Say what one will about Tesla, but I've never felt they gouge on parts pricing. A wheel + airbag + dispatching a mobile technician (or even in-house at the service center) isn't cheap. $700 seems very reasonable for all that IMO.
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Who's getting the normal steering wheel?
- Thread starter Snirpo
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Say what one will about Tesla, but I've never felt they gouge on parts pricing. A wheel + airbag + dispatching a mobile technician (or even in-house at the service center) isn't cheap. $700 seems very reasonable for all that IMO.
Definitely a lot of history of chatter about the airbags and swapping between round and yoke on S/X/Y/3. Safety is one aspect, but liability and insurance payouts is another. If you get in an accident, either your or the other guy's insurance may use it as an excuse to deny claims. And the companies that make the wheels may get sued.
Awiner
Member
I thought the same. I went to an aftermarket wheel and am using the yoke airbag.
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It is true that some of the parts prices seem oddly reasonable. But they still get you because you could easily have a drive unit that needs a simple $5 part swap to be fixed, but they force you to replace the whole $6-8K drive unit whenever anything goes wrong.
As another example, I just paid $1600 for a windshield. Why is it $1600? Because Tesla decided to glue stuff to the windshield that could have easily been mounted to the roof rail and then make sure you can only buy that "special" windshield from Tesla. That's crazy expensive and they make up for those other reasonable parts prices.
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I strongly, strongly doubt it'd be grounds for insurance to deny anything. Insurance covers stupid and even negligent - just not malicious or willful negligence. This counts as none of those things - it doesn't rise to even the "stupid" level, let alone malicious or willful negligence.
Not saying you'd have insurance cover AFTER an event - could be grounds to drop you like a hot potato - but the event itself should be covered.
(And yes, the company that makes the wheels may very well get sued - IF you can find them. Most are based overseas; they'll just rename themselves and carry on.)
Absolutely - the "reasonableness" of any individual repair can be questionable. But if they're charging $6-8k for a drive unit, that's likely close to cost. Whether you actually NEED a drive unit -- well, that's the big open question mark.
edit: Just wanted to add, I don't think they do that to MaKe MoRe MoNeY but because they don't do sub-component repairs at the service centers. Essentially they swap assemblies ... This is an area *ripe* for third parties. (... and then we go down that rabbit hole ....... no need to rehash it here, I'm absolutely positive we're all on the same page there.)
edit to the edit: I hear ya on the windshield. Just did one on the Model 3; 2 weeks later it caught a rock, and it's chipped again. I also need one for the Model X -- that's this week's phone call. Thankfully only $100 deductible on our comprehensive, just hate stacking claims up like that back to back .... prefer to space them out when I can.
Uh, American companies are selling the Chinese wheels, and I am sure they don't want to get sued.
Yes, insurance can deny claims based on non-declared modifications. They have teams that specialize in finding a way to deny claims.
MarcG
Active Member
Since my appointment is via mobile service, I’m half tempted to remove the yoke and airbag before the service tech shows up, so all he has to do is install the wheel & airbag - that way I’m sure to keep my yoke & its airbag, as well as make sure the tech installs a new airbag for the wheel
This is really too bad that we can't properly swap back and forth ourselves.
So what's your first impression of the wheel?
Now I wonder if the reprogramming is related to the new airbag? Sometimes they VIN encode these types of things.
I did see the tech scan a barcode on the new airbag before installation and reprogramming
Laddcruzer
Member
We absolutely can switch back and worth ourselves. I do it all the time. Same electronics and same airbag. No reprogramming. The Tesla SC folks are just trying to justify their salary.
We absolutely can switch back and worth ourselves. I do it all the time. Same electronics and same airbag. No reprogramming. The Tesla SC folks are just trying to justify their salary.
You know the airbags are different part numbers, right?
After further reflection, the one reason I can see for them not giving the airbag back would be that they are tied to the VIN of the car. Should there be a safety recall (such as the recent Tata fiasco), they would need to be able to track down each vehicle impacted by that recall, and giving you the airbag back screws with them being able to do that accurately (not to mention the possibility that you sell it to someone and it's now installed in a car with Tesla having no record of that airbag being in that car).
It’s almost certainly a “because the lawyers told us to” thing and not a technical reason why.
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