I am having a hard time making this decision. Love the Model S but in one year of owning it, been to the service center for over 6 occasions. Finally have Tesla agree to buy back the car but the question is should I get another Model S? We got the Tesla as we were told there's very little maintenance! When issues happen, we have to wait an hour usually to get to a customer support on the phone and two hours wait for towing. If you have issues that needs the service center, the wait is 3-6 weeks. And now, there are rumors of no loaner cars and just Uber credits..... When you frequent service center as often as I did...these customer service structure and issues are a huge deterrent to getting another Tesla... sigh. What is usual and typical for others here who own a new Tesla? I just hope my experience was not "typical" and will perhaps have better luck with another Tesla???? Should I take the risk???
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Tesla buy back my Model S 2018, should I get another Model S?
- Thread starter Zen18
- Start date
jebinc
Well-Known Member
aerodyne
2 of 3 EV's - Defect Free!
Try a well proven, used model S with no bad history
I don’t think your experience is typical. I’ve had my 2018 MS 100D for 6 months with only a visit by the mobile tech to replace headlamps. For me, I would not go from MS to M3.
I have had my 2017 S90D since new with about 36 k miles and haven’t had to take the car in once to the service center. I have just had the 12v battery replaced once by mobile service and an alignment once by a local shop since the nearest service center is 3 hours away in another state. (Thanks Michigan lawmakers.)
But the car has been awesome with very little maintenance. I wouldn’t let that experience sour you on another. If I were in the market today, I’d get the latest P100D Model S.
Woof. Your experience is very atypical from most owners of any car brand, let alone Tesla. The fact that they’re buying it back is telling enough. I would guess that experience puts you in the 0.1%?
IMHO it’s your call. If you love the S, I would give it another go since you definitely got a bad apple. The 3 is also option, but for many like myself, the allure of that model S is too strong.
IMHO it’s your call. If you love the S, I would give it another go since you definitely got a bad apple. The 3 is also option, but for many like myself, the allure of that model S is too strong.
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
I would get another S. They are fantastic cars, but for some reason some spend more time in the shop than others, while some are 100% reliable.
iqless
Member
Your experience is atypical. If anything, the rates for "lemon" 'y Model 3's are probably higher than a 2018 Model S since the Model 3 is a much newer design.
Sorry for your bad luck. Glad to hear that Tesla is standing behind the product after that ordeal. I don’t believe your experience is typical. Give them another try with a different car. My personal experience:
2015 MS 70D 50k miles. No warranty issues.
2018 M3 No warranty issues.
2019 M3 No warranty issues.
2015 MS 70D 50k miles. No warranty issues.
2018 M3 No warranty issues.
2019 M3 No warranty issues.
I would get another. Far fewer things to wear out or require maintenance on a Tesla. There are clearly a small percentage of bad cars, with most I’ve read about having strange, intermittent electrical issues (perhaps tied to wire harness) that cannot easily be pinpointed. In six years of ownership I’ve never had a critical problem, and my 2018 has never been to service center.
What was the major issue with yours?
What was the major issue with yours?
Tam
Well-Known Member
What problems did you have?
I bought 3 Tesla so far.
My former 2012 Model S 85 was trouble free until its old age that I had 3 repairs. I could have skipped the repairs but since I bought the Extended Service Agreement already, I had those 3 repaired for no additional cost (They waived the $200 deductible for each visit).
My Current 2017 Model X 100D and 2018 Model 3 are trouble free although I heard terrible stories about Falcon Wing Doors issues but not from me.
I assume most cars are fine and a few might give owners troubles.
Model s: charge port replaced, both headlamps replaced, tail lamp replaced, rocker trim lost a fastener scraped on ground, sunroof rattle, glove box door malfunction, alignment off causing bare inside tires at 5k.
Model x: yellow mcu ring (twice), front door motor failed, tail lamp replaced, misc squeaks repaired, door misalignment fixed, Bluetooth can't connect phone(still not fixed), falcon wings with phantom obstacles (still), random Mcu resets *shrugs*.
Thats been my year 1. Good times. Looking forward to year 2.
Model x: yellow mcu ring (twice), front door motor failed, tail lamp replaced, misc squeaks repaired, door misalignment fixed, Bluetooth can't connect phone(still not fixed), falcon wings with phantom obstacles (still), random Mcu resets *shrugs*.
Thats been my year 1. Good times. Looking forward to year 2.
Who told you the bolded part? Are you referring to reliability or maintenance (e.g. non-repair work like replacing wear items, inspections, fluid changes, etc.)?
