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Maintenance Service Fee

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Hi,

Not currently a Tesla owner. I been trying to research all I can on the cost of ownerships and people feedback. I am definitely interested in wanting one. So please forgive me if thes questions been asked before.

1) I read on the Tesla site there is an annual service service for $600.00 per year. (Service plans | Tesla Motors). What is covered by this $600.00. It seems a bit pricey. Right now on my Lexus, I usually would change oil every 15k miles or 3 months which would normally cost $80.00. That comes with the typical inspections and car wash. The BMW does something similar as well. All cost annually less than $600.00. It say every year or 12,500 miles. Which is basically 3 months for the average driver. So $600.00 would get you one inspection every 12,500 miles?

2) On their blog, they say Tesla is now 8 years / Infinite Miles Warranty (Infinite Mile Warranty | Tesla Motors). What does this mean to #1 above?

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By the way - http://teslaliving.net/2014/05/19/model-s-pre-paid-service-plans/

This means you have to do the inspections at the frequency they specify in the plans. But going in for an “annual” inspection every 4 months or so on a car where annual maintenance isn’t required to maintain the warranty didn’t make sense. I reached out to Tesla service to get some clarification. My question was: “If i’m a high mileage driver at 32K miles per year do I need the major/”annual” service every 12,500 miles?” They answered that it wouldn’t make sense to come in every 12,500 miles if I drive a lot more than that in a year. Their suggestion was that I have the “annual” inspection/service done every 24,000 miles and that the pre-paid service plans really don’t make sense for a high mileage driver. I’m not sure where they came up with the 24,000 number from but twice the normal would be 25,000 which makes more sense to me and the difference is minimal so thats what i’m going to work with.
The math for this stands out. Lets say I plan on driving 100K miles in my Model S. If I go pre-paid, i’m going to have to pre-pay $3,800 for the 100K miles worth of services which I must perform every 12,500 miles or so. If I pay as I go and pay $600 every 25,000 miles its going to cost me $2,400. Not even considering the time value of money, paying as you go is a clear winner for high mileage drivers if you follow something closer to a true annual service.
 
In regards to your #2 above the "infinite mile/8year warranty is currently ONLY for the battery pack and drive unit. The standard bumper to bumper is 50k/ 4 years or you can also buy the extended warranty that goes 100k/8 years

im a high mileage driver and drove 27,000 miles in my first year of ownership and am currently at 48,000 miles at month 18. I had my annual done at 1 year but have to say that I've had more done at general service visits. Their purpose of the annual is to catch something before it goes wrong. If you need new brakes or rotors that's covered as well as wipers. Each of the 12,500 mile "check ups" has its own checklist with the more miles you have on the car the more things they actually do.

The prepaid plan is more useful for low mileage drivers.
 
The $600 annual service is way more than I've ever paid for my BMWs even when they are in their later years. Although I DIY alot of stuff, which isn't possible on the Tesla. As you say on BMWs the first 4years/50k miles are completely free. When I was doing my cost comparison, I added ~$2400 to the cost of the Tesla to account for the difference in service costs. This is completely contrary to the Tesla company line, but for me at least it seems far more accurate.

I also only plan on bringing in the Tesla every 18 or maybe 24 months.
 
I bought the prepaid plan. It gives me 4 complete inspections of my car. I can use them whenever I want..at 12 month intevals, or 18, etc.
Tesla has said that you don't need to bring the car in every year to keep the warranty valid. I drove 42000km my first year, and brought the car in once. I plan on bringing it in once a year no matter how many km I drive.
The only reason I bought the prepaid plan was in case the cost of the annual service went up. There is no guarantee that the cost of annual service visit won't go up next year.
 
In regards to your #2 above the "infinite mile/8year warranty is currently ONLY for the battery pack and drive unit. The standard bumper to bumper is 50k/ 4 years or you can also buy the extended warranty that goes 100k/8 years

im a high mileage driver and drove 27,000 miles in my first year of ownership and am currently at 48,000 miles at month 18. I had my annual done at 1 year but have to say that I've had more done at general service visits. Their purpose of the annual is to catch something before it goes wrong. If you need new brakes or rotors that's covered as well as wipers. Each of the 12,500 mile "check ups" has its own checklist with the more miles you have on the car the more things they actually do.

The prepaid plan is more useful for low mileage drivers.

Brakes and rotors are covered? Under the ~$600 service maintenance? Are you sure?
 
Just another data point:

Roadster owners have paid the same amount ... here's one (a fellow forum member) who was quite happy with the annual service: http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/tesla-dismantles-roadster-owner-repair-just-warranty-expires-175103061.html
 
Brakes and rotors are covered? Under the ~$600 service maintenance? Are you sure?

