Model 3 Reliability/Issues?

[hussk]

I'm having some doubts with my upcoming delivery date after reading some of the forum posts/videos relating to the Model S and X and their overall reliability with the several repairs people have had to go through. Here are my primary issues
- I want to keep the car for 5-10 years, will it suffice?
- Post-Warranty sounds like a nightmare. Do I have to pay out of pocket for every repair or will there be an extended warranty or should my insurance cover it?
- My car should have been built within the last 2 months, how much has the quality improved since the initial launch?
- I live 2 hours from a service center, how will repairs work if I need one covered under warranty?

Any sort of reassurance or personal experience would be helpful.

 

[JeffK]

My Model 3 has been super reliable. I've had two warranty related issues, both cosmetic. (a small chip in a rear light when I took delivery and my mid aero cover underneath the car broke off, no idea how/why).

The car itself is excellent!

• There're plenty of older Teslas on the road. Now reason to think it won't last 5-10 years.
• Post-warranty you have to pay out of pocket like any other car.
• Quality has improved greatly since launch, but some issues happen during the delivery process after it leaves the factory.
• Depends, if there's a local mobile service they can take care of certain things, otherwise you could drive to the service center, or worse case scenario a flatbed truck.

I haven't had a situation with my car where I've needed the service center. I've had no loss of power issues, no bad updates, nothing...

If you were to get into an accident and get body damage, there's a Tesla approved body shop right in Louisville, KY.

 

[hussk]

My Model 3 has been super reliable. I've had two warranty related issues, both cosmetic. (a small chip in a rear light when I took delivery and my mid aero cover underneath the car broke off, no idea how/why).

The car itself is excellent!

• There're plenty of older Teslas on the road. Now reason to think it won't last 5-10 years.
• Post-warranty you have to pay out of pocket like any other car.
• Quality has improved greatly since launch, but some issues happen during the delivery process after it leaves the factory.
• Depends, if there's a local mobile service they can take care of certain things, otherwise you could drive to the service center, or worse case scenario a flatbed truck.

I haven't had a situation with my car where I've needed the service center. I've had no loss of power issues, no bad updates, nothing...

How many miles? Also, when did you receive it?

 

[JeffK]

I got it the end of September so I have about 2500 miles. Since then I've had about four software updates as well.

 

[drj3]

Keep in mind that people post problems, not "car has been perfect.," so you will see more posts about problems. (search "Forum induced anxiety") My car has been great in 2 months 1400 miles. Tire pressure monitors were not set up correctly when the car was delivered on my car, but otherwise no problems. I also live >2 hours from a service center, but they sent out mobile service who fixed it at my house. I've never had better service from a car company. Plus the car is awesome to drive, and I still love to drive it every excuse I get.

 

[ChadS]

Reading forum posts is an unreliable way to figure out how, um, reliable something is. There is no way to gauge the proportion of people with problems to those without. I can get depressed reading posts here, and then remember - hey, we love our cars and don't have any of these problems! Neither do our friends and relatives with Teslas.

A far better method is to talk to some local owners. There is far less magnification of rare issues when you talk to real people, rather than reading selected items online. While some number of all brands are unhappy with their cars, the vast majority of owners of any type of vehicle are pleased with their car - and that is more true of Tesla than any other brand.

I've been driving Teslas since 2009 (and spent years with them out of warranty), and my wife since 2012. We are hoping the competition will catch up, but for now we are not considering other brands. You could have a problem with a Tesla - you could have a problem with any car - but chances are far greater that you will have an incredible experience and wonder what took you so long to get one.

I'm on my second Model 3. My first one had a sticky glovebox latch. My second one has no issues at all. My previous S had no issues at all while I owned it (and it wasn't new when I got it). My wife's X had a cracked wiper fluid neck. Our first two Teslas (2010 Roadster and 2012 S) did have a few issues, but most were taken care of early on under warranty. Any after-warranty issues were cheaper to take care of out-of-pocket than buying a warranty would have been.

