Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

dmitryzavyalov.livejournal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 213 posts

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#111

Post by dingo_bat »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #94
toomuchtodo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You own the Tesla hardware. You do not own the software. You're also not forced to buy one. You're also free to write your own software for the vehicle to bypass Tesla.

While that may be technically true, I do not know if that will hold in court, as currently Tesla owns a monopoly on software that runs on Teslas, and they disable their software to prevent the legal owner from using their own vehicle. I suspect this is wholly illegal behavior, and I really look forward to seeing it get tested in court. While this grey area has generally survived in smaller items, I suspect a car, whe…

If Apple can do it, Tesla also can. No court is going to reverse it.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#112

Post by koz1000 »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #60

How can it throw an warning on the display without a detailed log of the actual cause?

Thought the same thing.

Remember in the early days when Tesla owners would claim some wacky thing or other about the car (unintended acceleration etc) and Musk would publicly say "Nope, got the logs right here on our server"?

Seems nearly impossible that a trouble code as bad as "car will be undrivable" wouldn't be logged like crazy somewhere.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#113

Post by GreenPlastic »

There are other stories like this on Tesla Motors Club and Tesla service always goes above and beyond to get it right. The service guys gave me their card when I picked my car up. When I have an issue, I send them an email and get me scheduled immediately. They've taken care of a flat tire that they didn't need to (on Xmas eve, nonetheless), fixed almost every issue, and have always gone above and beyond.

When we had the flat tire, it was on Xmas eve, they worked to get our car towed to the service center and even offered to deliver it to us later that night. We left the key in the trunk and went Xmas shopping and it got towed just fine.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#114

Post by GreenPlastic »

Lightbody wrote: post #58
coredog64 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about the same level of service I would expect from Toyota should I buy a Corolla or Camry. I would expect better were I to buy a Lexus LS (random example in the same price range)

I own a Lexus and Tesla and while nothing has been bad with Lexus service, my experience has been better customer service from Tesla (more friendly, better loaners, more flexible scheduling, etc). Now, on the other hand: my Lexus has had a lot fewer issues.

Owned BMWs and Infinitis before and Tesla Service is way better.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#115

Post by mulmen »

dingo_bat wrote: post #108
overcast wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, been taking mine to the local mom and pop BMW racing club guy shop since day one. The ONE and ONLY time I took my car to the dealer for a free oil change. They didn't put the oil cap back on, sprayed everywhere in the engine as I was leaving, and months later I found out they didn't replace the drain plug access panel underneath. Can't handle oil changes, I sure as shit am not bringing it there for something ser…

Is this problem specific to BMW? Because I've never heard any of those things happen to a Honda or a Toyota.

It's very common at all dealerships. My dad worked at a Toyota dealership for 20+ years. He still takes his cars there for service. They frequently overfill them with oil because they don't take the time to let the crankcase drain fully. I worked for a guy who took his vehicles in to the same dealer for service and the Toyota shop forgot to put his drain plug back in then drove his truck around the lot and told him it was good to go. Luckily he did his own inspection because the crankcase was completely empty.

I was in the waiting room of another Toyota dealership and the service writer told a woman that her scheduled service would cost $500.00 because her drain plug was stripped out and she needed a new oil pan. She insisted that the car had always been serviced at that Toyota dealer and they told her they could not verify that and the part is not covered under warranty because it is a "wear part".

The incentive structure at a dealer service department is the exact opposite of favorable to the customer. Dealers are incentivized to perform the maximum number of warranty services so as long as they don't run afoul of the manufacturers expectation of warranty costs they are rewarded for excessive repairs. The excessive repairs are passed on to new customers in the form of less standard equipment and increased sticker prices so as long as sales are at an acceptable level manufacturers have no incentive to call the dealers on it.

