December Issue Consumer Reports

[Johnstac]

So demoralizing. I’m expecting my Model 3 in about a week. Yes, I’ve read the multitude of posts in these forums about the issues upon delivery and beyond. I didn’t know exactly how Tesla was rated as a whole though. Not until I read this new CR on vehicle dependability. The Model X was by far the worst but the all of the models ranked low. Has anyone else read this? I don’t know what to think. Growing pains? This is made worse by the service center reports I’ve been reading about. I sure would like to be convinced to the contrary.

 

[Az_Rael]

So demoralizing. I’m expecting my Model 3 in about a week. Yes, I’ve read the multitude of posts in these forums about the issues upon delivery and beyond. I didn’t know exactly how Tesla was rated as a whole though. Not until I read this new CR on vehicle dependability. The Model X was by far the worst but the all of the models ranked low. Has anyone else read this? I don’t know what to think. Growing pains? This is made worse by the service center reports I’ve been reading about. I sure would like to be convinced to the contrary.

I only subscribe to the website, so I don't get the magazine.

I assume they are giving Tesla poor marks for reliability. In my personal experience that is accurate. We currently have a 2015 Model S and my 2017 Model 3. I tell people Teslas are the least reliable cars I still love and would buy again.

We have only had to tow the S once from a failed power steering, but both cars always have a list of things that need to be fixed. My 3 currently has a hesitating charge port that doesnt open reliably. The S has a leaking air suspension and needs a driver door handle repaired. All will be under warranty, but it is a hassle to have to deal with the service centers which are over 1 hour from us.

Others will probably respond with how they have 100k miles on their cars and no issues. Having bought 3 Teslas, I haven't lucked into that car yet.

I will still buy more Teslas. They are amazing and are worth the hassle to own.

 

[ChadS]

My 2010 Roadster, over 7 years and 57k miles, had the solder on a battery rivet fail (handmade packs back then). That was it. (Well, OK, the cloth top leaked a little, but I think that was expected).
My wife's 2012 Model S, over 5 years and 88k miles, did have a few problems - maybe 4? Although Tesla got us a loaner (more than once bringing it to our house!) and fixed them all fast, free and friendly.
My 2015 Model S (a year old and 14k miles when I got it in 2016), over 2 years and 35k of my miles, had no problems at all.
My wife's 2017 Model X, over 1 year and 10k miles, had the windshield wiper fluid filler neck crack. They fixed it in our garage. That's been it.
My 2018 Model 3, over 6 months and 2k miles, had a sticky glovebox latch. I haven't bothered to have it fixed. That's been it.

That's over 15 years and almost 200k miles. There have been a few problems, but the cars have started every time and never failed to get us where we wanted to go. The failures have generally been very minor.

Does the CR report break them problems down to "cosmetic/noise" versus "powertrain" problems?

Does the CR report give the % of each type of car that has a problem...or only compare cars to others in its class? CR has changed it system over the years, but I know at one point several years ago all the colored dots just compared cars to each other. It turned out that you could get the worst, black-colored dot if as few as 3 to 5% of your vehicles had that problem, depending on the problem type. So yeah, one car might be 50% more likely to have a failure than another, which could be the difference between the best dot and the worst - but that could mean that 6% of owners had a problem rather than 4%. (I am not saying that is the case here; I haven't seen the numbers. Maybe 85% of recent Teslas have headlight failures; I don't know. I'm just saying that a black dot is not necessarily a significant problem; you have to look at the numbers behind it)

A lot of people like to rag on CR, but I think their comparative system is not really that bad when comparing reliability is what you want to do. But: IMO they way overplay the importance of the comparisons, and often make it difficult to find the real numbers behind it. Things like safety, efficiency, utility, cost, and even driving joy mean more to me than, say, a 4% greater chance of encountering a problem.

I have a new Tesla arriving next week.

 

[mal_tsla]

Anecdata, but our 2016 Model X has been just as reliable as our previous Japanese cars.

