Albuquerque Service Center

I headed off to the Tesla Service Center north of Albuquerque at 8am. It was just five minutes from the Hotel we stayed in. When I arrived I saw just six Tesla’s plugged in charging and not much else. It didn’t look very open. I approached someone at the Service Center and they asked how they could help. I asked if they were open to which he said no, not yet. I explained what was wrong with our car. They had no techs at the service center so he couldn’t offer any service at all. He said any garage can remove the broken Aero Shield until I can get to a Service Center. I asked if there was any problem driving without the Aero shield and he said that if road debris hit the drive unit, which would now be exposed the repair cost could be high. He directed me to a Service Center at Santa Fe which he assured me was open.

Albuquerque to Santa Fe

We checked out of the Hotel and headed for Santa Fe. This started to feel like a wild goose chase. We supercharged at Sante Fe and discovered the Service Center is twenty miles north of the city. Just like at Albuquerque. Are Tesla favoring low rent districts?

Santa Fe to Cuyamungue

We set off for the Santa Fe Service Center. We headed into Santa Fe and out the other side. I joked we were headed for the mountain range ahead of us. Turns out it was no joke. we climbed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and crested the pass. This felt very very wrong, what on earth was a Tesla Service Center doing out here? We descended the mountain and into a valley arriving at a town called Cuyamungue. We found the Service Center and were greeted by Brian. I explained our dilemma and he said he would fit us in given we were on the road. After checking the vehicle in he asked us if we were up for lunch. “Yes” I said somewhat surprised. Brian explained that he would drop us off at the Casino next door for lunch and we could call when we were ready to return. What great service!!!

I remarked how far away from Sante Fe we were and Brian explained that due to dealership laws in New Mexico prohibiting Tesla from having a Service Center in the state, Tesla could only build a service center on Tribal Lands which were exempt from the regulations. This explained why the Albuquerque Service Center is also out of town, on tribal lands also. Now it made sense.

This is the first time Karen and I have ever visited a casino! It certainly was very glitzy. We found a restaurant upstairs. We had the best Mexican food we have ever had. Much better than the famous restaurant at Sedona. This is what authentic Mexican tastes like. Yum! It was only $30 for the two of us.

We called the service center. A Model Y pulled up to pick us up. The Tesla employee offered us a demo drive. We respectfully declined; he was clearly crestfallen. Tesla are pushing people to take demo drives. Our car was ready in under two hours after arriving and we thanked everyone for a great job and headed back on the road. The car was so much better, the car drove so quietly now. It felt like we had found an oasis in the Arizona desert. The day started off very shaky, but now we had just had the best Mexican food ever and the best Auto Service ever. Thank you Tesla Santa Fe and the Nambe Pueblo Tribes at Cuyamungue.

Cuyamungue to Santa Rosa

It was such a relief to be able to travel at normal highway speeds without the prospect of having to pull over and duct tape the car again. It was just a short hop back to Santa Rosa, we didn’t have to back track through Albuquerque, there was a more direct route. Finally we were back on I-40 heading in the right direction.

Santa Rosa to Tucumcari

After a short 14 minute charge at Santa Rosa we headed to Tucumcari the next reasonably sized city along I-40. Once we arrived we found ourselves charging in the Holiday Inn parking lot and decided we had had enough fun for today and reserved a room while supercharging. Tucumcari is a city which serves truckers and the gas stations had large parking lots for the truckers to park up. The Holiday Inn looked a bit worn out from the outside, but they had renovated the rooms well and the room was one of the best we had had. It wasn’t cheap however at $181.