Tesla Gives New Car to Owner Who Lost a Steering Wheel Whilst Driving
Imagine being in your week-old Tesla Model Y, enjoying the drive along California’s sunny highways, and then suddenly your steering wheel falls off. That is precisely what happened to one unfortunate and somewhat traumatised owner, and is yet another example of Tesla’s absolutely terrible reputation for shoddy quality control.
According to a report, the local Tesla service centre at first blamed the owner, Prerak Patel, for the terrifying incident that luckily ended without any death or injury. At first, Mr. Patel was charged USD100 to repair the fault but at a later stage and presumably after much negotiation, Tesla agreed to replace the entire vehicle.
I followed @elonmusk because of innovative ideas and became a fan when he offered a mini submarine to rescue Thai boys from cave.#
I request @elonmusk @Tesla investigate this matter and rescue Tesla believers by taking corrective action on basic Safety and QC. pic.twitter.com/I4SB7I9Xtp
— Prerak & Neha Patel (@preneh24) February 5, 2023
Perhaps in a shrewd move to get the replacement, Mr. Patel resorted to Tweeting at Tesla and Twitter owner, Elon Musk, which a number of previously disgruntled Tesla owners have done in the past and which seems to have persuaded the service centre to change their minds on who or what was responsible for the failure.
Mr Patel’s Tweet apparently highlighted the fact the he and his family had lost trust in the vehicle, which is quite understandable, and would prefer a complete refund rather than a fix. Tesla’s response was to offer the family a brand new vehicle as an act of goodwill, even though they claim that they found “no defect, non-conformity or other warrantable condition or any other basis for Tesla’s liability”. Come on, Tesla, the blooming steering wheel fell off on a car barely a week old!
After receiving the offer, Mr. Patel, in a rather cheeky move, put a poll up on Twitter (does that sound familiar?) asking his 191 followers if he should accept the offer. Evidently, they said yes. Trawling around the websphere, it would seem that a lot of Teslas have had this problem and thus I would have liked to reach out to Tesla for comment but they dissolved their PR department back in 2020, so I cannot. Perhaps I should send a Tweet.
