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Consumer Reports gave the Tesla model S a 99. No other car comes close. Now Tesla is planning a 30 thousand dollar car. That will really eat into oil company profits. A car that performs like a Porche for under 100 K. They pissed off the oil industry and the auto industry. No wonder we are reading about problems with the model S.
I have to agree, and I don't think the average person realizes just how strong the establishment's propaganda machine is. They influence everything from public opinion to politics.
With all the consolidation of industry, energy, and mainstream media, the largest businesses have a disproportionately powerful voice. And average citizens have let it happen.
Tesla is a new company doing what the established automakers have not really tried for themselves: engineer, build, and sell great all-electric cars, and make a good operating profit doing it. You bet they feel a bit threatened, as do the oil companies. They do whatever they can to solidify the status quo.
First, in general, the inherent reliability and long life of electric drive trains is obvious and logical... one moving part, a rotor, in an electric AC motor vs. more than 100 parts, many of them moving, some of them reciprocating, in an ICE motor. One gear in the EV transmission vs. how many in an ICE automatic transmission? And in practice there are working electric motors in use all over the world that are more than 100 years old still powering street cars and mountain railroads and aerial trams, with even DC motors that use commutator brushes requiring minimal maintenance compared to fuel burners.
Second, in this specific case, it's a brand new car design, based on nothing earlier, subject to the usual entirely new car design shakeouts magnified by the intense media and internet attention this revolutionary car is getting. But the real news to me... seeing the glass differently... is that 1. the warranty is so good that problems are simply getting fixed without charge, sometimes proactively, before the customer even knows there is a problem. And they've retroactively ADDED several things to what their warranty covers, based on user experience. Who else does that? 2. Replacing the entire drivetrain is simple enough that it can be done overnight.
And most significantly to me, the overall customer satisfaction rating is quite high, more than a year into the program. My buddy in the Silicon Valley who has a half dozen neighbors who own Tesla S cars says they all still own them, all still love them, and now a co-worker has one too. Resale values are high too, and are guaranteed if you use their financing. Who else does that?
Is everybody happy with everything? No, of course not. It's just a fact of human nature that some people are never happy, and some always find something to complain about and focus on it, and there absolutely have been several reported issues that have been difficult for Tesla to resolve. But on average, customer satisfaction is very high. Why do you suppose some non-owners are so eager to knock it?
YAWN...Why didn't diesel-electric technology ever make it in the automotive world?.
I have to agree, and I don't think the average person realizes just how strong the establishment's propaganda machine is. They influence everything from public opinion to politics.
Exactly. Notice that the headline on this thread is deceptive... there actually was no cost to the customer... and the reviewers said that they all loved the car and hated to have to sell it for editorial reasons... and they sold the car at a higher resale percentage value than the competition could muster... and they've already placed a deposit on their reservation for the Model 3 when it launches in 2016. But the haters all focus on the issues they had, which were handled with zero fuss by Tesla.
Elon Musk had this to say...
Quote:
A 17-month review of the $105,005 sedan, published this week by car-critic Edmunds.com, yielded one chief complaint -- parts of the car needed to be replaced too frequently. Tesla's chief executive countered the critique, saying the electric carmaker's Formula 1-trained service teams were overattentive, swapping out parts that had even the potential to be faulty.
“This maybe ended up being counterproductive, but the service team was ultra proactive with the Edmunds car, so they were doing their best to make Edmunds happy,” Musk said during an hour-long call with analysts after announcing the company's second-quarter earnings. “Unfortunately that resulted in them changing things out just on the off-chance that something might go wrong.”
.....
Regardless, Musk said, the model driven by Edmunds' drivers was old. Tesla continuously tweaks its vehicles -- from updating software to shaving “a few hundred pounds” off the body of the Model S since its inaugural edition -- and cars produced in the last year have outgrown the glitches that Edmunds’ drivers experienced.
“There were definitely some genuine issues, but they had one of our early production units,” Musk said. “In fact, most of the problems they encountered are not present in our current cars.”
Originally Posted by Thegonagle
With all the consolidation of industry, energy, and mainstream media, the largest businesses have a disproportionately powerful voice. And average citizens have let it happen.
Not just let it happen... some have actually become unpaid co-conspirators... deeply engaged in knocking Tesla without any personal experience to base their criticism on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thegonagle
Tesla is a new company doing what the established automakers have not really tried for themselves: engineer, build, and sell great all-electric cars, and make a good operating profit doing it. You bet they feel a bit threatened, as do the oil companies. They do whatever they can to solidify the status quo.
More than that, Elon Musk is actually out to change the way the auto industry is run. And that threatens a lot of people. A lot!
Quote:
Before moving on to the next question, Musk -- who publicly walloped the New York Times over a flawed negative review of the Model S last year -- leaped in on the call to stump for the car once more.
“We’re going to be at it hardcore,” he said, “until our car is 10X better than any other car on the road.”
“This maybe ended up being counterproductive, but the service team was ultra proactive with the Edmunds car, so they were doing their best to make Edmunds happy,” Musk said during an hour-long call with analysts after announcing the company's second-quarter earnings. “Unfortunately that resulted in them changing things out just on the off-chance that something might go wrong.”
///////
So if you aren't a known car magazine or website, you wouldn't get that treatment, and the headline of the thread is not misleading as the cost of a replacement drivetrain is estimated at $15,000, which will be soon as the older ones start coming off warranty. That was the point of the article I posted. Maybe Tesla can knock the price clear down to $10,000 - that's still a heck of a lot of cash for a car repair.
Pffftttt. Still missing the point. The drivetrain replacements were not in any way required to resolve the issues.
As Musk said, the service team went way over and beyond what was needed, out of an excess of caution with a high profile customer, and a commitment to providing extraordinary service . That impulse is completely understandable under the circumstances, while the lengths they went to were admittedly over the top.
Ordinary customers are seeing the same extraordinary level of commitment to service, but within more down to earth parameters. Tesla is out to break the mold, and reinvent the auto industry.
I wish them luck with that, and hope they succeed.
YAWN...Why didn't diesel-electric technology ever make it in the automotive world?.
Initially, because despite its obvious benefits it was too heavy and too expensive for use in personal autos, so for the first hundred years or so the technology was mostly used in train locomotives and heavy earthmoving equipment.
More recently diesel-electric hybrid cars have been brought to market by a number of companies, including Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen and others, but they are really only a fit for the European market for several basic reasons... diesel fuel is cheaper than gas in Europe, so it helps overcome the fact that diesel engines are 15-20% more expensive to build. And since the main point of hybrids in the US is to reduce emission of air pollutants while giving greater fuel mileage, the fact that diesel engines produce more CO2 and more particulate matter per mile than gas engines is a huge drawback.
I will say, I think that a CNG hybrid would probably make a reasonable transition technology for the American market, on the way towards 100% EV, because although it obviously is not as widely distributed as electricity is, there's already far more infrastructure in place than there is for hydrogen, but we'll have 3 or 4 hydrogen powered cars on the market in the next year or so.
What is clear to me, given the amount of money being spent on all manner of alternatives to conventional ICE powered cars is that nobody knows what is going to happen. Nobody.
Is Tesla a good product? Yes. Is it the God's gift to mankind? No. It is the right step in the right direction, BUT it has chosen the marketing strategy of say Apple Inc. While it has a decent product, it is not the answer to all our problems and much like Apple, it seems to carry that stick. Come one Tesla, lighten up, you have some ways to go and you should recognize that. I wish them the best, but they should loose the halo in a hurry or they will be like Saab and Alfa, Don't put yourself on a pedestal and connect with the masses.
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