The thing about owning a Tesla no one talks about — nightmarish repair delays

Craig Hedges' 2016 Model S suffered moderate body and suspension damage in a low-speed collision in October. It still hasn't been repaired, the Burlingame man says. (Photo courtesy of Craig Hedges) Craig Hedges' 2016 Model S suffered moderate body and suspension damage in a low-speed collision in October. It still hasn't been repaired, the Burlingame man says. (Photo courtesy of Craig Hedges) Photo: Courtesy Of Craig Hedges Photo: Courtesy Of Craig Hedges Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close The thing about owning a Tesla no one talks about — nightmarish repair delays 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

How long would you say is reasonable time for an auto body shop to fix a car with light body and suspension damage? Two weeks? A month? Two months?

Craig Hedges was driving on the Stanford campus on Oct. 27, 2018, when a Toyota Corolla pulled out from a parking space and plowed into his 2016 Tesla Model S.

Neither vehicle was moving very fast, but the Tesla sustained front fender and suspension damage and wasn't drivable. So the Burlingame resident had it towed a few days later to Chilton Auto Body in San Carlos, the nearest Tesla-approved body shop and the preferred shop of his insurer, Allstate.

Nearly six months later, he says his Model S still hasn't been repaired.

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"When my car got in an accident, it was somewhere in the thirties to be worked on and the last time I had a conversation with someone there a few weeks ago, there was well over 130 Teslas there to get fixed," Hedges said.

"Now I think if you're number 130 [in line to get fixed], it's going to be well over a year to get your car back."

We reached out to Chilton Auto Body over the phone and by email to confirm that scores of damaged Teslas were queued up at the shop and to learn out why the wait was so long. A Chilton representative said no one there was available to talk about the issue, referring SFGATE to a manager who would not be back in the office until mid-May. There was no response to the email.

According to Hedges, Chilton has only two certified Tesla auto body technicians, and only one of of them has the credentials to repair suspensions.

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With an apparent shortage of qualified repair personnel, it's easy to imagine how a body shop could be overwhelmed by a fleet of bent, broken and dented Model S's, 3's and X's waiting to be patched up and made whole again.

Hedge's frustrating experience is not an isolated case. Another Tesla owner gave Chilton a one-star review on Yelp after suffering three months of "mental torture" waiting for a damaged suspension to be repaired.

MORE: Tesla records its own break-in, helps SF police nab suspect

Tesla repair delays are hardly unique to Chilton however. A year ago a Model S owner reported on the Tesla Motors Club forum that his car had sustained $12,000 damage after hitting a bear.

"I've owned the car for 6 months now, driven for 14 days and it's sat in the repair shop for almost half a year!" the person wrote.

"Anyone have Elon Musk's phone number? ... The people repairing the car seem to think this is a normal time frame to repair the car."

Another commenter on the thread responded:

"Unreasonably long wait times for parts and a relative lack of Tesla-approved repair centers has been a glaring problem since day one, and despite a couple of short-lived declarations from Tesla that the problem was being fixed (usually following a squeaky wheel type customer), it has not been fixed."

Hedges said he considered moving his Model S to the Tesla-Operated Body Repair Center in San Jose — the only other center approved by his insurance — once it became apparent that it would take months to fix his vehicle at Chilton.

"My insurance company and Chilton didn't recommend it because my car was already in pieces," Hedges said.

Another thing to consider if your Tesla is involved in an accident: Most insurance companies provide loaner vehicles free for 30 days. After that, owners have to pay out of pocket.

While Hedges says he's been generally happy with his Model S, the base model 75, he hesitates to recommend it.

"This accident was not my fault. So even if someone else hits you, you're without a car for a long time. And I think that's crazy. Nobody would want to own a Tesla in my opinion if they knew how long it's going to take to get repaired."

MORE: Drunk driver slept while Tesla appeared to drive Hwy 101 on autopilot, CHP says

Besides Chilton, there are other Tesla-approved auto body shops in the Bay Area, including Alioto's in San Francisco, Brooks Motor Cars in Fremont, Blake's Auto Body in San Rafael and eight Service King Collision locations.

An email to Tesla inquiring about average wait times for repairs to Tesla models and queue lengths at Tesla and Tesla-approved body shops received no response.

A 2018 Los Angeles Times article noted that at most U.S. automobile dealers, weeks-long waits for routine auto repair are rare, and months-long waits for body parts are practically unheard of for all but the most exotic vehicles. That's because their inventories normally stock spare parts from automakers and after-market manufacturers.

But Tesla does not sell its cars to dealerships like other automakers; it owns and runs retail and service operations.

The Times quoted one man whose wife was still waiting for her damaged Model S to be repaired after four months:

"The general manager said it could take several months, that Tesla didn't seem to realize that their cars might get in accidents, and they had no parts inventory," he said. " Their parts are made to order, just like their cars."

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Read Mike Moffitt's latest stories and send him news tips at moffitt@sfgate.com.

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