First Road trip with model 3.....really sucks.....

[cwerdna]

How many other reports have you read that people had troubles that impacted their road-trips in Model 3, or in any SX build in the last two years? All i am hearing over and over again are panel gaps, paint bubbles and bluetooth issues, and almost nothing about drive-ability issues in Model 3.

Model 3 has been extremely reliable driving machine.

Regarding the 3, maybe you missed all of these that I have in my bookmarks? (I've taken some hiatuses here on TMC due to lack of time, other priorities, etc. so there might've been more that I missed due to lack of monitoring.)

Tesla Model 3 Down: Won't Power Up, and is Inaccessible
Rear motor disabled
Delivery Problems
My So my M3 broke down 2 days after delivery
Model 3: Breakdowns
1 Week into Model 3 ownership and had to get Towed
My new Model 3 has faulty battery. Needs replacement...
Model 3: My car is in the shop on day 2

Monthly Update for April 2018 - 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long-Term Road Test

We did local commuting and a few freeway journeys, sure, but everywhere we went the car was fraught with problems. Sixteen weeks into ownership, we've had so many issues with our Model 3 that we started a shared Google Doc to catalog various warning messages, necessary screen resets and general failures.

Forget that this is a "cutting-edge" EV with a cult following. That's irrelevant if Tesla wants to be anything more than a footnote in automotive history. Our Model 3 cost us $56,000, and by that standard alone, the ownership experience so far has been unacceptable. But this is no ordinary $56K car. We put down a $1,000 deposit to get on a two-year waiting list for this car and it's falling apart.

Early adopters who could spend six figures on a car such as the Model S might've given Tesla a bit of extra leeway. Maybe they figure it's a small price to pay for such a technologically advanced car. Maybe it's a sacrifice they're willing to make to avoid using fossil fuels and get free access to the carpool lane. This far into its run, though, and with a car intended for mass appeal, Tesla should have the bugs worked out. It clearly doesn't.

They had a list of issues under Maintenance and Upkeep. The phantom touchscreen issues have been well documented here.

To be fair, June and July 2018 were trouble free for them and Monthly Update for July 2018 - 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long-Term Road Test:

In a rare instance, the Model 3 was trouble-free for all of July and didn't require any maintenance visits this month. That's right — seven months into ownership and it seems like the turbulence has cleared.

Have all the problems been fixed? We hope so.

Before YouYou crashed his car, he did state what's at YouYou Xue crashed while on autopilot (aka Model 3 Road Trip).

I just quickly found these:
My drive unit failed, pyro fuse blew, both brake calipers were replaced and boy do I LOVE this car!
Here we go again... Model 3 wont power up
Rear Drive Unit Failed During Pre-Delivery Inspection

The glass roof cracks that I keep hearing about are troubling.

The Model X still looks like a reliability mess. There are plenty of stories here in the last two years of that, but arguably much worse at the beginning than now. It ended up dead last at 10 Least Reliable Cars. For a previous year, it was in the middle of the bottom 10: 10 Least Reliable Cars.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

When we got each of our three Teslas, we took each of them on day trips before going on extended road trips.

We took the first one to the mountains, up to brunch and the Supercharger in Silverthone. This allowed us to test the car, have a nice brunch and test the Supercharger functionality. We were still able to easily make it home even if we hadn't been able to charge since most of the return trip was downhill.

With the second Tesla, we were more daring and drove over 100 miles to Ft. Morgan and Brush, scouting for a potential new Supercharger location. We actually made this trip twice over a three week period! It was an adventure and fun trying to search for unknown Superchargers! On the second trip, we found signs they were building a Supercharger in Brush. On the first return trip, we charged in Denver before making it home but by the second trip, we were confident we could do the over 200 miles round-trip drive before needing to charge again at home.

For the third Tesla, we stopped 40 miles away on the way to the Denver airport. It was a good thing we checked as this car was a December 2017 build...one of the cars that had a tight charge port which made it difficult to plug in and remove the Supercharger plug. We were only able to charge at an extremely low rate since the plug couldn't be inserted all the way. Fortunately we had enough charge to make it home.

Anyhow, don't bite off more than you can chew on your first long drive. Plan ahead and make an adventure out of it. Most likely you won't have any problems but if your do, be prepared and have enough charge to make it home if you aren't able to Supercharge.

 

[daniel]

No that observation is made by many many many other problems that have been created by rushing cars off a new production line. These are not occassional issues, they affect a huge portion of brand new cars.

