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Huh. Extended warranty without Service plan?

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Looking at the maintenance schedule of the Model S is both confusing and extremely simple:

Every 5000 miles
Rotate tires


12 months / 12,500 miles
Take to Tesla (vague!)


24 months / 24,000 miles
Replace brake fluid


48 months / 48,000 miles
Replace battery coolant

Other than the manual saying to "take Model S to Tesla at the regularly scheduled maintenance intervals of every 12 months, or every 12,500 miles (20,000 km), whichever comes first," it seems like you could elect to bring the car in at 24 and 48 months and have the fluids replaced and be within their required maintenance schedule.

Note that the extended warranty is invalid if you don't follow the maintenance schedule. The verbiage in the Extended Warranty is "To maintain the validity of this Vehicle ESA, You must follow correct operations procedures and have Your Vehicle serviced as recommended by Tesla."

So - if you want a warranty, you basically MUST bring the car to Tesla every 12 months/12,500 miles. Or they can refuse to do any warranty work, even if you purchase the extended warranty. Given that, shouldn't the service be coupled to and included in the price of the extended warranty? You can't have the extended warranty without the service plan.

I'm a bit confused. And the extra 4 years works out to $5900+$200 per item repaired. Am I reading any of this wrong?

I thought they went on record saying that service was optional and would not void your warranty in any way. Also don't forget that the Extended Warranty comes with a bit of a hidden charge in the form of a $200 deductible. So if it does require the annual $600 trip that would be an additional charge incurred to keep the warranty valid...

Wish they just stopped playing games with the warranty cost and gave you one dollar amount you pay and that gives you full warranty coverage and any needed service done to the vehicle at a known cost without these ambiguous service visit requirements and $200 deductible for each warranty issue that comes up. As it is after paying $4,000 for the warranty and your door handle is stuck, that is going to cost $200 to fix even with the warranty...
 
I have an email from Jerome stating that those who have pre-paid service can ignore the mileage and timing restrictions, instead bringing the car in whenever the owner chooses. I consider that a recommendation from Tesla that would not invalidate my ESA.
 
AR - I think that's great but it is seemingly a very different issue than what I'm raising here. I'm talking about the ESA Extended Warranty - it contains this verbiage: "To maintain the validity of this Vehicle ESA, You must follow correct operations procedures and have Your Vehicle serviced as recommended by Tesla." The ESA is seemingly null and void if you don't bring it to Tesla every year for service. Am I reading this incorrectly? Or does your email contain a loophole for the ESA as well?

My point is that if the ESA requires Tesla Service, it should include it.
 
AR - I think that's great but it is seemingly a very different issue than what I'm raising here. I'm talking about the ESA Extended Warranty - it contains this verbiage: "To maintain the validity of this Vehicle ESA, You must follow correct operations procedures and have Your Vehicle serviced as recommended by Tesla." The ESA is seemingly null and void if you don't bring it to Tesla every year for service. Am I reading this incorrectly? Or does your email contain a loophole for the ESA as well?

My point is that if the ESA requires Tesla Service, it should include it.

I don't think "have your vehicle serviced as recommended by Tesla" means that you must pay for annual service. I read it differently, in that you must adhere to Tesla's servicing recommendations - tire rotations every 5,000-6,000 miles, air filters every 12,500 miles, battery coolant every 50,000 (or so) miles, etc. In my case, I bought the pre-paid service and was told that I could essentially bring the car in at any time and without thought to the mileage or time intervals. So in my previous post, I was simply saying that for those who bought both, you are definitely covered and can take your service at intervals of your choosing.
 
Simply Question. Why would you not maintain your car at the recommended service intervals? Would you do the same with your ICE vehicle? No, you wouldn't. The Roadster's warranty will be void if you don't get your services performed on time, why should the Model S be any different?
 
Amped - except that it's explicit in the servicing recommendations to bring it in to Tesla every year or 12,500 miles whichever comes first. So whichever way you read it, it's saying that you need to bring it in for the ESA to be valid.

- - - Updated - - -

Simply Question. Why would you not maintain your car at the recommended service intervals? Would you do the same with your ICE vehicle? No, you wouldn't.
I'll gladly do everything it calls for in the manual just as I've done with every ICE vehicle. Read my first post again. It lists a few things, and then the incredibly vague and expensive BRING IT TO TESLA EVERY YEAR OR ELSE.
 
Eco, if you get all your service performed on time, then DON'T WORRY. Its the people who wait until something goes wrong at like 25k to come in for the first time that this policy is really aimed towards. I have seen owners come in with 15k who constantly drive in Low suspension mode who have never rotated their tires who are outraged that they need to replace them due to inside edge wear. Regardless of whether you think they should be bundled or not, they aren't, and when you finally come in for your service, you will see how much more work Tesla will perform.
 
