Questions about Pre-Paid Service Plans and Extended Service Agreement

1) I can do the 4 year now, then add the additional 4 years anytime during that 1st four years of coverage correct?

Yes, but watch the milage limitation.

2) Do you guys/gals think the price will go up again at some point?

You won't know until it goes up, and there's no advance warning.

3) These are transferable to another owner, correct?

Correct. I think there might be a $100 transfer fee.

4) Is it worth it? how much would it cost you to do a la carte services over 4 years?

Hard to say. My guess is that typically it would be about even. It's supposed to include some hardware upgrades, which would make it worth it.

1) Can anybody help me out and give me some "real-world" examples of how this would be of a benefit?

The motor or inverter has to be replaced during years 5-8.

2) I noticed "hardware upgrades" were listed as a part of the ESA, what is meant by that?

It's not sure. I received new floor mats a month ago.

3) Can this be added at anytime, or am I required to purchase it during the 1st 30 days?

I think the first 30 days.

4) After 4 years or 50k miles, it goes away?

No, the extended service plan is from year 5-8 not 1-4.

Doug_G said:

The extended plan is for an additional 4 years or 50k miles. On top of the original warranty.

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It's worth noting the extended warranty (like most all extended warranties) has a deductible per incident and such. It's not just an extension of the first 4-year bumper to bumper zero out of pocket warranty. That's neither good or bad, just be aware of it when deciding if it's something you want.

SeminoleFSU said:

1) I can do the 4 year now, then add the additional 4 years anytime during that 1st four years of coverage correct?
2) Do you guys/gals think the price will go up again at some point? I can do the full 8 years up front, but I'd rather do 4 then purchase the other 4 later... If it seems like the price will definitely go up though, I might go ahead and opt for the 8 year.
3) These are transferable to another owner, correct?
4) Is it worth it? how much would it cost you to do a la carte services over 4 years?

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I asked the question about the second 4 years of prepaid service in the Austin Gallery last week and they were non-committal about it being offered in the future if you don't buy it now. It's reasonable to think you would be able to buy it later but of course the prices for that or future a al carte services are unknown. I'm intending to buy only the initial 4 yrs prepaid and deal with the second 4 years later. It's not a significant cost either way.

For the extended warranty it's a balance of locking in the price by buying it today vs the risk of not having the car for the 2nd 4 years and not being able to take advantage of it. I always get the extended warranties on cars and it's generally been worth it if I own the car long enough. In this case I know I can buy it later if I still have the car although of course the price is unknown but that is what I intend to do. Things change however. I thought to have my current car a long time and bought the extended warranty which I now don't intend to use. Fortunately I am selling the car to my son so presumably we will get "family use" out of it.

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ckessel said:

It's worth noting the extended warranty (like most all extended warranties) has a deductible per incident and such. It's not just an extension of the first 4-year bumper to bumper zero out of pocket warranty. That's neither good or bad, just be aware of it when deciding if it's something you want.

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Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't noticed it.

SeminoleFSU said:

2) I noticed "hardware upgrades" were listed as a part of the ESA, what is meant by that?

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This is incorrect. Hardware upgrades are actually part of the pre-paid service plan. Indeed, this is one of the main reasons I decided to purchase it. However, all hardware replacements have been listed under warranty on my invoices...

SeminoleFSU said:

Actually, I can't find "hardware upgrades" in either the pre-plan or ESA PDF's for some reason...

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Here:

Tesla Service includes
Annual inspection (or every 12,500 miles)
Replacement parts like brake pads and windshield wipers (excluding tires)
24 hour roadside assistance
System monitoring
Remote diagnostics
Hardware upgrades

Source: Tesla Service | Tesla Motors

SeminoleFSU said:

Hi everyone, I have 20 days left (according to "My Tesla" account) to purchase these things, so I need your help navigating the waters.. The only thing I know for sure is I probably don't need the ranger service, as the Marietta SC isn't too far from me, and if my car is dead, $100 won't kill me once or twice (hoping for zero)...

Pre-Paid Service Plan questions:
1) I can do the 4 year now, then add the additional 4 years anytime during that 1st four years of coverage correct?
2) Do you guys/gals think the price will go up again at some point? I can do the full 8 years up front, but I'd rather do 4 then purchase the other 4 later... If it seems like the price will definitely go up though, I might go ahead and opt for the 8 year.
3) These are transferable to another owner, correct?
4) Is it worth it? how much would it cost you to do a la carte services over 4 years?