I have the pre-paid service, therefore I received a copy of the service contract. Those who pay at the door do not have a service contract, but those who pre-paid have a document they can reference for what is covered, even though both receive the same service. In my service contract it says that brake pads are covered, as are certain wear-tear items. I believe air suspension is in there somewhere, too.
 
They have said it does. It doesn't really even matter though, the brakes on the S are probably good for something like 200k miles.

Really?

I have no data here, but given that a lot of cars can get 40k miles before brake service, it's not crazy. If you're decently adept at one pedal driving, the vast majority of the energy to slow the car down goes back into the battery instead of via the braking system. The energy is a square of the velocity, so when you only use the actual friction brakes to slow down from 10mph to zero, that's virtually zero energy being dissipated. It's slowing down from 80mph to 50mph using friction brakes that really wear on the pads and rotors.

In my 85, I basically only touch the brakes when I catch a yellow light just wrong, or to go from 8mph (roughly when the regen disappears) to zero.
 
I bought the prepaid plan. It gives me 4 complete inspections of my car. I can use them whenever I want..at 12 month intevals, or 18, etc.
Tesla has said that you don't need to bring the car in every year to keep the warranty valid. I drove 42000km my first year, and brought the car in once. I plan on bringing it in once a year no matter how many km I drive.
The only reason I bought the prepaid plan was in case the cost of the annual service went up. There is no guarantee that the cost of annual service visit won't go up next year.

interesting. That would be a good option. I thought the prepaid plan has mileage restriction as well? If you exceed it, the prepaid no longer valid?

Four year prepaid service, $1,900
One inspection per year, up to 50,000 miles
Buy online

So if I drive average 30k miles per year, at best I can only get two of the four paid by this plan?
 
Not only is the annual service optional, but 90% of it is inspection. I have the PDF somewhere that lists the components checked and changed. Basically I asked them during a warranty case to only do a couple of the things that needed swapping and including labor it costs me ca 70-80€. The rest is inspections that I assume were done during the warranty work anyway and that was at 36000km. I guess the next thing to do is the swap of break fluid, which I might have asked them to do as well, but forgot, probably would have added a bit to the bill. In any case I see no point in the annual service if you live in a country where you need separate winter/summer tires because you'll do the rotation at the swap anyway. Filling washer fluid, changing wipers and fob battery is also a no brainer. What's left is cabin air filter and break fluid every 2 years 40k km. Then at 4 years is the battery coolant inspection (it's not even listed as change, but just level inspection, that I can do myself too). And yes, the warranty is valid no matter if the car ever sees a regular service or not. So I think it's worth more at later years, but far less in the first couple as it's unlikely that wear and tear components have aged that far (i.e. I think the breaks will be perennial for this car as they are hardly used). At year 4+ I'd contemplate the service if it does include wear and tear components like aspects of the air suspension, but not really before that.
 
IMHO the $600 monthly service is way overpriced and costs more than what it cost to service our Mercedes with a V8 engine for 2 out of the 3 years. That $600 charge is completely contrary to the notion that EVs have less maintenance and therefore should be cheaper to maintain.

This has come up on the forums before. Assuming you only put about 12K miles in your car each year and you ensure your tires are in good shape and rotated, just take your car in every other year. That $600 service is three times what our Mercedes dealer charges for some of our annual services. It's a shame Tesla does not offer a la carte servicing so you can pay them for what you want to have done. Our Mercedes dealer offers this option so things like the cabin air filter we can do ourselves.

This $600 repair fee makes me feel really nervous what Tesla would charge for out of warranty repairs.
 
This $600 repair fee makes me feel really nervous what Tesla would charge for out of warranty repairs.

Really? It's not like you don't already have data about this. As a Roadster owner out of warranty & paying for repairs out of pocket, I have no qualms about my Model X.

Here's a recent example from another Roadster owner:Error code #1111? (My roadster is still needy) - Page 2 If you read through the thread, you'll see Tesla went above and beyond to drive his costs down. I know of few other manufacturers who would have done the same.
 
IMHO the $600 monthly service...
I'm sure you meant to type "annual" instead of "monthly".

As others have pointed out, the annual service/inspection is not required by Tesla, the warranty is valid even with no service/inspection performed at all, and the warranty covers almost everything except tires and wiper blades.

Seems pretty reasonable to me for a high end car.
 
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If you prepay, it's only $475 per inspection. You get four inspections, you can choose when to use them, if its biannually or semiannually or whenever you feel like it.

The MS is an extremely complex car with all sorts of new and unique technology, so I don't think any comparisons to ICE vehicles makes sense.

$40 per month to make sure that everything in the car is in perfect working order *before* it fails sounds like a pretty good deal. Yeah, blades and washer fluid are cheap, but you're getting a lot more than that for each annual inspection. You're getting peace of mind.