Consumer Reports: Tesla's Model X Is 'Fast and Flawed' (marketwatch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MarketWatch: Tesla Motors Inc. was dealt a blow earlier this week as Consumer Reports magazine called the Model X, its much-awaited and much-feted SUV, a "flawed" vehicle. Beyond a "brag-worthy magic, the all-wheel drive Model X 90D largely disappoints," the magazine said, citing rear doors prone to pausing and stopping, second-row seats that can't be folded, and limiting cargo capacity. Even its panoramic, helicopter-like windshield won cranky-sounding disapproval from Consumer Reports: It's not tinted enough to offset the brightness of a sunny day, it said. Overall "the ride is too firm and choppy for a $110,000 car," Consumer Reports said. Earlier this year, Consumer Reports released its 2016 Car Reliability Survey and found that, while the Tesla Model S has become more reliable, the Tesla Model X has proved to be unreliable overall.

Comments

Tesla builds shit cars

[Anonymous Coward]

I know nerds obsess over them, but Tesla builds shitty cars. Trim falling off, panel gap issues... as someone who purchases cars around $100k, these are just unacceptable. The Model S is fast but handles like a pig. It's not fun to drive unless you like stop light racing teens. Nor are they luxurious compared to a similarly priced Merc or Audi...

Re:Tesla builds shit cars

[0100010001010011]

Then they poached too many EEs and Computer Engineers and from Silicon Valley and not enough Mechanical engineers from Toyota, Audi, BMW, et al.

Re: Tesla builds shit cars

[Anonymous Coward]

All American-made cars are complete trash in this way, compared to Japanese or European imports. Doesn't matter if it's a cheap and cheerful compact or a supercar.

Re: Tesla builds shit cars

[turbidostato]

"Tesla cars are the most advanced and fun to drive. Go to a tesla store and see for yourself, test drives are free"

Probably you didn't figure it but you just made the parent's point: "most advanced and fun to drive" coupled to being expensive has proven time and again to be good enough for the luxury market, it's far from sufficient for the consumer one.

The same can be said about your "test drives" point: millionaires are served if their toy cars can manage the equivalent to a test drive once a month (go see how many miles have a second hand luxury car on its odometer) but consumer cars start to make sense only once you can reliably put 100K miles on them.

In the end, Mr Anonymous Coward, you don't own a Tesla and you are the kind of fanboy that most probably will queue for hours to own the next iShit that comes properly marketed to you. For Tesla to reach the masses, Musk will need to understand not all the people are like his west-coast millionaire early adopters.

Re:Tesla builds shit cars

[Kjella]

I think you and the grandparent are talking about different things, he's mainly talking about the "premium" experience of a $100k car. I've heard others too say it falls short of high end Audis and BMWs, but really it sells to all those who want to "go green" but can't deal with the range of a Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 or Renault Zoe regardless of that. Once you get into Tesla Model 3 territory the customers aren't really obsessing over such details, they want as you say a cheap, reliable car and it's less about the finer details and nuances of the driving experience.

Do they have quality control/reliability issues, as in how often does the car need to be in the shop? From what I've heard certainly some, parts and repair time has also been an issue. But we're also hearing from early Model S customers, they have a lot more experience now than they had then so Model 3 might be decent. Not ever going to buy a Model X though, those doors are just begging for problems 3-5-10 years down the road. I think the Elon Musk drank a little too much "they said it can't be done, so I'm doing it" kool-aid there.

Re: Tesla builds shit cars

[DMFNR]

You think that's bad, take a look at the even more exclusive sports and super cars. Ferraris with plastics that melt and become sticky after a few years, spontanious combustion, McLarens with door sensors that only work half the time, Lotuses with giant panel gaps. For a lot of these cars price is not proportional to build quality or reliability. You're paying for an experience or an image. Being able to hear the engine note of a flat plane crank V8 is well worth the cost of entry for many people, for others it's entry in to the club of ownership. Having to take the car to the garage every third drive is just part of the supercar ownership experience. Many of these cars are so mechanically high strung that they require absolutely insane maintenance schedules anyway. It's not such a huge deal to replace a few interior parts or electronic doodads when you have to take it in for a whole goddamn engine out regular major service.

Many of these problems have lessened in recent years, the build quality of these cars in the 70's through the 90's was absolutely laughable. I'm not saying its acceptable, just that is how it is. Even the Viper's domestic competitor, the Corvette has had similar issues, even in recent years, see C7 Z06 heat soak issues.

Re:Let's stop with fucking musk

[ShanghaiBill]

Every. Fucking. Day. Musk Tesla musk Tesla.

If you want to read about Kim Kardashian instead, there are plenty of other sites. But this site is for nerds, and Elon is the king of the nerds. He is building electric cars, solar panels, rockets, and trying to put people on Mars. He co-founded an institute to open source AI. He is like a real life Tony Stark. All the boy nerds want to be him. All the girl nerds want to sleep with him, and still would even if he only had one billion.

 

Re:Let's stop with fucking musk

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus Christ... I guess Steve Jobs' corpse's cock decayed away too much for you to suck it anymore, so you started on Musk's?

Musk got rich being a middleman for online beanie baby auctions, and would be nosediving toward bankruptcy right now if it weren't for government subsidies. He doesn't "invent" shit, he steals old ideas and throws money at engineers to make them happen (and still more money at marketers to give his whole empire a trendy, luxury veneer. A ripoff of Jobs and Apple, I suppose). He talks about going to Mars using a ship he sketched on the back of a napkin at lunch, completely ignoring that the whole project is profoundly expensive and unprofitable and would never get off the drawing board (or napkin, as the case may be) unless President Trump woke up one day and decided to write him a $50 billion check.

Musk's cult of personality - and the worship of tech "visionaries" in general - is just fucking pathetic. On the other hand, billionaire worship is probably the most capitalist, American thing I can think of, so there's that I guess.

Not surprising

[DrXym]

Those gull wing doors were just a silly gimmick. Yeah they look cool but in an SUV, they make zero sense. Aside from all the mechanical / electrical complexity, they're prone to leak, open / close slower than a regular door (too bad if its snowing / raining), prevent the doors from having storage space, prevent a bike / canoe / luggage rack being mounted on the car.

Regular doors work just as well, or even sliding ones. They're cheaper, simpler and more reliable. It should be a no brainer. Of course that assumes the gull wing doors were added to solve a practical problem. The reality is they were probably added to solve a marketing problem - a justification to jack the price up and free press.