Whenever you are about to make a purchase of a car or some sweet ride, you would have definitely put in a fair number of hours to research into its reliability, not to mention the cost of maintenance (cars do break down just in case you were wondering). What then, of the repairs in the event of a fender bender? Well, it seems that Green Car Reports has a less than glowing report of the Tesla Model S, citing that drivers are starting to discover that the list of repair estimates are exorbitant – relatively speaking, of course, where it will cost anywhere from $7,000 to fix “a small dent and scratch” to $45,000 for “minor front-end damage.” All of this because of the aluminum body?
Other than the obvious difficulties that concern working in aluminum, there are also tools and equipment to be taken into consideration, since those would also require a considerable amount of investment in the first place. One shop even went so far as to claim that it spent a whopping $100,000 in order to have it fitted out to Tesla standards. The rivets and bonding agents ain’t cheap either, where it cost $35 for a single rivet, while the bonding agent which Tesla recommends amounts to $100 per tube. Is the Tesla Model S a modern day white elephant? Let the drivers decide.