2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Tesla Model S Long-Term Road Test

Tesla agrees alignment is to blame for extreme wear that caused rear tire woes on our long term Tesla Model S

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bankerdanny

If you had never used the factory service centers on your car then I might, MIGHT, understand Tesla's position on who pays for the tires. But since you did and its own staff said nothing about rotation, Tesla should be paying part of the cost. However, paying 100% is very generous given the wear ratings on those tires. Offering to cover half the cost of the tires, plus free mounting and balancing would have been a perfectly reasonable compromise in my opinion.

stovt001_

Extreme rear toe-out? Wow that must have been a handful to drive. Surprised no one noticed that.

fordson1

A wear rating of 340? What would you expect them to last given a car with this power and weight? I am thinking like 25k...not 10k.
Tire Rack charges $288 bucks a pop for these (not $375...) plus maybe $40 shipping, and that mounting and balancing should cost maybe $65, for a total of $681, not $855, just for reference. The unfortunate thing here was that Tesla Service was allowed to do the alignment - since they covered the whole tire replacement, it's a moot point from a money standpoint, but since this is becoming a hot potato and this is Edmunds' car, I wonder how willing they were to give them the actual alignment settings they found when they started work.

shepski

This may be a stupid question, but - rotation and alignment issues aside - could the WEIGHT of this car have something to do with it? Seriously, are there any other vehicles out there using low-profile tires such as these that weigh nearly as much? (No, I haven't bothered to compare its curb weight to things such as A8s, Bentleys, BMW 7s and the like...)

smrtypants44

I thought it was common knowledge to rotate your tires every 5k. Especially on a sports sedan with high performance rubber.

handbrake

While there may be problems with the alignment, I'd like to know what would happen with a different brand of tires. I've had Contis on a number of cars (BMW, Audi and VW) and in each case the tires had what I thought was a very short usable lifespan and in some cases (the BMW in particular), very unusual wear. With the BMW, I switched to Yokohomas and never had the problem again. Same with the VW.

greenpony

handbrake, I've had good luck with Continentals. I have Extreme Contact DW's for summer and Extreme Winter Contact for the cold months, and other than a little more wear in the center on the winter tires (I tend to overinflate by 5-10%) they have lasted about 60,000 miles and 40,000 miles, respectively. On my Mustang I used the previous generation of all-season Extreme Contact, unidirectional & staggered width, and found no unusual wear after 75,000 miles and NO rotation. FWIW. *shrug*

dunning15

Next time get the 19's. Of course then you would have lost a week of updates about tires. Carry on.

misterfusion

Hat tip to John O'Dell for writing one of the best follow-ups I have read on this blog. It's nice that Mr. O'Dell asked the service rep all of the questions that we readers would ask in the comments, AND he also put the questions to Corporate. Well, there is one thing that Tesla should answer for: Why didn't the service center recommend the tire rotation at 6000 miles, if it's required in the manual? Every other dealer service center in the world tries to up-sell you on maintenance items, and this one doesn't even try to up-sell you on a REQUIRED item?! Having said all that, I would've bought the 19's anyway. :P

hybris

These responses while better than expected just smell like they realize just who you are with and that influenced the decision on the service centers part.

I would take the car up to Tesla for an alignment and then see if another shop you guys trust will let you see the alignment specs vs what is on the car.

dan_acosta

Doesn't everyone know to rotate their tires whether it's specifically mentioned in the owner's manual or not?

bassrockerx

i had the same tires and driven hard you will be lucky to get 20k miles out of them. driven "normally" looking at most reviews on tirerack customers got just over or just under 30k. not sure how wide these are but the wider ones tend to wear faster. these continental tires are not the best performing ones on the market but probably the best behaved on the street, very quiet and comfortable i can see why tesla chose these for their OEM

mayhemm

It's not the fast wear that is of concern. Low profile tires wear out fast, thus their lower wear ratings. This is not news. What IS noteworthy is the extreme UNEVENNESS of the wear! This is not a matter of somebody doing too many burnouts! The outside tread is virtually new, while the inside is worn down to the cords! There's no way that's normal and I'm very disappointed in Tesla for digging their heels in regarding this issue.

dunning15

Digging their heels in? Are you referencing the free new tires they provided or the free alignment they provided?

duck87

@dunning15: I think he's referring to the general attitude of Tesla admonishing Edmunds for not rotating their tires, when in fact Edmunds did bring their car back to the service center so the ball is technically in Tesla's court. You're already paying se

rmhpmi

Just looking at the photo of the old tire would seem to remove any doubt about what the true problem here is. It seems obvious that alignment was off from day one (way off). I don't care what tire is on a vehicle, if the alignment is this badly done nothing will last very long.

I do believe the fact this vehicle is an Edmunds long-termer played into the decision to 100% "goodwill" the replacement tires. Hard to see how it couldn't be the case IMO.

Anyway, I sure wish I could afford a Model S. Maybe if I stick to the 19's.......

diigii

Kudos to Edmunds' stated mission to push this car hard and write about its flaws without fear of retaliation from Elon. I agree that the Edmunds' card played into the 100% goodwill. After all, the dealer staff admitted in following the Model S blog.

fordson1

I just looked at the track tests of both this exact car and a pre-production model they tested - that one had staggered PS2s (rears were 265-section instead of 245 Contis all around on this car), and aside from a faster slalom time with the wider rears, they were the same and Edmunds really liked the way the car did in both handling tests. I guess I would like to see them retest it when the alignment is set to spec...agree with duck87 that this much negative toe will result in dartiness/oversteer condition, with the rear tire that's most heavily loaded (the outside one) steering in the opposite direction from the fronts. With a good driver, this could help a long, heavy car like this in the slalom. Would like to see if slalom performance falls off with an alignment setting that will allow longer tire life...and yes, John O'Dell keeps his eye on the ball better than most of the staff, who tend to get taken by experienced dealership hands. ALSO, O'Dell seems to take the attitude of a real owner when it comes time to pay up, in contrast to the others, who whip out the Edmunds platinum card just a bit more readily than you or I would.

mercedesfan

Reading about this whole debacle has made me very happy I decided to go with the 19" Cyclone rims rather than the 21ers. I went back and forth because I like the look of the Turbine rims, but ultimately my Model S is a commuter car and it simply rides a lot better with the 19" wheels.

misterfusion

John O'Dell was a journalist with the Los Angeles Times for years prior to joining Edmunds, so it makes sense that he knows how to ask questions. I've often thought that his "green car" beat at Edmunds is a bit limiting considering his experience, but of course it may have been a personal choice for him.

mayhemm

@mercedesfan This isn't merely an issue of 21-inch tires wearing faster (though most likely do). This is a case of premature wear caused by improper alignment. A 19"-equipped car with the same improper alignment would fare no better.