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The "Forgotten" Tesla.....

How long should a car company support a car?

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init4fun

init4fun

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Here is a very interesting article on the Tesla "Roadster" , Tesla's first car launched in 2006. From the article, it appears a group of owners feel that Tesla has abandoned the Roadster and those who are still owners thereof. I guess the question becomes, How long should a car company support a "Niche market" car whose parts aren't available easily elsewhere? Is 16 years too little, as the owners in the article state? (Ya gotta watch the accompanying video for the owner's takes on it) I haven't given a lot of thought to this yet so I'm interested in all of your opinions on it. As to ICE cars, I own a couple of old ones, one is 33 years old and one is barely 20, and the dealers aren't exactly supporting them either, although even for the 33 year old car parts are still very plentiful through both the local autoparts stores and online from Rock Auto & such.

So, how long should a car company support a car, ALL opinions welcome :cool:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/27/meet-the-community-keeping-the-tesla-roadster-alive.html?__source=xfinity|headline&par=xfinity
 
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PS, for the sake of the Poll question, the length of time for support talks of supporting an obsolete model, as in, after a car goes out of production how long should the manufacturer support those cars that are still in use?

Also, the above article deals with, of course, the first model Roadster and not the one newest one, as yet released, coming possibly in 2023....
 
My preference is along the lines of what Mercedes does. You can still buy parts from them for cars made in the 50's, but that's unrealistic, especially for low run cars. Try finding parts for an older Lamborghini, once a model goes out of production, they move on and stop making parts for the late model.

Another problem is that because cars are so chock-full of computers, they just aren't going to last all that long. Once they start getting older all that fancy equipment will start to get buggy and fail, which will financially total most of them.

We'll see how things go, but I'm not optimistic about how the automotive industry is going.
 
Boy , 16 years is a long time for a manufacturer to keep parts for a certain car. Still , I would be pissed if the car was rendered completely 0bsolete in that amount of time.
 
I believe the requirement is 10 years. BMW and Mercedes are pretty good about supporting older stuff. I'm more used to the Ford method, which is basically you're SOL if its not just a leftover inventory item or still used on a popular model. They aren't making more. I think I got the last windshield wiper linkage on the planet for my 86 Towncar.
 
I have had certain times in the last 10 years, when looking for parts for my 1994 Mazda Protege, that I have been told "not available" from the local parts store.

In EVERY case- when I checked the dealer- they still had them all. Even stuff like a complete distributor assembly.

Don't know how long this will hold out- but it's been pretty impressive, so far.

Regards,
Gordon.
 
At least 25 years. This will help slow down the new model cycle, which is often pointless, new models do not improve much. Also, after 25 years a car is considered an old-timer and does not require smog check, although for a Tesla this is not important.
 
whoaru99 said:
I looked into that once. What I found said there is no actual 7 year or 10 year or whatever requirement, that it's actually an urban legend so to speak.
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There is a requirement for medical equipment, determined by what the manufacturer states is the life span of said equipment (as required by the FDA). If the life span is 7 years, they are required to supply repair parts for 7 years after the date of the last manufactured *whatever*.

I've worked on 20-25 year old equipment that I could still get parts for. On the other hand, I've also worked on 10-12 year old stuff that parts were NLA.
 
rickb119 said:
There is a requirement for medical equipment, determined by what the manufacturer states is the life span of said equipment (as required by the FDA). If the life span is 7 years, they are required to supply repair parts for 7 years after the date of the last manufactured *whatever*.

I've worked on 20-25 year old equipment that I could still get parts for. On the other hand, I've also worked on 10-12 year old stuff that parts were NLA.
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Ok. I didn't look into medical parts, just auto parts.
 
whoaru99 said:
Ok. I didn't look into medical parts, just auto parts.
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Understood. My point was (which I failed to state :confused:) was that because it's required for some things, perhaps that provided fodder for the urban legend. :dunno:

I actually believed that urban legend myself.
 
10 years is long enough. Especially for something that was a niche market car to begin with. What usually happens at end of support, the manufacture sells off all remaining spares to some aftermarket provider. If there is money to be made the aftermarket will reproduce parts.

