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Consumer Reports Withdraws Its Tesla Model S Recommendation (consumerreports.org)

Posted by Soulskill on from the backing-up-the-hype-train dept.

An anonymous reader sends news that Consumer Reports, after earlier giving the Tesla Model S a perfect road test score, has now withdrawn its recommendation for the electric car after investigating its reliability. As part of our Annual Auto Reliability Survey, we received about 1,400 survey responses from Model S owners who chronicled an array of detailed and complicated maladies. From that data we forecast that owning that Tesla is likely to involve a worse-than-average overall problem rate. ... The main problem areas involved the drivetrain, power equipment, charging equipment, giant iPad-like center console, and body and sunroof squeaks, rattles, and leaks. ... Overall, squeaks and rattles appear to be the most prevalent complaint. But as one respondent commented, "The car is so very silent when driving that minor squeaks and rattles that you wouldn't be able to hear in a gasoline engine car become very annoying." The list of issues also includes more significant problems, which could be pricey to fix once out of warranty. Based on survey responses, Tesla has made a habit of replacing the car’s electric motors. The brake rotors tend to warp. And the door handles often fail to “present” themselves as drivers approach their cars.

5 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. The car is great to drive, but... by Strudelkugel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I always wondered how the door handles would work after an ice storm or freezing rain. I've dealt with my share of frozen car door locks, but at least I could get the handle to move. I think the touch screen console was a big mistake. You need to be able to manage things like climate settings, radio stations, etc. by touch. Forcing the drive to look at a screen for mundane things was a bad idea. I don't own a Tesla, partly because they are so new and I don't like the design elements I mentioned. But I have driven one. There are very few other cars that are as much fun to drive.

    --
    Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings! -Feynman, maybe
    1. Re:The car is great to drive, but... by Falc0n · · Score: 2, Interesting

      But in the Chevy Volt, for the 2nd gen (2016), the knobs and buttons have made a comeback. The space-age tactile feedback flat buttons were pretty well shunned by the community. And for good reason, they were clunky, and not usable in cold months with gloves on. I've owned the car for 3 years and for even simple buttons like seek takes an extra few seconds compared to other vehicles.

    2. Re:The car is great to drive, but... by AK+Marc · · Score: 1, Interesting

      . I think the touch screen console was a big mistake. You need to be able to manage things like climate settings, radio stations, etc. by touch. Forcing the drive to look at a screen for mundane things was a bad idea.

      Yes, everyone here drives without taking their eyes off the road. Yet I've never ridden with anyone where that was the case. Everyone I've ever watched touch a control in the center console turned and looked at it. Ride with someone. Watch their eyes. They will turn and look at the console, every time. Unless you are explicitly trying to adjust something without looking, you'll glance at it.

      That is, of course, everyone on the planet but those here, who are the only ones in the universe who fiddle with the console without looking.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
  2. More like "Politically Correct Reports." by ErikTheRed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Consumer Reports does some good work tracking reliability ratings and some of their reviews are decent, but over the past several years they have weighted things so heavily towards environmentally "friendly" products (scare quotes because items that don't work well aren't really that friendly when they wind up in a landfill when you replace them with something that actually fucking works right) that their overall recommendations are pretty close to worthless.

    --

    Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
  3. Re:Says more about Consumer Reports than the car by tnk1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That works for the used cars, but not for the new ones.

    I think CR did the right thing. They made a recommendation based on the best information they could get at the time, and then when faced with conflicting experience which only time would have exposed, they changed their recommendation to fit new data.

    The fact is that despite the potential for mistakes, following someone's advice who has done the investigation is always a better strategy than the alternative.

    Now if their investigations are slanted or have crappy methodology, then by all means trash them, but don't do that for simply trying to provide good advice for an important purchase (ie. a new car) where they can't have the benefit of time, because once you have tried out a new car over time, it's no longer a new car.