-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
What percentage of Model 3s are "lemons"
- Thread starter Petrocelli
- Start date
-
- Tags
- lemon Model 3 reliability
Hey, Petrocelli : )
I remember when you leased a new Mercedes a while ago, after deciding to wait for the bugs to get worked out of the Model 3.
I've now had my car for almost 14 months, and it has been completely trouble free.
On this, as well as any other car forum, you'll see many more complaints than what you'd like to see; the nature of people is to complain, but not not post "Oh yeah, everything is great" type of posts. As such, you'll always see a disproportionately large number of negative posts.
IMO, Tesla has done a great job of getting rid of the bugs that always plague from-scratch vehicles when they're first released. I have no complaints about my car... in fact, I've enjoyed it more than any other of my rather numerous (I'm 53) cars that I've owned. I have no plans to drive anything other than a Tesla from here on out.
If you still have reservations about it, though, maybe consider a three year lease?
I also live in Los Angeles, Northridge in the San Fernando valley. I've had my Tesla model 3 for over two years, and have had only one service on my driveway. The Tesla mobile van pulled up and the car got a 2 year recommended service: tire rotation, new cabin filter, fluids topped off for $174. Actually, today Tesla can to my house the replace the plastic guide pins in the charger port. It took 5 minutes, no change. They called me and convinced me that they needed to do this. What other ICE car maker does that? Bentley, Rolls Royce maybe? I have had no problems with this car other than a minor rattle coming from the rear roof (it comes and goes). In two years, the cars will be better.
ElectricLee
Member
We have (3) Tesla Model 3 with ZERO problems. Ours are Late 2018 and Late 2019 and are built very well.
OneTinyFish
Member
We've discussed this before, so you should be able to search out the link.
But evidence from this forum - there's a survey with details.
You have a 6.01% chance of Tesla needing to take your car back in the first month for 6+ days.
And a 20-something% chance of Tesla needing to take your car in the first month for 1 day.
Your mileage may vary.
Sorry NPD is most common in sales man. there is a reason why he got angry with you and probably tried to blame you in some way - you can't change them. He just needs your money.
If you are set on reliability look into RAV-4 hybrid. That car is so hot it was sold out before it went on the market (and that's a toyota...let that sink in)
or the Lexus variation of it since you seem to gravitate towards luxury image. Lexus NX
Last edited:
I just realized I used the word "aggressive" improperly in my OP. I meant aggressive in pricing, not aggressive in behavior. The salesmen was very complementary of Teslas, and our "negotiation" took about 15 minutes.
This is a patently absurd claim. A forum survey of this type is subject to absurd levels of selection bias. This data is essentially meaningless.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
I'm so curious what the real numbers are. Anecdotally at my office it was 4 out of 7 Model 3 needed service at or soon after delivery so 20% sounds plausible for earlier builds. I assume it's gotten better because the service center was full of Model 3 in late 2018 and there's no way that was sustainable.
Just need someone who works at a big tech company to do a large survey!
OneTinyFish
Member
What evidence? A survey in some web forum post is NOT evidence. Not even close.
OneTinyFish
Member
There's no need to be aggressive; I've made a handy print-out and keep screenshot guide for you above.
Repeating the same data that has the inherent selection bias does not remove that selection bias. Your data is meaningless as you have an inherently biased sample.
The people who responded to your poll had that rate, but online polls on a niche website are absurdly biased. You can't claim evidence (other than the percentage of people who responded to your poll responded in specific ways) of anything by them.
The people who responded to your poll had that rate, but online polls on a niche website are absurdly biased. You can't claim evidence (other than the percentage of people who responded to your poll responded in specific ways) of anything by them.
ChadS
Last tank of gas: March 2009
I don't think anybody here can give you the exact number of people with problems. Tesla obviously has the numbers, but isn't sharing. Consumer Reports might have decent numbers, but I'm not a subscriber. JDPower has published some numbers that put Tesla at the bottom, but that's just for the first 90 days, counts a lot of things (like uncertainty about how the stereo works) that I don't think should be considered problems, and the number of problems, while the "worst" on the list, was really pretty similar to their closest competitors. Certainly not something that would drive me to switch to a close competitor. Online polls obviously have the selection bias problem, where people with problems are far more likely to respond so the sample isn't representative.
So I can't give you an exact number of problem cars, but I think a good way to determine the worst case or upper bound is to look at customer satisfaction numbers. If x% of owners are satisfied, then it seems likely that 100-x is the highest possible number of "lemons". (The number could be lower than that because people could be unsatisfied for reasons other than problems with the car...too much money spent, not as comfortable or missing one feature an old car had, didn't get a feature salesperson promised, etc). I haven't seen a very recent survey, but the ones I recall over the past couple of years (I think JD Power, Consumer Reports and...Edmunds? KBB? put out surveys like this) had Tesla at the top for customer satisfaction. So even with 100-x lemons possible, chances are that you will be happier with a Tesla than if you go with another brand given that x is higher with Tesla than other brands.
I could look up one of the satisfaction surveys and link it here, but since there are multiple surveys and people might argue about any given one, I'll leave it to the reader to look up one they feel comfortable with. Or better yet, look at more than one.
Basically, what I'm proposing is that you flip the problem around. You are asking for your chances of being unhappy with a bad Tesla, which nobody here can answer. So instead, ask yourself what are your chances of being happy with a Tesla. I think the customer satisfaction numbers should give a closer answer to that question than the one you were asking.
So I can't give you an exact number of problem cars, but I think a good way to determine the worst case or upper bound is to look at customer satisfaction numbers. If x% of owners are satisfied, then it seems likely that 100-x is the highest possible number of "lemons". (The number could be lower than that because people could be unsatisfied for reasons other than problems with the car...too much money spent, not as comfortable or missing one feature an old car had, didn't get a feature salesperson promised, etc). I haven't seen a very recent survey, but the ones I recall over the past couple of years (I think JD Power, Consumer Reports and...Edmunds? KBB? put out surveys like this) had Tesla at the top for customer satisfaction. So even with 100-x lemons possible, chances are that you will be happier with a Tesla than if you go with another brand given that x is higher with Tesla than other brands.
I could look up one of the satisfaction surveys and link it here, but since there are multiple surveys and people might argue about any given one, I'll leave it to the reader to look up one they feel comfortable with. Or better yet, look at more than one.
Basically, what I'm proposing is that you flip the problem around. You are asking for your chances of being unhappy with a bad Tesla, which nobody here can answer. So instead, ask yourself what are your chances of being happy with a Tesla. I think the customer satisfaction numbers should give a closer answer to that question than the one you were asking.
Last edited:
Lemon Law holds manufactures accountable for their quality control.
Simple as that.
My mistake as well for misreading and jumping to conclusion. Thank you for catching that
It’s not aggressive; just pointing out that you continue to repeat misinformation as if it is fact.
It is not. It will not be. It never will be.
One of us has a degree in mathematics and data management; the other made a web poll.
OneTinyFish
Member
Yeah, it's just rude. Maybe a cultural difference, I don't know.
What I posted is evidence. Look up the definition in any dictionary you care to read.
I didn't make a web poll.
I also have degrees
Ugh, I'm outta here. Rude ass.
