Every used car comes with risks. Maybe you are buying a car that’s been wrecked? Perhaps your used car was a flood victim that’s been cleaned up and resold. There are an endless number of scenarios possible.
Unscrupulous used car dealers will resort to a lot of dirty tricks to move cars. Everything from physically altering the miles, to physically altering the vehicle itself to hide obvious defects is not at all uncommon.
What you don’t expect however is the original manufacturer screwing you out of options. The way new vehicles are nowadays, they come packed with optional features and technology. The understanding is everything on the vehicle, outside of satellite radio or navigation services, which are sold as a subscription should be functional.
Sadly, those times are changing. One Tesla owner found out the hard way recently. Check this out from MSN:
Buying a used Tesla comes with some inherent risks.
A major one is that you can’t count on being able to access all of the features the car was originally sold with, in an unfortunate side effect of the increasingly internet-connected vehicles that Tesla itself pioneered.
In the latest example, a motorist who bought a used 2013 Model S is now being forced to pay $4,500 to unlock the full range of the vehicle, according to a now-viral Twitter thread by Jason Hughes, the founder of unofficial Tesla service center 057 Technology.
Electric vehicles come with their fair share of issues already baked in. Dying batteries, short range, and a slew of technology waiting to fail being among those issues.
Reason #497 why you don’t want ANYTHING YOU NEED TO USE dependent on remote “permission” to be used:
“This guy bought a car, & years later Tesla reaches in remotely with no warning and literally cuts his usable range by a third!”
— fried eggs (@friedeggs) July 26, 2022
When you have the manufacturer limiting the range of the car, that is a serious problem.
Here’s how it went down, according to Hughes. The vehicle, which had been been sold twice before, originally came with a 60 kWh battery that was upgraded under warranty years later to a 90 kWh one by Tesla.
In other words, it was still technically a Model S 60, but with the battery and range of a Model S 90.
The latest owner then had the onboard computer upgraded at Tesla — and that’s when the problems started.
“Later on, while the car is parked in his driveway, Tesla calls him to tell him that they found and fixed a configuration mistake with his car,” Hughes wrote. “They remotely software locked the car to be a 60 again, despite having been a 90 for years.”
“He now has [about] 80 miles less range,” Hughes continued, which is the equivalent of losing a third of the vehicle’s usable range “remotely with no warning.”
It’s unsettling enough that a company like Tesla can run a computer diagnostic scan on the vehicle without your consent or knowledge, but the fact they can make alterations to something YOU now own shouldn’t be allowed.
Would we stand for those type practices with other products? Suppose the manufacturer of your smart tv didn’t like how much reality television you watch, or Apple decided they don’t like your browsing habits on your iPad. This is just too invasive.
Tesla literally scanned the car, decided that it was a model 60 even though it had been upgraded BY Tesla to a 90, then rolled the software back to a 60 and said “tough luck.” Insane!
“They basically robbed him and are demanding a ransom to get back what he had before. “That’s just wrong.”
Damn right that’s wrong. Folks, this is where we are headed. This is the future of the auto industry. If this administration is successful at pushing us, kicking and screaming into electric vehicles, what choice do we have?
The choice will be a bargain basement vehicle that goes 120 miles on a charge, or spending more for a Tesla and risk having the company poke around in your cars business. Dark days ahead! be prepared!
This story syndicated with permission from For the Love of News
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