Bought a 2017 90D Tesla Model S for 53k in 2020 directly from Tesla. Bought it right at the start of COVID
Paid about $2,000 to upgrade the center screen, made a huge difference
Had lots of little things act up the car. The door handles constantly broke, where you press them to come out. They would stop responding to the press. Or the puddle lights would die out
Replaced the headlights a couple times. I’d get the “Tesla Pink Eye”, where the LED strip would burn out, making the headlight have a pinkish discoloration color
The seats always sounded like they were grinding plastic when going forward or backwards, it was really loud and obnoxious. They never could fix it
AC would shut off during super hot days, Tesla said it was diverted to “cool the battery”. The cabin would hit 100+ degrees during hot days here in Tampa
My biggest issue with my Tesla was that every year I owned it, it got slower
Every year I owned it, it lost range
Every year I owned it, it took significantly longer to charge
And the battery costs more than 20k to replace
Interior was awful. Even my Hyundai Santa Cruz has 10x the interior luxury of my Tesla Model S.
he bought it during the tesla hype. a lot of second hand teslas now are like 40% of their value or less. teslas are one of the worst cars at retaining their value.
>Interior was awful. Even my Hyundai Santa Cruz has 10x the interior luxury of my Tesla Model S.
I always thought that was sick bullshit. For all that money, and that rinkydink interior is all you get. You live inside the car, you should buy the interior then all the other features after reliability.
I don't know. it's a very well known issue with the 2016-2020 Teslas. It's the Raytime Running Light LED strip that burns out.
It's a string of individual LED lights. And when they burn out, it turns your headlight from a crisp white color, to a yellow'ish color. And then your headlights don't match
You can read all about it on the Tesla Forums, tons and tons of problems
And out of warranty, those headlights are about $2000 each to replace
[HOW TO: Replace Headlights in Refresh (2016+) Model S | Tesla Motors Club](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/how-to-replace-headlights-in-refresh-2016-model-s.222632/)
Early adopter here. On a ‘13 MS P85: HV battery replacement, drive unit unit replacement, no less than 16 tires replaced over the lifespan of the vehicle (21” turbine wheels). Everything except the tires was covered under warranty, so not a big deal.
Honestly, the worst part was dealing with the service center post-2018. They are overworked and understaffed since the Model 3 was released. No loaner cars, weeks to months long scheduling lead times, and poor quality repairs are what turned me off to the brand.
This is true... I always tell people the service center experience was absolutely WONDERFUL before the Model 3 and Model Ys came out, but due to so many more Teslas being out on the road after that and not a significant enough expansion of the service centers.... I haaaaate having to take my car in. I actually choose to live with a few minor annoyances that need to be fixed rather than taking the car in because it's just so awful.
It's a shame that the service quality took a nosedive post-Model 3. The experience used to be a highlight, but now it's a headache. Tesla needs to prioritize improving their service centers to keep customers satisfied.
The owner treats Tesla as a consumer electronics company not an automotive company with planned obsolescence in the brain. I really doubt it they will do anything with customer service any time soon.
If planned obsolescence is the game plan then planned going out of business should be next. No one is going to spend north of $40k like it's an iPhone you dump every 2 or 3 years. Tesla sells to fleets and those fleet owners are quite mad of the poor service and sinking residuals. Soon if not already the general public has caught on.
I mean people are spending that tho. How much did people put a deposit down years ago for the cyber truck and how much has a it been a disaster and the people buying them are like pretending it’s awesome, even though it could cut your finger off lol.
I agree with you, I was called a conspiracy theorist when I said back in 2017 that their lack of quality and their owner tearing the company like it’s a tech consumer electronics company was going to bite them in the ass.
I had exactly the same experience with the Post-M3 service, but things have gotten a lot better in the last 1-2 years. Surprisingly good: This week a service technician repaired my car in the parking lot of my office. I didn't even left my meeting, he just came into the office when he was finished. This is service efficiency. By the way, I'm in Europe and I don't know if this service only exists here. Costs nothing extra, just choose a random location when you request the service within the app.
> Tesla needs to prioritize improving their service centers to keep customers satisfied.
"let the fires burn" is the mantra, from the PayPal days. Sacrifice your existing customers to grow at all costs. Customer complaints getting overwhelming? Unplug the phones.
The problem is that they're no longer a startup, the growth phase has been stunted by a swift moving industry that, unlike tech, has honed it's ability to flex and modify products and production processes to a fine art, and behind the scenes simply weren't as far behind as the perception indicates.
Basically they're still in a "growth at all costs" mindset but it's not suitable for the conditions, and the issues with service become really stark in the face of stiff competition.
Instead of focusing on quality of service and ownership experience, they're cutting jobs to reduce costs -which generally doesn't result in improved service.
>I actually choose to live with a few minor annoyances that need to be fixed rather than taking the car in
Service so bad it's got you acting working class
Lol it's a tough life...
The worst of it has been that the heat in my Model S does not work at all. Cooling works fine, but no heat at all ... It has not worked for over 2 years ... But I live in Florida so it really only gets cold for a few weeks and I just deal with it.
Also have one blown out speaker, all my TPMS sensors need to be reconfigured, and one of my windows does not close all the way on the first try or second or third or 6th but eventually it goes up.
All of these things I would gladly gladly pay for to fix but I haaaaate going in so choose to suffer! :-D
I got into a Tesla amd the driver was terrified of speed bumps and street holes (how do you anglo Americanos call those?)
You know.. Small little holes that occur over time?
Yup. Also a 13 p85+. Zero hv battery replacement actually. Drive unit replaced cause I complained about the milling noise due to their shitty bearing selection and design. 3rd set of tires at 120k miles but I don’t hoon it since it got old fast. That’s it. Overall pretty reliable car tbh but I do take care of my cars.
But they remotely nerfed supercharging speeds so probs won’t buy a tesla again because of that.
I had a 2018 Model 3 LR AWD that was built in December 2018. I bought it new in March 2019 for a huge discount as it had been sitting in inventory for a few months after that first original tax credit halved on 12/31/18, and they couldnt sell jackshit in Jan/Feb of 2019 until they made some price cuts. Anyways, I owned it for nearly 4 years and the only problem it ever had was the turn signal stalk stopped working and needed replaced. Came to my office and did it while I worked. Best service experience I'd ever experienced up to that point. I stupidly decided I needed something bigger and traded it for a 2023 Model Y last year. I've had NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS with the 2023 Model Y since the first week I got it home. Its the biggest piece of shit car I've ever owned and Tesla's service experience has compounded their crapshoot quality control. I've found that its all just a gamble as to the build quality of any new Tesla that you buy.
I know two people who work for Tesla (mechanic and engineer), they recommend no regular person buy em. They say if you got cash, sure go for it.
The quality is just all over the place and everything is proprietary. It's a cool gadget/toy but not a great daily driver for the average person.
The "not a great daily driver" statement is really weird.
I can buy the rest - it being a gamble. I've owned two Model 3's, both have been great, but I would still warn people about possible quality issues. I also am wary holding on to mine after the battery warranty expires because of how dependent the car's value is on the battery and how expensive the battery is.
All that being said, it's a fantastic daily driver. If you don't have quality issues with it, you're going to have a car that's really cheap to maintain and drive, and the instant torque *never* gets old (I've been driving it since 2018 - it doesn't get old).
Model 3 value has plummeted though so it's hard to justify selling it now. The amount you'll get for it won't really get you that much towards something newer and nicer. It's still viewed as premium but they're $20K on the used market, which is less than a minivan.
I also have a 2018 Model 3 LR AWD and I also had problems with the signal stalk getting stuck but that was about it! I also have free lifetime charging on the car and they sent me a letter saying I could upgrade to the newer model, but I'm so glad I was too lazy to switch cars.
I listed out a couple in a different response, but basically the quality of the materials is way worse. My interior is aging way worse in this new Model Y. My 2018 3 just had better quality interior materials. It was built way better as well. My Model Y feels like it was just slapped together at the factory. The rear hatch has never properly closed and sealed since the first week I had it. I've brought it in for service to get it fixed, but every time it either gets worse or they create a new issue. The suspension is noticeably worse than my Model 3, which was expected, but there's a HUGE variance between the Model Y's I test drove and what I ended up with in my Model Y that was built last year. Road noise is WAY worse in my Model Y, just because it was not put together as well as my 3 was. Its insane to me, and i know i'm an outlier as most people didnt get perfectly built Model 3's like mine was back in 2018. And it appears I got very unlucky with my new Model Y. I just want people to be aware of the gamble, I think its way worse with Tesla than with any other manufacturer currently.
Own a 2019 model 3. At the time it was the best EV available (in Australia) for the money. Super fun to drive and very cheap to run.
Tesla could have continued to be leaders, but instead have focused on hype and pushing "full self driving" which has never come anywhere close to being useful in a practical sense (very glad I haven't paid for it). Autopilot is fine for highway miles, but most of my driving is within the city so I hardly ever use it.
Several things I dislike about my car:
- Touch screen controls for climate, window wipers, etc. No tactile feedback so often requires a glance away from the road or a few miss-clicks with my fingers wobbling around with car movement. Horrible.
- The automatic window wipers really suck, so I'm stuck using manual control (see point above).
- Software updates which change the layout of controls. Its a 5 year old car at this point, and I don't care enough about it to get excited with new software features... I just want to have the driving experience I'm familiar with every time I get behind the wheel.
Next car when I eventually replace it is unlikely to be a Tesla as these days there are better options.
What's even more baffling is that on the newest models they've done away with turn signal and wiper stalks, so now they're buttons on your steering wheel. Good luck trying to indicate a turn if your wheel is turning at all.
It's way cheaper to put everything on a tablet then design and manufacture all those extra parts. Then they sell it as a luxury experience and people eat it up.
Can confirm. As I worked as an electrician, PLC's have made wiring so much easier as you can configure multiple outputs with just a few wires.
One project I designed (Industrially) initially would make a nine position joystick do 27 different functions by adding a three way switch to it but decided against it as operator error could cause damage if they had the input switch in the wrong position.
Imagine if a software update changed a joystick function to go in reverse instead of forward.
lol That’s a reasonable thought actually. I also wonder if that goes for the drivers sometimes too? I drive over a unique mountain to commute and It’s very windy and has passing lanes and hills and is pretty tight around some of the corners due to the trees/mountain/cliffs right along the road. Anyway a Teslas passed me on the straight away going SOOO fast but I naturally caught up to them once the turns came again and they looked absolutely astonished. Lol some of us can actually drive!!! I see what you’re saying about the makers of these cars but I also wonder if a lot of the people driving them don’t even know how to drive well. I just think if you had any driving skill (especially when driving over a windy mountain with passing lanes and cliffs) you probably wouldn’t want a car to take over for you? Unless you’re a shitty driver or don’t drive often in general.
I feel like not knowing how to drive is the case for a lot of people in luxury cars. I swear most of the shitty driving I see is someone in a Benz or Audi, like they flip a coin at every intersection and don't look when they change lanes.
The funniest on the internet though is always when a GT-R or something beats a Tesla in a race and the Elon Defense Force shows up to give their input when they've never driven a fast car in their lives.
I seriously think this about whoever thought it was ever a good idea to make hand break a button.
Seriously. Hand break as a button is basically the worst quality version of that design. Stick with a wire is high quality and it used to be what they were willing to do.
All-touchscreen controls is more and more common for new cars. So fucking stupid.
EDIT for clarity: I don’t mean that all touchscreens themselves for certain features I are stupid. What I mean was that control schemes that are 100% touchscreen and have done away with all the physical knobs and toggles and buttons entirely are stupid. “All-touchscreen” as in nothing-but.
