don't know his situation, age, health, surrounding family (kids), etc so the same could be point out to "you" (generically), in that perhaps these people are really not taking much of any financial risk and have already taking care of their kids (if applicable) so they are just trying to enjoy their later years in life after working extremely hard to get to where they are at. (ie. some travel in the Tesla, visiting kids/grandkids, etc). All they want is a reliable car and reliable service. If the person states they replaced their own Tesla handle with an eBay one then that gives you a hint to their mechanical background and other insights.

 

[Solarwind]

I wonder if you might have an argument about the axle repair cost due to this prior service. Especially with the documented failure to fully tighten the lug nuts at your next service. So you have a documented problem with the axles under warranty, then they failed to put the wheels back on properly during a subsequent service, then your axle fails again out of warranty this time. I might try to escalate that to the executive team via your My Tesla page.

And honestly, you probably live too far away from a service center and may want to consider switching to a different EV brand with more local service options.

 

[Solarwind]

Got a call from Tesla, They asked what they could do to make me happy, and I requested they return the part of the bill that was for the axles which I felt should be drive train warrantee. They said they would see what they could do. Thanks for the help.

Up to know Tesla is the only EV with enough range and quick recharge to work in my area. Would be nice to have the charge stations that have been predicted by Tesla for 4 years and haven't materialized.

 

[McRat]

Got a call from Tesla, They asked what they could do to make me happy, and I requested they return the part of the bill that was for the axles which I felt should be drive train warrantee. They said they would see what they could do. Thanks for the help.

Up to know Tesla is the only EV with enough range and quick recharge to work in my area. Would be nice to have the charge stations that have been predicted by Tesla for 4 years and haven't materialized.

It's a religious decision. We had to make the same one.

>90% of our family's (4 driver) miles are electric miles. They use 3 EREVs that cost what a single Model S 75D would cost, and a single ICE.

With the money we saved from Dad getting a P100D, we bought enough solar equipment to remove our entire CO2 net output for our home, business, and our cars. Note: A P100D would not be the quickest car Dad has driven. Not by a long shot.

Sadly most religious EV folk can't accept EREV technology and Solar mixed in the proper ratio. They would rather make more CO2 in the name of eGod than burn HC's at their car rather than at their local electric utility provider's powerplant.

It's a math thing, and way to teach my kids about ecology and EVs. You can have your cake and eat it too, if you are capable of thinking outside the box. Status quo make friends. Intelligence improves the future.

 

[eye.surgeon]

I did not have much of a worry investing almost all our retirement savings to buy this car. $125,000

Speechless.

 

[BerTX]

It's a religious decision. We had to make the same one.

>90% of our family's (4 driver) miles are electric miles. They use 3 EREVs that cost what a single Model S 75D would cost, and a single ICE.

With the money we saved from Dad getting a P100D, we bought enough solar equipment to remove our entire CO2 net output for our home, business, and our cars. Note: A P100D would not be the quickest car Dad has driven. Not by a long shot.

Sadly most religious EV folk can't accept EREV technology and Solar mixed in the proper ratio. They would rather make more CO2 in the name of eGod than burn HC's at their car rather than at their local electric utility provider's powerplant.

It's a math thing, and way to teach my kids about ecology and EVs. You can have your cake and eat it too, if you are capable of thinking outside the box. Status quo make friends. Intelligence improves the future.

No matter the abbreviations you make up, a series hybrid is still a hybrid. Does it make economic sense in some situations? Absolutely. Anybody who buys a Tesla for economic reasons is probably kidding themselves.

Ecology has nothing to do wth EVs. It's biology.

Just teach your kids to research a topic from all sides before making up their own minds, and the world will be a better place.

 

[McRat]

No matter the abbreviations you make up, a series hybrid is still a hybrid. Does it make economic sense in some situations? Absolutely. Anybody who buys a Tesla for economic reasons is probably kidding themselves.

Ecology has nothing to do wth EVs. It's biology.

