I have owned 2 cars that I bought the first year the model came out.
The Model 3 I have had a few dumb issues like, if you run the paint app sometimes the gps location on the map doesn't update until you close the paint app and your displayed location lerps from the old point to the new one over a minute or so.
The Mini had an eco mode that would occasionally shut off the engine entirely at highway speed and not allow restart until you came to a full stop and put it in park. Eventually, they just disabled eco mode in software Which took a few weeks of me working from the mini dealer. There was display of how many miles you had gained that reset when you filled the gas tank. My record is 42 Miles gained in eco. After the final update to the software, which was a full day in the garage, My best was 8.
One of those was worth running stories in the press about.
I guess what I'm saying here is that there is a deep vein of shadenfreude in the news about Tesla. A single Tesla on fire is a big national and some times international news story. I have stopped even reading the damn things. It seems like a weird combination of them being seen as rich people cars, early adopter cars, and liberal hippy cars. Everyone can hate someone on the spectrum. Typically, the issue in articles about Tesla flaws is so isolated and dumb that it exists solely to generate clicks. The last article about Tesla I clicked through stated that consumer reports had downgraded their durability rating due to the discovery of single human hair in the paint of a model Y. I get that it sucks. But, I don't get why I should care about it.
I own a Model 3 because I needed a four door car because I had kids, electric seemed like a net win, the local Bolt dealer told me not to buy their car, and the range let me drive to the grandparents houses without a charge. I recognize that there is stuff about the model 3 and Tesla that sucks but overall it has been a pretty solid car for the last 2 years for me.
Would I recommend one to you? Yeah. I don't think there is a company that offers the combination of electric car, mature tech, range, and charging network at a similar price tag.
(inb4 "Sure it goes fast, but the panel gaps!")
Personally I love Tesla-the-company and my Tesla vehicle because of the innovation it's driving in the space--and I'm willing to tolerate the ways it falls short due to how incredible it is in other ways.... but I do try to be up front about those shortcomings when I discuss it, at the risk of being one of those "I love my Tesla, but..." people.
they aren’t scaling service centers fast enough to keep up with an extra 200k cars added on the road every quarter, so service meaningfully deteriorates every week as more cars are sold and existing cars age. it simply doesn’t work unless they were committed to building out 2x-3x the SCs they have now but nothing indicates that’s on the roadmap at all.
The numbers:
- increased service locations 12% YoY - increased mobile service fleet 8% YoY - increased supercharging stations and connectors 32% YoY
They are clearly building more service.
During quarterly conference call Musk stated that he believes service is the biggest driver of sales and that Tesla will invest in that. So contrary to what you claim it's on the roadmap.
Many people are over the moon with Tesla service given that mobile service comes to you and they can do fixes without you even there. That's something no other car maker does at scale, as far as I know.
Did you have a personal experience with Tesla's bad service or is it just amplifying FUD from other people?