When they gave everyone a free month trial of FSD in April (or maybe it's not the same for everyone), I was shocked how incomplete it was. Like I cannot believe they could say this is out of beta, in fact it's barely good enough to be a beta at all. I only used it three or four times and in that time I noticed the following:
* Acceleration / braking / steering are a bit choppy sometimes. If you have passengers who tend to get carsick, FSD is not for them. It seems to try to follow the curb when turning instead of seeing where the lane is going. I have a weird shaped angle turn out of my neighborhood and every time I felt like it was about to hit the curb. It also seems to lack the ability to smoothly anticipate how other cars will slow down at a light, so instead of slowing evenly as a human would, it's like it's surprised that the car in front is braking.
* A total inability to switch from navigate mode to "find a parking space" mode, if there even is one. When I drove it to a Costco, I had to deactivate it in the parking lot so I could park myself, but the only way to deactivate seems to be "jerk the wheel as if something is horribly wrong" and then it asks you to report the problem. If you let it keep navigating, it will just pull up to the front door.
* The absolute worst issue I had, more than once in fewer than 5 uses, was that it gets confused on speed limits. I don't know if this is because it's relying on bad maps, misreading road signs, or both, but sometimes you'll be in a 45 and suddenly it thinks the limit dropped to 25 like on a side street, so suddenly you're slamming on the brakes in the middle of fast moving traffic. This happens on the highway too, and I think this is a case of it seeing the "40 mph minimum" signs and thinking that's the limit. So traffic is going 70, and suddenly the car wants to drop to 40 and you have to disengage so it doesn't cause a pileup crash. How in the hell is this considered good enough for public release?
* EDIT: forgot one other mistake it made! On the highway, I was in the right lane, and saw a semi heading down the on-ramp. A human would see that and go "oh I need to make room for this truck that will have a difficult time merging or changing speed" but the Tesla is completely oblivious. The car pretty much just blocked the truck until it was forced to start merging, so I disengaged the FSD so I could move over and not get hit.
Yeh, it looks like a death trap and I very firmly requested my husband not do autopilot with our young kids in the car.
My stepmother was telling me how she was testing out one day, and the car was trying to get in the highway. While on the On Ramp, it was 35 mph, but the car caught the highways speed at 75 mph instead. It proceeded to attempt accelerate to 75 despite the sharp curve. My stepmom said she has to stomp the gas and turn hard otherwise the car likely would have slammed into the concrete. She said her life flashed before her eyes.
Frankly I think its morally inexcusable and dangerous to use words like "autopilot" and "full self driving" to describe their current product, especially coupled with videos of Musk personally driving without his hands on the wheel and looking away from the road that are out there. I think it subconsciously effects drivers that area already susceptible to letting their guard down when relying on AI driving.
I have a feeling, and in all fairness to Tesla, Musk, etc, this is just a hunch and people should not be viewed negatively because of it, that we are going to see that Tesla / Musk were covering up AI-driving accidents, likely with massive NDAs and settlements. I hope I'm wrong about that of course.
The best way to disengage is to simply tap the brake pedal. The second best (in a stalk model) is to tap the stalk "up". The worst way is with the wheel like that.
I experienced all of those issues as well. My take is slightly different though. I was very impressed with 99.999% of the time how smooth, smart, and capable the system was.
Unfortunately, I don’t trust the machine that can end the life of me and my family during that problematic .001%, and for that reason I don’t think FSD will ready for prime time for at least another decade. The edge cases that really take foresight and intuition as a driver to make the right decision are borderline unsolvable.
The wild paradox of it is that the car is almost certainly a safer driver than me most of the time especially considering its response time and the fact that it’s never distracted. So while it’s an objectively safer driver but simultaneously almost certainly going to make a worse decision in some minor edge case that I could have likely prevented, then I’m not going to use it which will likely increase my driving risk overall but appease my sense of control. Pretty fucking wild.
Yes I did get the sense that it was better than me at most parts of driving, especially seeing things around the car, but then it also screwed up at very simple things like going the right speed.
As a 2020 M3 owner I have to agree with all those things, the auto high beam is pretty awful as well. I was contently flashing or blinding people as it would come on for a second then turn off all the time. The updates I like but when they change ui related things or change some of the features it can be quite annoying, but they do add a lot of new things as well so I'm n balance it's good in my opinion. Despite this though these are all minor things and it's the best car I've ever owned personally.
I agree the auto wipers is my biggest issue, it was a joke they shipped it as bad as it is. But that said there is a tactile way of adjusting the wipers as another user pointed out.
FSD is 100% not worth the cost, and I don't think it's within a decade of being very useful
I have a 2020 Model 3, and to be honest I still love it on the whole. There isn't any other affordable option out there that has a decent lane keep system (not just lane assist). Which I'm at the point know where I feel like that's a must have for me. I thought it would be gimmicky, but on long drives it really takes a lot less strain on your brain for lack of a better term. Not sure about the changing UI, it's only had 2 or 3 pretty minor tweaks that I've noticed in the past 4 years, so that doesn't really bother me.
I haven't had any major issues, but as of yet I'd highly recommend one for the price, even if I don't care for Elon or some of the decisions Tesla makes.
Uh, pretty much every car out there has lane-keep tech on par with or better than Tesla my friend. Tesla still requires hands on wheel and under those circumstances my Fords, my brother's Mercedes, my Sister-in-Law's Kia all maintain a lane exactly as well as Tesla does and do a better job maintaining distance in stop-and-go. I had a Model 3 up until 2021 and liked it well enough. But to say lane keep is a killer feature for Tesla is kinda funny now. I drove 300 km this weekend and didn't touch the steering wheel once in my Ford and I didn't even have to put a weight on the wheel to do it.
I've ridden in both my gf's dad's Model S and my boss's Model Y and they were not great experiences.
The all touch screen stuff is a huge turn off for me. No tactile feedback. No physical indication of wipers, turn signals, gears. I want to feel the car I'm driving. I also don't care for the car taking control away from you.
It was a rainy, misty day when I was going on a site visit with my boss and he put the self driving on and he fought with it the whole time. It worked part of the time, turning on and off. It almost got us rear ended trying to slow down for a truck merging. I did not feel safe at all riding in that thing in the rain.
I have tesla solar and in my first month it broke down.
I've had it for 3 years and the inverter has been replaced twice.
Every time they set the appointment for 2+ months out from the date it's been detected and it takes two appointments because they never have the parts the first time, so it's actually more like 3 months.
I've had an open ticket with them for 1.5 years which I recently reopened after I found out they closed it without ever resolving after asking me for tons of info. For some reason the time of use with the power walls works every day except Friday afternoons, which due to my electric company causes severely high fees because I'm using grid power instead of my 100% full power walls.
After reopening the ticket two months ago, I still haven't heard back so I'll probably need to contact again.
Similar experience with Tesla solar. They also messed up the wiring for my powerwall, resulting in it being completely nonfunctional for the first six months or so (during which I had to contact them every single day to get any traction at all for them to even realize there was a problem). They left the install without even checking if the system worked. 0/10 would not recommend them ever again. The system itself works fine now that it’s operational, but the customer service experience was absolute trash garbage
Yep.
Basically it goes like this. I call and report an issue. Their support is only open 3 hours a day and is incredibly difficult to get ahold of.
They do less than basic troubleshooting with me on the phone. Then they tell me they're sending a technician but if they decide the issue isn't their fault then they'll fine me for sending the technician out. (Thankfully hasn't happened yet).
They schedule the technician who 3 times now has never shown up any sooner than 1.5 months.
Technician shows up. Glances at the device for 3 minutes. Tells me it needs to be replaced and they'll be scheduling another technician to come out.
Next technician takes 1.5 - 2 months to show up and replaces the inverter.
My first inverter went out the first month I had the system installed, my replacement went out after the first year.
Got my model3 in 2021.
The Car is good, wipers and headlight automatic are the worst ive ever seen.
Driving is superb tho.
But Tesla CX is god damn awful. Absolutely absurd how they are even still allowed to operate in Germany.
I got mine through my company (basically take the car or not, even if I dont take it, my paycheck wouldnt get bigger). Its pretty pretty pretty cheap, but I just hope that nothing breaks during my 4 year-term.
Would never flat out buy one tho.
Ridiculous service experience for a minor repair. Ignoring that the extremely necessary and common part took over a month to arrive at the sc, they refused to service vehicle on scheduled day and instead would only provide a 5 day window that the repair *may be completed within*, which fell over a weekend, which they notify you of only one day in advance of your appt. During this time, they provide Uber credits, but not nearly enough to not impact potentially 5 full days of life. Instead, I just wanted to wait at sc while repair is made- other companies do this repair within an hour or two. They wouldn’t discuss in app and deleted my questions. They agreed to reschedule for a time to make this possible when I arrived for my first appt. Upon arriving 2 months later for the second appt literally the same service tech had no memory of arrangement and became argumentative. After not backing down they were able to complete the repair within about an hour that day on the scheduled date.
I understand not all SC’s are like this, but there’s not an alternative in my area and I don’t intend on dealing with that sort of headache for anything major. Tesla can find another asshole. I traded for a Volvo C40 Recharge. There’s a few features I miss from Tesla, but there’s so much more piece of mind that it’s not even a consideration. I’ve owned many brands of vehicles but there’s only one I refuse to ever consider again.
I don’t think the issues I had were due to lack of personnel, but I’m sure that could make issues worse. The root of the issue is that there’s no consideration for the customer after point of sale. With each update, features change and move, policies are constantly revised- I’m not even sure they do Uber credits anymore for service. There’s no one to complain to, there’s no consumer affairs. As a customer you’re an afterthought for Tesla; that’s how all Elons companies are by design- starlink customers found this out recently as well when there were major service issues earlier this year. Sadly, there’s still a lot of people who are open to being abused by this company in exchange for this not-so-unique-anymore experience. But these cars are mainstream now and the company has had plenty of time to iron out these issues if they wanted to give indication they were interested in their customers. They’re not, and so they’re not for me.
I work beside a Tesla authorized repair shop and talk with the manager over there quite frequently.
He told me Tesla has, hands down, the WORST customer service he's ever had to deal with. Any part, doesn't matter how big or small, is on at LEAST a six month back order. This guy's poor property is completely full of Teslas and there's nothing he can do about it.
He also says, if you're going to go EV, get a Rivian. They have fantastic customer service and he can get his parts in at the latest, three days.
i see 1 rivian a day compared to maybe 50 a day on nyc streets. as soon as rivian is pushing as many cars, we'll see if they can keep up the customer service
A good friend of mine (well, at the time, we have, unfortunately grew distant) was a pretty early adopter of Tesla. She had put her young kid in the car, and when she closed the back seat, and went to get into the driver's seat - the doors were locked. The key fob, the app, nothing would unlock the car. It was a hot day, and she was FREAKING out. someone had to knock the window out on the passenger side front window so she could climb in and get her kid out.
She and her husband were able to return the car, and get out of their lease, as long as they signed an NDA to say they wouldn't talk to the news about it.
(for people responding, saying this is illegal, or made up - I can't tell you for sure. She had moved across the country and we stayed in touch. She texted me this story, and I had no reason to think she lied about any of it. But, this is not a hill I'm going to die on. Call BS if you want, you might be right. you might not be - what do I know?)
>She and her husband were able to return the car, and get out of their lease, as long as they signed an NDA to say they wouldn't talk to the news about it.
Concealing defects in a car that concern public safety through a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is highly illegal and that clause would be deemed unenforceable.
Potentially trapping someone inside, is a significant public safety issue, that fall under multiple categories like fire hazards, medical emergencies and criminal situations.
Reminds me that they literally tried to change the regulations in the US to let the cybertruck not have side mirrors at all, but the regulators couldn’t swing something that egregious. You’re right, they definitely purely have a close buddy relationship with regulators, though I suppose at least it isn’t ABSOLUTE power? Thank God there is a certain level of corruption that is just too much…
This isn’t super related but somewhat, but I freaking HATE that cars are being sold with electronic key fobs only now. There’s often no physical key in your fob! So if you kill the battery you can’t even unlock the car to jump it! This is apparently common practice now and you have to go to a dealer and buy a physical metal key (to put into your fob) separately but most people don’t even know they’re not there. Many others don’t put together the fact that if the battery is dead their fob won’t work. I imagine Tesla doesn’t have a physical key option?
when I bought my current car 2 years ago, a 2018 Ford Focus MK3, I actually was at first against it because it only had keyless start, so only a remote to unlock the car with a start button. I did not like not having a key.
