I can no longer say I've never had a problem where I couldn't drive my car

[russman]

So are they charging you the deductible? Or $0? I've purchased extended warranties before, but none that had a deductible, because the whole purpose is to limit my costs.

I'm a little concerned as we start to see more people with out of warranty cars continue to have issues that are not low cost to repair.

I am well into extended warranty, and a few weeks ago the airbag warning light came on. So I sent it in, they looked and said it was some spring in the steering column, and was going to cost $750 or so to fix. "But, ummm, I bought the extended warranty!" sez me.

"Oh, yeah, so you did. OK, $zero."

So they needed to get the part down from Fremont, so I got the car back while we waited because we wanted to use it on the weekend. This turned out to be a good move, because the part didn't arrive until the following Wednesday. They took it back on Thursday, replaced the spring, and called to say "Ummm, that didn't fix it. Can we keep the car for a while?" So they had it for a few more days until they discovered that the problem was (surprise...) the air bag.

In any case it didn't cost anything. But since they had it, the timed charging has stopped working. It just doesn't remember what it was set to. I suspect that the car's GPS has gone flaky or something.

I pretty much had to bully them into taking my money for the extended warranty, too. No-one contacted me, the service people sent me to the showroom (and vice versa). But I'm glad I got it.

 

[rlang59]

So are they charging you the deductible? Or $0? I've purchased extended warranties before, but none that had a deductible, because the whole purpose is to limit my costs.

I'm a little concerned as we start to see more people with out of warranty cars continue to have issues that are not low cost to repair.

Are you sure about that? Most of the extended vehicle warranties I have seen have a deductible since it is basically insurance.

 

[apacheguy]

I'm sure the building isn't free, not saying that is where is it going but don't forget there are more costs than just salary.

Which is why I kindly handed them $3600 for a service plan. Operating costs I'm sure are made up for by people either bundling or paying a la carte for service inspections. All I'm asking them is to be reasonable in their repair costs and not take a profit.

 

[TexasEV]

So are they charging you the deductible? Or $0? I've purchased extended warranties before, but none that had a deductible, because the whole purpose is to limit my costs.

I've never seen an extended warranty that didn't have a deductible. It does limit your cost-- the cost to fix the problem is limited to the cost of your deductible. Otherwise each service could easily cost many times that amount for major problems. For example a new drivetrain.

 

[russman]

Yes, positive. I've purchased 4 extended warranties from Acura, Honda, and Infiniti all from the MFG and none of them had deductibles. I was also able to purchase a higher mileage amount. My last warranty was from Acura which was 120k miles or 8 years. All repairs were covered, which I did have to use on all 4 warranties. The Honda warranty got them to replace my transmission at the 99,950 mile mark right before the warranty was to expire and the car went on to have 220k+ miles.

Are you sure about that? Most of the extended vehicle warranties I have seen have a deductible since it is basically insurance.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

I purchased a 100,000 extended warranty from Toyota for my Prius. There was no deductible, as I've had warranty work done after the original warranty expired and was not charged a dime under the extended warranty. The presence of the deductible in the Tesla ESA may be why owners in some states are not able to purchase the ESA. Those states consider Tesla's ESA to be insurance, and require Tesla to be licensed in that state to sell insurance. I've never heard of anyone having issues being able to buy a Toyota ESA anywhere in the country.

I agree that charging a $200 deductible for an ESA that costs $4,000 is ridiculous. Consider the fact that many cars at half the price offer a 100,000 mile drive train warranty. Tesla does not. The only way to get a 100,000 mile drive train warranty is by paying $4,000 for the ESA. This is not something you have to do with other vehicles. Also, drive trains have been the focus of much scrutiny after some well publicized failures by Edmunds, and Goldie Bhullar of Angel Worldwide Transport being charged over $20,000 for out of warranty repairs on his fleet car, $15,000 of which was just for the drive unit.

 

[ecarfan]

Also, drive trains have been the focus of much scrutiny after some well publicized failures by Edmunds

Except didn't Elon specifically say during the earnings call yesterday that the Edmunds car's drivetrain didn't fail, it was simply a loose cable vibrating producing a noise that it was initially thought was coming from the drivetrain but in fact was not coming from the drivetrain?

 

[JPP]

Except didn't Elon specifically say during the earnings call yesterday that the Edmunds car's drivetrain didn't fail, it was simply a loose cable vibrating producing a noise that it was initially thought was coming from the drivetrain but in fact was not coming from the drivetrain?

Yes--Elon noted that this was a noise/vibration issue that let them to replace 3 drive units on the Edmunds S. He noted that the loose cable issue is now recognized and obviously will be taken care of in forward production, and as a TSB as needed for older VINs. He also mentioned something about a shim for the drive unit that fixed another noise issue--again likely to be applied to older VINs under a TSB.

