Dead Calm

[Beckler]

Things happen. As with any new car, and everything else for that matter. As being unlikely myself to be able to own a Model S any time soon, I'm not exactly understanding of frustration here. I.e. get over it - if you can afford a $60-100k, car you can afford a rental for a week, or a month or whatever. I'd be so excited, I would care less about some irrelevant delay. If it went unresolved, that would be different, but that idn't gonna happen.

 

[AnOutsider]

Things happen. As with any new car, and everything else for that matter. As being unlikely myself to be able to own a Model S any time soon, I'm not exactly understanding of frustration here. I.e. get over it - if you can afford a $60-100k, car you can afford a rental for a week, or a month or whatever. I'd be so excited, I would care less about some irrelevant delay. If it went unresolved, that would be different, but that idn't gonna happen.

Lets say you saved up and found a way to get the car... Then this happened. You wouldn't be frustrated? A persons financial status has nothing to do with this situation. Whether its. New car or a tv, one can be expected to feel frustration if the item stops working shortly after purchase.

Additionally, those who obtain and maintain wealth don't usually do so by being careless with their cash. Renting a car for a month while your new car is in the shop, while possible, is certainly something that one would like to avoid -- and on principle, shouldn't have to do.

 

[Peksman]

Tesla Service Center updated me last night about the status of my MS. It was a quick diagnosis and fix this time. Two issues were resolved. A faulty UMC and a nearly dead 12v. No inverter issues. the nearly dead 12V is an offshoot of the initial problem 2 weeks ago when the car was not driveable and sat in my garage. For some reason it discharged to a point where it could not be recharged anymore by the main battery. They admitted that it should have been replaced along with the drive unit during the initial repair.

Below is the technical jargon:
Customer Concern: Perform Ranger service. Red charge port ring, vehicle is unresponsive. Check and advise.
Cause: Verified vehilce is unresponsive and 12V voltage is very low (4.02 volts). Jumped 12v battery and rechecked, vehicle is now responsive but is not charging via UMC. Found UMC indcator flashing red 3 times indicating UMC contactor malfunction.
Correction: UMC General Diagnosis
Replaced UMC cable and 12V battery. Recheck, vehicle is now charging as designed.

Vehicle is fixed. Apologies accepted. Now just waiting for the vehicle to be returned.

As a side note, I'd like to mention that the forum has been a source of support. This thread was titled "dead calm" more as a reference for me the owner rather than for the vehicle. Tesla had 2 chances to shine with exemplary customer support. And so far, they have come through.

 

[Beckler]

Lets say you saved up and found a way to get the car... Then this happened. You wouldn't be frustrated? A persons financial status has nothing to do with this situation. Whether its. New car or a tv, one can be expected to feel frustration if the item stops working shortly after purchase.

I can see your point, yes. I suppose it has more to do with the type of buyer. If an enthusiast about the product such as myself for Tesla, then little issues don't matter at all. If it's something I don't care too much about, then I could be more prone to frustration. Or if it's something that's a known junk-product, then I'm v. frustrated I actually bought it! (Which I usually only did because there's no other product choice). Clearly this isn't the case for Tesla--it's the opposite of a junk or problem product. Anyway, was more of a general comment. Patience is a virtue. We're adults after all, most of us anyway.

 

[Kaivball]

Wrong - I'm no lawyer and I'm not here to argue, but I know each state has their own statute. In some states, lemon applies if your car is out of service for a certain number of days. Also, I count 2 repairs...

What state makes a car a lemon for two different repairs that take less than two weeks?

 

[Benjam]

What state makes a car a lemon for two different repairs that take less than two weeks?

Many states have a guideline for 30 days within the first 2 years - look it up. Peksman - glad that you were able to get your car back quickly and I hope you don't have any problems going forward - Congrats!

 

[Krugerrand]

I can see your point, yes. I suppose it has more to do with the type of buyer. If an enthusiast about the product such as myself for Tesla, then little issues don't matter at all. If it's something I don't care too much about, then I could be more prone to frustration. Or if it's something that's a known junk-product, then I'm v. frustrated I actually bought it! (Which I usually only did because there's no other product choice). Clearly this isn't the case for Tesla--it's the opposite of a junk or problem product. Anyway, was more of a general comment. Patience is a virtue. We're adults after all, most of us anyway.

I have to agree. It's a car, it's not a health crisis or something else of true importance. Priorities people.

 

[AnOutsider]

I can see your point, yes. I suppose it has more to do with the type of buyer. If an enthusiast about the product such as myself for Tesla, then little issues don't matter at all. If it's something I don't care too much about, then I could be more prone to frustration. Or if it's something that's a known junk-product, then I'm v. frustrated I actually bought it! (Which I usually only did because there's no other product choice). Clearly this isn't the case for Tesla--it's the opposite of a junk or problem product. Anyway, was more of a general comment. Patience is a virtue. We're adults after all, most of us anyway.

I think you hit the nail on the head re: enthusiast buyers being more forgiving. Sure, it's not the end of the world if the car is in the shop, but one can be allowed some frustration.

 

[dtich]

Tesla Service Center updated me last night about the status of my MS. It was a quick diagnosis and fix this time. Two issues were resolved. A faulty UMC and a nearly dead 12v. No inverter issues. the nearly dead 12V is an offshoot of the initial problem 2 weeks ago when the car was not driveable and sat in my garage. For some reason it discharged to a point where it could not be recharged anymore by the main battery. They admitted that it should have been replaced along with the drive unit during the initial repair.