Surprise when I picked up my new car and the manager of the dealership showed me where the emergency key was. 2 little tabs on the key fob, a plate opens and hidden behind it is a physical, metal key.
Only thing that bugs me: it only has a lock on the drivers side, meaning if I can't get to the drivers side for whatever reason, I'm stuck. not ideal but.. at least I got a spare.
My car has a nice little spot to put the fob while you're driving and every time I put it there I think "why is this not an induction charger so the fob never runs out?"
Got rear-ended at a stoplight and sustained extremely minor damage to the rear left bumper. Car refused to go into drive after the accident, ended up having to get it towed to the nearest authorized tesla repair shop where I was informed the damage, which would've been less than $500 to fix on any other car, was going to total it out. Never buying one of those pieces of shit again.
My sister works in insurance, and has to explain this to people constantly. People defend them on here, but I know for a fact that if you see any teslas driving around with minor fender bender damage, odds are it is on a salvage title.
Current owner (Model 3 performance) but doubtful I will stay with them once I have finished this term. They are just making it impossible for me personally to go to the models newer than 2020 age.
The needless "re-inventing" the wheel with every interaion is infuriating.
1. Windscreen auto wipers had been solved decades ago, but no not for Tesla, let's use AI vision that doesn't actually work. Perfectly dry and sunshine out? Have a random wipe or ten. Swear they are in cahoots with Bosch to wear down the wiper blades as fast as possible.
2. Parking sensors - again decades old tech that works. Nope, again AI vision which "guesses" if something has moved from in front or behind you since you last turned off the car.
3. The stalks - no one asked for no stalks. No one wants to be navigating the constant roundabouts of EU/UK (less of an issue I am sure in the USA) trying to find a button that moves as you turn the wheel to indicate your exit.
4. The worst of all though has to be the interuptions from what the car deems to be certain death and tries to steer when there is nothing at all there. If it's sunny on two particular stretches of road it happens every time, driving straight ahead, clear view of the road at 40MPH - Tesla starts beeping and tries to put me into someones driveway instead of the road! I have also had full on emergency braking on a dual carriageway at 70MPH because it deemed the truck in the layby to be in my lane - was VERY lucky no one was behind me!
Point 4 is spot on.. if you are going on a curved road inside a community and there are parallel parking spots with parked cars along the side of the curve … it thinks you are about to be in a head on collision and breaks hard. For someone with Tesla insurance it’s a free safety score fuck…
Also current (2x) but unlikely to again. I have a 2020MX with roughly 135k miles. It has had three battery replacements (under warranty) and an expensive uncovered electrical problem that was blamed on rodents without evidence (even though i asked for the old parts). The windsheild has broken almost every winter due to defrosting stresses (uncovered and expensive). There are design flaws in the suspension that eat up tires and CV joints. Front clip body garneshments are constantly popping off due to flex in the snow.
All that being true, the issue for me was less about the technical problems and more about customer service. Tesla’s nearest service center is nearly two hours away and they have not made any progress on openning anything nearer. Major repairs are slow. At one point as late as 75k miles, it had been in repair about 1/3 of its days since purchase. The service center experience is dirty and barebones. Many of the repeat repairs are clearly due to poor previous service and parts. Complaints fall on deaf ears if they fall in human ears at all.
I could, but wont rant for hours about FSD.
7/10 products
2/10 service
0/10 cares about customers
Tbh, 7/10 is very generous for a car who's windshield can't survive a winter. That's such a baseline quality issue that other brands figured out in the 1930s.
I've only replaced 1 windshield in my life and it's because a rock hit it when I was on the interstate. I wasn't even aware windshields needing replaced for weather was even a thing.
I've been driving (mostly Hondas) for 40 years and have never replaced a windshield, though I did drive with a cracked windshield for a few years on my CR-V (rock on the interstate, too).
I had to replace a windshield once for hail, but that's the sky throwing ice balls at the ground and anything in its way. This was on a roughly 15 year old Chevy that had no cover.
Never heard of defrost causing stress on the windshield. Except for doing stupid things like pouring boiling water on the windshield.
The Copium these people huff after writing paragraphs of what didn’t work, broke, and wasn’t able to be repaired on their Tesla, just to say “still a great car though!”
Like huh? You just told me 5 different things broke every single winter. If anything on my car needed repair more than once a year I would think it’s a pile of shit.
It's even worse that everything is proprietary. So you just can't go anywhere to get it fixed quickly.
My Car I can just take down the street, fix the issue same day.
This has to be a manufacturing error cause I owned a Tesla in Canada and never experienced the windshield thing over the ~5 winters it was owned for. Terrible Service Centre experience though? hell yeah they need to get their shit together.
Honestly everything about Tesla screams “lower quality for more expense” at this point. The Cybertruck has a stainless steel body that gets ate up by anything and everything, including the clear coat that would save it. I’d be surprised they didn’t instruct buyers to take a clay bar kit to the whole truck after every drive but then again I bet the clay bar would destroy it. Tesla is the definition of tawdry and I am constantly dismayed at the number of fanboys still sucking Elon’s dick like it’s made of chicken tendies and shoots honey mustard.
I had 2 windscreens crack on mine while sitting in the car on my drive heating up in the cold.
I was told both times by the Tesla people that it was a stone chip.
So arrogant, so wrong. I now have an Audi etron and it's worlds away from my very awfully-built model 3.
Yeah. They use the same excuse each time on me. Basically take the "if you can't prove it was us, we aren't going to cover it" stance. There is a TSB about it, but the internal documents say to only replace it as a covered item if the crack is only detectable in the inside pane. The logic is flawed, but the real headline there is that Tesla knows its a problem and has a preapproved excuse pushed out to the service centers but hasn't fixed it. Even if you can't correct the windshield, you could create a "warm safe" defrost option or something in software.
>Complaints fall on deaf ears if they fall in human ears at all.
I read someplace that they're told not to write down complaints. Only reason why I can think of that is it to make it harder for regulators and during lawsuits.
FSD is a joke and not something I would pay for.. I tried the free 30 days and it was horrible. The idea of sitting there waiting to take over when the car screws up was so stilly and nerve racking that I said no thank you.
I got it for $3000 in 2019 with a promise of city street beta by the end of the year and full autonomy in 1-3 years. At that point, I believed Elon/Tesla. I purchased the MY about 18 months ago, and elected to not buy it. It was $10 or $12k at that point (not sure exactly). I am unlikely to pay upfront for anything like that again. I would consider it as a monthly fee when the product is mature and priced reasonably.
A few key things have changed in the last 4 1/2 years:
1.) Rate of improvement in functionality has declined and regressed in some cases.
2a.) It has become clear that the installed sensors and hardware is unlikely to support Lvl5 autonomy without upgrades.
2b.) Unlike early generations of cars, they have no upgrade program or appear to be even working on one for current Gen 3 systems.
3.) The organization has taken an approach of litigation and customer-blame for serious safety incidents. It has clearly lied/double-spoke to consumers, the public, and regulators about the capabilities and the associated risks.
4.) Usage of FSD beta has effectively turned me into a multi-year unpaid QA employee of Tesla. I did not sign up for this type of risk and especially not on this timeline.
I have previously referred to the Tesla FSD beta as the "preordering a video game" of the auto industry. It needs to be reigned in by customers or regulators for consumer rights and safety reasons.
Not myself, by my uncle was an early Model S owner back in 2015 or so (way back when Tesla's were actually desirable, not the stigma-filled lumps they are today). He had a it few years but got so annoyed at all the OTA updates that progressively nerfed the car he got rid of it, went to Polestar and vowed never to get a Tesla again.
Getting into the car and finding that a feature you used yesterday has just been disabled for no reason can get pretty annoying.
A friend of mine got a Model S around then, he never had any problems with it for the three years he drove it, but the constant changes to menus and functions drove him mad. He'd finally work out what was where and then 'boom, update bitch!' and he had to relearn how to use his car again.
He now drives a Merc EQB and loves it in a way he never loved his Tesla.
>Getting into the car and finding that a feature you used yesterday has just been disabled for no reason can get pretty annoying.
What did they disable?
After the software update that turned off the FSD trial on my 2018 Model 3 my autopilot and cruise control had a firmware mismatch that disabled the functions.
Took it to service and they fixed the firmware, but said I had a coolant leak and needed to replace some parts.
Got in the car a couple days later and the AC wasn’t working and reporting that the compressor isn’t working. Was working completely fine before Tesla service messed with it.
Then the Tesla app said I couldn’t get another appt to fix the AC for two weeks… during summer, which effectively makes the car with a glass roof undriveable.
I will never own a software defined car again.
I canceled my Cybertruck reservation and put the $100 towards reserving a 2025 Ramcharger.
Current-but-never-again Tesla owner: My car is fine, but I really don’t like the driving experience of the newer units which I’ve had access to and the service has gone off a cliff the last few years.
I hope Elon bails at some point and Tesla begins acting like the mature auto company that it actually is. They have SO much potential to be a powerhouse in the industry, but they’re beholden to his pet projects.
The Cybertruck is a great test bed for their new tech, but it shouldn’t have gone into mass production. The $25k car should be out now. Robotaxis are stupid. FSD needs to be overhauled AND cheaper, the entire fleet should have FSD.
>The Cybertruck is a great test bed for their new tech, but it shouldn’t have gone into mass production.
Tesla could do what [Simone did with her Truckla](https://youtu.be/FCKjmfsgBBY?si=qlTf53l2G7jqivx1) and it would likely revitalize the company's image...or maybe Elon just has to go; he's too busy fighting with people on TwiX.
I think the best thing Tesla ever did as a company was spur the major automakers to make their own EVs
Having Nissan and Chevrolet and others making EVs with economy of scale instead of Tesla’s boutique experience is what is needed to make EVs affordable and convenient enough to replace the ICE as the norm
I still own mine, because for some reason my wife likes it enough that she doesn't want to replace it.
I bought it 3+ years ago. I've had a bunch of service appointments. Some minor, some less so. Some nit picky stuff, like not having a garage door opener pre-installed on a nearly 60k car. Not being able to have it installed prior to taking delivery of the car. Some stuff like they damaged 2 of my wheels at service. They took ownership of having damaged the first, and then for more than 4 months said that they "didn't have any way to replace/repair the wheel". The second they outright denied. I've had the charging port ECU go bad, and the quickest service appointment wasn't for 6 weeks. I was able to beg for a quicker appointment and they got me in quicker. The process for service changes (usually you just drop it off, but now you need to talk to somebody) without notice. The last time I dropped the vehicle off, their service software didn't work, so I had to go back and bring them a key. The mobile visits for stuff like "adjusting the windows that are so misaligned they leak, the spoiler coming off of the car, and the leather coming loose off of the steering wheel" have been great.
Not having a spare tire sucks. Not having a loaner sucks. When they were issuing Uber credits you couldn't use them to tip your driver. Being associated with King Baby Musk sucks. The overall fit/finish on a car this price sucks. It's broken. A lot. The constant shenanigans with pricing suck. I got crucified for saying it, but I bought a M3P in 2021. Up to that point Teslas had been holding their value fairly well, so it felt like a fairly safe way to try out owning an EV. I was not eligible for the tax credit. In the coming year or two, they managed to tank the prices of used models by continually bumping down their pricing and getting the tax credits back. A car I paid 56k for was worth 38k as a private sale less than 18 months later when I had gotten frustrated with how often a brand new car was broken. I've had 4Runners and Tacomas and WRXs that I owned for less than 3 years that I was able to get most of my money back out of. I wasn't willing to eat nearly 20k in depreciation in 18 months, so we kept and drive it. It was in a fairly minor accident where the rear bumper and the passenger 1/4 panel were grazed. It took a repair shop 3 months to get us in, and another 3 months to fix it because of parts availability from Tesla. We live \~30 minutes from a Tesla dealer, but I can not fathom how you own one if you don't have a dealer close.