Just teach your kids to research a topic from all sides before making up their own minds, and the world will be a better place.

I agree. If my car runs 100% on electricity, it does not make it emissions free. In fact, my car is less emissions intensive than emission free. Other cars could be higher emissions; high yearly mileage, with a very dirty electrical grid. The grid my EVs plug into is less than zero kWh of load. Power goes into the grid and the cars concurrently.

Electromotive powertrains are superior from an engineering standpoint than the current ICE or Hydrogen efforts. They are only 'greener' when you know the variables involved.

 

[mattjs33]

Just got back from Portland where our 4th annual service was preformed. ... The bill was $4575.69 ...

Sorry, but I cannot let this pass. WHAT IN GOD'S NAME could one possibly do to an electric car, on an annual service, that could cost ANYTHING approaching 4500 damn US dollars????

The 100K-mile service on my Jaguar was only $995, for Pete's sake.

I love this car.

WHY??? With that track record?? At the very least I would have asked for a different example.

*****

Off topic (sort of): Years ago I told folks here that Teslas service model would be untenable in the future. Folks told me I was being silly, Teslas would never need service. Now there are 120,000 Model S's that need recall service, and there are only 70 service centers. Someone elsewhere did the math and figured that would take a year.

 

[MP3Mike]

Sorry, but I cannot let this pass. WHAT IN GOD'S NAME could one possibly do to an electric car, on an annual service, that could cost ANYTHING approaching 4500 damn US dollars????

The 100K-mile service on my Jaguar was only $995, for Pete's sake.

The majority of that had nothing to do with the actual annual service, other than they identified parts that needed replaced out of warranty during the annual service.

 

[mattjs33]

The majority of that had nothing to do with the actual annual service, other than they identified parts that needed replaced out of warranty during the annual service.

Fair enough, I read it again and they replaced a "cracked axle". $4500 is still damn near criminal for that service.

 

[NCAviator]

Our car a Dec 2014 P85D with 1st generations auto pilot has been my dream car and a nightmare. It is the most efficient, powerful, easy to drive, relaxing to drive, fun to drive, I have ever seen or owned. I love this car. But Tesla just keeps trying to neuter me, not that it matters at my age. I also thought Tesla is the most advanced innovative company by far, environmentally friendly and forward looking. I did not have much of a worry investing almost all our retirement savings to buy this car. $125,000

Just got back from Portland where our 4th annual service was preformed. Actually the 3rd as the first was skipped. The bill was $4575.69 which is good I guess, as the quote they gave me was $5000. I was expecting $850. The only complaint was a clicking coming from front in raised position under acceleration. SC said axle was cracked.
Before we bought the car Elon had indicated that there would be a 8 year battery and unlimited mileage power train warrantee. I know many ICE manufacturers have a 100K mile drive train warrantee as my grandson just had a major problem on GM product repaired for $50., at 70K miles.

Living in the middle of nowhere (central MT) it is not easy to get Tesla service and most of the service has been less then exceptional however their attempts to help have been exceptional. Portland is 850 miles, Denver 800, and Salt Lake is 500 miles. I am going to list the history of vehicle as best I can. Picked up the car in Portland December 30 2014. In April 2015 with 6700 miles the car failed to start. The high voltage battery had a failure. Tesla came up with a pickup and trailer, hauled the car to Salt Lake and had it back in just 5 days from failure. Amazing service, but when the car was returned and unloaded I noticed no AC. Tesla sent a ranger in small van to fix it, but failed. It seems when the battery was replaced they pried on the compressor cracking it. Tesla wanted to haul it back to Salt Lake. I told them we had plans to be in Custer SD in two weeks and could drive to Denver and to arrange to have it fixed there. Denver replaced the compressor with no further issues, May 19 2015 mileage 9100.

