It seems like most Americans are routinely hounded by annoying, scammy, spam phone calls telling you that you need to buy an extended warranty for your car. (Though, I haven’t been getting those for a while. Thanks, Biden?) I’m not sure why or how those became such common spam calls, but if you are indeed interested in an extended warranty for a Tesla Model 3 or Model Y, news today indicates that you don’t have to bother getting hooked into one of those calls. You can just go straight through Tesla!
A social media influencer who has owned 7 Teslas, Zack @BLKMDL3, noticed on the Tesla app a couple of hours ago that you can now buy a 2-year or 25,000-mile extended warranty for your Model 3 or Model Y. His extended warranty price would be $2,000 whereas mine would be $1,800 apparently because he’s got a Model Y and I’ve got a Model 3. (The cost for a Model S is $3100 and for a Model X it’s $3500.) I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad deal, as I’ve got a bit more time and mileage on my initial Model 3 warranty and haven’t gone shopping for an extended warranty, but I lean toward thinking that this is what I’d get.
An Extended Warranty is now available for Model 3/Y! Available in upgrades section of app and covers for 2 years and 25k miles! pic.twitter.com/e35zl0p14C
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) March 23, 2023
First of all, let’s be frank — it’s easier and feels safer and simpler to go through Tesla for an extended warranty on a Tesla vehicle. I’m not saying that Tesla is perfect either (it’s got some customer service issues to iron out), but I do assume Tesla will do right by its customers and handle an extended warranty agreement well.
One may debate whether it’s worth getting an extended warranty at all. It’s definitely open for discussion. However, with the amount of tech in a Tesla, the fact that it’s still a fairly new company with limited experience manufacturing at a high volume, the fact that it iterates/changes things in its cars quite frequently, and the company’s reputation for having quality/reliability issues pop up that need servicing, it does seem logical to me to get an extended warranty on a Tesla that you’re owning past the original basic warranty — 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first. (Note that there’s also an original warranty on the battery and drive unit that lasts 8 years or 120,000 miles, whichever comes first.)
As noted above, I just checked the Tesla app on my phone and confirmed that I now have an offer to buy an extended warranty. Hmm … maybe I do need to start thinking about it, given that my initial basic warranty expires in a few months.
What exactly is covered? This is how Tesla summarizes it: “Repair or replacement necessary to correct defects in the materials or workmanship of most parts manufactured or supplied by Tesla during the coverage period.” Many more details can be found here. (I’m going to do a little bit of a test/check soon to see if a couple of things would be covered or not. Stay tuned.)
What do you think about this offer? What do you think about Tesla offering an extended warranty in general?
Note that if your Tesla is already out of warranty, this extended warranty option is not available. So, if you may want this, make sure you get it before the original warranty is up.
Additionally, the warranty is not available if you bought your Tesla used.
I have to end with a great question from another Tesla owner. A Todd Gleason asks, is the 2 years of extended warranty calculated in Elon time or normal human time? If it’s the former, does that make it a 10-year extended warranty? One has to wonder.
2 years of Elon time? That's what, an extra 10 years for the rest of us?
— Todd Gleason (@todd_gleason) March 23, 2023
Any other thoughts or comments?
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