Extended Service Agreement
I'm pretty confused about the "value" of the extended service agreement for $4k... Can someone give me an example of when that would be of a benefit to me? I see guys on the forums talk about things getting swapped out all the time as part of service requests, and I don't know if they purchased this extended service agreement or not... It is very difficult to determine the value here.. as there's an awful lot of exclusions...


1) Can anybody help me out and give me some "real-world" examples of how this would be of a benefit?
2) I noticed "hardware upgrades" were listed as a part of the ESA, what is meant by that?
3) Can this be added at anytime, or am I required to purchase it during the 1st 30 days?
4) After 4 years or 50k miles, it goes away? To me that's when you start having all the problems with cars, once they get to their "quarter to half" life..

Any thoughts/help are appreciated! :tongue:

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Are you in FL? We can't buy the service plan here... Unless something changed fairly recently.

I think the door handles, 12 volt battery, and alignment concerns are enough to justify the 8 year plans. No one else can really fix anything that goes wrong with the car.

apacheguy said:

This is incorrect. Hardware upgrades are actually part of the pre-paid service plan. Indeed, this is one of the main reasons I decided to purchase it. However, all hardware replacements have been listed under warranty on my invoices...

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It's part of the service. You don't have to buy the prepaid plan. You could just pay the $600 every time you bring it in and that includes the hardware upgrades.

apacheguy said:

Here:

Tesla Service includes
Annual inspection (or every 12,500 miles)
Replacement parts like brake pads and windshield wipers (excluding tires)
24 hour roadside assistance
System monitoring
Remote diagnostics
Hardware upgrades

Source: Tesla Service | Tesla Motors

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In the paragraph next to that, it says "necessary hardware upgrades". Not sure what that means, but sounds like something the warranty should cover.

markb1 said:

In the paragraph next to that, it says "necessary hardware upgrades". Not sure what that means, but sounds like something the warranty should cover.

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I don't know either, but if Tesla includes LTE as a standard option at some point, I would fully expect them to consider that a hardware upgrade. Obviously that's just one example, but the service plan was explained to me as being the best way to keep your car "up to date" with the latest features.

I had a chance to hunt around for an archived version of the service webpage because I didn't seem to remember the qualifier "necessary" being in the language when I purchased my plan. Indeed, it was not. Also, software updates used to be included in the plan:


Annual inspection (or every 12,500 miles)
Replacement parts like brake pads and windshield wipers (excluding tires)
24 hour roadside assistance
System monitoring
Remote diagnostics
Software updates
New features


Source: Tesla Service | Tesla Motors


Notice that "new features" is stronger language than "necessary hardware upgrades." Has Tesla quietly been diluting our service plans?

apacheguy said:

I had a chance to hunt around for an archived version of the service webpage because I didn't seem to remember the qualifier "necessary" being in the language when I purchased my plan. Indeed, it was not. Also, software updates used to be included in the plan:


Annual inspection (or every 12,500 miles)
Replacement parts like brake pads and windshield wipers (excluding tires)
24 hour roadside assistance
System monitoring
Remote diagnostics
Software updates
New features


Source: Tesla Service | Tesla Motors


Notice that "new features" is stronger language than "necessary hardware upgrades." Has Tesla quietly been diluting our service plans?

Click to expand...

I think probably didn't fully consider the implications of "new features" and "hardware upgrades" until after the page went live and they started getting questions about it. They obviously never intended to do free retrofits for things like parking sensors and folding mirrors, but the old wording might have been interpreted that way. I think the current wording is still lacking in clarity, though. I can't imagine what sort of non-warranty hardware upgrades they have in mind.

Btrflyl8e said:

Are you in FL? We can't buy the service plan here... Unless something changed fairly recently.

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I was about to reply with something similar as my recollection was that WA and FL were the two "problem child" states but it's for the extended warranty not for the service plan.

brianman said:

I was about to reply with something similar as my recollection was that WA and FL were the two "problem child" states but it's for the extended warranty not for the service plan.

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Nope. Can't buy service plan in FL, either:

brianman said:

I was about to reply with something similar as my recollection was that WA and FL were the two "problem child" states but it's for the extended warranty not for the service plan.

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Christal is correct; FL doesn't have either. Waaay back when I had my 12k done Tesla told me they would work back a refund when I was able to buy the service plan....at 21k I'm looking at my second service coming and we still don't have plans available. :-(

Understood. So FL is even worse off than WA. Bummer.