Steering wheel in 1-week-old Tesla Model Y "suddenly fell off while driving"

Owner of a Tesla Model Y in the US tweeted at Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc, saying that his steering wheel fell off while driving.

The owner, who goes by Prerak Patel on Twitter, stated that he took delivery of his Tesla Model Y on 24-January 2023 and was driving the car on a highway when the steering wheel suddenly detached from the column.

He added that he was fortunate there were no other cars behind and was able to pull over to the divider. This was tweeted on 30-January 2023 and has since garnered over 1.8m views.

Prerak had the vehicle towed to a Tesla service centre to have it checked and was billed USD 103.96 for the repair. However, the invoice was later updated to remove the repair cost after Prerak lodged a complaint.

In yet another tweet tagging Elon Musk, “Am I responsible for manufacturing defect? 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.”

Also read: Indonesia's investment minister is confident that Tesla will be injecting money into the country

Prerak said that he lost trust in Tesla and requested the car to be returned along with a full refund. Unfortunately, a Tesla representative said that the company does not have a return policy and suggested reaching out to the sales teams to explore options.

Also read: Tesla Model 3 & Model Y launched in Thailand, from RM 221k, up to 681 km range