I hear a lot about the various EVs on the market and their drivetrain/software/ride quality but I rarely hear about the quality of service that comes post-purchase. Perhaps because it’s not an exciting topic.
Which brand would y’all say has the best or worst reputation in the regard? How would you say Chevy compares to Tesla or Hyundai?
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NIO
Tesla has been the best for me.
Service is hit or miss, not particularly brand specific. In our Subie days we had a dream dealer with very good deals, fair shop rates and extremely good service. Unfortunately he retired and the new owner was the COMPLETE OPPOSITE. So far so good with our Hyundai dealer and the Ioniq 6.
I have had three brands of EVs: Chevy, BMW, and now Tesla.
The Chevy never required service. We barely drove it (it was my wife’s car and she didnt drive much) so it never hit any of the service milestones before we sold it. So sorry, no help there.
The BMW had several problems and spent a lot of time in the shop. Ultimately a mistake by the shop led to it catching on fire (not the battery or EV components). The BMW experience sucked ass with both of the dealerships I interacted with. I previously had multiple Infiniti vehicles and they were SO MUCH BETTER but had no EVs. 0/10, would not recommend, will never buy another BMW again.
Tesla’s customer service is supposedly terrible. I havent had to interact with it. I have had a couple of minor service issues and was able to book a mobile tech in the app. I was happy with all of the communication I had with them and having a tech come out to look at it. The experience for me there was great! Ive heard similar things from other owners about the mobile techs. Most of the complaints from from the actual service stations where they take care of the big issues. Unfortunately, I cant recommend Tesla for multiple reasons, the most practical being that I have driven their new vehicles without ultra sonic sensors and they are terrible. Im due for a new car in about a year, and it probably wont be a Tesla.
Ultimately, the legacy manufacturers already have reputations. Go based on that. Do you have a brand you like? Their EVs are probably fine, just find a dealership that has some experience with it (and make sure their EVs have good reviews, so probably not Toyota).
Rivian has been great for us, but you’ll hear complaints for any brand.
The best service is when you don’t need to go in for service :D
I’ve owned VW, Audi, and Tesla and have never had a bad service experience, but of them the Audi dealer was the most relaxing as they provided nice loaners for a day or two. I have not gone in for any major Tesla service in 50k miles (just tire rotation), so that may not be a full picture.
I have a Volvo XC40 Recharge. I have a dealership in the town where I work and I never have any issues dropping it off if it needs a software update or anything else. Knock on wood, the only thing I have paid for is an alignment after almost 2 years of service and 20k miles. They typically give me a loaner and have offered to pick it up from my workplace for my convenience. Very happy overall.
Team BMW for 4 years. Depending on the dealership, the service is stellar. I have an i4 now. So far, so good.
My iX has been at a dealership since Sept 27th. The dealership doesn’t answer emails or phone calls – my service guy is always “with another customer”. BMW itself hasn’t responded to inquiries. Now I have to take time out of my day to drive there to figure out if I can lemon this car.
Sorry to hear that. What country are you in? Sounds like that dealership is trash.
Sounds like a lemon to me. In my state, it’s 30 business days at the dealer
All the responses you’re going to get are anecdotal. You can only get a good idea by reading reviews of local dealers and checking them out yourself when you do test drives. I’ve had amazing luck with a specific dealer but it’s moot if you never go to that particular one.
I bought a Toyota Prius – new in 2004. Only had it serviced once at the dealership for a water pump at 100k miles. Absolutely no problem with the hybrid system.
Bought a used 2014 Chevy Volt in 2015. It needed dealer service for EV system 4 times over 130,000 miles. First was the EVSE port (water intrusion), replaced under warranty. They also gave me a new EVSE at the same time for free. The next two service visits were for battery coolant level messages. I believe they just topped the system and reset the codes. In and out in a couple days. Last visit was because of an accident when I hit some trash that flew out of a passing pickup and damaged all (3) radiators and the ac condenser. It spent nearly a month at the dealership waiting on parts but the service itself was quick, the service department kept me updated regularly and worked with insurance to get it repaired completely.
I said all that to say, my opinion of dealer service for Toyota is I don’t really have one because the car was just so reliable that I never really had to go. And Chevy has been excellent when I did need to go there.
My service from the local Nissan dealership for my EV has been fine, but that’s caveated. They only have one EV tech at that dealership. He appears to know his stuff, but with there only being one you’re at the mercy of that person being available.
For non-EV service, I’ve not had bad service from any of the local dealerships - GM, Ford, Toyota, and Honda. I’d say I’ve been happiest with GM just due to timeliness and ease of the interactions.
Service in general is highly specific to one’s local dealerships and techs.
