This is why Teslas are totaled so easily

[Hota]

Does anyone have a concrete/definitive answer for why there is such a huge markup? I would hope that the perception that it is an "exotic" isn't enough of a reason to artificially inflate the price. I realize that there is additional equipment and certification necessary to be given the Tesla stamp of approval as an auto body shop but I would assume that some of these costs would come down as the Model 3 rolls out and there are more Teslas on the road.

They can charge this much for labor because Tesla has limited the competition due to their authorized body shop program. You can take it to a generic body shop but most people won't for a $100k vehicle.

I'm confident that when the Model 3 becomes mainstream that Tesla will scale down requirements for their authorized body shop program and we'll either see a ton more authorized body shops or the dissolution of the program altogether thus driving down prices significantly.

 

[SageBrush]

I didn't know that body shop labor at $40/hour existed anywhere in the US in 2017, let alone California.

Now, to get on my soap-box a little:
I understand Tesla keeping a tight lid on technical manuals given the complexity and quick evolution of the cars, but I hope they start dribbling out DIY stuff that is generic -- like replacing a bumper.

 

[Hota]

I didn't know that body shop labor at $40/hour existed anywhere in the US in 2017, let alone California.

The Tesla authorized body shop here in MA charges something like $35/hour for paint labor with a ton of exceptions. Aluminum cars are more, Teslas are more, Audis are more Aston Martins are more, etc...

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I love how this was a really good informative post.

Yet, all I could think of is "Ummm, Why does he carry zip ties with him?"

Not that it's not a bad idea to have them with you. Just not something I would mention to a first date while giving her a ride.

 

[f-stop]

for comparison the local Tesla Service Centre's own posted labour rate for non-warranty service (not body work) was C$125 when I got my car

I love how this was a really good informative post.

Yet, all I could think of is "Ummm, Why does he carry zip ties with him?" [...]

zip ties (aka "zap straps", here) are SO useful, you never know when they'll come in handy
Can't speak for the OP, but in my case I learned of their utility working summers for the local telco (also the reason why I've got a supply of surplus telco twisted pair, also useful for many things!)

 

[MRPLUGIN]

I know Service King who is a large company that is nationwide is opening certified shops, I Hope when there is competition out there, these small shops will stop gouging the insurance companies causing us to pay higher rates.

 

[rocketshipp85]

Are you guys telling the body shop in advance that you are using your insurance. Sometimes they raise the price because they think they can charge whatever they want to the insurance but they are much nicer if you say your paying out of pocket.

 

[SageBrush]

Are you guys telling the body shop in advance that you are using your insurance. Sometimes they raise the price because they think they can charge whatever they want to the insurance but they are much nicer if you say your paying out of pocket.

Yep

This is why I mostly self-insure. I don't want my premiums to reflect all the people who see outrageous bills and let them pass because "insurance is paying the bill."

 

[Mike K]

I had similar incident with my MS, my wife while backing into the driveway clipped a rock wall and ended up pulling the front bumper part way off. Fenders and hood seemed fine; seemed like less damage too based on your photos.

I too zip-tied it up, and thought it's probably going to be about $1000 to repair... Geico originally estimated the repair at $1500. I brought it to a Tesla certified body shop who stated it would be closer to $6k. Then we found out a very small mounting bracket on the radiator support got cracked and "couldn't be repaired". I got the car back last week. Final repair was $13,500.

There seems to be a lot of gouging going on here, Tesla and their body shops... and we'll be paying for it with higher rates.

At least this helped me on my decision whether to go forward on my 3 reservation... I'm going to ask for my deposit back. TCO on Tesla's was already too high and it's getting worse instead of better.

I'll get a Bolt.

First of all, exact same problem. It's the ears on the radiator support. The wheel well liner has tab that lock into these ears. Break off the ears and suddenly the tabs have nothing to lock into. In the grand scheme of things it's not a huge problem and if you were say repairing this car out of pocket you'd likely figure out a workaround, of which there are many.

I hate to see you ditch a 3 reservation over something like this though. The fact of the matter is that Tesla parts are cheap. I was shocked at how little money they charge for their replacement parts. When I was pricing out the facelift retrofit on my last car I asked for the price of the sonar sensors and they $15 each, already painted. That's absurdly cheap. I don't feel like this is a Tesla problem.

They can charge this much for labor because Tesla has limited the competition due to their authorized body shop program. You can take it to a generic body shop but most people won't for a $100k vehicle.

