Three days after I published this video a Tesla mobile service technician replaced my front passenger door handle (hardware version 2.5 apparently which is the latest version that fits into my vehicle) under warranty. In hindsight watching him do it all it's more involved than I remember from the passenger rear door handle they replaced 2 years ago and I'm glad he did it. From his memory it would have cost $378 to have them do it not under warranty and it might be worth the price to just have them do it...plus they now use upgraded hardware that doesn't have the gear failure problem. The new door handle requires a custom firmware update to work correctly that a DIY individual such as myself can't do. Here's hoping all my door handles now last for many more years! While he had the covers taken off I went ahead and replaced my cabin air filter with one I got on Amazon for $20 here amzn.to/3opVQm1 Also two weeks after this video was published I replaced the tires with Bridgestone Turanza Quiettrack tires for $763.21. That is after the $415.80 refund from the warranty of the prior tires which were Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 which have a 50,000 mile warranty and I only got 24,372 miles on them. These new Quiettrack tires have a 80,000 mile warranty which I'm confident will get less miles than that. It turns out that tires for a Tesla aren't as expensive as I had previously thought if you collect on mileage warranties. For instance my Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 tires cost a total of $474.80 with the initial rebate and the mileage warranty included to drive 24,372 miles which is a cost of 1.9 cents per mile for just the tires. That includes mounting, balancing, taxes etc...
@@TonyMiguel-ko7cz I agree that the way that Tesla the company runs things is one of the biggest drawbacks to owning a Tesla vehicle. Teslas are most certainly not "maintenance free" and I doubt Tesla has ever stated that, but Teslas overall are less maintenance than the comparable vehicles in their class. Door handles on the Model S were poorly designed originally, and the new designs fail rarely now. Gas cars have also never attempted a door handle design that pops out like the Model S.
Glad it was helpful! Just yesterday Tesla replaced the passenger door handle under warranty and I also replaced the cabin air filter which cost $20. It's an awesome car to have!
Thanks for the good recap of your experience you had with your Model S. Got my 2015 Model S 85D as a CPO from Tesla in 2020. Seems I have the worry free version of the car. No air suspension, no automatic trunk, no extra lights, no sunroof. So a lot of stuff that can break is not built in my car. It’s the cheap but the hassle free version. Did not see any broken door handle so far. They might have been replaced before, who knows. Got parking break replaced. Battery heating was broken so Tesla replaced this. UMC1 was replaced due to a broken wire. The eMMC issue got me as well but then I just upgraded to the MCU2. Also I did an upgrade to CCS charging which is THE essential upgrade for a Model S in Europe (but pretty cheap). A lot of the working was done by the mobile service. Anything else is working perfect. I can fully backup your battery degradation numbers. Well, I have to go 40.000 km to get to your 100.000 miles. Still 2 more years of warranty 😁
Haha ya it was great talking to you! Let me know if you have any other questions. If you do decide to buy a new Tesla feel free to use my Tesla referral code in the description of all my videos to get 1,000 free supercharger miles.
Thanks, good to see what I might have to do with my 2015 85D. Right now I only have 49k miles on it. I bought it used with low miles (10,300 miles at about 3 yrs and 10 mth old) and for the last, 2.5 years I've been working from home so the main miles I've put on it have been going to the Orlando area from Ma, a couple of times a year. Since I bought it with less than 4 yrs old, i got the full warranty that was left on it (8 years 100k miles) I drive to fla a couple of times a year and it's free charging all the time. BTW, our AP1 is great and Summons is fun when the kids are around and nice when I call it out of the garage ;) I got it with the upgraded seats ,winter package, Obsidian Black, upgraded stereo, Panoramic with moon roof, Alcantara interior, free full connectivity, Free supercharging... final new cost is $101k With only 10,300 miles I got it or $48,500k This was straight from Tesla. Nothing else was even close to that price with double the miles. I jumped on it. Oh and without a scratch on it I still love this car!
Wow, you really did get a great low miles model! I was specifically targeting vehicles at or below the $40k price point which mine met, just barely. Mine had 52,700 more miles than yours though so I'm sure it justified the higher price. They're certainly fantastic cars! Not perfect, but way better all around than any other vehicle we've ever owned.
It is good to see a review from someone in SLC. Especially with the different Temps throughout the different seasons. Maintenance doesn't seem so high, just the repairs. Even then, mist have been under warrent. I have a truck and I can tell you I have spent more on maintaining in the first 30k it then the Tesla with 100k. Thanks for the review.
