The X is 6 years old as a model. The problems with the front suspension, the 12v battery, and the FSD seals should certainly have been fixed by now if they were priorities for Tesla. Since we are reading of these issues still my guess is Tesla has no intention of fixing them.
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Beware of Model X
- Thread starter Dutchie
- Start date
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
The 12V battery is gone. Now it is a small LiIon battery. No guarantees it will not have a new set of issues.
Yes
My advice remains the same on Teslas ( in general) and Model X (with great emphasis):
If you've been an enthusiastic owner of precious, finicky european cars your whole life and are comfortable with the very real and present possibility that they could betray you at a moment's notice no matter how new, now expensive, or how awesome they seem, then by all means go buy a Model X and be ready for that kind of nonsense. If you keep your expectations low you'll be pleasantly surprised, as I have mostly been over 27,000+ miles in less than two years. I ordered a Model X Long Range Plus after test-driving one and that lower oddments tray below the screen *LITERALLY FELL OFF DURING THE TEST DRIVE*. Somebody had probably broken it before I got there and put it back in place, but, fact remains, it was busted already with 1000 demo miles on it. I knew what I was getting into. 90's Ford build quality with 2030 Ford drive technology, available in 2020. So I'm still happy overall, even if I'm never going to buy another one at the rate the company is going.
BUT:
If you are the kind to buy it expecting it to be a step up in coachbuild quality from those european cars that cost the same, I have a bridge for sale in new york we should talk about
If you are the kind to buy it expecting it to be a step up from your typical indestructable Japanese mall-crawler like the Lexus GX in overall quality or reliability just cuz electric car, I have a bulk deal on bridges to offer you
If you are the kind to buy it sight-unseen, enjoy your new bridge.
SO:
If none of that sounds like you, maybe get a Model Y instead, or don't get a Tesla
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Mr. Jim
Member
Reading all of these issues makes me nervous since my warranty ran out in early August. I'm beginning to feel as though I've been had and am just waiting for the hammer to drop. There are some absurd comments about having a pile of money in reserve to cover inevitable expensive repairs. I have 32K on the car on its original tires so I do not drive this thing hard.
strider
Active Member
Well, having been on this forum for many years now, it is certainly true that you hear much more about the bad experiences than the good ones. IIRC the half shaft issues are related to miles driven rather than calendar. 32k miles in 4 years is not heavy use.
That being said, is this your only vehicle and do you NEED to get somewhere reliably? If the answer is yes you should get a different vehicle, or more realistically, have access to a second vehicle. Even Honda Civics break down.
@Richbot's advice is good. If you hink of a Tesla as an Italian car you will be happier. Enjoy the car when it is working and view the repair bills as the cost of that enjoyment.
I like to think of it as a really fat, really quiet, Citroen DS Pallas with worse suspension and better seating and performance. It's weird for no reason, unless you count "F you, you just don't understand art" as a reason. Nothing more French zan zat. Ze baguettes sometimes zee fall out of ze gaps in zee panels, oui oui. It would have fit right in on the Grand Tour's france episode getting smashed to bits going up a hillside
And I second that second paragraph. We have three other perfectly serviceable road vehicles (and some non-road vehicles, if things got REALLY zombieland) so when something breaks, it's a temporary inconvenience, not a months-long ordeal finding the right car in a sea of ADM and used price profiteering during this "shortage" of cars that somehow manifested during the single biggest and most-sustained drop in per capita miles traveled in the recorded history of the universe that also coincided with a vehicle average fleet age of more than a decade and improving all the time to the point one has to wonder where all the cars went when there was no "cash for clunkers" program and no uptick in scrappage...
but I dare not protest too much or I'll risk devaluing my somehow-appreciating POS of a french-american monstrosity of contrarian industrial design
And I second that second paragraph. We have three other perfectly serviceable road vehicles (and some non-road vehicles, if things got REALLY zombieland) so when something breaks, it's a temporary inconvenience, not a months-long ordeal finding the right car in a sea of ADM and used price profiteering during this "shortage" of cars that somehow manifested during the single biggest and most-sustained drop in per capita miles traveled in the recorded history of the universe that also coincided with a vehicle average fleet age of more than a decade and improving all the time to the point one has to wonder where all the cars went when there was no "cash for clunkers" program and no uptick in scrappage...
but I dare not protest too much or I'll risk devaluing my somehow-appreciating POS of a french-american monstrosity of contrarian industrial design
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You're in an awesome position; get a Carvana quote on the car and look at what that kind of money gets you in the new vehicle market and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Can't lose. And you still have powertrain/battery warratny for the really scary-expensive stuff right?
_Redshift_
Member
Splendid advise about thinking of Tesla as an Italian car!
I was on the now dead Car and Driver forums back in the day, when one particularly knowledgeable enthusiast had made a joke about an unreliable car:
”This car has Italian reliability, and Japanese style”.
I own a 2022 Model X, 2019 Model 3, and Tesla Solar/Powerwalls. No problems with any of them by the way. I’m all about honest feedback you just come across as pretty salty is all. If there are soooooo many issues with them and the build quality is soooooo bad then why don’t you put your money where your mouth is, at least on this forum, and drive a different, apparently superior in all ways, car? Somebody is sensitive.
P.S. Honest feedback does not include suggesting selling people a bridge if they have certain expectations of a product that, in your limited experience owning a single/small number of products, applies to every product made by a company.
