A driver of a Tesla Model Y had a most unpleasant road incident on January 30 when his steering wheel detached from the column. After some wrangling with the manufacturer, Prerak Patel will be getting a whole new Model Y.
On the day of the incident Patel was cruising down a highway with his family and was barely able to come to a halt at a curb when the steering wheel broke loose. There was no collision, but the owner was rightfully furious with his car, which he picked up from a dealership on January 24 – a mere week ago.
Adding insult to the injury was the fact that the dealership initially charged him $104 for the repairs. Rather that pay the fee, Patel reached out to Elon Musk over the social media and demanded that the charges be voided. The dealership conceded, but the driver didn’t stop there. Instead, he asked his subscribers whether he should proceed with the repairs or demand a new car.
The poll ended with 83 percent of the votes for the new car. Tesla agreed with this form of settlement, but did not specify a delivery date, so the waiting might take a while.
Asked to comment on the mishap, Patel said he was disappointed with the way Tesla presented the solution as a “gesture of good will”, rather than admitting a production fault and announcing a recall campaign.