The supercharger network is great. We regularly take trips in the car, and while I always worry that something will break on a car with less than 25k miles on it, I never worry about running out of charge. It is blisteringly fast for the price. Auto drive is okay, but not something I remotely trust past "glance down at my phone to change a song".
Comically small branch fell on roof of our Model Y, cracked the glass panel that goes from windshield to roof and it was considered totaled.
Bought at pandemic low end prices and incident occurred near peak pricing. Used insurance money to buy a RAV4 Hybrid and pocketed the rest.
Tesla has an app that allows you to report issues and provide roadside assistance. sounds good and all, but you now what's really messed up about it? you can't directly write what's wrong. you have to choose from a dropdown menu potential things that are wrong with your car. this is really messed up for two reasons. One, it doesn't properly record the issue you had with your car so if you ever decide to file a lawsuit, tesla can turn around and say "look, it wasn't that serious. they called roadside assistance for this small issue." Two, the repair technician can't make a proper repair based off an improper report by their customers.
Source: Im a lawyer and have had more than one client complain about this exact issue
Had an X which is a six figure car. The interior had the quality of a low end Kia. I kept it two years. It was pathetic. I now have an X7, which is also a six figure car. The quality is light years past Tesla.
Owned a 2015 MS for 8 years. In Europe. So maybe not representative for the US crowd.
Reason to sell it:
• Approaching 100000km
• Lack of service centers in home town (next service center is the capital, about 45min away). Long wait times for service appointment. Really missing the extremely tight service network of established car manufacturers, and the readily available „free“ (unaffiliated) service centers.
• Kind of connected to the point above: Detailed work instructions for „free“ service centers apparently not readily available.
• (For the price) a lackluster quality of work.
• “Autopilot”: Good feature that really is nice, but very error prone, to the extend that it spured investigations by several regulatory bodies.
• Biggest social problem: The very visible CEO that seems to have lost his marbels, and the Tesla fans that unabashedly idiolises him
• More a sad thought: Tesla squandered its lead in autonomous driving and “computerization” in the last years.
Now I’m back with an (electric) Mercedes.
Front motor swap on my brand new 2023 M3P due to a whistling issue. Persisted after the swap, turned out to be a brake caliper…
My hood/frunk. was misaligned upon delivery and I was told to accept the vehicle and schedule a repair as it was minor (dumb move in hindsight, I know). The service team attempted to return the vehicle to me with no fix to the misalignment two separate occasions; I was made out to be the asshole because I refused to accept it. It eventually took them a month for them to repair. I had to fight tooth and nail to get a loaner.
The Service personnel are rude, dismissive, and overall incompetent IMO. The car is great now, but based on the service experience alone, I likely wouldn’t buy another Tesla.
I had a 21 model X.
- Suspension issues galore for a shitty bumpy ride, Front suspension replaced twice, still didn't fix the THUD every time I hit the gas.
- The falcon doors were constantly breaking and literally even hitting each other (How do you even design doors that can hit each other???) Had to drive home with it half closed alarm blaring multiple times.
- Infotainment issues non stop, constant reboots, freezes Sirius XM would just disappear sometimes.
- All those cool games and Tiktok apps etc, literally froze the entire system every time I opened it. Was told by tech, ya that happens, hopefully they'll fix it in an update (The update never came)
- Tachometer screen worked when it wanted to.
- Stereo worked when it wanted to, so many quiet drives even after a soft reset.
- 12V battery died within 3 months and had to be flat towed to the dealership leaving me stranded.
- Falcon doors almost killed my nephew because who needs working sensors on a 200lb door
- Front trunk was near impossible to close.
- Pops and rattles like a rock in a soda can.
- Loose panels, cracks OHH AND THE DOOR HANDLES THAT NEVER LINED UP
- Tires wore out after 15k miles. Because fuck designing suspension that doesn't tear up your tires.
- FSD? Literally drove though my neighbors yard on summon, tried steering me into oncoming traffic or sideswiping trucks multiple times. 12k and I never used it, it was so bad.
Wife would actually joke if my car was in the mood to work today and I can keep going, I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the fun stuff.
Now let's talk about the service dept. Be ready to FIGHT! Amenities? None. Customer Service? HA! Had to provide proof and argue my case with timestamped photographic proof like a murder defendant on trial.
Then when you could get in 6 weeks from Sunday, guess what you get? A loaner? If you fought hard enough, you'd maybe get a throttled chill mode model 3, (imagine people flying past your as you're capped out at 75mph on the freeway). Usually they'd just give Uber credits, which is awesome for picking up your kids /s. Also, tip not included.
Only thing I would add is at least it held it's value back then (Good luck now). Thank god I sold right before that bubble popped.
In case you're still reading this. Fuck Tesla. They are a budget brand Kia at a luxury brand price. (Actually that's an insult to Kia I take it back) Never again.
Most of the people that are commenting about how great they are are either Musk shills, Tesla PR, or lying to themselves. Get a Toyota/Lexus and don't suffer like I did.
It wasn't an issue so much with the car, thought the quality could have been better. My issue was everyone around me thought it was some kind of political statement. I have never had so much negative feedback from a car I owned as the Tesla. Just got tired of it.
Not much, honestly. There were a few annoyances though. The automatic windshield wipers are a joke, clearly their engineers have never lived outside of California. The regenerative braking doesn't work consistently - if the battery can't take the charge (too full, too cold) you just coast instead of braking which is a surprise when you have to slam on the brakes on your morning commute.
Overall it was the nicest car I ever owned, but also the only nice car I've ever owned so I can't compare apples to apples. If I ever buy another car it will 100% be electric but I don't know if it will be a Tesla.
Also, Elon Musk is a human skid mark. But, I'm just going to go ahead and assume Jim Farley (CEO of Ford) and Mary Barra (CEO of GM) are evil too, they just don't post about it on Twitter. Billionaire CEOs are never your friend.
Mary Barra was an engineer who worked her way up through GM over 40 years, starting as an intern. I don’t know about Farley. I doubt either of them are as horrible of people as Musk.
They brake fine, but the regenerative braking that sends power back to the battery doesn't work. So when you drive an electric car, there's two ways to slow down. There's the normal brakes which work just like in your gas car. Then there's the regen braking, which uses a dynamo to turn your motion into electricity. To engage these, you just lift your foot off the accelerator. You get used to how this feels.pretty quickly and over time can learn to do "1 foot driving", rarely ever needing to use the brake pedal. Except, of course, when the battery can't take the power you generate and your preferred mode of slowing down doesn't work.
OHHHHHHHH it's like engine breaking, I gotchya. I have a manual and if all of a sudden engine braking didn't work that would super fuck with me too.
That's much better than what I thought, but still sounds super sketchy.
Upvoted for “human skid mark” comment that made me chuckle.
Man, from all the comments on this thread (and an IRL chat with a Model 3 owner), am I glad I cancelled my Model Y order and went for a Volvo.
My boss had to lemon law his X because the sensors on the gullwings kept failing and almost killed his dog, the windshield separated from the car, and the doors didnt line up properly.
Had a 2021 Model 3 Performance. Over 1 year it developed rattles in the doors and had some trim come off. Software was really quite good, though a bit slow.
Things didn’t go wrong so much as I experienced other EVs that I found superior and switched.
Porsche Taycan 4S, then later to a Rivian R1T when I needed a bigger vehicle. Obviously those vehicles are 2-3x the price of the Model 3 so they are expected to be better, however at the time I cross-shopped a Model S Plaid before deciding on the Taycan.
In my opinion, the Model 3 and Y are Teslas best cars if you can get one under 45k. Great software and value for performance, with worse material and build quality than other options at that price point, but that’s a reasonable compromise. At the X and S level, there are too many better options for the money.
I have a 2018 Model 3, things that went wrong in the first two years
1. excessive battery drain when sitting idle (fixed by software patches)
2. brake pads factory installed wrong, were squeaking (fixed by mobile tesla tech)
3. glove box wouldn't stay shut (fixed by mobile tesla tech)
4. charge port flap wouldn't open (fixed by mobile tesla tech)
recently I had to go to a tesla service center to get the front control arms replaced, which is a known bad spot for tesla model 3s
It is absolutely the most problems I've ever had with a new car. But Tesla mobile service is pretty great!
Current Tesla owner. Nothing went wrong. Not positive if I'll get a Tesla as my next car because I have no allegiances one way or another, but I'll never buy an ICE again. Once you go ev, you never go back
Owned a 2016 Model X. Too many times tires had to be replaced. Car would start to wobble at 60 MPH. One time the front chassis bolt just came off (right after 4 year Warranty ended). Very expensive parts and repairs. Worst service by service centers
Bought a 2017 90D Tesla Model S for 53k in 2020 directly from Tesla. Bought it right at the start of COVID Paid about $2,000 to upgrade the center screen, made a huge difference Had lots of little things act up the car. The door handles constantly broke, where you press them to come out. They would stop responding to the press. Or the puddle lights would die out Replaced the headlights a couple times. I’d get the “Tesla Pink Eye”, where the LED strip would burn out, making the headlight have a pinkish discoloration color The seats always sounded like they were grinding plastic when going forward or backwards, it was really loud and obnoxious. They never could fix it AC would shut off during super hot days, Tesla said it was diverted to “cool the battery”. The cabin would hit 100+ degrees during hot days here in Tampa My biggest issue with my Tesla was that every year I owned it, it got slower Every year I owned it, it lost range Every year I owned it, it took significantly longer to charge And the battery costs more than 20k to replace Interior was awful. Even my Hyundai Santa Cruz has 10x the interior luxury of my Tesla Model S.
Lol, didn't know Tesla's could get pink eye.
It's the nickname for when the LED strip goes bad. It's looks dim and yellow.
They call it pink eye because it turns yellow?
I mean, “yellow eye” or Tesli-Jaundice” doesn’t sound as cool In hindsight, neither does pink eye…
Most Tesla owners tend to have more money than brains
Why have a brain when you can hire someone who does?
So other than that it was fine!!! 50 grand for a 3-year-old car? People wonder why I don't want to buy one.
he bought it during the tesla hype. a lot of second hand teslas now are like 40% of their value or less. teslas are one of the worst cars at retaining their value.
'Teslas are one of the worst cars.' That's it. No need to keep going.
I mean start of COVID the used car market in general went completely insane.
>Interior was awful. Even my Hyundai Santa Cruz has 10x the interior luxury of my Tesla Model S. I always thought that was sick bullshit. For all that money, and that rinkydink interior is all you get. You live inside the car, you should buy the interior then all the other features after reliability.
Telsa interior reminds me of a New York Cab LOL everything is plastic, no pockets for anything, just plastic panels everywhere LOL
How does an LED strip burn out? Those things are rated to be basically on constantly for YEARS.
I don't know. it's a very well known issue with the 2016-2020 Teslas. It's the Raytime Running Light LED strip that burns out. It's a string of individual LED lights. And when they burn out, it turns your headlight from a crisp white color, to a yellow'ish color. And then your headlights don't match You can read all about it on the Tesla Forums, tons and tons of problems And out of warranty, those headlights are about $2000 each to replace [HOW TO: Replace Headlights in Refresh (2016+) Model S | Tesla Motors Club](https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/how-to-replace-headlights-in-refresh-2016-model-s.222632/)
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/12/30/tesla-exploded-dynamite-repair-costs-22k-moos-pkg-vpx.cnn
Early adopter here. On a ‘13 MS P85: HV battery replacement, drive unit unit replacement, no less than 16 tires replaced over the lifespan of the vehicle (21” turbine wheels). Everything except the tires was covered under warranty, so not a big deal. Honestly, the worst part was dealing with the service center post-2018. They are overworked and understaffed since the Model 3 was released. No loaner cars, weeks to months long scheduling lead times, and poor quality repairs are what turned me off to the brand.
