I know a lot of people who have had problems with Mercedes, serious problems, in my case engine loom "wore out" because they ran it between the engine and the body and there was insufficient room the ongoing problems were disruptive. In petrolhead circles, the big German manufacturers are not exactly considered to be high reliability - certainly not when you get to the high performance models which are probably more of a relevant comparison to a Tesla. Im not defending Telsa, they have room for improvement, but to say other manufacturers problems are rare is not something I have found to be true in practice. (there may be statistics available to prove either side of this argument, but I haven't investigated them).
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I know a lot of people who have had problems with Mercedes, serious problems, in my case engine loom "wore out" because they ran it between the engine and the body and there was insufficient room the ongoing problems were disruptive. In petrolhead circles, the big German manufacturers are not exactly considered to be high reliability - certainly not when you get to the high performance models which are probably more of a relevant comparison to a Tesla. Im not defending Telsa, they have room for improvement, but to say other manufacturers problems are rare is not something I have found to be true in practice. (there may be statistics available to prove either side of this argument, but I haven't investigated them).
Sounds like it had a tracking issue. Not great on delivery, but possibly a very simple fix. Miss-aligned roof glass sounds like a potential pain. That would concern me for sure. Misting headlamps I’ve seen in many premium cars in recent years. Not sure why, but easy enough to swap out as required.
Are you ordering another Tesla or giving up and getting something else? I can’t think what else I would prefer over a M3P at the moment.
This has been my personal experience too as a long term BMW and Porsche owner. Porsche in particular have not proven to be reliable and the problems I had were serious mechanicals and electrical glitches across half a dozen cars I’ve owned. But their history and brand marketing makes them seem invincible. Tesla has its own QC issues of course, but I don’t buy into the German engineering perfection mythology.
Glan gluaisne
Active Member
My experience of both BMW and Mercedes was a bit mixed. I had a 525i and a 325i years ago, that weren't great and a Mercedes SLK that wasn't a lot better. The i3 was pretty good, but I suspect part of that was that it was a relatively low volume car built on a different line to other BMWs, using totally different technology. Having said that, I gather the i8 is far from reliable, and that uses the same core construction technique.
It wasn't until I switched to Toyotas that I realised that some car manufacturers can produce stunning well built and reliable cars. Between us we've owned six Toyotas in the past twenty years, none have ever had any problems, all were rock solid, and built to a high standard on delivery, too.
If Toyota can build well-screwed together cars for a fraction of the price of a Tesla, then why on earth can't Tesla do the same? The whole "Total Quality" and "Right First Time" thing seemed to be vigorously embraced by the Japanese car makers decades ago, yet seems an alien concept to Tesla.
It wasn't until I switched to Toyotas that I realised that some car manufacturers can produce stunning well built and reliable cars. Between us we've owned six Toyotas in the past twenty years, none have ever had any problems, all were rock solid, and built to a high standard on delivery, too.
If Toyota can build well-screwed together cars for a fraction of the price of a Tesla, then why on earth can't Tesla do the same? The whole "Total Quality" and "Right First Time" thing seemed to be vigorously embraced by the Japanese car makers decades ago, yet seems an alien concept to Tesla.
“Toyota” and “stunning” are not words I would associate. Build quality I agree with. They do that very well, but the cars themselves don’t do anything for me.
Glan gluaisne
Active Member
It was a typo . . .
I meant to write "stunningly well built", which they certainly are. If my Tesla was half as well put together as any of the Toyotas I've owned I would be a very happy bunny indeed.
lol, yes I agree. Build quality would be the icing on the cake. But at least the Tesla cake is nice!
I *know* my inbound Tesla can't be as well screwed together as my F31 330d, so my expectations are tempered. It's been completely faultless in over 7 years and cost me buttons in servicing. A joy. So good in fact I'm looking to see if the finances stack so I can keep hold of it.
My experience in owning cars from new:
1998 Merc SLK230: Never out of the garage. Numerous faults including constantly blowing the supercharger to windows dropping randomly. At least the roof always worked.
2008 Audi A4: Well built but the most stultifying boring car I ever owned. Hated driving because of it.
2011 Merc C250d Estate: Very well screwed together on a nice chassis. Just a bit dad.
2013 the 330d Touring.
