Tesla service loaner policy

[Zhelko Dimic]

I traded in my P85D for a P100D a few days ago, and there were a few minor items that Tesla service is going to take care of during an appointment in late Jan.

So I was quite dismayed to be told by my service center that Tesla will no longer be offering Tesla loaners starting in January; only cars via enterprise. I told them I was disappointed by this change, and they said they were too, but the decision came from above.
...
The only solution I've come up with is if Tesla offers Tesla loaners with a daily fee that is subsidized by whatever the amount Tesla would otherwise pay enterprise. I'm disappointed by this decision, even though I understand it. All of the other high end manufacturers provide brand loaners, or more accurately, the dealers of those brands do. I'd hate to see NADA use this as an example on the benefits of a franchised dealer in between the customer and the manufacturer.

Has anyone else been told this by their service center (yet)?

What are your thoughts?

Does anyone else have any other ideas?

Andrew

Porsche doesn't provide ANY loaners here in Toronto. They'll drop you off if you're within 15 min drive, or pay for a taxi (or give you taxi cheat), one way, or both, if you don't feel uncomfortable asking twice.

And I never got out of there with under $1000 bill. Last estimate for my 2004 turbo was $15K, to do everything they suggest
BMW used to be worse, if I remember, been awhile.

 

[abasile]

If our Model S needs service and I end up having to drive home an ICE rental, I'll probably just drive our LEAF as much as possible, and leave the ICE at home. I'd skip the ICE altogether if we weren't an hour and fifteen minutes away from the nearest service center.

 

[Dwdnjck]

An ice loaner? The horror!

 

[LosAngelesDude]

I have a Lexus and they will first offer a loaner before they tap into Enterprise. Mercedes also offers loaner as their first choice as well. My car will be here in a week or so and I will be very disappointed if Tesla does not offer loaner to its customers, especially the service is due to warranty related services.

Anyone can speak for SoCal dealers?

 

[Lloyd]

Remember when the mantra was " if you like the loaner better, you can keep it"!

 

[Andyw2100]

Remember when the mantra was " if you like the loaner better, you can keep it"!

You're referring to this blog post by Elon Musk:

Creating the World’s Best Service and Warranty Program

Here are the first couple of paragraphs, with bold added by me:

--
The best way to experience service is, of course, not to experience service. If your car does need service, then it should be swapped with a car that is ideally better in some or many ways. To this end, Tesla is building a fleet of top of the line Model S loaners. These will not be our basic model – they will be state of the art with all the best features and options.

Nor will this eventually become an aging fleet of overused cars. The Model S loaners will be available for immediate purchase at a price that is lower by $1 per mile driven. If you like the service loaner more than your other car, we will happily trade in your Model S and you may keep the loaner. This ensures that the service fleet is constantly refreshed and gives customers the best optionality.

 

[Lloyd]

That's the one!

 

[Krugerrand]

Yes, and what happened was that the Model S was so much of a hit that it became too popular for Tesla to keep up with demand. Now they've also got to produce the X, which also is becoming quite popular especially now with the new seating variations. And then even more unfortunate was that demand for the Model 3 is so great that they've had to pull production ahead by a year and are accelerating the ramping of quantities, which further puts a bind into the original service plan of topline loaners.

Totally sucks to have awesome products and to be advancing the technology at lightening speed such that you can't keep up and have to change what you originally wanted to do for customers.

I feel the need to remind some people that the goal is to transition the world to sustainable transportation and energy. Tesla wasn't suppose to be doing it on its own, but because everyone else is dragging their feet things changed. If the other OEMs had picked up the ball as they were suppose to, Tesla would be producing their allotted 20k Model S's each year and be able to provide customers with the original service plans.

Business is not static. Policies change. And Tesla takes change to a whole other level. They've even made changes only to change back.

 

[Andyw2100]

I feel the need to remind some people that the goal is to transition the world to sustainable transportation and energy. Tesla wasn't suppose to be doing it on its own, but because everyone else is dragging their feet things changed. If the other OEMs had picked up the ball as they were suppose to, Tesla would be producing their allotted 20k Model S's each year and be able to provide customers with the original service plans.

This is a stretch, even for you! Are you really suggesting that Tesla's paying customers should be satisfied with Elon Musk going back on his word and supplying us with inferior loaners because Tesla's competition wasn't up to the task? Really?

 

[Krugerrand]

This is a stretch, even for you! Are you really suggesting that Tesla's paying customers should be satisfied with Elon Musk going back on his word and supplying us with inferior loaners because Tesla's competition wasn't up to the task? Really?

Give it a rest.

 

[Andyw2100]

Give it a rest.

Well-argued.

 

[number12]

Yes, and what happened was that the Model S was so much of a hit that it became too popular for Tesla to keep up with demand. Now they've also got to produce the X, which also is becoming quite popular especially now with the new seating variations. And then even more unfortunate was that demand for the Model 3 is so great that they've had to pull production ahead by a year and are accelerating the ramping of quantities, which further puts a bind into the original service plan of topline loaners.

Totally sucks to have awesome products and to be advancing the technology at lightening speed such that you can't keep up and have to change what you originally wanted to do for customers.

I feel the need to remind some people that the goal is to transition the world to sustainable transportation and energy. Tesla wasn't suppose to be doing it on its own, but because everyone else is dragging their feet things changed. If the other OEMs had picked up the ball as they were suppose to, Tesla would be producing their allotted 20k Model S's each year and be able to provide customers with the original service plans.

Business is not static. Policies change. And Tesla takes change to a whole other level. They've even made changes only to change back.