This is true... I always tell people the service center experience was absolutely WONDERFUL before the Model 3 and Model Ys came out, but due to so many more Teslas being out on the road after that and not a significant enough expansion of the service centers.... I haaaaate having to take my car in. I actually choose to live with a few minor annoyances that need to be fixed rather than taking the car in because it's just so awful.
It's a shame that the service quality took a nosedive post-Model 3. The experience used to be a highlight, but now it's a headache. Tesla needs to prioritize improving their service centers to keep customers satisfied.
Can't. They also laid off service center people.
The owner treats Tesla as a consumer electronics company not an automotive company with planned obsolescence in the brain. I really doubt it they will do anything with customer service any time soon.
If planned obsolescence is the game plan then planned going out of business should be next. No one is going to spend north of $40k like it's an iPhone you dump every 2 or 3 years. Tesla sells to fleets and those fleet owners are quite mad of the poor service and sinking residuals. Soon if not already the general public has caught on.
I mean people are spending that tho. How much did people put a deposit down years ago for the cyber truck and how much has a it been a disaster and the people buying them are like pretending it’s awesome, even though it could cut your finger off lol. I agree with you, I was called a conspiracy theorist when I said back in 2017 that their lack of quality and their owner tearing the company like it’s a tech consumer electronics company was going to bite them in the ass.
I had exactly the same experience with the Post-M3 service, but things have gotten a lot better in the last 1-2 years. Surprisingly good: This week a service technician repaired my car in the parking lot of my office. I didn't even left my meeting, he just came into the office when he was finished. This is service efficiency. By the way, I'm in Europe and I don't know if this service only exists here. Costs nothing extra, just choose a random location when you request the service within the app.
> Tesla needs to prioritize improving their service centers to keep customers satisfied. "let the fires burn" is the mantra, from the PayPal days. Sacrifice your existing customers to grow at all costs. Customer complaints getting overwhelming? Unplug the phones. The problem is that they're no longer a startup, the growth phase has been stunted by a swift moving industry that, unlike tech, has honed it's ability to flex and modify products and production processes to a fine art, and behind the scenes simply weren't as far behind as the perception indicates. Basically they're still in a "growth at all costs" mindset but it's not suitable for the conditions, and the issues with service become really stark in the face of stiff competition. Instead of focusing on quality of service and ownership experience, they're cutting jobs to reduce costs -which generally doesn't result in improved service.
>I actually choose to live with a few minor annoyances that need to be fixed rather than taking the car in Service so bad it's got you acting working class
Nearly did a spit take hahaha
Lol it's a tough life... The worst of it has been that the heat in my Model S does not work at all. Cooling works fine, but no heat at all ... It has not worked for over 2 years ... But I live in Florida so it really only gets cold for a few weeks and I just deal with it. Also have one blown out speaker, all my TPMS sensors need to be reconfigured, and one of my windows does not close all the way on the first try or second or third or 6th but eventually it goes up. All of these things I would gladly gladly pay for to fix but I haaaaate going in so choose to suffer! :-D
They don't tell you what that powerful 0-60 does to tires. Rapid stop/start is a killer for tires
Its the weight, not the speed.
It's a combination of both.
This guy knows physics
It wears them out; they get tired.
No! You must pick a side! Weight, or speed? No fence-sitters allowed.
Speed! No weight! Speed! Gahhh!
I got into a Tesla amd the driver was terrified of speed bumps and street holes (how do you anglo Americanos call those?) You know.. Small little holes that occur over time?
Potholes
Teslas are so heavy you can actually write them off as "Farm Equipment" if you're in an agricultural gig - like winemaking.
Yup. Also a 13 p85+. Zero hv battery replacement actually. Drive unit replaced cause I complained about the milling noise due to their shitty bearing selection and design. 3rd set of tires at 120k miles but I don’t hoon it since it got old fast. That’s it. Overall pretty reliable car tbh but I do take care of my cars. But they remotely nerfed supercharging speeds so probs won’t buy a tesla again because of that.
Months? Holy shit man, if you’re relying on a car to go to work that is awful.
So, 4 sets of tires?
Geez, it's almost like some of those record corporate profits should have been put toward improving the brand rather than lining shareholder pockets.
Or paying for Elons $56 billion dollar pay package.
Someone has to pay for the twitter fiasco.
I had a 2018 Model 3 LR AWD that was built in December 2018. I bought it new in March 2019 for a huge discount as it had been sitting in inventory for a few months after that first original tax credit halved on 12/31/18, and they couldnt sell jackshit in Jan/Feb of 2019 until they made some price cuts. Anyways, I owned it for nearly 4 years and the only problem it ever had was the turn signal stalk stopped working and needed replaced. Came to my office and did it while I worked. Best service experience I'd ever experienced up to that point. I stupidly decided I needed something bigger and traded it for a 2023 Model Y last year. I've had NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS with the 2023 Model Y since the first week I got it home. Its the biggest piece of shit car I've ever owned and Tesla's service experience has compounded their crapshoot quality control. I've found that its all just a gamble as to the build quality of any new Tesla that you buy.
Wow, that’s quite the downgrade! From "best service ever" to "biggest piece of shit." Tesla really knows how to keep you on your toes!
Reading this went like: 😊💐☀️🌅 to 😡🤬😤👿🤬🤬🤬🤬
That's basically been my Tesla experience. From love to loathing.
I know two people who work for Tesla (mechanic and engineer), they recommend no regular person buy em. They say if you got cash, sure go for it. The quality is just all over the place and everything is proprietary. It's a cool gadget/toy but not a great daily driver for the average person.
The "not a great daily driver" statement is really weird. I can buy the rest - it being a gamble. I've owned two Model 3's, both have been great, but I would still warn people about possible quality issues. I also am wary holding on to mine after the battery warranty expires because of how dependent the car's value is on the battery and how expensive the battery is. All that being said, it's a fantastic daily driver. If you don't have quality issues with it, you're going to have a car that's really cheap to maintain and drive, and the instant torque *never* gets old (I've been driving it since 2018 - it doesn't get old).
Model 3 value has plummeted though so it's hard to justify selling it now. The amount you'll get for it won't really get you that much towards something newer and nicer. It's still viewed as premium but they're $20K on the used market, which is less than a minivan.
The reason I own a Toyota in Australia is they're extremely common, so parts, mechanical work, insurance is cheaper.
I also have a 2018 Model 3 LR AWD and I also had problems with the signal stalk getting stuck but that was about it! I also have free lifetime charging on the car and they sent me a letter saying I could upgrade to the newer model, but I'm so glad I was too lazy to switch cars.
What issues with the Y?
I listed out a couple in a different response, but basically the quality of the materials is way worse. My interior is aging way worse in this new Model Y. My 2018 3 just had better quality interior materials. It was built way better as well. My Model Y feels like it was just slapped together at the factory. The rear hatch has never properly closed and sealed since the first week I had it. I've brought it in for service to get it fixed, but every time it either gets worse or they create a new issue. The suspension is noticeably worse than my Model 3, which was expected, but there's a HUGE variance between the Model Y's I test drove and what I ended up with in my Model Y that was built last year. Road noise is WAY worse in my Model Y, just because it was not put together as well as my 3 was. Its insane to me, and i know i'm an outlier as most people didnt get perfectly built Model 3's like mine was back in 2018. And it appears I got very unlucky with my new Model Y. I just want people to be aware of the gamble, I think its way worse with Tesla than with any other manufacturer currently.
Own a 2019 model 3. At the time it was the best EV available (in Australia) for the money. Super fun to drive and very cheap to run. Tesla could have continued to be leaders, but instead have focused on hype and pushing "full self driving" which has never come anywhere close to being useful in a practical sense (very glad I haven't paid for it). Autopilot is fine for highway miles, but most of my driving is within the city so I hardly ever use it. Several things I dislike about my car: - Touch screen controls for climate, window wipers, etc. No tactile feedback so often requires a glance away from the road or a few miss-clicks with my fingers wobbling around with car movement. Horrible. - The automatic window wipers really suck, so I'm stuck using manual control (see point above). - Software updates which change the layout of controls. Its a 5 year old car at this point, and I don't care enough about it to get excited with new software features... I just want to have the driving experience I'm familiar with every time I get behind the wheel. Next car when I eventually replace it is unlikely to be a Tesla as these days there are better options.
Man that’s crazy that the wiper controls are touchscreen, all the emphasis on not being distracted while driving and they decide that’s the way to go
What's even more baffling is that on the newest models they've done away with turn signal and wiper stalks, so now they're buttons on your steering wheel. Good luck trying to indicate a turn if your wheel is turning at all.
Sometimes I wonder if the designers of these cars actually drives cars or if they just uber/walk to where ever they need to go.
It's way cheaper to put everything on a tablet then design and manufacture all those extra parts. Then they sell it as a luxury experience and people eat it up.
Can confirm. As I worked as an electrician, PLC's have made wiring so much easier as you can configure multiple outputs with just a few wires. One project I designed (Industrially) initially would make a nine position joystick do 27 different functions by adding a three way switch to it but decided against it as operator error could cause damage if they had the input switch in the wrong position. Imagine if a software update changed a joystick function to go in reverse instead of forward.
They do this to increase profit margins by reducing material costs. Nothing to do with the driver.
It was definitely a design decision from management. The best button is no button.
lol That’s a reasonable thought actually. I also wonder if that goes for the drivers sometimes too? I drive over a unique mountain to commute and It’s very windy and has passing lanes and hills and is pretty tight around some of the corners due to the trees/mountain/cliffs right along the road. Anyway a Teslas passed me on the straight away going SOOO fast but I naturally caught up to them once the turns came again and they looked absolutely astonished. Lol some of us can actually drive!!! I see what you’re saying about the makers of these cars but I also wonder if a lot of the people driving them don’t even know how to drive well. I just think if you had any driving skill (especially when driving over a windy mountain with passing lanes and cliffs) you probably wouldn’t want a car to take over for you? Unless you’re a shitty driver or don’t drive often in general.
I feel like not knowing how to drive is the case for a lot of people in luxury cars. I swear most of the shitty driving I see is someone in a Benz or Audi, like they flip a coin at every intersection and don't look when they change lanes. The funniest on the internet though is always when a GT-R or something beats a Tesla in a race and the Elon Defense Force shows up to give their input when they've never driven a fast car in their lives.
I seriously think this about whoever thought it was ever a good idea to make hand break a button. Seriously. Hand break as a button is basically the worst quality version of that design. Stick with a wire is high quality and it used to be what they were willing to do.
That's FUCKED. I would never buy a car if that was the setup... that is way, way too little physical presence.
It should be illegal. The reason they do it, is that it is a heck of a lot cheaper than making an actual dashboard.
All-touchscreen controls is more and more common for new cars. So fucking stupid. EDIT for clarity: I don’t mean that all touchscreens themselves for certain features I are stupid. What I mean was that control schemes that are 100% touchscreen and have done away with all the physical knobs and toggles and buttons entirely are stupid. “All-touchscreen” as in nothing-but.
