Tesla Offers New Car to Guy Whose Steering Wheel Fell Off While Driving

"They should investigate this and make sure what they did wrong doesn’t happen again."

Oops, No Steering

A Tesla owner was shocked when the steering wheel of his week-old Tesla Model Y fell off in his hands while driving on the highway, a terrifying incident that highlights the EV maker's infamously shoddy quality control.

Tesla agreed to replace the entire vehicle, InsideEVs reports — but only after plenty of negotiation. In fact, Tesla's Service Center first held the owner, Prerak Patel, responsible for the near-death experience, initially charging him over $100 for a fix.

In fact, only after Patel tweeted at Tesla CEO Elon Musk — something plenty of previous disgruntled owners have had to resort to in the past — was he able to get the service center to change its judgment, an arguably preposterous way to deal with a company's customer service.

"Am I responsible for manufacturing defect?" he wrote in the tweet. "It’s not even week and getting bill for faulty steering wheel. Isn’t it company’s responsibility to fix it?"

"I would greatly appreciate refund and keep the car as we lost trust and family is not feeling safe driving it back," he added.

Good Will Hunting

Tesla now says it's willing to replace the vehicle "as a gesture of goodwill to you as a valued Tesla customer," despite finding "no defect, non-conformity or other warrantable condition, or any other basis for Tesla’s liability," according to a letter Patel received from the company.

He chose to accept Tesla's offer in the end, after putting up a poll on Twitter — sound familiar? — asking his 191 followers whether he should keep the car or go with a new one.

Patel took his story to the media as well in an effort to make sure other future customers won't suffer from the same fate.

"My main intent is really to make sure this doesn’t happen to any other family, what happened to us," Patel told NJ.com. "They should investigate this and make sure what they did wrong doesn’t happen again."

Tesla is unlikely to comment on the incident, as it dissolved its PR department back in 2020.

READ MORE: Tesla Model Y Steering Wheel Falls Off While Driving, One Week After Delivery [InsideEVs]

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