Next time they need service, or (hopefully not) collision repairs, the said drama will inevitably ensue. I hope you didn't recommend the car, or you'll be the one hearing about it. Personally, I've stopped recommending Tesla to people, even people I recommended to before I tell them the truth, show them scheduling information if I want to schedule something as simple as an annual service today, or tell them my experience when my wife had an accident in a Model S (and compare it to an experience with an accident in a Toyota 4Runner). I still tell them the car drives amazing, but Elon wants it to be a disposable car (when it breaks, do the "one-click-buy" and get a new one, have the old one hauled away and crushed).
I’ve told my friend about my issues over my last few years of ownership, quite truthfully, but in the end he always saw my shiny model S whenever he saw me, and that was good for him, and for him to green light the purchase to his mother.
My S has only stranded me once when the air suspension failed. Everything else, like I heard a noise, or it pulls to the right, was brought into service in a discretionary manner, and I left with a Tesla loaner 70% of the time.
My friends mother should be fine. They’re the type of people that, if they say anything, it will be either we love it, or we sold it, it wasn’t for us.
I meant it when I said the problem is us (which includes me). Most here love their cars so much, and just want them to be perfect. But perfect has a cost, and often that cost is our own contentment and joy.
I started obsessing the other day about my tire pressure being lower in one tire by one pound from the other three, so I got home, broke out the air compressor, unwound the little 12 volt battery cord, disconnected the in-line fix-a-flat goop tank from the air line, and adjusted the 1 pound low tire to match the others. Then put it all away. 15 minutes of my life. Next day, I have 1 tire high by a pound.
I could go on about seeing the smallest of nicks in the wheel, (Gee, maybe I should get that touched up? I wouldn’t want any of my friends seeing the giant wart growing on my Tesla’s right rear wheel, or worse at a stop light, a BMW owner with stretched tires and wheel gators might pull up next to me and snicker) or starting to think about wrapping the car to protect it from the road grit abrasions. Then lose another hour online researching wheel repair and wraps, who am I kidding, that turns into several days and online debates, which ultimately makes me less happy because now I feel like there is so much work to be done on my new car.
This community is great. I do enjoy reading about upgrades from
@MountainPass or seeing great tire/wheel combos, etc, but it is also ridiculous to see people that just spent thousands of dollars wrapping/ceramic coating (sometimes both, and obviously after paint correction too) thinking their car and Tesla are sugar every time a price drop, or firmware update fixes someone else’s Tesla but not theirs.
I imagine service centers would be a whole lot emptier if we as a community didn’t expect perfection, but instead good.
I am not excusing Tesla from very real obligations, they set the bar high with the S and X, and I think many here, with Elon’s showmanship, expect a premium brand experience at all price points, and I think that is where they are failing right now. The optics aren’t good closing a Tesla mall location across from an Apple store.
Even if I were not an owner, I hope they make it, as I hope most businesses will do. It’s in our collective best interests for all businesses to adapt, serve their customers, grow and thrive.
