Worse car buying experience ever!

[suwaneedad]

there are several alternatives available right now

To my knowledge, Tesla has the sole offering that travels ~300mi on a charge and gets you back on your way in 20 minutes.
By contrast, sure the Model 3 SR has plenty of ~competitors, since the SR is realistically tethered to the owner's local market.
Of course the SR only exists in theory right now.

 

[AustinPowers]

To my knowledge, Tesla has the sole offering that travels ~300mi on a charge and gets you back on your way in 20 minutes.

True, but contrary to the US, few people in Europe drive 300+ miles on a daily basis, and most of those who do would likely not even consider getting a BEV in the first place, because they tend to be travelling salesmen and the like, who are used to their company car Diesel station wagons, which, while bad for the environment, offer creature comforts, practicality and build quality levels that so far no Tesla has even come close to matching (I know some current Tesla owner would beg to differ, but that doesn't change the facts). Even the Model 3 is far from perfect, but at least it's the best Tesla you can get today, plus the most affordable - no matter which version, as it is the only one that can be had for less than the equivalent of 100K USD, which is the base price of the naked base Model S over here.

For us "ordinary" folks with "normal" daily driving distances, cars like the Leaf, e-Golf, Ioniq, Kona, etc. have more than enough range.

 

[suwaneedad]

True, but contrary to the US, few people in Europe drive 300+ miles on a daily basis, and most of those who do would likely not even consider getting a BEV in the first place, because they tend to be travelling salesmen and the like, who are used to their company car Diesel station wagons, which, while bad for the environment, offer creature comforts, practicality and build quality levels that so far no Tesla has even come close to matching (I know some current Tesla owner would beg to differ, but that doesn't change the facts). Even the Model 3 is far from perfect, but at least it's the best Tesla you can get today, plus the most affordable - no matter which version, as it is the only one that can be had for less than the equivalent of 100K USD, which is the base price of the naked base Model S over here.

For us "ordinary" folks with "normal" daily driving distances, cars like the Leaf, e-Golf, Ioniq, Kona, etc. have more than enough range.

Yes for the use cases you cite, plenty of competition for Tesla from the non-renewables offerings from BMW and the like. I had a BMW once. Once. Great car during the warranty period when its 'legendary quality' was BMW's problem and not mine. Worst car I've ever owned outside of the warranty period, followed a close second by the one Volvo I've dared to own. Unsure how these companies stay in business, short of their company-car market. A bit like the US car companies often relying on the rental car fleet demands to keep them in business.
Regardless, for the use case of wanting an EV that can be the sole vehicle and therefore be useful on long trips (even occasional ones) thanks to the supercharger network, Tesla faces zero competition at least through 2020, regardless of price category.

 

[KootsChewt]

Well after voicing my complaints in this thread (and in an email to customer service), I did receive a contract yesterday finally. Unfortunately they got the financing term length incorrect (despite having me "confirm" it three times via the "order summary" page in the My Tesla account). They have been trying to fix it ever since. My IDA was told they are having some kind of glitch again and are trying to get my contract ASAP. Le sigh. Hopefully I get it next week sometime, then they can schedule my home delivery.

 

[AustinPowers]

Yes for the use cases you cite, plenty of competition for Tesla from the non-renewables offerings from BMW and the like. I had a BMW once. Once. Great car during the warranty period when its 'legendary quality' was BMW's problem and not mine. Worst car I've ever owned outside of the warranty period, followed a close second by the one Volvo I've dared to own. Unsure how these companies stay in business, short of their company-car market.

Sorry to hear that you had problems. Warranty periods over here are very short, that is if the manufacturer offers a warranty at all (which most of them don't, they only stick to the "assurance" period that is mandated by law, which I think is one year or so). In any case, I have had my BMW für almost fifteen years now, and up to now never had a problem. So, shrug, your anecdotal evidence against mine I guess. As for Volvo I can only cite friends who drive Volvos and have done so for decades. They always speak very highly about the quality and reliability which is why they keep buying Volvo cars. Over here, neither BMW nor Volvo are high up on any list that depicts unreliability.

