I traded in my Model S for a Prius Prime

[Ocelot]

I hear you OP. We have a Kia Soul EV, and a model X. I like driving both for different reasons. It is anecdotal but our soul has needed one service in five years. Our X about 6 in a year.

 

[Ludalicious]

Congrats on your new adult Little Tikes Cozy Coupe.

 

[Ofarlig]

Personally I don't understand why one would compare a Model S to the Prius Prime, they are completely different cars with different fuel sources even. If I didn't want to go for the Model S and was looking at BEV options I would look at the Polestar 2 or Audi E-tron GT.

Sure if you are moving away from BEVs in general but then there are loads of gasoline cars i'd rather get than the Prius...

 

[whitex]

I bought a Prius in 2007. I loved it for the first few years. After 10 years and 150K miles, I was well beyond my desire to drive it. It’s hard to ever imagine that happening with my MS. Fortunately it’s spent very little time in the service center

Wait until your MCU doesn't startup every few times you get into the car, where you have to sit there for 10 minutes or more to reset it. During those 10 minutes you wonder if this is the day when it just won't come back - hopefully you're not in a rush to go anywhere. Then a door might spontaneously open on you while driving here or there. Then you take it in for service for the door opening and they say they cannot reproduce it and charge you $200 for diagnostics without a repro (even if under warranty), even though you managed to catch it on a cell phone video which you showed to service. Then you realize that your range has been cut with an over-the-air update, and your coolant pumps are now running 24/7 if you charge above 70%. When the main screen on a less than a year old car starts yellowing, you take it to service and they tell you that is your fault for exposing the car to oxygen and sunlight. Then the door handle comes out permanently, with the light always ON like a beacon in a parking lot, it stops working completely (have to open the door from the inside) but the door stops opening spontaneously on its own, so you consider the dead door handle as a good thing. Perhaps then you start thinking "I've had other brands of cars before for much longer that this Tesla and they never had these kinds of issues, even even in a Porsche door handle is cheaper to fix (were it to break) than a Tesla, while you get another Porsche to drive, rather than Uber credits which will not even take you home from the service center and back. And this is when your "aha!" moment comes, "Teslas are a dream to drive, but a pain in the ass to own". I bought 4 Model S's since 2013, I knew at first I was getting an early adopter product but service was stellar and I was willing to put up with it. I was somewhat surprised in 2017 that Tesla hasn't matured when I bought my wife a Model S and it required 4 service visits over the next 4 months to fix an issue found during delivery. But again, that was January 2017, service was still awesome (no Model 3/Y flood yet, always got a loaner, they bent over backwards to fix problems), though my wife did give me grief over a brand new, $100K car, with a frequent need for service.

I still got 2 Tesla cars. Cannot bring myself to buy another one (the latest S refresh helped with the yoke and the car guessing which way to go instead or Drive/Reverse/Neutral/Park stalk), but cannot find a substitute It's looking like Audi eTron GT or Taycan Cross Turismo might be the solution. More expensive to get similar performance (not the Plaid+, but I'm fine with 3s 0-60), but none of the Tesla headaches.

 

[trm2]

One of my coworkers bought a Model S about 2 years before I got mine. He frequently said that his Model S was both the best car he has ever owned (he is a car guy) AND the worst car he has ever owned. I haven’t talked to him in a year now with this working from home, but I’m pretty sure he has his Taycan by now. It was on order last I knew.

 

[BigNick]

Then a door might spontaneously open on you while driving here or there. Then you take it in for service for the door opening and they say they cannot reproduce it and charge you $200 for diagnostics without a repro (even if under warranty), even though you managed to catch it on a cell phone video which you showed to service.

If this actually happened to you, I hope you provided said video to NHTSA. Spontaneous door opening can be deadly.

 

[Needsdecaf]

I think people's reaction to a Prius depends greatly on where they live.

Here in Houston there are plenty of them, but we pay them no mind, because they don't act like a-holes. They don't hog the left lane driving 5 under because they know the bro-dozer with the light bar that's riding their bumper might just hit them. Or worse. Here, a Prius is just another daily commuter in a city with long, long commute distances. It's not a political statement or a declaration of war. Even in my Tesla, I can go a whole month or two without some yahoo rolling coal on me.