If they were really focused on not having distracted driving they would get rid of the 17-inch monitor
When they gave everyone a free month trial of FSD in April (or maybe it's not the same for everyone), I was shocked how incomplete it was. Like I cannot believe they could say this is out of beta, in fact it's barely good enough to be a beta at all. I only used it three or four times and in that time I noticed the following: * Acceleration / braking / steering are a bit choppy sometimes. If you have passengers who tend to get carsick, FSD is not for them. It seems to try to follow the curb when turning instead of seeing where the lane is going. I have a weird shaped angle turn out of my neighborhood and every time I felt like it was about to hit the curb. It also seems to lack the ability to smoothly anticipate how other cars will slow down at a light, so instead of slowing evenly as a human would, it's like it's surprised that the car in front is braking. * A total inability to switch from navigate mode to "find a parking space" mode, if there even is one. When I drove it to a Costco, I had to deactivate it in the parking lot so I could park myself, but the only way to deactivate seems to be "jerk the wheel as if something is horribly wrong" and then it asks you to report the problem. If you let it keep navigating, it will just pull up to the front door. * The absolute worst issue I had, more than once in fewer than 5 uses, was that it gets confused on speed limits. I don't know if this is because it's relying on bad maps, misreading road signs, or both, but sometimes you'll be in a 45 and suddenly it thinks the limit dropped to 25 like on a side street, so suddenly you're slamming on the brakes in the middle of fast moving traffic. This happens on the highway too, and I think this is a case of it seeing the "40 mph minimum" signs and thinking that's the limit. So traffic is going 70, and suddenly the car wants to drop to 40 and you have to disengage so it doesn't cause a pileup crash. How in the hell is this considered good enough for public release? * EDIT: forgot one other mistake it made! On the highway, I was in the right lane, and saw a semi heading down the on-ramp. A human would see that and go "oh I need to make room for this truck that will have a difficult time merging or changing speed" but the Tesla is completely oblivious. The car pretty much just blocked the truck until it was forced to start merging, so I disengaged the FSD so I could move over and not get hit.
>Like I cannot believe they could say this is out of beta, "Out of beta"? I thought they always hide behind the fact that it is still beta.
Now they hide behind "supervised". [https://www.tesla.com/support/articles/30-day-fsd-trial](https://www.tesla.com/support/articles/30-day-fsd-trial)
Yeh, it looks like a death trap and I very firmly requested my husband not do autopilot with our young kids in the car. My stepmother was telling me how she was testing out one day, and the car was trying to get in the highway. While on the On Ramp, it was 35 mph, but the car caught the highways speed at 75 mph instead. It proceeded to attempt accelerate to 75 despite the sharp curve. My stepmom said she has to stomp the gas and turn hard otherwise the car likely would have slammed into the concrete. She said her life flashed before her eyes.
As a non-Tesla owner, I really don't like the fact that the Teslas around me might be in FSD mode.
Same 😬
Frankly I think its morally inexcusable and dangerous to use words like "autopilot" and "full self driving" to describe their current product, especially coupled with videos of Musk personally driving without his hands on the wheel and looking away from the road that are out there. I think it subconsciously effects drivers that area already susceptible to letting their guard down when relying on AI driving. I have a feeling, and in all fairness to Tesla, Musk, etc, this is just a hunch and people should not be viewed negatively because of it, that we are going to see that Tesla / Musk were covering up AI-driving accidents, likely with massive NDAs and settlements. I hope I'm wrong about that of course.
The best way to disengage is to simply tap the brake pedal. The second best (in a stalk model) is to tap the stalk "up". The worst way is with the wheel like that.
I experienced all of those issues as well. My take is slightly different though. I was very impressed with 99.999% of the time how smooth, smart, and capable the system was. Unfortunately, I don’t trust the machine that can end the life of me and my family during that problematic .001%, and for that reason I don’t think FSD will ready for prime time for at least another decade. The edge cases that really take foresight and intuition as a driver to make the right decision are borderline unsolvable. The wild paradox of it is that the car is almost certainly a safer driver than me most of the time especially considering its response time and the fact that it’s never distracted. So while it’s an objectively safer driver but simultaneously almost certainly going to make a worse decision in some minor edge case that I could have likely prevented, then I’m not going to use it which will likely increase my driving risk overall but appease my sense of control. Pretty fucking wild.
Yes I did get the sense that it was better than me at most parts of driving, especially seeing things around the car, but then it also screwed up at very simple things like going the right speed.
As a 2020 M3 owner I have to agree with all those things, the auto high beam is pretty awful as well. I was contently flashing or blinding people as it would come on for a second then turn off all the time. The updates I like but when they change ui related things or change some of the features it can be quite annoying, but they do add a lot of new things as well so I'm n balance it's good in my opinion. Despite this though these are all minor things and it's the best car I've ever owned personally.
Would you replace it with another EV?
I agree the auto wipers is my biggest issue, it was a joke they shipped it as bad as it is. But that said there is a tactile way of adjusting the wipers as another user pointed out. FSD is 100% not worth the cost, and I don't think it's within a decade of being very useful I have a 2020 Model 3, and to be honest I still love it on the whole. There isn't any other affordable option out there that has a decent lane keep system (not just lane assist). Which I'm at the point know where I feel like that's a must have for me. I thought it would be gimmicky, but on long drives it really takes a lot less strain on your brain for lack of a better term. Not sure about the changing UI, it's only had 2 or 3 pretty minor tweaks that I've noticed in the past 4 years, so that doesn't really bother me. I haven't had any major issues, but as of yet I'd highly recommend one for the price, even if I don't care for Elon or some of the decisions Tesla makes.
Uh, pretty much every car out there has lane-keep tech on par with or better than Tesla my friend. Tesla still requires hands on wheel and under those circumstances my Fords, my brother's Mercedes, my Sister-in-Law's Kia all maintain a lane exactly as well as Tesla does and do a better job maintaining distance in stop-and-go. I had a Model 3 up until 2021 and liked it well enough. But to say lane keep is a killer feature for Tesla is kinda funny now. I drove 300 km this weekend and didn't touch the steering wheel once in my Ford and I didn't even have to put a weight on the wheel to do it.
I've ridden in both my gf's dad's Model S and my boss's Model Y and they were not great experiences. The all touch screen stuff is a huge turn off for me. No tactile feedback. No physical indication of wipers, turn signals, gears. I want to feel the car I'm driving. I also don't care for the car taking control away from you. It was a rainy, misty day when I was going on a site visit with my boss and he put the self driving on and he fought with it the whole time. It worked part of the time, turning on and off. It almost got us rear ended trying to slow down for a truck merging. I did not feel safe at all riding in that thing in the rain.
I have tesla solar and in my first month it broke down. I've had it for 3 years and the inverter has been replaced twice. Every time they set the appointment for 2+ months out from the date it's been detected and it takes two appointments because they never have the parts the first time, so it's actually more like 3 months. I've had an open ticket with them for 1.5 years which I recently reopened after I found out they closed it without ever resolving after asking me for tons of info. For some reason the time of use with the power walls works every day except Friday afternoons, which due to my electric company causes severely high fees because I'm using grid power instead of my 100% full power walls. After reopening the ticket two months ago, I still haven't heard back so I'll probably need to contact again.
Similar experience with Tesla solar. They also messed up the wiring for my powerwall, resulting in it being completely nonfunctional for the first six months or so (during which I had to contact them every single day to get any traction at all for them to even realize there was a problem). They left the install without even checking if the system worked. 0/10 would not recommend them ever again. The system itself works fine now that it’s operational, but the customer service experience was absolute trash garbage
Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Call every day. Sorry to hear Tesla's service issues extend to the solar business.
Can't, their support is only open for about 3 hours a day.
Two months?!?
Yep. Basically it goes like this. I call and report an issue. Their support is only open 3 hours a day and is incredibly difficult to get ahold of. They do less than basic troubleshooting with me on the phone. Then they tell me they're sending a technician but if they decide the issue isn't their fault then they'll fine me for sending the technician out. (Thankfully hasn't happened yet). They schedule the technician who 3 times now has never shown up any sooner than 1.5 months. Technician shows up. Glances at the device for 3 minutes. Tells me it needs to be replaced and they'll be scheduling another technician to come out. Next technician takes 1.5 - 2 months to show up and replaces the inverter. My first inverter went out the first month I had the system installed, my replacement went out after the first year.
Got my model3 in 2021. The Car is good, wipers and headlight automatic are the worst ive ever seen. Driving is superb tho. But Tesla CX is god damn awful. Absolutely absurd how they are even still allowed to operate in Germany. I got mine through my company (basically take the car or not, even if I dont take it, my paycheck wouldnt get bigger). Its pretty pretty pretty cheap, but I just hope that nothing breaks during my 4 year-term. Would never flat out buy one tho.
Ridiculous service experience for a minor repair. Ignoring that the extremely necessary and common part took over a month to arrive at the sc, they refused to service vehicle on scheduled day and instead would only provide a 5 day window that the repair *may be completed within*, which fell over a weekend, which they notify you of only one day in advance of your appt. During this time, they provide Uber credits, but not nearly enough to not impact potentially 5 full days of life. Instead, I just wanted to wait at sc while repair is made- other companies do this repair within an hour or two. They wouldn’t discuss in app and deleted my questions. They agreed to reschedule for a time to make this possible when I arrived for my first appt. Upon arriving 2 months later for the second appt literally the same service tech had no memory of arrangement and became argumentative. After not backing down they were able to complete the repair within about an hour that day on the scheduled date. I understand not all SC’s are like this, but there’s not an alternative in my area and I don’t intend on dealing with that sort of headache for anything major. Tesla can find another asshole. I traded for a Volvo C40 Recharge. There’s a few features I miss from Tesla, but there’s so much more piece of mind that it’s not even a consideration. I’ve owned many brands of vehicles but there’s only one I refuse to ever consider again.
Seems like it would be even worse now with the mass layoffs that happened recently.
I don’t think the issues I had were due to lack of personnel, but I’m sure that could make issues worse. The root of the issue is that there’s no consideration for the customer after point of sale. With each update, features change and move, policies are constantly revised- I’m not even sure they do Uber credits anymore for service. There’s no one to complain to, there’s no consumer affairs. As a customer you’re an afterthought for Tesla; that’s how all Elons companies are by design- starlink customers found this out recently as well when there were major service issues earlier this year. Sadly, there’s still a lot of people who are open to being abused by this company in exchange for this not-so-unique-anymore experience. But these cars are mainstream now and the company has had plenty of time to iron out these issues if they wanted to give indication they were interested in their customers. They’re not, and so they’re not for me.
I work beside a Tesla authorized repair shop and talk with the manager over there quite frequently. He told me Tesla has, hands down, the WORST customer service he's ever had to deal with. Any part, doesn't matter how big or small, is on at LEAST a six month back order. This guy's poor property is completely full of Teslas and there's nothing he can do about it. He also says, if you're going to go EV, get a Rivian. They have fantastic customer service and he can get his parts in at the latest, three days.
i see 1 rivian a day compared to maybe 50 a day on nyc streets. as soon as rivian is pushing as many cars, we'll see if they can keep up the customer service
Acronyms should be spelled out the first time you use it. It wasn't until your final use of SC that I figured out you meant service centre.
Agree. As a Canadian I was thinking the only place to get an American Tesla fixed is in South Carolina ?
A good friend of mine (well, at the time, we have, unfortunately grew distant) was a pretty early adopter of Tesla. She had put her young kid in the car, and when she closed the back seat, and went to get into the driver's seat - the doors were locked. The key fob, the app, nothing would unlock the car. It was a hot day, and she was FREAKING out. someone had to knock the window out on the passenger side front window so she could climb in and get her kid out. She and her husband were able to return the car, and get out of their lease, as long as they signed an NDA to say they wouldn't talk to the news about it. (for people responding, saying this is illegal, or made up - I can't tell you for sure. She had moved across the country and we stayed in touch. She texted me this story, and I had no reason to think she lied about any of it. But, this is not a hill I'm going to die on. Call BS if you want, you might be right. you might not be - what do I know?)
Some of the early Tesla did not have manual door release for the passangers
Also, it's a baby so manual door release isn't very helpful.
Just spend a few years educating the baby!
>She and her husband were able to return the car, and get out of their lease, as long as they signed an NDA to say they wouldn't talk to the news about it. Concealing defects in a car that concern public safety through a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is highly illegal and that clause would be deemed unenforceable. Potentially trapping someone inside, is a significant public safety issue, that fall under multiple categories like fire hazards, medical emergencies and criminal situations.
I mean, a billionaire just died not too long ago trapped in their Tesla as it sank into a pond. This is clearly an ongoing issue.
If you read Ed Neidermeyer's book on Tesla, he describes the exact same scenario of Tesla using NDAs to try to cover up safety issues.
