Be careful when driving yore TESLA CAR because the wheels might fall off!!

Pete Cordaro was creeping down a dirt road in his 2013 Tesla Model S electric car, on a Sunday outing with his wife to hunt mushrooms in the Pennsylvania woods, when he encountered a pothole and then heard a loud crack.

“The front of the car just dropped,” he said. “The left front wheel just detached from the car.”

When Tesla picked up his car, Mr. Cordaro was at first told he would have to pay for the repairs because they were from normal wear. After pressing his case with a Tesla manager, he was told the company would pay part of the cost — as long as he signed a nondisclosure agreement.

But he was nevertheless upset with how Tesla has dealt with what he thinks could pose a serious safety concern. “If it had happened on the highway, it could have been catastrophic,” Mr. Cordaro, 61, said by phone while driving his Model S.

The owner of a vending machine company in Connellsville, Pa., about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, he said he was a Tesla fan and had already put down deposits to buy two Model 3 compacts when they come out in a year or so. “I just want them to look into this and do the right thing,” he said.

Mr. Cordaro said he was further annoyed because Tesla, in its blog post about the Model S suspension and confidentiality agreements, suggested his breakdown had resulted from hard driving.

The company said he lived on a long dirt road and noted that his car was “caked with mud” when it was picked up — information that Mr. Cordaro called “a fabrication.”

“I wasn’t out four-wheeling in the car,” he said. “I live on an asphalt road and have maybe driven on dirt roads 10 times.”

[link to www.nytimes.com]