Reg. pre-paid service plans - Is this beneficial and required?

coolgrngrl · Jun 28, 2014

We just bought a Tesla Model S. The delivery manager suggested that we take the pre-paid service plan ($1900 for 4 years or $600 for each annual visit !!!!) to avail of modifications Tesla makes to the body of the car, in addition to regular maintenance.
Is this really true? What sort of maintenance have you had to do on the car? Do we really need to go to the Tesla service center for servicing / annual tuning? I have not taken the buyback option.

Thx in advance for your help.

jerry33 · Jun 28, 2014

1. It's not required.
2. The full package comes with unlimited ranger service. (otherwise $100 per visit)
3. There are parts included in the package which would be extra. Right now these are inexpensive parts, but later, who knows.
4. Taking it in once a year allows Tesla to install the upgraded components.
5. $600 is the annual amount I spent on maintaining the Prius over the last 11 years. I don't feel the Tesla prepaid maintenance is overpriced considering the difference in the two cars.
6. At 26,000+ miles the maintenance on the Tesla (not counting the annual visit) have been alignment, headlight adjustment, several TSB updates, window adjustment, new tire sensors and relay.

Whether you get the service or not is up to you. I feel that I will get my money's worth out of it. Others feel differently. No one will really know until the end of the maintenance time.

apacheguy · Jun 28, 2014

jerry33 said:
3. There are parts included in the package which would be extra. Right now these are inexpensive parts, but later, who knows.

And which parts might these be? Are you just referring to new windshield wipers and key fob batteries?

Merrill · Jun 28, 2014

I have the prepaid maintenance and so far had the car for over 1 year and 12000 miles and have taken it in for yearly service alignment and rotate 3 times and paid for nothing. Wiper blades key fob batteries air cabin filter and of course updates, camber bolts and do not know if I have used the $475 per year cost but happy I took the plan.

ViperDoc · Jun 28, 2014

prepaid plan

coolgrngrl said:
We just bought a Tesla Model S. The delivery manager suggested that we take the pre-paid service plan ($1900 for 4 years or $600 for each annual visit !!!!) to avail of modifications Tesla makes to the body of the car, in addition to regular maintenance.
Is this really true? What sort of maintenance have you had to do on the car? Do we really need to go to the Tesla service center for servicing / annual tuning? I have not taken the buyback option.

Thx in advance for your help.

The plan also covers such things as swapping on the snow tires (and the ranger visit to do it, which is important since we live hours from the nearest service center), rotating tires, etc. I didn't think it was a bad deal.

EVTECH · Jun 28, 2014

jerry33 said:
1. It's not required.
2. The full package comes with unlimited ranger service. (otherwise $100 per visit)
3. There are parts included in the package which would be extra. Right now these are inexpensive parts, but later, who knows.
4. Taking it in once a year allows Tesla to install the upgraded components.
5. $600 is the annual amount I spent on maintaining the Prius over the last 11 years. I don't feel the Tesla prepaid maintenance is overpriced considering the difference in the two cars.
6. At 26,000+ miles the maintenance on the Tesla (not counting the annual visit) have been alignment, headlight adjustment, several TSB updates, window adjustment, new tire sensors and relay.

Whether you get the service or not is up to you. I feel that I will get my money's worth out of it. Others feel differently. No one will really know until the end of the maintenance time.

Just to clarify the unlimited ranger visits are no longer available. Seems they changed the plans. So each ranger visit is $100. It is a steal for some people that don't live within and hour of a service center. Even if you do you ahve to figure what is 2-3 hours of your time worth. A $100 flat fee isn't too bad.

Merrill · Jun 28, 2014

Also remember that at least in the Bay Area the labor charge is $200 per hour, does not take long to eat up the $475.

johnnyS · Jun 28, 2014

I have the 8 year plan and just had our 25,000 mile service. I think it is worth it. We have the 21" wheels and there is no charge to rotate the tires--I am trying to get them rotated about every 4000 miles.

jerry33 · Jun 29, 2014

apacheguy said:
And which parts might these be? Are you just referring to new windshield wipers and key fob batteries?

