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Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

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Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#91

Post by jacquesm »

irjustin wrote: post #33

I love listening to this. It's all the beauties of a great business. There's a problem, a loyal group and someone willing to solve and love the problem at the same time. It's sad to see that the Roadster community was left behind so quickly. For better or for worse, Tesla plays cars like the startup game. Pivot, deploy, traction?, repeat. As terrible as that sounds, I do hope Tesla is here to stay. Even in its curren…

It seems that abandoning the userbase of the people that got you there is a staple ingredient for start-ups beyond a certain size too.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#92

Post by greglindahl »

thejenk wrote: post #42
cromka wrote: post #26

It's only a matter of time until it becomes profitable enough to salvage that one orbiting the Earth...

I was going to mention that the one that has broken earth's orbit is the wrong vehicle and is not a first generation Tesla Roadster, but then I realised the repair woes are likely to be even worse for second generation Roadster owners. They're not likely to be produced in significantly more volume, and they're made totally in house, not based on a Lotus platform like the last one.

The first Roadster had a Lotus Elise shell, not the "platform". The "platform" is not the outside of the car, in automobile industry terms.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#93

Post by olivermarks »

greglindahl wrote: post #89
olivermarks wrote: post #82

the Roadster is a Lotus Elise with an EV drivetrain installed by Tesla, there is good parts supply for the original Elise. https://www.elise-shop.com/original-lotus-parts-c-17.html The EV conversion made the car a lot heavier and was a pretty complex conversion https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/09/18/elon-mu...

That's not very accurate. The "sled" is completely different, not just the drivetrain.

The EV conversion made the car a lot heavier and was a pretty complex conversion https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/09/18/elon-mu....

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#94

Post by pvg »

Scoundreller wrote: post #72
pvg wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that doesn't change the fact most consumer electronics are not user-serviceable by design and are also designed in a way that most of them don't require service in their useful lifetime. That's the 'philosophy' at play here, if we can call it that. The other thing is making a small-run weird and pricey car and then mostly ditching it as a supported product. Putting aside any value judgements about the pract…

OP's claim was literally that Tesla's approach to parts hasn't changed since Day1: "A lot of early adopters were probably worried that Tesla would go out of business and they wouldn't be able to get parts. Tesla is still in business and there still aren't parts." I guess that could be interpreted as though Tesla would eventually support the early models, but it's clear that they're not providing parts for any model i…

Yes, my point is that if you make 2500 nigh-bespoke custom sports cars, whatever your plans or execution for parts, maintenance, etc are, they can't possibly have anything to do, philosophically or otherwise, with a manufacturer who makes non-user-servicable devices statistically nobody expects to user-service. Apple shipped 2500 iPhones every six minutes last year.

The comment you quoted says that buyers were concerned about parts from the get go, presumably as most buyers of nigh-bespoke custom sports cars are and as most buyers of anything Apple makes aren't.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#95

Post by alkonaut »

A small run exotic car won't be as easy and cheap to service as a mass market car. But 2500 isn't 25. Lots of manufacturers of exotic cars in a LOT smaller runs than 2500. And they make sure to procduce the parts required to service the cars for a very long time if they want to look like a serious car manufacturer.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#96

Post by Nullabillity »

pvg wrote: post #48
burke wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Individual parts are not readily available from either manufacturer.

You can't get 'individual parts' for most consumer electronics. They don't require the sort of maintenance a car does, as this user's story about selling an 8 year old laptop and buying a 4 year old laptop with the proceeds illustrates.

I tried emailing ASUS about where to get batteries for a laptop of theirs, and they seemed happy to point me towards [0]. Apple's attitude isn't as common as you might think, even in that industry.

[0]: https://asusparts.eu/en/

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#97

Post by WalterBright »

jdnenej wrote: post #27

This is becoming more and more of a problem as everything becomes more complex. I remember when I was a child my dad repaired the power switch on the vacume cleaner by going to the local electrical store and buying the exact same switch. Now every single device has its own custom part and the switch isn't just connecting 2 wires, it's contacting a main board telling it the button has been pressed triggering the power…

When it doesn't work, I just apply more voltage.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#98

Post by natch »

darkerside wrote: post #64
leesalminen wrote: post #50

My wife has a 2020 Toyota Corolla. Less than 3 months old and it’s got a bad crack in the windshield. Toyota says a replacement is 6 months out and there are 800 on backorder in North America right now. So, it’s not just Tesla. Can happen to any manufacturer.

Why is the dealer fixing a cracked windshield? Is this somehow under warranty?

People have a perception that third party parts are inferior. Maybe Toyota limits access to some OEM parts by others for whatever reason.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#99

Post by natch »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #18

My wife damaged the skirt at the bottom of the car, driving over a bump. It dented the skirt pretty badly, so we got it replaced. $10,000 and 4 weeks labor (but waited months to get it fixed), because they had to disassemble the whole damn car. I was livid at what should have been maybe a $200 part required practically the entire car to be disassembled. One front seat and the back seats were both removed as were the…

To be fair it was their first car. They have come a long way since then.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#100

Post by jacobush »

WalterBright wrote: post #97
jdnenej wrote: post #27

This is becoming more and more of a problem as everything becomes more complex. I remember when I was a child my dad repaired the power switch on the vacume cleaner by going to the local electrical store and buying the exact same switch. Now every single device has its own custom part and the switch isn't just connecting 2 wires, it's contacting a main board telling it the button has been pressed triggering the power…

When it doesn't work, I just apply more voltage.

How do you refill the white smoke which escapes sometimes when you do that?
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