In early December of 2015 the car was hit in the left quarter panel while parked. Portland SC gave us a Tesla approved body shop and the plan was to get both the annual service and body work done while there. The SC recommend we get the 2nd annual service because our mileage was 23290. The night before we were to leave for Portland the touchscreen failed. This made for a very interesting anxious trip in winter with no heater and car taking 3 minutes to start with a continuous string of failure warnings. Driving with the windows down to keep frost off windshield doesn’t give you a warm fuzzy feeling. The invoice of December 22, 2015 show the charge port and touchscreen were replaced. The car was picked up and delivered to the body shop The insurance for the body repair had rented us a car. The plan was to stay in the Portland area until the car was ready, body shop had said 7 to 10 days after parts arrive from Tesla. After two weeks and no sign of parts we left for home in rental car. Another month passed with no sign of parts. I called the SC, upset, they said they would do what they could and within a week the body shop started work on the car. We returned to Portland the first week of February, picked up the car and took it back to the SC for annual service and new tires. According to the invoice dated Feb 16 2016 , the charge port was replaced again, both front axles, plus the full 2 year annual service, mileage 23320. We got a call late in the day the car is ready. The next morning we got another call “where are you, don’t drive that car, we are sending a tow truck”. It seem they had fail to replace the drained gear oil.
Our next Service Center appointment was one year later March 2017 when we scheduled a annual service and another tire set replacement, after a year of trouble free service, mileage is now 47000. I also requested the speed restriction of 130 be removed and set to advertised 155 and was refused. We picked the car up late in afternoon and headed for our hotel. Both the wife and I though something on the car is not correct. As luck would have it the freeway was plugged to 10mph and we could hear clunking, I managed to work my way to edge and called Tesla. It seems lug nuts on both front wheels were loose and RF was just ready to come off. The car was returned to SC the next day where they replaced the wheel, removed the speed limit, fixed a loose piece of trim i had complained about and removed charges. All greatly appreciated, but I would be happy to pay for good work the first time.
Before we got home from this annual service we started to have trouble with the charge door again. The door was working but the car didn’t thing so and we were getting constant warnings. I called Denver Service and made a appointment two months out, explaining the problem, and we would be at least 250 miles out of our way. When we got to the SC they said we don’t have the part, we will reprogram it. That gave us even more grief as now we were getting verbal and visual warnings, mileage at Denver was 51000. Within about a month we drove to Salt Lake and got the charge door replaced with no farther problems. NC (invoice missing, millage ?). In the last year we had two issues not requiring trip to SC. One door handle failed to present, I replaced myself with ebay part, $200. And had car shutdown while driving hard. Called Tesla, they sent tow truck. When we got back to the car everything was normal and car has operated since. Asked if the logs showed anything 3 or more times but no-one had answer. That brings us back to the current annual service at 67,000 miles.

I am selling my Tesla stock to cover the repairs to my car, so happened the bill is the amount of stock i had. I have had problems with dealer service many times before but none quite as bad as this. I have no intention of buying another car in my remaining driving life. if I am forced to I will look at other electric car companies, I will not go ICE. If Tesla expects to remain the number one best ever car company, they have a lot of work to do on reliability and service. If you own a D model try to get the axles replaced before the 50K miles, or save $5,000 for each 30K miles. Note, our car had been making the noise for 10,000 miles before serviced with little change, no vibration. The first axle replacement at 25K had vibration no noise..

8 Year, 100,000 power train warranty is required by most states. Too bad that they did not go further given current technology. Most consumvers don't know what is a powertrain part. If the Federal Government cared more about the consumer they would have passed these laws rather than CAFE.

 

[mattjs33]

8 Year, 100,000 power train warranty is required by most states.

There's not a lick of truth to this. The emissions system is required by the EPA to be warrantied for 8 years or 80,000 miles, whichever comes first. Beyond that, a manufacturer is free to sell a new vehicle without warranty, if they so choose.

If the Federal Government cared more about the consumer they would have passed these laws rather than CAFE.

If it weren't for CAFE, Tesla might not exist.