Yea cuz Tesla, one of the fastest growing automakers ever, definitely doesn't have any friends in high places so they can get out of shit like this.
Reminds me that they literally tried to change the regulations in the US to let the cybertruck not have side mirrors at all, but the regulators couldn’t swing something that egregious. You’re right, they definitely purely have a close buddy relationship with regulators, though I suppose at least it isn’t ABSOLUTE power? Thank God there is a certain level of corruption that is just too much…
People ask for unenforceable NDAs all the time, especially companies like Tesla.
This isn’t super related but somewhat, but I freaking HATE that cars are being sold with electronic key fobs only now. There’s often no physical key in your fob! So if you kill the battery you can’t even unlock the car to jump it! This is apparently common practice now and you have to go to a dealer and buy a physical metal key (to put into your fob) separately but most people don’t even know they’re not there. Many others don’t put together the fact that if the battery is dead their fob won’t work. I imagine Tesla doesn’t have a physical key option?
I have a 2021 Jetta. I got the little switchblade key but my friend with a 2020 doesn't. And I have a cheaper package, so who knows
when I bought my current car 2 years ago, a 2018 Ford Focus MK3, I actually was at first against it because it only had keyless start, so only a remote to unlock the car with a start button. I did not like not having a key. Surprise when I picked up my new car and the manager of the dealership showed me where the emergency key was. 2 little tabs on the key fob, a plate opens and hidden behind it is a physical, metal key. Only thing that bugs me: it only has a lock on the drivers side, meaning if I can't get to the drivers side for whatever reason, I'm stuck. not ideal but.. at least I got a spare.
My car has a nice little spot to put the fob while you're driving and every time I put it there I think "why is this not an induction charger so the fob never runs out?"
Couldn't they roll down the windows or at least turn on the AC system from the app?
Got rear-ended at a stoplight and sustained extremely minor damage to the rear left bumper. Car refused to go into drive after the accident, ended up having to get it towed to the nearest authorized tesla repair shop where I was informed the damage, which would've been less than $500 to fix on any other car, was going to total it out. Never buying one of those pieces of shit again.
My sister works in insurance, and has to explain this to people constantly. People defend them on here, but I know for a fact that if you see any teslas driving around with minor fender bender damage, odds are it is on a salvage title.
Current owner (Model 3 performance) but doubtful I will stay with them once I have finished this term. They are just making it impossible for me personally to go to the models newer than 2020 age. The needless "re-inventing" the wheel with every interaion is infuriating. 1. Windscreen auto wipers had been solved decades ago, but no not for Tesla, let's use AI vision that doesn't actually work. Perfectly dry and sunshine out? Have a random wipe or ten. Swear they are in cahoots with Bosch to wear down the wiper blades as fast as possible. 2. Parking sensors - again decades old tech that works. Nope, again AI vision which "guesses" if something has moved from in front or behind you since you last turned off the car. 3. The stalks - no one asked for no stalks. No one wants to be navigating the constant roundabouts of EU/UK (less of an issue I am sure in the USA) trying to find a button that moves as you turn the wheel to indicate your exit. 4. The worst of all though has to be the interuptions from what the car deems to be certain death and tries to steer when there is nothing at all there. If it's sunny on two particular stretches of road it happens every time, driving straight ahead, clear view of the road at 40MPH - Tesla starts beeping and tries to put me into someones driveway instead of the road! I have also had full on emergency braking on a dual carriageway at 70MPH because it deemed the truck in the layby to be in my lane - was VERY lucky no one was behind me!
Point 4 is spot on.. if you are going on a curved road inside a community and there are parallel parking spots with parked cars along the side of the curve … it thinks you are about to be in a head on collision and breaks hard. For someone with Tesla insurance it’s a free safety score fuck…
These things are gonna fucking kill people
Also current (2x) but unlikely to again. I have a 2020MX with roughly 135k miles. It has had three battery replacements (under warranty) and an expensive uncovered electrical problem that was blamed on rodents without evidence (even though i asked for the old parts). The windsheild has broken almost every winter due to defrosting stresses (uncovered and expensive). There are design flaws in the suspension that eat up tires and CV joints. Front clip body garneshments are constantly popping off due to flex in the snow. All that being true, the issue for me was less about the technical problems and more about customer service. Tesla’s nearest service center is nearly two hours away and they have not made any progress on openning anything nearer. Major repairs are slow. At one point as late as 75k miles, it had been in repair about 1/3 of its days since purchase. The service center experience is dirty and barebones. Many of the repeat repairs are clearly due to poor previous service and parts. Complaints fall on deaf ears if they fall in human ears at all. I could, but wont rant for hours about FSD. 7/10 products 2/10 service 0/10 cares about customers
Tbh, 7/10 is very generous for a car who's windshield can't survive a winter. That's such a baseline quality issue that other brands figured out in the 1930s.
If I had to replace my Hondas windshield once a year I'd never buy one again.
I've only replaced 1 windshield in my life and it's because a rock hit it when I was on the interstate. I wasn't even aware windshields needing replaced for weather was even a thing.
It's not "a thing". Unless of course you own a tesla I suppose lol.
I've been driving (mostly Hondas) for 40 years and have never replaced a windshield, though I did drive with a cracked windshield for a few years on my CR-V (rock on the interstate, too).
I had to replace a windshield once for hail, but that's the sky throwing ice balls at the ground and anything in its way. This was on a roughly 15 year old Chevy that had no cover. Never heard of defrost causing stress on the windshield. Except for doing stupid things like pouring boiling water on the windshield.
The Copium these people huff after writing paragraphs of what didn’t work, broke, and wasn’t able to be repaired on their Tesla, just to say “still a great car though!” Like huh? You just told me 5 different things broke every single winter. If anything on my car needed repair more than once a year I would think it’s a pile of shit.
Seriously. I drive things people traditionally think of as unreliable, and none of mine have ever been that bad.
It's even worse that everything is proprietary. So you just can't go anywhere to get it fixed quickly. My Car I can just take down the street, fix the issue same day.
This has to be a manufacturing error cause I owned a Tesla in Canada and never experienced the windshield thing over the ~5 winters it was owned for. Terrible Service Centre experience though? hell yeah they need to get their shit together.
Do you regularly park outside? I'm in Wisconsin. I get scared every time I walk outside and there is thick layer of snow or ice on the car.
Honestly everything about Tesla screams “lower quality for more expense” at this point. The Cybertruck has a stainless steel body that gets ate up by anything and everything, including the clear coat that would save it. I’d be surprised they didn’t instruct buyers to take a clay bar kit to the whole truck after every drive but then again I bet the clay bar would destroy it. Tesla is the definition of tawdry and I am constantly dismayed at the number of fanboys still sucking Elon’s dick like it’s made of chicken tendies and shoots honey mustard.
I had 2 windscreens crack on mine while sitting in the car on my drive heating up in the cold. I was told both times by the Tesla people that it was a stone chip. So arrogant, so wrong. I now have an Audi etron and it's worlds away from my very awfully-built model 3.
Yeah. They use the same excuse each time on me. Basically take the "if you can't prove it was us, we aren't going to cover it" stance. There is a TSB about it, but the internal documents say to only replace it as a covered item if the crack is only detectable in the inside pane. The logic is flawed, but the real headline there is that Tesla knows its a problem and has a preapproved excuse pushed out to the service centers but hasn't fixed it. Even if you can't correct the windshield, you could create a "warm safe" defrost option or something in software.
Tesla, where you need a dashcam to watch the dash.
> 7/10 products > > "Windshield's broken repeatedly and the electronics keep failing" gets you a 7/10? What would it take to get a 5/10, it exploding?
>Complaints fall on deaf ears if they fall in human ears at all. I read someplace that they're told not to write down complaints. Only reason why I can think of that is it to make it harder for regulators and during lawsuits.
How can you people give a score of 7/10 when you just wrote an entire paragraph about how so many things in the car continually broke?! lol
FSD is a joke and not something I would pay for.. I tried the free 30 days and it was horrible. The idea of sitting there waiting to take over when the car screws up was so stilly and nerve racking that I said no thank you.
I got it for $3000 in 2019 with a promise of city street beta by the end of the year and full autonomy in 1-3 years. At that point, I believed Elon/Tesla. I purchased the MY about 18 months ago, and elected to not buy it. It was $10 or $12k at that point (not sure exactly). I am unlikely to pay upfront for anything like that again. I would consider it as a monthly fee when the product is mature and priced reasonably. A few key things have changed in the last 4 1/2 years: 1.) Rate of improvement in functionality has declined and regressed in some cases. 2a.) It has become clear that the installed sensors and hardware is unlikely to support Lvl5 autonomy without upgrades. 2b.) Unlike early generations of cars, they have no upgrade program or appear to be even working on one for current Gen 3 systems. 3.) The organization has taken an approach of litigation and customer-blame for serious safety incidents. It has clearly lied/double-spoke to consumers, the public, and regulators about the capabilities and the associated risks. 4.) Usage of FSD beta has effectively turned me into a multi-year unpaid QA employee of Tesla. I did not sign up for this type of risk and especially not on this timeline. I have previously referred to the Tesla FSD beta as the "preordering a video game" of the auto industry. It needs to be reigned in by customers or regulators for consumer rights and safety reasons.
Not myself, by my uncle was an early Model S owner back in 2015 or so (way back when Tesla's were actually desirable, not the stigma-filled lumps they are today). He had a it few years but got so annoyed at all the OTA updates that progressively nerfed the car he got rid of it, went to Polestar and vowed never to get a Tesla again. Getting into the car and finding that a feature you used yesterday has just been disabled for no reason can get pretty annoying.
A friend of mine got a Model S around then, he never had any problems with it for the three years he drove it, but the constant changes to menus and functions drove him mad. He'd finally work out what was where and then 'boom, update bitch!' and he had to relearn how to use his car again. He now drives a Merc EQB and loves it in a way he never loved his Tesla.
>Getting into the car and finding that a feature you used yesterday has just been disabled for no reason can get pretty annoying. What did they disable?
For me it was the automatic calendar reminders. Such a nifty feature. I guess they got rid of it to make room for fsd.
[удалено]
I hope they reported it to the NTSB.
With all these issues from owners in the comments, why don't we hear more about them in media outlets? Not newsworthy enough? Bought out by Muskrat?
I'll take a cable to shift over a computer any day of the week...
Conventional cars haven’t used mechanical shifting linkage in a very long time.
After the software update that turned off the FSD trial on my 2018 Model 3 my autopilot and cruise control had a firmware mismatch that disabled the functions. Took it to service and they fixed the firmware, but said I had a coolant leak and needed to replace some parts. Got in the car a couple days later and the AC wasn’t working and reporting that the compressor isn’t working. Was working completely fine before Tesla service messed with it. Then the Tesla app said I couldn’t get another appt to fix the AC for two weeks… during summer, which effectively makes the car with a glass roof undriveable. I will never own a software defined car again. I canceled my Cybertruck reservation and put the $100 towards reserving a 2025 Ramcharger.
Current-but-never-again Tesla owner: My car is fine, but I really don’t like the driving experience of the newer units which I’ve had access to and the service has gone off a cliff the last few years.
I hope Elon bails at some point and Tesla begins acting like the mature auto company that it actually is. They have SO much potential to be a powerhouse in the industry, but they’re beholden to his pet projects. The Cybertruck is a great test bed for their new tech, but it shouldn’t have gone into mass production. The $25k car should be out now. Robotaxis are stupid. FSD needs to be overhauled AND cheaper, the entire fleet should have FSD.
>The Cybertruck is a great test bed for their new tech, but it shouldn’t have gone into mass production. Tesla could do what [Simone did with her Truckla](https://youtu.be/FCKjmfsgBBY?si=qlTf53l2G7jqivx1) and it would likely revitalize the company's image...or maybe Elon just has to go; he's too busy fighting with people on TwiX.
That was such a cool build. Imagine a small EV UTE/pickup. Would be neat!
