Tesla's tight grip on repairs sparks courtroom showdown A judge has ruled that Tesla must face a lawsuit alleging the electric car manufacturer denies customers and third parties the right to repair its vehicles. In a ruling this week in the US Northern District Court of California, district judge Trina Thompson said that the case dating back to March last year could move forward …
I don't get why Tesla doesn't allow authorised repair centres. When I buy a car, something I look at is where I can get it serviced and repaired. If that's in a different town, that's a ballache because car. Sure, I could get a rental from insurance or a loan car from the dealer, but both can be a PITA. For Tesla, it's a cost to build out a dealer or service network that can do things it's mobile repair trucks can't fix. I just wouldn't buy a Tesla, any EV or car unless I could get it fixed easily because Sod's Law states it'll always break at the most inconvenient time.
It seems to me that it'd build goodwill, help boost sales and save money if Tesla just offered training and parts to authorised repair shops and let them get on with it.
One of the many reasons I'd not buy one is the experience I've seen owners have with Tesla servicing. It's really bad.
One I know bought an S brand new, came with a defective passenger seat. They promised to sort it out at the first service, They didn't. Then the suspension developed a fault. It took Tesla over 6months to even respond to attempts to make a service booking for getting it looked at. When they eventually did, and took the car in, it was another 4 months for them to repair it, during which time my chum was driving a BMW diesel they'd loaned him.
That level of crumminess or even anything like that is a complete no no.
It's almost as if Musk reckons that because it's electric no faults will ever occur and therefore spares and servicing are a bare minimum.
Which of course is completely wrong. There will always be operational breakdowns and there will always be a need to repair them. Throw in the fact that Tesla aren't very good at making cars properly and it's a recipe for trouble.
Musk, Goodwill?
Yes, well, he's the modern day P.T.Barnum who knows more about manufacturing than anyone on the planet. But perhaps not delivering and supporting physical products. Nice idea flogging cars online and cutting out the dealer (or stealer) network, but that network serves a purpose. A car isn't like a software package where you can just download the latest patches. Ok, now cars are more complex, you have to do that as well. But you still need warm bodies that can fix, repair or replace the physical stuff.
I guess this is one of the reasons why EVs tend to cost a lot more to insure than ICEs. Without a repair/servicing network, costs of basic stuff like transporting a dead EV to the nearest dealer costs more. Then if the existing repair centres are overloaded, the cost of hire or courtesy cars also increases. If it can take a month or more to get a relatively simple repair done, it's no suprise insurance is high and a lot of EVs just get written off.
Anyone know what the situation is in EU & UK for Tesla owners ? AIUI such practices are explicitly illegal over here since the car trade lost it's block exemption a good few years ago. Remember back when you had to take a new car back to the main stealer for all work, and only use genuine parts and consumables, otherwise you would invalidate the warranty ? Well that held out for a while, with the trade using the "but it would be dangerous to let just anyone work on a car" line, but eventually the regulators woke up and stopped that.
Now (AIUI) you can buy a new car, and as long as it is serviced according to the manufacturer's schedule then they cannot stop you using a third party to service it. Also, notice how the dealers are no longer tied to just a single make - the practice of demanding exclusivity from dealers also went at the same time.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