 

[Liz G]

OK. Update on the issue turns out the root cause of my problem was a corroded pin in a wiring harness. They kept the car a couple of extra days to make sure they had the problem fixed. Glad they did. If they had been any other dealer they would have called it fixed when they replaced the sensor and then I would have been stranded again when the corroded pin failed again.

BTW. Extended warranty work cost $200.

 

[trigga71]

Is the $200 a one time fee or per incident? Seem like $4k and $200 could add up quick.

 

[apacheguy]

OK. Update on the issue turns out the root cause of my problem was a corroded pin in a wiring harness...

BTW. Extended warranty work cost $200.

That was a warranty repair? The service plan covers wear and tear. A corroded pin sure sounds like it was caused by wear and tear. Shouldn't have anything to do with "workmanship by Tesla" as the warranty terms state. Do you have a service plan, Liz G?

 

[iadbound]

Is the $200 a one time fee or per incident? Seem like $4k and $200 could add up quick.

The Extended Warranty states as follows:

Once a part is repaired or replaced under the terms and conditions of this Vehicle ESA, and the
Deductible is paid, any Deductible for a future repair or replacement of that part will be waived for the
term of this Vehicle ESA.​

One could conclude that each part has a $200 deductible, and that the deductible only applies once for that part during the term of the warranty. I suspect that Tesla is probably going to administer it as a $200 per incident for related repairs (i.e., if there are two related bolts needed for the same repair, then the $200 deductible would apply only once). However, at this point, it seems like nobody really knows.

The warranty also omits a great number of parts and repairs, including adjustments for squeaks, rattles and even water leaks.

However, I guess it covered Liz's repair, so it can't be all bad. :wink:

 

[Liz G]

I had the service plan but with 56K+ miles have used all of my visits.

The work was done under the extended warranty and covered not only the pin corrosion but the work I had done that day, before the pin caused a failure. Because the failure occurred on the same day they returned the car to me for the other warranty work, they were nice enough to lump it all under the same incident.

BTW: like everything else with Tesla, I'm sure there will be some variation on how the warranty is applied, see service plan. While I believe that Tesla is trying to do right by its customers, we all know that they still have communication problems both internally and externally. Though they have gotten much better since I ordered my car 2 years ago. So it may take sometime, as more customers hit their extended warranties, for Tesla to get consistent on how the warranty is applied. And that may be a while since the average American doesn't drive nearly as much as I do.

 

[Reykjavik]

It seems like Tesla may need to get better at repairs. It seems like when a car goes in for repairs once, it goes in again not long after.

 

[Liz G]

It seems like Tesla may need to get better at repairs. It seems like when a car goes in for repairs once, it goes in again not long after.

Can happen to any car company. I had a Grand Am once that I took in for repairs. Got it back. Drove it down the block and turned around and brought it back 'cause it was making a terrible noise. Turned out something else related to the repair had broken. Glad I had that extended warranty too.

At least Tesla kept at it with my car until they had diagnosed the root cause.

 

[iadbound]

It seems like Tesla may need to get better at repairs. It seems like when a car goes in for repairs once, it goes in again not long after.

I have a Lexus GS 450h, and I've had a zillion things fixed on the car. It's been in the shop since last Thursday while I waited for Lexus to cover my eighth lock actuator repair, and now wait for the actual repair. On the up side. I have 175,000 miles and I can still get Lexus to make good will repairs. However, despite the supposed quality of Lexus, stuff happens. I can only hope Tesla is better.

 

[Kraken]

It seems like Tesla may need to get better at repairs. It seems like when a car goes in for repairs once, it goes in again not long after.

How about the Chevy I took in to get an oil change and immediately after had engine problems on the way home. They refused to accept that it was something that happened while the car was in for the oil change (or that they did), but they were glad to give me a quote to fix the problem... they didn't get any more of my business.

 

[russman]

Do you know how much the fix would have been had you not had the extended warranty?

$200 per fix can build up quickly on top of the fact that it's $4000 already....

 

[Liz G]

Do you know how much the fix would have been had you not had the extended warranty?

$200 per fix can build up quickly on top of the fact that it's $4000 already....

They did not tell me what the actual cost would have been.

My car is number 3056 and was built was over the X-mas rush. So I'm expecting that newer cars will have far fewer problems than mine as Tesla continue to learn from the older cars.

Still love it, though.

I'm planning on finding out the costs of the major components and then starting a fund for when I get out of warranty, just in case something fails. This will be my car for the next 8 1\2 years and at the rate I'm going I'll have well over 350,000 miles on her by then. Would love to see 500k miles.