I have owned a Model S 60 for over 5 years now (only driven 56 000 km) and so far have I been very lucky, had one door-handle fixed, changed the 12V-battery and a couple of links on suspension (steel) due to premature wear and changed the charger due to one of the 3 phases being unstable when charging at 16A 400V 3-phase (it often got stuck at 11A 2-phase). Except for that I have had no problems. Several owners I know have had issues that made the car undrivable due to battery-failure, drive unit failure, rare cases like broken link between steering and wheels (that one was really scary since it happend with my neighbour on the freeway). I see that the Model 3 has recommended service-intervals every 2 years (40k km), Model S and X has each year\20k km. There are a lot less that could break\go wrong with the Model 3 obviously (better design with integrated parts in battery, no battery-heater element, better door-handles, only one screen, less weight that reduced wear on suspension, more reliable engine etc). So far I have read that many have minor issues with paint, alignment of doors etc, but how are the rest of the reliability? Anyone who has owned both S\X and now 3 have experience?
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Model 3 reliability so far?
- Thread starter taraquin
- Start date
sperkin
Active Member
I never had any car troubles in 30 years of driving Toyotas but since owning a Tesla I have been late to work twice.
Two issues that made me late to work:
Both issues were firmware related and should be fixed by now. Other than that, it’s been reliable so far. Service centers are much better now too.
Two issues that made me late to work:
- Car lost EAP, AEB, and regen on the freeway. Wouldn’t let me go into Drive and was Parked in the middle of the freeway. -Service center at the time was terrible. They were rude and kept hanging up on me. Getting out of the car and back in let me restart but had to limp to Service with all the warning flashing. -Brakes without Regen are terrible.
- Charge cable won’t release. Had to call Tesla and after 30 min of waiting and debugging they finally explained how to remove it from the manual trunk release.
Both issues were firmware related and should be fixed by now. Other than that, it’s been reliable so far. Service centers are much better now too.
After over 11,000 miles and nearly 10 months of ownership the only actual major issue I’ve experienced was for a very brief period of time. I had a charge port problem which was preventing me from charging when I was over 300 miles from home. Luckily I was able to resolve the issue after some fidgeting. Tesla replaced my charge port after that incident but I also got another charge port replacement months before that due to water getting into the mechanism and causing the door to open and close on its own. So now I’m on my 3rd charge port. Tesla has since released two revisions to the charge port and it no longer has the water intrusion issue. Also had the aero shield on the bottom of the car replaced after I drove through a puddle and it ripped (others have had the same issue). So those are the only two legitimate issues I’ve had, but I expected as much from a car that has been in production for only a short amount of time and I have a very low VIN. I’m sure the revised parts on cars coming off the line now are much more reliable compared to early VIN 3’s like mine. Many other minor issues I’ve had were fixed via software updates.
roblab
Active Member
Only 6 years 150,000 miles on my first two Model S, about 10,000 miles on my year old 3. I had a door handle issue in my first weeks of S ownership.
I have a hard time believing people who claim they have "lots of friends" who have trouble, but paint and door alignment are not reliability issues. You take your car back to a service center and get them fixed for free. New cars always have teething issues, and I clearly remember my brother buying a new car on the block, called a "Toyota", back 55+ years ago. He had lots of issues, and his car was at the dealer's many many times. Decades later, that car company seemed to have gotten it together.
So let's compare apples to apples. A brand new car company is expected to have teething problems, but Teslas are already remarkably reliable. And Toyota was once a beginner with lots of problems who have over the last half century figured out how to make it run. Let's see where Tesla is in another decade!
In the mean time, if someone you know asks about your Tesla experience, tell them that the vast majority of people that YOU KNOW do not have problems, or that at most they are easily fixed for free, and that you are proud to support this ground breaking new technology. If you can't do that, don't buy a Tesla.
I have a hard time believing people who claim they have "lots of friends" who have trouble, but paint and door alignment are not reliability issues. You take your car back to a service center and get them fixed for free. New cars always have teething issues, and I clearly remember my brother buying a new car on the block, called a "Toyota", back 55+ years ago. He had lots of issues, and his car was at the dealer's many many times. Decades later, that car company seemed to have gotten it together.
So let's compare apples to apples. A brand new car company is expected to have teething problems, but Teslas are already remarkably reliable. And Toyota was once a beginner with lots of problems who have over the last half century figured out how to make it run. Let's see where Tesla is in another decade!
In the mean time, if someone you know asks about your Tesla experience, tell them that the vast majority of people that YOU KNOW do not have problems, or that at most they are easily fixed for free, and that you are proud to support this ground breaking new technology. If you can't do that, don't buy a Tesla.
sduck
Mr. Duck
Posting this kind of inquiry here is probably the least reliable way of getting a bead on your reliability question. You really want to wait until a third party can look at a large group of owners objectively for an extended period of time. Whether or not you like Consumers Report, their reliability ratings are about the best thing they do, although I don't think they've done anything on reliability of the model 3 yet.
I’ve had the frunk latches sieze and replaced, warped headliner fixed, and the passenger headlight assembly replaced due to failed DRL. This is on a relatively low VIN car and Tesla has updated those parts. However, the drive train has been solid so far and never left me stranded, which is really what I’m watching in terms of keeping this car long term.
Alpaca
Member
Only 1 month 800 miles in - but no reliability issues so far ! Just had major rain storm here in CA - and no leaks !
Leeclanual
Member
Firmware hasn't fixed the charge cable issue. I had mine replaced roughly a week or so ago. Mine got stuck at a SuperCharger. It was around upper 50s or in the 60s F so not very cold. Tech said he "hoped" it would be fixed soon via firmware, but it hasn't yet. He's had to replace a ton.
