Since I have owned two Model S, a P86DL and my present Plaid, and driven Coast to coast US in an S70, and long distances in a 2012 S85 I consider myself a trifle more than usually familiar with the quirks of Model S. Others, IMHO notably
@wk057 know vastly more than I ever will so mine are purely user comments:
First, from day one every Model S I have driven has been a clear advance over previous ones;
Second, from 2012 to 2017 Tesla service steadily improved in effectiveness and steadily became less personally oriented;
Third, from ~2018 need for service has steadily dropped, while personal interaction has diminished.
Fourth, since my Plaid arrived in September 2021 I am unable to comment on Tesla service because I have had none. That is almost two years with zero service interactions.
Fifth, Software updates have subjectively seemed to be less frequent and easier, with fewer glitches. I will not comment on FSD specific issues since both good and bad are so deeply covered.
Sixth, during my twelve years of Model S experience I have had one (1) need for on road repair. That was on an S70 when I was in Wyoming with the nearest service center was just opening in Denver. Both Tesla service response and solution were stellar, and Denver service center did the repair on a Saturday afternoon so I did not even need to interrupt my trip. That, in 2015 was my ONLY need for unscheduled service. Because I did not own the car Tesla contacted the owner for approval wile I was driving down from Wyoming.
So, that is it for the service side.
Now for the value questions:
People constantly complain or laud resale values. My perspective is built from having owned 53 cars, of which 51 were bought new. I understand car depreciation both personally and professionally. In all those years I have sold three cars at a profit, one an early Honda Accord I sold at a profit because at the time the waiting list in Bahrain, where I bought it, was a year. A colleague offered me a 25% profit if I sold it to him. I di after I had used it one day. The other a BMW 320 I bought it Yemen, was similar except that the buyer made the offer as I was taking delivery so I never actually used the car. The other one was a MercedesBenz 300SEL 6.3 which I bought days after the famous 1973 OPEC crisis and sold years alterfordouble my purchase price. Dumb luck coupled with opportunism on that one. Every other one had actual selling price below the 'official' markets, depreciation usually more than seemed logical. From Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Tesla, Volvo, Mercedes Benz, Maserati, Peugeot, Fiat, and so on, they've all sold below 'book'.
My belief is that most people really don't realize what actually happens because they buy and sell through dealers, whose expertise is built in large part on deception, including cosmetically large trade in values.
Tesla, however, is WYSIWYG. That suddenly makes it quite explicit and obvious. It feels bad to recognize that depreciation is normally the largest expense in car ownership. Surprise!
What is worse is that Tesla charges MSRP, that is it! Do they do big discounts? Very rarely, although buying an actual demonstrator sometimes does give a good deal. Mostly Tesla just changes the price, openly and loudly. Every other OEM I know anything about has individual customer discounts, Fleet discounts and secretive buyback agreements, dealer incentives not disclosed to consumers plus arcane quota incentives and multiple varieties of loans and lease subvention.
Tesla operates without dealers and openly discloses all their practices, that includes trade in values that are never inflated. Of course, if your trade in has the slightest blemish the value does down while historically dealers would buy blemished Teslas, do a little work and sellout a premium. That does not work for them long term because Tesla does not really support their machinations other than by wholesaling less pristine cars.
So now as prices are going down after a few years of steady rises some of us are unhappy.
I really don't sympathize too much because that is normal. It's only when there are serious shortages that the game works and some of us have come to expect abnormal positive results.
Personally I'd like to have less depreciation on my pristine, protective-filmed, always garaged, cover-protected Plaid. So would we all. It is part fo the price of a superb vehicle.
So, those who think this somehow unfair are also rapidly thinking up service and support complaints. It is always thus...
