Repair Estimates For Tesla Model S Higher At Certified Shops

"scratches, dings, dents & accidents" just mean your truck is well broken in; like your boots. Concepts I'm quite sure are alien to you.

@el scotto I don't wear boots or a cowboy hat. And I hate "country music." You "got me" there. Most new pickup truck drivers I see are as worried about scratches & dents as Stingray owners are, and they accessorize their trucks with the most ornate decor imaginable. Wait until they get the insurance rate premium increase on top of their already high insurance premium after their 1st fender bender in the parking lot of Five Guys.

Most of that will be a non-issue once more cars use aluminum. I'm sure the first aircraft made of aluminum caused the same concerns. Today I don't think airlines want to go back to wood and cloth for airplanes because there are more skilled wood workers. In addition I think most body damage is due to corrosion, not accidents. 100% of 12 year old cars in the rustbelt have corrosion (make that 5 years for Mazdas). I don't think 100% of them have been in an accident. So the non-corrosion far outweighs accident repair difficulty. nowadays when you are in an accident you also have to install new airbags etc., but I don't want to go back to the old simple days without airbag because without i didn't need to worry about repair being dead. Cars also crumble more to protect passengers, so they are more likely to be total damage anyway as they sacrifice themselves for the passengers.

@HerrKaLeun No matter how much some people claim "economies of scale," the simple fact is that aluminum body panels are dramatically more difficult to repair/work on versus steel ones. It's one thing to have aluminum or mainly aluminum (alloy) hoods on vehicles; vertical surface body panels fabricated of aluminum are going to easily cost 2x as much to repair compared to steel ones.

@DeadWeight But, you have to weigh that against the vastly superior corrosion resistance of aluminum, no? You don't seem to be doing that.

@DeadWeight Did Cadillac announce to use Aluminum panels, or what is your agenda? Back before cars were galvanized they were cheaper to repair because the body shop didn't need to worry about maintaining rust-proofing and the non-galvanized spare parts likely were cheaper. On the other hand they corroded away before 5 years old. Are you also arguing you want to go back to pre-galvanized? Same with today's high tension steel that likeley cost more than the old stuff. So what is your point? and do you have hard data on insurance cost, or are you just making this up?

For will sell millions of F series trucks: even if only a small percentage need body repairs the resulting demand will create a huge supply of aftermarket parts and body shops to work on them. This will in turn help keep Ford dealers somewhat honest. Tesla will sell, at best, thousands of cars and only a small percentage will need body work. The low demand for body parts and service will keep prices in the stratosphere.

@HerrKaLeun Aww man! DW went 3 or more posts without bringing up Cadillac, and you do it for him? WHY?

@DeadWeight Cars have been made with aluminum for years. The biggest issue is that aluminum doesn't panel beat well and what used to be a quick repair may involve more parts replacement. ALuminum also requires different welding equipment and techniques. The labor cost will be similar. The increase doesn't have to be impactful to insurance. I very much doubt Ford entered into this totally blind and stupid regarding repair costs. A good side effect of the Ford dealers having to spend money and get trained to work on Aluminum cars is now they can bid to repair Audi, Mercedes and BMW cars as well. ANd Tesla's too if they ever relax their grip on parts.

@HerrKaLeun DW's on the wagon.

@DeadWeight The answer to the higher repair costs of aluminum panels is simple enough. Don't repair them. Replace them. The painters will enjoy painting a brand new surface rather than a bondo special. The drivers door had to be replaced on my LEAF due to the difficulty of repairing it. The door shell was $640, the hood $320. Hardly a huge cost issue when both the cost of the hood and door shell added together was the same as the headlight. I remember repairing starter motors when it was cost effective to do so, now its cheaper and easier to replace.

@JPWhite The answer isn't so easy. Replacing structural panels like quarter panels requires special bonding techniques in many cases (adhesives, rivets etc.). Prepping aluminum panels also requires additional care to avoid iron contamination that will cause adhesion and corrosion issues.

@HerrKaLeun And that's the tip of the iceberg. For those not initiated in the complexity of working, cutting, welding, bending, forming, painting, etc.,aluminum versus galvanized steel (I'm no expert, but know enough to see that Ford's PR machine is doing a masterful job at tamping down what is legitimate concern over F Series future repair costs), just merely google "aluminum dust."

@el scotto Plus boomers will love dented aluminum panels; they can pretend they're this: http://tinyurl.com/nkrbx9c

@Deadwieght Odd, my aluminum bodied Range Rover costs exactly the same to insure as the steel bodied Jeep it replaced.

Even if it costs a million dollars to set up a franchise tire store, you can't try to recoup that on the 1st 5 customers. $100,000 has to hurt, especially if most of it is a franchise buy-in fee. But that shouldn't be my problem as a car owner. That cost should be spread out over 20 years or more.

This isn't different for hybrids and their high-voltage batteries. not an issue as emergency responders are trained to handle it. AFAIK they shut off the battery reliably, no known issues. Not dangerous compared to riding on 10 gallons of gasoline...

There needs to be standardization with regard to disconnects. If the EV Manufacturers don't come together on this, then it will take just one bad accident that kills an emergency worker that will result in the OEM's having to comply with a regulation, which will no doubt differ from country to country. The LEAF has a high voltage disconnect. If you know where it is *and* have the right type/size screwdriver handy to remove four bolts that secure the access panel. The access panel isn't labelled or color coded. How dumb is that? I replaced the bolts with Allen head bolts and taped the right sized Allen wrench to the access panel. I try at least to give the emergency workers a chance of making my car safe in an accident scenario.

@HerrKaLeun It is different, because the Teslas don't have a manual disconnect. The 10 gallons of gasoline can't transmit a serious shock to anyone touching metal body panels. We are not talking about first responders, but technicians that need to put the car back together. A firefighter will just take a big pair of insulated bolt cutters, and cut through the cables.

@MBella To get an electric shock, you need to complete an electric circuit with your body. The battery in a Tesla isn't referenced to ground, but between its plus and minus terminals. So how are you planning on shocking yourself by touching either terminal, even if one bare wire is touching the aluminum body? There's an answer to this - how many birds electrocute themselves sitting on a wire at 15,000 volts? None. They're not connecting themselves between two points of different electric potential on the same circuit. I have seen a seagull disappear in a puff of smoke and feathers, alighting on a recloser, where terminals are only a foot apart. And you can't train them. The worry with the battery pack on a damaged EV is the possibility of shorting the plus to minus, at which the battery will immediately overheat and likely blow up. But you can worry about just touching the Tesla's body if you want to.

@wmba Electrocution is not the concern, it is arcing. Google arcflash videos and you see that 600 V DC can work like a grenade. Hope you are not serious claiming cutting the DC wire is a good idea.

@wmba Good idea or bad idea, it's what most first responders will do. Go through a junkyard that has many hybrids, and you will see most cables cut through near where the battery was. As for the risk of electric shock, we are talking about servicing a car where a crash has caused damage to the cars electrical system. In the Tesla system it's diagnostic system can get confused and leave the battery connected even though it should disconnect. There is no manual disconnect like there is on most other electric cars and hybrids with high voltage systems. This is information is from Tesla's service engineering. Apparently it has happened many times, and is the reason a Tesla specialist has to come out in a linesman's suit to manfully disconnect the power cables. Also, since the cables run next to each other, what do you think the likely hood is of only one being breached in the a crash and not the other?

@wmba New is scary, so new is bad.

@wmba Why is everyone missing my point of no manual disconnect? It has nothing to do with the new technology. If the Volt was missing this, everyone would be freaking out saying how could it not have such a critical safety feature.