One Year Mark - Service Center Visit

I think the annual service is a major ripoff, almost to the level of being a scam, particularly when you account for all the "less maintenance than an ICE" advertising. So I'd skip it unless you have some significant warrantee issues to bring it in for.

I had several technical service bulletins done when my car was in for annual service last year. Of course they would do this if the car was there for another reason besides annual service, but it has to be there for it to happen. This is still new technology and I think it makes sense to have the car looked at and try to avoid problems rather than chancing something going wrong when it's at an inconvenient time or place. The $450/year (prepaid annual service) is peace of mind on an $80,000 car. But to each his own.

The annual also include an alignment which could be done where you rotate your tires. You can change your cabin air filter, wipers, fob battery too. If you don't have any small issues you certainly can wait the two year mark (or millage) for the brake oil change.

Would Tesla deny warranty claim down the road if they find out we skipped annual maintenance?

steph280 said:

Would Tesla deny warranty claim down the road if they find out we skipped annual maintenance?

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They can't. Long thread on this forum:
Warranty/Servicing - official Tesla responses (incl GeorgeB) - Page 3

You will read George Blankenship originally saying that yes, the warranty can be voided if not, but later in the thread you'll see how that is changed in Tesla's communications. In the US, the Magnusson-Moss act limits Tesla in what they can restrict warranty-wise, service or not.

No. Tesla has said that the warranty is still valid if the annual service is not done (except for leased vehicles). I was told when I bought my car that the 4 "annual" visits were 4 visits whenever I wanted them. Could be 18 months, etc. Perhaps this has changed since I picked up my car in April 2014, but I don't think so.
I've decided to do it annually since I put a lot of mileage on the car ( it will have 80000km on it by 2 yrs) and it is new technology.

Tucson now has a local tech, he came and picked up my car for it's annual service two weeks ago, did the work and brought the car back to me all in the same day,
You should call the service center in Scottsdale and ask for an appointment. They did a few things beyond the basic tire rotation and alignment, overall I was quite happy with the service.

According to an email I received from Jerome Guillen, VP of Sales & Service, if you bought the pre-paid service plan you can use those pre-paid service visits at any time. They don't have to be annual, and they don't have to conform to any mileage intervals. Dr. Guillen said those are merely suggestions, but that owners can essentially do what they wish.

Tesla keeps your car for the entire day when you go for annual service. The value in the annual service is the detailed inspection that Tesla conducts of your vehicle. This is not just a "courtesy inspection", which they will do for warranty work. One of the items they performed, which I hadn't expected, was that they took apart the underbelly of my car to check and re-torque all of the suspension bolts as needed.

I bought the service plan because I felt there was value in having the car closely inspected. I'm not the type of person who has ever done any work on a car, and given the newness of the vehicle design, I didn't think having it inspected annually was a bad idea.

AmpedRealtor said:

. One of the items they performed, which I hadn't expected, was that they took apart the underbelly of my car to check and re-torque all of the suspension bolts as needed.

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This seems like one of the things they add to pad the list so they can try and convince people they aren't just charging a fortune for a tire rotation and new windshield wipers. Either that or they have very little confidence in their engineers. The suspension on the Model S is far from new technology they should be able to properly torque the bolts so that they don't back out.

jaguar36 said:

This seems like one of the things they add to pad the list so they can try and convince people they aren't just charging a fortune for a tire rotation and new windshield wipers. Either that or they have very little confidence in their engineers. The suspension on the Model S is far from new technology they should be able to properly torque the bolts so that they don't back out.

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You can look at it that way, sure, but I prefer my glass to be half full. In my ownership experience, Tesla is a valued and trusted partner - not an adversary trying to rip me off. It all depends upon your outlook.

TexasEV said:

I had several technical service bulletins done when my car was in for annual service last year. Of course they would do this if the car was there for another reason besides annual service, but it has to be there for it to happen. This is still new technology and I think it makes sense to have the car looked at and try to avoid problems rather than chancing something going wrong when it's at an inconvenient time or place. The $450/year (prepaid annual service) is peace of mind on an $80,000 car. But to each his own.

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I agree with that. You paid for an $80,000+ car, after financing and taxes it will be well above 90k! To skimp on annual $450.00 for peace of mind is a bit crazy IMO. On paper, they do little. Change the wiper, change battery on FOB, check tire pressure, etc., But when **** happens, that is a powerful argument. You routinely bring it for service.

I bought` the service plan and the extended warranty too. Regardless of the strict necessity from a traditional ICE maintenance point of view, the S is a highly complex vehicle and a very heavy one too. I appreciate the desirability of checking proper torquing of bolts in suspension and battery pack adjustments. Alignment is also more prone to change in a very heavy car, and it is not a bad idea to do overall systems checks too. We all know most of those items can be and are monitored regularly just as software updates are done over the air. Still, as others mention, this is a very complex and fairly new set of technologies. I do not regret pre-paying the $450 per inspection, nor the extra 4 years/50,000 miles of new car warranty.

These are not choices i make with ICE cars, but then with ICE cars these are major dealer profit cewnters to the tune of 100% markups and higher. Not so with Tesla. Despite small niggles Tesla has been providing the best car ownership experience of my life. even if they're making lots of money on these options I have no regrets.

They didn't even mention the pre-paid service or extended warranty when I purchased and then received my MS. Can the extended warranty be added when the 4 years is almost up? How does one do that?

kirkbauer said:

They didn't even mention the pre-paid service or extended warranty when I purchased and then received my MS. Can the extended warranty be added when the 4 years is almost up? How does one do that?

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Yes, it can be added at any time up to 30 days after your original warranty expires.

Rifleman said:

Yes, it can be added at any time up to 30 days after your original warranty expires.

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Yes, and can be done entirely online via your My Tesla page.

gg_got_a_tesla said:

Yes, and can be done entirely online via your My Tesla page.

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I hope I don't forget to add this extended service agreement on my 4th year...setting multiple reminders will help:wink:

taurusking said:

I hope I don't forget to add this extended service agreement on my 4th year...setting multiple reminders will help:wink:

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The ESA already increased in price once from $2,500 to $4,000. I paid $2,500 in 2013 and am so glad that I bought it before the price increase. There is no guarantee that it will still be $4,000 three years from now.

AmpedRealtor said:

The ESA already increased in price once from $2,500 to $4,000. I paid $2,500 in 2013 and am so glad that I bought it before the price increase. There is no guarantee that it will still be $4,000 three years from now.

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Did they give a warning before the price increase?

kirkbauer said:

Did they give a warning before the price increase?

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Not the last time, no. But due to the outcry at the time, Tesla backtracked and gave owners a week or so grace period to decide before the price went up. That was thanks to George Blankenship, who is no longer with the company. Seeing how Tesla has been operating lately, I doubt very much they will give any advanced notice of a price increase.