First Tesla Service, Wheel Damage, and The Drop Stop

The trip to Arizona over the holidays put about 3,200 miles on my car, which brought me to around 8,000 miles total. Tesla recommends rotating the tires every 6,250 miles, so it was time for that service.

Making the appointment was easy - I could do it through my Tesla account on the web. The Bellevue service center was booked for weeks, but the one in Seattle had openings, so I took my car there on a Saturday morning. The location is in a warehouse district and I can understand why the other location was booked out so far in advance. The Bellevue center is in a nice part of town with shops nearby. It also is a showroom and delivery location, so there are lots of shiny new Teslas there. This location was more industrial, although the street was still lined with Teslas. Here's an image from Google Street View:

Nothing wrong with the location, but it's not as nice as Bellevue. Rather than dropping my car off, I opted to wait for the service to be performed and the little waiting room inside had a old Roadster on display, covered in signs asking people not to touch it.

I had a free cup of coffee and started reading a book. By the time I was done with the coffee, my car was ready. Total cost was $68 plus tax.

Wheel Damage

While I was there, I asked about getting some road rash on one of my wheels repaired. About 1 month after getting the car, I was in a parking lot trying to turn down an aisle to find a parking space. A car going the other direction was leaving the aisle and was taking up more than half of the lane. I turned sharp to avoid it and my rear wheel hit the curb. I was pissed! Here's a couple views of the damage:

Ouch!

The service center does not repair wheels, but they did give me a card of a company they recommend for repairs and I scheduled an appointment. The wheel is being fixed on Friday and will cost about $350. A whole new wheel is $1,000. *sigh* I'll post pictures of how the repair turned out.

I have not had any other issues with the car. In the wrap up in the post about my road trip, I wrote about how Autopilot could be a little jerky on the brakes and somewhat swervy when the lane width changes. The car got a software update the other day and it seems that Autopilot is a bit smoother now. I've only used it a handful of times since the update, so maybe it's just my imagination, but it's possible they improved their driving algorithms a bit.

Drop Stop

One problem I have, as well as many other people it seems, is dropping stuff on the side of the seat, where it falls down between the seat and the center console. I came across this YouTube video of another Tesla owner who bought a squishy tube that is supposed to stop that from happening. The Drop Stop, as it is called, fits between the seat and the console and basically fills the gap so items can't fall between there. There is a hole that the seat belt buckle goes though and that is what holds it in place.

For twenty bucks, I figured I'd try it. I've got black seats, so when it is installed, it's really not noticeable.

What can I say about a tube of squishy material? It works. Because the phone charger is in the center console, I would often drop my phone down the side of the seat when I was picking it up or plugging it in. That's a pain because once that happens, you have to wait until you are parked to go into the back seat, reach under the driver's seat and retrieve your phone. This device stops you from having to do that.

The package comes with two stops, one for the driver's seat and one for the passenger seat. The only complaint I have is that the unit doesn't stay firmly in place in my car. During normal driving, it's fine. However, I've got Easy Entry set up on my car, so when I park, the seat moves back to make it easier to enter and exit, and then when the car is powered up, the seat moves forward to my driving position. This repeated movement causes the front part of the Drop Stop to either slide down towards the floor or up and out from between the seat and center console. It's not drastic and it takes about a week of driving before I have to readjust the front part of the stop, but it's a bit annoying. Still, it's less annoying than losing my phone between the seats! And if you had a car where the seats didn't move so often, this would be perfect.