BERLIN, GERMANY - JUNE 14: The exterior of a Tesla store photographed on June 14, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images)
Imagine buying a car and being hit with a $14,000 repair fee just 24 hours after the purchase. That’s exactly what happened to former Tesla owner Shreyansh Jain, who crashed the Model Y vehicle while taking his family for a ride.
In an interview with Reuters, the British engineer recounted his experience. He had only driven 115 miles when he suddenly lost control of the steering wheel. Jain’s “petrified” wife and three-year-old daughter were in the car when the accident occurred as he was turning into a neighborhood.
The damage to the Tesla was noticeable. The accident left the vehicle with a damaged front suspension, and parts scraped the road as the car stopped.
Jain claimed that when he contacted Tesla about it, they initially told him they would repair the vehicle at no additional charge, per Business Insider. The company told him there had been “no evidence of an external damage,” meaning the car maker would foot the costs.
However, a $14,000 bill from Tesla shortly after their response left Jain stunned. The firm concluded that some sort of “prior” damage to the car, which they believed caused Jain to lose control of the wheel, implied that Jain was at fault for the crash.
To make matters worse, repairs left Jain without a car for three months. He made the decision to sell the fixed Tesla, even though it caused him another loss of $10,000. To add, Jain isn’t the only Tesla owner who has recently experienced issues with their vehicle.
Reports claim that the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating numerous cases of Teslas crashing through no fault of the driver but of the car’s software malfunctions.
Their high-tech systems and reliance on software mean that even minor issues can result in substantial bills if things go wrong. In December alone, the Elon Musk-founded company recalled a whopping 120,000 vehicles over its malfunctioning doors on the Model S and Y line, per Forbes.
In a letter posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website, Tesla took full accountability, stating that the affected cars could cause doors to unlock during a collision. The driver — and any of their passengers — could be at a greater risk of injury if the door was to latch open.
Tesla has been proactive in addressing these issues. However, we should note that the company recalled over 350,000 vehicles in February due to problems with its “full self-driving” software.
