

Creating the World’s Best Service and Warranty Program - Lightning
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/creating-world%E2%80%99s-best-service-and-warranty-program-0

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jtbigwoo
Loaner cars are a clever sales tool.

The local dealership had a similar deal when I brought my car in for major
repairs (under warranty) and maintenance (not under warranty, I paid). They
promised a free loaner of the latest model for a few days. I was bringing in a
no-frills Camry-sized car.

When I arrived, the service manager came outside to help me. I got my two
preschool kids out of the car and asked him to help grab the two car seats. He
said, "Just a moment," and stepped back inside to talk to an assistant. Then
he came back out and helped me unload the car seats and told me it would be a
few minutes while they cleaned up the loaner car. I see the assistant drive a
mid-luxury sedan around back. After about 15 minutes, the assistant comes back
with a mid-sized SUV for me and sends me on my way.

(Though the jokes on them; I drove that car into the ground for five more
years and then bought a Prius).

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rdl
They wanted to give you a nice car and then saw you had kids and thus decided
to give you a more mediocre car?

I love the loaner fleet at the San Jose Audi place; new TT/A4/Q5/A6. I think
if you bring in an S or RS or A8 you get an A8. I asked what you got for an
R8; apparently R8 gets fixed by their dedicated R8 guy in a few hours so they
just pick it up from your home/drop it off with a flatbed.

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jtbigwoo
The second car was still nice (thought it probably was $5k cheaper). They saw
the kids and assigned me to the kid-hauler profile instead of the
performance/luxury profile.

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threeseed
Are these 'features' not available in the US ?

Because they are standard here in Australia/NZ and IIRC the UK. Almost every
major service center will loan you a car and provide a valet service. And the
Annual Service Contract is typically thought of as a 'lock you in' scam to
prevent you from getting cheaper servicing through third parties.

I don't really see a lot of innovation here. I would like to see the car
notify Telsa of a specific component fault then they come out to house/work
and fix it on the spot. Or do servicing at night time and on weekends.

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joshAg
It depends on where you go. If you go to a dealership, they will usually at
least have a shuttle service to take you whereever you want and pick you up
when your car is ready. The nicer brands almost always have a loaner car for
service, but some of the non-luxury dealerships also offer them.

I've never seen a non-dealership shop with a loaner car, but many have a
shuttle. Of course, if you go to a cheap shop, they probably won't even have
that.

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umsm
So, if after one year, they introduce a new car (technically better) and you
wanted to upgrade to that newer car, how much would that cost? Let's say that
car is given to you as a loaner and you had 8k miles on your car. Is the value
of your car considered almost equal to that car even though it's technically
inferior?

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ricardobeat
As I understand it's the miles on the loaner car that matter, not yours. So if
you want to keep it, it will cost

    
    
        (base price - mileage) * (1 - months of age / 100)

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jjmardlin
Amazing, totally rethinking the experience. Typically brilliant of Elon.

He takes a typically irritating experience and makes it delightful.

~~~
tempaccount9473
He's cheating, he doesn't have a dealership network that subsidizes their
sales operations with overpriced repair services.

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Ethan_Mick
Cheating? Or making strategic business decisions?

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ericd
He's fixing a bug.

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hop
Sounds like a good deal - selling direct rather than through the traditional
dealership bs, they can make people a lot happier.

Wish I could iterate the model S's industrial design... plastic nose bulb
would be first on the chopping block.

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ericd
If they buy your car according to the same or a similar formula, this actually
seems to completely eliminate the lemon problem - if you don't like your car,
you swap it for another.

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dgritsko
Which also has the potential side benefit of quickly introducing pre-owned
Teslas onto the EV market, straight from Tesla themselves. Could make Model S
ownership a more affordable reality for some folks that otherwise couldn't
afford one.

~~~
ericd
Good point, otherwise people might hang onto them for too long, without the
specter of increased maintenance on the horizon to drive them to swap. I'm
starting to think that the lack of mandated dealerships could actually be
their ace in the hole to defend against the big guys once they get churning -
being able to do things like this where Toyota can't easily follow, even if
they reach technical parity. The day they start winning those lawsuits is the
day I dump much more of my savings into their stock.

~~~
dgritsko
Agree. And I might also add that the "early adopters" of the Model S (current
owners and those on the waiting list) would likely have the means to easily
take advantage of a buyback program like this (and even jump at the
opportunity to do so).

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smackfu
Heh, one reason they are loaning top of the line cars is because the lower end
ones may not have the range to reach the customer from the service center.

~~~
andrewtbham
They are trying to get customers to upgrade. It's a common tactic among car
dealers.

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umsm
Wow, I wonder how this will fare for the company 1 year later. This car is
very tempting with each day that passes...