The internet tends to skew the numbers. Everyone who uses the internet will post about any problem they have. Very few people post "My car works fine and has never had any problems." It is quite true that the first year of a new model from almost any car maker will have more issues than later years of the same model, but in a nation of 300,000,000 people, the internet can make any product seem like a disaster.

... I was just having a dinner with a friend who has no interest and doesn't follow any news about Tesla. But during the ride on my M3, he did ask me about the troubles the company is in. I asked what would that be?

"I heard most of the reservations have been cancelled due to poor quality. Is that true?".

There were people spreading the same kind of lies and FUD about the Prius during its first few years also.

Eventually the Prius became mainstream and you don't hear that kind of stuff about it any more. Tesla will eventually become mainstream and the lies and FUD will peter out as people realize that this is a very good, solid car, for all the difficulties that Tesla, as a new company, has had getting production going.

Every single car company has some lemons. The internet magnifies the number greatly.

 

[deonb]

When I bought my brand new GMC truck a few years ago I parked it on my lawn initially - and it was raining the whole time. So I didn’t noticed anything wrong. A week later I checked tires etc. and we went on a road trip, pulling my RV.

Got to my first stop and realized the truck had a slow fuel leak and it was spilling diesel all over the campsite.

Now should I feel bad that I didn’t check the entire length of the fuel line for leaks before I took off? Or can I still be angry at GMC for delivering a new truck to me with a leaky fuel line?

Just checking.

 

[RubberToe]

Where is the final update from the OP, curious to see what finally happened.

Anybody else think this episode is going to be the lead story in Mondays Wall Street Journal?

"Man and 2 year old survive harrowing first Tesla road trip, stranded and surviving on only vending machine food and nitro Brew coffee"

FWIW, I test Supercharged my Model 3 before taking my first long road trip.

RT

 

[RedModel3]

Yes there is. My car was plugged into a supercharger when it was in service. I have a screen capture to prove it. I was not billed for that charge. I’m assuming the charger is in the show room at Costa Mesa are super Chargers too

If your car is in for service, then any supercharging done at in conjunction with that SHOULD be free. Out in the wild, however, there is usually no free lunch. Yes, once in awhile you hear about someone not being charged, but it's a fluke. All of the superchargers out on the roads are the same, and it's only based on the type of car you have whether or not you will be charged.

 

[Runt8]

When I bought my brand new GMC truck a few years ago I parked it on my lawn initially - and it was raining the whole time. So I didn’t noticed anything wrong. A week later I checked tires etc. and we went on a road trip, pulling my RV.

Got to my first stop and realized the truck had a slow fuel leak and it was spilling diesel all over the campsite.

Now should I feel bad that I didn’t check the entire length of the fuel line for leaks before I took off? Or can I still be angry at GMC for delivering a new truck to me with a leaky fuel line?

Just checking.

No, you should be mad at yourself for buying a GMC truck...

...I’ll show myself out now

 

[JohnSnowNW]

Regarding the 3, maybe you missed all of these that I have in my bookmarks? (I've taken some hiatuses here on TMC due to lack of time, other priorities, etc. so there might've been more that I missed due to lack of monitoring.)

Tesla Model 3 Down: Won't Power Up, and is Inaccessible
Rear motor disabled
Delivery Problems
My So my M3 broke down 2 days after delivery
Model 3: Breakdowns
1 Week into Model 3 ownership and had to get Towed
My new Model 3 has faulty battery. Needs replacement...
Model 3: My car is in the shop on day 2

Monthly Update for April 2018 - 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long-Term Road Test

They had a list of issues under Maintenance and Upkeep. The phantom touchscreen issues have been well documented here.

To be fair, June and July 2018 were trouble free for them and Monthly Update for July 2018 - 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long-Term Road Test:

Before YouYou crashed his car, he did state what's at YouYou Xue crashed while on autopilot (aka Model 3 Road Trip).

I just quickly found these:
My drive unit failed, pyro fuse blew, both brake calipers were replaced and boy do I LOVE this car!
Here we go again... Model 3 wont power up
Rear Drive Unit Failed During Pre-Delivery Inspection

The glass roof cracks that I keep hearing about are troubling.

The Model X still looks like a reliability mess. There are plenty of stories here in the last two years of that, but arguably much worse at the beginning than now. It ended up dead last at 10 Least Reliable Cars. For a previous year, it was in the middle of the bottom 10: 10 Least Reliable Cars.

