My M3 opens all the time. Gets me to work and back everyday. It's never been unavailable because of repairs (zero problems), so my up time is 100%. I don't know. I just figure some new cars have problems. If you're unlucky I'm sorry, but I have to point out we don't have any stats on problems with the M3 that I know of. How many cars have problems? 1 in 10, 1 in 100, 1 in 1000. Who knows? And who knows how many people are unhappy with Tesla customer service? You certainly can't use a forum to determine any of this. I've been lucky I guess because every new car I've ever bought has worked perfectly for literally years except my Eagle Talon Tsi which was a POS from the start. I know plenty of people that have had issues with new cars from other manufacturers including someone who's car was delivered with no motor oil and another whose car had no transmission fluid both resulted in complete breakdown and long down times. I also know someone that got a tire change and no one tightened any of the lug nuts before letting her car out of the shop. It's not just Tesla.
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Tesla experience was great until I ordered a car
- Thread starter notfrom
- Start date
Agree with you except car is crap. To use your analogy, If my refrigerator were leading edge and offered cool featues - e.g., used AI and sensors to determine which things were repeatedly inside it and automatically prepared a reorder for me to a delivery service, and when approved took care of ordering and tracking delivery. And if it automatically cleaned and sterilized itself, then I might consider keeping it.
Service level today is unacceptable. Personally I have been lucky, but I live with concern about what happens if.. I live in hope it will get better. If it doesn't within some reasoned time prior to real competition in the market, then perhaps we will need a specific thread on activism measures we can take.
Seven7
Member
dhrivnak
Active Member
I too can report the car and one minor service visit have been great. Going on 15,000 miles.
PS the service issue was the glove box opening that a Ranger promptly fixed in my garage.
PS the service issue was the glove box opening that a Ranger promptly fixed in my garage.
Camera-Cruiser
Fully Charged
Enjoy it. I don’t believe you ever listed your configuration.
Keep reviewing your car, easier to deal with issues up front than later. Look in your wheel well to check for missing fasteners, etc. Half of mine were missing, and still are.
I kind of agree with @TeeEmCee about Tesla cars being crap. If I told you I had bought a car that had its power steering fail at 25k miles, had its rear suspension replaced at 30k miles, it’s entertainment computer replaced around 40k miles as well as a failed door handle and various buttons on the steering wheel and front dash that stopped working and had to be replaced, then told you it was an Audi, most people would say “that car is crap!”.
That car is actually our 2015 Model S which currently has 50k miles on it. And it is crap. Fun as heck to drive, but a reliability PITA. And now that service is going down the tubes, it is becoming painful to get things fixed.
My 3 has been OK in Tesla terms, but probably not acceptable to “normal” people either. The software bugs have been impressive and seemingly endless. One thing gets fixed in an update and some new bug appears to take its place. And these aren’t just little things, the car takes over a minute on a regular basis to fire up the main screen when you get in, and the current no audio bug also suppresses the collision warning, the blinkers, and the autopilot tones until you can stop and power the car off. If you were not a techie, these things would be maddening. And, honestly, when it is 100 degrees outside, and my AC fans won’t turn on until the car wakes up from deep sleep over a minute later, I find that a bit maddening too. (The car doesn’t respond to the app for preconditioning when it is in this deep sleep state). At least the windows roll down.
I do love the cars, but that is because I am a fan. So I accept the good with the bad and just enjoy the car - they are fun as heck to drive. I fully expect it to cost me an arm and a leg once they are out of warranty. If all the above things had happened to me in another brand’s car, I would just chalk it all up to terrible cars, sell as soon a possible, and not buy another one from that brand. But, for whatever reason, I continue to buy more Teslas instead. Maybe it is that “Fahrvergnügen” that VW tried to coin, but Tesla has actually created.
That car is actually our 2015 Model S which currently has 50k miles on it. And it is crap. Fun as heck to drive, but a reliability PITA. And now that service is going down the tubes, it is becoming painful to get things fixed.
My 3 has been OK in Tesla terms, but probably not acceptable to “normal” people either. The software bugs have been impressive and seemingly endless. One thing gets fixed in an update and some new bug appears to take its place. And these aren’t just little things, the car takes over a minute on a regular basis to fire up the main screen when you get in, and the current no audio bug also suppresses the collision warning, the blinkers, and the autopilot tones until you can stop and power the car off. If you were not a techie, these things would be maddening. And, honestly, when it is 100 degrees outside, and my AC fans won’t turn on until the car wakes up from deep sleep over a minute later, I find that a bit maddening too. (The car doesn’t respond to the app for preconditioning when it is in this deep sleep state). At least the windows roll down.
