Which warranty is most important?

[Agon]

I am looking to buy a used Tesla S85 or P85, and I am trying to be mildly sensible, so I am looking for versions with some warranty left.

Some of them will be close or even beyond the 50000 miles new vehicle warranty but they will all have at least 4 or 5 years of drive unit and battery warranty.

So my question is: How important is the new vehicle warranty - meaning how many of the potential errors are ones that would be covered on THAT warranty? The drive unit problems is of no concern since they would be covered on the other.

So which type should I be concerned about and are there many?

The prices seem to drop when cars are out of warranty - so it is tempting to rely on the drive unit and battery warranty.

Thanks - great forum!

 

[bob_p]

While the motor and battery pack are the major expenses, there are several other items that can incur a large expense.

Extended warranties are insurance - if you don't buy them, you're gambling that your car is among the group that will have repairs less than the cost of the insurance - and not in the group that has repairs costing more than the insurance.

When I purchased my P85 4 years ago, I also ordered the extended service and warranty plans. And, in my case, I may end up saving some $$$ by being under the extended warranty. Others likely have a different experience and will find they didn't have enough repairs between 50-100K miles to justify the warranty.

 

[skitch23]

Have you considered a CPO? In the USA you get a brand new 4yr, 50k miles warranty and the balance of the battery warranty from the original in service date... I assume they offer the same in Denmark. It looks like there are about a dozen or so for sale in your area.... $529,000kr to $799,000kr.

 

[Agon]

I am not sure that many in Denmark bought the extended warranty. At least I dont see many in my price range advertising about it.
I definitely considered af CPO but they are more expensive than other used ones. Next step would be to buy another, less than 4 years old, used car with less than 50000 miles on the clock. But as stated prices seem to drop even further when the new car warranty runs out. And now I am trying to asses the risks.

Is it worth saving perhaps 10.000$ in exchange for giving up that warranty?

What are typical errors? (door handles, lcd??)

 

[Agon]

Sorry - that would be "perhaps 5000-10000 $"

 

[Az_Rael]

Sorry - that would be "perhaps 5000-10000 $"

For that kind of savings, I think it might be worth buying one without the warranty. It all depends on your risk tolerance. I would probably stay away from an air suspension model, as those are notoriously expensive to fix on all car makes. Other than that, the most expensive stuff I have seen is the MCU at $4000, and door handles at $800/each. I think the charge port might be a couple grand as well, if I recall.
So if you really can save that much buying an out of warranty used, you might still come out ahead even if you have to do a couple of expensive repairs. Like you said, the real kickers are the batteries and the drive units, and those will be covered.

 

[Agon]

Thanks. Do you know of any statistics regarding the number of faults and perhaps types of faults for cars of different age and mileage?

Are faults to be expected every year for cars beyond 50000 miles? Or do most people have cars that drive several years without faults - like in most normal cars? There seems to be so many things that can be faulty in a Tesla

 

[Max*]

Thanks. Do you know of any statistics regarding the number of faults and perhaps types of faults for cars of different age and mileage?

Are faults to be expected every year for cars beyond 50000 miles? Or do most people have cars that drive several years without faults - like in most normal cars? There seems to be so many things that can be faulty in a Tesla

I'm sure Tesla has the MTBF numbers, and keeps them proprietary.

Any info you get here on the forums is somewhat skewed. You're more likely to get people complaining on a fan forum, than praising the actual product. You might here of "hundreds" of problems with frunk creases/door handles/MCU failures/etc. etc. etc. but that number might be 0.01% of the population.

 

[Agon]

Thanks.

Do the Teslas in your opinion have more faults than the average ICE car?

I think i have spent on average maybe 1500-2000 $ a year on my current car (service, tyres and the occasional minor fault - not many though). Would you guess that I should expect to spend more on a 2014 Tesla with 60-70000 miles on the clock?

 

[Max*]

Thanks.

Do the Teslas in your opinion have more faults than the average ICE car?

I think i have spent on average maybe 1500-2000 $ a year on my current car (service, tyres and the occasional minor fault - not many though). Would you guess that I should expect to spend more on a 2014 Tesla with 60-70000 miles on the clock?

I'll leave that to the more qualified people.

I had a few problems with my car when it was new, all taken care of under warranty. Then 1 year of bliss. And now one of my handles stopped working. Getting it fixed soon. So over 1.5 years a couple problems here or there, all under warranty, but if I had to pay out of pocket, it'd be a less than $2k.

In terms of maintenance, Tesla has their service plans listed here - Service plans Many people skip some of them, it's up to you if you want to or not.

Tire wear depends on your driving patterns. Some people only get 5k-8k miles (heavy foot, RWD, 21" tires, performance cars), some people get 30k-50k miles.

Tesla also has an 8-year unlimited mile warranty on the drive-train (battery, drive units and inverter) in the US, I'd look up the info for Denmark (I'm guessing it's the same).

 

[Max*]

Also, don't believe into the hype that Tesla's are maintenance free/problem free and that when it was stated that service centers will not be profit centers, it wasn't meant that service will be cheap.

With that being said, there is more electronics that can break in a Tesla than a typical ICE. But you don't need to service things like engine oil, transmission fluid, spark plugs, etc.