The Drive: Tesla's $16000 Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters

You're comparing apples to oranges. The trailer has all the amenities of a house. Power, water, stove, fridge, sink, bathroom, TV, heat and a/c in most cases. The tent? That's like the storage shed out back.

Comparing apples and oranges like comparing a IPhone to a Motorola flipper?


And you're saying Apple BUYS the phone from some production facility in China. I'm assuming they have their own factory there that produces it. Much different cost structure.


FoxConn is the assembler for iPhones. They also assemble smartphones and other devices for other companies as well. Maybe your phone too?
 
90% of the members here could make that repair. It's stuff like this that makes me cringe. Insurance, wasted batteries in Landfills, and rich billionaires going into space and the average "common" smart mechanic isn't allowed to fix this?? Ridiculous.
The battery is not likely to have been disposed in a landfill. Tesla has uses for the battery.
 
And you're saying Apple BUYS the phone from some production facility in China. I'm assuming they have their own factory there that produces it. Much different cost structure.
They contract to big 4 (Foxconn, Quanta, Compal, Inventec), almost everyone use them and nobody build their own factory. They buy parts from some of them too but the design and process come from the companies like Apple, Dell, Cisco, HP, etc etc.

As I said, you have no idea how things are made.
 
Sure but the auto industry is way more regulated by the government in those aspects since it's a more expensive consumer good. A 3 year old Apple laptop that breaks down may be worth $100 so you toss it. A 3 year old Tesla might still be a $50K car. The government requires auto makers to have available critical parts for 10 or 12 years after the sale. No such thing for a computer.
Broadly not true, with exceptions for safety or emissions items. Widely believed, though.
 
It is almost impossible to get parts from Tesla as they use "technical difference" to not sell you the part if you are not in their certified program.
Yeah, if I couldn't go buy any parts I wanted from a car dealership so I could fix someting myself, then I'd say that's a problem and falls into the catagory of not having the "right to repair" it myself.
 
$16,000 to replace the battery is half the price of the vehicle. This isn't the only issue. Tesla has already stated that they won't support any of their vehicles after 10 years. If I were Walmart, Pepsi, JB Hunt and a half dozen other companies that purchased the semi truck, I'd be getting a refund immediately.
 
They are able to. There are loads of YT videos on how to change batteries and screens and such.

However, Apple will not guarantee that the phone will have the same waterproof capabilities as it had originally. So if you drop your iPhone in a puddle and quickly retrieve it but it fizzled out, Apple will see that a non-authorized repair had been done and you will pay.
iPhones aren’t particularly difficult to repair. 50 bucks in tools and you’re pretty much ready to become the ultimate parts swapper. The waterproof seal takes like 3 minutes to clean up and replace.


Apple certainly doesn’t encourage third party repair, obviously won’t warranty items that have been opened up, and tries to throw some curveballs but the aftermarket is so huge they always find a solution. The same can be said for their software, which is constantly unlocked despite their efforts against it.
 
If my $120 phone probably only costs $50 to make, I can't imagine one from Apple would cost much more. They pretty much have the same parts and are assembled by the 4 companies mentioned before.
Your $120 phone cost $200 to make and someone subsidized the $80 because they made a mistake or they want to pull you into some other businesses.
 
$16,000 to replace the battery is half the price of the vehicle. This isn't the only issue. Tesla has already stated that they won't support any of their vehicles after 10 years. If I were Walmart, Pepsi, JB Hunt and a half dozen other companies that purchased the semi truck, I'd be getting a refund immediately.
Enterprise / business market is different, that's why you see those overpriced enterprise laptops being leased for a high initial price from 2 year old design then suddenly being sold as refurb or off leased for little to nothing. They don't just buy the cheapest or fastest they want a guarantee of support (parts, repair, replacement if they want to clone the same image for 2000 people, etc). They also test the heck out of new stuff and qualify / disqualify every new generation of design.
 
iPhones aren’t particularly difficult to repair. 50 bucks in tools and you’re pretty much ready to become the ultimate parts swapper. The waterproof seal takes like 3 minutes to clean up and replace.


