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Hi everyone, noob here. Need a pep talk.

I've followed Elon Musk's career with interest since Paypal, and was extremely excited when the Roadster came out. I thought the focus on world class performance was exactly what was needed at a time when hybrid and electric cars were universally regarded as slow and dull. When the Model S was announced, my finger hovered over my mouse and almost put down one of the early deposits, but decided it was too risky. I figured I would wait a while.

So I waited a while. The car came out, and I followed the news about it very closely. A couple friends bought them and had very good things to say. They live in different parts of the country, though, so I never actually got to ride in or drive a Model S. Then one day I noticed a Tesla dealership was being built in Charlotte, and then later I noticed it had opened. A couple months ago, I scheduled a test drive and went in with very high expectations.

The test drive blew away my very high expectations.

I wasted no time in ordering: titanium 70d with most but not all of the bells and whistles. I got my VIN and the website says the car is in transit from the factory. My delivery window is in the next 2-3 weeks.

So I'm excited!

However... it's been a bit of a roller coaster of emotion. On the downside, installing the power in my detached garage is a bear of a project requiring boring under a driveway, lots of trenching, etc. But then, on the plus side, auto-pilot came out while I'm waiting on the car, so I don't have to wait for that! But then again on the downside, along comes Consumer Reports to rain on my 103-score parade and say the car is not reliable. And both AP and the CR news today have brought out a lot of negative sentiments on the boards about quirks and problems and issues I'd really rather not worry about when buying the most awesome car in the world.

For the moment I am reassuring myself with the knowledge than 97% would buy again, but if anyone's got a moment, I sure would appreciate some overt fanboy cult-like cheerleading to help convince me I didn't just make a colossal mistake. Thanks in advance, and please give me a two-handed wave if you're ever in the Charlotte area.
 
I'm on my second Model S, totaling more than 50,000 miles driven. I'd buy again in a second. Overall, my driving experience (and ownership experience) far surpasses my experience owning anything else, including BMW, Porsche, Toyota, and Mini.

Plus, when I bought my first Model S, there were about 30 Superchargers in the United States. Now look how many there are. Amazing growth. One day before too long we'll say to one another, "remember back in the day when we squabbled about where a Supercharger needed to be built?"
 
Keep in mind with CR, that what CR was rating is reliability. (How frequently stuff goes wrong). They don't rate service experience. (How it gets corrected).

I would far rather take my Tesla in for 3 issues per year than my GMC for one issue per year.
 
The car will be under warranty for a loooong time and you're close to a Service Center, where they'll let you use a loaner at no charge should you need to bring the car in for maintenance.

For perspective, I'm three hours away from the nearest Service Center and it didn't deter me. 7K miles in and no issues yet, might I add.
 
I've only had mine for a couple of weeks, so I'm not really commenting from experience.

It seems to me that it's unrealistic to expect that a new-design car with this much tech crammed into it will be highly reliable. It's just part of the deal with being an early adopter.

My other car is a Honda Pilot. In 130K miles, it has needed zero--zip--service, other than scheduled maintenance. I'll be astounded if my Tesla is anything like that dependable.

The excitement about buying something novel and beautiful overcomes this drawback, for me, because two things seem to be true. First, the car isn't *so* unreliable as to be impractical. And second, Tesla Motors seems to stand behind their cars and do a good job with servicing. (Principally, this means readily providing loaners and not trying to weasel out of warranty coverage.) Everything that I read on these boards reassures me about these two issues.

Don't have Camry-level expectations for reliability, and *do* expect (and demand) Tesla to step up to the plate and fix any problems.

And enjoy being on the front end of history.
 
I've had my Model S for more than two years. All the problems I had were minor and easily taken care of by the service center, which comes to my home or office to pick up the car, deliver a loaner, then bring my car back to pick up the loaner that day or the next. Some problems were fixed without a visit, just an over-the-air update. I wouldn't buy anything else.
 
Trust me, you will not regret it. I'm still new around here (5 mos of ownership and 13k miles), and I have already had to endure some painful things (someone backed into me while it was 6 days old...a month in the shop getting torn apart...etc etc) but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I've never been a car guy. Always "Ehh, if it gets me from A to B..."

A couple of weeks ago I took my Model S to a car show........A CAR SHOW......(if you really knew me, you'd know how ridiculous that sounds). And I'm participating on an internet forum dedicated to such cars.....bizarre.