Yes, we've all seen some of the issues people have had with the Model 3, now please let me know what percentage of the fleet that accounts for. It's relatively meaningless to point to a few high profile examples and extrapolate that to the entire fleet. There have been how many of them delivered again?

As for Model X, as an owner, I've had "reliability" issues with it insofar as the very things that make it advanced/interesting have required addressing:

1. Automatic Charge port needed to be adjusted (ZOMG so unreliable)
2. Screen had yellowing in the borders, which had zero impact on functionality (Similar screen unavailable on any make it's compared to)
3. Shudder under heavy acceleration (An annoyance that had no impact on functionality, but closest thing to a reliability issue)
4. FWD sensor needed to be reseated in its mount

Getting pretty tired of "reliability" issues encompassing everything from having a FWD sensor adjusted to an actual failure of a DU. The Model X has the opportunity for more reliability issues because there are more complex components/hardware that can fail, compared to other vehicles in its class. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

That said, I also wouldn't be surprised that early Model 3 VINs experience more "reliability" issues...but maybe we should wait for more information before making hasty generalizations.

 

[Electroman]

Anyhow, don't bite off more than you can chew on your first long drive. Plan ahead and make an adventure out of it. Most likely you won't have any problems but if your do, be prepared and have enough charge to make it home if you aren't able to Supercharge.

FWIW, I test Supercharged my Model 3 before taking my first long road trip.

Ha!

ut maybe we should wait for more information before making hasty generalizations.

Seems like a losing battle. The "Model 3 is piece of crap" meme has been successfully imparted into the gullible mindset (e.g. slipnslider) by daily lies and FUD stories in the media. So any one off issue will be seen by that lens.

 

[seattlite2004]

The internet tends to skew the numbers. Everyone who uses the internet will post about any problem they have. Very few people post "My car works fine and has never had any problems." It is quite true that the first year of a new model from almost any car maker will have more issues than later years of the same model, but in a nation of 300,000,000 people, the internet can make any product seem like a disaster.

There were people spreading the same kind of lies and FUD about the Prius during its first few years also.

Eventually the Prius became mainstream and you don't hear that kind of stuff about it any more. Tesla will eventually become mainstream and the lies and FUD will peter out as people realize that this is a very good, solid car, for all the difficulties that Tesla, as a new company, has had getting production going.

Every single car company has some lemons. The internet magnifies the number greatly.

The Gen 2 Prius has major issues with its main battery and I think it's brake master cylinder. These issues occur as early as 5 years after the model year. I'm lucky that I lasted 12 years, ~170k miles before I needed to replace my main Prius battery. When the issues occur....folks will post....not many...but those posts were indicative of a widespread issue with the Prius Gen 2.

 

[MXWing]

My friends were worried when they heard I would be driving my Model 3 yesterday.

Thankfully there is a feature to mark “I am safe in my Model 3” that I can click each night on Facebook to keep them assured that everything is fine.

 

[MXWing]

That said, I also wouldn't be surprised that early Model 3 VINs experience more "reliability" issues...but maybe we should wait for more information before making hasty generalizations.

I generally need more than 1 case of a car having issues supercharging before I declare a car a piece of crap. 1/100,000 is statistically insignificant.

I realize and am sensitive it matters to the OP.

For the rest of us, please don’t overstate, or understate issues. It reveals bias, ignorance, and untrustworthiness when blanket statements are made.

We have so many issues in society because they want to win their ‘case’ and lose sight of what’s really important - finding equitable outcomes.

Even if OP doesn’t post again, I know from my experience Tesla will take care of him.

Not gonna lie, Tesla is like a box of chocolates sometimes. But when my cars so damn hot, I’m willing to put up with tons of crazy.

 

[Az_Rael]

I don't disagree but really, should you have to check such things? I know I know... to be fair, I just yesterday stopped to charge for all of 10mins just to prove it worked but.. I find my lack of faith disturbing...

I drove 20 miles out of my way to check supercharging on my car in advance of my trip. That is partly due to my Girl Scout upbringing and partly because I saw that there was a small batch of Model S cars with supercharger ports that were too tight that prevented folks plugging them in fully at their first supercharger stop. A few cases were reported here, and I kept that in the back of my mind and added it to the pre trip checklist for my 3. We also checked the ChadeMo adapter on our S before a trip where we would need it as I got the impression those can be problematic. But, yes, no one should have to do any of that and I should have more faith as well.

