The reincarnation of totaled Teslas—in Ukraine

Cars deemed unfixable in North America are resurrected in Eastern Europe.

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[TakeABabyLeaveABaby]

people keep buying them so they obviously don't care much about it.

No, people don't know about it. This is a failure of education

 

[TakeABabyLeaveABaby]

I wonder how much of the reason North American repair shops won't touch these cars is the dearth of technicians, and how much is liability aversion.

There are plenty of techs working in other jobs because being a tech doesn’t pay anything. Often it's below minimum wage once you account for buying your tools.

 

[TakeABabyLeaveABaby]

Most car buyers will go for a used up market car rather than a new econobox.

Manufacturers seem to be intentionally making "econoboxes" unattractive. Toyota is bucking the trend by making the Prius more and more normal every year at least

 

[TakeABabyLeaveABaby]

I was with you until this objectively false claim:

They really aren't any less safe than the brand new vehicle.

No. Frame damage is not repairable, in the US or Ukraine or anywhere. Damage to the frame can permanently ruin the vehicle's crash performance.

 

[TakeABabyLeaveABaby]

Ukraine is one of the few places on Earth Cybertrucks being able to take a few bullets would actually be a useful important feature.

A valuable featire in Ukraine, and the US

 

[TakeABabyLeaveABaby]

That's true (especially about the tools). However it is a career where the absolute best can make money. Our best technician made over $250,000 in a year just turning wrenches. He even agreed to take a massive pay cut to be promoted to foreman.

It's just a tough job that not everyone can or wants to do and I don't recall anyone making much over minimum for the first five years or so.

The tools thing is a real struggle but frankly that's a problem across many trade and goes all the way back to a time when folks had to make their own tools.

My boss right now was a master tech and he got out of wrenching because of the office politics. If you piss off the head guy, he can retaliate by only giving you oil changes all day while the lucrative jobs are going to the guys who kissed his ass better. That's obviously not unique to wrenching, but in other fields it may not affect your paycheck so drastically