Still toying around with the idea of trading some of our cars for a Model S and came across a piece of information that I thought could be a deal breaker. I want to cross over to the dark side of electric cars mainly (1). Never pay for gas again (2). Decrease maintenance needed (sick of tired of messing with oil etc) Tesla Model S requires a $600 service, every 12,000 miles, the service includes inspection and software update. $600 every 12,000 miles? Isn't that a little steep? That's almost about the same cost to maintain a Ferrari.
No different than the Lexus pricing. Every service is between $500 and $1500 and it is mostly inspections. The Tesla is a luxury car, and it is priced the same as one with similar maintenance costs. Nobody will force you to take it in for updates, but you better do it if you want the warranty.
My BMW service cost is free for the 1st 3 years, California dealer is offering free oil changes for the Prius for 3 years I believe. $600 still a little steep in my book just for inspection, I mean the electric motor is maintenance free and there is no transmission so...
But what is BMW's reliability reputation like? Do the oil changes include the maintenance inspections? They likely do, but these free services are written off as ways to get the sale. It also gets you in so they can find other things. The $600 seems excessive to me, but the price of the car is excessive to me. Back in the day, my Toyota dealer wanted $80 to do the maintenance inspections on my Prius. So maybe $600 isn't that bad. Keep in mind it also inspects the battery pack, and IIRC, the tech comes out to you. The requiring it for warranty coverage doesn't seem kosher to me though.
I had several BMW's in the past. They cover EVERYTHING except tires. I had a 5 Series that was 2 1/2 years old. I said the brakes didn't feel right. When I came back to pick up the car, they replaced the pads AND rotors. When I asked if he meant that they resurfaced the rotors they said that they never do that because the rotors would not meet their specifications. BMW leases almost 90% of their vehicles. They do the maintenance for free so they can certify the cars at the end of lease and then resell or lease them again. They make MORE money that way.
Yes and No. Tesla is also guaranteeing the battery to be replaced even due to owner abuse or lack of care, much less something actually going wrong. Bottom line is Tesla has decided to go all out to maintain the companies reputation for making the most reliable vehicle on the road. That decision requires experts to actually see what is happening to every car periodically. That is definitely not free. The service inspection is just as important for protecting the company as for protecting the car....and there has to be some economic balancing to achieve this. (The number of drivers who think a car is something they can destroy instead of drive is astounding to me. Very true for some very rich folks.)
^Very sad attitude mentioned parenthetically there, all apparently because money is no object. Definitely not the hallmark of a frugal person.
I think it reasonable anyone who pays $62,400-$87,400 to buy a car, would care less about $600 every 12,000 miles. Though Tesla S appears to be a quality product, this is still a rich man's toy.
Warrantee no longer requires the annual checkup. I highly recommend the 4 year plan which will bring the annual cost to $475. New car, new company, new tech, I think paying 0.6% of the cost of the car for them to give it a thorough check up is very reasonable.
