Ludicrous Roadster Parts Pricing

My Roadster is due its MOT (annual inspection) in the UK next week and the rear tyres are a bit near the legal limit. I'm still in the Netherlands and not having much time to change them back there, and wanting to stick with Yokohama AD07s which previously seemed to only be available through OEM channels, I booked it into Den Haag service centre to get 2 new ones.

Before getting the job done I asked the price. €825. WTF?!?

The same tyres are now available on line for €117 each.



Guess where I bought the tyres?


This is more than 300% of the price for the parts. I can also have them fitted for €12 at a local tyre shop.

Tesla - I don't mind paying a small premium to have it done at a service centre (even just to support the company) but this is ridiculous and you shot yourself in the foot by losing the business.


This is not the first time I have seen rip off parts pricing. In February I asked for a quote for a new 70 Amp HPC in the UK, knowing it is $1999 on the US website. I was told £4351.86. That was around $6000 at the time. Unsurprisingly I didn't buy a new one.


Everything I have seen says this kind of pricing is set centrally. The service centre staff do what they can to be helpful in every interaction I have with them, but I fear the way things are headed if the company thinks Roadster owners are mugs that will pay prices like that. So much for cutting franchise dealers out of the servicing racket.

I think that they do have local flexibility on the service cost Chad. When London SC removed the bolt that pierced my mud guard and inspected the car for any other damage, that was done gratis. I was expecting an hour's labour but was pleasantly surprised. It just seems to be parts that are the issue.

I just checked back to the last invoice when the London Service Centre changed all four tyres. The fronts were £116.67 and the rears were £121.12. This is much more in line with market prices and the kind of premium that to me is acceptable.

Sometime between January and now (yes I really did burn through the rears in 7 months) there has been a massive hike in pricing, or perhaps it is the difference between the Netherlands and UK policy, but either way it is daft.

Well, the online pricing I saw was "generic" and was 30% of Tesla's price for the part.

I forwarded my London invoice to The Hague. They are looking into it...

That's a shame. I guess in that case it was for body panels and other things that are Roadster-specific. In my case it's a commodity item that it turns out London gave me an ok price on before, and I can't really see the justification for it this time.

GVTesla said:

I think I might know where the price difference comes from. This is my hunch. As far as I could tell after some internet research, there are 2 types of AD07's. The 'regular AD07' and the Lotus OEM 'AD07 LTS'. The latter are usually around 300 350-ish Euro. The former are the ones on tyre rack etc for less than half the price.

Click to expand...

So I double checked and the tyres London fitted for £117 were also LTS versions. I still have those on the front. So unless London has decided to take a huge loss, that also doesn't explain the massive markup.