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

Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

thedrive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 564 posts

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#81

Post by mulmen »

yarky wrote: post #63
mulmen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I rent a car I am not responsible for repairs. If I am on the hook for the repair bill I should get a choice in how the car is repaired. I can buy whatever tires I want for a leased car. If Tesla wants to make these kinds of demands then the repair should be part of the warranty and priced in to the car. > I would read this as a cautionary tale against renting your cars. If you can’t buy it, don’t! This holds tr…

Not the OP but "If you can’t buy it, don’t!" might mean not owning/renting it. Either buy it or don't even think about it.

Why though? What if renting makes more sense for my use case? Why not leave the dealer/bank on the hook for the depreciation and maintenance?

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#83

Post by elsonrodriguez »

mindslight wrote: post #2

Oof, that's not even a $700 repair. What's pictured looks more like a $200 repair. The rest is straight profit for Electrified Garage, for having Tesla knowledge at this point in time. Personally, I would have used a plastic fitting so that if it were to get hit again, the fitting would take the damage instead of the part that has been threaded into. The driving force being this story seems to be that the owner didn'…

Google says a Model 3 takes about 5 gallons of G48 anti freeze. That's $100 in just fluids. High end mechanics can charge about $150/hr. Let's say:

1 hour to dismantle and diagnose

1 hour to cut/drill/tap

1 hour to fill and bleed the system

1 hour for whatever diagnostics are needed to verify that the ECU is happy and the car drives well.

Sounds like $700 to me.

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#84

Post by Retric »

ricardobeat wrote: post #71
olyjohn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit of buying it is that you can drive it well after it's paid off. Leasing and trading up all the time means you're constantly making never-ending payments. It's not that hard to sell your car when the time comes to get rid of it.

Those never-ending payments are covering depreciation. Unless you keep your car for 10+ years and it’s one of the rare models that holds value after that, you’re not much better off buying it.

That calculation ignores transaction costs. Selling every 10 years is cheaper 9 years. 9 years is cheaper than 8 years etc.

Eventually starting over is cheaper, but that’s usually at 15+ years when facing a major repair.

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#85

Post by kube-system »

mulmen wrote: post #38
namdnay wrote: post #3

A bit of a stretch to classify this under right to repair.. if you rent a car from tesla, it’s going to be up to tesla to choose how it’s repaired. And it doesn’t seem unreasonable that they won’t accept a hack fix (however safe it may be) - that car is going to be sold to someone once the lease expires, they just can’t take the risk I would read this as a cautionary tale against renting your cars. If you can’t buy i…

When I rent a car I am not responsible for repairs. If I am on the hook for the repair bill I should get a choice in how the car is repaired. I can buy whatever tires I want for a leased car. If Tesla wants to make these kinds of demands then the repair should be part of the warranty and priced in to the car. > I would read this as a cautionary tale against renting your cars. If you can’t buy it, don’t! This holds tr…

> When I rent a car I am not responsible for repairs.

You certainly are, in most places, if you crash it into something. This wasn't a failure of the manufacturer's materials or workmanship, it was a collision loss.

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#86

Post by mindslight »

cartoonworld wrote: post #61
mindslight wrote: post #2

Oof, that's not even a $700 repair. What's pictured looks more like a $200 repair. The rest is straight profit for Electrified Garage, for having Tesla knowledge at this point in time. Personally, I would have used a plastic fitting so that if it were to get hit again, the fitting would take the damage instead of the part that has been threaded into. The driving force being this story seems to be that the owner didn'…

This repair is R&D that is definitely worth the price. There's no way this is a $200 repair, that Tesla took up a bunch of shop time and their specialized technician for the better part of a day, carefully researching and installing this repair fitting. If you are charging $25/hr labor you are out of business. If the repair fails, they will likely take it back and improve the fix. Your plastic mystery fitting would l…

"R&D" ?? It's replacing a molded hose barb with a threaded fitting. Also FTA: "the shop had another significantly cheaper solution it had used once before".

