Back in the day, when an item you purchased wasn’t up to snuff your only real options were to bicker to your family and friends on the matter, perhaps write a sternly worded letter, or contact Fair Go.
In today’s age of social media the options are endless. People now start wars with brands on Twitter every day or get counseling and freebies through online helplines. But, if your car is playing up, there’s seemingly only one real course of action on social media; blow it up.
This is exactly what one Tesla Model S owner in Finland, Tuomas Katainen, has done … with the help of The Bomb Dudes on YouTube.
Katainen reported that he initially enjoyed owning his 2013 Model S, until it decided to throw a litany of error codes at him. After a month of waiting he was informed that the car’s issues couldn’t be repaired unless he bought a new battery pack from Tesla at the bargain price of €20,000 ($33,365).
It’s worth remembering that, given the car is (or was) almost 10 years old, it’s no longer covered under warranty. Should a failure like this have happened while the car was new or near new, it would’ve been covered under warranty.
Anyway, rather than pay the large sum or walk the slippery slope with a car that might be a terminal lemon, Katainen decided to vent his frustrations in the most destructive of fashions; by getting a YouTube channel to load his car with 30kg of explosives.
The explosion itself is a satisfying watch for those who like a bit of destruction on a Monday. The slo-mo footage in particular is fascinating, showing the light travelling along the fuse taped all around the car before the car explodes into a million pieces. Complete with a pretend Elon Musk behind the wheel.
Initially it appears the Model S goes from complete car to pure carbon and plastic confetti in the blink of an eye, but the post-explosion clean-up reveals a few portions that remained somewhat intact, including a wheel and a few panels.
Tesla’s Apple-like parts and service model is well documented, with the brand well known for trying to keep its full repair model in-house, with owners reporting big repair bills (with minor issues often triggering huge parts replacement programs) and lengthy delays.
