service
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Without dealerships, service has been a regular challenge for Tesla and its owners. Reports are so rampant about months-long wait times for Tesla service that CEO Elon Musk has acknowledged that addressing service complaints is his No. 1 priority for 2019, especially after the company's sales exploded as Model 3 production ramped up. Now the company is about to get some "coopetition" for that business from a famous YouTuber, Rich Benoit of the YouTube channel Rich Rebuilds. DON'T MISS: Tesla aims to make service quicker, roadside assistance automatic Benoit, an electrical engineer by day...
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Dealers start to worry about ebbing repair income from electric cars
The average vehicle on U.S. roads these days is more than 10 years old, despite three successive years of record new-vehicle sales. That's a result not only of the 2008-2010 recession but also vastly more durable and reliable vehicles compared to those of previous decades. All of those vehicles...
John Voelcker -
Life with Tesla Model S: beware Extended Service Agreement fine print
A couple of years ago, as my 2013 Tesla Model S approached the end of its 50,000-mile warranty, I debated long and hard whether to opt for Tesla’s extended warranty, which they call an Extended Service Agreement (ESA). At $4,000, it wasn’t cheap. It provided four years and an additional...
David Noland -
How do you service a hydrogen fuel-cell car at a dealer?
Over the past century, gasoline-powered vehicles have gotten simultaneously more complex and more reliable. Service intervals have lengthened, drivers no longer check a car's fluids daily or weekly, and many new-car owners will never once open the hood. Reliability data shows that some of them...
John Voelcker -
Waits for Tesla service get longer as more electric cars are sold
My 2013 Tesla Model S is now approaching 75,000 miles on the odometer. That happens to be the mileage benchmark for my next scheduled Tesla service. So I called my local Tesla service center, in Paramus, New Jersey, to set up the appointment. No problem, the service rep said. The first available...
David Noland -
Lincoln to offer pickup, delivery for service; is it copying Tesla?
Lincoln will offer free pickup and delivery service for 2017 models.
Stephen Edelstein -
Our recent article on the reliability implications of a Plug-In America survey of early Tesla Model S owners was met with skepticism from the company's supporters, and support from its skeptics. But in a counter-intuitive Freakonomics-style twist, it's the firm's fans who should hope the results were accurate--and its foes who should hope they were overblown. Lies, damned lies, statistics The earlier article outlined a Weibull analysis on Tesla Model S owner data collected by pioneering plug-in electric vehicle advocates Plug-In America. Based on responses from 327 owners of vehicles built in...
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Dead Hybrid Battery: What Should I Do? (Owner Question)
Every once in a while, other media outlets will ask for advice from Green Car Reports on various fuel economy or car technology questions. We recently received one concerning a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, which the owner had left unused for several months. The car wouldn't start after that, and when...
John Voelcker -
Life With Tesla Model S: Service Centers Get Crowded, Cost More
One of the coolest things about owning a Tesla Model S for almost three years now has been the service. When first revealed back in the spring of 2013—a few months after I had taken delivery of my car—the Tesla service model sounded almost too good to be true. If a problem occurred, CEO...
David Noland -
Tesla Model S Door-Handle Failures Still Plague Electric Car, Consumer Reports Learns: UPDATE
It is one of the more remarkable features of the Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan: door handles that retract flush with the body until needed. But the retracting door handles proved tricky in practice; owner of early Model S cars reported that quite a lot of them had to be replaced under...
John Voelcker -
The New Fisker Is Live: Original Karma Owners Get Most Support
A new Fisker website offers parts support for current owners.
Stephen Edelstein -
UPDATE: Tesla's First Solar-Powered Supercharger-Store-Service Center Now Open
Electric-car maker Tesla Motors has rapidly been opening Supercharger DC fast-charging stations throughout the U.S. and outside the country. But despite its goal of providing solar-generated electricity at those sites, Superchargers thus far have drawn on electricity from the conventional power...