I'm referring to updated parts which aren't covered by warranty. Right now Tesla seems to be giving them out whether or not you have the plan. This may not continue in the future. Also, I'd speculate that it will be much more expensive to purchase the 9-16 year plan if you didn't purchase the 1-8 year plan. Of course, I purchased my plans (extended warranty and maintenance) before the price increase, so there was less of a reason to not skip them.

tliving · Jun 30, 2014

It really depends on your mileage. If you're low/average miles then it may make sense and save some money. If you're high mileage (like me) then it doesnt make sense. The Service Center folks told me as much too. More details here:

Model S Pre-Paid Service Plans | Tesla Living

apacheguy · Jun 30, 2014

tliving said:
It really depends on your mileage. If you're low/average miles then it may make sense and save some money. If you're high mileage (like me) then it doesnt make sense. The Service Center folks told me as much too. More details here:

Model S Pre-Paid Service Plans | Tesla Living

The article is incorrect. Tesla has waived the mileage requirement in the service contract and you are free to bring it in once a year regardless of miles driven in that timeframe.

tliving · Jun 30, 2014

apacheguy said:
The article is incorrect. Tesla has waived the mileage requirement in the service contract and you are free to bring it in once a year regardless of miles driven in that timeframe.

The quoted text from the actual service contract is what I was going by. So while they may tell you something else in person (varies by SC) the contract reads otherwise:

“Notwithstanding the date this Agreement is purchased or becomes effective, maintenance inspections must be performed within 1,000 miles or 30 days of the specified maintenance intervals for Your selected Plan. Any scheduled maintenance not completed within such time will be excluded and no maintenance inspections will be added as a replacement for any such excluded maintenance inspections.”

coolgrngrl · Jul 1, 2014

Nice blog, tliving.
I read many of your blog posts even before we ordered ours. It helped make up our minds.

Where is the specified maintenance intervals mentioned - in the documentation of the service plans? Is the waived mileage documented somewhere as well?
I drive it mainly to work - ~50 mils round trip. And obviously, this will become our primary weekend car as well. So I'm expecting we'll put 15-20K miles /year. Still trying to figure out if the service plan makes sense for us. We are just about a week into ownership, so got a couple weeks to decide.

Thanks for all the responses.

apacheguy · Jul 1, 2014

coolgrngrl said:
Where is the specified maintenance intervals mentioned - in the documentation of the service plans? Is the waived mileage documented somewhere as well?

Here:

Tesla service plan / annual mileage

Scroll halfway down and you'll see a response from TM ownership that explicitly states that the mileage requirement has been removed.

coolgrngrl · Jul 2, 2014

Thanks for the link, apacheguy. I did read that before, but I am worried how far each SC would honor something that's not on the official document. Or is it?

ToddRLockwood · Jul 2, 2014

If you live more than a reasonable drive from a Tesla service center, the service plan is a no-brainer because it includes unlimited ranger visits. Without the plan, you'd have to pay a visit fee plus mileage to get the ranger to your home, even if it's a warranty repair. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this was the policy when my car was delivered in March 2013.

capt601 · Jul 2, 2014

I did not prepay, but took in for annual check in January and received all of the same. Took in a few months later for warranty repair and they rotated tires per my request.

Merrill said:
I have the prepaid maintenance and so far had the car for over 1 year and 12000 miles and have taken it in for yearly service alignment and rotate 3 times and paid for nothing. Wiper blades key fob batteries air cabin filter and of course updates, camber bolts and do not know if I have used the $475 per year cost but happy I took the plan.

- - - Updated - - -

The annual service is only for that, no other service so an hourly labor charge isn't a factor for discussing the prepaid plan. You either prepay or py 600 and get same service.

Merrill said:
Also remember that at least in the Bay Area the labor charge is $200 per hour, does not take long to eat up the $475.

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Reg. pre-paid service plans - Is this beneficial and required?

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