Would you blow your Tesla up if it cost too much to repair?
27 Dec 2021|3,141 views
Ever brought your used car to a workshop, found out that the repair costs were tantamount to daylight robbery, then got fed up and decided to drive it to a quarry and blow it up?
Neither have we. But that's exactly what one Finnish (ex-)Tesla owner did.


Bought as a second-hand car, all had apparently been dandy and well for his first 1,500km of driving the car. But trouble invariably struck when error codes started flashing, all of which pointed back to issues with the battery pack upon inspection by the official Tesla workshop.
Thereafter, Mr Kaitanen was quoted USD$22,600 for the wholesale replacement of the Model S' battery. The Verge notes that the quote had been made because the car had likely exceeded Tesla's eight-year battery and drive unit warranty handed, bringing to question how the long-term maintenance of its initial crop of 2012-2013 deliveries will be like.
Now, USD$22,600 might indeed seem less drastic to the Singaporean motorist than to the Finnish one. ("Ha!", you may scoff, considering that's still less than the price of a prevailing Category A COE premium.)
But with the Model S costing less than USD$60,000 brand new over there, paying one third the price of it for a battery replacement does feel quite exorbitant. A used Model S is also apparently available at less than twice the price of the quoted repair cost in Finland.
For those who are certainly wondering by now what sense it makes to spend your money on explosives if you don't want to spend your money on repairs, the answer according to Mr Kaitanen appears simple: Blowing up the car is more fun than driving it.
Mr. Kaitanen apparently funded the whole outing on his own, but received the help of a number of assistants and volunteers for the explosive set-up. Stacked with 30kg of dynamite, the doomed Model S was brought to a quarry in a rural Finnish town to get blown up. The process was then captured in playful, cinematic grandiosity by Youtuber Pommijaetkaet.
And boy did it get blown up. Depending on which side you stand on, this one (it's already racked up close to 4 million views at the time of writing) might either be absolute fun or absolutely devastating to watch.
Ever brought your used car to a workshop, found out that the repair costs were tantamount to daylight robbery, then got fed up and decided to drive it to a quarry and blow it up?
Neither have we. But that's exactly what one Finnish (ex-)Tesla owner did.


Bought as a second-hand car, all had apparently been dandy and well for his first 1,500km of driving the car. But trouble invariably struck when error codes started flashing, all of which pointed back to issues with the battery pack upon inspection by the official Tesla workshop.
Thereafter, Mr Kaitanen was quoted USD$22,600 for the wholesale replacement of the Model S' battery. The Verge notes that the quote had been made because the car had likely exceeded Tesla's eight-year battery and drive unit warranty handed, bringing to question how the long-term maintenance of its initial crop of 2012-2013 deliveries will be like.
Now, USD$22,600 might indeed seem less drastic to the Singaporean motorist than to the Finnish one. ("Ha!", you may scoff, considering that's still less than the price of a prevailing Category A COE premium.)
But with the Model S costing less than USD$60,000 brand new over there, paying one third the price of it for a battery replacement does feel quite exorbitant. A used Model S is also apparently available at less than twice the price of the quoted repair cost in Finland.
For those who are certainly wondering by now what sense it makes to spend your money on explosives if you don't want to spend your money on repairs, the answer according to Mr Kaitanen appears simple: Blowing up the car is more fun than driving it.
Mr. Kaitanen apparently funded the whole outing on his own, but received the help of a number of assistants and volunteers for the explosive set-up. Stacked with 30kg of dynamite, the doomed Model S was brought to a quarry in a rural Finnish town to get blown up. The process was then captured in playful, cinematic grandiosity by Youtuber Pommijaetkaet.
And boy did it get blown up. Depending on which side you stand on, this one (it's already racked up close to 4 million views at the time of writing) might either be absolute fun or absolutely devastating to watch.
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