I also have a 3 which I payed for FSD on. Anyways that’s irrelevant bc it shows someone purchasing a new car today has no idea what surprises could be in store for them.Hi, fellow S85 driver since 2015 either.
Ah, FSD was actually not an option, you are right. Instead the cooperation with mobileye was intended to constantly improve AP1, which was true until Tesla and mobileye parted. IMHO Tesla went full into developing their own AP thus leaving no resorces for significant changes in AP1 or other improvements e.g. for multi point navigation, alternative routes, etc.
Regarding the charging experience today: Also in 2015 the new battery tech and the risk coming with it for the customer was tackled by Elon Musk twofold:
Firstly by extending battery warranty to all cars, even sold ones to unlimited miles and 8 years while sending on the Tesla company blog the reassuring statemement: Any issue due to usage/(super) charging will be covered by us, even if you never read the manual, because our BMS should prevent any damage.
Secondly by stating on the same blog to strive for the best service experience of the world.
Then there were some Taxi and renting services providing great datapoints for the small capacity losses after lots of miles.
Over time, the initial supercharging speed declined a bit, but acceptable.
Then in 2019 a series of firmware updates changed firstly at a significant number of 85s the capacity by limiting the max voltage. My car went from 84% soc to 92% after the first firmware. Then in additional Firmware Updates the charging behaviour was throttled. Both resulted in adding 50%-75% longer charging times on road trips.
When I politely inquired the SeC, I was simply told over and over again, this is "normal degradation".
Combine this with the declined service.
So, I hear you, Muhammad!
As a matter of fact there seems to be a lot of people like me who were passionate enough to be “2 Tesla households” who are now saying never to Tesla. That should be alarming for Tesla for brand loyalty and customer retention. Furthermore, one of Tesla’s biggest advantages used to be word of mouth advertising. I have been asked by a lot of people recently who were interested in buying a car and I, without malice or hatred to the company, gave them an honest rundown of my experience and my concerns with the company. Not funny enough, there’s another guy in my friends circle who owned an S, had a catastrophic service experience, and got rid of it and feels the same. He’s even more passionate of his negative feelings about the company and I can’t imagine anyone I know hearing of these two stories and still wanting to purchase a car.
Yet one thing comes to mind which is that Teslas back in the day were considered expensive, as there was comparably less car for your money that gas counterparts. Since then Tesla has changed to the cheapest option in every category, which makes leads me to believe Tesla might begin to be seen less as the aspirational luxury brand it was to a cheap brand. That may not be a bad thing if cars are continually coming off the lot but it’s different from the company i and others bought into.
Finally, I want to make it clear that I have no animosity to the company. I actually don’t regret purchasing either car but I’m just not excited or passionate about it anymore, and will give competitors precedence when buying a new car. Inside, I sort of wish the company turned out differently which is why I made this post, but for me it’s about moving on and accepting reality.