I hope I'm not too late to save a few souls here??
I've had a wonderful, loaded 2013 Tesla P85 for 6 or 7 years now. Bought her directly from Tesla w/37K miles, and she now has 133K mostly trouble-free miles. The RWD drive unit was replaced under warranty, but everything else was fairly minor.
Really an amazing vehicle, especially pushing to about 8/10ths on sweeping mountain roads. The airbag suspension provides an absolute sublime ride. And the handling is shockingly planted and balanced. It's hard to find the edge of adhesion given how low the car sits on the road and with 50/50 (or so) weight distribution. I got into a "Y" because my wife thought they were cute, but they springy ride ruined it for me. Anyway, I digress....
YOU ARE CORRECT. MOST PEOPLE SHOULD THINK TWICE BEFORE GETTING INTO A TESLA WITH AN EXPIRED WARRANTY.
HOWEVER, IF YOUR THE TYPE THAT ENJOYS BURNING MONEY, THEN MAYBE IT IS THEY RIGHT CHOICE AFTER ALL...
Why the bitterness. Dave? "Timmy", as my oldest child named our P85 Tesla, has had very little battery degradation over the years. I'm not a regular "record keeper" like some scientists here, but I do occasionally compare Tesla penis lengths, and Timmy has always been in the upper quartile of battery length. I do charge slowly, in my garage, and supercharge only a handful of times per year. That and the weather here swings from a frigid 57 degrees F to a scorching 83 degrees F. Kidding. SoCal weather is heaven on earth. Anyway, I digress...
DON'T BE LULLED INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY
Timmy is/was still running 243 miles RANGE at 90% battery capacity setting in "ideal" conditions. I'm an optimist, so I choose "Ideal" over "rated". When out of the blue, a concerning notification showed up on my onboard display screen while driving, "BATTERY CHARGING REDUCED...". And as Astro from "The Jetson's would say to George, "RU-ROH, REORGE!".
So I drove Timmy to a Tesla SC and with only 133K miles, I WAS ADVISED I'D NEED A "NEW" BATTERY. PRICED BETWEEN $14K and $20K large. Now given I have a Performance 85 model, you and I both know my costs will be at the higher-end of this scale, right? AND you and I both know the advisor know this, too, right? But I don't blame the advisor for now wanting to tell me the cold hard fact that I'd been taken by the lure of the Tesla dream that batteries will last sooo long. Kinda like autopilot will definitely self-drive extensively in this next version.
Anyway, adding fuel to the fire, I was informed of an 8-12 WEEK WAIT FOR A NEW BATTERY and that NO LOANERS WOULD BE PROVIDED. That's 2-3 months without my car, an expected $22K bill, plus the costs to buy/rent alternative transport for 2-3 months. Let's call that, what, $9K? Or $100 per day. So we're at $32K-ish. or 3 miles of dollar bills. (I did the math. It's not right, but close enough)
THERE ARE NO NEW BATTERIES FOR MY P85
And this is just that they don't make 85KW anymore, there's just no inventory of 90 or 100kws for me either. According to the advisor, they will likely only be able to get me a "remanufactured" battery. You know what that means? Re-used parts, looser tollerances, and very likely a shorter life span. Well at least that's what's reflected in the greatly reduced factory warranty for remand products. Youch!
I WONDER WHAT THE RANGE OF A REMAN BATTERY IS? Maybe 1/2 of my original 133K distance? Or is it only the length of the warranty, which could be limited to 1-2 years. Not yet known exactly by me. Let's be generous and call it 67K miles - or 4.25 years for the average CA driver. And let's assume assume costs are only for the battery and labor. You'll just walk from your breakfast nook to your desk to work, so no rental car really needed. Thank you for that one gift Covid-19. So in my rough math, that will be $22K every 4.25 years. Or with some rounding...
THAT'S $458 EVERY MONTH TO KEEP A TESLA IN BATTERIES. FROM NOW ON.
SO AS MUCH AS I LOVE CARS, BOATS, PLANES AND TRAINS, AND MY TESLA HAS TOPPED THIS LIST, I CANNOT IGNORE THE SIGNS HERE. THESE TESLA MACHINES DO NOT SEEM TO HAVE THE LONGEVITY TO MATCH THE EXPECTATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN SET OR PERHAPS I'VE LONGED FOR.
WHAT WILL I DO??
Perhaps like many here, I truly wanted Timmy to last for my foreseeable future. Minimizing waste by keeping the car forever. But at $458 a month just for batteries? That's ridiculous. They're not even charged batteries.
So tomorrow (today at this point) I will sell the car for junk, maybe $15K? Altho blowing her up does sound fun! Maybe using a Tesla Flame Thrower? And recorded by a Telsa Pi phone!! (Sh*te! I digress again). So, $15K from the scrap. Plus $22K from the reman battery ($37K-ish now) and then I will pony-up another $40-50K to buy a new(er) Model S/X with as much warranty as possible. I'll run this next Tesla til 85K miles or so. Then sell or run til I scrap again.
Certainly not my original intent, but I can't see pouring in soo much good money after bad. But I cannot stomach "gas-pump-life" anymore, so I'll just reduce my expectations of Tesla, Tesla cars, EVs, and man-in-general.
Man-o-man! "Gas-pump-life" t-shirts. Model them after "Salt-Life" brand. Hot rods, motorcicles, gas masks, cancer warning labels. That shirt would sell like hot-cakes! Might help pay for a new-ish, warrantied, Tesla every 5 years.