 

[Zoglog]

There is significant improvement needed in the process. Communication felt disorganized on both of my deliveries. Same with service center......... Tesla needs to step it up in both fronts.

Maybe it's because they're struggling for profitability, but the experience is really going to hurt them in the long run.

 

[suwaneedad]

Sorry to hear that you had problems. Warranty periods over here are very short, that is if the manufacturer offers a warranty at all (which most of them don't, they only stick to the "assurance" period that is mandated by law, which I think is one year or so). In any case, I have had my BMW für almost fifteen years now, and up to now never had a problem. So, shrug, your anecdotal evidence against mine I guess. As for Volvo I can only cite friends who drive Volvos and have done so for decades. They always speak very highly about the quality and reliability which is why they keep buying Volvo cars. Over here, neither BMW nor Volvo are high up on any list that depicts unreliability.

Wow, that's really tough for me to even imagine! I wonder if either or both manufacturers build cars with inferior parts when destined for the US. With my BMW, literally any part made of rubber or plastic was very much designed to fail in the 5-8 year timeframe. And my Volvo had an electronic ghost in the machine which resulted in frequent bulb burnout roughly once a month...it was incredibly frustrating. By no means would I argue that American mfrs are better; the last Chrysler product I owned managed to have two failures three months after the warranty lapsed at a total cost of over $2500. On the one hand, bravo to the planned obsolescence engineering team at Chrysler. On the other hand, I've not owned a Chrysler since and never will (same for BMW/Volvo). My brand reliability experience with vehicles I've owned thus far in life ranks as follows: Nissan, Lexus, Ford, Chrysler, Volvo, BMW. (Tesla, TBD.)

 

[StellarRat]

To my knowledge, Tesla has the sole offering that travels ~300mi on a charge and gets you back on your way in 20 minutes.
By contrast, sure the Model 3 SR has plenty of ~competitors, since the SR is realistically tethered to the owner's local market.
Of course the SR only exists in theory right now.

I disagree. 220 miles is plenty far enough to go just about anywhere you want to if you utilize the Supercharger network. Yes, it's a little less convenient then 330 miles of range, but it's not a show stopper for occasional long distance travel. I bet 99% of all trips are well under 200 miles for most Americans.

 

[Carl]

(...)Tesla management needs to walk through a Lexus dealership and take some notes. (...) If my car wasn't so darned great I would have ditched it a while back.

So true! Five years ago the Tesla staff was (probably) just as incompetent, but at least they were very enthusiastic, honest and not at all like the usual car salespeople! Now Tesla has others as well on its staff - still somewhat incredibly incompetent, but certainly very much more "car dealers".

I actually (even five years ago) apologised to my Lexus dealer (technically not a dealer, because in Europe Lexus has the same model als Tesla - direct sales): I had never seen this level of service from any other car brand (including Mercedes and BMW), and indeed it is not Tesla which is going to match it soon, but, sorry, I said to Lexus, the Tesla MS was really too good to resist...

We buy our Tesla's just for the car, certainly not the buyer experience... I'm in the process of buying my third Tesla now and the experience is today even more underwhelming. But still, I'm buying another Tesla...

If Tesla could, as you say, just buy a few Lexus cars and take note of the service, at sales, at delivery and at servicing...

 

[Glamisduner]

True, but contrary to the US, few people in Europe drive 300+ miles on a daily basis, and most of those who do would likely not even consider getting a BEV in the first place, because they tend to be travelling salesmen and the like, who are used to their company car Diesel station wagons, which, while bad for the environment, offer creature comforts, practicality and build quality levels that so far no Tesla has even come close to matching (I know some current Tesla owner would beg to differ, but that doesn't change the facts). Even the Model 3 is far from perfect, but at least it's the best Tesla you can get today, plus the most affordable - no matter which version, as it is the only one that can be had for less than the equivalent of 100K USD, which is the base price of the naked base Model S over here.

