POLL: Tracking Model S's Issues - Major, Minor and None

[dtich]

i am very curious to know how many owners out there have big issues, little issues, and no issues. i thought others may be interested too, and since there's no database we have access to, i thought i'd start a poll...


in my mind i am parsing the categories thusly:

major issues: those that make the car non-driveable or non-chargeable and require service.

major but solved: those mentioned above that have been fixed by tm and not recurred.

minor issues: those that do not disable the car, but are fundamental to its proper functioning and require service.

minor but solved: those mentioned above that have been fixed by tm and not recurred.

cosmetic issues: those that do not impinge on function but are flaws in manufacture (not design, that's a different subject).

cosmetic but solved: those mentioned above that have been fixed by tm and not recurred.

none: self-explanatory.


what i don't consider issues are: adjustments that any new car could be subject to and which don't affect its proper basic operation; any issues stemming from circumstances outside the car, e.g. house power, accidents, improper operation, etc.; those functions/changes that are wished for or expected but don't yet exist, e.g. firmware updates, design tweaks; anything relating to tm staff, delivery experience, etc. just about the car itself please.

note: please don't vote contrapuntally, i.e., don't vote minor issues, and minor issues solved, unless that's applicable. if the issues are solved, vote solved.


thanks for participating.

 

[Grendal]

While this might be a potentially useful piece of information to TMC members, I fear that some outside party can use it to generate conclusions that will not benefit Tesla. In fact it could be used to harm the company.

JMO

 

[dtich]

i am aware of that possibility, and forestalled posting this for a few weeks now, but as a number one tesla fan, owner and shareholder.. i guess i'd rather be open than closed. the fact is it's a fabulous car and whatever is said here won't detract from that, it will in the long run make it only better. and truly what i'm hoping to do is provide some context for, and hopefully counterbalance to, all the negative things posted in other threads. if you only hear the squeaky wheel, sometimes it's easy to forget the three that aren't squeaking. to coin a phrase.

 

[alset3]

I am one of the individuals that fell into the major, but solved category. I can not tell you how THRILLED I have been with Tesla's reaction. They were on the issue immediately, dispatched a ranger to my home (120 miles from nearest service center), and had me up and running within a few hours. Everyone I dealt with was professional, engaged, and capable. The car has been perfect ever since. I've owned many other high end vehicles (Cadillac, BMW, Audi, Porsche), and I've never seen a response like this.

 

[smartypnz]

Yes, but to you it is just a passing curiosity. Any data collected here would be a small sampling. Some will be true, some not. You may even get responses from non owners - no way to tell.
it will be taken by some as Gospel, and may be used against your and our future interests in Tesla.
if you want real data, ask Tesla. Any and probably all problems, minor or major, are certainly reported to them. That would be a more accurate sampling.
However, a wise company knows that info can be misused, just as you should, and will not divulge.

 

[NigelM]

If anyone wants to trawl TMC and/or the TM forums they can easily compile a list of what they think the problems might be. The real picture comes when that data is compared to the total number of cars delivered. We get a fair share of people who come to complain, we also have plenty of folks who share their problems for others to learn and we have plenty of Tesla-lovers so I don't see any problem with having a poll, I would suggest that results should be taken with a small pinch of salt.

That said, I voted no problems. I had one issue following a software update which was fixed immediately. For me that didn't fall under the category of even minor issues.

 

[Rodolfo Paiz]

My last three BMW cars all had issues: doors not closing properly, the Bluetooth connectivity for the phone module constantly failing, and so on. Several of those problems required three or four visits to the shop and leaving the car for WEEKS.

My Roadster had only very minor issues over 18 months of ownership and all were solved within 12-18 hours. My Model S has had zero issues in its first week.

I am seriously impressed.

 

[William13]

12 volt battery replaced
Slave charger replaced
Door handle replaced
Headlights and washer fluid adjusted
P85 00520 thus early car

Very prompt and friendly at home service

The Best Car on the planet!!!!!!!!!

 

[mknox]

Based on your criteria, I had a major issue that was solved (defective UMC - started acting up until the point where I could not charge), but seems to be coming back again. I've had a minor issue (erratic turn signal behavior) that was fixed with the v4.3 upgrade and a cosmetic issue (they forgot to put the glass mirrors into the frames in my visors) that I am still waiting on. I still need the defroster vent upgrade and may need an alignment and window seal adjustment (air leak and water ingress).