I do love the cars, but that is because I am a fan. So I accept the good with the bad and just enjoy the car - they are fun as heck to drive. I fully expect it to cost me an arm and a leg once they are out of warranty. If all the above things had happened to me in another brand’s car, I would just chalk it all up to terrible cars, sell as soon a possible, and not buy another one from that brand. But, for whatever reason, I continue to buy more Teslas instead. Maybe it is that “Fahrvergnügen” that VW tried to coin, but Tesla has actually created.
Pretty much agree with everything here. Back in 2012 I sold my 8 year old M5 and leased a Volt for 3 years. That was a great car, but I kept thinking "what I really want is an electric 3 series or even a PHEV 3 series". At that time I thought that in 3 years there would be several more choices, and at 5 years, even more so. Instead, here we sit 6 years later and we basically have the Tesla Model 3 and....yeah, that's it.
The Europeans FINALLY introduce something and amazingly it is Jaguar that actually seems to have something interesting (Audi and Mercedes seem to have gotten a collective yawn for their e-Tron and EQC respectively). Of course the Jaguar has a hefty price premium over the 3 (note: size-wise it is a lot more like a 3 inside than an S or X), and then there is the elephant in room - the charging infrastructure for any sort of out of town travel. It's like the other car manufacturers just gave Tesla another free 2 or 3 years!
I would really love more "choice" in the EV space as Tesla still has a ways to go in the "basics". Heck, we were in San Francisco this past week and I had a 2019 Kia Forte rental. On our way to the Tesla factory tour I thought "I should ask - on the tour - 'why is my Kia rental quieter on the freeway than my Model S?'". I will say that was my first real exposure to Android Auto and the Google map integration was so good it was the first car I've driven where I didn't miss the big map and navigation capabilities of the Tesla.
So Tesla still has the space mostly to themselves as of today, but the clock is ticking...tick tock, Tesla...tick-tock.
I agree that our Model S has been the most unreliable car we've owned in decades.
However, having said that, I fully expected that to be the case when we bought the car. I used to drive Alfa Romeos and Ducati motorcycles, all of which I loved, but had to put up with pieces falling off while underway, carrying a complete tool set, spare nuts, bolts, master cylinder, etc.
Tesla's are fantastic cars, but really need to be thought of as pretty delicate exotics at this point.
However, having said that, I fully expected that to be the case when we bought the car. I used to drive Alfa Romeos and Ducati motorcycles, all of which I loved, but had to put up with pieces falling off while underway, carrying a complete tool set, spare nuts, bolts, master cylinder, etc.
Tesla's are fantastic cars, but really need to be thought of as pretty delicate exotics at this point.
Mark my words, it will be neither Engineering, nor Manufacturing, nor Elon running his mouth that will kill Tesla. It will be Service.
I just picked up my car again. It was in for the seventh time, altogether 2 1/2 months out of 3 1/2 months of ownership. It all started with the usual crap, misaligned doors, rattles etc. Guess what I still have ... a misaligned door and another rattle. What they're doing is tiring me out, dragging everything along in hopes that I go away (or perhaps in hopes that the underlying problems go away).
I've had "unacceptable" failures with other brands before (mostly with BMW and Audi) and I've also had pretty horrible service mishaps. With the notable exception of the worthless weasels at Audi Plano, none of those events ever resulted in anything other than an apology from the service manager, a nice loaner and a few extra days in service. Never did I get the car back in worse shape than it was when it went in.
In comparison, Tesla's service capabilities are pathetic. On one hand, they use service staff for what is essentially manufacturing rework (for which they're probably both poorly qualified and poorly equipped), and, on the other hand, they (as in the management) show very little respect for the money I paid Tesla and certainly no respect whatsoever for the insane amount of time I've invested in getting my Made-in-California Yugo fixed. And I've never met any service manager who had the balls to address me the way a certain local one did.
I'm torn between the appreciation I have for some techs working hard, chasing loose bolts and other such garbage and getting me closer to having a normal car and, on the other hand, the carelessness of everyone else when it comes to looking after my car. I give them a checklist every time, I go over the exact issues, show them measurements and pictures and diagrams and recordings and every time we end up more-or-less where we started. Maybe it's different for others, but I can't get Tesla Service to understand that doing most of the job or doing it almost well enough is not sufficient. None of this is necessary with a real company, none of it is the customer's job and no other car company ever got so much slack from me, not even effin' Daewoo.
