What? Tesla ranked #1 in worst customer satisfaction of every major car brand?

J.D. Power is the best known source for consumer satisfaction. This was only one measure, initial quality. The article points out that the more complicated the car, the more things that could go wrong.

I tend to like a more analog experience with real buttons and switches for the audio, AC, seats, and other basic functions. The movement towards the large iPad type display with integrated controls is cumbersome and distracting. I don’t want to take 3 steps to turn the AC down 2 degrees.

People generally are very loyal to Tesla and are willing to deal with minor bugs to get everything else the cars does well. I will not buy one, but I understand the allure.

Rainy Day wrote:

I don’t want to take 3 steps to turn the AC down 2 degrees.

it's one step with voice control but you do you.

How much you want to bet Tesla is a front in two ways. First as a symbol to society that we really are trying to make an effort to try alternative energies but they are just too expensive and unprofitable. This is what they want you to take away.

Second, it’s research and development is really meant for other sectors including space x and whatever meaningless undertaking they are involved in at the moment.

Tesla will never go under because as we have seen in the past it is protected by the financial sector and government.

I'm always confused at same-year JD Power rankings. How can you rate the reliability of a less-than 1 year old car? If the transmission goes out in a car that new, it's called a lemon.

slrepeless11010 wrote:

How much you want to bet Tesla is a front in two ways. First as a symbol to society that we really are trying to make an effort to try alternative energies but they are just too expensive and unprofitable. This is what they want you to take away.

Second, it’s research and development is really meant for other sectors including space x and whatever meaningless undertaking they are involved in at the moment.

Tesla will never go under because as we have seen in the past it is protected by the financial sector and government.

I want to bet everything, but I don't want to take advantage of anyone who's clinically paranoid.

I used to be a Tesla hater but from a feedback standpoint, everyone I've talked to who owns one loves driving them. Usually, I hear it is like driving a Tesla is like driving using a computer if you go from a legacy Windows system from the 90s to Windows 7. It's like you immediately stepped a generation forward.

The complaints I hear are with maintenance. If anything breaks or wears out the cost is an order of magnitude higher than for a normal vehicle. I know someone who got rear-ended in one. Based on the damage I would have guessed $3-4K max. It ended up at $15K to get repaired since its not as simple as a traditional car.

I think they are still overpriced but they are starting to get more in line with the market. It think the traditional rating and review groups have bashed them more than they should and have proven to somewhat be in the pocket of the big auto manufacturers.

I've wondered about this too. I think Tesla designers have given themselves liberty to play a little outside of the typical ground rules that the established brands wouldn't dare to bend, which gives the cars a more imaginative quality. The flipside, is that some of the fundamentals aren't quite right.

I have two friends who were fans/early adopters, but have since gotten rid of their Teslas and gone back to traditional brands. One of them largely because he was on the freeway in autopilot mode, and a motorcycle splitting lanes caused the car to freak out and swerve into the median (this was pretty early on when autopilot mode was released to the public)... a few weeks later, while having his car serviced at the dealer, they didn't completely tighten the lug nuts on one of the wheels, and the wheel fell off while driving. Two completely unrelated things, and he was pretty chill about both, since nothing truly tragic happened, but it gave him the sense that the company didn't really have its act together.

My other friend made a ton of money cashing out stock options from his tech job and bought a ridiculous Audi R8, but notable because he was a Tesla fanboy, but it lost its luster after a few years.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unfortunately the entire world has gotten away from the KISS mentality (keep it simple stupid). With the way they are writing building codes nowadays, many HVAC and lighting systems use wireless embedded mesh networks, many of which are proprietary (for lighting alone there are a dozen different systems). While they typically work well initially, once that building has a power surge, lightning strike, a solar flare or even some other electrical device operating on a similar frequency causing interference, parts of the system can go down. Instead of having a light go out and some menial wage worker coming around to replace a lamp or power supply, now you need someone with a degree from the factory to go out replace the component or fixture and re-program the system. It's like and old light bulb joke with a really bad punchline. Now it takes an electrical engineer to replace a light bulb, somebody with an Arts and Science degree wouldn't stand a chance.

They are a tech company. Hello... dog mode!

Their tech makes every other car company look like they are still in the 90s.

The car company is valued at $5-$10. Supercharger network $50 & tech at $900 plus. The value in this company is all in their tech and they are leaps & bounds ahead of everyone. Porsche is close but 5x expensive and still behind.

Girlfriend has an early version of the S (inherited from her father) with 50,000 miles.

Obviously save money on gas and oil change, while other things might cost more just like any other luxury brand. The car is pretty sweet. No significant issues. We live in a place that is 90 in the summer and single digits in the winter, so the climate control (without the engine running) is a nice little feature. It's quiet, smooth and fast (not that fast is too big of deal). Definitely nothing to complain about.