[Caevlist] A Tale of 12V

[Alan Batie]

Last week, I was on a week long Alaska cruise out of Seattle. I parked 
my 5 1/2 yr old Model Y in the parking garage across the street from 
Pier 66, where the cruise ship docked, having charged up to 75% 
beforehand knowing Sentry tends to drain the battery.

When we got back Saturday, I left a couple of friends at the terminal 
with our luggage while I went to bring my car around and pick them up to 
take them to the hotel I had booked for the night. I opened the back 
door to clear some stuff and let down one of the seats to make room for 
them and the luggage. When I went to open the back and the driver door 
however, nothing happened: the car had gone completely unresponsive. I 
climbed over the front seat to reach the manual door release on the 
driver door and got it open and tried resetting the car and fiddling 
with some things, to no avail. The overhead lights were on, and the 
hazard warning button was flashing, but that was the only sign of life.

At that point, I figured the 12V battery had died. The Tesla app said 
the car had last checked in two days before and at that time, the main 
battery was at 68%. I closed the back door for some reason and called 
Tesla and Mobile Service was on their way. I thought I left the front 
door open because I knew if it closed, I wasn't getting back in, while I 
went to the edge of the garage to get a better signal and call my 
friends and have them take a Lyft to the hotel. Mobile Service called 
and said the road around the garage was closed (it turned out what they 
meant was the garage entrance I'd used and sent them to was closed due 
to a broken gate). They also said that Tesla had told them that 
replacing the 12V battery wouldn't resurrect the car and that it needed 
to go to a Service Center. Being the 4th of July and a weekend, that 
meant I was without a car for the weekend, and I was going to have to 
rent a car to get home as one of my friends had a flight out of Portland 
on Monday.

I called the recommended tow company, which also happened to be the one 
the garage used, though they didn't seem to know much about the garage. 
When they asked, I told them the garage had a clearance of 6'6" and they 
sent a truck. While waiting, I went back to the car and found the driver 
door had partially closed. Not being able to get it open, I shoved it 
the rest of the way closed. A little later, I noticed spider webbing in 
the lower front corner of the driver window and remembered how Tesla 
windows drop a bit to clear a rain guard. It turns out the manual 
release doesn't drop the window, and opening and closing the door that 
way broke the window, which ended up being the second most expensive 
part of the ordeal.

When the tow truck arrived, the driver wandered around the garage with 
his arm in the air checking clearance. A garage attendant was there and 
the tow truck driver tried to get him to open the gate so he could get 
in, but they wouldn't (later he told me the gate was broken and that's 
why he couldn't). Unfortunately, apparently their was another entrance 
to the garage, but it had less clearance and the truck he brought 
wouldn't fit. He had to go back and get a smaller truck that would fit, 
doubling the cost of the tow from $350 to $760. I didn't need to be 
there for that, so got a Lyft to a nearby hotel where my friends had 
ended up with another friend after dropping our luggage at the hotel I 
had booked. We hung out there a bit and then I went to get checked into 
our hotel and move our luggage into the room (it was too early to check 
in earlier).

I had only booked the hotel for one night, planning on returning to 
Corvallis on Sunday so I could take my friend to the airport on Monday 
(the other friend was flying out of Seattle on Sunday afternoon).

I used the Tesla app to request service, and it scheduled an appt on 
July 21(!). I'd thought about extending the hotel stay a day or two and 
having my friend rebook his flight out of Seattle, but it looked like 
that wouldn't work, so Sunday morning, we took the hour long ride on 
light rail to SeaTac (which was the only place open for renting a car), 
then drove back to the hotel to pick up our luggage (I hadn't wanted to 
deal with it on the light rail etc), then back down to South Center for 
lunch with an old high school friend before taking the one friend back 
to SeaTac for his flight, then returning to Corvallis in the rental car.

On Monday, after various discussions with the Tesla Service Center, they 
determined they would be able to fix the car on Monday, for $1100(!): 
$300 for the battery replacement, $700 for the window, and $100 for taxes.

I'd booked the rental car to Tues, hoping Tesla would be able to fix it 
Monday and I could go back up Tues to pick it up, but when at first 
Tesla wasn't certain they would be able to do that, I extended the 
rental to Saturday. The chatbot said it would just extend the daily 
rate. When Tesla said they could fix it Monday, I got on the website and 
the chatbot said I didn't need to undo the extension, they'd just charge 
me for time used when I checked it in.

I took my friend to the airport Monday, and on the way back to 
Corvallis, had to gas up the gasser. The gas pump made me put in a 
dollar amount, so I said $50 should be plenty. It's been years since I 
used gas and should have multiplied 15-20gal x $4.30/gal ;-) so I ended 
up with 3/4 tank of gas. I'd noticed gas was a lot cheaper ($3.80ish) at 
the Corvallis I5 exit, so left it and gassed up on my way back up to 
Seattle Tuesday morning.

When I picked up the car, I had a few questions:

* apparently the manual release is only intended for emergency escape 
and doesn't drop the window
* the sheet metal damage under the lower trim comes under bodywork that 
the service centers don't deal with, so had no input on how fixable it is
* didn't have any real input on trade in value, told me to use the website
* battery replacement (mine is down to 82%, hence discussion about trade 
in or replacement) ranges from $10k to $20k (I should have asked why the 
variation, but didn't think to); he said he wasn't trying to sell me a 
new model y, but said the new ones are a lot better and I should test 
drive one

I have a reservation on a Rivian R2 for the increased towing capacity 
that would allow me to get a travel trailer I have my eye one, but while 
on the cruise, Rivian told me that it would be Nov-Dec before I could 
actually order it, and I really shouldn't spend the money on the travel 
trailer, hence the thought about a new model y or a battery replacement.

Sunday I'd called State Farm to see how much they were going to cover, 
and they said since it wasn't an accident, they wouldn't cover any of 
it. That didn't sit right, since I have Comprehensive, so I emailed my 
agent, and Monday they said the tow and the window would be covered, but 
not the rental car. Fortunately, the tow and the window were the two 
biggest expenses.

Sometime after I turned in the car, I noticed Hertz had charged me $500, 
instead of the $200 originally quoted for the rental from Sun-Tue. I had 
an email discussion with their support, and apparently when I'd extended 
the rental to Saturday, it switched it to a weekly rate, which the 
chatbot hadn't mentioned. After submitting various screenshots etc, they 
relented and credited my card. My card account shows $200 initial 
reservation, and a $750 credit, which looks like both the initial and 
the weekly, but both are the preliminary authorizations, so it'll be 
interesting to see how it settles out.

Anyway, it looks like the affair is going to settle out at costing $500 
and a disrupted weekend. And I'll be preemptively replacing the 12V 
battery every few years in the future ;-)

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