So yes, if you're looking to minimize auto costs, a plug-in Prius is a pretty damn good deal. Personally if going that route, I probably would have gone for a Rav4 Prime but that's just me and certainly it's not as efficient. And I can certainly understand the OP's desire to exit the Elon-orbit. The lack of customer service gets very grating at times.

Good luck!

 

[whitex]

If this actually happened to you, I hope you provided said video to NHTSA. Spontaneous door opening can be deadly.

No video (would take a special setup as it is not reproducible on demand), but after it happened I searched here, and it's not a new or unknown problem.

Model S - pass door opened by itself while driving

Not sure if anyone else has experience d this, but while I was driving to the Service Center this morning to get some parts installed, my front passenger door opened automatically while I was on the highway. Sept 2017 S90D on 2018.12. SC is checking logs and hypothesizing issue could be a sensor...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[BigNick]

No video (would take a special setup as it is not reproducible on demand), but after it happened I searched here, and it's not a new or unknown problem.

Model S - pass door opened by itself while driving

Not sure if anyone else has experience d this, but while I was driving to the Service Center this morning to get some parts installed, my front passenger door opened automatically while I was on the highway. Sept 2017 S90D on 2018.12. SC is checking logs and hypothesizing issue could be a sensor...

teslamotorsclub.com

Sounds like there should be a software lockout that prevents the door from opening when in gear and above 5 MPH or so.

 

[whitex]

Sounds like there should be a software lockout that prevents the door from opening when in gear and above 5 MPH or so.

I'd say no opening the door with car in Drive would be better, at least from an external door handle.

 

[Akikiki]

I'd say no opening the door with car in Drive would be better, at least from an external door handle.

..."at least from an external door handle." Doesn't the car auto lock the doors when we put it in gear now/already? Mine does or did. I've not looked lately.

When you leave the driver door open and put the car in drive to move forward, before you can go 4-6 feet, the car jumps in to Park. And of course stops.

I can't guess what would happen if I opened the driver door while doing 35. Someone else can tell me and I won't doubt them, because I am not going to test it myself.

 

[aerodyne]

I'm so sorry. I hope you get better soon.

He might reconsider this as a long term solution when he is subjected to coal rolling. Something I never worry about in the MS.

The Prius was a first, and is a good placeholder until the model 2 comes along. Daughter has a classic, but someone just helped themselves to the cat converter and that might be the end of it. Only 240k miles.

 

[roblab]

That's a shame. I mean, tesla service sucks, but ya know.

As for me, after four Teslas and a couple hundred thousand miles on them I wonder what "service" we're talking about. Personally I just adjust my own windshield wiper blades, so I don't need to go to the dealer. Maybe you folk are so used to taking your gas cars in for "service" that you just keep taking in your Teslas. Beats me.

 

[Ocelot]

As for me, after four Teslas and a couple hundred thousand miles on them I wonder what "service" we're talking about. Personally I just adjust my own windshield wiper blades, so I don't need to go to the dealer. Maybe you folk are so used to taking your gas cars in for "service" that you just keep taking in your Teslas. Beats me.

Well since it beats you and you are stumped.
1. Coolant leak.
2. Door handle fell off passenger side
3. Door would not shut, driver door ...needed someone on outside to push shut,..convenient.
4. Rear passenger door , x, would not shut.
5. Multiple error messages for seatbelts not attaching .
6. Voice commands getting worse and slower to respond with every update.

If only I just adjusted and changed the wipers then all of the above would be good? I think we all know there are many Tesla’s with no problems, but ones experience does not equal someone else’s. In addition most of above took multiple visits to fix. Lastly Tesla needs to fix its service ASAP, or risk losing many customers over the next decade.

 

[aerodyne]

I was shocked when my car died, but really disappointed in the service. Trying to blame Teslafi and SMT for the problem.

Being an Engineer, was having none of that. Deluged them with data, vids, and voltage readings, SB's, posts from this forum until they finally agreed to fix it.

Then they said it was fine. Went to pick up the car and it was dead in the SvC driveway. Exactly as I had left it.

Two weeks later and I got the car back. Pack was pulled and contactors replaced.

I went under the car to look over the work and found all kinds of problems, not just minor ones like missing rivets, but missing pack components and loose critical fasteners.