For us "ordinary" folks with "normal" daily driving distances, cars like the Leaf, e-Golf, Ioniq, Kona, etc. have more than enough range.

It's enough range until it isn't. I have a 42 mile commute each way, yesterday I had to head home from work early because part of the neighbors tree fell on our fence during the storm and blocked my wife and I from pulling into our driveway . I chopped it up with a chainsaw then drove back to work. So a total of about 168 miles. I'm still in the loaner S85, since I have only been charging it to 90% plus now I'm running the heater / defroster etc (It's not snow cold here but cold enough). I ended up getting home with about 5% battery. If a Kona charged to 90% you would start to feel the range anxiety as soon as you had to do something slightly out of the ordinary.

The nearest supercharger is about 30 miles from my house, and the nearest one I can use for free (even with free supercharging) is about 30 miles from work. The closest on to work is an urban charger and requires paying for parking by the hour.

 

[suwaneedad]

I disagree. 220 miles is plenty far enough to go just about anywhere you want to if you utilize the Supercharger network. Yes, it's a little less convenient then 330 miles of range, but it's not a show stopper for occasional long distance travel. I bet 99% of all trips are well under 200 miles for most Americans.

To each his own, but the SR3 at 220mi rated range would not work for roadtripping in my book:
Beyond Year One, rated range will be 95% of Day One Range...220x.95=209
80mph=80% of rated range. 209*.8=167mi
Charging rate tapers rapidly beyond 70%. 167*.7=117
117=1.5 hours of driving between 20min supercharger stops, and that assumes the ability to find a supercharger when reaching 0 miles in the battery. No thanks. ICE blows that away in terms of time-efficient trips.
Model 3LR for the win.

 

[StellarRat]

To each his own, but the SR3 at 220mi rated range would not work for roadtripping in my book:
Beyond Year One, rated range will be 95% of Day One Range...220x.95=209
80mph=80% of rated range. 209*.8=167mi
Charging rate tapers rapidly beyond 70%. 167*.7=117
117=1.5 hours of driving between 20min supercharger stops, and that assumes the ability to find a supercharger when reaching 0 miles in the battery. No thanks. ICE blows that away in terms of time-efficient trips.
Model 3LR for the win.

If I have to charge more than one time one way in a Tesla I'm probably getting on a plane anyway. But you obviously have a different view. That's OK.

 

[AustinPowers]

Wow, that's really tough for me to even imagine! I wonder if either or both manufacturers build cars with inferior parts when destined for the US.

This has been a theory of mine for quite some time. A lot of symptoms speak for it.
My theory as to why is that the US customers appears to value quite different aspects in a car than a European customer. Plus, cars in the US have to be much cheaper in general in order to sell, so manufacturers seem to engineer their vehicles to match a certain price point.
A very good example to see the differences is the VW Passat. The one for the US market is a totally different model than the European one, specifically engineered for the US preferences - i.e. larger size, cheaper price, lower tech, yet more interior "bling". Don't know about its reliability record though.

If I have to charge more than one time one way in a Tesla I'm probably getting on a plane anyway. But you obviously have a different view. That's OK.

Totally agree. Over here, the average commuting distance in Germany is about 11 miles, and most people I know who have longer distances to commute use public transport, mainly rail.
We "roadtrip" i.e. go on holiday by car about twice a year, with one way distances of about 350 miles at most. With a Model 3 LR we could do that and still only charge once on those drives, with an e-Golf we would probably need three stops, but still, a bit of an inconvenience twice a year is no big deal in the long run.

As for the experience with Tesla service personnel, I can only second those who are unhappy with the way things are. Even after six years in the market their customer relationship and especially communication attitude leaves a lot to be desired. Hope this improves soon.

