[rdl]

If you leave a gasoline engine car unattended for a while, it becomes a brick, too -- you need to flush the fuel, replace the seals, etc. True, it takes more than 11 weeks, and you can usually put the transmission in neutral to tow it.

This is a big problem, though. If anyone has a spare Tesla and would like someone to take care of it, I'd be happy to keep your car garaged and energized, and will only drive it 200 miles a week. :)

[r0s]

Don't forget the battery, leave a 'normal' battery through a few months and it's dead. What happens to a normal car once all the fuel is drained? Coolant? Oil?

How did these design flaws make it out of engineering?!

[pclark]

You can comfortably leave a regular car alone for 6 months and when you return at worst the battery will be flat and there'll be some rust on the brake pads. I regularly do this to my poor old diesel SEAT. Even if the battery is flat I can either bump start it, or worst comes to worst, buy a new $50 battery.

[rdl]

Diesels are a fair bit more tolerant, and low end cars are actually much more robust than performance cars. Try leaving a dodge viper unattended for 6mo.

I drove a diesel land cruiser (lm78) which had been sitting on an airfield unused for years. Aside from needing tires and a battery (and wiper blades) no problem. Even the fuel was ok.

[pragmatic]

"a while" is usually years not weeks. repair cost != $40,000 (again usually).

[rdl]

Yeah -- probably tires go first, and that still doesn't make it inoperative, just worse performance. And you could buy several new cars for the cost of the Tesla battery pack.