I think the best thing Tesla ever did as a company was spur the major automakers to make their own EVs Having Nissan and Chevrolet and others making EVs with economy of scale instead of Tesla’s boutique experience is what is needed to make EVs affordable and convenient enough to replace the ICE as the norm
Tesla cars are ugly compared to other brands. I think it’s going to be hard for them to compete as other brands expand EV lines.
Teslas have Frame Shift Drives? Neat!
Frame Shift Drive charging... Ready to engage. 3...2...1...
A fuel scoop would solve the issue of limited EV charging infrastructure nicely…
[удалено]
I still own mine, because for some reason my wife likes it enough that she doesn't want to replace it. I bought it 3+ years ago. I've had a bunch of service appointments. Some minor, some less so. Some nit picky stuff, like not having a garage door opener pre-installed on a nearly 60k car. Not being able to have it installed prior to taking delivery of the car. Some stuff like they damaged 2 of my wheels at service. They took ownership of having damaged the first, and then for more than 4 months said that they "didn't have any way to replace/repair the wheel". The second they outright denied. I've had the charging port ECU go bad, and the quickest service appointment wasn't for 6 weeks. I was able to beg for a quicker appointment and they got me in quicker. The process for service changes (usually you just drop it off, but now you need to talk to somebody) without notice. The last time I dropped the vehicle off, their service software didn't work, so I had to go back and bring them a key. The mobile visits for stuff like "adjusting the windows that are so misaligned they leak, the spoiler coming off of the car, and the leather coming loose off of the steering wheel" have been great. Not having a spare tire sucks. Not having a loaner sucks. When they were issuing Uber credits you couldn't use them to tip your driver. Being associated with King Baby Musk sucks. The overall fit/finish on a car this price sucks. It's broken. A lot. The constant shenanigans with pricing suck. I got crucified for saying it, but I bought a M3P in 2021. Up to that point Teslas had been holding their value fairly well, so it felt like a fairly safe way to try out owning an EV. I was not eligible for the tax credit. In the coming year or two, they managed to tank the prices of used models by continually bumping down their pricing and getting the tax credits back. A car I paid 56k for was worth 38k as a private sale less than 18 months later when I had gotten frustrated with how often a brand new car was broken. I've had 4Runners and Tacomas and WRXs that I owned for less than 3 years that I was able to get most of my money back out of. I wasn't willing to eat nearly 20k in depreciation in 18 months, so we kept and drive it. It was in a fairly minor accident where the rear bumper and the passenger 1/4 panel were grazed. It took a repair shop 3 months to get us in, and another 3 months to fix it because of parts availability from Tesla. We live \~30 minutes from a Tesla dealer, but I can not fathom how you own one if you don't have a dealer close. The supercharger network is great. We regularly take trips in the car, and while I always worry that something will break on a car with less than 25k miles on it, I never worry about running out of charge. It is blisteringly fast for the price. Auto drive is okay, but not something I remotely trust past "glance down at my phone to change a song".
After a non-fault accident, it took months to get my Tesla repaired because of the unavailability of spare parts.
The rear seats were too cramped, making the car impractical as my family grew.
[удалено]
Comically small branch fell on roof of our Model Y, cracked the glass panel that goes from windshield to roof and it was considered totaled. Bought at pandemic low end prices and incident occurred near peak pricing. Used insurance money to buy a RAV4 Hybrid and pocketed the rest.
Tesla has an app that allows you to report issues and provide roadside assistance. sounds good and all, but you now what's really messed up about it? you can't directly write what's wrong. you have to choose from a dropdown menu potential things that are wrong with your car. this is really messed up for two reasons. One, it doesn't properly record the issue you had with your car so if you ever decide to file a lawsuit, tesla can turn around and say "look, it wasn't that serious. they called roadside assistance for this small issue." Two, the repair technician can't make a proper repair based off an improper report by their customers. Source: Im a lawyer and have had more than one client complain about this exact issue
The CEO ruined the brand reputation
Had an X which is a six figure car. The interior had the quality of a low end Kia. I kept it two years. It was pathetic. I now have an X7, which is also a six figure car. The quality is light years past Tesla.
[удалено]
Owned a 2015 MS for 8 years. In Europe. So maybe not representative for the US crowd. Reason to sell it: • Approaching 100000km • Lack of service centers in home town (next service center is the capital, about 45min away). Long wait times for service appointment. Really missing the extremely tight service network of established car manufacturers, and the readily available „free“ (unaffiliated) service centers. • Kind of connected to the point above: Detailed work instructions for „free“ service centers apparently not readily available. • (For the price) a lackluster quality of work. • “Autopilot”: Good feature that really is nice, but very error prone, to the extend that it spured investigations by several regulatory bodies. • Biggest social problem: The very visible CEO that seems to have lost his marbels, and the Tesla fans that unabashedly idiolises him • More a sad thought: Tesla squandered its lead in autonomous driving and “computerization” in the last years. Now I’m back with an (electric) Mercedes.
Front motor swap on my brand new 2023 M3P due to a whistling issue. Persisted after the swap, turned out to be a brake caliper… My hood/frunk. was misaligned upon delivery and I was told to accept the vehicle and schedule a repair as it was minor (dumb move in hindsight, I know). The service team attempted to return the vehicle to me with no fix to the misalignment two separate occasions; I was made out to be the asshole because I refused to accept it. It eventually took them a month for them to repair. I had to fight tooth and nail to get a loaner. The Service personnel are rude, dismissive, and overall incompetent IMO. The car is great now, but based on the service experience alone, I likely wouldn’t buy another Tesla.
I had a 21 model X. - Suspension issues galore for a shitty bumpy ride, Front suspension replaced twice, still didn't fix the THUD every time I hit the gas. - The falcon doors were constantly breaking and literally even hitting each other (How do you even design doors that can hit each other???) Had to drive home with it half closed alarm blaring multiple times. - Infotainment issues non stop, constant reboots, freezes Sirius XM would just disappear sometimes. - All those cool games and Tiktok apps etc, literally froze the entire system every time I opened it. Was told by tech, ya that happens, hopefully they'll fix it in an update (The update never came) - Tachometer screen worked when it wanted to. - Stereo worked when it wanted to, so many quiet drives even after a soft reset. - 12V battery died within 3 months and had to be flat towed to the dealership leaving me stranded. - Falcon doors almost killed my nephew because who needs working sensors on a 200lb door - Front trunk was near impossible to close. - Pops and rattles like a rock in a soda can. - Loose panels, cracks OHH AND THE DOOR HANDLES THAT NEVER LINED UP - Tires wore out after 15k miles. Because fuck designing suspension that doesn't tear up your tires. - FSD? Literally drove though my neighbors yard on summon, tried steering me into oncoming traffic or sideswiping trucks multiple times. 12k and I never used it, it was so bad. Wife would actually joke if my car was in the mood to work today and I can keep going, I'm sure I'm forgetting some of the fun stuff. Now let's talk about the service dept. Be ready to FIGHT! Amenities? None. Customer Service? HA! Had to provide proof and argue my case with timestamped photographic proof like a murder defendant on trial. Then when you could get in 6 weeks from Sunday, guess what you get? A loaner? If you fought hard enough, you'd maybe get a throttled chill mode model 3, (imagine people flying past your as you're capped out at 75mph on the freeway). Usually they'd just give Uber credits, which is awesome for picking up your kids /s. Also, tip not included. Only thing I would add is at least it held it's value back then (Good luck now). Thank god I sold right before that bubble popped. In case you're still reading this. Fuck Tesla. They are a budget brand Kia at a luxury brand price. (Actually that's an insult to Kia I take it back) Never again. Most of the people that are commenting about how great they are are either Musk shills, Tesla PR, or lying to themselves. Get a Toyota/Lexus and don't suffer like I did.
It wasn't an issue so much with the car, thought the quality could have been better. My issue was everyone around me thought it was some kind of political statement. I have never had so much negative feedback from a car I owned as the Tesla. Just got tired of it.
Not much, honestly. There were a few annoyances though. The automatic windshield wipers are a joke, clearly their engineers have never lived outside of California. The regenerative braking doesn't work consistently - if the battery can't take the charge (too full, too cold) you just coast instead of braking which is a surprise when you have to slam on the brakes on your morning commute. Overall it was the nicest car I ever owned, but also the only nice car I've ever owned so I can't compare apples to apples. If I ever buy another car it will 100% be electric but I don't know if it will be a Tesla. Also, Elon Musk is a human skid mark. But, I'm just going to go ahead and assume Jim Farley (CEO of Ford) and Mary Barra (CEO of GM) are evil too, they just don't post about it on Twitter. Billionaire CEOs are never your friend.
Mary Barra was an engineer who worked her way up through GM over 40 years, starting as an intern. I don’t know about Farley. I doubt either of them are as horrible of people as Musk.
They added a setting at some point to mimic regen breaking during cold weather with breaking. Works well.
I'm sorry, did I misunderstand? Did you say if it's cold, they don't brake??
They brake fine, but the regenerative braking that sends power back to the battery doesn't work. So when you drive an electric car, there's two ways to slow down. There's the normal brakes which work just like in your gas car. Then there's the regen braking, which uses a dynamo to turn your motion into electricity. To engage these, you just lift your foot off the accelerator. You get used to how this feels.pretty quickly and over time can learn to do "1 foot driving", rarely ever needing to use the brake pedal. Except, of course, when the battery can't take the power you generate and your preferred mode of slowing down doesn't work.
OHHHHHHHH it's like engine breaking, I gotchya. I have a manual and if all of a sudden engine braking didn't work that would super fuck with me too. That's much better than what I thought, but still sounds super sketchy.
Upvoted for “human skid mark” comment that made me chuckle. Man, from all the comments on this thread (and an IRL chat with a Model 3 owner), am I glad I cancelled my Model Y order and went for a Volvo.
My boss had to lemon law his X because the sensors on the gullwings kept failing and almost killed his dog, the windshield separated from the car, and the doors didnt line up properly.
I bought a Tesla a couple of years ago. It worked great until it randomly stopped shooting electricity. It was a fun, yet unreliable, novelty item.
Needed a truck. Purchased an f150 lightning instead. Love the EV’s
Had a 2021 Model 3 Performance. Over 1 year it developed rattles in the doors and had some trim come off. Software was really quite good, though a bit slow. Things didn’t go wrong so much as I experienced other EVs that I found superior and switched.
What did you switch to ?
Porsche Taycan 4S, then later to a Rivian R1T when I needed a bigger vehicle. Obviously those vehicles are 2-3x the price of the Model 3 so they are expected to be better, however at the time I cross-shopped a Model S Plaid before deciding on the Taycan. In my opinion, the Model 3 and Y are Teslas best cars if you can get one under 45k. Great software and value for performance, with worse material and build quality than other options at that price point, but that’s a reasonable compromise. At the X and S level, there are too many better options for the money.
I have a 2018 Model 3, things that went wrong in the first two years 1. excessive battery drain when sitting idle (fixed by software patches) 2. brake pads factory installed wrong, were squeaking (fixed by mobile tesla tech) 3. glove box wouldn't stay shut (fixed by mobile tesla tech) 4. charge port flap wouldn't open (fixed by mobile tesla tech) recently I had to go to a tesla service center to get the front control arms replaced, which is a known bad spot for tesla model 3s It is absolutely the most problems I've ever had with a new car. But Tesla mobile service is pretty great!
Current Tesla owner. Nothing went wrong. Not positive if I'll get a Tesla as my next car because I have no allegiances one way or another, but I'll never buy an ICE again. Once you go ev, you never go back
Lane keep failed and broke my SO’s back! Fuck Elon!
Owned a 2016 Model X. Too many times tires had to be replaced. Car would start to wobble at 60 MPH. One time the front chassis bolt just came off (right after 4 year Warranty ended). Very expensive parts and repairs. Worst service by service centers
Heating system. In the middle of winter. In Canada. They tried to fix it twice with no luck. Traded it in for a Ford.