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So you *can* add rear-facing seats after delivery for VINs after P05428

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Hi everyone!

Just ordered my first Tesla. With the Leaf and Ody on their way out and the RAV4 EV remaining, this will make us a 100% Tesla powertrain/battery home. I'm psyched to never have to go to the gas station again or get an oil change again.

Learned a ton during the purchase process (and many kudos go out to the community for your generosity, esp. lolachampcar who answered too many questions from me). I figure it's my turn to give back.

One of the most interesting things I learned is that, apparently, you can add rear-facing seats to cars well past VIN 5000, post-delivery.

I had searched the forum before and didn't see anything on this, so here goes:
- I had been shopping inventory cars and found one I liked but w/o rear-facing seats. I was surprised when the ownership advisor said they could add rear-facing seats at $3600. A day later, I found another inventory car w/o rear-facing seats, and this time was quoted $4500 to add in rear-facing seats. I tried to find out whether it was a car that had previously had rear-facing seats, or whether it had for some reason had the 2nd bumper installed. I couldn't get a consistent set of answers.
- So I called the Palo Alto service center, then corporate, and finally back to the Palo Alto SC. Here's what they said:
- There's a service bulletin that says cars above VIN P05428 can be retrofitted to add the rear-facing seats. It requires the cross member to be installed. With the exception of the 1st 15 or so cars, pretty much every car qualifies - those below 05428 don't require the extra bar; those above, do require it. No final word on the variance in quotes.

I wound up not needing to go down this route since I ordered new instead of purchasing via the secondary market; but hopefully this will be helpful to either current owners who wish they'd added rear-facing seats, or to prospective buyers who are trying to figure out whether to settle for a car without them - good news, you don't have to settle. =)
 
I've posted this before in the jump seat threads - when I got mine retrofitted, the invoice said "crossmember installation not required". I asked the technician the cost of crossmember installation and he told me it was $6000.
 
- There's a service bulletin that says cars above VIN P05428 can be retrofitted to add the rear-facing seats. It requires the cross member to be installed. With the exception of the 1st 15 or so cars, pretty much every car qualifies - those below 05428 don't require the extra bar; those above, do require it. No final word on the variance in quotes.
I don't know if this is Tesla's language or yours, so hopefully you can clarify.

Are you talking about cars in the range [05413,05427], [00001,00015], or some other range? Thanks.
 
I don't know if this is Tesla's language or yours, so hopefully you can clarify.

Are you talking about cars in the range [05413,05427], [00001,00015], or some other range? Thanks.

IIU the service center correctly on the phone, I think basically VINs below 5428 already have the extra safety equipment - read: crossbar/2nd bumper - whereas those above don't have it yet, but can have it added in at extra expense.

- - - Updated - - -

so it seems we have 3 quotes...$3600, $4500, and $6000 .... okaaayyy

Yeah, this was a bit frustrating, esp. because at one point, a NorCal SC said that a SoCal SC was quoting me a lower price for the retrofit on an inventory car b/c they were going to skip a proper safety retrofit, and sell me a car that wasn't as safe! I didn't know who to believe, and almost walked away from ordering a Tesla - new or inventory - but talk about a car that sells itself...