Interesting conversation Friday

[jeffdawgfan]

So last week a guy hit my truck with a big RV coach. He took a turn too tight and caught my rear left bumper. Dented my bumper but it dragged the entire side of his coach all the way down the side. Only about $2000 damage to my truck but I bet his repair bill will be >$10,000. Glad not my fault.

Anyway, I went to local collision repair center to get estimate on repairs to send to insurance company. When I get there there is a grey premium Mach E sitting out front. I went in and out of curiosity asked who was driving it. The woman who is the head of estimate quoting stated it was hers. We compared notes and both agreed we love the Mach E. She stated that before she bought hers she looked into how hard it was to get body parts and the time delay to get them. She said she put in a "false" order just to see results and surprisingly parts were available and would be received in three days. I agreed that was surprising in todays supply issues.. She said that was a lot better than Tesla. I asked why is that. She said that they refused to repair Tesla's. Tesla requires third party repair shops to pay them $15K a year just to have the right to order Tesla parts. $15K a year. She said they would lose money doing that so they refused to work on Teslas. So glad that we went for the Mach E vs a MY. I wonder how long before third party repair shops for EV's start popping up... and what issues they will have getting other parts.

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[Earplug]

Don't depend on the availability of parts. Wrecked on May 8th - got it back 19 weeks and 2 days later.

 

[voxel]

Tesla requires third party repair shops to pay them $15K a year just to have the right to order Tesla parts. $15K a year. She said they would lose money doing that so they refused to work on Teslas. So glad that we went for the Mach E vs a MY. I wonder how long before third party repair shops for EV's start popping up... and what issues they will have getting other parts.

Yeah this is known. Tesla-certified body shops do exist. It's why insurance is higher on Teslas too (labor is about 2-3x more expensive than regular cars). However parts are only part of the EV repair problem.. EVs are full of sensors and cameras on the front and rear. Any body damage will require re-installing them and re-calibrating them.

My insurance spiked when I bought a Model Y and plummeted when I traded it for a Mach-E. For now, I happy about this but who knows in the future when insurance companies get real world data on repairs.

 

[Cabel]

Repairability and maintainability where two of my key considerations for ordering the Mach-e after hearing too many horror stories from Tesla owners on servicing, repairs and insurance. Seems Tesla's philosophy is that if you are wealthy enough to buy a Tesla then you are wealthy enough to just buy a new one when your current one gets scratched. Tesla isn't very "green" when you consider they'd rather you buy a new car and send your old one to the scrap heap vs. repairing and keeping them out of a landfill for as long as possible.

 

[Maquis]

Don't depend on the availability of parts. Wrecked on May 8th - got it back 19 weeks and 2 days later.

It sounds like things have improved over the past 6 months.

 

[cargo]

Don't depend on the availability of parts. Wrecked on May 8th - got it back 19 weeks and 2 days later.

To be fair to OP you wrecked your car over 6 months ago. Part availability might have improved ton since then.

 

[Earplug]

To be fair to OP you wrecked your car over 6 months ago. Part availability might have improved ton since then.

Yes that is possible that things have improved. However, the OP mentioned "body panels". In my repair those were not a problem. Those and the "technology" stuff were not really the problem. Most of the missing parts were small thing like brackets and moldings. The very last part to arrive was the Hood Latch.

Placing a fake or mock order means nothing. Just because the ordering system quotes a shipping time doesn't mean it will actually happen.

 

[pt19713]

Yeah this is known. Tesla-certified body shops do exist. It's why insurance is higher on Teslas too (labor is about 2-3x more expensive than regular cars). However parts are only part of the EV repair problem.. EVs are full of sensors and cameras on the front and rear. Any body damage will require re-installing them and re-calibrating them.

My insurance spike when I bought a Model Y and plummeted when I traded it for a Mach-E. For now, I happy about this but who knows in the future when insurance companies get real world data on repairs.

For me at least, the Y insurance is the same as my wife's previous SQ5 insurance. She replaced that with a Model 3 Performance and that insurance is only a little higher than her 2015 Lexus RC 350 F Sport. All in all, our premiums on the Teslas are equal to cars in the same price segment / class. From talking to most other Tesla owners, their experiences are similar. Most are expecting the premiums to be much higher.

The premiums on the Mach-E are surprisingly lower than expected but it may be possible as insurance companies gather more data that the rates are adjusted accordingly.

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