I'll be publishing our 3 year review in May of you're interested. We're at 112k miles now and I have a little update on repairs since our warranty expired a year ago.
Wow all these fixes, my 2006 prius, the only thing I had to do it was oil changes and tires for many years, then brake pads after driving yearly 35000 miles a year. Ok I had wheel bearing going bad after reaching over 200,000 miles . It seems tesla quality is not that good
There's a lot of variables as to the longevity of any vehicle. My video is just a single data point and has no statistical relevance. From what I've seen of forum posts and polls online the aggregated weaknesses the Model S has is most definitely the door handle mechanism of which Tesla is on the third generation of the design if I'm not mistaken. The trunk latch is also a common weakness as well as the MCU memory being written to too much and failing. My Model S was built in March 2015 and Tesla has improved the S a lot since then, and their newer models appear to be better built, but there's always anomalies from all manufacturing. Our Model S has never not been drivable. The most debilitating issue is the MCU memory failure. Considering how much money I save in fuel and general maintenance costs I'm not concerned yet about the cost of things breaking...at least for now. In the 60k miles we've put on the car we've still never paid for any electricity to drive it around.
Excellent detailed review 🥰 Beautiful family How many cup holders does this year have? I’m thinking of purchasing a used Tesla I knew they would be great as they get older I want the older Tesla for the opening sunroof I get claustrophobic. Yes even w an all glass roof 😂🤣 Thank you for sharing 🥰💕✨
Thanks! Cup holders are significantly lacking. Two in the front in a not great location zero in the back seats and one between the fear facing seats. The lack of car cup holders doesn't bother us because we rarely have anything but water in our own thermos. We use a camera bag between the front seats as our center console and we put our water thermoses there. The kids have cup holders in their car seats.
We got a used one a 2015, Excutive upgraded (4seat only). Titanium Limited paint P85D+ with ap on Nav. White cream Internior leather and fur. Love the car!
Thanks for the video. This was very informative. I bought a new Tesla, but I’m thinking of buying a used Tesla for a second car. Especially one with the unlimited Tesla charging miles, but was hesitant on the reliability. This video definitely gives me more comfort on buying a used Tesla.
I'm glad to hear it! I plan to keep our Model S for many more years. It's currently the only vehicle we own, but I'll be guying a Cybertruck as soon as Tesla will sell it to me. It'll be my regular driver and my wife will continue to use the Model S for her around town needs. The Cybertruck will be our primary family vehicle when we go places together and on road trips and also what we'll use for towing or other truck related use cases. I love not having to deal with gas vehicles anymore!
Great video! Lots of really interesting maintenance information. I feel really lucky as my May 2015 built has done pretty well in the last 2 years. I did have a FOB die on me and Mobile Service came by the house and replaced it (now my wife has lost it and can’t find it). I had the rubber gasket around the front radar curl up, which disabled autopilot and they fixed it in about 3 hours. My 12v battery alert came on in February of this year, it was the original battery, and I just had Tesla replace it, $234. I had a recall in some rack bolts on the steering wheel and they replaced some shims on the front end. under warranty. This last time I asked if there had been any door handles replaced on my car and they said no. So we treat them very nicely, no jerking the handle to open the door and so far so good. So I’ve been lucky, hardly any repairs so far. All done under warranty (except the 12v battery), and with 31,900 miles, still have 2 years on my CPO warranty, unless I reach 62,004 miles first which I hope not. I do enjoy the car. We are finally going on our first long road trip Sunday. Will be heading to Estes Park CO, then to Custer SD to attend the Tesla Sounds of Silence Rally on May 21-23. Plan to make it to Devil’s Tower, then Chamberlain SD to see the Dignity 50’ Indian statue then head home. About 2,800 miles. BTW, I’m still on the original Michelin MXM4 tires. I was going to get new ones before the trip but the two fronts are still at 5/32”, so I will probably change them after the trip. I really like the MXM4 so I’m planing to buy them again. Oh, one last thing, when I took delivery on April 3, 2019, the car still showed 270 miles range, 243 miles at 90%. It now shows 266 at 100% so less than 1.5% loss, which I think is great! I mostly charge 90%, sometimes 80%. Thanks again for the great video. Say hi to the family!
