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

dmitryzavyalov.livejournal.com

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

#171

Post by alistairSH »

coredog64 wrote: post #52
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…

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)

My Lexus dealer has been great (Pohanka, Chantilly, VA). They're open 5am - 11pm and appear to have many technicians working throughout the day.

Oil changes and other small services are done while I wait and do NOT require scheduling ahead of time. They have a large lounge with food/drink, TVs, wifi, and a quiet office space for work.

Larger services have always had a loaner car included. It's always been a current model year Lexus RX. Again, no call ahead, just drop it off and drive away. The longest they've taken is a Sunday PM return on a Friday PM drop-off.

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

#172

Post by alistairSH »

nurettin wrote: post #104

I found one way to avoid all the costs, the taxes, the service times, the accidents and that annoying kid who always scratches your doors with a key: Don't buy a car.

Have you followed the news surrounding the DC Metro? The system has so much deferred maintenance that stuff randomly catches on fire. They have to shut down huge swaths of track for weeks at a time for major service. Even when all runs well, it's overcrowded, overpriced, and rife with major delays.

My wife tried to use Metro to get to work. She literally couldn't, as it wasn't reliable enough to make client meetings. So, she drove.

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

#173

Post by overcast »

mschuster91 wrote: post #164
mulmen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what I do, down to the oil. BMW made it really easy with the access flap for the drain plug and there are convenient jacking points on the subframe. The service calls for more than just changing oil but I'm not confident that the dealer even does all the "extra" things they claim. My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it.

> My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it.My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it. Leave brake fluid stuff to the experts. If you manage to get any moisture or air into your brake systems, say goodbye to your brakes. Back when I had a car, I did everything by myself except brakes, engine w…

To be fair, brakes are stupid easy to replace. I did my girlfriends pads, rotors, calipers by myself, for the first time ever, just watching some online videos. I certainly would not pay someone to replace pads / rotors. The only thing you really need for that is a brake spreader tool, which is free to rent from Autozone type places. Regarding flushing brake fluid, you can bring it a place if you're not comfortable, but it's really not difficult either.

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

#174

Post by overcast »

lostlogin wrote: post #128
mulmen wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

Over tightened wheel nuts are a complete nightmare. I got a flat in the middle of nowhere at night and found that the idiot who had fitted my new tyres had done this. I couldn't get the wheel off with an extra long wrench I was jumping on. Wheel fitting places fit into the equation a few rungs below car dealers.

Anytime I've had to bring my car to a shop, for any reason. I've run around each bolt, loosened, and properly torqued. Things like an inspection, will take at least a wheel off, and dealing with warped rotors, blows.

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

#175

Post by andruby »

nraynaud wrote: post #165
bcrescimanno wrote: post #122

As a (now former) Tesla owner, there's not a single moment of this story that surprises me. As I tweeted on the day that I was told that I would be receiving $5,000 less for my car than they had offered me and that I would be waiting 2-3 weeks (I actually waited over 6 weeks and had to follow-up multiple times to get the check which incidentally arrived today), a Tesla is a nice car--but the company is garbage. I've…

I click and see that you're employed at Paypal...

Why is that a problem? I don't think Paypal harbours any animosity towards Elon Musk.

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

#176

Post by nraynaud »

andruby wrote: post #175
nraynaud wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I click and see that you're employed at Paypal...

Why is that a problem? I don't think Paypal harbours any animosity towards Elon Musk.

Ah no, I was targeting the remark that Tesla is a bad company in general, while PayPal is itself also very famous for being a failure in customer services.

I see a real parallel: not being able to transfer your money when you need it and being stuck on the side of the road.

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

#177

Post by ars »

mschuster91 wrote: post #164
mulmen wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what I do, down to the oil. BMW made it really easy with the access flap for the drain plug and there are convenient jacking points on the subframe. The service calls for more than just changing oil but I'm not confident that the dealer even does all the "extra" things they claim. My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it.

> My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it.My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it. Leave brake fluid stuff to the experts. If you manage to get any moisture or air into your brake systems, say goodbye to your brakes. Back when I had a car, I did everything by myself except brakes, engine w…

> If you manage to get any moisture or air into your brake systems, say goodbye to your brakes.

That isn't true at all. You just bleed the air out, it's really easy, I've done it multiple times using just a small $5 brake bleeding bottle.

The only way you'd get enough water in your brake system for it to cause a problem is if you poured it in there, or left it open for several days.

> Back when I had a car, I did everything by myself except brakes, engine works and steering - mess up on these three and you can end up dead.

The brakes are the easiest [major] thing of all to to fix on a car. Your caution was completely unnecessary.

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

#178

Post by ars »

overcast wrote: post #173
mschuster91 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it.My car is due for a brake fluid flush soon, not sure if I will do that myself or have the mechanic do it. Leave brake fluid stuff to the experts. If you manage to get any moisture or air into your brake systems, say goodbye to your brakes. Back when I had a car, I did everything by myself except brakes, engine w…

To be fair, brakes are stupid easy to replace. I did my girlfriends pads, rotors, calipers by myself, for the first time ever, just watching some online videos. I certainly would not pay someone to replace pads / rotors. The only thing you really need for that is a brake spreader tool, which is free to rent from Autozone type places. Regarding flushing brake fluid, you can bring it a place if you're not comfortable,…

> The only thing you really need for that is a brake spreader tool, which is free to rent from Autozone type places.

A large C-clamp and the old pad work just fine.

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

#179

Post by julian_t »

jhoechtl wrote: post #136
mulmen wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

> The incentive structure at a dealer service department is the exact opposite of favorable to the customer. As is at the doctors. A doctor should be paid for not seeing you.

Exactly. I had back trouble, and visited a couple of therapists over the years who would massage and manipulate. I eventually realized that I was an income stream to them, and that I'd keep going back every time I had trouble.

Then I found a physio (= physical therapist) who treated it but also gave me an explanation for what was wrong, an exercise regime, and told me that, in the nicest possible sense, she hoped never to see me again.

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

#180

Post by Dylan16807 »

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…

You don't actually have to measure individual cell temperatures and voltages. A thousand fasteners is nothing special, and you don't need to have circuitry on each cell either. You're making batteries out to be much more complex than they actually are.
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