My experience in owning cars from new:
1998 Merc SLK230: Never out of the garage. Numerous faults including constantly blowing the supercharger to windows dropping randomly. At least the roof always worked.
2008 Audi A4: Well built but the most stultifying boring car I ever owned. Hated driving because of it.
2011 Merc C250d Estate: Very well screwed together on a nice chassis. Just a bit dad.
2013 the 330d Touring.
I think of my M3 as a competitor to something like a BMW M3 or Lotus or Cayman. Not as a competitor to a Skoda octavia (which I currently own) or BMW diesel (which I have owned in the past), or indeed any Honda. I certainly don't see anything in the current Honda range with equivalent performance to compare with my Tesla.
Not quite, more like massive growth in sales and not able to built out service infrastructure fast enough. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, as others have said, while Tesla is not the best in quality to have a car with issues like yours is pretty rare. Hope it gets resolved quickly and you get to enjoy the car soon.
I picked up M3 LR on 8th September and the only issue I found during my extensive inspection was a misalignment of the right rear passenger door. Other than it’s been perfect. I reported the misalignment on the day of collection and initially they were going to send out a mobile ranger to address it but cancelled the day before to say it would need a visit to an SC. This would involve a 200 mile round trip to Bristol from Poole so I have deferred it until the new Winchester SC opens. I wasn’t expecting to wait this long though! At the end of the day it’s a minor cosmetic issue really.
I'm waiting on Winchester to open too, been advised it's not long now,...being in Bournemouth with a M3P I'm not keen on driving to Bristol either.
I did receive this text message from them on 7th December out of the blue having not heard anything since late September.
Hi Jonathan, hope your well and keeping safe. Just a quick sms to advise Tesla Winchester is aware of your concern and will make contact with you as soon as the site is operational. We have an ETA in Jan 2021. If anything changes we will make contact with you. Best wishes Tesla Winchester service team.
I feel for anyone in this position.
I rejected my last 2 cars, both brand new BMW F40 M135's. BMW service was non existent and their attitude was woeful, never gain will I buy a BMW that's for sure.
First BMW rejection was due to serious paint defect, was going to cost £5k to rectify and only showed the defect in direct sunlight, tiger stripe effect, didn't help that it was raining on collection for that one.
The second M135 had several defects, many cosmetic and the final one being a loud metallic click from the rear C pillar that apparently would need to be welded to sort.
My Audi A4 had over 10 service visits in less than 6 months and my Volvo XC40 first edition had 7 faults in the first 2 months.
I've owned them all, with my Honda's as others have mentioned being amongst the best.
My new M3P needs a few cosmetic tweaks, however this car is on salary sacrifice with work and costs the same as my BMW's with a good margin improvement in performance albeit with my insurance, tyres and servicing all covered by work too.
Not many cars out there that can compete at the moment for the price of the M3P so will see how things go.
Would love to know how much the glass was out?
I rejected my last 2 cars, both brand new BMW F40 M135's. BMW service was non existent and their attitude was woeful, never gain will I buy a BMW that's for sure.
First BMW rejection was due to serious paint defect, was going to cost £5k to rectify and only showed the defect in direct sunlight, tiger stripe effect, didn't help that it was raining on collection for that one.
The second M135 had several defects, many cosmetic and the final one being a loud metallic click from the rear C pillar that apparently would need to be welded to sort.
My Audi A4 had over 10 service visits in less than 6 months and my Volvo XC40 first edition had 7 faults in the first 2 months.
I've owned them all, with my Honda's as others have mentioned being amongst the best.
My new M3P needs a few cosmetic tweaks, however this car is on salary sacrifice with work and costs the same as my BMW's with a good margin improvement in performance albeit with my insurance, tyres and servicing all covered by work too.
Not many cars out there that can compete at the moment for the price of the M3P so will see how things go.
Would love to know how much the glass was out?
Cool, I have a service visit scheduled for 25/1 at Winchester showing on my app although when I go into the detail, its blank so waiting for proper confirmation. Good to hear we're getting close to them opening.
When I picked up mine they said they would fix all the issues, then after I took it into the Service centre they repaired it portly and did more damage to other parts of the car and told me its within spec.
ACarneiro
Active Member
So it would seem that Tesla also struggles with “your” and “you’re”?
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