I'm confident that when the Model 3 becomes mainstream that Tesla will scale down requirements for their authorized body shop program and we'll either see a ton more authorized body shops or the dissolution of the program altogether thus driving down prices significantly.

This is exactly what it is. I don't know if I already mentioned it or not but there was a Lexus of some sort sitting next to my car at the body shop with literally the same damage in the same area. Bumper cover pulled forward and off, fender damaged. I asked the adjuster how much that was going to cost and he said 5 - 6k. So literally half the cost. It was at that point he mentioned the Teslas being more money to work on.

This will go away soon though. The Model S isn't new or special any longer. It's not some magical car that requires delicate hands to repair. In fact, as cars go, the Model S is almost absurdly simple in it's mechanics. There is no good reason to charge double labor rates because it's a Tesla. If you want to tack on a bit more because it's an aluminum car WHEN you're billing out work that is specifically related to it being aluminum then that's fine but when you're removing the same bolt on my car that you'd be removing on a Toyota Prius, there's no reason to be charging double.

I love how this was a really good informative post.

Yet, all I could think of is "Ummm, Why does he carry zip ties with him?"

Not that it's not a bad idea to have them with you. Just not something I would mention to a first date while giving her a ride.

I shipped a pelican case for a camera like 6 months before and when I stopped in they gave me tags with big industrial zip ties to hold them to bulky packages. Instead of giving me one, she opened a box of 50 and was like "here, take them all". I didn't know what to do with them but how do you turn down giant industrial zip ties???? Answer: you don't.

 

[bkp_duke]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Very cool that you have had a salvaged Tesla before and played with it.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how well tesla certified body shops do financially? Are they making good profit on average? How do they compare to other body shops?

In SD there are only two authorized repair shops, and they both do EXTREMELY well. All these two shops do are exotics, and their garages look like something out of a reality TV series.

Wife had a bumper scratch, not even into the primer, and the estimate was $3800. We pocketed the check and I bought a Rupes random orbital and some polish and buffed it out myself.

 

[bkp_duke]

I have wondered the same thing myself. My Tesla is on order to arrive next month and I need to have some minor bodywork done on my Audi. The guy at the auto body shop who did the estimate for my car mentioned that the parts to repair a Tesla are not that expensive compared to the cost of parts for my Audi but the cost to repair a Tesla gets massively inflated. Does anyone have a concrete/definitive answer for why there is such a huge markup? I would hope that the perception that it is an "exotic" isn't enough of a reason to artificially inflate the price. I realize that there is additional equipment and certification necessary to be given the Tesla stamp of approval as an auto body shop but I would assume that some of these costs would come down as the Model 3 rolls out and there are more Teslas on the road.

Concrete Answer - CLOSED REPAIR NETWORK.

It's not that the cars are hard to work on (they are easy, in fact - like legos for big boys), it's that if you don't want blacklisted you must use a Tesla Authorized body shop. That's a bonafied monopoly.

 

[jaguar36]

It's not that the cars are hard to work on (they are easy, in fact - like legos for big boys), it's that if you don't want blacklisted you must use a Tesla Authorized body shop. That's a bonafied monopoly.

I don't disagee with you about the monopoly, but the rear quarter panel repair is quite difficult, as is anything that gets into frame damage.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

I don't disagee with you about the monopoly, but the rear quarter panel repair is quite difficult, as is anything that gets into frame damage.

But they are price gouging us on the simple repairs that don't require any structural work.

 

[i3 Rex]

It's been very interesting to hear of everyone's experiences, and there is definitely something about the way things are organized between Tesla and their authorized bodyshops that seems to lead to rip off prices and poor customer experiences. In the UK your can't even buy body parts unless via an approved bodyshop and as part of a repair done by them. When challenged about this they just say that this is what their license demands and they are just following the required procedure.
Needless to say that this has put me right off owning a Tesla, if you can't have an ethical relationship with your customers then their is no point to it in my opinion. BMW will sell you parts and let you repair your own car and even let you see how it's done ( for a price ).
For a car that is supposed to be green, having the manufacturers disable it unless you channel your business through them is simply 4 wheeled ransomware.
At least Duck Turpin had a mask.

 

[bkp_duke]

I don't disagee with you about the monopoly, but the rear quarter panel repair is quite difficult, as is anything that gets into frame damage.