Yes you've done well with how minimal your maintenance has been! I wonder why the 12 volt battery wasn't covered under warranty? Mine was. I suspect the door handles are more prone to breaking when they're not sticking out and you press on it to have it come out. I could be wrong on that. If you have it automatically open as you approach then you never press on them and maybe that has saved them? I turned that off as I thought it was annoying that the door handles would pop out when I was just walking past the car, and I also had hoped it would make them last longer...but it didn't. At least they failed under warranty! Just yesterday the mobile service technician replaced my door handle and I took the opportunity to go ahead and replace the cabin air filter (for $20 from Amazon that I had on hand) since he had the cover off. I'm glad to hear you're going on an awesome trip! We're actually going to devils tower too as well as Mount Rushmore in the next month, but we won't be there the same week as you are. Yesterday I ordered new tires and I opted to go with the Bridgestone Turanza QuietTrack because it has an 80,000 mile warranty (which I'll be collecting money on since I will likely get half to a quarter of that many miles) and they're very highly rated tires in the Tesla community. I found them to be cheapest at Simpletire.com then I had discount tires match their price. The other tires I had been considering is the Michelin CrossClimate 2, but ultimately decided since they're warranty is only 60,000 miles and they're big selling points of rain we don't see much and snow we actually don't drive in much I decided against them. But I might try them as my next tires. Your battery degradation is stellar! I've likely fully charged mine and fully accelerated more often than you have...
@@ElectricTechAdventures We made it Estes Park. Beautiful. Let me know how you like the tires since I will be needing some soon. Rocky Mountain National Park is spectacular this time of the year! Will have to figure how to share photos.
My late year 2014 p85 now has 107,000 miles on it and climbing. I bought it 3 years ago as a cpo.. they replaced so much on my car before I got it.. they used to do all cosmetic, including buffing out and making wheels look like new. they replaced the driver's seat, and center console, etc... so it was like new when I got it. I have upgraded the MCU to 2 and Tesla just sent me a check for the payback on MCU1.. $320. I even got a new sunroof (pano roof) because the rubber seal was unsightly, not leaking, but it was torn. Back in the good old days. Things that I have had to pay for.... new Front wheel bearings.. $503 (tesla service) 1 door handle $283(tesla ranger completed) no other issues... during the warranty period.. I had the heater/cooling system for the batter go bad.. replaced..... I also have the trailer hitch (probably how I found your channel) I love it for my bike rack and my heavy Ebike. I put PPF on the front of the car since it was refreshed and didn't have a single ding.. now there is only one small dent in the car probably caused in our garage. I would have no issues with buying a high mileage tesla. Mine drives better than when I bought it. I love my car and will keep it for a very long time
Yep I know I lose people with longer videos. I've divided some of my longer videos up into 2 - 5 videos and I've found usually the first video does great and the next videos have lackluster interest. Perhaps I just need to omit details and have shorter videos, but others appreciate the details. It's certainly difficult to balance a video for the most viewers to stay interested the longest. Usually it simply takes more time to edit it down shorter and maybe add more captions to omit some of the video narration with quick on screen text, but that takes more time editing to pull off. It's always a balance of various factors.
I've saved enough money driving our Model S all these miles that I have effectively saved up my own warranty fund. I get that a warranty is a fixed amount of money that gives assurances it won't get more expensive, but what if the vehicle doesn't cost nearly as much as the warranty costs? So far I'm ok taking on the liability of repairs and I have not regretted having no warranty.
Current 2023 M3 owner here and luckily no issues yet. You (and previous owner) encountered a lot of issues with that car for sake of not having to do oil changes. Would you do that again? My previous car was a 2016 (mfd summer 2015) Mazda 6 which I bought new and owned 8 years before trading it in for my Model 3. Only issues with the Mazda were loose engine mount (covered under warranty) and a couple recalls. I only hope my M3 fares as well.