Apple certainly doesn’t encourage third party repair, obviously won’t warranty items that have been opened up, and tries to throw some curveballs but the aftermarket is so huge they always find a solution. The same can be said for their software, which is constantly unlocked despite their efforts against it.
Everything can be repaired cost effectively (due to economy of scale, unless it is designed wrong) if the volume is high enough.

Back then I heard complains about people cannot replace the glue tape between battery and the screen, then they just throw you a new one, or new tools to do all those repair. They also said about touch screen and glass being not separable but these days they just throw in a new touch screen with the glass.

The problem with Tesla IMO is really they don't want to be a car company that support things for generation, but rather they want to build new things and discontinue the old (think Apple). I don't buy Apple or Tesla mainly for this reason and if I do I certainly won't expect it to be a PC I build or a Toyota. When volume is low and demand is high manufacturers can be quite an ass to deal with, and they can get away with it, as you can see.

Regarding to Tesla since the insurance companies hate them (double repair cost, long parts wait, lack of parts), they would eventually turn into a "this car cost double to insure" category. Since Tesla offers their own insurance for their own cars you definitely should insure with them. They are running a scheme to artificially reduce the insurance cost to make their cars look cheaper to own than it really is, so take advantage of it.
 
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The Drive: Tesla's $16000 Quote for a $700 Fix Is Why Right to Repair Matters.
The market for Telsas is the same market for people buying Ferraris, Maseratis, Mercedes where the huge maintenance and repair costs are bragging rights to show off the money. A really awesome surgeon makes an invisible as possible scar on a woman and a bigger scar on a man because the man will show off his scar to his peers.
 
The market for Telsas is the same market for people buying Ferraris, Maseratis, Mercedes where the huge maintenance and repair costs are bragging rights to show off the money. A really awesome surgeon makes an invisible as possible scar on a woman and a bigger scar on a man because the man will show off his scar to his peers.
I see your point, and agree to a strong extent. No one needs a Tesla, MBZ, Ferrari, $80K F-150, etc.
But the maintenance costs of a Tesla are extremely low. Cabin air filter is about all that's scheduled, even though I understand they are not the easiest to service...

Ultimately, people are free to spend their $$ as they choose. A used Honda Civic would do most of what our Model 3 does. And some things better. That's the bottom line.
 
What barebones? It makes phone calls. It texts. It gets on the internet. It takes great pictures. It has beautiful display quality. What more is a $1000 phone going to do but boost your ego when you pull it out of your pocket?
Your phone has a 1520x720 screen with 271 pixels per inch, doesn’t support the latest WiFi standards, doesn’t support 5G, doesn’t support charging over 5w, doesn’t support NFC, doesn’t have any sort of waterproof rating, cameras don’t seem to have any sort of OIS/sensor shift… it’s barebones, there is nothing wrong with that but comparing it to more expensive phones and saying “they’re pretty much the same parts” is willful ignorance.
 
The market for Telsas is the same market for people buying Ferraris, Maseratis, Mercedes where the huge maintenance and repair costs are bragging rights to show off the money. A really awesome surgeon makes an invisible as possible scar on a woman and a bigger scar on a man because the man will show off his scar to his peers.
Ferrari and Maserati have a racing pedigree that Tesla can't touch.
 
USA as the beacon for democracy should see how EU enforce all automakers in right to repair. Manufacturer like Tesla must share the schematic, repair manual and parts to independence mechanics. The supplier or OEM must allow to sell parts as aftermarket too.
The greediness of companies like APPLE and TESLA makes me never buy their product and stick with Ford, Toyota, and Honda with their PHEV and Hybrid until EV is not disposable anymore.
At least for any Toyota hybrid, we can buy the bush bar in the battery in case it is corroded, or some cooling parts or fan on the battery unit. We can do many things without special scanner by some sequences of brake and gas pedal pressing for some modes, etc. American and German companies make me sick on how they insult their buyer.
We buy car or electronics, and fully own it and we must have the right to repair and get the parts. We do not borrow it from Tesla or Apple.
 
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