Below is the technical jargon:
Customer Concern: Perform Ranger service. Red charge port ring, vehicle is unresponsive. Check and advise.
Cause: Verified vehilce is unresponsive and 12V voltage is very low (4.02 volts). Jumped 12v battery and rechecked, vehicle is now responsive but is not charging via UMC. Found UMC indcator flashing red 3 times indicating UMC contactor malfunction.
Correction: UMC General Diagnosis
Replaced UMC cable and 12V battery. Recheck, vehicle is now charging as designed.

Vehicle is fixed. Apologies accepted. Now just waiting for the vehicle to be returned.

As a side note, I'd like to mention that the forum has been a source of support. This thread was titled "dead calm" more as a reference for me the owner rather than for the vehicle. Tesla had 2 chances to shine with exemplary customer support. And so far, they have come through.

very happy to hear this. that 12v battery sure is an achilles heel. glad it's (seemingly) all sorted peksman, pls upload a picture of your car when it's back in your garage happily charging. after you've torn up the back country roads a bit.

 

[jomo25]

very happy to hear this. that 12v battery sure is an achilles heel. glad it's (seemingly) all sorted peksman, pls upload a picture of your car when it's back in your garage happily charging. after you've torn up the back country roads a bit.

Yes, but the 12V is an Achilles heel in all cars.

 

[dtich]

Yes, but the 12V is an Achilles heel in all cars.

oh you won't find a bigger tesla fan than me, but that said, this 12v batt seems to be pretty delicate. they put a small one in, and maybe that's the price. i myself, and thousands others, have had no problem, so i'm not knocking it... just pointing out... something that didn't need to be pointed out i'm sure. aaand, done.

 

[brianman]

@Peksman - Glad to hear your car is in better shape. If you remember, please report back in a week or so on whether your car is running great or has additional issues. For the former case, it would nice to have the mods update the thread title to reflect that the issue was resolved. For the unhappy latter case, I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to hear the details of any follow-up bad news.

Thanks.

 

[Dr.Ling]

Funnily, in 8 years of owning 2 old Toyotas, the only problems that have left me stranded were when the alternator broke in both cars, and once when the battery was dead (my own fault). Easily fixed by myself, and reconditioned alternators are dirt cheap on Ebay.

Can someone summarize how many instances of dead MS's that've been reported? Can we hope that the MS's in production now won't have these issues?

For someone like me, 1200km away from the nearest service centre, this is a great concern. If you live right near a service center I understand how you can give Tesla some slack, but I'm not in that category.
I'm not willing to pay $100k to be a beta-tester like most of you other guys. Do you have to pay for the ranger visit if such a thing happens?

If it's just a 12v-battery thing it sounds easy enough to fix, but it sounds like there's a lot more to it than that.

And, for such a smart car like the MS it seems really stupid for the car to roll down it's windows whenever there's an electrical glitch.
Will Tesla replace the whole interior if this happens and the leather is ruined by rain or snow?

 

[Kaivball]

Being an early adopter is not for everyone.

 

[Grendal]

Being an early adopter is not for everyone.

Well said. If someone waits another year or two then I'm sure these types of issues will crop up very rarely. For now they are a part of buying the car. Tesla is learning and improving as fast as they can. As an early adopter you hopefully don't get too frustrated and will eventually have a good story to tell about your experience.

 

[AnOutsider]

I love how things alternate between "People should stop doubting Tesla! Sign up now! Convince your friends!" and "You should expect problems going in. You should wait".

 

[mknox]

I love how things alternate between "People should stop doubting Tesla! Sign up now! Convince your friends!" and "You should expect problems going in. You should wait".

Very true. I certainly went in "eyes opened" but I really had to grit my teeth at being an early adopter with something as expensive as Model S. When a layperson/friend asks me if they should get one, I really try to be truthful in my assessment of them and their needs. Honestly, for most people the answer is "not yet".

 

[Grendal]

Very true. I certainly went in "eyes opened" but I really had to grit my teeth at being an early adopter with something as expensive as Model S. When a layperson/friend asks me if they should get one, I really try to be truthful in my assessment of them and their needs. Honestly, for most people the answer is "not yet".

I totally agree. When Elon said there were a bunch of dropouts stemming from the NYT article, the first thing I thought was that those people weren't ready for the car yet anyway. I'd much rather have buyers understand what they are getting than sell a bunch and then dislike or hate the car and report on that. We are going to be in an early adopter situation for a least one more year. After that then I expect Tesla to have a lot less issues. You will also see a lot more non-early adopter types of buyers and Tesla does need to ready for that.

If Dr. Ling in Norway isn't willing to accept possible issues then he should just wait a while longer for early issues to go away.

 

[AnOutsider]

Very true. I certainly went in "eyes opened" but I really had to grit my teeth at being an early adopter with something as expensive as Model S. When a layperson/friend asks me if they should get one, I really try to be truthful in my assessment of them and their needs. Honestly, for most people the answer is "not yet".

Ditto. I usually work to set their expectations properly. "Forget what the site says, expect 180-200 miles of range" (most of my friends drive like me, and live near me -- so, not sunny California). "I save a lot on gas, but electricity isn't free, though it IS cheaper". The mandatory service and warranty I don't even touch since it doesn't sound like even Tesla knows WTF they're doing there yet.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Being an early adopter is not for everyone.

Indeed.

Though, I will say that for this early adopter, things have been surprisingly and completely trouble free. Actually, better than every other car I've bought over the last 20 years. Defects requiring service center time in the first 3 months of ownership with my last 3 cars (BMW, Audi): 2-3 each. Defects in the Model S in the first 3 months: 0.