Other than that, which was $0 out of pocket, I've had my Model 3 for six years in July and almost $0 in parts or service. I replaced the 12v battery which I had to buy for $75 and tires twice. This way more cost effective than my Lexus (around $4,000 in repair service over 5 years, not counting tires) and Mercedes (around $3,000 in repair service over 2 years, which - not counting tires and I had these AMG rims that were wider on the rear tires so tire replacement had to happen early). So its hard for me to complain about Tesla, but I can see where for other people who have had issues where there are a lot of Teslas on the road could be an issue.
Going 4 years on our Hyundai and we’ve literally only had to replace tires. Both of our prior vehicles, Chevys, only required tires and brakes outside of a single, major repair - melted catalytic converter. That would have been a $2k repair tops over respective 8 and 18 year life span of both of those vehicles.
That’s if your insurance is covering it right? My Volvo C30 got rear-ended a few years back and it took about 6 weeks to get all the parts in and get the repair done. The insurer of the at-fault driver covered my rental car the entire time.
I've both had to fight an at fault motorist's insurance on extended rental coverage, and I've also been hand delivered a rental and told to keep it until I'm comfortable with my repaired car by another at fault motorist's insurance.
Ultimately, insurance is in the game of saving money, avoiding court, and reputation damage mitigation. Sometimes you get an insurer that puts their reputation above saving money, but it falls on the claim and the agent to decide how to go about it.
I’m grateful for the easy warranty process that Ego has, but it’s got me thinking if shifting to electrical means harder to come by parts for repair.
While you could also argue that they make things complex for themselves by having these rolling updates rather than using a Model Year system...
Elon, as is well known, is FANATICAL about the quarterly numbers. Burn the midnight oil to pump up the deliveries, etc., etc.
The thing with that, every part that's on a shelf waiting to be sold for warranty or accident repair is a part that can't go on a new car and boost the numbers. Wall Street doesn't give a shit what your parts market numbers look like, it's "How many Teslas did you build this quarter?" so there's a lot less incentive to fully stock that market - Tesla already has the sale booked and the money in their balance book.
Tesla sold about 100,000 Model 3/Ys to Hertz for rental in 2021.
Hertz rented a ton of EVs to people who were only used to the acceleration curve of ICE cars.
A ton of those people unexpectedly crashed those cars [1].
This clogged up Tesla's repair channels and blew out the timeline for everyone else.
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/18/business/why-do-people-ke...
Maybe, but I am not as sure. I've not ridden in a private 3, but in a Y and S, and I had a Hertz Model 3 for a week.
I don't know if there was a firmware difference or such, or just my individual model, but the acceleration on it was garbage. I'd stop, put my foot all the way to the floor, and wait half a second or more for ANY movement, and when it did move, it accelerated like my girlfriend's A4, if not slower.
(Or, perhaps, things happened as you described, and as a result, they nerfed the acceleration - this was last year).
There was some magazine that once did this with a Honda motorcycle and the total cost for parts was 6x what the bike would cost when new.
Granted, I probably could have spent a few days figuring out how to repair the old gas powered mower from last year, but it was oozing oil everywhere and I would have just been following YouTube tutorials and endless trips to the hardware store or waiting on parts from Amazon.
(Just sharing this anecdote since neither gas nor electric are perfect!)
A friend of mine spends an hour or two rebuilding or cleaning his gas lawnmower every year. Another friend had a brand new one fail the first time he fired it up. Meanwhile my Ego has gone several years with literally zero maintenance other than five minute blade sharpening.
My dad's gas trimmer was constantly unreliable and never easy to start. My Ego trimmer once again has been fine for several years without any maintenance other than winding the string.