Did you have to take the Tesla to a certified repair shop? If so, that is going to push the insurance rates up when the insurance company cannot use their own favorite body shops.
Yes, because of the unusual materials etc. Regular shop wouldn't have been able to do if they wanted to (and Tesla is picky about verifying shops). To be clear it was easy to find a certified shop, and the entire experience felt well cared for by Tesla as is their rep. But it was a ton of cost (to him) for what amounted to a fender bender.
Wow, I get that a Tesla costs more than the median yearly income in the US, but $13k for a sub-10mph crash seems excessive. Repairs for a similarly priced BMW or Volvo would likely be less, knowing a few people involved in accidents with expensive vehicles like those.
Meanwhile, I'm gonna stick to buying used for less than the cost of your accident :P
Sure, but you end up paying for this directly in the form of insurance increases like this. Additionally, your taking on a large liability, if the car gets damaged in this way and the person who damaged it drives off, or worse yet damaged it without the interaction of another car, you are left footing the bill or reporting it to your insurance (which is another gamble).
I seems like this has the makings of the same racket as healthcare. Eventually, if all car makers start doing the same thing, everyone will end up with highly inflated insurance rates.
It's not so much about Tesla. Tesla is following the same trajectory that a lot of other consumer electronics have. i.e., You go from the PC model to the smartphone SoC model. You do everything in house, cut out dealers, get rid of interoperabilty and throw in some DRM/obfuscation if people try to make aftermarket parts or repair them. Add to that the fact that the govt. will anyway exert more regulatory control with all things autonomous. You end up with a segment that is heavily regulated, with little choice for end-users. Much like healthcare or telecom.
That's pretty clearly a consumer hostile position. Given the extreme competition in the automotive sector and the nation-state interest in their continued success, I'm a long term bear on Tesla.