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

151–160 of 213 posts

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

#151

Post by gambiting »

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???

On my car there's no spare, there's only a tyre repair kit. Which is all great in an emergency, but using the tyre repair kit destroys the tyre - and the ones on mine are rather expensive($250/each). On the other hand, I get free recovery during the warranty of the vehicle - so I would rather get it towed to a garage nearby and get the tyre patched up for about ~$15 than pay for a new tyre(obviously if it can be patched, if the sidewall is damaged then no).

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

#152

Post by gambiting »

cowardlydragon wrote: post #117
aetherspawn wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, except that we have literally a century of experience building all of above, but only decade or so of building huge automotive lithium batteries. It's "just" a battery, but at the same time it's hideously complex device where a lot of things can go wrong.

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

#153

Post by nraynaud »

lucaspiller wrote: post #137
gtvwill wrote: post #31

Wow that's sounds like a crappy experience all-round given the avg customer service response! A few things regarding the towing situation tho... Do tesla's honestly not have any form of rear tow hitch/chassis/axle? The bit where the tow truck driver had to push the vehicle out of a park because it was nose-in boggles my mind. Like,why didn't he just strap on to a rear axle/chassis point and pull it out with his truck…

> Do tesla's honestly not have any form of rear tow hitch/chassis/axle? I suspect the issue is more to do with the electric drive. There is no neutral unlike a traditional ICE vehicle, so any kind of towing could potentially damage the electric motors. I have a Prius and it's the same issue - if I need to get it taken to a garage, it's recommended to get a flatbed with a crane.

These are ac motors not permanent magnets. Ac motors don't produce electricity or braking torque when you turn the shaft without power.

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

#154

Post by ZeroGravitas »

jasonmp85 wrote: post #7
automathematics wrote: post #2

Thanks for sharing this. I hope Tesla respond in time, as this seems very unacceptable to me.

Honest question: why root for Tesla? Great EVs are starting to appear from other manufacturers, so why cheer for one company in particular?

Many of the other companies are doing it because they are forced to by government regulation, often termed "compliance cars". By putting it all in on EV Tesla has more skin in the game. They've certainly achieved more in the past, and it looks likely to continue in the future, even when up against models that are effectively subsidized by petrol and diesel models.

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

#155

Post by mdekkers »

toast0 wrote: post #79
chc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you saying "What?" to? It seems pretty clear to me.

I think the problem is with the word "rebuilt". I would take that to mean take the car apart, and put it back together with maybe a couple new parts. Given that Tesla thinks there's nothing wrong with that car, despite there clearly being something wrong with it, taking it apart and putting it back together again and hoping it works is kind of insane. (although it might work if the problem is say a loose or poorly al…

taking it apart and putting it back together again and hoping it works is kind of insane

Perhaps it is the EV equivalent of "have you tried turning it off and on again"

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

#156

Post by walid »

OliverJones wrote: post #19

Thanks for telling this story. The car business is HARD. I, for one, hope Tesla makes it across the chasm from early adopters like me to the mainstream. There's a reason for the existence of dealerships: they are local businesses that local jurisdictions can hold accountable for such things as lemon law refunds. If Tesla wants out from under the dealership laws, they better handle this kind of problem more profession…

The reason dealerships exist has nothing to do with accountability. Google it.

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

#157

Post by vaginaface »

bcrescimanno wrote: post #123
kylec wrote: post #43

In my opinion the most damning sentence in the article is this: This was the day of first bitter truth of Tesla: even you have a new car covered by warranty, you will need to wait in line for a few days to get it checked up. This says one of two things to me, both of them bad. Either there are so many Teslas with issues that the technicians are constantly booked up days in advance, or Tesla doesn't care about providi…

My first experience with Tesla service was when my car created an alert telling me that there was a coolant leak. When I called them, they told me that it didn't make sense as the car had no radiator. I had to send them a picture of the warning on my dash before they realized that I must be telling the truth. When I brought the car in to the service center in Sunnyvale, they told me they were backed up and that they…

Does Tesla not provide a replacement car while you wait for your car to be fixed? I remember reading that in a few articles a while back. Is this not the case?

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

#158

Post by aedron »

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.

Love the i3, shame it only seats four people.

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

#159

Post by fh973 »

lucaspiller wrote: post #137
gtvwill wrote: post #31

Wow that's sounds like a crappy experience all-round given the avg customer service response! A few things regarding the towing situation tho... Do tesla's honestly not have any form of rear tow hitch/chassis/axle? The bit where the tow truck driver had to push the vehicle out of a park because it was nose-in boggles my mind. Like,why didn't he just strap on to a rear axle/chassis point and pull it out with his truck…

> Do tesla's honestly not have any form of rear tow hitch/chassis/axle? I suspect the issue is more to do with the electric drive. There is no neutral unlike a traditional ICE vehicle, so any kind of towing could potentially damage the electric motors. I have a Prius and it's the same issue - if I need to get it taken to a garage, it's recommended to get a flatbed with a crane.

What is the general experience, does law enforcement care about this car being "special" when parked in the wrong spot?

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

#160

Post by Shivetya »

OliverJones wrote: post #19

Thanks for telling this story. The car business is HARD. I, for one, hope Tesla makes it across the chasm from early adopters like me to the mainstream. There's a reason for the existence of dealerships: they are local businesses that local jurisdictions can hold accountable for such things as lemon law refunds. If Tesla wants out from under the dealership laws, they better handle this kind of problem more profession…

Dealerships as a whole are not going to treat a customer like the person in the story above. They live and die on customer referrals and there are many rewards from manufacturers for being stand out. This includes servicing vehicles not purchased from them and at times even different brands.

The Tesla model irks me because they are also pretty much keeping all repair work in house; disclosure I work for a major parts/repair/distribution company; and this limits both customer choice but also valuable information on reliability that all consumers should be able to get access too.

That letter at the end looks exactly like a corporate guilt acceptance letter you see in the news. We settle but do not plead guilty. That just doesn't cut it in a consumer oriented industry like auto sales and I really don't see how Tesla will be able to defend their dealer less strategy with the III should problems shake out this way. If anything the noise on the internet should be loud.

Post reply on HN