I could go on and on, but, sleep tight. You made an awesome decision and you won't regret it.
 
My Model S is at the service center for the second time in 3 weeks for issues that cause the car to not start.

Annoying? Sure. Regrets? Only that I wish I could've gotten the performance model.

Forget the internet articles. The only thing that matters is that you like the car. And once you receive it, you'll realize how much you love it!
 
Yit,

You don't see complaining posts from me about my 70D because I, like many others who don't spends hours a day here, don't have any complaints about my car worth posting about. It's by far the finest car I have ever owned, and I don't regret buying it at all.

Enjoy your car, and don't let negative posts freak you out. Before I got my car, I spent a lot of time on the forum getting nervous, but those fears went away when I actually got the car.

Best of luck!
 
I got one of the last Roadsters and have my second Model S. Over 110,000 miles with no problems. The Model S never stopped working, never ran out of juice and just works like a charm.

Small problems were to be expected with a relatively low VIN #. They were always taken care of by Tesla at no cost to me; I always got a loaner. It was fun to be able to drive the different loaners (some with 4WD, some had all the new sensors etc.).

I am very happy and look forward to my Model X.
 
Four months here, titanium 70d. Been in two or three times (retractable door handle issue and leaking pano), so more than other cars I've owned (Lexus, Infiniti, etc.) but the service is impeccable, they go above and beyond, fix it with a smile, and are very flexible on scheduling, loaners, etc. all expected when purchasing cutting edge tech. As others have said, wouldn't trade this car for anything else on the road. Issues, sure. Fixed above expectations and with minimal inconvenience? Yep. Do not let the detractors sway you.
 
I've got 34,000 miles on my S85 and my 2 year anniversary is not till December 16th. That's is a lot of fun and High Performance Beauty to experience in such a short time! Sure my roof needed realignment 2 weeks ago and I live in Montana with no Service Center. Tesla brought me a P85+ from SLC, Utah and took my car for 4 days and fixed my roof. The P85+ was a blast to drive as a loaner and my car was returned to me at no cost to me. I'll gladly take a solution like that when I have a little reliability problem with my almost 2 year old car. I know of no other car company that can give me that type of service, can you?

The car can't be perfect, however the Service response I have always received has always been perfect. People don't buy a Tesla 'cause Consumer Reports says to, it's by test drive and owner word of mouth. I owned the first Tesla in a small Montana college town with no Service or Sales Centers in the whole state and now there are 7 Model S here, I love my car and I tell people about it. Once that power supply gets hooked up and that gentle green flashing charge light is showing all is well, you will feel what it is like to be part of something that is much bigger than all of us. Tesla Motors it's a really good thing for us and the generations to come. Congrats.
 
I would say that you will love it but I don't know you.
I would say that you will have the same experience I have had and that you will think it is the best car you have ever owned, but again I don't know you.
I would say that I have never heard of a survey where 97% of respondents said they would buy another one, but there are no buts.
I would say that I think you will find that you have never had a car that improves while you sleep (but maybe you have friends that do bodywork on your car overnight).
I would say that you will probably feel good driving a car that doesn't rely on any gas but its hard to say how someone else will feel about OPEC, gas, etc.
I would say that you could probably be driving your titanium Model S70D for 10 or more years (who knows you might upgrade the battery 5 or 6 years from now and convert it to a S120D), but maybe you don't keep any car for very long.

so I won't say anything except except good luck...enjoy and many happy miles!
 
I got my P85D last march and I love every second of it. Coming off a 2010 S4 and before that an 07 M5. Neither car holds a candle (I did love the S4 though). I have had zero issues with the car, literally none. I literally love driving this car every day, you will not be disappointed.
 
I have had three issues - two very minor and one kind of annoying (power mirror stopped working) so yeah the quality hasn't been fully up to what you might hope for. But I don't care one bit. The service is excellent and the car is amazing. You couldn't pry the car away from me. It's worth every penny and a hassle here and there.

It's simple - I tell anyone who asks me about it - if you can afford it, you should buy it. It's a game changer.
 
The other thing to keep in mind that there's always a negative selection bias on the internet; the people who have something to complain about also have an emotional incentive to vent about it.

What you see anywhere on the internet is likely a distorted view of the worst (and best) something has to offer.

I too am concerned about reliability, and I am waiting for some model refresh possibilities to shake out, but I'm still leaning toward buying and like much of what I've learned about Tesla in my more-than-it-should-be time spent researching it.