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In my opinion, the whole thing can be explained in three words from Musk's reply: "concierge level service". I have always been amazed (in a bad way) at the qu

In my opinion, the whole thing can be explained in three words from Musk's reply: "concierge level service". I have always been amazed (in a bad way) at the quality of the work done by service departments at luxury and high-end car dealerships. I'm not sure what kind of agreement these independently-owned dealerships have that they're allowed to use the manufacturer's corporate identity to promote their business, but it should be a whole lot stricter. Conversely, I've never had my laptop receive a shoddy repair at an Apple store - after all, the repair facility is owned and being operated by the same company who built the machine in the first place, so they share common goals and incentives. If Tesla is trying to do for car dealerships and service centers what Apple did for high-tech retail, the privilege of participating would definitely be worth $600/yr to me. Now, Apple does have a licensing program in place to certify independent repair facilities as "Apple Authorized Service Centers" where warranty work can be performed. I think Tesla would do well to create a similar program, and maybe they plan to! Who knows, it's early days yet.

AJ007 14y ago
There is a reason why you can take a car to a mechanic and end up with it worse off than before you took it in. Car mechanics are incentivized by the dealer to push out jobs quickly. This isn't because they are lazy, its because their ability to make money depends on it. That means real fixes are substituted for patchwork fixes. I don't drive much, but when I do, I like to take my car to a mechanic that I can watch in person make the repairs.
- bengl3rt 14y ago
  I have always wondered what my recourse is when a mechanic does shoddy work. Can I sue them in small claims court for the cost of repairing damage that their workmanship caused? In this case I'm thinking of the time just a few months ago when a hose clamp that was misplaced during a cooling system overhaul caused a head-gasket-damaging overheat... which cost $4800 to fix.
  - mikestew 14y ago
    (Ex-ASE-certified mechanic here, but IANAL.) Your typical recourse is to return to the shop and have them do the job again. Yes, the faster a shop turns out a job the more they make per hour. But if a car comes back, the money made on fast turnover gets lost quickly. So contrary to popular belief there is an incentive to do the job right. If the car comes back, they should work on it until it's right. Now what if the shop said, in your example, "too bad, we're not fixing the head gasket"? I'll start with saying that court is probably your next option. But I have two other things to add. First, a decent shop would replace the head gasket if they screwed up. Once in a while a shop just has to eat a big job due to a screw up. Second, though, is that it's sometimes hard to properly place blame. I don't know the details of your situation, so forgive me for assumptions, but head gaskets don't just blow the instant the overheat light comes on. Yeah, the shop may have screwed up, but that doesn't absolve the driver from pulling over when the light comes on. So who do we blame? Well, that's why you call a lawyer. :)
protomyth 14y ago
Warranty work (provided free) is one thing, but any service is quite another. If the tire blows out, then I would take it to the nearest goodyear (or whatever comes on a Tesla) dealer. Heck, I wouldn't even think to take a car needing tire balancing to a dealer either.

AJ007 14y ago

There is a reason why you can take a car to a mechanic and end up with it worse off than before you took it in. Car mechanics are incentivized by the dealer to push out jobs quickly. This isn't because they are lazy, its because their ability to make money depends on it. That means real fixes are substituted for patchwork fixes. I don't drive much, but when I do, I like to take my car to a mechanic that I can watch in person make the repairs.

bengl3rt 14y ago
I have always wondered what my recourse is when a mechanic does shoddy work. Can I sue them in small claims court for the cost of repairing damage that their workmanship caused? In this case I'm thinking of the time just a few months ago when a hose clamp that was misplaced during a cooling system overhaul caused a head-gasket-damaging overheat... which cost $4800 to fix.
- mikestew 14y ago
  (Ex-ASE-certified mechanic here, but IANAL.) Your typical recourse is to return to the shop and have them do the job again. Yes, the faster a shop turns out a job the more they make per hour. But if a car comes back, the money made on fast turnover gets lost quickly. So contrary to popular belief there is an incentive to do the job right. If the car comes back, they should work on it until it's right. Now what if the shop said, in your example, "too bad, we're not fixing the head gasket"? I'll start with saying that court is probably your next option. But I have two other things to add. First, a decent shop would replace the head gasket if they screwed up. Once in a while a shop just has to eat a big job due to a screw up. Second, though, is that it's sometimes hard to properly place blame. I don't know the details of your situation, so forgive me for assumptions, but head gaskets don't just blow the instant the overheat light comes on. Yeah, the shop may have screwed up, but that doesn't absolve the driver from pulling over when the light comes on. So who do we blame? Well, that's why you call a lawyer. :)

protomyth 14y ago

Warranty work (provided free) is one thing, but any service is quite another. If the tire blows out, then I would take it to the nearest goodyear (or whatever comes on a Tesla) dealer. Heck, I wouldn't even think to take a car needing tire balancing to a dealer either.