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posted by martyb on Friday October 30 2015, @03:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-stock dept.

Bob Lutz, car-guy-to-the-max, former VP of GM and Chrysler, with time at BMW before that, wrote this recent article --
    http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a26859/bob-lutz-tesla/

The opening paragraph is gloomy:

Tesla's showing all the signs of a company in trouble: bleeding cash, securitized assets, and mounting inventory. It's the trifecta of doom for any automaker, and anyone paying attention probably saw this coming a mile away. Like most big puzzles, the company's woes don't have just one source.

and the prognosis goes downhill from there mentioning competition from Audi, the lack of enough dealers to attract more buyers and other problems.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 30 2015, @05:10PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday October 30 2015, @05:10PM (#256549) Journal

    You're correct, Tesla stores are showrooms. There are none of the other costs Lutz is talking about. The one in Long Island has a Model S you can sit in. When I went in last year I wanted to do a test drive but they said you had to schedule that through the website.

    Lutz's mind is frozen in the auto business of 40 years ago. He doesn't begin to understand how different Tesla is. There is virtually no maintenance. Over the air software updates keep making the car better after you've bought it. What other car does that? They've also built out huge networks of superchargers, which means they're not only setting the standard for what cars are going to be but what the rest of the infrastructure to support them is gonna be. They're springboarding off the gigafactory into home energy storage, which means they're also helping homeowners hop off the grid into a sustainable energy future.

    Nope, Lutz is a mental midget next to the strategic vision of Elon Musk.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @06:00PM (#256580)

    Over the air software updates keep making the car better after you've bought it. What other car does that?

    Jeep, for one, has that capability:

    Now able to navigate the system with root privileges, they reverse engineered and added their own code to the firmware, providing a means to send malicious instructions to systems including the transmission and brakes.

    (emphasis mine)

    http://www.gizmag.com/vehicle-hacking-trends-def-con-23/38858/ [gizmag.com]

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday October 30 2015, @07:15PM

    by frojack (1554) on Friday October 30 2015, @07:15PM (#256616) Journal

    There is virtually no maintenance.

    Well, that's not entirely true. You still have to rotate tires every 5000-ish miles. And there are annual scheduled maintenance tasks.

    Edmonds.com [edmunds.com] has a write up of maintenance issues on a 2013 Tesla after a cross-country road trip.
    Some of these were teething issues for this particular car. (Drive unit replacement, etc).

    But others are routine maintenance, wiper blades, cabin air filters, cooling system, brake pad checks, software updates, etc.
    This Story [teslarati.com] explains some maintenance issues that another driver saw, as well as an actual Annual Maintenance bill [cloudfront.net]. Most of this bill seems like stuff you would have to bitch to the dealer to have it checked on any other car.

    --
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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by mmcmonster on Friday October 30 2015, @08:39PM

      by mmcmonster (401) on Friday October 30 2015, @08:39PM (#256648)

      I've own a Tesla for about 19 months now (got it in 3/2014). Put 37k miles on it.

      I had my first service at a year (~24k miles). They replaced the tires and suggested that I rotate the tires in the fall so they would last longer. They also replaced the wipers and changed out some bolts and fasteners.

      My second service is in a couple weeks. They're going to rotate the tires. I also chipped the windshield so they're going to probably replace it (a truck kicked up a rock or something).

      Software updates happen over-the-air and I've received 3 or 4 per year since I got the car. None of them had to be done at the service center. Typically I get a software update notification when I turn the car on and schedule it for 2am the following night (time is adjustable). Kind of like an OS update on my desktop computer or phone.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday October 30 2015, @09:08PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Friday October 30 2015, @09:08PM (#256670)

        I work with a guy who's had a Model S since they became available. He says he spends more, per mile, on the tires than on everything else combined.

        Looking at the picture in GP's post, someone likes their car enough to spend $600 on getting stuff lubed and fluids changed. I guess it comes with the "can afford a Tesla" territory, but it's hardly a do-it-or-walk expense for the owner.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @09:33PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @09:33PM (#256682)

      $600 for that! holy crap, cost of ownership is high

  • (Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Friday October 30 2015, @08:44PM

    by mmcmonster (401) on Friday October 30 2015, @08:44PM (#256651)

    Tesla test drives are hit-and-miss. I walked into a dealer in late 11/2013 in Manhattan and asked a few questions. No other customers in the store, so the salesperson offered me a test drive. It was a weekday at 3pm or so.

    I went another time a month later at King of Prussia mall and because of how busy it was in the store, they asked that we schedule a test drive for my wife another day (the demo cars (they had three) were booked for the entire day).

    Of course, like any auto dealer, the test drive is in their top-of-the-line model. Truly an awesome drive.