Anyone planning to drive one forever should buy one or two parts cars.

FYI - I had a tour of Tesla in April 2007 as they were just starting production of the roadster. The chassis was Lotus based, but widened for Tesla. Interesting place. I haven't owned one, but should have bought some stock!


IMG_2558.JPG IMG_2559.JPG IMG_2560.JPG IMG_2564.JPG
 
If I had a reason to believe that parts would not be available 20 years later- that's a car brand I personally would not buy.

When people accuse Tesla of not being a "real car company", this is the kind of thing they're referring to. Other car manufacturers actually work with the aftermarket, at least somewhat, to facilitate legacy support of older models... many times, suppliers of OEM parts, wind up being able to make aftermarket replacement parts, later on.

Tesla, basically, by being so niche, and being so disconnected from the automotive aftermarket, has left its customers in the lurch, IMHO...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
zebra03 said:
Boy , 16 years is a long time for a manufacturer to keep parts for a certain car. Still , I would be pissed if the car was rendered completely 0bsolete in that amount of time.
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"New" parts for my '92 Accord (mostly) dried up by 2000~2001, but owing to the millions Honda sold b/w circa '90-'96, I was able to tap into a really robust Accord Parts Aftermarket for years, until I "willed" the Accord to one of my (now former) students @ UC Santa Barbara before heading outta Dodge for France.

Weirdly ~ unexpectedly ~ shockingly, I am still able to source "new" parts for the '98 SAAB Viggen, of which only a couple thousand were ever manufactured and, in many instances, the parts for the '98~99 model cannot be found on the post '99 model years.
 
GordonW said:
I have had certain times in the last 10 years, when looking for parts for my 1994 Mazda Protege, that I have been told "not available" from the local parts store.

In EVERY case- when I checked the dealer- they still had them all. Even stuff like a complete distributor assembly.

Don't know how long this will hold out- but it's been pretty impressive, so far.

Regards,
Gordon.
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Thats what is good about Mazda/Ford they can check all dealers stock in the country for one sitting on a shelf somewhere. I got the last OEM ford ignition Module (the one that bolts onto side of distributer) this way. The replacements are absolute garbage and if you take an old one apart and a new one its a joke how inferior the replacements are.
 
Can still get Motorcraft TFI modules, though I don't know if they are quite up to the standards of the originally-installed ones. The aftermarket off-brand ones are highly questionable and the pickups in the distributors are even worse. I've had the same no-name TFI on my Towncar for many years at this point with no fuss, but it replaced one that just quit randomly while I was sitting at a light. For unrelated reasons a police car pulled up behind me and they were kind enough to help me push the car into the gas station across the street and one of the officers let me use his phone. I had run out for lunch and left my phone at home. Got in touch with my stepdad an he brought me a spare distributor I had laying around. Slammed that in and got back home.
 
gadget73 said:
Can still get Motorcraft TFI modules, though I don't know if they are quite up to the standards of the originally-installed ones. The aftermarket off-brand ones are highly questionable and the pickups in the distributors are even worse. I've had the same no-name TFI on my Towncar for many years at this point with no fuss, but it replaced one that just quit randomly while I was sitting at a light. For unrelated reasons a police car pulled up behind me and they were kind enough to help me push the car into the gas station across the street and one of the officers let me use his phone. I had run out for lunch and left my phone at home. Got in touch with my stepdad an he brought me a spare distributor I had laying around. Slammed that in and got back home.
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Yes you can aftermarket, but I got the last one from form Ford for my 90 Garnd Maquis. The one that came on my Billet MSD dist lasted 5 min then I took it apart and it was apparent why. Garbage.
 
I have two original distributors with an OE Ford pickup and module around as a spare. Friend of mine ended up with an entire box of them and gave me one. I've also got the original out of my white Mark VII. Original owner replaced it with a Ford reman not long before I bought it while chasing some gremlin. Didn't fix anything, and since it was working when removed he kept it and I got it with the car. If I were smart I'd chuck one in the trunk of each car that uses them along with the tools to swap it.
 
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