 

[tv4184]

Hopefully its not a night mare for me. My delivery is scheduled for 4 pm this Sat and I have to be at work by 7 pm. If it doesn't happen I'll just take my trade in and drive to work lol

 

[RKLBW]

Previously purchased multiples cars from Honda Accord to Porsche 911. My last new car purchase was a Honda CRV. Prior to this the most problem I ran into was a European delivery of my BMW M4. Dealer forgot to turn in the paperwork and I found out 3 weeks before going to Munich. In the end dealer arranged to have an M4 for me to drive in Germany and gave me a bigger discount on the car. Lots of apologies and even sent me to the BMW M school for free.

Fast forward to this month we ordered our first DLR model 3. Right away I can tell my ISA was right out of high school or something. Very unprofessional doesn’t inform me of anything. Took him a whole week to correct a name error on the purchase agreement.

I got my first delivery date and was excited the day before. But I was suspicious too good to be true so I called ISA. That’a when he told me oops sorry car not ready let’s make it a week later. I waited another week, funded my purchase. And the day before again no update from him so I emailed (he never picks up phone and VM always full). Sure enough sorry car not ready we have to look for a new car for you. Again no details as to why they are looking for a new car. Multiple phone calls with hour long hold before I found out from another rep that the car was damaged beyond repair when it got to delivery in Costa Mesa.

I told them to tell the ISA supervisor to get me a new ISA, the guy I’m working with is incompetent doesn’t update me and very unprofessional. They said supervisor will call me shortly. No calls at the end of the day but my incompetent ISA called me saying car was damaged looking for a new one. Something I already know.

So Tesla is number one.. in being the worse customer service car company out there. I’m really having second thoughts about spending 65k on this car. If it were not for my wife really wanting this car I rather get a Bolt! I’ve owned 2 Corvettes and Chevy custiner service was a ton better than this. Elon what the heck happened to your company!?

 

[N2B8]

well OP, what's the update?

Sorry for the long hiatus guys but immediately after this fiasco we actually got married, I ordered another one for myself, and I just picked up our second M3 today.

Going back to where I left off. So two days after they cancelled our first pickup appointment they located an identical spec car. We showed up at the showroom and we only waited 15 min before they showed us the car. While my wife signed all the documents I went around the car with a flash light looking at body gaps, paint defects, etc... Luckily it was a perfect sample. As we were leaving the dealer they called us back, apparently they were just about to submit our registration to the DMV, with the previous car VIN. Thank god they caught that before submitting it. So check to make sure the VIN number of your paperwork matches that of the car. So here is the car it's for my new bride.

Black, LR AWD, white leather, 18" aero, and EAP. This is her first electric car and she's totally in love with it. I think she's forgiven Tesla for the initial disappointments haha. Right before going on our mini honeymoon I dropped off the car for PPF installation over the bumper, hood, fenders, and mirror. Then the entire car was coated with Crystal Serum Ultra. And finally I had the entire car tinted including windshield.

My wife is head over heals with this car. And I love it too. But I didn't want to deal with this fiasco so I actually looked into getting a used model S. Well actually at first I looked into getting a hybrid so I can get a carpool sticker. I even rented a Prius Prime for a weekend but it was such a slow car. When my wife first sat in it she immediately turned to me and said NO! The screen looked like it was from 1995. Hence I started looking at used model S. But after researching (thanks Troy) I realized if the goal is for the longest range the LR RWD 3 is a much better buy and car than the S.

Then I read about Elon's tweet saying call the dealer they are releasing all cars. So last weds I called my dealer asking if they have a LR RWD in white and 18" aero and they did have one in Freemont. I put down a deposit right away and this morning I went to the dealer to pick it up (I refused delivery to my house). At the dealer again I only waited 10 min. I looked at the car over and the front chrome (under window) was misaligned leaving a huge gap and a small paint chip in a pretty inconspicuous place on the bumper. Everything looked good so I had them put on some touch up paint and reinstall the chrome trim under the window so the gap looked better. I basically put down a deposit on wednesday and it was in my garage on saturday. So far I'm super happy with these cars.