Second bullshit analogy on the wheels. You could have driven 10,000 miles on tires (I'm sure you meant tires and not wheels) but best practice of trust but verify is to check tread depth, defects, air pressure before you drive your next road trip. Few people do this but then they are leaving things to chance. Most of the time it doesn't bite them. It could however.

I was taught to always check the oil, tire pressures and tire condition, and fluid reservoirs before every long distance trip in my ICE when I was a kid. My parents also made sure I kept water and some snacks in the car as well just in case of a breakdown. Admittedly I didn’t always do all those checks when long distance travelling, so if I ran into a problem, I would only blame myself for not checking before leaving. I still do lots of checks before travelling into remote areas and will do a dry snow chain install in my driveway to make sure I can do that myself if there is the possibility of chain controls.

But I think I am in the very small minority for that level of preparedness, so I don’t fault others when they expect their modern vehicle to work out of the box as it should.

 

[Zaxxon]

Very few people post "My car works fine and has never had any problems."

My car works fine and has never had any problems. About to hit 9k miles this weekend. (Sorry, I had to...)

 

[davedavedave]

It’s been my observation that threads where people complain about the people complaining about the people complaining.... are better left alone!

 

[hao3361]

Sorry guys did not find any chace to update this yesterday.

Update:

Short version: Tesla fixed this via OTA

Full version : Tesla called me back the second day morning and told me they fixed via OTA and asked me to do a car reboot and it should get fix. I learned my lesson from first day so I decided not to trust anything until I actually test super charge. So I used my remaining mile and drove to nearest Super charge (and wait in a line for 10mins.......LA.....), did both reboot and power cycle. Nothing happened! Still same error messages and cannot supercharge. Called Tesla again(another 30 mins waiting in the queue). They connected to their supervisor and then connected to the engineer team. They did a “remote access” they asked me remain in the car and I can tell they did remote access and reboot, my screen just go black my it self and back. Then supper charging start working!!!

I asked them what problem it is, they told me “software bug” without further explanation.

This is my theory:

Someone mentioned I did not test super charge after picking up car. However I believe that my supercharge issue is not defect from factory but from software upgrade Let me explain why.

Other than supercharge issue, I have another small issue, you can check out this thread :
Help~trip planner option is gone
Basically My trip planner feature is gone after latest firmware update. since this issue was small and did not draw much attention. I strongly believe they are related. Trip planner will add supercharge stop if you do not have enough power left to reach your destination. Since my car super charger feature has been disabled, trip planner feature is also gone(since I could not super charge). The key is I DID have trip planner feature early, and I used it before, it disappeared after latest software update ( I thought Tesla removed trip planner in the latest Software). although I did not test super charge I believe it it working after I pick up the car (along with trip planner). And both of them gone after software update. After OTA fix, both of them are back !!!


So for anyone who is far from super charge but want to check if you have this feature disabled just check if you have trip planner feature in the car

 

[MXWing]

But I think I am in the very small minority for that level of preparedness, so I don’t fault others when they expect their modern vehicle to work out of the box as it should.

If I am ever crazy enough to jump out of a plane you bet one of my questions in orientation is how do you verify your parachute is good?

I mean it’s brand new off the line and should be fine.... right?

When I go splat, kids can flush my ashes down the toilet and get 2020 Roadsters for themselves.

For sure I won’t be held liable because that would be victim blaming right?

Society has no concept it seems about “protecting yourself at all times”.

Did it matter who’s fault it is? Only for damages and lawsuits, doesn’t change I’m dead.

 

[Az_Rael]

Someone mentioned I did not test super charge after picking up car. However I believe that my supercharge issue is not defect from factory but from software upgrade

Thanks for the update. It is good to know if you are seeing wonky things after an update, that there might be bigger issues. Software updates are one of Teslas greatest advantages and one of its biggest disadvantages at the same time.

 

[Az_Rael]

If I am ever crazy enough to jump out of a plane you bet one of my questions in orientation is how do you verify your parachute is good

My brother used to skydive. Unfortunatley, that is one operation where you are going to be totally dependent on another to make sure the job was right. Parachute packing requires a certification, so when you are doing your first jump you can’t pack or check your own. He did have one chute fail to open on one jump (I think it came out twisted), but luckily his reserve did work.

I will never skydive.

 

[seattlite2004]

Thanks for the update. It is good to know if you are seeing wonky things after an update, that there might be bigger issues. Software updates are one of Teslas greatest advantages and one of its biggest disadvantages at the same time.

So...if the car is working fine before a long road trip....how does one prevent OTA updates to mitigate any possible update issues while on the road trip?