Hold me!

[evp]

I need to "be held" as well. Don't take delivery till next month. It was a big step pressing the "buy now" button. Really appreciate the positive service experience posts.

Yeah, when I pushed the button a year ago I needed a margarita. I drove half-way across the continent without knowing about this nice support network (thanx for sharing that, tamman34). We're a feisty bunch, but when you have to ask "what's that noise", there's probably 10 pages of answers on a TMC blog thread. Somewhere.

 

[pedriscoll]

No issues in 4 months and 7000 miles. Go for it. You will love the car. I find any excuse to go for a drive.

 

[hanl1]

You don't need us. Once you get your car you will understand.

Seriously though, I also had this "uncertainty" period after putting in my order. Got my delivery last month, and 1000 miles down the road I sincerely believe this is the best financial decision I have ever made. I would have totally fallen into depression from my daily commute without it. Instead, I even look forward to the commute, even though that would mean a lot of traffic. The new more confident Autopilot and TACC have swiftly become my best friends. The feeling amplifies when stuck in traffic, with my hands off the wheel, feet off the pedals, staring at the frustrations in the eyes of the ICE-car drivers around me.

Besides, you have a very friendly community. Check my other post about the hospitality among Tesla drivers

 

[Btrflyl8e]

42,000 miles on my "classic" Model S. Rest easy, you will NOT be sorry you took the leap. I (as most earlier adopters did) bought without ever having seen the car, much less test driven one. It has exceeded my every expectation. I almost look for reasons to take my car in to the Service Center, because it feels so wrong not to get frequent oil changes, tuneups, etc.

My car has been rock solid, other than a creaking seat belt that was quickly fixed, and a steering wheel click at low speed that was fixed in the same visit... no rattles, squeaks, or mechanical issues in 2.5 years. They'll one day have to pry the fob from my cold, dead hand.

 

[Pollux]

The 2013 P85+ I own will only leave my possession when I upgrade to a 2016 P<top o' the line><whatever> next August-November 2016.

The sales experience, service experience, and automobile experience itself are truly eye-opening and will reset your expectations for automobile manufacturers and dealers. Buying a car doesn't have to suck! Getting it serviced doesn't have to feel like a perpetual screwing! You don't have to take it to the gas station... ever! Operating it is joyful!

I agree that Tesla can improve on some of its quality metrics. But the trade-off is more than worth it, and the car you receive in the next month or two should be more solid than my '13 P85+.

Alan

P.S. 38K miles since August 7, 2013; two Boston winters with serious snow, ice and whatnot; rear wheel drive (!) but awesome Tesla traction control + Hakka R2 snow tires => great winter handling; drive unit was a little loud and no one noticed except me and I asked Tesla about it and they said huh, we'll just give you a new one; some circuit in the battery pack failed to keep 12V battery charged, so rather than make me wait a week or two while they opened up the battery pack and went in and fixed that exact path they said huh, how about we just give you another battery pack, keep the loaner over night, pick up your car & new pack tomorrow; but if you read the forums now you will find WAY fewer drive and/or pack replacement stories than ever before, so reliability is going up not sideways or down. And when's the last time you bought a gas car and something went wrong with the engine so they just said, huh, let's give you a new engine rather than have you wait?

 

[Sparktz]

My order confirms on Thursday 10/22. I am right here with you! As much as everyone nitpicks the little things, it starts to make you question your decision. However, knowing that such a high percentage of owners would buy again helps to remove some of that concern.

 

[bmanke]

You have to take what Consumer Reports says with a grain of salt. Do Model S's have issues yes. Are most of them serious? No. Door handles, sunroofs, trim etc. Annoying yes, but not stranded on the road. One thing that really impresses me is literally no 2 MS are a like. They are constantly improving. I went to an event this past weekend in our April build and noticed several things that had been changed since ours was produced. Tesla is constantly improving and refining the car. We have 16k miles in 5 months - like everyone else love the car. Yes, it needs to be serviced for some minor issues but like everyone else could not possibly be happier with the car. After you take delivery you'll never look back.

 

[ecarfan]

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.

