Each day, since I took delivery last Wednesday, I faced my morning commute with a smile on my face and preset 80% charge in my new Model 3. As a first time Tesla owner I was thrilled to be driving my dream car. Rush hour traffic is no longer a dreaded experience when you're gliding in this magic machine. Each day at work I got compliments on my new wheels, answered questions, and got requests for test drives. The more I drove it the more I loved it. That is, of course, until I went to leave work after only 6 days of ownership and had the following scary notifications on the touchscreen.
"Power reduced"
"Unable to charge"
"Car needs service"
The car has less than 300 miles on it. I'd had 0 issues aside from minor phone key imperfection prior to this. I drove the car straight to the closest service center per the instruction of roadside assistance. They would send a tow truck if it broke down on the way there... The car drove ok, though the complete lack of regenerative braking was a shock at first. The service center wasn't answering their phone since they had just closed, so they looked at me a little funny when I walked into the open garage. To their credit, as soon as I told them my issue and they realized I was an owner they treated me like royalty. I got a pre-autopilot P85+ loaner and went home. It's pretty obvious how far Tesla has come in the last 6 years. This P85 has some kick, but I much prefer my 3. This all happened yesterday.
Today they failed to call me around 1 or 2pm with an update like they said they would, so I waited until shortly before they closed and called. They told me the battery had a fault. They have to send it off to be refurbished and a new replacement battery would be shipped to Seattle and installed. According to the rep I spoke to, it'll be their first Model 3 battery swap in Seattle. When I asked how long it might be for the replacement to get here, he said he didn't know. For the S and the X, it can take anywhere from a week to a couple months. A couple months! I hope they put some priority on this considering how new the car is.
Now, I realize these are first world problems and there is still a Tesla in my garage. But man... when you spend more than 50k on a car, you expect it to last more than 6 days. My wife and I had planned to take it on a road trip to Portland, OR in a couple weeks to visit family and friends and show the car off while we're at it. But now I'm not even sure I'd want to take it (or the loaner) on a road trip with my kids when our Toyota minivan is bigger and clearly more reliable. I realize I am an outlier and this big of an issue is rare so early on. I'm sure I'll get over it after the highs and lows of the past week wear off and I have my car back in working order for a while.
As a Tesla fanboy, I can choose to look on the bright side and joke about this as my initiation into the Tesla family. Everyone gets an unwanted loaner eventually... but the stories I am hearing about problems with brand new Model 3s are worrisome. Once Tesla gets deeper into these reservations, buyers are not going to be quite so forgiving. Not everyone is a day 1 reservation holder who's been biting their nails in anticipation for the past two years. Not everyone reads in detail about all the problems some Tesla owners have and decides to reserve a car they haven't even seen yet anyway. I drove my previous car, a 2011 Mazda6, for 6 years and 95k miles with no issues other than predictable, scheduled maintenance and a broken sunglasses holder. This is what your average car buyer expects from a new car, especially one this costly. I can't imagine all of this post production rework is more cost effective for Tesla than slowing down and getting their QA and manufacturing optimized before they start pumping out cars. Maybe that's just the nature of the beast when you are pushing the envelope with cutting edge engineering. I don't know. I know it's a huge undertaking. But I can't help but think that they should eat a little humble pie and learn from what other car manufactures have done to get a handle on this instead of acting as though they're all dinosaurs with no vision. I really, really hope they can figure this out. Because the car is freaking amazing... when it's working.
Have any of you required a new battery on your 3 or know of someone that has? Thanks for reading. Rant over.
"Power reduced"
"Unable to charge"
"Car needs service"
The car has less than 300 miles on it. I'd had 0 issues aside from minor phone key imperfection prior to this. I drove the car straight to the closest service center per the instruction of roadside assistance. They would send a tow truck if it broke down on the way there... The car drove ok, though the complete lack of regenerative braking was a shock at first. The service center wasn't answering their phone since they had just closed, so they looked at me a little funny when I walked into the open garage. To their credit, as soon as I told them my issue and they realized I was an owner they treated me like royalty. I got a pre-autopilot P85+ loaner and went home. It's pretty obvious how far Tesla has come in the last 6 years. This P85 has some kick, but I much prefer my 3. This all happened yesterday.
Today they failed to call me around 1 or 2pm with an update like they said they would, so I waited until shortly before they closed and called. They told me the battery had a fault. They have to send it off to be refurbished and a new replacement battery would be shipped to Seattle and installed. According to the rep I spoke to, it'll be their first Model 3 battery swap in Seattle. When I asked how long it might be for the replacement to get here, he said he didn't know. For the S and the X, it can take anywhere from a week to a couple months. A couple months! I hope they put some priority on this considering how new the car is.
Now, I realize these are first world problems and there is still a Tesla in my garage. But man... when you spend more than 50k on a car, you expect it to last more than 6 days. My wife and I had planned to take it on a road trip to Portland, OR in a couple weeks to visit family and friends and show the car off while we're at it. But now I'm not even sure I'd want to take it (or the loaner) on a road trip with my kids when our Toyota minivan is bigger and clearly more reliable. I realize I am an outlier and this big of an issue is rare so early on. I'm sure I'll get over it after the highs and lows of the past week wear off and I have my car back in working order for a while.
As a Tesla fanboy, I can choose to look on the bright side and joke about this as my initiation into the Tesla family. Everyone gets an unwanted loaner eventually... but the stories I am hearing about problems with brand new Model 3s are worrisome. Once Tesla gets deeper into these reservations, buyers are not going to be quite so forgiving. Not everyone is a day 1 reservation holder who's been biting their nails in anticipation for the past two years. Not everyone reads in detail about all the problems some Tesla owners have and decides to reserve a car they haven't even seen yet anyway. I drove my previous car, a 2011 Mazda6, for 6 years and 95k miles with no issues other than predictable, scheduled maintenance and a broken sunglasses holder. This is what your average car buyer expects from a new car, especially one this costly. I can't imagine all of this post production rework is more cost effective for Tesla than slowing down and getting their QA and manufacturing optimized before they start pumping out cars. Maybe that's just the nature of the beast when you are pushing the envelope with cutting edge engineering. I don't know. I know it's a huge undertaking. But I can't help but think that they should eat a little humble pie and learn from what other car manufactures have done to get a handle on this instead of acting as though they're all dinosaurs with no vision. I really, really hope they can figure this out. Because the car is freaking amazing... when it's working.
Have any of you required a new battery on your 3 or know of someone that has? Thanks for reading. Rant over.
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