When out of warranty cars come in the customer is treated as a blank check to be bled dry because most people won't question the repairs if the price seems reasonable.

e: I forgot about the time that same Toyota dealer that left out the drain plug over-torqued my lug nuts so severely that they warped the brake rotors. I noticed the pulsing in the brakes and pulled the wheels off to replace the rotors and the studs snapped off with my hand wrench! They were so tight that the threads were visibly stretched.

Oh and when I worked there as a lot attendant in high school a tech replaced a radiator but didn't reattach the fan shroud so when I started the vehicle the whole fan/shroud assembly exploded and destroyed the radiator.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#116

Post by cowardlydragon »

edude03 wrote: post #59
chc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great EVs are starting to appear from other manufacturers? I know of the Chevy Bolt and nothing else. Are there others you're thinking of? I mean, that's one car, which generally seems to be reviewed along the lines of "not as good as a Tesla, but hey, at least it's not a Leaf" — so although it is great that somebody else is doing it too, it seems pretty fair to say that Tesla is still leading the charge here (pun no…

How about the BMW i3? The 2017 gets 120 miles to a charge and for a bit more money you can get an onboard generator to bring that up to 300 miles IIRC. The driver assist capabilities aren't as great but otherwise can't think of much to complain about.

The supercharger network is a huge advantage.

All the other EVs are basically limited to local driving.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#117

Post by cowardlydragon »

aetherspawn wrote: post #107
intrasight wrote: post #106

Taking new, untested tech from a new, untested company on a long trip was a bad idea. I fault the author more than I fault Tesla in this case.

Electric cars are notoriously unreliable because there are just that many things that can go wrong. For example, a battery pack on average will monitor about 400 temperatures and perhaps 200 voltages. Its inherent design means that it undergoes many thermal cycles, has thousands of fasteners and up to a hundred switching circuity components inside various isolated power supplies. The deviation of any parameter from n…

Ehh, but fundamentally its just 1-2 motors and a big battery.

No alternator, fuel injection, radiator fluid, oil, pistons, spark plugs, fuel pumps, exhaust, manifolds, shafts, rods, gears, blowers, turbos/superchargers, catalytic converters, etc.

Not saying it's easy as described with unstable lithium chemistry, and its own heat dissapation problems, but MECHANICALLY it is fundamentally simple.

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#118

Post by mempko »

GreenPlastic wrote: post #113

There are other stories like this on Tesla Motors Club and Tesla service always goes above and beyond to get it right. The service guys gave me their card when I picked my car up. When I have an issue, I send them an email and get me scheduled immediately. They've taken care of a flat tire that they didn't need to (on Xmas eve, nonetheless), fixed almost every issue, and have always gone above and beyond. When we had…

Why would you need car towed for a flat tire???

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#119

Post by cowardlydragon »

sxcurry wrote: post #20
eridius wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The car being returned to Tesla was, at that time, in good working order. Tesla had repaired it after the last issue. Now of course given the car's history it's possible that there were still other things wrong with it, but to the best of Tesla's knowledge, at the time the letter was signed, the car was defect-free.

It's really interesting to see how far some people will go to absolve Tesla of anything bad. This car was a lemon and the owner got terrible service from Tesla. End of story.

Except all support people know about PEBKAC.

This isn't the usual holier-than-thou I did noth-ingggg! bad review.

But it's always hard to know....

Re: Tesla Model S: the story of a very short happiness and excitement

#120

Post by GreenPlastic »

mempko wrote: post #118
GreenPlastic wrote: post #113

There are other stories like this on Tesla Motors Club and Tesla service always goes above and beyond to get it right. The service guys gave me their card when I picked my car up. When I have an issue, I send them an email and get me scheduled immediately. They've taken care of a flat tire that they didn't need to (on Xmas eve, nonetheless), fixed almost every issue, and have always gone above and beyond. When we had…

Why would you need car towed for a flat tire???

We called Tesla roadside because other tire shops were closed and I didn't want to put the spare on myself. They offered to just tow it to the SC and have it fixed on them.
Post reply on HN