Reuters published an explosive investigation report Wednesday chronicles Tesla's alleged patterns of deliberate negligence and blames customers for parts failures. The damning revelation highlights the Elon Musk-led company's long-standing alleged tendency to claim that vehicle owners had engaged in “driver abuse,” charging them for repairs for failures caused by parts the company deemed defective internally. The problems are usually related to the suspension and steering. Externally, Tesla's description of the problems has ranged from complete denial to partial recognition.
Several accounts in history document Tesla owners who were told their car problems were due to previous damage or driver abuse. In some cases they had just purchased the vehicles:
one of the drivers Reuters The interviewee, Shreyansh Jain, suffered a suspension collapse in a 2023 Tesla Model Y that he had owned for less than 24 hours. When the automaker told him that a lower control arm separating from the steering knuckle had caused the failure, he expected Tesla to cover the repairs. A service representative who inspected the car said he found “no evidence of any external damage,” as revealed in a text message.
About a week later, Tesla sent a letter to Jain, avoiding blame and citing “previous external damage to the right front suspension” as the cause.
Jain said he was the only person to drive the car on its first day of ownership and that it had not had any accidents before the suspension failed. “I thought, 'Damn, how can metal break like that when I'm sure the car hasn't hit anything?'” she said. Reuters. Three months later, the repairs were completed and Jain paid a $1,250 deductible (and his insurance covered the rest). He says his rates then skyrocketed dramatically on another car he owned.
Cincinnati surgeon Trace Curry paid $110,000 for a 2016 Tesla Model After he ran out of warranty, Reuters reviewed invoices that showed Curry paid about $10,000 for failed suspension and drive axle parts. Then in 2018, he replaced the front axle shafts (under warranty); he replaced them again (at his own expense) for $1,500.
ReutersThe investigation suggests that Tesla knew that many of the parts that required replacement on Curry's Model
Andrew Lundeen was driving his wife's 2018 Model 3 in August when the car's power steering failed while driving over a speed bump. The Santa Rosa, California, resident said Reuters A Tesla service manager told him that a power steering connector had corroded and attributed it to a car wash, which the employee cited as a known issue.
Lundeed paid $4,400 out of pocket to replace the steering rack and a wiring harness, allegedly thanks to his bold decision to visit a car wash. “This is the only car I've ever heard of where a wash can damage the wiring,” he told the Tesla manager. Lundeed described the employee by saying, “All I can tell you is that we are not a 100-year-old company like GM and Ford. “We haven’t worked out all the bugs yet.”
The investigation also documents Tesla's inconsistent and aggressive responses to parts recalls in different regions. For example, company engineers identified that the stern link, part of the suspension, had broken in several incidents while owners were driving at low speeds (similar to Jain's account). A former Tesla employee “with direct knowledge of the matter” said Reuters that between 2016 and 2020, Tesla “resolved” about 400 complaints about stern links in China, either through in-warranty repairs or through “goodwill repairs” if they were out of warranty.
The Musk-led automaker delayed a recall for four years and only agreed to one after Chinese regulators applied pressure. The country's State Administration for Market Regulation described a “risk of accidents” as part of the rationalization.
However, despite global reports of failures, Tesla never recalled the part in the United States and Europe. The company told US regulators that the problems were due to “driver abuse.” Reuters It also considered a 2019 “talking points” memo that urged service centers to blame “vehicle misuse,” such as “hitting a curb or other excessive, forceful impact,” as the culprit. “Abuse” and “misuse” are conditions in the Musk-led company's contract, giving the automaker leeway to reject warranty repairs for incidents it qualifies as such.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been investigating Tesla since 2020 over the front link (a suspension part) on the Models S and X, and began investigating power steering failures on the Models 3 and And from 2023 in July. Reuters' report of almost 5,000 words It's worth a read, especially if you own a Tesla and have paid for repairs out of pocket. NHTSA will likely find this reading equally compelling.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-knew-some-of-its-parts-had-high-failure-rates-but-reportedly-blamed-drivers-anyway-184957494.html ?src=rss