I didn't mention structural work. But even with that, the Tesla certified repair shops are WAY over the going rate for other shops that deal with high-end aluminum framed cars (BMW, Merc, etc.).

 

[Ace007]

Our repair bill for a head-on front-left collision with airbag deployment came out to be about $30k. Don't want to go in to how long it has taken but happy that Tesla is trying to take ownership of the issue and get it all resolved. The person who hit us only had $15k of coverage so we ended up going to our insurance. Since it happened Tesla has added two more certificated repair shops in the Denver area. I hope we never need to go but nice to see the network expanding. it is stupid expensive and this does not even cover replacing our wrap or diminished value.

 

[Mike K]

Concrete Answer - CLOSED REPAIR NETWORK.

It's not that the cars are hard to work on (they are easy, in fact - like legos for big boys), it's that if you don't want blacklisted you must use a Tesla Authorized body shop. That's a bonafied monopoly.

This is what chaps my ass. $200 an hour for mechanical work which would be borderline absurd on a car that's actually difficult to work on. On a Tesla it's an insult.

I know people look at Teslas and think they're driving a spaceship. In reality, the Model S is one of the simplest cars, if not the simplest car I've owned. Especially with the earlier cars it is almost unbelievable how basic they are. After owning my salvage car I was convinced I'd never be worried about owning a Model S out of warranty. There's easy access to components, they're relatively easy to diagnose problems on, they use a lot of off the shelf parts (like generic Bosch coolant pumps on the older models)... Removing the header panel presumably requires removing the AC condenser and both side radiators. A more extensive job then simply replacing the bumper cover and fender for sure, but hard? No. Excessively difficult to the point of requiring a 100% increase in labor rates? Absolutely no.

Nothing about this job is unique to an electric car sans the fact that you're draining battery coolant instead of engine coolant. I suppose that's what bothers me about the increased labor rates. If there were unique challenges to working on the S that weren't present in other cars then I could understand. That's just not the case though, at least with respect to this job.

 

[Tovar_Vanek]

The shop provided correct information. The repair is $2K, +$9K exotic car surcharge. You know, to hire a mechanic who won't take it for joyride, insure it while at the shop, and just because they can.

My father always told me, car mechanics and dentists, you should always get more than one estimate and if you can find one you trust, you stick with them. Both professions have the opportunity to drain you and/or your insurance company of thousands of dollars for work that is not needed or sometimes not even done. Now, I since learned more about cars to be able to tell when I am being robbed blind, but for dentists, I just have a guy I've trusted for the last 16 years - dreading the day he retires.

PS) replacing the front bumper skin can be done in few hours max, and it's plastic, not aluminum. I've dropped mine and put it back on a couple of times (installing and adjusting radar detector and laser jammers) and managed to do it in less than 3 hrs, including installing extra hardware under the bumper - and I am not a car mechanic by any means, nor do I have the professional garage or tools to do it.

Tesla is making it hard to get competitive quotes since in my area, they only authorize one body shop.

Certification and training is very expensive, the body shop realizes they have a monopoly and gouge customers eyes out with impunity.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

I received this reply today from my certified body shop as to why they charge so much more to work on a Tesla:

"The problem is what looks like just a bumper can turn into more than that real quick and then it is hard to go backwards once it is here and disassembled. The reason we charge more is because we have to have a separate room just to fix them that isolates them from all the other vehicles we work on. Also we have a lot of money invested in flying technicians down to Freemont for Tesla training. Also we had to purchase Tesla specific tools and equipment to be on their program. That is the reason we charge more. Bumper is not here yet. If you want to cancel I understand. If it just a bumper you can go to any repair facility. Tesla only requires structural shops for structural work."

The issue is that the insurance companies refuse to pay these inflated rates, so then we are expected to cover the rest out of pocket to get our cars back. Did Tesla tell them if they got certified that they would be able to charge twice as much? I'm going to write to Tesla and let them know what we are dealing with and see if they can help me find a shop to replace my bumper for a reasonable price.

 

[Tampaukfan]

I dont think the cost to fix is out of line.. problem with Tesla is the parts chain. You might be looking at a 4 -6 month repair time.

This A6 was a 16k repair.. car was driveable.. expensive cars = expensive repair.


Body shops have to pay for schooling to be able to fix Tesla's also adds to the cost. If you own body shop would you lose revenue sending an employee for training, paying for the training, buying specific tools etc.. to be able to fix a car that you might have a couple a year come in? No.. you wouldnt.