Same experience for me after 22 months of ownership. Would buy another Tesla in a heartbeat (oh wait, I did...

 

[rjcbox]

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!

Exact same here

 

[CliffG]

You have to take what Consumer Reports says with a grain of salt.

Indeed. Although it's possible to make statistical comparisons, interpreting CR's surveys, values, and stats can be a challenge sometimes. Personally, I've had good luck and bad following their recommendations.

One thing that really impresses me is literally no 2 MS are a like. They are constantly improving.

It's this point that I've been thinking about: most car manufacturers put out cookie-cutter cars, which makes it easy to make generalizations and predictions from one to another. Tesla is still closer to a bespoke manufacturer: not only is each car made to order, almost each car is a bit different from the last due to the constant improvement... which doesn't always work as desired and leads to more improvements, and makes it real difficult to make the same kind of generalizations.

In my case, nearly two years, 20k+ miles, none of the DU problems, leaks, etc. YMMV.

You may have some problems and regrets after delivery. Maybe; as someone else noted above, I don't know you or your tolerance for the pleasures and anxieties of having a Tesla. I haven't regretted it.

You probably will regret it if you don't. It'll eat away at you for years. Maybe. I would and it would make me miserable.

 

[WestCoastP85D]

Zero issues here.

 

[StaceyS]

My wife and I purchased a CPO 2013 P85 a little over 4 months ago.

Sometime in August, there was an over-the-air update and our car failed to update. We got blank screens and such, but Tesla talked me through resetting the car, and the screens came back up with a small error saying "Software Update Failed, Contact Tesla Service". The car was otherwise perfectly functional. After researching the issue a few days, they let me know the car would need to come to the service center, where they would replace the entire center console. Replacing the console would take a day.

We got an appointment scheduled and a loaner Model S arranged. As they were doing the scheduling, they looked over the car's status and told me they could do a whole bunch of warranty items if I would be willing to leave the car with them for 2 days. I was fine with that (as the service center is 3.5 hours away), and they ended up doing a whole bunch of stuff, including replacing interior trim pieces with new ones because they had improved the fasteners or otherwise changed things to improve the fit and finish.

I think this is important to note, because if they are incorporating improvements into new cars AND existing cars, their reliability scores are going to increase pretty quickly. I have never had a car manufacturer take care of an existing vehicle like that before.

Its disappointing to see the reliability scored so low, but it is my expectation that this will improve significantly as the company gets more experience building cars. Its this reason why I'm not too concerned about the delays of the Model X. I'd rather have them take the time and get it right than rush it and have it be problematic.

 

[Khatsalano]

I'm not that old and not that young, but I routinely receive advice from those much wiser than I. Basically, life's best advice boils down to the following:

- Do what you love, not what is trendy or makes money
- Don't compare your life to others
- No one is in charge of your happiness, but yourself
- When in doubt, just take the next small step

... and the list goes on. But in our collective search for the meaning of life, all of those sage pearls of advice pale in comparison to this absolute truth:

- Buy a Tesla, or else.

It kinda blows away the rest of the other things to do in life, don't it?

- K

 

[CHG-ON]

I've had mine for a year and 15.5K mi. The only issues I have had have been things that do not affect the ability to drive, save for one solenoid that went bad in my air suspension. And I could still drive just fine. But I do admit that I have had the following issues, which I think are, as previously noted, due to this being an entirely new car and company.

-Replace the pano roof seal because it got torn. No leaks or any problems operating it.
-Interior rear view mirror stopped dimming. Slightly annoying.
-A crease in the weather stripping for the driver's window. No leaks or anything
-Improperly torqued driver's seat mounting screw that caused a minor squeak.
-Premature leather wear on the lumbar of the driver's seat. VERY annoying and viewed as normal wear. I don't agree.
-Misaligned trim on the rear hatch.
-Crappy FM reception. Still there...Grrrr.