In less than a month this is WAY more than I've had with a car in a long time, but I am very happy with Tesla's response and fully understand I am dealing with a bleeding edge product. The only problem I had in 4 years/80,000 mile with my last car (Cadillac CTS) was a burned out DRL bulb in Year 3. (Had numerous flat tires, but that was not the car's fault! I kept finding screws and nails!)

 

[ppl]

i am very curious to know how many owners out there have big issues, little issues, and no issues. i thought others may be interested too, and since there's no database we have access to, i thought i'd start a poll...


in my mind i am parsing the categories thusly:

major issues: those that make the car non-driveable or non-chargeable and require service.

major but solved: those mentioned above that have been fixed by tm and not recurred.

minor issues: those that do not disable the car, but are fundamental to its proper functioning and require service.

minor but solved: those mentioned above that have been fixed by tm and not recurred.

cosmetic issues: those that do not impinge on function but are flaws in manufacture (not design, that's a different subject).

cosmetic but solved: those mentioned above that have been fixed by tm and not recurred.

none: self-explanatory.


what i don't consider issues are: adjustments that any new car could be subject to and which don't affect its proper basic operation; any issues stemming from circumstances outside the car, e.g. house power, accidents, improper operation, etc.; those functions/changes that are wished for or expected but don't yet exist, e.g. firmware updates, design tweaks; anything relating to tm staff, delivery experience, etc. just about the car itself please.

note: please don't vote contrapuntally, i.e., don't vote minor issues, and minor issues solved, unless that's applicable. if the issues are solved, vote solved.

Had to add windshield washer fluid. I don't understand the poor design that makes someone have to add this fluid. Why do they design a car whose windows get dirty. Hopefully next model design will fix this

 

[efusco]

Several minor issues, but the St.Louis Service tech literally just showed up at my work parking lot 5 minutes ago to address them. so I clicked minor issue (not yet repaired), though hopefully most will be handled by the end of the day.

-Driver's side window fogging--esp. in cold damp weather (I understand there's a fix--I can send photos of it occurring in my car if you need that)
-The tail light moisture issue
-Intermittent Bluetooth dropping
-Buzzing accent lights
-Front passenger door spontaneously pop open while I was sitting in the car.
-Replacement J-1772 adapter--I apparently have an old version that doesn't quite fit right--I understand the new "shiny" version is better made and fits better than mine.
windshield wiper not working well (driver's side), possiblly torn?
And most recently I noticed a:
-"click" when turning the steering wheel past about 270 degrees--maybe it's been there all along, but I just started noticing it in the past 2-3 days.

 

[JakeP]

I voted "cosmetic but solved", because I had major delivery scratches and unacceptable paint armor installation flaws, but Tesla paid to have all the scratches buffed and detailed out, including removal and replacement of the paint armor (which I am likely going to expand into a full wrap including doors and rear fenders, bumper and deck lid). Of course these issues all occurred after the manufacture of the vehicle.

This took quite a few weeks to accomplish, at significant cost to Tesla, but I am thrilled with the end results. Now I only wonder if I can send Tesla a bill for the dozens of hours I spent on the logistics of getting all these fixes quoted and made, now that Tesla has confirmed my time is worth $100/hr! (Just kidding of course...though not kidding about the dozens of hours I spent on this)

 

[NigelM]

....but I am very happy with Tesla's response and fully understand I am dealing with a bleeding edge product.

Good point. By the very nature of this forum it tends to be populated with early adopters.

 

[ElSupreme]

I put minor issues resolved because I didn't get a UMC with the car. It took Tesla about 3 hours to get one to me after I called them. It took about 3 phone calls to let them know I preferred to pick it up (so I could drive my brand new car) and not have it dropped off at my house. This was ZERO inconvenience for me.

I put cosmetic issues unresolved. Because I haven't taken the time to get them fixed. Not on Tesla on me. I just really don't care all that much about most of it.

 

[derekt75]

While this might be a potentially useful piece of information to TMC members, I fear that some outside party can use it to generate conclusions that will not benefit Tesla. In fact it could be used to harm the company.

