2016, well it proceeds 2015 and the “Year of The Recall,” Tesla is being smart and voluntarily recalling vehicles that could have even the smallest quirk. I say quirk, because cars were killing people last year and it’s quite clear that Tesla wants absolutely none of that.
Voluntary recalls is the new norm if an “upstart”
Last week, a woman in Ohio was arrested for allowing her kids to go around the corner to McDonald’s. While I don’t approve of allowing children to eat that trash, I have zero problems with kids living their lives. For that matter, I shouldn’t have been arrested for calling some MAN the “C word” in Wisconsin when visiting my family next year. This isn’t about political correctness, certainly not in the “Idiot Trump” fashion, but kids should learn lessons from their mistakes and be allowed to when deemed old enough. That’s parenting.
And this, I believe is analogous. Kids need to make their own mistakes, not have their parents arrested for allowing them to take their allowances to the store. It’s two blocks. So, based on GM’s issues and Toyota’s for that matter, Tesla is in the land of the voluntary recall and they’re making sure no one is dying from faulty engineering.
This is the same Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and head of SpaceX who last June, saw one of his rockets explode minutes after launch. But he’s not shying from SpaceX’s first manned mission to the International Space Station next year.
Sorry, I’m a product of the 70s, a touch to a GM car from behind, car blows up, simple as that. That’s bad. This Tesla recall of 2,700 vehicles? The potential for you to fall backwards in a crash if a hinge for a third-row seat has fail? Seems pretty mild. But go ahead and get ahead of it, that makes sense.
“It’s actually with the leverage of weight in the seat pulling it forward. So this would be an example of a front crash where the weight of the passenger seat belted to that seat could cause that latch to fail,” said Jon McNeill, president of sales and service at Tesla.
Again, mild.
I don’t know who buys anything from a land of criminals and a country designed to kill you ( I jest a bit) , but apparently Tesla is the answer. Voluntary recalls are a lot easier if you’re going to put the cost on your supplier; in this case, Australian company, Futuris, will pay for the replacement of the seat backs recalled.
“A fix to this issue is already in place. We have worked with our supplier to develop a new recliner design with improved quality that resolved the issue. We are now constructing new third-row seat backs to match all affected vehicles,” Tesla said in a letter to Model X owners.
The “overpriced” shares and debatable silly shorts of the same stock we’re down a bit following the announcement today, but since the unveiling of the Model 3, Tesla can give a bit back.
“Headed into this call, which people got word of this morning, a lot of people expected a Model S refresh, so we saw the stock up in early morning trading today, so I think this is a big disappointment on that side. Now, a thing to remember about this recall is that we also had a similar type recall in 2013, when … a similar number of S’s rolled out, and it was a seat-welding issue,” Ben Kallo, a senior research analyst at R.W. Baird, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch shortly after the recall announcement. “The stock ended trading up on it because Tesla was proactive in its recall. But still, with the stock having a big run here, you could see a little pressure.”
Tesla’s second offering saw deliveries last year after a number of delays.
“Until the recall is performed, you may make full use of your Model X, although we ask that you temporarily not have anyone sit in the third-row seats while the car is in use,” Tesla said.
It just doesn’t look like Tesla will ever wait for a forced recall.
Tesla, Musk and SpaceX enjoyed a brilliant week
This recall is nothing. Any more than the Model S’ voluntary recall was when announced. No injuries, certainly no deaths. But Tesla lives under a microscope, certainly more of a microscope wielded by analysts than anyone fortunate enough to drive one of its cars.
A couple of battery fires, no explosions, little things to fix and a stuck vertical landing of a rocket at sea following overwhelming sales numbers after the unveiling of the Model 3? Yeah, everything is going to be just fine for Mr. Musk.