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Comment by thenewwazoo | Hacker News Reader

I recently took delivery of a Mustang Mach-E GT, having ordered it online. There are still some "opportunities" for a dealer to "add value", but Ford has it pretty well streamlined, and it was not hugely different from the process of ordering our Tesla Model 3. The biggest stressor was being uncertain of whether the dealership would try to screw me. Which is a low bar, to be sure. I hope Ford can also adopt Tesla's remote service model (or force dealers to offer it).

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Tesla has stopped doing the mobile service thing(at least in our area). Used to be able to get a mobile appointment at a cost, this time I couldn't even get them to come out to swap a battery(much less an LTE upgrade).

If they can't provide service I'll be going to other brands that's have a larger service network.

I assume 12v battery, not the big one?

Yup, the really frustrating part is you can't even order parts. It's easy enough to replace but I just couldn't source it.

I just bought an after market 12v lithium battery: https://www.ohmmu.com/

Shouldn't have to replace it for a long time (if ever) and seems to work fine. More expensive than lead acid but more convenient than service appointment for a 12v battery.

I just double checked and Mobile Service is still available in my area. I could actually get an appointment 2 days from now.

One thing to note though is that not all repairs are mobile serviceable. For example, when my Model 3 needed its front control arm replaced part of that service involves doing an alignment. The Mobile Techs aren't going to be able to do that one.

I had mobile service come out to my car literally last week. It just depends on availability of technicians and the municipality. They're aggressively hiring for the role however, so it might be a temporary thing.

Weirdly enough I'm currently going through my first maintenance request with Tesla and despite me living 15 min from the service center they scheduled a mobile service appointment. I was totally expecting them to ask me to bring it in.

Yep, we used to have it and I'd happily pay but went ~2 months checking the app with no appointments other than a 3 hour one-way trip across a ferry.

The app does a pretty poor job of not allowing you to specify issues outside of the standard flow. I could have called a service center but between how hard it was to source a 12v battery independently(I know it's a deep-cycle battery but still!) and high mileage I just don't think it's a car for us any more.

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