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strider
Active Member
Yeah.....so.....you're new here. It's not a question of if, but when, Tesla (as a company) will let you down. For me it was a couple of years ago. I had a minor deer strike in my wife's 2018 MS. The car was still driveable. It needed a hood, bumper, and left front fender. It took over 5 months. At one point the replacement hood was sitting in Dallas for 3 weeks waiting for a shipping label to be printed. You have to actively try to suck at spare parts this badly. But for sure, Tesla nailed it.
I have been a Tesla customer for longer than pretty much everyone on Earth. I hope the company survives and thrives. But I have watched the customer service and QA go down the drain over the years. I believe that they will not change their behavior while the order books are full. Viable alternatives are just now hitting the market. It will still take some time to manifest but people will vote with their wallets. Until then, feel free to live in blissful ignorance.
_Redshift_
Member
+100
As another long time Tesla owner, I have a soft spot for the company, but their own missteps will kill them.
My last Tesla was my 2018 Model 3. The S will be replaced by one of the Germans.
The 3, who knows.
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I find some long time owners definitely yearning for the “good ole days” when they were coddled and not liking the new Tesla.
I agree that Tesla needs to improve service and is probably worse than many alternatives In that regard. The old way was not sustainable either.
But to go with another company that lies about emissions for example, or to think that other companies don’t have massive parts delays… just makes me laugh.
I agree that Tesla needs to improve service and is probably worse than many alternatives In that regard. The old way was not sustainable either.
But to go with another company that lies about emissions for example, or to think that other companies don’t have massive parts delays… just makes me laugh.
_Redshift_
Member
Well, as you might remember on Tesla forums, we always talked about how the ‘old way’ of coddling (yet, still offering incompetent repairs all the time, then too) was not sustainable.
The 180 degree shift to rudely refusing to heed valid service concerns, or arguing about every single small or big repair, having build quality issues that might not even be present in some cheap Chinese car, on cars that are 150k+. This way is not sustainable either.
Yes, VW lied about their emissions. They were also made to pay, build out a charging network, and introduce electric cars. They are doing that now. If you are going to keep obsessing about their lies, you won’t be looking forward into the future, where you might get some legitimate options for buying EVs.
How many lies has Elon uttered till now? Yet you continue to subscribe to Tesla, no?
strider
Active Member
You've been here long enough to know that the list of Tesla's lies is long and distinguished.
Also, the key difference with the mature manufacturers is that even if the lead times are long (supply chain is affecting everyone) they can accurately forecast when cars and parts will be available. Tesla cannot do this. It's not hard (logistics management is a very mature field) but it does take investment. There are Tesla customers that were bait and switched last Fall to pay for the 6 seat MX upgrade with the promise that they would receive their cars by 31 December, 2021. Never happened. People have had MXs on order for over a year while people that ordered the same configuration at a later date have received their cars. The expected delivery dates move by months at a time on an almost weekly basis. There is a recurring joke in the MX waiting room thread that Tesla has Interns go in and mass-update the EDDs. As I said, you have to actively try to suck this much.
Tesla currently has the lead in tech, no question. But the question is that once that gap narrows (and it will because it always does), will the "little things" like customer service start to affect their order books? My guess is that if/when this happens, Elon will retire and Tesla will hire an experienced industry executive. Best case it will be a replay of Apple. Innovation at Apple has stopped since Jobs/Ive left. Yet Apple remains a highly profitable company that delights their customers and shareholders. They do this by flawlessly executing - something that Tesla is currently terrible at but could be fixed by someone who knows what they are doing.
You mean that EA garbage?
Please. Give me a break.
Just went on two large trips these past couple months totaling almost 10k miles.
I saw people using those chargers and almost every time (at different locations), they were on the phone with support. Often at least one or two chargers weren’t working at all.
You can assume VW has been good since and are now vindicated if you want, but I’m not going to. Besides, dieselgate is one heck of a big thing to simply look past.
As far as “Elon’s lies”, I only buy what I know what I get at time of purchase. I wouldn’t buy FSD at todays price.
I still vastly like the product and don’t get bent out of shape over what Elon says. All I do is buy something and pay for something that it can do TODAY. That’s true for any product.
I never understood when people get so salty about something and still keep them. I get rid of stuff that I don’t like and move on with my life. Including wives/girlfriends. I guess some people enjoy being miserable.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Though you can find plenty of horrible Apple service stories over the years if you look. The difference of course is the cost of the product and level of inconvenience.
Apple hasn’t been flawless. They’ve been forced to do things because of battery issues and reducing processing power.
And no, the sky isn’t falling around Tesla.
Elon seems to be doing pretty good so far overall. Does he have flaws? Yes. Is there room for improvement? Yes
Just not as dramatic as what some like to portray. But it makes a good story. And sure, there are anecdotal cases too. Just look on any car forum. I’m not giving Tesla a pass here. I want them to improve, of course.
brainhouston
Active Member
Wow not sure why its so much but why not get a used one?..
Pretty sure Tesla SC would program it for u if u brought your own...
This right here. They can barely keep up with demand so in their eyes they're doing great. Also the fact that they have so much demand means most ppl don't have issues with the car i think... It can't be that initial excitement cause its been 10yrs... Once things balance out they will be forced to fix QA n customer service if the sales drop.
In their defense, my personal opinion, Tesla is still the only decent looking EV with nice acceleration.
Everything else either looks meh to me or slow or weird...
ID4 looks alright but accelerations is a joke
Lucid is great but infotainment screens are ugly to me
i4 is great but its a small sedan n u have to get M version for good acceleration...
So alternatives got ways to go...