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Scary & not great PR, BUT extraordinary service

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I’ve had my Model S almost 7 weeks. I should have posted on one of the “No Defects/Delivery Problem” threads, but didn’t. The car has been perfect – until today. Within a block of leaving home for work this AM, my windshield wipers failed. After several swipes where they did not go all the way down, the driver side wiper extended off of the left side of the windshield, returned a little ways and came to rest in nearly vertical position. Foolishly, since the rain didn’t seem that heavy, I kept going rather that returning home to have my wife drive me to work. A couple miles into the commute, the drizzle became a deluge, and I could hardly see. Putting on the hazard flashers, I slowed to 20-25 mph, while traffic zoomed past. And it didn't help that once I got close to work the roads were also flooded. Not exactly great PR coming from one of the handful of Teslas in NE FL. Sorry about that. :frown:

Mark, the service manager in Tampa returned my call before I even reached work. He and Aaron, one of the FL Rangers, were in Daytona for the Port Orange Supercharger ribbon cutting this morning and drove up in the afternoon. They cannibalized the new Model S loaner they were driving to use the wiper assembly to replace the broken one on my model S, making the repair in the parking garage at work.

Sure hope they didn’t encounter too much rain on the return trip to Tampa, even with Rain-Ex…

What other automobile company would have done this??
 
What about it don't you like?

For me (and admittedly, it was years ago) it made the wipers chatter and smear, and wore off unevenly leaving blotchy patterns of water in the rain. It was kinda neat the way a light to moderate rain would just fly off the glass without needing the wipers, but at some point you do need to use wipers (winter time: salt/grime spray from traffic) and that's when things went south for me.
 
For me (and admittedly, it was years ago) it made the wipers chatter and smear, and wore off unevenly leaving blotchy patterns of water in the rain. It was kinda neat the way a light to moderate rain would just fly off the glass without needing the wipers, but at some point you do need to use wipers (winter time: salt/grime spray from traffic) and that's when things went south for me.

Agreed x2
 
Interesting... I've used rain-x for over 25 years and I can't stand not having it on. I'd rather drive without the wipers on. It's so much more visible with it. i've used the combo on all my cars and haven't had the wipers jitter. could be cheap wiper blades on the Tesla. To each their own.
 
For me (and admittedly, it was years ago) it made the wipers chatter and smear, and wore off unevenly leaving blotchy patterns of water in the rain.

I have not had any chatter on the Model S, nor any other car I've used Rain-X on in the past 17 years.

The solution to wear and winter grime is to use the Rain-X windshield washer fluid additive, or the orange pre-mixed Rain-X fluid. This way, if the coating wears, or you have to use the washer to clean off salt spray, you can refresh the coating, and reduce the need for further wiper use.
 
Well not an MS story, but I took my Evo X for major repair a few months back and got a Chrysler 300C as a replacement (what a big mofo and slow). About 1km from the service center it started to rain. In about 2km the driver side wiper turned itself over backwards and the metal started to scrape on the window. It was a tight spot just before highway start and in the middle of a construction zone in heavy downpour. I was able to luckily find a spot to stop and get out. Took me about 5 minutes in downpour to get it kind of reattached and was able to get almost home before it flopped over again, this time in a spot where I could stop easily. After that luckily the rain stopped and never returned until I took the loaner back. So definitely could happen to any car and not a good experience.