In my experience owning and driving an electric car, and more specifically a Tesla, is far more than just not having to change engine oil and other maintenance that goes along with an ICE vehicle. There's a significant quality of life difference that is the better driving experience, convenience of charging at home, safety and a multitude of other factors or nuances of ICE vs EV. There's seemingly infinite debate about that online and there's pros and cons to both options as well as all the in-between hybrid options as well. Good thing we can choose what we want for ourselves right? All that being said I'd 1000% buy our Model S again. The reality is that while it has had a lot of minor repairs, nearly all of them were under warranty which is what warranties are for and some of them I probably would have just tolerated and not done anything about them if I'd had to pay for them. The big question then is how many problems will continue to happen over time and only time will tell that in the long run. There's plenty of people who have shared their experiences online of repair costs of which I'm obviously adding my voice to that conversation and EVs are certainly not maintenance free, but there is minimal maintenance needed. Repairs as a separate category are more than I'd like, but so far they're largely minor and the car has always driven and NOT left us stranded anywhere. We are still driving our S and I'll continue to post annual maintenance videos like this one. Also we just purchased a Model Y in Dec 2023 and I'll post maintenance cost videos of it as well and we'll see in another 8 years how different they are. Hopefully less things break on the Y of course. :)
Cool, thanks for sharing. Have you had it since it was new and if not, how long have you had it? Perhaps all the common repairs were done prior to your ownership?
I'm waiting for version 3 since they'll cover it under warranty even though it was just barely out of warranty having reached 100,000 miles 6 days before the door handle broke. They hadn't agreed to cover it under warranty I would have replaced the gear instead.
Yesterday a Tesla mobile service technician replaced my front passenger door handle. In hindsight watching him do it all it's more involved than I remember from the passenger rear door handle they replaced 2 years ago and I'm glad he did it. From his memory it would have cost $378 to have them do it not under warranty and it might be worth the price to just have them do it...
Hi, thanks for this instructive video ! Here in Europe, the tow hitch is only allowed for a bike support. Is it allowed to tow a trailer in the US with a S model ?
The laws for towing in Utah aren't specific to the make and model of a vehicle. The law outlines general equipment requirements. Any car can have a hitch added to it and as long as it's towing an adequate trailer then it's fine.
I'd definitely suggest getting one still under warranty - many of these older Teslas owners had purchased extended warranty, so find one still with extended warranty. You'll pay more but that warranty is a MUST.
Hi Anthony. Hope you and the family are doing well and continue to enjoy your Tesla road trips. We are back from our trip to Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota where we participated in the Custer Sounds of Silence Tesla Rally. We had a lot of fun and the Tesla behaved very well. Since I last wrote you I had the infotainment upgraded to MCU2, since I plan to keep the car another 5 to 10 years. Now we have LTE and the performance is certainly improved, particularly with map refresh and trip planner. The entertainment is enhanced, and videos can play from Netflix, Hulu and RU-vid. Yes, it was pricey, but happy to have an updated system. We spent 4 days in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park was spectacular. Then 4 more days in Custer, but sadly the weather was foggy and cold. The Black Hills are very interesting and great to drive. Lots of little tunnels and luckily our last day the sun came out and got some great views of Mt. Rushmore. We then visited Deadwood SD, Devils Tower in Wyoming and on the way home managed to visit “Dignity”, the 50’ Indian woman statue. Impressive. After we made it back home, I went to Discount Tire to have my tires checked. All were wearing evenly at 4/32”. They were able to get me some thread credit on the tires (35,600 miles) and took advantage of a Michelin sale ($110 instant credit). So got a new set of the OEM Michelin MXM4 for $1,002, with the DT full replacement warranty and lifetime rotation balancing. I looked at the Pirelli’s but at the end, decided to go with the OEM tires as the car still has 22 months of warranty. Luckily I had started saving $50/month when I bought the car in April 2019 anticipating I would need new tires in 2 years, and it was nice to pay the tires without impacting our fixed retired income. Right before the trip, since I had the car 2 years I decided to replace the air filter, only to discover the air filter cap was missing. I ordered the part from Tesla and when it arrived I mentioned they delivered the car without it and it should have had it and similar to your story, he said let me talk to my manager and later that day hear they would not charge me for the part! I was happy to hear it. Here is a short video of our trip. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9npql0Nl-5Q.html
Thanks for sharing! Our Model S was upgraded to LTE by the prior owner, but there are other benefits we could get from MCU2. I've decided we will likely not upgrade it at this time and we'll just have the updated MCU in our Cybertruck. We also just went on a trip to Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower June 3rd - 7th 2021. I recognized multiple places in your video where we were too such as the Lusk, WY supercharger with the covered wagon and cool tree sculptures. We also went to Sylvan Lake, SD which was really cool. Needles Eye tunnel we explored for a bit as well. I'll of course be making videos for my channel about this trip in the future. I have a significant backlog of trips I still need to edit and I don't know when I'll get to editing this trip yet. Just the week prior to the trip I replaced our tires which the old ones were the Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 tires which got nearly 25,000 miles on them (out of the 50k warranty) so I got some warranty coverage on the next set of tires which are Bridgestone Turanza Quiettrack with 80,000 mile warranty. Due to the warranty of the prior tires we ended up only paying $763.21 for the new tires. Or another way to look at it we ended up paying $474.87 for the DWS06 tires after including the initial rebate when they were purchased plus the warranty rebate at the end of their life. The Quiettrack tires I just put on will for sure not last 80k miles so I'm sure I'll get some warranty rebate on them when they're replaced.
