<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;">Oh my, <div>What an ordeal!</div><div><br></div><div>The Tesla is “supposed” to warn of a degrading 12V battery weeks ahead of time, but sometimes it doesn’t. I think that’s still better than any other car (that doesn’t warn, AFAIK) but still frustrating. It’s such a huge inconvenience to have a disabled car on a trip. </div><div><br></div><div>For most cars, especially modern ones, the standard advice seems to be to replace the 12V battery every 5 years regardless since they rarely last longer. But that would have still been cutting it close for you. </div><div><br></div><div>I’m sorry you had such a hassle, and am glad you managed to get much of it reimbursed and refunded. A good example of persistence. </div><div>Thanks for the blow by blow so others might learn from your struggles. </div><div><br><div><div>
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">-Otmar</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Cafe.Electric@gmail.com</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">541-497-7849</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Otmar Ebenhoech</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">2255 SE Crystal Lake Dr.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Corvallis, OR 97333</div></div></div></div></div></div>
</div>
<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jul 10, 2026, at 12:33 PM, Alan Batie <alan@batie.org> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><div>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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).<br><br>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).<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>When I picked up the car, I had a few questions:<br><br>* apparently the manual release is only intended for emergency escape and doesn't drop the window<br>* 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<br>* didn't have any real input on trade in value, told me to use the website<br>* 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<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>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 ;-)<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Caevlist mailing list<br>Caevlist@corvallisev.org<br>http://maillist.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/caevlist</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>