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If you get into an accident, it takes months to get your parts to fix it. What makes it worse is that most car rental contracts via insurance will only cover up

If you get into an accident, it takes months to get your parts to fix it. What makes it worse is that most car rental contracts via insurance will only cover up to 30 days, so you end up being on the hook for the car rental. This happened to me last year this time, I lost the car for the entire summer which was frustrating.

oplav 2y ago
I’m running into a similar situation with an electric Ego lawn mower. 1 year old mower stopped turning on, took it to the authorized repair center for warranty work, some PCB needs to be replaced but it’s back ordered for months. I ended up having to buy another lawn mower for the summer. 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.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  My father's gas lawnmower is ~40 years old and never had an issue. Snowblower is 50+ years old but has had 1 engine replacement.
  - WheatMillington 2y ago
    To be fair, the only gasoline engines with this kind of lifespan have had significant maintenance over their lifetimes. Regular oil changes, spark plugs and air filters and other servicing. The idea that gasoline engines are inherently more reliable than electric just doesn't match the data.
    - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
      My father doesn't do any maintenance.
  - giraffe_lady 2y ago
    When electric lawnmowers have been around for 50 years we'll have the same anecdotes about them.
    - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
      https://oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/forum/history-and-technical/mower-history/60-years-battery-power https://oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/forum/history-and-technical/m...
  - cj 2y ago
    For what it’s worth, I bought a new gas mower at Lowe’s last summer, and had to buy a new one this summer because I couldn’t get the old one started. 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!)
  - vel0city 2y ago
    Anecdotes everywhere. 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.
- syedkarim 2y ago
  What’s strange is that it’s just a PCB. It should not be an issue for them to stock or quick-build a circuit board. They can’t possibly still blame the chip-shortage bogeyman.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - FireBeyond 2y ago
    Interestingly, this is one of the theories for why Tesla's parts situation sucks. 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.
    - Retric 2y ago
      Which is strange from a financial standpoint. Individual parts generally have a massive markup compared to the total cost of a car. 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.
      - nxicvyvy 2y ago
        It's not a financial standpoint, it's a perception standpoint.
    - shalmanese 2y ago
      That may be a theory but there's a much more mundane theory that explains the crunch of the last few years: 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-keep-crashing-teslas/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/18/business/why-do-people-ke...
- SkyPuncher 2y ago
  I’ve entirely stopped caring about warranty as it’s only ever left me in this situation. I’d rather just buy a new thing or pay for an out of warranty channel to fix it as quickly as possible (often possible with non-one parts).
eurleif 2y ago
I was quite worried about this when I crashed my car earlier this year from reading comments like this one; but it was in and out of the (Tesla-approved third party) repair shop in around three weeks. It wasn't the worst crash in the world, but some body panels and other parts had to be replaced. Obviously, this is just my own anecdote, but I think it's worth noting that not everyone has the same experience.
radpanda 2y ago
> most car rental contracts via insurance will only cover up to 30 days, so you end up being on the hook for the car rental 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.
- Reubachi 2y ago
  It's always a bit different. 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.
cfeduke 2y ago
My personal experience so far with Tesla specifically - and this is not to say they are doing the right thing in regards to parts or anything - was when my wife hit a deer and a bunch of the driver's front side of the car had to be replaced was that it took six days. Of course the bill insurance covered was around $12K which is just insane (headlight, hood, fender, panel, side mirror, camera). The timeline to repair was probably because the Tesla density for my area (around Richmond, VA) is not high like it is in places such as California. 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.
- SkyPuncher 2y ago
  Those repair costs are astronomical. 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.
  - cobalt 2y ago
    definitely not $4k, but what about oil changes, brakes?
- bufferoverflow 2y ago
  Also Tesla is much cheaper to drive than a Lexus.

oplav 2y ago

I’m running into a similar situation with an electric Ego lawn mower. 1 year old mower stopped turning on, took it to the authorized repair center for warranty work, some PCB needs to be replaced but it’s back ordered for months. I ended up having to buy another lawn mower for the summer. 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.

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
My father's gas lawnmower is ~40 years old and never had an issue. Snowblower is 50+ years old but has had 1 engine replacement.
- WheatMillington 2y ago
  To be fair, the only gasoline engines with this kind of lifespan have had significant maintenance over their lifetimes. Regular oil changes, spark plugs and air filters and other servicing. The idea that gasoline engines are inherently more reliable than electric just doesn't match the data.
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
    My father doesn't do any maintenance.
- giraffe_lady 2y ago
  When electric lawnmowers have been around for 50 years we'll have the same anecdotes about them.
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
    https://oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/forum/history-and-technical/mower-history/60-years-battery-power https://oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/forum/history-and-technical/m...
- cj 2y ago
  For what it’s worth, I bought a new gas mower at Lowe’s last summer, and had to buy a new one this summer because I couldn’t get the old one started. 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!)
- vel0city 2y ago
  Anecdotes everywhere. 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.
syedkarim 2y ago
What’s strange is that it’s just a PCB. It should not be an issue for them to stock or quick-build a circuit board. They can’t possibly still blame the chip-shortage bogeyman.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- FireBeyond 2y ago
  Interestingly, this is one of the theories for why Tesla's parts situation sucks. 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.
  - Retric 2y ago
    Which is strange from a financial standpoint. Individual parts generally have a massive markup compared to the total cost of a car. 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.
    - nxicvyvy 2y ago
      It's not a financial standpoint, it's a perception standpoint.
  - shalmanese 2y ago
    That may be a theory but there's a much more mundane theory that explains the crunch of the last few years: 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-keep-crashing-teslas/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/18/business/why-do-people-ke...
SkyPuncher 2y ago
I’ve entirely stopped caring about warranty as it’s only ever left me in this situation. I’d rather just buy a new thing or pay for an out of warranty channel to fix it as quickly as possible (often possible with non-one parts).

eurleif 2y ago

I was quite worried about this when I crashed my car earlier this year from reading comments like this one; but it was in and out of the (Tesla-approved third party) repair shop in around three weeks. It wasn't the worst crash in the world, but some body panels and other parts had to be replaced. Obviously, this is just my own anecdote, but I think it's worth noting that not everyone has the same experience.

radpanda 2y ago

> most car rental contracts via insurance will only cover up to 30 days, so you end up being on the hook for the car rental 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.

Reubachi 2y ago
It's always a bit different. 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.

cfeduke 2y ago

My personal experience so far with Tesla specifically - and this is not to say they are doing the right thing in regards to parts or anything - was when my wife hit a deer and a bunch of the driver's front side of the car had to be replaced was that it took six days. Of course the bill insurance covered was around $12K which is just insane (headlight, hood, fender, panel, side mirror, camera). The timeline to repair was probably because the Tesla density for my area (around Richmond, VA) is not high like it is in places such as California. 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.

SkyPuncher 2y ago
Those repair costs are astronomical. 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.
- cobalt 2y ago
  definitely not $4k, but what about oil changes, brakes?
bufferoverflow 2y ago
Also Tesla is much cheaper to drive than a Lexus.