Took a ranger visit and extensive research to document all the missing parts, over a dozen, and work with mobile to make it right.

As Elon said, the best service is no service. The majority of folks that rave about service of late probably have not had any done, or only minor things, or have not looked closely at the work performed.

Be honest. Have you looked under the car, or frunk,or under the back seat, or even put a torque wrench on the lug nuts, and found nothing amiss?

 

[hifixenthus]

I traded my 2013 MS P85 for a 2018 Honda Clarity as a result of always having my MS in service. Now Tesla always took care of me, it just took a long time to get it fixed. Waiting for them to replace drivers seat finally put me over the edge. Where the Clarity is an ok car, I didn’t like having the two different drive trains in the PHEV. The infotainment system was also horrible and outdated (from the parts bin of a 2010 civic). The seats have 0 lumbar support. I also found that Honda was less responsive to trouble shooting issues and diagnosing problems. During my ownership, they replaced my infotainment system, but it was a lengthy process to get there. Missing the BEV experience, I purchased a 2019 Audi Etron and later sold the Clarity. Since then AoA has bought back (several issues later) the 2019 Etron and put me in a 2021 Audi Etron. With all that said AoA has been great to work with, but my 2021 Audi Etron (4 months old) is in the shop getting the MMI module and antenna replaced (the nav was having positioning issues). Long story short, I can’t go back to driving a non BEV as a result of charging at home, the 1 speed transmission (so smooth) and overall convenience of just owning one. My 2021 is a near perfect vehicle and Audi has made some major improvements over the 2019.

 

[Darren Donovan]

I was shocked when my car died, but really disappointed in the service. Trying to blame Teslafi and SMT for the problem.

Being an Engineer, was having none of that. Deluged them with data, vids, and voltage readings, SB's, posts from this forum until they finally agreed to fix it.

Then they said it was fine. Went to pick up the car and it was dead in the SvC driveway. Exactly as I had left it.

Two weeks later and I got the car back. Pack was pulled and contactors replaced.

I went under the car to look over the work and found all kinds of problems, not just minor ones like missing rivets, but missing pack components and loose critical fasteners.

Took a ranger visit and extensive research to document all the missing parts, over a dozen, and work with mobile to make it right.

As Elon said, the best service is no service. The majority of folks that rave about service of late probably have not had any done, or only minor things, or have not looked closely at the work performed.

Be honest. Have you looked under the car, or frunk,or under the back seat, or even put a torque wrench on the lug nuts, and found nothing amiss?

Wow.
Imagine if someone's not an engineer to be able to do what you did, AND you have a lot of patience.
I'm sure the infamous Tesla service staff would just brush them off.

 

[BigTonyTones]

Im trying to talk to a few dealerships about a honda clarity. I forgot how annoying salesman are. Every single one "Come down and well talk about price". Makes me not want to even get the car anymore.
Uggh I hate dealing with that. Tesla really spoiled me

 

[Bobasaurus]

Good luck. I had 2 Prii before my S. I hand repaired both battery packs my self, water pump on both, front axles on the red one, infotainment system on the white one time. They were OK cars but not trouble free and no great jump in build quality of my 2014 S. Comparing the S to a Prius? Is that really a comparison. Have fun with it.

 

[Tigers]

What I don't get about Telsa service is why they wouldn't want to fix things. Does Elon doc their pay if their service center goes over a certain monthly expense? Otherwise, isn't it job security for them?

I said in another thread my service visits were good no hassles but will say they had to fix two issues twice because they didn't do it right the first time.

Otherwise, yeah, I can't imagine going from any Tesla to a Prius. I'd consider the etron or bmw i3 first (if you have two cars). The i3 is even smaller and still can be fun to drive.

But good luck op. All of those problems you listed sound horrifying and it also sounds like you get some of the earlier models (even a 2017).

Tesla software bugs really stink and in my experience they never really fix them, they just go away and come back with each update. That said, there's nothing else on the market today that I would rather drive at the price point because I personally could not go back to ICE cars. I absolutely hate how they drive. I also can't do plug in hybrids, they are the worst of both worlds imo.

But, I think 2022-2023 the competition really heats up for EVs and we will all be better for it. If Tesla doesn't step up the quality and customer service game, it's over. Perhaps Elon should slow his roll on all the futuristic components. Doors flying open is ridiculous.