I guess I'm not explaining myself. I don't want to bring the car in every year for $600. I want to follow the schedule (every 2 yrs) they outline for fluid replacements. I want to take care of the car, do what's needed, but not be bound to bring the car in every 12 mos/12,500 miles. If there's a problem, I expect it to be covered even if I haven't brought the car into Tesla every year. Although the $200 deductible makes it sort of a catastrophic insurance policy anyway.
 
But you realize with how often firmware is changed and how often hardware is updated that it is important to come in to get those applied to your vehicle? Not every firmware update is over the air, and Tesla will not reach to out to you for mandatory bulletins to be applied to your vehicle. It is important to come in and get your car serviced every year. You are saying you don't want to bring the car in for a service every year but you also say you will gladly do everything it calls for in the service manual? Keep your story straight man. Being a Tesla Service Technician, I know what I am talking about. I highly recommend you come in every year.
 
But you realize with how often firmware is changed and how often hardware is updated that it is important to come in to get those applied to your vehicle?
No, I don't. How many hardware upgrades have there been and how often? This is a genuine question. I'm only familiar with the titanium plate.

Not every firmware update is over the air
I didn't know that either - how many firmware updates have required bringing the car in?

You are saying you don't want to bring the car in for a service every year but you also say you will gladly do everything it calls for in the service manual? Keep your story straight man. Being a Tesla Service Technician, I know what I am talking about. I highly recommend you come in every year.
I appreciate your input and unique insight. I was saying that with every vehicle I've ever owned, you can have the vehicle maintained at a dealer or elsewhere. Tesla is basically saying that nobody but Tesla can work on the car at all, for anything, ever. That seems to violate the Magnuson-Moss act.
 
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There have been multiple hardware upgrades and the major firmware pushes, 6.0 for instance, are pushed over the air, but each firmware update helps the car in small way, which is why it exists. As for violating the Magnuson Moss Act, I cannot speak on that, and for why other shops cannot work on the model s? The only reason I can guess, and this is GUESS, is that the proprietary information and software we use to work on the vehicle cannot be distributed among the public with the exception of the certified body shops Tesla works with, and even then I am sure they get a watered down version, which is kind of why I need to be a tad vague with all of this. Eco, when you take delivery of your 85D and start to interact with your local Service Center, I am sure you will be more than happy in dealing with them. Myself, I have not ever seen a warranty get voided for missing a service interval.. yet. I can not, and will not recommend skipping service for the reasons I said earlier, but until you actually start having to come in for service, RELAX! You will tire yourself out worrying about all of this terminology.
 
I plan on following the service recommendations to the letter but doing them myself. MUCH easier to service than my Viper with 3000 mile oil changes and differential/transmission/spark plug/coolant/brake fluid/power steering fluid changes needed.
 
I know that I am spending for the 8yr service agreement. But with new tech, I want the ability to say to Tesla that "this is your problem, not mine: fix the darn thing". And I have already found them fixing things that I had not even noticed...might be that way without it. I simply don't know, to be frank. But I will say I have held off on the ext. war. Due mostly to plunking so much down for the car. I am worried that they will increase the price of the ext. war. when they see what it is costing them, so I am planning to buy it when I am more flush. As Consumer Reports recommends: when it is new tech, get it. It has paid off in spades for me with early MacBook Pros. First issue I had would have cost 1,300 and the ext. was only something like 300.

Tesla is cutting edge. They are learning every day. I fully expect to have exceptionally expensive issue show up at some point. I simply do not want to pay for them.
 
You trust an email from a former Tesla employee over specific unambiguous verbiage in your ESA contract?

I have an email from Jerome (a VP) saying that I can basically bring my car in whenever I choose to have my 4 pre-paid services done even though that contradicts the written wording of the pre-paid service contract. I expect that an email communication from someone so high up at Tesla would supersede what is written in my contract. Either way, his email was also copied to my local service and regional service manager so that all were on the same page.

I really wouldn't worry about it, but if you are worried, then email your regional service manager for a clarification.
 
I don't know if you have seen a copy of the Annual Service Document from Tesla but I will link to it below. Coolant not replaced till year 4 (and I can't imagine that would be very difficult). There is noting I can see on there that a person with reasonable automobile experience couldn't do, but not all are created equal.

Annual Service Document

The very specific maintenance, as I detailed in the original post, is rotate tires, bring to Tesla, replace brake fluid, and replace battery coolant. What exactly are you planning on doing yourself? You simply can't.