My new car was just a week old when I ran into some real trouble. I was leaving a doctor’s appointment via the Loop 101 when I heard an awful noise. From the sound, I thought I’d hit something and my entire back bumper was dragging on the ground, but the center screen instantly warned that my passenger side rear tire had “0 PSI.”
Luckily I was right at an exit ramp and limped into a shopping center parking lot at 10 to 15 miles per hour with my hazard lights on. As the car had already told me, the rear tire was completely flat. I started to Google the roadside assistance number before quickly remembering everything Tesla is done through the app.
After detailing the problem in the app, I was told via text message that it would take 90 minutes for the mobile ranger to come help. They quoted about $70 for a fix or nearly $400 if a new tire was needed. The Tesla mobile ranger showed up before the 90 minute estimate in a 1-ton Ram van which featured a full tire shop inside.
A simple puncture could be safely plugged, but there was no fix for the 3/4-inch slit the young man found in my tire. I don’t know what I ran over. Despite the cynical suspicions of my parents, it wasn’t vandalism. Sentry Mode showed no-one near my car. Additionally, I was a couple miles from the doctor’s appointment when this happened. If my tire had been slashed, it would’ve been flat before it actually was.
I paid for the new tire via an iPad the mobile ranger carried, and he put it on my rim in about 20 minutes. It sucked!
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