George Parrott -
One of the benefits of battery-electric cars is that they have far fewer moving parts than gasoline vehicles, so they require less servicing. Or as the old saying goes, "Nothing but tires and wiper blades"--which is a bit reductive, but pretty close to the truth if you add in occasional brake-fluid checks. DON'T MISS: Life With Tesla Model S: At Last, Some Maintenance Needed (New Tires) So imagine the surprise of one Nissan Leaf owner in the U.K. who found he'd paid £8.94 (about $13.60) for a new oil filter and £17.50 ($26.60) for a new air filter during his very first annual...
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Consumer Reports Rates Tesla Service Tops Among Carmakers
Tesla service was ranked top among carmakers in Consumer Reports' annual survey.
Stephen Edelstein -
Why Electric Car Owners Don't Want Gasoline Loaners From Their Dealers
It's often said by electric-car owners and advocates that once you start driving electric, you never want to go back. Now it appears that at least a handful of car dealers are learning that the principle extends even to loaner cars from the dealership. A recent Facebook thread on the BMW i3 Owners...
John Voelcker -
Fisker Karma Owners Can Soon Buy Spare Parts, Wanxiang Says
Owners of the 2012 Fisker Karma range-extended electric luxury car got some good news last week: The company that now owns the carmaker has promised that supplies of spare parts will soon become available. Fisker stopped producing its striking sedan in July 2012 after it had built roughly 3,000 of...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Leaf New Battery Cost: $5,500 For Replacement With Heat-Resistant Chemistry
Three and a half years after the first Nissan Leaf went on sale, Nissan has announced the cost of a replacement lithium-ion battery pack for its electric car. It's a surprisingly low $5,499 (after a $1,000 credit for turning in the old pack, which is required), plus installation fees and tax. The...
John Voelcker -
GM Offers Free Fix For 2012-13 Chevrolet Volt Battery Coolant Issue
General Motors will perform free servicing to fix potentially low battery coolant in certain Chevy Volts.
Stephen Edelstein -
There are now more than a dozen plug-in electric cars for sale in the U.S., but not all electric cars are created equal. And a pair of recent articles about service challenges experienced by owners of the Toyota RAV4 EV underscores that buyers should be fully aware of the context in which their electric car is sold. Only five plug-in cars have sold more than 10,000 units in the U.S. since launch: the Chevrolet Volt, Ford C-Max Energi, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S, and Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid. MORE: Electric Cars: Some Are Real, Most Are Only 'Compliance Cars'--We Name Names The Ford Fusion...
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Life With Tesla Model S: Electric-Draw Vampire Slain, At Last
This started out as a feel-good article about another great experience I had with Tesla's extraordinary service program. But it morphed into a detective story that apparently solves the mystery of why my 60-kWh 2013 Tesla Model S still suffered a significant "vampire" power drain, even after...
David Noland -
Life With Tesla Model S: Three Days Of Service Nirvana
A few months ago, some minor glitches in my 2013 Tesla Model S were fixed at the Tesla service center in White Plains, New York. It was a perfectly satisfactory experience, pretty much like any other service visit: Drive to the shop, read magazines for a couple of hours, get the car back, drive...
David Noland -
Life With Tesla Model S: Trying Out The Service Program
Tesla's announcement last month of its new service program sounded almost too good to be true. If anything went wrong with my 2013 Tesla Model S, promised CEO Elon Musk, instead of schlepping to the nearest service center, I would simply await the arrival in my driveway of the Tesla service tech...
David Noland -
Orphaned Fisker Owners Offered $4K/Year Service Contract By...Whom?
Fisker Karma owners are probably feeling a little abandoned right now. As investors pick over the company like vultures around a corpse in the desert, many owners might be wondering just how they'll get their expensive, luxury plug-in sedan serviced. That's where a company called Hybrid Support...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla Tunes Up Model S Warranty, Loaner Cars, Service Plan
On Friday, Tesla held a media call to reveal another in the series of announcements touted in tweets by CEO Elon Musk. This time, the news covered enhancements to the warranty and service experience on its Tesla Model S electric luxury sport sedan. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is now delivering several...
John Voelcker