It's probably been in the shop for a total of 4 days in two years.

 

[jamnmon66]

The X is much more complicated than the 3. I think we'll have better odds overall but it's a brand new model from a very young company. My issues have been minor so far & my wife hasn't had any problems with hers yet (aside from someone backing into her). We each have a 3LR.

I really trust the reliability ratings from CR though. Their reviews are just like any other car magazine except probably a little more conservative.

 

[glide]

My 2015 S always turns on and drives but is often in the service center for some annoying reason. Moreso than any other vehicle I have owned.

 

[rhumbliner]

After 2 VW Jetta’s, an Audi TT and an Audi A6, I’ve found my S90D to be much more reliable. The issues I have had were minor and repaired in my garage at no cost by a Tesla Ranger.

 

[Electroman]

Don't look at X's reliability to judge M3 . They are completely in a different league in terms of complexity. Elon and Tesla shot themselves on their foot by making X far too complex with gadgets that really don't add much value at all. Now they are paying the price in terms of decreased reliability. Oh those stupid idiotic doors.

M3 is completely different. Much more simpler and from what I am hearing has very few issues that plagued the X or even S. My M3 is now at close to 10K miles in 7 months and (touch wood) hasn't seen the service center or had any issues. There are around 10 M3 in my office lot and none of them have any issues at all.

So don't get carried away by these consumer reports rating as they don't distinguish between cosmetic issues and functional issues.

 

[Msjulie]

Air suspension and self-presenting door handles are the big 'trouble spots'; Model 3 has neither. Mine has been fine, only issues some mild delivery "blemishes" already attended to...

 

[Kichwas]

CR is a clickbait magazine. If there is controversy out there that drives eyeballs to screens they will join in on it.

The last time they were a genuine reliable source was early 1996... before the Mosaic browser changed the world...

Are there issues? Yes.

But not as severe as some sources hype it up. The gas tank isn’t exploding into a fireball of death like a pinto, the paint isn’t peeling off like a Neon, the engine isn’t accelerating suddenly to kill everyone inside by doing 60 into a brick wall like a Camry, and the airbags aren’t packed with metal fragments that decapitate the driver on any fender bender like one car who’s model I forget but is actually still on the roads...

You don’t see massive media drama over those cars and their makers got forgiven usually a year after the issues came out...

But Tesla gets called a failed company because somebody’s door panel was off by 3mm...

 

[rainforest]

I have an X and a 3. The 3 is new, so there is no reliability data there. But my X hasn’t had major issues yet in the past two years. The drive train and suspension have been fine so far, and surprisingly the FWD have worked very well. The front door latches did have problems twice, and they were swapped out. The screen has a yellow burn in ring, but you need to remember that you would expect more issues with a car that “pushes the envelope” and with a company that has the courage to immediately adopt new technology in their cars. Is it fair to compare Tesla with a regular ICE which barely has any tech in it? By definition, a Tesla is far more experimental and you would expect more issues compared to other story companies which are slow to adopt change.

 

[animorph]

We have an X and a 3. Our experience has been largely the same with both.

The X required a rear hatch adjustment after it kept shifting to the right at the back, eventually hitting the rear quarter panel. It has shudder under heavy acceleration at Standard suspension height. It frequently won't open the passenger FWD very high because it thinks there's an obstacle when there isn't (mostly when sunlight hits the door). One SC visit to fix the hatch and one annual service so far.

The 3 has the turn signal problem (left signal prefers to latch on instead of three blinks and stop), phone as key is not reliable for my wife, a couple other small things I think (not my car). One SC visit coming up for the turn signal. Front windshield has a large crack from a stone (not Tesla's fault) and we're waiting for a replacement (for a third-party installer). Over a week with no estimate of availability. And one customer ahead of us had already been waiting three weeks, still with no clue on availability.

