how much maintenance does a honda ice car really require? Most of them run flawlessly for years and years, almost without opening the hood at all.
I wonder how the numbers break down?
I once helped someone with a flat tire in a Model S who had zip ties dangling from every door handle. The "present mechanism" had failed in every door, look it up, it's a known problem of wire fatigue caused by the present mechanism's repetitive movement breaking the door handle.
Imagine owning a Model X at 150,000 miles. I watched kids have to crawl under the rear "gullwing" door of a fresh one last month. It refused to open beyond a small gap, despite there being no obstructions. Impatient parent in the driver's seat just shouted in frustration for them to crawl in after throwing his hands up at the steering wheel.
Trash needs lots of maintenance to keep on the road... those things are like Homer Simpson mobiles.
- 2 door handles broken.
- the door panels have been opened so many times, now they are perpetually loose and the door closes with a weird sound.
- driver floor mats came loose multiple times.
- one rear drive motor failure. (note that apart from tesla claims, two drive motors does NOT mean you can continue the trip on the remaining one)
- 4 flat tires - no spare, so each one ended up requiring a flatbed. Tesla's roadside assistance is rarely timely. Actually any roadside assitance. (I'm ordering a cheater spare)
- rear defrost wires most don't heat.
- touchscreen developed bubbles
- front spoiler broke
- rear ultrasonic sensor fell inside bumper
now the warranty expired, and of course a third door handle broke.
Also, be careful of what you wish for. they seem to minimize "unnecessary complex gimmicks" by removing controls. That means everything goes on the touchscreen and you become a terrible driver because you cannot control your car easily.
Really, tesla needs decent dedicated controls with honda attention to detail and reliability.
This is a powerful statement, I really hope it becomes true. I want the car but not the liabilities and downtime.
People hear act like Tesla are full of gimmicks and the cars it competes with are cars from the 1970s.
But also you are just mostly wrong, actual data simply says something different. I don't have the links, but there have been studies on the this and Tesla comes out looking pretty good.
Two decades ago I had a 2004 subaru that needed nothing first years.
Then We got a 2015 Toyota rav 4 and every maintenance there was some up sell. Change a filter check the brakes resurface rotors change the atf or differential oil etc. We actually got into a dispute with dealer after third consecutive $300brakes maintenance.
Thought maybe that was lemon car or bad dealer but now we have a honda odyssey and same thing. My bill last week was $900 for a car that nothing was wrong with, just "regular maintenance".
Due to our schedules my wife usually takes the car in ; I can see the bill is inflated in terms of labour and parts but I already know they'll tell me that's the book value.
So for today's ice cars, they do get a lot of revenue from regular maintenance and may even be more profitable for them than actual fixes.
I wonder about Ev - do they not have brakes, Cv joints, bearings, differentials (I know there's no transmission), et cetera?
Your rotors should never need resurfacing unless you're doing a lot of HARD braking. Stop-and-go traffic doesn't count, here. We're talking something that causes your brakes to frequently get hot and begin warping. If your braking feels fine, there's no reason to get them resurfaced.
Check your manual for fluid change intervals. Don't let the dealer convince you to replace any of the fluids that aren't part of the schedule.
> I wonder about Ev - do they not have brakes, Cv joints, bearings, differentials (I know there's no transmission), et cetera?
Brakes will last the life of the car since regen braking means the pads/rotors are never used at more than 10 mph except in an emergency.
As for the others...yeah, they don't require nearly as much maintenance as your dealer is telling you. The 2003 Suzuki Esteem I owned in the past did 150,000 miles and I never did any maintenance on the differential, CV joints, or bearings.
They have all those, but at least for brakes, they last much longer due to regen braking.
If you live in a place where they salt the roads in the winter, you need to clean and lube your breaks once a year.
I have no idea what it means to "lube" brakes, I guess you mean where the calipers mount? I have never heard of that being a maintenance item. But please do not apply any lubricant to your braking system unless you know exactly what you are doing and why.
I am speaking about water vapor getting inside the braking system, which is unavoidable. Eventually moisture will get in there and it will settle at the bottom of the system where it will begin to rust components from the inside.
Bulbs, tires, alignment, washer fluid, cabin filters, and brake pads remain.
There's also just so many moving parts there's far more opportunity for engine failures, especially in the face of neglect/deferred maintenance. I don't think there's an EV equivalent for needing an engine rebuild/replace because you ignored the timing belt for too long on an interference motor.
It's worse on newer ICEs that have to meet modern fuel economy and emissions standards too. Very high compression-ratios have become commonplace, making the consequences for neglect much more severe. You'd be hard-pressed to find a non-interference design in something modern. And turbo motors are much harder on their oil... Newer ICEs are tantamount to yesteryears high-strung race engines, too bad the chassis are so heavy.
Heh, in my case, I would go bankrupt owning a EV because of tires. My god roads are so fucking bad in NYS that I replaced 3 tires this year alone due to massive gashes in the sidewalls. EVs being so fucking overweight do not have cheap tires, RIP.