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[QUOTE=OvB;50346451]I feel like scarcity of parts is due to how young the company is. I don't know how many spare body panels they make it of the stamping center and every vehicle is made to order. You have to go to a Tesla service center to get repairs so they can order the parts from the factory if needed, and also document issues for production QC. Once they ramp up to the desired 500k cars a year with the Model 3, I bet parts will be a lot easier to come by after they start saturating the market more. As of right now you can get a fair amount of parts off eBay or other sites/forums.[/QUOTE] This is probably one of the main reasons as they are production limited. Another possibility is they are constantly making small changes to the hardware, so the cars coming off the line could be ever so slightly different from week to week. So it might be a bit of a logistical nightmare for repair shops to work on and get the right parts without having to change out a bunch of other stuff.
[QUOTE=Code3Response;50346433]Give it time and you'll have your parts. The Tesla market is insanely small currently hence the no parts. If you want to work on your vehicle buy a mainstream vehicle. Dont buy a Tesla (yet).[/QUOTE] I'm not even talking about aftermarket parts. You literally cannot order replacements from tesla directly. You can order replacements from other manufacturers. (although it's frequently not worth the extra costs for many types of parts like lights) [QUOTE=OvB;50346451]I feel like scarcity of parts is due to how young the company is. I don't know how many spare body panels they make it of the stamping center and every vehicle is made to order. You have to go to a Tesla service center to get repairs so they can order the parts from the factory if needed, and also document issues for production QC. Once they ramp up to the desired 500k cars a year with the Model 3, I bet parts will be a lot easier to come by after they start saturating the market more. As of right now you can get a fair amount of parts off eBay or other sites/forums.[/QUOTE] Tesla service centers explicitly do not handle body panel repairs. They pass you off to approved third party shops.
[QUOTE=Zephyrs;50346935] Tesla service centers explicitly do not handle body panel repairs. They pass you off to approved third party shops.[/QUOTE] I've never heard of that before. But it's nothing I've really ever looked into. I guess it's because the service centers don't have the resources to weld aluminum body panels? (that would seem inefficient for a brand that builds exclusively aluminum vehicles)
[QUOTE=Zephyrs;50346272]Some of the cost comes from how vehemently anti home wrench slinging tesla is. You cannot order many parts without being a certified shop. That's one of the reasons why I think tesla is overall a pretty scummy company. Someone is going to get majorly pissed off and rip them apart in court over it eventually, just like what has happened to nearly every other major auto manufacturer.[/QUOTE] the issue is supply, tesla can't stock enough parts to build their own cars to meet demand, they also have to stock enough parts to meet the demand of all their shops also you have to remember this is [I]what every other high end car company does[/I], Mercedes will literally tow your car away when its time to service it even if nothing is wrong because its important enough to their brand that even used high end Mercedes are in tip top shape [editline]18th May 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=OvB;50348052]I've never heard of that before. But it's nothing I've really ever looked into. I guess it's because the service centers don't have the resources to weld aluminum body panels? (that would seem inefficient for a brand that builds exclusively aluminum vehicles)[/QUOTE] a body shop guy that my brother has to visit far too frequently talked about how he's preparing his shop for aluminum, it has to do with the paint, the actual bodywork is straight forward to adapt equipment to. apparently painting aluminum parts are far more involved than normal steel parts because of the chemistry involved in bonding to aluminum [editline]18th May 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Zephyrs;50344930]You said this. 4+ weeks in a month = 120-160+ dollars, vs 10-20 dollars. 16x. You said it could be 16x. I showed the math saying otherwise. [/QUOTE] not to nitpick but i also said this [quote]without getting into the confusing math behind kwh and kw and charging[/quote] i was just tossing simple numbers out, you're way overthinking this. Teslas are still a car, and like a car, they cost money to maintain just like normal cars. what they don't advertise is the expensive maintenance package that they sell with every car that you pay extra for, as well as warenties, extra insurance for owning a high end car, taxes and title depending on your state, and more. on the face of it though, a tesla costs using the national average of 15c/kwh a few bucks to "fill" while an ICE car takes a lot more, the caveat is you have to "fill" the tesla up every day where as a normal car requires a fill up every week or longer
[QUOTE=Sableye;50348125]a body shop guy that my brother has to visit far too frequently talked about how he's preparing his shop for aluminum, it has to do with the paint, the actual bodywork is straight forward to adapt equipment to. apparently painting aluminum parts are far more involved than normal steel parts because of the chemistry involved in bonding to aluminum[/QUOTE] As I understand it there's a few complications with the welding itself because it's a lot less forgiving with heat, but yeah, painting aluminum suuuuucckks. It never looks right, and you apparently can't just grind it off and paint over it. Ford had a lot of problems with this around 2000 with hoods on their F series, and a lot of more recent cars as well. The paint on the hood just peels off. Not sure why they made one of the few parts of the truck that doesn't get doused in tons of salt aluminum, but that's another thought process entirely. [QUOTE=Sableye;50348125]i was just tossing simple numbers out, you're way overthinking this. Teslas are still a car, and like a car, they cost money to maintain just like normal cars. what they don't advertise is the expensive maintenance package that they sell with every car that you pay extra for, as well as warenties, extra insurance for owning a high end car, taxes and title depending on your state, and more.[/quote] As I've said before, one of the selling points of EVs is the fact that they are supposed to be cheap to run. At the end of the day, the cost is what will make them dominant in the market. Nothing else will make them anything more than a peculiarity in a niche.
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