Hacker News Reader

Comment by rconti | Hacker News Reader

One issue our Model 3 had was 2 defroster wires were burned out. I didn't notice it until ~5mo after delivery. The glass is made by Saint-Gobain, so arguably it's not Tesla's 'fault'. Would it have happened with another auto manufacturer? I'm not sure how to assess that. I suppose it could have been caused in installation or handling of the vehicle, rather than in manufacturing. Or perhaps the materials and design the automaker specs were the source of the problem more than the manufacturer of the glass itself?

View on HN

Did you buy and install that glass yourself? If not, it is Teslas fault.

No, Tesla bought and installed that glass.

Then didn't test it.

> Would it have happened with another auto manufacturer?

Of course. But other auto manufacturers have better service / warranty service.

When you're looking at a fleet-wide deployment of many vehicles, those warranty / service agreements become more important. No reasonable business expects perfection from any auto manufacturer, they just expect warranty / service at a decent rate for any given problem.

You didn't ask me how my warranty service was.

I still think it's an open question whether it would have happened with another manufacturer. My gut feeling is 95% "yes", but design/handling/installation/testing (or lack thereof) could absolutely mean that Tesla is more likely to suffer these problems than another manufacturer.

> You didn't ask me how my warranty service was.

I'm going by the basis of the article. Although you're right, your anecdotal evidence would be helpful to the general gist of the story too.

> The rental company said following a dispute over how to resolve the quality shortcomings, Tesla triggered a refund clause but Tesla disputes that it canceled the order.

Overall, it seems like a warranty issue. Quality shortcomings are common in fleet vehicles (order 100 cars, a large number of them are going to be defective). The main issue is warranty + service, to ensure that all vehicles get up to code for business use.

Only Tesla had customers who will give them even an inch by even knowing who the original manufacturer is. What does it matter? A company should be an abstraction that hides its implementation details like an API. The vendor is responsible for sourcing its parts correctly. If McDonalds makes me sick they don’t get to even deflect an iota of blame to Heinz ketchup.

This is a manufacturing defect. Contact Tesla service and they'll fix it. I had some areas of the factory tint on the moonroof that has holes in it and they replaced the moonroof without any hassles.

It was replaced without a problem during the only service visit I've had. In fact, they even had the glass in stock. (it required replacing the entire rear/roof glass to the b-pillar, since that's one whole piece).

Same here on only service visit. That glass is huge! When I went to get the car tinted they didn’t even carry a piece of tint that large

Reply on news.ycombinator.com