I am having issues with our 2020 Tesla S Performance regarding tires and warranty. Mostly, it is a problem with Tesla...
We bought our car in late 2020. By August of 2021, about 8-9 months later, our Tesla S developed a significant clunk in the rear end. At just 14,000ish miles, the tires were completely shredded and we tried to take it in. We always rotated the tires. I tried to take it back to Tesla for warranty work to see if something was wrong. They acknowledged the car should not be wearing through tires 'quite that fast' and that it had a 'clunk,' however, they refused to look at the car without paying a $255 Diagnostic Fee. The service manager/writer(?) said: "The Tesla S is a very heavy car and will wear through tires faster than average. That it is the tire company that warranty's tires.
***But tire company's do not warranty tires on faulty suspension parts.***
Purchased another new set of tires. This time we didn't rotate them. The rear tires became completely shredded in 9000 miles. The front tires were OK. I took it to a different Tesla repair facility for an 4-wheel 'Alignment' and didn't mention the clunking. I was told the alignment could not be done because the bolts holding the rear control arms had fallen out and there was too much damage on the rear toe adjusters and control arms. The car was actually unsafe to drive and it all needed to be replaced. The repair was going to cost me $2,800 on a car with just under 24,000 miles. The new service writer even claimed that it was my 'aftermarket' rims that caused the damage.
I had no choice but to start recording this new service manager. If you do not document and record everything Tesla says, you are on your own. I let him know we were going to record and document his stance that the car is not under warranty, we were going out to the car to document the damage that absolutely is under warranty, and we were going to document the 100% still stock rims that came with the car when we bought it new.
FWIW: There is none chance that after rims that are like OEM stock rims can cause that kind of damage to suspension components and Tesla cannot void your warranty for aftermarket rims. Sure, the rims themselves are not under warranty, but the rest of the car still is. This car was assembled incorrectly from the factory from the very beginning.
After 20 minutes of recording, the service manager 'found our rims in the catalog,' relented and fixed the car under warranty. I feel they owe us a set of tires now. I had to get 4 new tires again to have the alignment done right! Tesla's position is if: "I had agreed to the Diagnostic Fee months before, we wouldn't have tore up a second set of tires." I am only asking for one set. By the same argument, I gave Tesla a chance to fix their car under warranty, they refused to even look at it, even with an acknowledged problem. And even if I had agreed to pay the diagnostic fee, the car still had faulty craftsmanship that was the cause of the first set tires wearing out. Had the car been assembled correctly, I still be driving on the original set of tires. Even today!
We have nearly $3000 in 2 sets of tires and the car only had 24,000 miles at the time of the repairs. That works out to more than $100 in tire wear for every 1000 miles you drive it.
Tesla is just awful. Our daughter bought a new Kia a couple of years ago. Kia goes out of their way to make her car right when something goes wrong and it was a fifth of what we paid.
Anyway, if anyone has any experience with taking Tesla to Small Claims Court, I wouldn't mind some pointers.
James
We bought our car in late 2020. By August of 2021, about 8-9 months later, our Tesla S developed a significant clunk in the rear end. At just 14,000ish miles, the tires were completely shredded and we tried to take it in. We always rotated the tires. I tried to take it back to Tesla for warranty work to see if something was wrong. They acknowledged the car should not be wearing through tires 'quite that fast' and that it had a 'clunk,' however, they refused to look at the car without paying a $255 Diagnostic Fee. The service manager/writer(?) said: "The Tesla S is a very heavy car and will wear through tires faster than average. That it is the tire company that warranty's tires.
***But tire company's do not warranty tires on faulty suspension parts.***
Purchased another new set of tires. This time we didn't rotate them. The rear tires became completely shredded in 9000 miles. The front tires were OK. I took it to a different Tesla repair facility for an 4-wheel 'Alignment' and didn't mention the clunking. I was told the alignment could not be done because the bolts holding the rear control arms had fallen out and there was too much damage on the rear toe adjusters and control arms. The car was actually unsafe to drive and it all needed to be replaced. The repair was going to cost me $2,800 on a car with just under 24,000 miles. The new service writer even claimed that it was my 'aftermarket' rims that caused the damage.
I had no choice but to start recording this new service manager. If you do not document and record everything Tesla says, you are on your own. I let him know we were going to record and document his stance that the car is not under warranty, we were going out to the car to document the damage that absolutely is under warranty, and we were going to document the 100% still stock rims that came with the car when we bought it new.
FWIW: There is none chance that after rims that are like OEM stock rims can cause that kind of damage to suspension components and Tesla cannot void your warranty for aftermarket rims. Sure, the rims themselves are not under warranty, but the rest of the car still is. This car was assembled incorrectly from the factory from the very beginning.
After 20 minutes of recording, the service manager 'found our rims in the catalog,' relented and fixed the car under warranty. I feel they owe us a set of tires now. I had to get 4 new tires again to have the alignment done right! Tesla's position is if: "I had agreed to the Diagnostic Fee months before, we wouldn't have tore up a second set of tires." I am only asking for one set. By the same argument, I gave Tesla a chance to fix their car under warranty, they refused to even look at it, even with an acknowledged problem. And even if I had agreed to pay the diagnostic fee, the car still had faulty craftsmanship that was the cause of the first set tires wearing out. Had the car been assembled correctly, I still be driving on the original set of tires. Even today!
We have nearly $3000 in 2 sets of tires and the car only had 24,000 miles at the time of the repairs. That works out to more than $100 in tire wear for every 1000 miles you drive it.
Tesla is just awful. Our daughter bought a new Kia a couple of years ago. Kia goes out of their way to make her car right when something goes wrong and it was a fifth of what we paid.
Anyway, if anyone has any experience with taking Tesla to Small Claims Court, I wouldn't mind some pointers.
James