 

[chronopc]

Mine has been reliable as well, no issues besides some minor cosmetics ones. I have over 8k miles and I do almost monthly trips between SF and LA.

 

[mtndrew1]

Teslas seem to have two groups of main “issues” and those are software and trim/fit. The cars seem to be quite reliable in the traditional sense of the word.

The software issues are sorted by free updates I receive at home and service centers will adjust any trim or panel fits that are out of spec.

My car has been extremely reliable but has had software bugs and a few minor trim issues.

 

[mswlogo]

I have not been back to service center since delivery late September 3000 miles.

Forum adds as much anxiety as it removes. If I had not read some issues here first I probably would be going crazy. But I also worry about issues I may never see.

I was thinking of creating a poll of how many times have you run out and inspected your car due to something you just read on the forum. Probably about 10. And I had none of them.

 

[Az_Rael]

I'm having some doubts with my upcoming delivery date after reading some of the forum posts/videos relating to the Model S and X and their overall reliability with the several repairs people have had to go through. Here are my primary issues
- I want to keep the car for 5-10 years, will it suffice?
- Post-Warranty sounds like a nightmare. Do I have to pay out of pocket for every repair or will there be an extended warranty or should my insurance cover it?

19,000 mile 2017 Model 3 here. Mine has had several charge port door issues which are still ongoing and a problem with frequently taking over a minute to "boot" prior to driving. It also has a smelly AC system which was a problem in the old S's that I am not happy to see in my 3 already. I haven't figured out if the slow boot problem is a hardware or software issue yet. Tesla says it will be fixed via firmware, but that was several firmwares ago.

So, nothing real major so far. Long term, I will be buying the extended warranty if Tesla offers one, but that is based on our experiences with a 2013 and a 2015 S and Tesla repair costs. (The shop rate at my local service center is $175/hour)

The one thing to note is there are a LOT of software bugs. Like you will encounter them daily. "Oh, look, my blinkers dont make noise anymore", or "the car lost all my audio favorites, yet again", or "I have to push pause then play again to get rid of the annoying static popping", etc. My most dramatic software bug was one where the volume kept turning up to max and would not mute and the touchscreen was rapidly switching screens all at the same time. I had to keep rolling the volume scroll wheel down constantly until I could pull over for a reset. That one was fixed when they removed the speed sensitive volume toggle early on. So you have to be pretty easy going about that stuff or the car will drive you crazy.

I tell people our Teslas are the least reliable cars we have owned that we still love and would buy another.

 

[dhrivnak]

An early 2018 with 14,600 miles. We have been very pleased. We had an issue with the glove box and the finish of the Apiller both fixed quickly and easily from a Ranger visit. As trouble free as any of our 12 or so cars we have bought over the years.

 

[hussk]

19,000 mile 2017 Model 3 here. Mine has had several charge port door issues which are still ongoing and a problem with frequently taking over a minute to "boot" prior to driving. It also has a smelly AC system which was a problem in the old S's that I am not happy to see in my 3 already. I haven't figured out if the slow boot problem is a hardware or software issue yet. Tesla says it will be fixed via firmware, but that was several firmwares ago.

So, nothing real major so far. Long term, I will be buying the extended warranty if Tesla offers one, but that is based on our experiences with a 2013 and a 2015 S and Tesla repair costs. (The shop rate at my local service center is $175/hour)

The one thing to note is there are a LOT of software bugs. Like you will encounter them daily. "Oh, look, my blinkers dont make noise anymore", or "the car lost all my audio favorites, yet again", or "I have to push pause then play again to get rid of the annoying static popping", etc. My most dramatic software bug was one where the volume kept turning up to max and would not mute and the touchscreen was rapidly switching screens all at the same time. I had to keep rolling the volume scroll wheel down constantly until I could pull over for a reset. That one was fixed when they removed the speed sensitive volume toggle early on. So you have to be pretty easy going about that stuff or the car will drive you crazy.

