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Comment by blindriver | Hacker News Reader

$14k is cheap. I got lightly rear-ended in my model y and the repair bill was over $15k. And it was in the shop for over 2 months waiting for parts.

The ridiculous cost to repair and the waiting time (insurance covers a rental car for up to 1 month) are things no one talks about when it comes to Teslas.

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The perpetually long waits on Tesla parts is especially grating because they are the sole supplier of parts. They have enough parts to not have a wait, but not if they want to hit their production targets. Tesla as a company has chosen to make people wait months for parts that would take under a week with any other brand.

Incredibly long time to get a service appointment, same for just parts. Best to have a second vehicle.

> Best to have a second vehicle.

Ironically turning moot any environmental aspect of owning an EV.

Best to sell and buy a more reasonable car

Crikey. The last time I had a prang was around 2006.

I was driving a two year old Honda S2000. I span out on a roundabout and rear ended a road sign pole, via a flower bed - it smashed a tail light cover, slightly crushed one of the two tail pipes/exhausts and the rear number plate and its holder fell out.

The car from new was something like £35,000. I had it on contract hire, which means I rented it. The insurance was quite expensive because it is a sports car, and I had a lot of no claims bonus etc, so I decided to get it fixed outside the insurance but they were notified as were Honda etc. I got a quote from the local Honda garage and it was roughly £3,500. A friend's dad owns a garage. He sourced original Honda parts and fixed it for around £1,600.

So we march forward 17 years and things are badly wrong.

Tesla isn’t exactly known for using high quality parts.

Is it expensive because it is Tesla?

Or there isn’t many repair shops available? Or knowledge for repairing is well hidden and combined with the previous.

Body work is expensive. Even more expensive when claimed through insurance. That said, it's possible the repair is expensive because the supply for parts is still quite limited.

Only because Tesla allocates so few part to repairs instead of new cars. The Model Y is the best crossover in the US. They have parts, they just only go to new cars.

That is why I bought BYD and have been recommending BYD Seals like hotcakes. Tesla is just the next Nokia Solyndra.

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