Whilst the Tesla warranty covers you for 4 years or 50,000 miles once that comes near to ending it’s worth doing a once over the car to potentially save yourself some money in the future. Equally, it’s worth ensuring you’re doing some of the basic maintenance Tesla recommends and these Essential Maintenance checks as well.
Checks you can do yourself:
Obviously, take photos of them all and report these within your Tesla app before the warranty expires. This list isn’t exhaustive use your own common sense, check:
- The whole car by simply walking around it opening all of the doors/compartments etc and looking for faults/issues/rust on all parts of the car (it’s best to do this when the car is fully cleaned, Guide)
- All the lights to ensure they’re clear of any defects (e.g. water ingress/failed LEDs etc) Guide
- All door handles are working as expected (primarily with Model S) Guide
- Rust/Bubbling under the paint around the frunk latch
- Rubber around all the doors/frunk etc
- Rust on the boot struts and the bolts
- Chrome alignment
- Charge port – Make sure the interior part of it is secure and not loose (before this happens)
- Any shudder / odd noises whilst accelerating or at low speeds (make sure you remove EVERYTHING from the car before doing this, otherwise Tesla will charge you for wasting their time if they find a pen rattling in the boot etc).
- If you have the knowledge, confidence and equipment consider jacking the car up to take a better look (with a camera and not your head) around the suspension/wheels/battery etc (follow this guide)
- Go through the list of common/known issues with your car and check for them on yours
- Do these essential maintenance checks as well, you may find something.
3rd party checks
- Companies such as Cleevely Motors (other companies are available or via HEVRA) can do an ‘end of warranty check’ for £60+VAT at their HQ (slightly more for home visits, price correct as of June 2021, remember we have a list of discounts here for paid supporters including for Cleevely Service+MOT) but other garages should be able to do similar. These checks normally comprise of lifting the vehicle up and ensuring things like the suspension/brakes/wheels etc are all working as they should be, which isn’t something most owners are able/confident in doing.
- Consider the old service schedule points and having Tesla or a 3rd party do them
Tesla checks
- Tesla does offer various checks (e.g. winter and summer checks) give you local centre a call to find out what’s available or simply book on your app.
- Recall list (these would be repaired FOC even out of warranty but worth getting sorted regardless)
Extend the warranty / buy more warranty / save for future repairs
- https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/support/extended-warranty (click here to get a quote) but ensure you know about what’s excluded
- Other companies provide 3rd party warranty cover but ensure you know about what’s excluded
- Alternatively, some Tesla owners ‘self insure’ themselves by putting the money they would pay for an extended warranty into a savings account, if the car has a problem dip into this but if the car is fine then you keep all the money.
- Consider increasing your RAC/AA/Greenflag cover to allow you to ship your car to any UK nominated address
Is it really worth it?
Don’t just take our advice:
How do I check my warranty expiry date?
Check your motor vehicle purchase agreement / final invoice within your MyTesla account it should give the dates but further confirmation of the periods can be found here. We also store a selection of previous warranty documents here.
The final option, buy another Tesla…
Photos courtesy of Ecofix & Cleevely Motors
