Impressed is one way to put it—my partner would call it insanity at this point. I have looked into early lease termination for the two we are leasing, since one employee in particular has been fed up with his since the first winter he had his truck (we're just coming up on two years into a three year lease).
Buffalo resident here. I have similar issues. The brakes don't warm enough to "dry off" in the winter, and salt water corrodes the pads to the rotors overnight. When I leave in the morning I've seen the yellow "power bar" on the dash reach ~30-40% up before the truck will move and when it lets go it's loud enough to wake people up in the house.
After the first pad/rotor job at just over 19k, I had the very same thought. This was around a year after they added the blended braking option, and I assumed this may well have been why there was premature failure. I turned this off on my truck and my father's—then my truck needed brakes a few months later at ~23k miles. One thing I noticed was that my truck frequently has almost no regen—even in "ideal" conditions for full regen (~60-70º F ambient/pack temp, ~70% SOC). I have a bunch of photos of my truck having no regen in these conditions. I have brought it up several times, and always gotten the "we can't find anything" response. I notice it especially after AC charging.
) and its second full HVAC replacement.
It's our experiences that sadden me. I really wanted these vehicles to be as dependable as the Tacoma I had before this truck, or the Frontier my father had before his early Tesla Model S (a whole other service nightmare). I'm really hoping that they improve component design and sourcing quality in R2 (it seems they likely have) and Gen 3. Gen 2 obviously made significant improvement to many areas of the vehicle, but suspension/brakes don't seem to be significantly improved enough for me to trust them, and they seem to be one of the real killers on these vehicles (from our personal experience, and others' such as yourself).
Push for buybacks. Push hard.
I definitely hear people like you and admit to feeling a bit jealous—I wish we could say the same with even one of our four trucks!
If you read my post a few above yours, I go into more detail. I'm currently backing the most recent theory proposed by a mobile tech doing our fifth brake job—I think the aero design doesn't allow for debris to be cleared like most other vehicles when driving in the wet. This, combined with our corrosive winter environment (so much salt use in our area—it's awful) and many dirt roads seem to be a brake killer.
Yikes! All out of pocket? How much is that going to run you? This is exactly the trap I'm holing people don't fall into! And I can't imagine a more comparitively vehicle—friendly environment than Florida... Except perhaps the salty air and humidity/heat? I have no experience, just speculating since it's flat and doesn't have winters to speak of. Is that where your truck has spent its whole life?
After the first few wintery days I have always said it was "another vehicle designed by people living in California" (the othersbeing Teslas). Sure, they bring them to AK for some testing, but they don't know what living through a winter is like. The snow and ice buildup in various places alone is infuriating. The lack of proper de-icing/windshield wiping when it's slushy/salty/damp/cold can be downright dangerous. And there are so many points of failure that continual salt/slush conditions seem to bring about (I had wheel speed sensor/harness failure that threw me into turtle mode four times before it was finally fully fixed—the sensor harness plug was laughably poorly corrosion-proofed given its location right on the front damper leading to the front hub).
). I wish they were more receptive to my feedback about these things—I have tried (and failed) to get anyone's attention in any meaningful way.
If you look back a few posts, I go into more detail about this. The most compelling theory I've heard is that the brakes don't get enough airflow to clear themselves under wet driving conditions. This was floated by a field tech on our most recent pad/rotor replacement (our 5th such replacement, also just under 20k miles). I have personally tried my best to make sure my pads/rotors are cleared, though I can't say for certain that the other three trucks have had the same diligence since I'm not putting the miles on them. Mine just needed a second set of pads and rotors at a little over 40k miles (the last 20 of whichI was very consciously trying to use them enough, but not too much, and wash the calipers as best I could now and then).
I've asked, but haven't gotten a straight answer about whether there's anything preventative that can be done. My understanding is that the condensate drain fails, which backs water up to the HVAC unit initially, and then that can crack, which will then back water up into the cabin. Apparently it doesn't always fail in the same way, and isn't visible. My understanding is that they haven't "fixed" the issue yet (at least with a redesigned part). Ironically, this issue cropped up on a Gen 1 loaner I had while mine was in getting its HVAC fixed the first time.