What's pictured in the article looks like 2 hours of labor, which would be a few hundred dollars at the rate for generic labor. I'm specifically highlighting the additional premium that Tesla expertise is commanding right now.

> mystery fitting

You do realize that all the usual pipe fitting shapes come in materials besides brass, right?

> Lastly, road hazard insurance didn't cover any repair.

Yes, this is reflected in my comment.

> Tesla doesn't do this kind of repair as well, leaving the only recourse replacing the entire part.

I'm sure Tesla takes the "broken" core pack, disassembles it, replaces that one plastic molding, and ships it off to the next repair for another $16k. For Tesla to charge an insurance company $16k with the justification of replacing the whole pack (while not even mentioning core charges!) is essentially insurance fraud.

They're skating by because they're new, but I can imagine in a few years either insurance companies will only pay for repairs from third parties who charge reasonable prices, or they will raise premiums significantly if you want to be entitled to OEM service/parts. I'd bet this dynamic is one of the main reasons Tesla is fighting Right to Repair.

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#87

Post by brigade »

1123581321 wrote: post #69
brigade wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first half is strictly true though - comprehensive doesn’t cover road debris; you have to file under collision and unlike comprehensive the premiums are more expensive and claims are solely your fault for the damage, increasing them further. Leases still near universally require collision coverage though, because they want damage fixed.

That makes this even more surprising if so, because a policy on that car without collision should’ve raised a gigantic red flag with his carrier.

My suspicion is that he did have collision and comprehensive, thought “obviously damage from road debris falls under my no-fault comprehensive,” then found out that it doesn’t unless it never actually touched the road.

And either no one told him that it has to be a collision claim, or he just decided not to bother with a $700 collision claim after he got an independent estimate (and complain to the author that debris ought to be covered by comprehensive instead of being treated the same as you hitting a wall.)

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#88

Post by [deleted] »

yarky wrote: post #63
mulmen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I rent a car I am not responsible for repairs. If I am on the hook for the repair bill I should get a choice in how the car is repaired. I can buy whatever tires I want for a leased car. If Tesla wants to make these kinds of demands then the repair should be part of the warranty and priced in to the car. > I would read this as a cautionary tale against renting your cars. If you can’t buy it, don’t! This holds tr…

Not the OP but "If you can’t buy it, don’t!" might mean not owning/renting it. Either buy it or don't even think about it.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#89

Post by sigzero »

mschild wrote: post #19
namdnay wrote: post #3

A bit of a stretch to classify this under right to repair.. if you rent a car from tesla, it’s going to be up to tesla to choose how it’s repaired. And it doesn’t seem unreasonable that they won’t accept a hack fix (however safe it may be) - that car is going to be sold to someone once the lease expires, they just can’t take the risk I would read this as a cautionary tale against renting your cars. If you can’t buy i…

Sure, except Tesla has a history of performing just as janky repairs on their cars themselves. Its even stated in the article.[0] Another question to consider is why the repair is 16k. Does is actually cost Tesla that much or do they just quote that much because they are realistically the only ones who can fix it so they can charge the price? Driving around with a shoddy fix on a combustion engine can be just as dang…

You don't own a rental so there would be no "right to repair".

Re: Tesla’s $16k Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

#90

Post by ethbr0 »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #33
mschild wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, except Tesla has a history of performing just as janky repairs on their cars themselves. Its even stated in the article.[0] Another question to consider is why the repair is 16k. Does is actually cost Tesla that much or do they just quote that much because they are realistically the only ones who can fix it so they can charge the price? Driving around with a shoddy fix on a combustion engine can be just as dang…

>Sure, except Tesla has a history of performing just as janky repairs on their cars themselves. Its even stated in the article.[0] Drilling and tapping a broken off plastic barb for a brass (or steel, or plastic, or whatever) barb is a very, very, very, standard procedure in any trade where you repair things. I wouldn't call this hack. Appealing to authority is fashionable. People will poo-poo anything if they think…

Brass is downright professional.

https://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-weld-professional-size

Post reply on HN