In December 2022, I bought a 2016 Tesla Model X 90D with 190.000 kilometers in its odo. Only a week after my purchase various alerts started to appear on the screen, including front motor disabled, Autopilot disabled, stability control disabled, charging lid disabled and so on. After stopping and leaving the car to rest for 10 minutes or so, the messages were gone. Of course I have contacted the previous owner who told me the bad news: the car had the very same issues recently, but according to Tesla Service Vienna the problem had been repaired. He recommended me to return the car to Vienna because the original repair was done there. I took the car to Vienna, but it turned out to be a huge mistake. Ten weeks after my service request I got a dirty, dusty and unrepaired car back. I have requested the service support in the Tesla app on December 12, 2022. Although the application promises a response within 24 hours, I had to wait exactly a week to get a calming notice: „please be patient”. Meanwhile the alerts kept coming, so I attached those to my request as well, providing more background information to the remote diagnostic. It was not easy to be patient as the problem became more and more frequent. Meanwhile the regular mandatory inspection was due on the car, where the technician confirmed that the noise I hear from the front is in fact caused by the right axle shaft. Although it is (probably) not related to the original problem, I wanted this to be fixed as well, therefore I also added this problem to the already open service ticket. (I could not find a way to open a separate ticket while one was already open.) The car was scheduled for service on January 20, 2023 by Vienna Service Center. So I had some weeks to get more experience. In daily routine, when I drove only 30-50 kilometers, the problem did not appear. I observed that I had to drive 80-100 km for the first alert to came on. Pulling over and turning off the car could solve the problem for the next 20-30 kilometers, but from that on, the problem was more frequent. It seemed to be related to regenerative braking, since it appeared sooner when going downhill. I kept adding my findings to the service ticket, in a hope that it will be helpful when the technician starts the diagnostics. Finally the day of my appointment has arrived. I took the car to Vienna, where I wanted to share concerns with the technician working on my car, but according to the receptionist it was not an option. I was advised to record all my thoughts and messages in the Tesla applications. Week 1: no diagnosis, depleted battery Next Monday I was informed by the service, that the car might be ready by Friday. Despite the positive prediction, Thursday came and gone without any update. I requested some information, but my questions were left unanswered. When I dropped off the car the battery was on 34% charge, but the doors were opened several times without turning off the heating, so the battery quickly discharged to 8%. I asked the service through the application to charge the battery before it dies, but the response came only days later. By the way, the service center is unreachable by phone, so calling and talking to them was not an option. I asked them several times to charge the car, but they did only days later Week 2: no diagnosis, they escalated the problem to a higher level Another week passed without repair. The local staff could not diagnose the main problem (various alerts), therefore they have escalated the problem to a higher level. But according to the communication technicians at least were working on the drive shaft problem. Week 3: no diagnosis Despite my clear descriptions, that the problem appears only after 80-100 km of driving, the car was not taken to any test drives. I saw in TeslaFi that they took a few 600 meters long drives around the lot but I know from experience that such drives are not enough to reproduce the problems. I hoped that they found the cause of the problems in the logs, and these test drives were only to confirm the repair of the drive shaft. At the end of week 3 the car went offline what gave me hope: the repair procedure might have started. Week 4: ready to pick up, but is it repaired? At week 4 I received a message: car is ready to pick up. An invoice for 369 euros was also attached to the ticket, but it was only about diagnostics. No parts or repair job for the drive shaft, what made me a bit worried, so I asked: is the car repaired? The answer came quickly: you can talk personally with a technician. A month earlier, when I was there to drop off the car, I was told that all communication must be done through the application. How come this simple question could not be answered there now? I asked them to charge the car (it came with free Supercharging, and the service center is conveniently located next to a Supercharger station), since my drive home is over 400 km. They promised they will. My car was clean when I left it there. I got it back with dusty interior. When I arrived to Vienna on the next morning I found the car uncharged and dirty inside and outside. I saw on TeslaFi that it was parked several times for hours with the doors open, but I only realized on the location how dusty the area is due to the huge truck traffic. This alone could be a huge problem, but the major issue is that they did not repair anything on the car. According to the technician and the service manager the car has no issues, no active alerts are visible in the system. As I have explained several times in the service ticket and in its addendums the problem only becomes active after 80-100 km long drives. The technician tried to save the situation with a surprised look and the story that they thought it was 80 km/h speed, but unfortunately for them I saw in the TeslaFi logs that the car’s speed never exceeded 46 km/h speed since I left it there. The sad truth is that they did not even try to reproduce the problem. Now that they know that it would require them about an hour drive to reproduce the problem they could diagnose it, but the service manager did not recommend it, as it would be very costly to me. Why would it cost me money when the drive system is under manufacturer’s warranty, is not clear to me, but after wasting ten weeks of my life, I would not leave the car there ever again. Only one question remained: why wasn’t the drive shaft problem repaired? According to the service manager and the technician, it was not reported as a problem. I was so happy that every communication had happened through the Tesla app because it allowed me to pull up all my messages and show them the communication in which they even said that they were working on this problem. As it turns out, it was all a lie. The technician and the service manager didn’t even read the tickets. They tried to repair a car without knowing what was wrong. I wrote 3 times about knocking shaft, last time they confirmed. Now they claim they did not know about this problem. Three and a half weeks were wasted. My car was returned faulty, depleted, and disgustingly dirty both inside and outside. They didn’t do even the drive shaft repair what seems to be a routine repair on the Model X. This did not require any complicated diagnosis or special Tesla experience. They could have told me on day one, that they do not want to repair this car. At least they are optimistic, they promise every Monday the car will be ready by Friday. After considering the situation, the service manager has decided to cancel the 396 euros invoice, what they issued for nothing. I think was the bare minimum he could do. After parking in Tesla Service Center Vienna for 3,5 weeks I still have a malfunctioning car, and I am richer with a bad experience. They forgot to put back this one, I found it on the floor. Some wires are hanging, the cover might be missing from there. The known problem of course appeared before my first charging stop on my way home. And while charging I also found an extra cover on the floor, what was missing from the bottom of the MCU unit. Will I ever recommend the Tesla Service Center in Vienna? Probably never. Could I ever recommend a Tesla honestly as one of the author of an influential ev publication? It is up to Tesla now.
