A Tesla owner says he got a $14,000 repair bill one day after buying a Model Y. A new report suggests it's part of a much bigger problem.
Tim Levin/Insider
- A Tesla owner walked away with a $14,000 repair bill from a day-one issue with his Model Y.
- The Model Y's suspension broke with only 115 miles on the odometer, according to a report.
- Reuters found that Tesla has faced thousands of complaints over suspension and steering issues.
Former Tesla owner Shreyansh Jain was hit with a $14,000 repair bill from an issue he encountered less than 24 hours after taking his brand new Model Y home, according to a recent report.
Jain told Reuters part of his EV's suspension broke when he was driving with his family the day after he'd received delivery of the Model Y. The car had 115 miles on its odometer when the suspension issue caused portions of the vehicle to come in contact with the road and Jain to lose steering capabilities, according to the report.
The Reuters investigation — which cites interviews with over 20 customers and 9 Tesla workers, as well as thousands of internal documents — found that Jain was one of thousands of Tesla owners to face issues with the company's suspension or steering over the past six years. The publication reported that while Tesla has publicly denied some of the issues and allegedly attempted to put the onus on owners, the automaker has been more aware of the issues than it has indicated publicly.
Tesla, which disbanded its press department years ago, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Elon Musk has admitted in the past that the carmaker has faced some quality issues, especially during production ramps.
"When you go faster, you just discover these things," he told auto expert Sandy Munro in 2021. "If we knew them in advance, we'd fix them in advance."
Former Tesla owner Jain told Reuters that his family went from "over the moon" to "absolutely petrified," when the car that they had paid about $55,000 to buy broke down on the road.
Reuters said that after Jain took the vehicle into a Tesla service center, a worker had initially told Jain that they'd found "no evidence of an external damage" and Jain had anticipated the electric-car maker would pay for the car to be fixed. But, Jain told the publication he later learned he was expected to pay the $14,000 repair bill after Tesla sent him a letter indicating the issue was the result of "prior" damage.
The former Tesla owner ended up paying an insurance deductible of about $1,250 and faced a higher insurance premium going forward, according to Reuters. The suspension issue took three months for Tesla to fix and Jain told the publication he resold the vehicle after at a loss of around $10,000.
Reuters' investigation is far from the first peek into issues with quality control at Tesla. For example, earlier this year Tesla was investigated by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over reports of some of Tesla's steering wheels falling off while people were driving.
The carmaker has also faced scrutiny from regulators over concerns related to its Autopilot and beta Full Self-Driving features and recently issued an over-the-air update after the NHTSA said that the company's system for monitoring drivers that used the features was faulty.
Tesla owners have also pointed out quality control issues with the brand over the years — from panel gaps and uneven paint jobs to issues at the company's service centers.
Do you work at Tesla or own an EV? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com