Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k maintenance costs

Re:Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k mainten... by dmix on Thursday August 31, 2017 @07:22PM (#15144863)

The way I see it is that running businesses as complex as building, selling, and servicing a car with many unique innovations (high-end electric-only, charging stations, skipping dealer-only system, presales, iterative features, etc) that they very likely won't get everything right the first time.

Particularly the type of things big companies who move slowly do best.

You may find that unreasonable, but I believe this is a perspective that drives many poorly thought out regulatory laws which punish experimentation and companies which fail to execute with an (unreasonable) expectation of perfection. Another perspective is that these are growing pains of an immature company that many people took a (known) risk betting on, particularly people from a high-income bracket who could afford their early models.

Tesla should certainly be held responsible for their failures so they fix them - not fixing them would be what is unreasonable in my books.

There is a popular business concept called 'crossing the chasm' [1] that applies well here. Jumping from startup -> mainstream company is a significant leap which many companies fail to do. Tesla has not yet crossed this market gap and their ability to consistently provide support services such as these, rather than simply an innovative new product that people want, will likely be their primary challenge in the future.

[1] https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Crossing_the_Chasm

Edit: I see you've made an edit on the subtext predicting downvotes from Tesla fanboys which I believe was the sentiment OP was referring to

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Re:Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k mainten... by dmitrygr on Thursday August 31, 2017 @07:33PM (#15144918)

I never said I wish to punish them regulatorily. I disprove of such tactics in general.

I said that I (personally) will punish them financially by not buying their products until I can be sure they can provide the level of service that I require.

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Re:Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k mainten... by dmix on Thursday August 31, 2017 @07:42PM (#15144961)

Then you were likely never an ideal early adopter for their products anyway, which is how they should be perceived if you want to compare them to Chevy and Ford. It may not be polite to say this but it's the reality of business.

Tesla's ability to solve this problem will likely be their greatest challenge going forward. They've proven repeatedly that they can get their product and marketing right to get customers. But there's far more to a long-term large scale automobile company than that.

I believe the most rational perspective is trying to look at companies in the context of the development stage they are in. Tesla is a bit unique as they went public fast and made big promises, where they come off as a mature company... when they really aren't.

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Re:Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k mainten... by FireBeyond on Thursday August 31, 2017 @09:43PM (#15145514)

> Then you were likely never an ideal early adopter for their products anyway, which is how they should be perceived if you want to compare them to Chevy and Ford. It may not be polite to say this but it's the reality of business.

There's no way to phrase "wait 1+ month for needed, at times limiting, service on a $100,000+ vehicle" as being acceptable in any shape or form, not even "oh well, I guess you're just not an ideal early adopter". Especially as Tesla was claiming their disconnect from the dealership model was a good thing (which I agree upon).

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Re:Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k mainten... by e_d_e_v on Thursday August 31, 2017 @11:36PM (#15145932)

I mean, if you have a $100,000+ vehicle, you probably also have a couple other $40k-$60k vehicles you can drive for that month, right?

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Re:Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k mainten... by base698 on Thursday August 31, 2017 @10:00PM (#15145566)

Most people jump on the fanboyism of Tesla spouting nonsense like, "electric cars don't require maintenance." Seems like everyone believes this and rightly expected them to work. There are enough negatives with them being EV to cover adopter risk. Part of the getting buy in was the assumption they worked...

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Re:Tesla Model S Hits 300k Miles with less than $11k mainten... by reilly3000 on Thursday August 31, 2017 @08:43PM (#15145264)

It could be solved overnight with a partnership. If the model 3 starts to really eat into mid-price automaker's share they will be clamoring to lock down an exclusive service agreement.

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