8500 miles and no issues other than:
- new glove box with redesigned actuator.
- new drive steering wheel drive stalk with redesigned part. This was due to trim adhesive failure.
- Minor paint touch up on outside mirrors right after delivery
- new shimms on brake covers (?). Old ones caused slight squeak at low speed after 7000mikes.
Mine is a June build. Everything above has been fixed on new production. My car has had no other issues and drives superbly. I have 3 friends who took delivery of AWD Model 3’s last fall, and they were all in perfect condition. Couldn’t find anything wrong or out of alignment.
It’s a shame you can’t get the LR RWD. It’s a mileage beast!
- new glove box with redesigned actuator.
- new drive steering wheel drive stalk with redesigned part. This was due to trim adhesive failure.
- Minor paint touch up on outside mirrors right after delivery
- new shimms on brake covers (?). Old ones caused slight squeak at low speed after 7000mikes.
Mine is a June build. Everything above has been fixed on new production. My car has had no other issues and drives superbly. I have 3 friends who took delivery of AWD Model 3’s last fall, and they were all in perfect condition. Couldn’t find anything wrong or out of alignment.
It’s a shame you can’t get the LR RWD. It’s a mileage beast!
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
I have had a 3 for over 7 months...the only issue has been a sticky glove box latch. Great car.
My wife has an X, and we previously had two S and a Roadster. Roadster and first S had a few very minor issues. But with over 200k Tesla miles, this is by far the best transportation I have had; they have never failed to get us where we want to go or to put a smile on our faces.
My wife has an X, and we previously had two S and a Roadster. Roadster and first S had a few very minor issues. But with over 200k Tesla miles, this is by far the best transportation I have had; they have never failed to get us where we want to go or to put a smile on our faces.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
Drive by a service center and you will see plenty of Model 3s there. Seems like reliability so far is similar to Model S/X but I haven't seen any hard data.
I prefer to keep it real for folks asking me about reliability of the cars. We have had our S break down enough to need a tow and it has had lots of issues that didn't require a tow. My 3 has been good in Tesla terms but still needs SC visits pretty frequently. Sure, all these things have been fixed for free. So I tell people that the cars are not reliable but tons of fun, which helps manage their expectations.
So when our neighbor asked for a ride and the whole spiel on our new 3, we gave him the whole picture. He decided to buy and immediately had a drive unit failure on day 2. But because we had prepared him for that kind of ownership experience, he took it pretty well and seems to be enjoying his car.
Model 3 LR RWD since July 2018, no mechanical or electrical issues at all. Car's in the body shop for paint correction, that's it.
Compared to Model S/X, you can tell Tesla definitely improved and simplified a lot of things (aka they learned from their experiences). Self presenting door handles on the S is cool and all, but they have been a source of issues for many S owners. Things like that. Since the Model 3 is their first mass production car, I'd say they've done very well so far.
Compared to Model S/X, you can tell Tesla definitely improved and simplified a lot of things (aka they learned from their experiences). Self presenting door handles on the S is cool and all, but they have been a source of issues for many S owners. Things like that. Since the Model 3 is their first mass production car, I'd say they've done very well so far.
Got my 3 in June 2018 and about to cross 22k miles or 35k kilometres. I’ve had a few issues:
AC stopped working
Had the brake squeal
Glove box wouldn’t stay closed
12v connection needed sorting
Frunk actuator failed
Magnet in charge port door fell out
All of these issues were sorted same day and the service centre I went to was awesome.
AC stopped working
Had the brake squeal
Glove box wouldn’t stay closed
12v connection needed sorting
Frunk actuator failed
Magnet in charge port door fell out
All of these issues were sorted same day and the service centre I went to was awesome.
If that entire post was meant as a reply to my post then it does not seem you actually read what I wrote. Several owners I know is not the same as "lots of friends". Of work colegues, neighbours, friends etc 3 have had many problems that required up to several weeks at the service-center. One was really unlucky and has changed drive unit 3 times and main battery 1 time after 100 000 km driven, but I would say the worst case was my neighbour who lost steering on the freeway. Another of the owners I know have fixed door handle 7 times. Me and 2 others have been very lucky and have had very reliable cars.
I am a huge fan of Tesla myself and ordered my Model S before the started selling them in Norway. I generally recommend Tesla, but I have no problem complaining about stupid choices they have made with S and X, door-handles and drive-units pre 2015 for S and "falcon-wings" on X. In Norway the problem has been long waiting times for services, leaving the car for several weeks without anything happening at the service-center etc. Tesla is generous with their loaners, so can`t complain there. In general many Tesla-owners are quite forgiving, myself included, since the cars are awesome and they are a new company.
My intention with this post was to get hands on experiences with the Model 3. For me it seems like there has been few complaints so far. Poor paint and alignment is really things I care little about and if I bought a Model 3 with a poor paintjob etc I would notify Tesla and say that it can wait until the next service unless they want to fix it asap. There are trouble with several of the suspension links on my Model S now, but rough handling and weird noises don`t bother me that much and Tesla has said that I can use the car for the next few weeks until the scheduled appointment in 2 weeks (booked that in November). As there are no statistics I am aware of yet comparing it to the S or X I was just curious to know what owners think so far. If it turns out several owners in the time to come experience problems that interefere with driving\making it impossible to drive I would be a bit sceptic. Minor quality-issues however dont bother me much
chronopc
Active Member
I'm about 7 months in and 10k miles of driving and I have yet to experience any mechanical issues. My only visit to the SC has been for cosmetics issues.
WileyTheMan
Peanut Gallery Member
Personally, reliability of my car has been on-par with other new cars I've owned. Just minor hiccups. But I also recognize that I could very easily draw the short straw and something major could happen. I just hope when it does, It's covered under warranty.
