Tesla Model 3 News and Discussion

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123 posts

Master Geek
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#3060352 8-Apr-2023 15:06

Cheers guys,

You gave me peace of mind.

I will ring Tesla on Tuesday before I head up there with my trade in car.

Wonder if they will wear that?

Alternatively,

I may fly up and request a pickup from Mangere.

I am sure Mt Wellington is fairly handy to the Airport.

I can just hear the operator in Stralia

"Your dreaming Mate"

Dingbatt

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#3060996 10-Apr-2023 13:54

We are about to embark on only our second road trip since getting the Model 3 and this one is further from the main highway. I am happy with the charging planning but have been pondering what happens with a flat tire. I have a plug-type puncture repair kit and an inflator but, with the state of NZ roads at the moment, am wondering what to do in the case of an unrepairable puncture. The Tesla owner’s manual says flat tires are covered while under warranty.

The Tesla NZ roadside assistance seems to be a little vague as to where you are covered. It says “tow to a service center (sic) within 50 miles (80 km)”. So will they provide assistance outside 80km of their Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch service centres, just not tow? Or outside that distance are you on your own?

I am pondering upgrading my AA membership to cover long range recovery and a replacement rental car should I be left stranded by the above situation.

Has anyone had to call on Tesla roadside assistance in NZ?

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Technofreak

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#3061004 10-Apr-2023 14:23

I don't own Tesla but had a similar discussion with myself. The car came with an inflator kit and puncture goo.

What about the case where the goo won't work? The only option would be putting it on a low loader and towing it to get the puncture repaired.

There's enough places even on the state highway network where I'd rather not want to have to get help. No cellphone coverage and the time it may take to get towed coupled with finding a suitable place to park/leave the vehicle.

In the end I bought a space saver spare, fortunately there was a space under the floor to carry it. Some owners I know of carry a full size spare in the luggage area when going on long trips. It's not ideal and compromises the space for your luggage.

YMMV but I rather not have to rely on an inflator in many parts of this country.

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jonathan18

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#3061005 10-Apr-2023 14:27

We went through the same debate when we did our long SI trip at Xmas, but in the end didn’t carry anything with us other than a tyre inflator (so only any use if a slow leak!). I had read the same lines from Tesla’s roadside assistance policy so wasn’t willing to rely on them if we’d needed help in the middle of the wops. We looked at upgrading our AA coverage to Plus, but in the end decided the coverage wasn’t fantastic, especially IRT supplying a rental vehicle (eg, max of $150 a day, max of three days), so went with including the rental car option as part of our car insurance.

In the end we didn’t need anything!

Edit: I have a spare wheel (well, two of them) but for us taking that in the boot wasn’t an option - the wheels on the MY are pretty large, and we needed the space for all our crap. I’m pretty sure space savers are available for the MY and M3 but they’re certainly not cheap.

djtOtago

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#3061013 10-Apr-2023 14:59

Also check to see what your insurance company offers. Alot now offer roadside recover or assistance for a small cost.

michaelmurfy

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#3061022 10-Apr-2023 15:39

I've done lots of long trips and I have never been worried about a flat - I can't recall the last time I actually had a flat with my previous cars also.

I did however notice that the Tyre Repair Kit is in-stock so perhaps just grab this and pop it in your boot compartment: https://shop.tesla.com/en_nz/product/tire-repair-kit (I just bought one).

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Technofreak

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#3061076 10-Apr-2023 16:14

michaelmurfy:

I've done lots of long trips and I have never been worried about a flat - I can't recall the last time I actually had a flat with my previous cars also.

I think I've only had two completely flat tyres in well over 700,000 km of motoring that necessitated using a spare tyre. My 20 year old car which has done over 420,000 km still has the original spare which has been used once.

In my new ( well not quite new car now) I had two slow leaks within 10,000. That got me thinking as I do enough driving in areas where a flat tyre that couldn't be rectified with an inflator/repair kit would be much more than just an inconvenience.

Statistically just based on my experience alone the chances of needing a spare was extremely low, for peace of mind I ended up getting one. However I agree for a lot of people an inflator kit is more than adequate.

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johno1234

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#3061315 11-Apr-2023 08:26

Have had a couple of punctures in my SUV over the last 10 years and it doesn't have a spare - just the presumably useless goo kit and inflator. In both cases there was a nail or screw in the tread, and the leak was sufficiently slow that the tyre could be inflated and driven to a tyre repair shop. Punctures in the tread, not the sidewall, can generally be repaired cheaply. Just don't pull the nail out - it is the only think keeping the air in.

Run-flat tyres are so expensive - I wouldn't bother with them.

Obraik

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#3061350 11-Apr-2023 10:41

I know I'm tempting fate now, but so far after 74,000km I haven't had a puncture yet! I did get a bolt in one tyre soon after delivery but the bolt created a good seal and didn't cause a flat so I was able to drive to a tyre place to have it repaired

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Obraik

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#3061351 11-Apr-2023 10:45

In other news, some really nice changes coming with the upcoming 2023.12 update! Finally, phone controls via the scroll wheels will no longer be a premium feature of the Model S & X...and it's possible we might also get controls of the wiper speeds via the scroll wheels like in the S & X! For those that find the text too small, you'll also be able to increase the font size

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richms

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#3061353 11-Apr-2023 10:52

Tyres have come a long way since people were always getting flats. The people I know who have tyre failures are ones that drive on cracked worn out things and its the sidewall that goes when they hit a bump hard. Everything else is slow and can be topped up every few 100km till a replacement or repair can be done. Teslas like all new cars have TPMS on them so you know well before its flat enough to damage it that its losing pressure.

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Dingbatt

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#3061413 11-Apr-2023 12:55

Obraik:

In other news, some really nice changes coming with the upcoming 2023.12 update! Finally, phone controls via the scroll wheels will no longer be a premium feature of the Model S & X...and it's possible we might also get controls of the wiper speeds via the scroll wheels like in the S & X! For those that find the text too small, you'll also be able to increase the font size

I’m liking the look of that update. Hopefully the font size increase includes the speed readout.

The other thing I wish you could use the left scroll wheel for is to adjust the HVAC fan speed. The way I would see it working is to open the HVAC control page using the touchscreen then use the scroll wheel to adjust the speed. It’s all just software after all. The fan speed is the thing I find the most difficult to operate while driving, so I normally resort to voice commands, with about a 70% success rate.

An update on my spare wheel question.

After initially ringing Tesla about purchasing a spare wheel, they said I would need to book a service appointment to purchase a new wheel. The next available appointment was after our upcoming trip, so I asked if one could be purchased “over the counter”. I was directed to the service department, so I drove to the K Road one and enquired face to face. The simple answer was “No, they don’t hold a stock of them and part of arranging a service appointment was so they could get the item in.” I needed to specify whether I wanted TPMS with it as well. The cost without is about $1000.

So back to square one, but what I did find out by talking face to face, was that their breakdown service, including flat tire assistance, is NZ wide, not just within 80km of a service centre. The comment was “it might just take a while for us to get to you”. I believe the 80km is their recovery distance to take the vehicle to their service centre.

In the end I just upped my AA membership to “plus” figuring on the recovery aspect of service if Tesla can’t attend in a reasonable time frame.

5 minutes face to face with a human, sorted things that an hour online hadn’t.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996