I could do with fewer features, maybe even a higher price, as long as the freakin' thing worked properly. There's so much effort and seat-of-the-pants engineering and accomplishment that has gone into these cars and it's maddening to see all that effort undone by the utterly inept Service org.
I reckon by now Tesla have mostly run out of Elon groupies and apologists. Those have already bought their cars and are happily motoring along, in awe of how much better the Model 3 is vs their previous Datsun or such. Within what's left, I'd wager there are more ungrateful bastards like me, who actually want a normal car for what they're paying. Keeping this crowd happy is a different battle, in many ways a more difficult one. It will be interesting to see if Tesla will indeed succeed or if it will otherwise snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Good luck to them! As the Sharks would say, I'm out (that is as soon as the eTron arrives).
Disagree. The fact that Tesla has sold an unprecedented number of $100K+ Model S and X for years now, with no signs of that stopping, and is now delivering well over 5,000 Model 3’s/week just in the US and Canada and at an ASP of over $45K is proof that the level of service, while inconsistent is not adversely effecting the positive press and word-of-mouth that Tesla has had for many years.
You have had a poor service experience. But clearly your experience is not typical. If it was, Tesla sales would have declined, not accelerated so dramatically. You can continue to complain, but clearly Tesla is a successfull company and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
10 years ago the entire auto industry laughed at Tesla or just ignored it. None of them are laughing anymore, and every major company has announced multiple new all-electric vehicles or has started selling such EVs. None of that would have happened without Elon and thousands of Tesla employees working hard to build amazing cars.
Maybe you should ask for a new car from Tesla. I mean, you have to have all the service records, right? I'd take it straight to Tesla management and have "come to Jesus" talk/correspondence with them including your service records as evidence. They don't want customers that are completely dissatisfied. If that doesn't work than use the lemon law.
I'm sorry for your bad experience, but mine has been the complete opposite. A week after delivery my car's main computer failed--basically no touchscreen/info at all, no Autopilot or TACC, and the car was barely driveable. I had the car into the service center hours after it opened up the next day (the failure happened at night). They provided a loaner to me, which while it was gas it was premium vehicle. I had the car back to me after a week, including shipping times for a brand-new Model 3 main computer.
Other than that incident, I've only experienced a single instance of something failing (the audio bug after a touch screen booting up slowly), and that was it.
Tesla or not states have lemon laws. Sound like you have a lemon.
<knock on wood> I haven’t had a single issue
CameronB
Member
I'd say 99% of the time, people do NOT come to these forums and start threads about how utterly reliable and trouble free their Teslas are. But I am sure there are many people who have had no issues or rare problems with service. So while each instance documented here may be totally accurate and maddening (understandably) to the author and others who have had similar problems, we must keep in mind these awful service issues aren't necessarily "universal" and as matter-of-fact across the board.
My own experiences (FWIW) are that Tesla service is "pretty good" - not amazing but decent. 3 service trips total in 1.5 years. One functional (air suspension issue) and 2 annoyance (rear seatbelt fasten indicators not working and one window trim replacement). Reliability overall has been very good and I've never had my car unusable. My service advisers have been pretty responsive and communicative and I've always gotten loaners.
My own experiences (FWIW) are that Tesla service is "pretty good" - not amazing but decent. 3 service trips total in 1.5 years. One functional (air suspension issue) and 2 annoyance (rear seatbelt fasten indicators not working and one window trim replacement). Reliability overall has been very good and I've never had my car unusable. My service advisers have been pretty responsive and communicative and I've always gotten loaners.
Funny you should mention that. At some point they started “forgetting” to send me my service invoices.
I have emails requesting them and they, surely by accident, kept sending me prior ones, not the ones I requested.
I have not had “a” service experience but rather seven of them at both (and only two) service centers in the area. Each with something like half the list taken care of, half not, and a couple new issues created (such as horrible scratching and door not closing and all that trivial stuff). In my opinion, that’s at the point where it’s statistically significant and therefore can’t be an exception.
I talk to the techs, I send them diagnostic info, I thank them, I buy them lunch, I do whatever I can from my position to help them help me, but the process fails to some degree every time and that’s squarely on the management. Being told crap like we’re replacing this (to me obviously faulty) part “pro bono” or “turn up the radio and ignore the rattle” and that I’m a “problem customer” or “did you expect those spots to have paint on them” and other *sugar* that I won’t get into is something I have not encountered elsewhere.
It’s all plain arrogance and stupidity and what this will do is ensure that, instead of this great American success, Tesla will be nothing more than, at best, a second rate manufacturer that one must constantly make excuses for.
And that pisses me off more than my *sugar* car does.
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