My Tesla service has been great for the 2 things I needed: cabin filter replacement and a side view mirror replacement.
For some reason the cabin filter replacement required me to drive there. Maybe their mobile service team was swamped, idk. It was only 15 minutes from my house so nbd. I dropped it off and they replaced it. The invoice was sent to my app and I have the receipts there.
For the side view mirror replacement, a tech came to my apartment and fixed it. I think it was a week or so that I had to wait.
Tesla is great because scheduling is in the app, payment is through the app, and all your history is saved in the app. Recently they added the ability for you to see the service status in the app and when it’s done you can find your car in the lot and drive off with it without talking to anybody, unless you want to of course.
Since buying the Ioniq 5 in Feb 2022, I’ve had an amazing service experience at my Hyundai store in Colorado thus far.
Perhaps a different league, but when I had my Mercedes, the service was wonderful.
I had a string of bad luck with nails in my tires, and each time I called roadside, they were there within a half hour (and only due to traffic).
Annual oil changes, they’d come to me, drop off a loaner, and then swap back and end off day. I had a small intermittent and hard to reproduce issue, and they fixed it without issue. All communication was done via text, and was very responsive if I had questions (with a phone call being an option should I choose)
My current Tesla, the only issue I’ve had was a dead 12v battery. Tesla roadside was a pain to deal with. Had to do it via text, and had to wait nearly two hours just for them to acknowledge me. I like that Tesla has mobile service, but roadside couldn’t dispatch them. So had to be jumped and towed.
Service center communication was mostly radio silence for two days. They did give me Uber credits, which was nice. But since Uber doesn’t really service my area, it took an hour just to find someone to pick me up.
When I picked up my car, it was handled under warranty (which was surprising because the 12v is a wear and tear item, and no one else covers them). Overall, not a bad experience, but could be improved with better communication.
They’re building two new service centers near me, so hopefully that will help with Tesla’s backlog.
Ever had a Mercedes EV? Because I’ve heard the service experience with those is somewhat awful.
Parts are 6+ months in some cases and techs are unhelpful, etc.
Stuff like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/mercedes_benz/comments/10k8g9w/broken_eqs580_and_unbelievably_bad_service/
I’ve certainly heard of the issues. My guess is that it’s a new technology, so it will take time for people to be as fully trained and for parts warehouses to stock up.
My hope is that they will work things out soon.
Can confirm. One of my family members has an EQS and every time it goes to the dealer, it’s there for, at least, a month
it does seem like they prioritize Model S/X owners.
They absolutely do. I think it’s quiet, but BMW or Mercedes does exactly the same thing.
They’ll give a driver of a M760 a loaner and offer to phone a taxy for the beat up old X1 that’s in for the same service. Comparing the $170k car to the $28k car.
Tesla has a similar (well not as dramatic) spread in car prices.
I have an EQS580 and took it in for a repair/parts replacement (the part that broke was my fault, whoops), and I had it back the same day when they told me to expect 3 days and they gave me a loaner anyways. Even with my previous, non- S class MB I have always received first-class, near-instant service. I’ve had cars from many of the luxury brands and MB has by far provided the best service. Just my experience.
Someone I used to work with had a Lexus and it sounded pretty similar to what you described for Mercedes. First time she called to schedule annual maintenance they offered her a spot on a day she couldn’t take off of work and they were like “that’s fine, we’ll pick it up the night before and drop off a loaner - call us when you’re home from work and we’ll come switch them back”
Although I guess that kind of support is less relevant with an EV because there’s much less scheduled maintenance so you only really need to go back if something legit breaks.
The only issue I’ve had with my Tesla is a dead 12V battery.
One day, the driver’s side of the car wasn’t working (doors wouldn’t unlock, frunk and charge port wouldn’t open, screen wouldn’t turn on, etc.). However, the passenger side and trunk still worked. Mobile service said it would need to be towed for diagnosis. Roadside said it would be $500 to tow to the nearest service station (about an hour away) because we weren’t under warranty anymore.
After some googling, I figured out that it was probably the 12V battery. We used a 9V battery on the wires behind the tow hook cover to open the frunk, thus proving that the 12V was dead. That was enough evidence to convince mobile service to come replace it. Everything was quick, convenient and reasonably priced from there on out.
Still, we were spooked by that $500 tow estimate and signed up for AAA so that the tow will be free if we ever need it.
My experience with Tesla service was that it was good as long as you weren’t in a hurry. It took a long time (over a month usually) to get an appointment, but they didn’t BS like other brands once you were there and they already had a
Chevy was terrible with my Volt, but that was 10 years ago now so they may be better. Basically I had to go 90 minutes away for a dealership that was authorized to work on it.