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BMW and Mercedes are not an experiment. We've owned many of them over the years with generally very good results. Yes there is annoyances here and there but nothing in the category of sudden catastrophic engine failure.
Perhaps Teslas should come with a warning (common sense to me for any vehicle) to the effect:
"When driving in cold weather, please remember to bring sufficient warm clothing and/or blanket(s) in the event of an accident in a remote area or car breakdown."
And a candle or two. But I really don't see why Tesla should need a warning when no other car has one. A problem in cold weather is far more likely to happen in an ICE car.
I doubt you'll get a chuckle. It is all a matter of volume and experience. Porsche has been building engines and cars for a LONG time and not innovating all that much. The result is a more reliable product at the expense of innovation.
I agree that a lead-acid 12v battery is a weak point and a surprising choice for Tesla's current flagship P85D vehicle. I have a 2.0 Roadster (July 2009 delivery #511) and, after the warranty ran out and the auxiliary battery had been replaced twice, I replaced it with a 50 amp hour 12v lithium Smart battery. Now my Roadster is all lithium, the way it should have been in the first place. I also replaced every bulb with LEDs. The spirit of these cars calls for all lithium and LEDs. My wife's Model S (Sig Perf.#278 October 2012 delivery) still has the lead-acid 12v battery. When that's out of warranty I'll do the same replacement.
TrueDelta claims 97,000 survey participants, Consumer Reports 1.1 million. I'm more inclined to trust Consumer Reports' data to not be skewed.
To be fair, lead-acid is a tried and true performer in this space, and its failure characteristics are well-known. They're very good at resisting cold, something lithium is bad at. Crucially, it's important that the 12V always have enough power to close the HV contactors, which is how it recharges itself, so you don't want a car set out in the cold unable to start because the capacity of the cell dropped before it was able to close the contactors. In warm climates it's probably a good trade, but I'd be timid in colder climates. If Tesla does switch to a lithum 12V source, it likely needs to be included in the heating/cooling battery management system.Guess Tesla decided to go lead-acid 12v to save on cost? Seems silly, but it is a $500 battery according to quick google search. I'm guessing that Tesla is working on developing their own 12v lithium replacement instead of buying from supply chain.
An employer must have just cause to fire someone in lieu of notice or severance.
Did I post my experience on a Mercede's owner's website to bash Mercedes quality?
No.
Anyway, my point is similar things can happen to Mercedes vehicles, too! Tesla vehicles are so "high profile" it seems like almost everything negative someone has experienced with one gets posted to a website.
I trust my personal experience. I am now waiting for my third drive unit to be replaced or repaired. My Tesla grin is slowly fading and I am concerned about the long term reliability of this car. In just under 20,000 miles I've had two drive units replaced for droning noise above 70 MPH, now waiting on a third. Service says there is a shortage of drive units, I wonder why? My ability to continue cutting Tesla slack is being tested. In the meanwhile, my 2010 Toyota Highlander Hybrid has not had a single problem. Neither has my 2007 Prius. Tesla needs to do better. Tesla loves to introduce new products, expand into new markets, yet don't seem able to address flaws in their products for existing customers.
I totally agree with Osama's wife. I also don't think Tesla properly tests its products before putting them into production. Unfortunately the only way to know this after spending a lot of money. As you can tell, I'm a little frustrated. I wouldn't be if the drive unit issue was addressed the first time, but then a 2nd time and now a 3rd... something at Tesla isn't right. Sorry to say.
The problem, of course, is that it's one thing to make 100 units and it's another to make 70,000. When you make 70,000 you expose defects that you wouldn't otherwise see. You start to explore the further ends of the tolerance bell-curve for each and every component. The reason that ICEs are so reliable is that they have hundreds of millions of units of experience, and they've learned what's important and what's not. When you're making small volumes of a totally new product, and you're faced with a failure it can be awfully tough to determine the root cause of the failure - let alone determine what should be done to deal with it. I'm also sure that they're dealing with a mountain of HR issues, as they're hiring like mad. They've got to weed out the lesser employees who may not be taking the care required.
I'm not making excuses for them. I'm just pointing out an inevitability. I believe it will take them another 5 years of experience to make these things bullet-proof.
Let's let this thread die. I'm sure Osama didn't expect everyone to go on and on and on.......
Anyway ... she got her Cayenne today and she's happy and I am happy that she's happy. Life is good and everything else is water under the bridge.