I tell people our Teslas are the least reliable cars we have owned that we still love and would buy another.

Do you think this has to do with the fact that yours is an early 2017 model? I haven't heard/read of similar issues with cars delivered after August.

 

[Az_Rael]

Do you think this has to do with the fact that yours is an early 2017 model? I haven't heard/read of similar issues with cars delivered after August.

Hard to say. In another 6 months, you might be hearing about those issues in an August car. It takes time for issues to show up. It took until this winter for all the cold weather problems to surface - we didnt hear about those until more cars were on the roads in cold states.

Remember you are still buying an "early" car if you buy a 2018 Model 3.

Basically, there is no way to know what the overall reliability is like today, so unless you are willing to wait a few years to buy the car, you may as well jump in now and get more time driving a very awesome car.

 

[Gavyne]

Owner since July, got a June build, which is likely Tesla’s worst month as they tried to reach 5k a week production due to investor pressure. It was do or die for them that month. Aside from a few cosmetic blemishes that Tesla is going to address and fix, I have zero powertrain, electrical, or mechanical issues. It drives beautifully, everything works inside, touchscreen interface is the most advanced on the market no contest, I have no issues at all with the car itself.

It’s true if you are purchasing a Model 3 this year, you are accepting the fact that you are an early adopter. It’s like being the first to own an iphone when it first came out. If you look back at how the iphone evolved, improved, and got better each and every year. If you ask the people who switched early if it was worth it, they’ll tell you “heck yeah”. You get to enjoy a futuristic car that other carmakers are going to model after in 2-3 years, and you get to drive that car now. For most people that’s worth accepting any potential early adopter issues.

This car has the best range of all EV’s on the market, and best performance at this price range. It is by far the most advanced car out there today. And with the car it has the best charging network supporting it. On top of it all it is the safeset car on the road, don’t forget that. If you were to put your money down on an early adopter car, and lots of EV’s today are considered early adopter car, I would chose a Tesla. This is because Tesla did it ground up, they started out as an electric vehicle company, they have the expertise, and they by far have the most exciting lineup of products upcoming. Plus, Elon f’ing Musk, enough said.

Just know that they have a good warranty system, if there are issues, they’ll take care of it. You read on the forums about people discovering issues, but you rarely read about how Tesla took care of them. Most people post about some problems, but they don’t really come back and talk about how Tesla took care of those problems. Also if you are new to the internet forum thing, let me ease you a bit. The amount of people who read forums are but a tiny fraction of the people that own a Model 3. The amount of people who post on the forums are a tiny fraction of the people out of those who read the forums. And out of the people who post on the forums, many of them don’t own a Model 3 at all.

Bottom line, you should be happy and excited about your upcoming delivery. Don’t let the forum sour your mood. Congrats on your upcoming delivery.

Edit:

Just wanting to add, fair criticisms of Tesla right now are 1) they need more service centers, 2) they need to do better at supplying parts to service centers, 3) they need better overall communication during the delivery process. These are things they are addressing, Elon himself have said they’re working on adding a bunch of service centers as he saw lack of coverage himself.

Remember they just turned profit, this means they’ve now got more money to work with. Before it was do or die, ramp up production or the company goes down. Now they are profitable, do expect them to improve on service center coverage and parts. I think people are mostly ok with things breaking as long as they can have the car fixed within a reasonable amount of time. Waiting for parts right now is what drives people’s frustration levels high at the moment.

 

[2012MS85]

In Dec2016 I bought my first Tesla: a 2012 Model S85 with 71k miles and enjoyed it thoroughly for 13k miles and 15 months. I live three hours from a Service Center, which I only needed for a rear drive unit replacement...free under warranty. Tesla sent a ranger to my home to complete the Takata airbag recall. So it was a great experience. Sold it with plans for the 3...