Add in lots of fussing about installing new firmware and learning what's new, much of which is never mentioned in the release notes. Or dashcam USB drives being corrupted. Kind of high maintenance so far.

I love it! It's about what I expected, early adopterish, different from normal. Reminiscent of owning old Porsches with long order to delivery time, waits for parts, and fewer service options. Or my old VW bug where I was supposed to change the oil every 3k miles. I don't think I'd order my mom one yet, but I enjoy being a little more involved and somewhat of a minor pioneer. I exchange I get to drive the car of the future.

 

[saltsman]

CR is a clickbait magazine. If there is controversy out there that drives eyeballs to screens they will join in on it.

Og all the magazines out there, CR is the least clickbait. Clickbait is to drive clicks to drive up ad revenue. CR doesn't to the ad revenue thing.

Like it or hate it, CR try to use some measure of data to make their ratings. According to the research methodology, CR readers who own Tesla products reported problems and that's what is being reported. Is that reliable data? Perhaps not, but it's far from clickbait.

If you look at these forums, there are a LOT of problems being reported. The number of "worst" that show up in titles is rather troubling. Teslas are awesomely designed cars, but they do have problems.

 

[Foxtrotter]

They really don't have any data on the reliability of the 3's yet. I subscribe to CR and fill out the surveys. We have two 3's, April and August deliveries, but the first one had only a thousand miles, and no problems, or so when the spring CR survey came out. Then when the fall survey came out in Oct. they only asked about the safety features in the car. They didn't even ask if we had replaced the Volt so they don't even know about any of the 3's that people have purchased since June or so. The first survey next year should start to add some real data.

Minimal issues with our cars in 14,000 miles combined. One SC visit for a stalled update. One "executive escalation" to get software that we bought actually pushed to the car. Waiting for a ranger to fix an issue with the charge door, that the service guy found, but that is not and never has been an issue for me. Windshield replaced due to rock hit. Climate control issue on the August car fixed by the latest software update. None of the dreaded ICE "check engine light" warnings that can be anything from a loose fuel cap to something serious.

That said if you are concerned about time spent in visits to the dealer, remember that those oil changes, etc. for ICE vehicles take time too. And with the Gen II Volt, it spent almost two weeks at the dealer for 3 different issues, including recalls, over the 2 years we owned it. Chevy offered to sell us updated maps for a couple hundred with a dealer visit while Tesla updates over the air for free.

The 3's are just great cars and so far the apparent issues seem to be exaggerated by the high motivation of those unsatisfied to complain to someone.

 

[Gavyne]

Air suspension and self-presenting door handles are the big 'trouble spots'; Model 3 has neither. Mine has been fine, only issues some mild delivery "blemishes" already attended to...

This.

 

[EinSV]

I don't really understand this thread. Consumer Reports rated Model 3 "average" for reliability. This is good for a first-year model, since they tend to have some teething issues. Who Makes the Most Reliable Cars?

Plus Tesla's mobile service can now fix many issues without owners even needing to leave their house.

 

[AZRI11]

No issues. Still have never visited tesla store or service center, ever. Home Delivery hell aside, model 3 has been much better than expected.

 

[SDRick]

2016 MS P90D 18,000 miles, 0 days in the shop and I'm picky.

 

[preilly44]

We've had a 2014 S P85D, 2016 S P90DL, 2017 3 LR, 2018 3 P3D+ and none have had any issues that stopped us from being able to drive the car. There were some minor issues but Tesla proactively reached out to me to fix the majority of them before they were an issue. Tesla never gets credit for all the great things they do....everybody seems to focus on the "bad" stuff.

 

[astrowunder]

Consumer reports is the best in the business- no advertising, no axe to grind. From what I've seen from reading a ton of forum posts, I fully expect my M3 to be less reliable in many ways that most cars I've owned. I'm hoping the drive train is more reliable. It's a new company and not shocking they have startup problems. However, the car is just astounding to drive. I wouldn't give trade it back now even for a full refund.