Posted on 06/12/2016 10:03:04 AM PDT by BBell
Pete Cordaro was creeping down a dirt road in his 2013 Tesla Model S electric car, on a Sunday outing with his wife to hunt mushrooms in the Pennsylvania woods, when he encountered a pothole and then heard a loud crack.
“The front of the car just dropped,” he said. “The left front wheel just detached from the car.”
When Tesla picked up his car, Mr. Cordaro was at first told he would have to pay for the repairs because they were from normal wear. After pressing his case with a Tesla manager, he was told the company would pay part of the cost — as long as he signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Neither the equipment breakdown nor the confidentiality demand turned out to be an isolated case. And now they have Tesla Motors on the defensive.
After the nation’s top auto safety regulator raised questions about reports of suspension problems with the Model S, Tesla declared in a blog post on Friday that the suspension system had no safety defects. But what set the case apart from other auto safety episodes was the introduction of a nondisclosure agreement into the relationship between car owner and automaker — an unusual practice by an unconventional company whose founder, Elon Musk, has roots in Silicon Valley, not Detroit.
The company acknowledged having had car owners sign such agreements, and said it did so to protect itself from potential lawsuits after performing a repair at a discount or at no charge.
But the practice has raised concerns that it could prevent owners from reporting safety problems to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which called Tesla’s use of such agreements “troublesome,” and told the company not to use terms that dissuade people from reporting safety concerns to the agency.
On Friday, a Tesla spokeswoman
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Will the astronauts or passengers be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement if something goes wrong?
“down a dirt road in his 2013 Tesla Model S”
Dirt road in a Tesla?
Non-Disclosure should be ILLEGAL since there was an OBVIOUS DEFECT and Other Teslas could have the SAME DEFECT!
Non-Disclosure should be ILLEGAL since there was an OBVIOUS DEFECT and Other Teslas could have the SAME DEFECT!
Fine time to leave me loose wheel.
Nope, he knows government constantly hides embarrassing stuff all the time.
What gets me is a non replaceable ball joint, replace the whole control arm at a cost of $3100. Wow!
If you spend your money participating in liberal green trendiness, don’t expect me to feel sorry for you.
On most vehicles, ground clearance is one or two low points, like a front bumper or part of the exhaust system. With a Tesla, the undercarriage is a flat pan that results in it having a very low ‘breakover angle’. Breakover angle is very important off-road.
Teslas are known to be ‘driveway scrapers’, like a lot of low-slung performance cars. They aren’t for normal driving on most of America’s roads, and certainly not off-road.
(Microsoft isn't Silicon Valley, but read their end user license agreement sometime).
American car builders have a plethira of experience and knowledge from building cars for American roads and trails. Whoever thinks they know more than the Collective knowledge of them is a fool. Just as big a fool as Obama is in regards to the USA.
Back in the early 1970s, I had a 1964 Olds Cutlass lose its front wheel and A-arms when its ball joints failed. Cost less than $50 to fix. Things cost a wee bit more now.
i had a ‘93 Lincoln Continental for a few months where EVERYTHING broke...not the ball joint thank god but the air suspension and everything else.
Ford was no help.
ugh
bought a jap Infiniti after that nightmare.
Of course, that's what any normal business would do. If Tesla had done the same there'd be no story here. But telling somebody a busted ball joint on a practically new car is "normal wear" and that the owner's going to have to pay for all or even part of the repair, then requiring a signed NDA, is unbelievable.
Baaaaaad! Lol
Good one!!!
I had a Chrysler Imperial with the air-adjustable suspension. I never knew what the attitude of that car was going to be when I went out in the morning. Usually it was so nose-high if it had been an airplane, it would have stalled and crashed.
A lot of newer cars have non-replaceable upper ball joints...but is doesn’t cost $3k! Holy cow! And I have never seen an upper ball joint come completely apart like that...especially at 73k miles.
I’ve always been suspicious that Tesla, being a ‘tech’ company, would treat long term durability similar to how Microsoft treats software...which isn’t a good thing, if you don’t want to ‘upgrade’ your car every 3-4 years.
That is BS. No nondisclosure agreements for car repairs!
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