@@ElectricTechAdventures glad to hear you made to Wyoming and South Dakota. For us living in flat Dallas that’s beautiful territory! The MXM4 are rated for 45K miles, so getting $52 credit on each tire was nice. Plus the Michelin sale of $110 off on a set of 4 also helped. I had never paid $1K for tires, but am glad I saved the money. Looking forward to your trip video.
Buying an old Tesla that hasn't had drivetrain and battery changed are in for big surprise. So many have had problems and Elons 300-500.000mile is 100% Elon estimation.
Sure Elon's estimation, as well as real world data from others who have already put that many miles on their vehicles. The only thing that is unknown is how time effects longevity.
@@ElectricTechAdventures I look a 10-20 year old luxury cars and compare them to a Model S. Stuff like control arms will always cause issues on heavy cars. It is mostly on build quality and electronics related issues that I find the Model S to stick out from the crowd. A 2015 Model S is only 8-9 years old. A car is not “old” until it reaches +10years.
@@tafl-9198Fair enough. It's been a great vehicle for us and I have no regrets purchasing it. Just not buying gasoline alone has saved us many thousands of dollars. I'll continue to make my annual update videos in May on maintenance costs. There have been a couple other videos since this one. We're now up to 137k miles on it.
Tyre rotation is a uniquely American habit. It’s an odd one… Everyone else just replaces tyres in pairs, or moves the front to the rear just once when the fronts wear down so all four wear out about the same time. Constantly moving tyres around seems pretty unnecessary.
Thanks for sharing, I didn't know that tire rotations isn't as typical elsewhere. Your second sentence of moving front to rear once the fronts wear down is what a tire rotation is. Typically the fronts to straight back and the back tires go cross to the front. It sounds like perhaps the United States just rotates more frequently. I just checked my service history and of the last two sets of tires (that I had on my vehicle for their entire life) the first set was rotated 3 times before being replaced and the second set was rotated once before being replaced. They all had very even wear which is a combination of the alignment being correct and the tire rotations aid in even wear because even if alignment is correct, there are still difference forces on the tires from front to back. Since my Model S is all wheel drive the tires tend to wear pretty evenly front to back, but the backs do wear slightly faster. Overall I don't see there being any harm in rotating, and from what I have seen it ensures I get maximum life out of the tires. I also like replacing all 4 tires at the same time as it ensures even handling and other benefits.
@@ElectricTechAdventures If you time it well, you should only need to do it once. Or never at all and replace in pairs putting new ones on the back. It’s just wasted effort and money - bit like the other uniquely American habit of changing the oil every other week ;)
@@froggy0162 I've never paid for tire rotations. Tire shops around here do it for free. Even if you haven't purchased the tires from them. Obviously they hope to get future business. Like I said I much prefer to maintain the same tread depth all around. Buying 2 tires at a time twice as often vs 4 at a time provides zero benefit to me.
@@froggy0162 here's a brief note on the internet that agrees with you that rising tires is unnecessary. www.quora.com/Why-do-Americans-pay-to-have-their-tires-rotated-when-most-other-countries-do-not-do-this-at-all
Here's a more in depth article trying to determine whether rotating tires is worth the price. www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/12/tires-q-a-tire-rotation-economics-is-it-just-cost/index.htm
Yes I'm in Utah. I intend to keep my Model S for perhaps the rest of it's life. In the last 3 years that I've owned mine I've seen 2-3 Model S 85D's show up on KSL classifieds that also had rear facing seats. Keep hunting, it's an awesome vehicle to have, especially with grandfathered free supercharging and premium data for life!
125,342 miles on the odometer right now. I'll be doing the 4th year update in May. If you want to see the next video I made after this one look for the one on my channel with 117,000 miles.
Teslas are the safest cars on the road from the crash tests the US government has tested and there are physical emergency door releases on all the doors.
