Hi everyone,
So I haven't posted here in a long time. I was one of the first preorders for the M3 but ended up canceling my reservations for various reasons - mostly the timing didn't work out for me in terms of my leased car at the time. Anyway, I'm back to considering a Tesla but this time I'm considering a Model S. Particularly because there is "supposedly" an incoming interior refresh planned. I come from several Mercedes and Audi and BMW before that. I would most likely be purchasing the S with intents to keep it for over 5 years at least. I hear nightmare stories about service and the service centers, and then I hear stories about how great the car is with no problems. This would be a significant purchase for me - I'm not wealthy but am a technology freak who prefers to spend his money on electronics and tech rather than on other things - and really believe in green initiatives and preserving the environment. I know Tesla will be facing a lot of competition soon particularly from the German automakers that are coming out with Electric cars. But they're not ready quite yet. I guess I'm looking for a reality check from people who have owned/leased an S for a while now and their real perceptions. Or maybe I should look at the 3 again? Not sure.
I like my S. I’ve had it for about a year and a half, less than 10K miles.
I like the styling.
We went with a friend who picked up a new X yesterday. I hadn’t ridden or driven one before. It’s nice. There’s a lot more room for the driver. I prefer the look of the S. The X had better bolstered seats, a HUGE windshield, it’s like a helicopter cockpit. The windshield is so big the visors swing in from the sides far from the top of the windshield. The rear view mirror assembly sits where it should but has a long wire channel going way back behind you to the top edge of the windshield. It’s impressive. Anyway before buying the S, I’d have a look at the X. I don’t suggest you buy one but it’s good to look before deciding.
That fellow who got the X, he’s got an S, he had an S before. He likes the X a lot. He also likes the 3. I haven’t driven one, I haven’t ridden in one. That said I’ve seen a lot of them at the superchargers, and everyone I’ve spoken to likes theirs a lot. If money is an issue and if you find you like the 3 as much as the S, well, you could be money ahead.
I can’t speak to the future changes in the cars, the interior refresh, etc. I like the current version so the specter of future changes don’t really matter to me. I’ll have mine for a long time. You never know with Tesla, model years don’t seem to matter much, changes seem to happen any time. If you like the current version and think you can be happy with the current version for a long time regardless of future change, then you’ll be happy. If you worry about the future changes, there could be a long wait, you just never know. Worse, you wait for the future change then you don’t like it. When something does change, the used value will decrease so owning the car for a long time will spread that effect over the whole time of ownership.
There’s the price increase coming, the 18th is what they say, 3%. That may be a factor for you. Generally the car prices seem to be decreasing over time, competition will help there. The decreasing prices will further depress used values. That bothers some people. It bothers some people when they buy a car then the price drops. I understand that. Still, if you buy one you have to feel good about that purchase regardless of future price changes. Get exactly what you want and make up your mind it is worth what you pay. Then if it goes down, it’s still worth what you paid.
Delivery: Expect delays. Factor it in. It was a 2h delay yesterday. Sure, it was annoying but the car is worth it. The delivery center was busy. Apparently the appointment was made by Tesla and that wasn’t passed on to the delivery center. The people were nice. Still that shouldn’t happen. It does happen. You should expect it. When I got mine, all went well, all happened on time. They weren’t as busy then. There’s really no excuse for them setting up an appointment then people waiting 2 hours. If I ran it that wouldn’t happen. I don’t run it, though. So take a snack and maybe a book, you only have to go through the delivery process once. Well, once per car. People often buy a second Tesla. This fellow was buying his third. If all goes well, you might have other 2 hour Tesla waits in your future.
Repair, my only issue was mirror didn’t unfold properly. They sent a “ranger”, he fixed it in my garage. The car is otherwise perfect. Most people don’t have problems. When someone does have a problem they are much more likely to post here than if they don’t. Use the problems you read about here to see what can happen, but don’t infer that the frequency of problem posts is the frequency of problem cars. It’s like going into a hospital. Only the sick ones are in there and there are a lot of them, some are badly sick, but it doesn’t mean everyone in the world is sick. On the other hand, be aware of the down sides too. Consumer reports does surveys and they find Tesla’s aren’t as reliable as they previously assumed. Still you won’t find a car more loved by its buyers than Teslas. I’ve had to reboot mine a few times. That doesn’t bother me. It isn’t often enough to worry about and if there’s a problem with the radio or the voice recognition seeming to get stuck, a reboot fixes it. The car gets software updates. Lots of them over time. Most are good. Occasionally one will take what was good and make it worse, not usually, but every once in a while. Then another will come along that fixes it and something else gets better as well. I like that. None of my other cars got better and better.
Service. Can’t say much. They don’t need much service. There’s no engine oil to change. They like to check them at 12.5 thousand miles or so but some people just don’t take them in for routine servicing. They only take them in if something needs fixing. So your servicing experience might be more or less. Hopefully they’ll fix the servicing delays. If I ran things, that’d be a high priority, to iron this out. I don’t run things, though.
Would I buy exactly the same car again knowing what I know now? Absolutely. I’m so totally happy with my car.
I hope this makes you feel a bit better. These cars aren’t perfect. Well, that isn’t right, mine is perfect. It’s some of those others that aren’t. Maybe perfect is in the eye of the beholder. I’ve had many various cars for just over 50 years now so mine is the view of the old person who still just can’t quite believe I have a car this awesome.
But even that was an exception only offered by one great NW Porsche dealer because they were very remote and wanted the service business and customer satisfaction.
