Hi All, I officially returned the Model Y Performance last night. It just wasn't meant to be and my final decision aligned with what many of you suggested, thanks for your input and I have no regrets.
It still had not been fixed after 14 days with Tesla Service and the repair forecast continued to move to the right, with another week being added yesterday morning. The total repair time would exceed 22 days for a car I owned for 1 hour.
Tesla Engineering in CA identified the root cause as a defective rear drive unit that created an intermittent signal, shutting down the car. They didn't provide any more details than that. In a cursory search of the internet, I see defective model S drive unit replacements being a recurring theme, but did not find other model Y owners reporting any similar replacements yet.
Beyond the abysmal customer service and outright refusal for any Tesla Mount Kisco leadership member to return
any of my calls or emails over the 14 day period, here's what pushed me over the edge this week to enact the return policy:
- Monday: new drive unit arrives at Tesla Mount Kisco
- Tuesday 11 a.m.: Tesla Service texts me that my car is on a lift being disassembled for the drive unit replacement (Yipppeee)
- Wednesday 3 p.m.: Tesla Service calls to tell me they were sent the wrong drive unit?!? Car is reassembled and placed back outside, with another week added to the repair estimate.
Working in manufacturing, my perspective is that it is inexcusable to start disassembly without first confirming you have the correct parts to assemble on the back end. That basic principle was violated and rework was the result.
In the end, I lost confidence in their capabilities and I didn't pay $61K for my brand new vehicle to be Tesla Mount Kisco's project car to unnecessarily disassemble and reassemble multiple times (or for it to be left for a full work day at someone's personal condo per earlier post, when they were supposed to be troubleshooting it). My concern was that new issues would arise.
I'm sure that VIN 5YJYGDEF8LF044434 will make it back into circulation in the near future with about 80 miles on it as a used car and I wish the future owner great success. For the moment I'm done with Tesla and I declined to pursue the exception to policy for the 12 month hold, at least for Tesla Mount Kisco. We'll see what the future holds, though I strongly feel that Tesla's poor post-sale customer service won't magically improve in the near future and that will certainly be a factor that I take into consideration.
On the Model Y return thread I'll post a snapshot of the single piece of return paperwork that is required to enact the return policy. It's very simple, though I had expected to fill out and sign multiple sheets.