A month ago I found a perfectly cared for 2012 P85 in Signature Red (which means it was one of the first 1,000 off the Model S line). I just drove it 2,000 miles from Seattle to my home in Iowa. It was an awesome drive and experience. This vehicle is better than showroom new.

And I'm now confident enough in Tesla that I'm picking up my MR 3 tomorrow at Westmont (Chicago). I plan to rent it out to help educate others about what a great experience one can have driving a Tesla!

 

[jdcollins5]

Delivered Sept. 23rd. 3500 miles later and no issues. Awesome car and with each update it gets better.

Have fun and enjoy the delivery of your new car!

 

[DR61]

Late Aug. delivery, 3200 miles. Defects: zero. A few software glitches, some fixed by updates. No service visits.

 

[Daniel in SD]

5 of 7 Model 3s at my office have gone to the service center after delivery. All the problems were cosmetic and rattles except for one dead 12V battery. It's a great car but personally I'm not sure it's worth the hassle if you live 2 hours from a service center. It really depends on how reliable you expect a car to be and your appetite for risk. It's a tough call because there's really nothing like it.

 

[Knightshade]

I'm having some doubts with my upcoming delivery date after reading some of the forum posts/videos relating to the Model S and X and their overall reliability with the several repairs people have had to go through. Here are my primary issues
- I want to keep the car for 5-10 years, will it suffice?

Don't see why not... the S has been out for 6 years now and they seem to be doing fine in general.. there's folks with hundreds of thousands of miles on em, and early issues were fixed under warranty anyway.

I'
- Post-Warranty sounds like a nightmare. Do I have to pay out of pocket for every repair or will there be an extended warranty or should my insurance cover it?

Any car is out of pocket after warranty... that said, the S/X are 8 years and unlimited miles on the powertrain, so none of them are out of warranty and won't be for ~2 more years.... on the 3 it's 8 years and 120k miles (I think only 100k once SR is out?)... which is still better than the powertrain warranty on most vehicles.... and with a lot less moving parts to fail too.

But on top of that the ~2k a year the average driver saves on gas, and the additional savings on not doing oil changes or other crap ICE routine mainteance, will pay for a repair or two down the line if you did need it.

Bumper-to-bumper is 4 yr/50k, which is typical for many mid-upper range cars (vs 3/36 for some cheaper ones).... so after that year if you have an issue it'll cost... and usually the Tesla service center is the only place to fix it (other than DIY with parts from a wrecked Tesla).... but Tesla SCs are specifically intended not to be a profit center unlike traditional dealerships.


The big issue right now is lack of enough service centers or enough staff at them to handle the volume Tesla is now moving to with Model 3... but that ought be fixed by the time your warranty is up, and as long as they give me a free loaner, which they do, I could live with it taking a bit of time if they did need to fix something.

- My car should have been built within the last 2 months, how much has the quality improved since the initial launch?

I've generally seen a lot fewer basic fit/finish issues... and other things have been improved too (better seats, more comfortable suspension, etc).

FWIW mine was an August build, took delivery Sept 30th, and other than one tiny bit of overspray they fixed that day in like 2 minutes I couldn't find a thing wrong with, nor could either friend I took with me to look.... I've got a bit over 3k miles on it now and it's been perfect so far.

The actual delivery process, administrative stuff, and paperwork stuff has been absolutely terrible throughout the whole process, but the actual car is awesome...and when they've screwed up it's generally been in ways that cost them money, not me.

I'
- I live 2 hours from a service center, how will repairs work if I need one covered under warranty?

Any sort of reassurance or personal experience would be helpful.

Tesla does have mobile service rangers that will come to you.


I can't say how good their coverage is in your specific area, but they generally get pretty high marks....and Elon has mentioned the intent, as they add more, is to make it so the only time you need to go to an actual service center is if the car needs something requiring it to be put on a lift- anything else the rangers will do.

 

[Electroman]

April, 2018 car now with 11K miles. Don't know where the service center is..