This is starting to be a joke.

It's so simple. The guy can figure out how to take people to Mars, but the SIMPLE premise of under promise, over deliver eludes Elon Musk so much. It has to be the biggest riddle he is working on right now.

If it might change down the road... just don't say it! Especially don't change it AFTER I buy a $100,000 car from you.

Don't tweet
Don't promise anything
Don't state facts
Don't don't don't.

Just don't. Just produce good quality top of the food chain products and keep the stock manipulation/capital raise propaganda to a minimum.

 

[Canuck]

This is starting to be a joke.

Seriously? A new American car company that Outsells Mercedes, BMW, Audi, And Porsche In US, which most experts would tell you was an impossibility only a few years ago, is now a joke because you get an ICE loaner?

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

― John Lydgate

 

[Krugerrand]

Well-argued.

It makes no sense to try and talk to you. Your mind was made up a long time ago, so feel free to pretend I wasn't talking to you. Otherwise, a reasonable person would instinctually know that if a business can no longer offer a service because it doesn't make business sense, then it would be entirely ridiculous for them to self-sacrifice and/or sabotage their business and keep the service as is. Never mind that we're all quite aware of the bigger picture and end goal here, which is not dependent on current S owners getting a top of the line loaner. Secondarily, there were very good, valid points made for why a change in policy should occur now rather than down the road. You might not like or agree with those points, but they're valid nonetheless.

 

[number12]

Seriously? A new American car company that Outsells Mercedes, BMW, Audi, And Porsche In US, which most experts would tell you was an impossibility only a few years ago, is now a joke because you get an ICE loaner?


“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.”

― John Lydgate

Yes, some people can not pleased.

You misunderstood what was starting to be a joke. Not the ICEing. I honestly do not care, and have two other cars.

It's the lies, changing of policies, and (as stated) over promising and constantly under delivering on timelines, etc.

 

[Andyw2100]

Otherwise, a reasonable person would instinctually know that if a business can no longer offer a service because it doesn't make business sense, then it would be entirely ridiculous for them to self-sacrifice and/or sabotage their business and keep the service as is.

I am a reasonable person.

And what I know is that when a company makes promises to their customers, they should work damned hard to keep those promises. The more promises a company breaks, the more customers the company will lose. Lose enough customers, and there is no company.

This particular issue is not a huge one. But there have been many, MANY others, and things seem to be getting worse instead of better. Check the thread on the power limiting based on launching too much. Long-time, die-hard "Tesla Can Do No Wrong" TMC members like you are posting that this is going too far.

Reasonable people believe you can't sell someone one thing and then deliver something else. It's as simple as that.

 

[Canuck]

It's then lies,

It's only a lie if you intend to deceive. I don't think Elon Musk ever intended to deceive. In fact, I believe him when he intended to fail:

Scott Pelley: How did you figure you were going to start a car company and be successful at it?

Elon Musk: Well, I didn't really think Tesla would be successful. I thought we would most likely fail. But I thought that we at least could address the false perception that people have that an electric car had to be ugly and slow and boring like a golf cart.

Scott Pelley: But you say you didn't expect the company to be successful? Then why try?

Elon Musk: If something's important enough you should try. Even if you — the probable outcome is failure.

You can imply motives that are deceitful but I do not. I don't view Elon as that type of person at all but we can respectfully agree to disagree on this issue. I just think he is overly optimistic. You wouldn't own a Tesla without someone with that type of personality so you have to take the good with the "bad" as you see it. But to imply malice is very wrong, in my opinion.

 

[number12]

It's only a lie if you intend to deceive. I don't think Elon Musk ever intended to deceive. In fact, I believe him when he intended to fail:

Scott Pelley: How did you figure you were going to start a car company and be successful at it?

Elon Musk: Well, I didn't really think Tesla would be successful. I thought we would most likely fail. But I thought that we at least could address the false perception that people have that an electric car had to be ugly and slow and boring like a golf cart.

Scott Pelley: But you say you didn't expect the company to be successful? Then why try?

Elon Musk: If something's important enough you should try. Even if you — the probable outcome is failure.

You can imply motives that are deceitful but I do not. I don't view Elon as that type of person at all but we can respectfully agree to disagree on this issue. I just think he is overly optimistic. You wouldn't own a Tesla without someone with that type of personality so you have to take the good with the "bad" as you see it. But to imply malice is very wrong, in my opinion.

Not informing about launch limits is not deceiving?

They put a counter... so they knew... but did not tell anyone because it would hurt sales?

And that's just the most current issue at hand. P85D Hp stats? AP what it can and cannot do? Etc.

 

[Canuck]

Reasonable people believe you can't sell someone one thing and then deliver something else. It's as simple as that.

I consider myself reasonable and I disagree with you so it's not that simple. Business realities change. You may be concerned about "there is no company" for doing this too often but in my view it's the companies that don't adapt properly that perish, not the ones that do.

 

[Canuck]

Not informing about launch limits is not deceiving?
They put a counter... so they knew... but did not tell anyone because it would hurt sales?

Tesla's reply:

“Thank you for your time. To recap our conversation, using launch mode places an increased stress on the entire powertrain accelerating aging and fatigue of various components. The computer systems automatically track launch mode usage and continually estimate fatigue damage. Depending on how launch mode is used, the computer may eventually limit the available power during launch mode to protect the powertrain. Note that this is a common strategy also employed in other high performance cars. As discussed, upgrading to the P100D ludicrous will remove this limit and will not be limited in the future as the P100D does not have this limit for launch mode.”

Common in the auto industry.