<story><title>Repairing My Tesla Model S Has Been a Nightmare</title><url>https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/07/repairing-my-tesla-model-s-has-been-an-utter-night.aspx</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikeash</author><text>As far as I can tell, it&amp;#x27;s a myth that manufacturers are required to continue making replacement parts for any particular period of time. A manufacturer needs to be able to fulfill its warranty obligations, which they usually do by manufacturing spare parts for at least as long as their customers have warranties, but that&amp;#x27;s it.&lt;p&gt;This is definitely something Tesla needs to fix and soon. It shouldn&amp;#x27;t be hard, so either I&amp;#x27;m missing something or they&amp;#x27;re doing as you describe in (2) and prioritizing new production over spares.</text></item><item><author>vkou</author><text>A few observations:&lt;p&gt;1. This is precisely why it&amp;#x27;s important to legislate right-to-repair. This is why auto manufacturers are required, by law, to continue to manufacture replacement parts for their cars, long after they have stopped being sold. Hopefully, Tesla can get this figured out.&lt;p&gt;2. Soviet auto manufacturers had this exact same problem. They were incentivized to sell cars, not spare parts - so finding parts for repairing your broken Lada (Which was just as likely as not to be broken as it rolled off the assembly line) took a breads-and-fishes miracle.&lt;p&gt;3. What does this have to do with stock picks... Oh.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>batmansmk</author><text>Having worked for several European manufacturers, I can tell you the R&amp;amp;D division producing cars is small compared to the the aftermarket.&lt;p&gt;A few of the challenges:
- which parts to produce and when
- how many
- how to ensure there is stock everywhere (shipping is not an option on a large market, as it is too costly)
- how to make sure everybody knows how to mount the part
- how to guarantee that your official spare parts are used&lt;p&gt;Saying it is &amp;quot;hard to keep up with the demand&amp;quot; is a marketing way of saying &amp;quot;we are not good at manufacturing&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Like software, it is  easier to design the right car than fixing it after. But fixing defects or accidents is a necessity that no good design can prevent.</text></comment>
<story><title>Repairing My Tesla Model S Has Been a Nightmare</title><url>https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/07/repairing-my-tesla-model-s-has-been-an-utter-night.aspx</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikeash</author><text>As far as I can tell, it&amp;#x27;s a myth that manufacturers are required to continue making replacement parts for any particular period of time. A manufacturer needs to be able to fulfill its warranty obligations, which they usually do by manufacturing spare parts for at least as long as their customers have warranties, but that&amp;#x27;s it.&lt;p&gt;This is definitely something Tesla needs to fix and soon. It shouldn&amp;#x27;t be hard, so either I&amp;#x27;m missing something or they&amp;#x27;re doing as you describe in (2) and prioritizing new production over spares.</text></item><item><author>vkou</author><text>A few observations:&lt;p&gt;1. This is precisely why it&amp;#x27;s important to legislate right-to-repair. This is why auto manufacturers are required, by law, to continue to manufacture replacement parts for their cars, long after they have stopped being sold. Hopefully, Tesla can get this figured out.&lt;p&gt;2. Soviet auto manufacturers had this exact same problem. They were incentivized to sell cars, not spare parts - so finding parts for repairing your broken Lada (Which was just as likely as not to be broken as it rolled off the assembly line) took a breads-and-fishes miracle.&lt;p&gt;3. What does this have to do with stock picks... Oh.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stcredzero</author><text>&lt;i&gt;This is definitely something Tesla needs to fix and soon. It shouldn&amp;#x27;t be hard...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ensuring that people get competent service and a good experience one step removed, remotely, is hard. That could be helped by fostering a customer culture of &amp;quot;do it yourself&amp;quot; then super-enabling customers and local service providers with great access to information, along with good logistics&amp;#x2F;fulfillment.</text></comment>