Mike_k

jimdolian

What sort of pre-purchase inspection was done on the 2014 Q5? It sounds like you may have bought someone else's problem. Two Teslas make sense if you don't do any road trips. I've had my 2016 SQ5 for 2.5 years without a single problem other than one very minor recall. Count me as a very happy owner!

uberwgn

Mike, is the Q5 you acquired CPO?

Our 2015 Q5 4 cylinder is at 55K miles. Our experience has been the same as Jim's: no warranty claims, no repairs apart from scheduled maintenance and a set of tires

However, there have been a surprising number of recalls.

canon_mutant

Preowned is always a risk and these Euro cars are NOT cheap to fix. Simple things like a battery change can be expensive and time consuming. But, I sincerely doubt your Teslas will be trouble free and cheap to fix either?? You see more and more leasing of especially the higher dollar cars now, and frankly there are some GREAT deals to be had out there with low mileage lease cars . . . I mean a $110K Jag XKR with 21K on the clock, clean carfax and service histoiry for $35K? Low mile $150K Aston Martin DB9s can be had off of lease for $50-60K? Low mile SL550s $30-40K? List goes on and on. I just always look for a detailed service history and preferably a one owner. If I see for example a 25K mile Jag, 4 years old, that has had 3 owners? This was likely a problem child . . . and in some cases you can see it in the service history. Battery changed 4 times in 4 years?

Redd

There was (is) a recall on Q5s including the 2014 for bad fuel pump *flanges*, not the fuel pump itself. That could easily be confused since the procedure is mainly the same, access the pump and flange under the rear seat, and replace or beef up the existing flange. There have been a number of mainly irksome recalls on the car, nothing on the order of major ignition fires, etc. knock wood.

German cars are known for being high maintenance after 40-50,000 miles. All of them.

But with Tesla you also face some special problems. Do you want to own one, when the company may be out of business next year? And even if you lease one, have you had the pleasure of being told repair parts may take six months to order? Once the warranty is up, in any case, just who or where will you have to go to FIND repair parts? It could make owning a German "repair queen" look like an easier life.(G)

I wish Tesla well, but somehow...they've just never turned a profit, or figured out the basics of an assembly line. Even though that's been done all around the world.

Aside from road trips...Uber keeps sounding better every day.

Mike_k

Mike_k

jimdolian

I have not experienced the shifting problem you describe in my 2016 SQ5, and I drive in the mountains around Lake Tahoe daily. What kind of grade are you referring to when the transmission is hunting between 1st and 2nd? My SQ5 will shift between 7th and 8th at highway speeds on substantial uphill grades. I'd take the car back to the dealer and take one of their mechanics for a test drive.

BTW, where are you getting "free fuel" for your Model S? What is a safe range to use on road trips for planning purposes? How much is the range affected by the load in the vehicle?

Redd

Mike-
I'm glad you can road trip in your Tesla. I've seen maps of the supercharging network, as well as heard gripes about "There were only two chargers and I had to wait an hour for one to open up" and that doesn't seem to be getting solved very quickly. And I'm still waiting for the resolution of the lawsuit Tesla filed against a NYTimes reported several years ago. The reporter detailed a horror tail of running out of range in the cold, being misdirected...having a wonderful (not) time and Tesla said he was lying and libeling them.
As you note, electric cars have thousands less parts to worry about. But there are some carved-in-stone limits as to where chargers can go, who will pay for them, whether companies will convert to shared standards (not yet, no way) and other technical issues. Tesla may be trying to reinvent the production line but AFAIK the only real change since Henry Ford has been mobile modules and JIT inventory controls and Tesla hasn't suggested anything more except it has been damned tricky hand-wiring battery packs because they can't figure out how to mechanize that?
A great concept, I agree. But no one, no where, has been able to really make it happen, profitably and sustainably, yet. Take away two parking spots on a Manhattan street to install shared incompatible charging stations, and you'll see a new version of "Cool Hand Luke" playing out the next night. I have a friend who is considering a much less expensive electric (after 15 years of relatively no trouble with a Japanese econocar) and they're figuring that even with a home charging station, that means they'll need to rent a real car three or four times a year, to make the 400-mile-each-way road trip to visit children and family. And of course, the extra hour going to the rental shop and filling out papers will make each trip that much longer too. It makes 'electric' much less appetizing to them.
But again, nice if it can be made to work on a large scale. I just don't see how, especially in a free [sic] market.

Audi's mechatronic transmissions seem to follow Chrysler's old efforts at that approach. They tried to outperform Delco's Turbohydramatic automatic transmissions and became infamous for computer control problems. Audi's programming seems to have problems with 1-2 shifts under a number of specific situations. Plus of course having the problems of computers. But then again, I'm also told Tesla has had to replace power units (i.e. the motors) multiple times for some owners, and of course there is only one way to get those.

When the Chinese (Gheely? GSA?) bought out Volvo many questions were raised. Like whether they would try to just keep the name and slap it on Chinese autos that were junk at the time. Or, use Volvo (essentially then Ford) technology to improve their own cars. Or keep Volvo intact, which apparently they've done, and grow the brand. Now we hear that next year (perennially) there will be Chinese domestic market products brought into the US...

Going back 50-60 years we had the same questions about riceburners. Toyota and Nissan both got a foothold here by answering the same stopper the same way: "If there is only one dealer within 300 miles, how will I get it serviced?" and their answer was that they would just build it so damned well that it didn't NEED service. Hyundai later came up with a different answer, a ten-year warranty and loaner cars and a larger dealer network, so service was relatively painless. The job can be done. There are many ways to skin a cat. And Elon Musk obviously has some sharp knives.

But you may notice that neither Audi nor Tesla has any car on the 10-15 year old best reliability ratings lists?

Horses for courses. Sometimes, an old ****** Jeep sets a faster course time than a McLaren.

BlackSVT

Maybe I'm all wrong on this, but I thought all North American 2013+ 2.0Ts had the ZF8 speed? i.e. no mechatronics unit. A completely different tranny