I'm looking at Consumer Reports reliability ratings right now and the '18 Model S has overall reliability verdict of 1 out 5, which puts it at well below average reliability.
Before people start jumping on me or dismissing the survey results, please see Consumer Reports' Car Reliability FAQ and the average problem rates for an '18 at Car Reliability Histories (near the bottom).
I guess my one time need of a 12v battery replacement would make my Model S “unreliable” even though it warned me weeks in advance and didn’t leave me stranded. Tesla came to my house to fix it. Would I take my “unreliable” car for the 12v replacement over having more maintenance gas cars? Definitely.
And then if people include the yellow ring as “unreliable”, well okay. I’d call it more cosmetic even though yes, Tesla needs to fix that.
I bought the car because I actually love driving the vehicle and it has held up well with how I use it. I have never bought anything based on CR. Served me well so far.
whitex
Well-Known Member
Imagine if your number was real, 1 in a 1000. Now imagine Elon announces a new "insurance", pay $1000 extra at the time you buy a new car, and if you have to go to service 4+ times in the first a year, you get $1,000,000!!! Tesla breaks even (for every 1,000 cars they collect $1M and pay $1M), and imagine the media hype you could get from this. Of course, if the number higher than that, Tesla goes bankrupt.
Btw, I don't understand the "let alone Tesla" concept. I've bought 4 new Tesla's to date and they've all required more service visits than any other new car I've ever owned (and that is a decent number of cars). I always attributed it to it being an early adopter car, which apparently it still is (using our 2 latest cars - 2017 MS failed to unfold mirrors on delivery day - took 4 visits and 5 months to fix, our 2018 MS failed to charge with HPWC from 2017 MS, now it has a yellow screen which Tesla says is not covered under warranty because apparently the car was meant for Mars, not Earth's atmosphere with oxygen and humidity). It was all acceptable as early adopter cars when Tesla fixed everything, but then Tesla flooded the market with Model 3's and didn't scale service centers to keep up (also think about, Model 3 has been on the road for only a year or so, why would any of them need to visit service in the first year of their life? Most of other manufacturer cars don't see service in their first year). Also, turns out shipping early adopter cars in high volume cost way too much money to fix them all, so Tesla is now resorting to things like "yellow screen - not covered under warranty, pay $1300 yourself if you want a screen which is not yellowing".
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Your experience is purely anecdotal. It’s probably pretty hard to grasp what the true experience is for the average car buyer of any vehicle. Especially on the Internet, where people that do have an issue are a lot more likely to come and talk about it versus folks whose cars run perfectly, and they never bother to come discuss that.
My own anecdote: I had a 2008 BMW 335i and a 2016 BMW M235i convertible. In both cars the turbos crapped the bed less than a year into their lives, and had to be replaced. In each instance when that happened I took to the internet for info and discussion. Not shockingly, I found others that had a similar problem, as they too flocked to a place where they could vent and find answers. Just because that happened and I found others with similar problems doesn’t make me believe the issue was common for all other drivers.
While I certainly don’t doubt the majority of Tesla owners, no matter the year, has some Tesla service center stories, a company buying back one of their own cars happens very rarely. My number was an expression to demonstrate something happening rarely, I didn’t intent it to be taken literally, and probably should have said the OP was one in a bajillion (although I’m sure that gets scrutinized too).
whitex
Well-Known Member
My experience is of course anecdotal - I only bought 4 new Teslas, so maybe I'm just in an extremely rare situation. However, what on earth is plugging up all these service centers, even while Tesla claiming to have significantly expanded them, the wait times have gone 4x or higher while the number of Tesla's on the roads have only doubled (and most of them are less than 1 year old!)? Now that is no longer anecdotal - unless you believe that Elon is lying about expanding service center capabilities, but instead he reduced them. If he's not lying, that means a lot of Teslas need service, not just one here or there. Notice also that Tesla stopped doing annual services too, so all the cars in service are cars with issues that need fixing.
We'll never know the exact statistics of how many cars require service in first year, second year, etc - closely guarded Tesla secret I'm sure. However judging based on service times and number of cars on the roads, it's not as rare as you'd have us believe.
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This is a big jump to a conclusion. I would have taken mine to a service center for an alignment (general service) if I wasn’t forced to drive out of state because of Michigan laws. Now it’s possible that the majority are in for “fixes”. But certainly not all.
Why seriously haven’t you sold your Tesla yet and bought something else? If you purchased 4 of them, I would be surprised if depreciation is truly your reason for keeping the vehicle. Do you prefer to just keep yourself in a perpetual state of personal hell for some reason if you are that disgruntled?
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