I must say that after dropping 132K on this lady, I would hope these problems wouldn't be there. So I do agree with CR's conclusion that reliability, when measured by things needing service, is not where I think it should be. But I pretty much knew that there would be issues, buying such a new product. I am happy to say that I have had no issues with anything related to driving the car. And with their incredible service, it has not been an inconvenience at all. Otherwise, I'd be PO'd

 

[wdolson]

I read the Consumer Reports article on Tesla reliability. They did add the caveat that the reliability counts all complaints that required service ranging from squeaks and rattles to failed engines and transmissions. They said many of the Tesla complaints were for squeaks and rattles that probably wouldn't have been reported with another car because the other cars are so noisy the squeaks and rattles go unnoticed.

While there have been Tesla failures, both YouTube "stars" Bjorn and kman were stranded with battery problems and other have reported major problems, most of the problems reported are more annoyances than critical failures. Some of the more common problems have been fixed as time goes on. I have read that most of the door handle problems were solved with firmware updates and Tesla did start putting in a redesigned panoramic roof this summer which I assume was to fix the leak and rattle problems.

Long term reliability is still an unknown. Cars require extremely high reliability for parts and Tesla is very new at this. I remember self retracting headlights were a common feature in many sporty cars in the 1970s and 1980s. I also remember seeing a lot of them with headlights that no longer retracted because the mechanism failed after a few years. Is that going to happen to the gull wing doors or the retractable door handles? We won't know for a while.

On the upside, the Model S has fewer moving parts than most cars by a pretty big margin. Moving parts fail much more often than fixed parts or purely electrical/electronic parts. But with any news story, you usually have to delve below the headline a bit to get a true picture of the problem. It would be nice if Consumer Reports also asked about the severity of problems. My Buick has had a squeak in the brake pedal for almost 24 years. It only crops up when the weather is hot and the service center couldn't figure out what was causing it when it was under warranty, so I just lived with it. It never got worse, it's just one of those little quirks cars have that isn't critical.

 

[bmah]

5 months and 8600 miles, had one service visit for some cosmetic warranty issues. From the electric drive system to the glass cockpit to over-the-air software updates to the new autopilot, this is the best car I've ever owned. I'm not a "car guy", even though I've been around Teslas for years (a friend of mine owns a Sig Roadster). A year ago I wouldn't have dreamed of owning a car like this. Now I can't imagine driving anything else.

To the OP: I don't know you at all, but I'm pretty confident that you're going to love your new Tesla. Congratulations on taking the plunge, and welcome to the community.

 

[Grendal]

The CR report is a good thing. It lets Tesla know that there is an area they need to focus on and improve. Their history says they will go overboard to correct the problem. And please remember that Tesla also has the highest score from CR for service as well. Beating every other company and every dealership for service. So you might have a few small annoying problems but Tesla will get you fixed up. In the meantime you get to drive the best, most advanced car in the world.

Congratulations and enjoy.

 

[brucet999]

My Buick has had a squeak in the brake pedal for almost 24 years. It only crops up when the weather is hot and the service center couldn't figure out what was causing it when it was under warranty, so I just lived with it. It never got worse, it's just one of those little quirks cars have that isn't critical.

24 Years!? Is that thing broken in yet? You must have half a million miles on that thing.

 

[wdolson]

24 Years!? Is that thing broken in yet? You must have half a million miles on that thing.

I've worked from home since 2001 and my SO prefers to drive her car whenever we go somewhere together, so I haven't put that many miles on in the last 15 years, it only has 150,000. It's in great running condition and the interior looks new. The finish has some rock chips and door dings, but it's in very good condition for its age.

I'm telecommuting to a company in the Bay Area and I need to go down there about once a year. My father lives in Morro Bay, California and is 95. He is in good health for his age, but he had a health scare back in August. I'm probably going to be making more trips down so I've been thinking about getting a new road car. My car is fine for around town, but I'm not comfortable taking a car that old on a long road trip and my SO's car is too small to go on long road trips without arriving all stove up.

I went through most ICE sedans before finding the Model S. It's an almost perfect fit for what I wanted.

 

[markcm]

Have you assessed whether you could get away with just a 120V plug to recharge on daily basis? Assuming your detached garage has that of course. if you get home and 6 and leave for work at 7 the next morning, you should pickup 36 miles of range per day. If you can charge at work or somewhere else, then you might be able to get by...