That's it...I've had enough.

Tesla, I've had it. This is an open letter to the marketing/PR department. Hope they read it...oh wait.

Your service center practices are less than ideal, and your warranty practice is a joke. One may even say that your recalls are deception.

My maintenance costs have officially erased any money I have saved in fuel, and I am rightfully bitter.

2 Tires: $525.20 (special Tesla-centric sound dampening tires)

Control Arms: $757.66

Total Maintenance: $1,282.86

---

Total Fuel Savings: $1,104.47

Sigh...

I have never been so frustrated in a car company. It's been one of the most manic experiences of car ownership. I hate you, I love you, I hate you, I love you. This feels like a middle school relationship.

At first, everything was rainbows and unicorns. Now, I feel like the poop emoji ??. Tesla, you need to step your game up when it comes to service and warranty practices. I'm not the only one who feels this way - your owner reliability rating has taken a hit in recent years.

--

I've owned the vehicle since August 2021. I've put ~13,500 miles on it in less than a year, and I am safe driver according to your wonky safety score system. I've gone through two tires and two control arms already. The warranty expired at 50,000 miles and no longer have coverage on the drivetrain. I am at 54,000 miles now, and had the control arms replaced at ~52,000 miles.

The control arm problem is well-documented in the 2019 Model 3's -- the same vehicle I own.

I brought the vehicle to the Clarkston, MI service center on April 2022 because I had noticed a wobble in the steering. Your service center in Michigan called me crazy (not really but I felt like it) and said nothing was wrong. I drove it to Texas the next month and the control arms were done according to the Austin service center. In hindsight, probably wasn't safe to drive 1,350 miles on bad control arms, but you do crazy things for the things you love...right?

I paid my $757 bill, begrudgingly. I asked about the recall on this. You told me "nope". No explanation, nothing.

The lack of transparency is concerning. The service tech and front desk blamed this repair on the "Texas weather" even though I'd only lived here for 2 weeks at the time. Could have never been the faulty control arms making it past QA, right? I contacted your corporate chat to relay the issue and you just forwarded me to the service center to be belittled by the same person who told me "nope". That hurt my feelings.

--

Tesla, this is not a hit piece. This is my final attempt at hoping your non-existent PR department picks this up and decides to cover it up and cover my repair under "warranty".

I'm not holding my breath.

I've loved the car up to this point, but service and warranty practices have driven me insane.

What do you think Tesla? Are you going to respond to this? Probably not but I'll be sure to update this post if/when you do.

--

P.S. If anyone from Tesla's marketing/PR department (Elon) is reading this, please reach out to me. My contact information is below.

Best,

A Tesla Owner who is in a toxic relationship

Contact information:

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @ZappyCam