A lot of early adopters were probably worried that Tesla would go out of business and they wouldn't be able to get parts. Tesla is still in business and there still aren't parts.<p>Hopefully enough of the current Tesla models will end up on the road to make it profitable for aftermarket suppliers to make some parts. So far it doesn't seem like that is happening at very much scale.
This is becoming more and more of a problem as everything becomes more complex. I remember when I was a child my dad repaired the power switch on the vacume cleaner by going to the local electrical store and buying the exact same switch. Now every single device has its own custom part and the switch isn't just connecting 2 wires, it's contacting a main board telling it the button has been pressed triggering the power toggle code which will probably perform a bunch of checks and processes before powering on. If anything goes wrong you either have to replace half of the device if you can or just bin it because it would take you a lifetime to work out everything that happens when you press the power button.
My wife has a 2020 Toyota Corolla. Less than 3 months old and it’s got a bad crack in the windshield.<p>Toyota says a replacement is 6 months out and there are 800 on backorder in North America right now.<p>So, it’s not just Tesla. Can happen to any manufacturer.
This guy is great, he found a niche full of customers and became the expert. I wish more startups would do this.<p>With regards to Tesla, it is always interesting to me to see how as companies grow, they become more political, less effective and generally suck more. All the good people, like this guy, get pushed out or leave on their own.<p>Makes me generally not want to build or work for a large company ever again.
I love listening to this. It's all the beauties of a great business. There's a problem, a loyal group and someone willing to solve and love the problem at the same time.<p>It's sad to see that the Roadster community was left behind so quickly. For better or for worse, Tesla plays cars like the startup game. Pivot, deploy, traction?, repeat. As terrible as that sounds, I do hope Tesla is here to stay. Even in its current form, the world is better with Tesla than without.
A small run exotic car won't be as easy and cheap to service as a mass market car. But 2500 isn't 25. Lots of manufacturers of exotic cars in a LOT smaller runs than 2500. And they make sure to procduce the parts required to service the cars for a very long time if they want to look like a serious car manufacturer.
My wife damaged the skirt at the bottom of the car, driving over a bump. It dented the skirt pretty badly, so we got it replaced.<p>$10,000 and 4 weeks labor (but waited months to get it fixed), because they had to disassemble the whole damn car. I was livid at what should have been maybe a $200 part required practically the entire car to be disassembled. One front seat and the back seats were both removed as were the entire side panel of the car.<p>Until Tesla solves the maintenance and replaceability of parts, I'm never getting another Tesla again. It's simply bad design. It's like an iPhone where you can't just replace the battery, you need to disassemble the entire thing just to get to the battery.<p>With no commitment to their Roadster customers, it makes me wonder how long they will be committed to their Model 3 customers in providing parts? Already the parts market takes months to get parts, how will it be 6 years from now?
Basically the Apple philosophy.<p>On the plus side, it really drives up re-sale values and part-out values when you don't have the manufacturer undercutting you.<p>Source: I parted out my old Macbook and ended up with a pretty good downpayment on my next done. Got new mid-2015 Macbook Air new by parting my mid-2011 and ~CAD$300 by selling the promo "free" Beats headphones.
the Roadster is a Lotus Elise with an EV drivetrain installed by Tesla, there is good parts supply for the original Elise.
<a href="https://www.elise-shop.com/original-lotus-parts-c-17.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.elise-shop.com/original-lotus-parts-c-17.html</a><p>The EV conversion made the car a lot heavier and was a pretty complex conversion
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/09/18/elon-musk-converting-lotus-elise-to-build-the-tesla-roadster-was-a-super-dumb-strategy/#62b5c24b540f" rel="nofollow">https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/09/18/elon-mu...</a>
"There are unique challenges that come with working on these cars. You might have to rebuild a circuit board one day, and fabricate a new hood the next day. Actually, if any body parts are damaged, you'll have to fabricate them. Tesla doesn't sell parts to anyone, so Medlock has taken to fashioning new panels out of carbon fiber himself. "<p>Didn't expect to see circuit board rebuilding until ~2023 (15y is my recollection for MTBF curves starting to climb).
Wow.<p>I had a '91 Saturn sedan until 2015. Despite my model being out of production for decades, and Saturn having closed up shop for years, I could still find aftermarket auto parts.<p>How common of a problem is this?<p>Any other manufactures/models notorious for poor part availability?
I find it crazy when any company doesn't fully adopt the hackers and aftermarket people. Like the guy said they need to have a certification process and official pipelines to support 3rd party vendors.<p>This would significantly increase the UX of owning the car which would offset any risks of backlash from bad work. A car waiting 1.5yrs for a small component is a way worse outcome IMO.
"<i>Actually, if any body parts are damaged, you'll have to fabricate them.</i>"<p>I thought car markers provided parts for, like, 30 years.
Wonder if these are good collectible-candidates? Though I guess maintaining the battery for 25 years would be an absolute nightmare. Do these things, used, trade at a premium or discount to their original price?
That they won't service them or supply parts shows the future for all Tesla owners.<p>We need legislative reform that requires any companies selling products in US jurisdiction put enough parts and cash in escrow to guarantee for a reasonable time period the ability to service anything that costs more than $500.