A colleague of mine bought a Model 3, which he has mostly been happy with.
But, since there aren't any dealerships / service points anywhere close, he has to drive 12 hours to the closest one. He got some error, I think it was the tire pressure sensors/tire pressure monitoring system, and had to drive 12 hours, sleep in hotel, and drive 12 hours back, to get that error fixed.
Two days after he comes back home, a new error with the AC pops up. Back on the road.
Local 3rd party techs can't do anything with it anyway. And since it was still under warranty, that's what he had to do. With that said, from what I've heard, they've increased their traveling / touring techs that will visit rural towns.
Hell, even repairing my 14 year old Audi is 50% mechanical work, and 50% knowing how to use the diagnosis / VCDS tool. I'm not even joking when I say that my electrical engineering and programming background has helped me more with fixing my car, than the mechanical skills I picked up in the garage. ¨
With very modern cars, there's just little one can do.
> . I'm not even joking when I say that my electrical engineering and programming background has helped me more with fixing my car, than the mechanical skills I picked up in the garage. ¨
Exactly the same reason my dad did a total change in his profession (20 years as a car mechanic). He was fed up with all the electronics making his life as a mechanic more difficult then it needed to be, and that was like 20 years ago. He had those think diagram books and needed to constantly dig into them to figure out what sensor was on what for the onboard computer and other issues. What was a easy fix job, became a nightmary because the sensors / computer kept triggering when issues got fixed (or where never the actual issue but faulty sensors that randomly triggered).
Maybe today things are easier with VCDS tools, but in his days, it was manual work.
He became a IT helpdesk operator after reschooling. hahaha...
I had one of those cars, great car (toyota) but there was a sensor that just at random loved to trigger on exhaust mixture, and then power throttle the car. Even had a tool with me in the car, to reset it with my smartphone, whenever it trigger. It was not a sensor issue but too tight tolerances set from factory. It was cheaper to just reset it myself, then risk getting updated software to fix it (and potentially create new issues as i read some horror stories of people getting software updates for that issue).
I am still driving a 15 year old Opel, that has barely any electronics (compared to "modern" cars). I really do not see the benefits of newer cars. It drives me from A to B, with all the basic conforts, so why change?
But, since there aren't any dealerships / service points anywhere close, he has to drive 12 hours to the closest one. He got some error, I think it was the tire pressure sensors/tire pressure monitoring system, and had to drive 12 hours, sleep in hotel, and drive 12 hours back, to get that error fixed.
Two days after he comes back home, a new error with the AC pops up. Back on the road.
Local 3rd party techs can't do anything with it anyway. And since it was still under warranty, that's what he had to do. With that said, from what I've heard, they've increased their traveling / touring techs that will visit rural towns.
Hell, even repairing my 14 year old Audi is 50% mechanical work, and 50% knowing how to use the diagnosis / VCDS tool. I'm not even joking when I say that my electrical engineering and programming background has helped me more with fixing my car, than the mechanical skills I picked up in the garage. ¨
With very modern cars, there's just little one can do.