JMO

Are there any polls on: "How happy are you with your decision to buy a Model S?"
A poll like that might help outsiders understand our feelings about the car.

not sure what the possible responses could be... maybe:

-Exceeded High Expectations
-Met High Expectations
-Have/Had some issues, but still pleased
-Somewhat disappointed
-I wish I could get my money back


---
Back on topic,
I voted minor issues. 6. I think Tesla has solved 1 (rear door occasionally opened itself and occasionally refused to open). I think 1 issue (rear seatbelt doesn't slide as smoothly as it could) I'm going to live with. That leaves 4 issues open that I hope they'll fix, but it's been slow going.

 

[dtich]

i'm finding this helpful/interesting already.. hopefully everyone will vote, be great to get a couple hundred or more, that would start to be something with a bit of accuracy...

 

[100thMonkey]

I've had a few issues that fall into the minor issues category, though I wouldn't call them minor, just not major in according to the OP's definition and to be fair, I have not taken the car in for service, I've been waiting till my honeymoon stage wears off and I can give it up, now I'm realizing that may never end so am thinking of adding on the service plan with ranger service so the car stays by my side. :love:

issues:
#1 sound system can't achieve true center fade/balance (not sure if this is recoverable without adding speakers or changing current speaker distro) this irks me the most as I expect such a high end sound system to give sound studeo stereo sound, like you've got headphones all over your body. the sound should be intoxicating and lush, instead I end up wanting to lean forward to find the zero point and dropping the center back only causes the fidelity to drop out. my take on the issue is that there is too much horse power crammed into the tight angled dash and pointing up instead of at you and not enough further back in the front/back doors and/or maybe in the middle of the pano roll bar. I am actually contemplating taking the car to a third party business and shelling out more $$ to have it done right as my optimism that this is a software bug or can in some way be fixed by Tesla with an update is waning quickly. I would like to be generous and go along with the explanation that this is to give an "accurate" representation of being at a concert, but I respectfully call BS on that, it's a fault as concert sound quality is crap usually compared to studio and being a sound system fault it needs to be fixed rather than explained away. It's actually my only true disappointment with the car so far because I don't see an easy way to fix it and am reluctant to let anyone but Tesla mess with the wiring.
-back left door does not open, right back door sometimes doesn't open. fortunately, since we use the jump seats daily instead of the second row for the kids, this rarely hinders us, but IMHO, it's a glaring issue that is remarkably common and really seems to be on the order of a recall from a safety point of view since the doors can't be opened from the inside and even when the manual release is pulled from below the seat, the door has to be pushed on at that moment or it won't release all the way... which at the very least virtually requires too people if attempting from the front seat.
-garden variety sunroof rattle, left back
-female end of the plastic clip that bundles the jump seat when stowed broke (it's within the thrash zone of the wilda beasts!).
-rear view camera GUI overlaps/corrupts parts of the screen
-when doing a hard, extended acceleration the car makes a squeaking sound, kind of like releasing air from a balloon, which is oddly a little embarrassing when trying to demonstrate the car's abilities to passengers.
-driver side window motor slows and makes a straining sound on occasion.
-an error message shows up on occasion with the same alert as the brake/accelerator initiates when both are pressed at the same time, the message says an error occurred and the car may not function... service says to ignore it for now, as it's not showing on their end and is probably related to my apparent bad habit of catching both pedals a bit when I break.
-planning to get the vent upgrade, as with 4+ people in the car fogging can become an issue.

I expected this kind of stuff, accept for the sound system, thinking I'd be up for bringing the car in for a few fine tunings on the onset and again, the sound system is the only thing I'm worried about not being "fixable". I've had audiophiles listen to it and mention that the way it cuts out from fade/balance #6 to #7 suggests a true electronics/software issue that warrants being addressed, so I will press Tesla on this further, though I have not had any solution offered up when I've called in about it.

to be clear, I still feel that this is car 2.0 and am overjoyed as an owner for the most part, this car sets a new bar for the auto industry for sure.

 

[HFh]

I've had no issues with the car.

I still haven't gotten my jump seats though. That's driving me nuts.

 

[efusco]

"click" when turning the steering wheel past about 270 degrees--maybe it's been there all along, but I just started noticing it in the past 2-3 days.

Here's my thread on the "click" issue...have had one person confirm that it's not present on their car.
Steering at stop and low speed--normal or not

 

[dtich]

Here's my thread on the "click" issue...have had one person confirm that it's not present on their car.
Steering at stop and low speed--normal or not

hi evan, yeah, that's weird.

not sure why you've cross posted here though, was that on purpose, or...?