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

Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

roadandtrack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 209 posts

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#71

Post by Infernal »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #58
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.

Can’t you just go to one of the dozens of windshield replacement businesses in your area? You drive it there and they plop in a new windshield for very reasonable rates. They will often even come to you to fix it.

I have wondered about this between my 2008 Honda and my 2019 Honda. The 2008, I have had the windshield replaced twice, no sweat, once due to a rock from the road and once due to a hailstone. On the 2019, there is a suite of sensors behind the rearview mirror that (I presume) handle lane detection and object avoidance (emergency braking) duties. I don't know what assumptions those sensors (or the software behind them) might make about the properties of the glass they're looking through, but I wouldn't blindly have the shop on the corner replace the 2019 windshield like I would on my 2008.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#72

Post by Scoundreller »

pvg wrote: post #59
Scoundreller wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple keeps a much tighter grip on their supply chains than the rest. If you're willing to search around on Ebay/AliExpress, you usually can get individual parts: either gray market from a service centre, 2nd shift or overruns. The big exception's for Apple parts. Contrast with Sears: Here's 250+ parts available for each fridge they distribute, shipped to you direct, with manuals: https://www.searspartsdirect.com/cat…

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 in small or large production.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#73

Post by twblalock »

droithomme wrote: post #14

That they won't service them or supply parts shows the future for all Tesla owners. We need legislative reform that requires any companies selling products in US jurisdiction put enough parts and cash in escrow to guarantee for a reasonable time period the ability to service anything that costs more than $500.

That's a great way to raise the barrier to entry so much that only large, established companies can afford to introduce new products.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#74

Post by twblalock »

ianai wrote: post #36
jonknee wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parts are hard to come by for their mass market models too, it's crazy.

What are owners supposed to do? Are there any indications these cars fail so rarely?

Most of the problems I've heard of with the newer Tesla models involve replacement body parts to repair damage from accidents, especially the glass roofs of the new Model 3.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#75

Post by leesalminen »

Infernal wrote: post #71
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can’t you just go to one of the dozens of windshield replacement businesses in your area? You drive it there and they plop in a new windshield for very reasonable rates. They will often even come to you to fix it.

I have wondered about this between my 2008 Honda and my 2019 Honda. The 2008, I have had the windshield replaced twice, no sweat, once due to a rock from the road and once due to a hailstone. On the 2019, there is a suite of sensors behind the rearview mirror that (I presume) handle lane detection and object avoidance (emergency braking) duties. I don't know what assumptions those sensors (or the software behind them…

Pretty much. Same deal on the Corolla.

Just out of curiosity I checked safelite.com and they don’t even offer a replace option on this year/make/model. Only repair, and this crack is well beyond the repair limit.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#76

Post by redis_mlc »

leesalminen wrote: post #75
Infernal wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have wondered about this between my 2008 Honda and my 2019 Honda. The 2008, I have had the windshield replaced twice, no sweat, once due to a rock from the road and once due to a hailstone. On the 2019, there is a suite of sensors behind the rearview mirror that (I presume) handle lane detection and object avoidance (emergency braking) duties. I don't know what assumptions those sensors (or the software behind them…

Pretty much. Same deal on the Corolla. Just out of curiosity I checked safelite.com and they don’t even offer a replace option on this year/make/model. Only repair, and this crack is well beyond the repair limit.

In aviation, we stop-drill the ends of cracks in aluminum to stop propagation by diffusing the stress point.

If you need to wait 6 months, you might want to investigate doing that.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#77

Post by segmondy »

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…

The barrier has gone up in fixing things, but it's still not impossible. You can't buy parts from Radioshack, but you can still find parts if you search carefully. Folks are also able to 3D print parts and combine new parts to make replacement. The repair culture is down, less people are into electronics, but those that are motivated are still fixing almost and and everything they set forth to.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#78

Post by segmondy »

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…

This is exactly what put an end to my plan to buy a Tesla. I went nuts like everyone and most of my friends and coworkers bought one. I held out then I read about how the repair can take forever and how the parts are so tightly coupled that you have to almost disassembly the car to make repairs and I decided to pass. Until they figure this out, I'll probably get a used volt or bolt whenever I decided to get my next car.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#79

Post by johncalvinyoung »

pmorici wrote: post #11
paulddraper wrote: post #7

Wow. I had a '91 Saturn sedan until 2015. Despite my model being out of production for decades, and Saturn having closed up shop for years, I could still find aftermarket auto parts. How common of a problem is this? Any other manufactures/models notorious for poor part availability?

Pretty big difference between a model that sells 2,500 total units and one that sells millions over 2 decades. A better comparison would be to look at what parts availability is on a limited run sports car.

Yup. Try a first gen Jaguar XK8. Not crazy rare, many small towns have one or two. Gorgeous cars. But despite Ford owning Jag for a while, and some shared parts, you’d better hope you don’t need repairs. Only ~50k made in the whole world across the whole ten years of production. And that’s not even partitioning for body style or revision. Some critical parts are scarcer than hens’ teeth.

Re: Keeping Tesla Roadsters Alive Is Serious Work

#80

Post by paulddraper »

jandrese wrote: post #39
paulddraper wrote: post #7

Wow. I had a '91 Saturn sedan until 2015. Despite my model being out of production for decades, and Saturn having closed up shop for years, I could still find aftermarket auto parts. How common of a problem is this? Any other manufactures/models notorious for poor part availability?

Most of the parts on your car are just GM parts. Auto manufacturers don't design a new pump/bearing/condenser/etc... for every make and model of their vehicles, they take one off of the shelf. When it breaks you can find a replacement because there are dozens or hundreds of cars that used the exact same part and supplying one supplies them all. Even when the manufacturer stops making that part (because the last car t…

> With something like those early model Teslas there is a lot of custom one-off parts that are near impossible to find.

I guess the question becomes why did Tesla have so many one-off parts? Is it all attributable to being electric rather than gas?

Post reply on HN