 

[SMAlset]

Happy wife! Glad she loves her car and glad things worked out well for you. Love my Model 3 as well and it was a long week this week while it was getting PPF and ceramic pro. Picked up today and it looks great. Love both of your cars. Enjoy and happy holiday.

 

[BulerBuler]

Very bad experience, no IDA, misaligned delivery process. Getting MVPA for loan was a night mare. Delivery date were changed without any communication. During the delivery we noticed big visible scratch in the back, and two other scratches. Delivery center didn't inform any of this before scheduling delivery.
During the delivery the assistant insisted on taking delivery, Tesla would take care of the scratches after delivery with no hassles to customer. When I asked more details he said it' just body work Tesla would take after delivery. He was supposed to spend no other more than 30 minutes on each delivery. It was a rushed affair.

Next day after taking the delivey I got a call for appointment at a remote body shop. That's not a hassles fix, it's scratch on the body any auto body shop should be able to fix. But delivery center does not agree, the assirassu given before delivery were wrong, they were eillfully hiding details.

Any be one who says they swamped with deliveries, it's not an excuse. I should not have taken the delivery. I put a lot of faith in Tesla customer service, I should have been more mindful, Tesla is only looking for numbers and is not interested in providing proper customer service.

 

[NathanielHrnblwr]

Sorry for the long hiatus guys but immediately after this fiasco we actually got married, I ordered another one for myself, and I just picked up our second M3 today.

Going back to where I left off. So two days after they cancelled our first pickup appointment they located an identical spec car. We showed up at the showroom and we only waited 15 min before they showed us the car. While my wife signed all the documents I went around the car with a flash light looking at body gaps, paint defects, etc... Luckily it was a perfect sample. As we were leaving the dealer they called us back, apparently they were just about to submit our registration to the DMV, with the previous car VIN. Thank god they caught that before submitting it. So check to make sure the VIN number of your paperwork matches that of the car. So here is the car it's for my new bride.

Black, LR AWD, white leather, 18" aero, and EAP. This is her first electric car and she's totally in love with it. I think she's forgiven Tesla for the initial disappointments haha. Right before going on our mini honeymoon I dropped off the car for PPF installation over the bumper, hood, fenders, and mirror. Then the entire car was coated with Crystal Serum Ultra. And finally I had the entire car tinted including windshield.


My wife is head over heals with this car. And I love it too. But I didn't want to deal with this fiasco so I actually looked into getting a used model S. Well actually at first I looked into getting a hybrid so I can get a carpool sticker. I even rented a Prius Prime for a weekend but it was such a slow car. When my wife first sat in it she immediately turned to me and said NO! The screen looked like it was from 1995. Hence I started looking at used model S. But after researching (thanks Troy) I realized if the goal is for the longest range the LR RWD 3 is a much better buy and car than the S.

Then I read about Elon's tweet saying call the dealer they are releasing all cars. So last weds I called my dealer asking if they have a LR RWD in white and 18" aero and they did have one in Freemont. I put down a deposit right away and this morning I went to the dealer to pick it up (I refused delivery to my house). At the dealer again I only waited 10 min. I looked at the car over and the front chrome (under window) was misaligned leaving a huge gap and a small paint chip in a pretty inconspicuous place on the bumper. Everything looked good so I had them put on some touch up paint and reinstall the chrome trim under the window so the gap looked better. I basically put down a deposit on wednesday and it was in my garage on saturday. So far I'm super happy with these cars.

Glad it all worked out well in the end - enough for you to order another which seemed to be a better experience.

Congrats on the marriage!

 

[Zorg]

Communication was minimum, but delivery was on time (actually 20 mns early). Car is fine, and Ryan took his time (20 mns) to show us the car. Car is great, though a little noisy at highway speeds. Overall, it was a very smooth process.