Toyota Owners Jump Ship to Tesla

Sure they are, and deservedly so.
You know, Tesla is pretty hard to beat when it comes to owner satisfaction.

As I said before to Eman, and I will pose the same question for you.

 

absolutely.

 

Well, we are approaching 10 years with the Tesla roadster and 8 years with the model S and those models are still going strong. They must be made of some pretty good stuff.

I agree, Toyota has a reputation for stellar reliability, something that Tesla is striving for. Then why does Tesla remain #1 in customer satisfaction (which includes reliability) while Toyota just dropped 3 spots from #5 to #8 this last year? My guess is that a Tesla, on average, does require more visits for service than a Toyota over the lifetime of ownership, but those visits to a Tesla service center compared to a Toyota stealership are much more pleasant - it is a much more satisfying experience including a free loaner car. Reliability is something every car maker should strive for but, in my opinion, overall customer satisfaction with that product is a more important parameter than just reliability. Your car may be reliable but if you don't enjoy driving it, or you hate going to a stealership, or your car isn't safe to protect you in an accident, what is the point of reliability? For example, my wife drove a VW convertible for a while. She loved driving that car but it had to go to the stealership once a month for reliability issues, it was as slow as a sloth, and it had poor safety testing. For her, the driving experience was more important than reliability, speed, or safety. For me? not so much - I was the one who had to take it to the stealership every month!

 

Not mention all the failing CVTs and automatic transmissions over the years. i'm affaid that many of Nissans are now full of Renualt and Mitsubishi parts these days. The company was also award the Deming Prize in 1959 but it never stayed commited to its roots like Toyota contiuned on pefecting its quality control and production system over the years. Ever since Renualt involvment with Nissan, they are built like they use too. The French aren't known for building quality cars. The Philosphy and mangement in the company have changed through the years. Toyota's philosphy hasn't changed much since Deming.

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The Roadster shouldn't be compared to mass market cars. Exotic cars don't sell in large volumes as they are limited high peformance production cars. The Roadster competes with other Exotics like Porche, Lexus LFA, Lambo, Ferrari etc. Exotic cars come with a hefty price tag in maintance and repairs. Peformance cars doesn't equal reliability.

Tesla's have a very high cost in out of warrenty repairs. Going in for warrenty repairs thats covered under thr warrenty is nothing to complian about until you are past the warrenty. It's hard to not be satisfied getting hit with mega repair bills such a replacing those $700 electronic door handles assemblies that breaks all the time in those Model S. You got those fancy electronic folding mirrors and motorized charger door opener prone to failure on the Model 3.



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For those willing to DIY repairs, the Model S door handles can be fixed with a $2 part from Tesla.

Power folding mirrors, where else have I've seen those?

 

will be interesting to see how tesla service holds up when they really start pumping out model 3's. that's a lot of loaner cars.

 

Yeah because Telsa's again are Luxury cars. Lexus on the other hand aren't known for electrical problems as those Denso electronics hold up quite well for years compared to German Bosch electronics on WV, Mercedes and BMW. About 90% of the electrical systems in a Prius is powered by Denso electronics. Given that a large percentage of Tesla's Electronics are built in house doesn't have the same level of experince in automotive electronics as major OE suppliers. Those door handels have such a high failure rate. Those charger doors break all the time too.

Most people don't work on thier own cars as the average joe doesn't buy a car and expect to rely on themselfs to fix them. For the average consumer buying Tesla's take it to the Tesla Service Center.

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This is anecdotal, from one service center.
The local service center, where deliveries are handled, has been seeing a truckload of cars daily. Most of those cars are Model 3s.
The service guys rarely see a Model 3. The initial quality of the 3s has been outstanding.

Tesla is also making major changes to scale up their service centers to handle a much larger customer base. Increasing the “ranger” service, so for many people, when a fix is needed, they will come to you.
They are also working on improving logistics. Imagine calling for service, where a tech diagnoses, and possibly fixes, your car right on a phone call. If they can’t, the schedule either a ‘ranger’ service visit to come to you, or schedules a service center appointment. At the same time, they make sure the service center has the part, or if not, orders the part as has it shipped in time for your appointment.

Tesla isn’t there yet, but that is what they are working on rolling out. Eventually, you can also originate and schedule the service call from your car or Tesla.com account.

I’m not sure if they will be successful, but if they can deliver this will be even more amazing.

 

How many owners who spend this much money on a car are going to fix their own cars?

 

Are you this Eco Friendly in all your daily activities or only when it comes to your vehicle of choice? I can appreciate your stance on going green, but the realality is that all cars come with a cost to the environment.

 

I have areas of stronger and weaker “eco friendliness”.
I never said EVs have zero cost to the environment. They just have less cost than gas alternatives.
Of course, bicycles have a smaller footprint than either

I noticed you didn’t answer the question though...
Can you see why Tesla’s are a good option for me?

 

People who tend to buy a car used, out of warranty, tend to do their own repairs.

And those that don't, should have known a Tesla is a luxury car, and any repair costs will be inline with the car's price. The windshield for a 2006 RX was nearly $1200.

I bought a 2005 Prius because it was a Prius. Not because it was a Toyota. Perhaps the people switching the Tesla in the OP hold the same views in terms of brand loyalty. Or maybe they did really want to stay with Toyota.

See, making very reliable cars doesn't mean a damn thing if you aren't building a car your customer wants.

I learned about this fact from one of @eman08 links. A poster there did the fix(the part was actually under $2), and he followed a youtube video on how to do it. So, at least two people have done so.

 

The average joe doesn't buy used cars and fix them. i promise you that. The Soccer mom is not going the to be wrenching on her own car. That's for the car enthusiest that like wrenching. Not everone is a DIYer, Mechanic or Car Enthusiest. Modern luxury cars are more complicated to fix with all the electronic complexity they have in them that require a dealer level scan tool to work on them. To really work on a Tesla, you need access to wiring diagrams and schematics, shop manuals, and Teslas high level ToolBox Scan tool. Just the Mercedes STAR Xentry scan tool cost over $25,000. You don't have acess to low cost after market parts for Teslas since after market parts is non existance. All you have is the limitations of buying used parts that you take a gamble on with no guarrentees as a brand new part. Bolting on used suspension parts is very risky and dangerious. New OEM halfshafts on these Tesla's are like $900 a piece! Tesla has full monoploy on parts so you're screwed right there.

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You keep opining about Tesla repairs but you never back it up with statistics,,,,,,,other than an occasional editorial opinion piece from Seeking Alpha. Show us your statistics!

@orenji don't go there because you will embarrass yourself, in fact, @Zythryn is conscientiously Eco-Friendly in all aspects of his life.

 

Almost every Model S owner I know have gone through at least 1 to 2 door handle replacements already. if you want to see stats just google Tesla door handle problems as you will find countless Tesla fourms. And if you watched Rich Rebuilds Tesla out of warrenty true cost video, he also mentioned about that same owner that went through $24,000 worth drive units also paid out of pocket for 9 door handles. Ouch! Tyler from Hoovies Garage recenty just bough a cheap Model S and also mentioned in his video that the car went through two drive unit motor replacements, two door handels and that $4,000 media control unit also replaced. One reason why i wouldn't want to buy any of these cars used as they are do turn into money pits. Better to lease these cars.

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Thanks for the compliment, but it isn’t 100% deserved.
I still have areas I can improve in

 

Customer satisfaction can't be averaged. It's a single-player game. Toyota is No. 1 in customer satisfaction for me. That's all that counts. And No. 1 in reliability. Customer satisfaction and reliability are two different measures. Apparently you can "buy" customer satisfaction with free coffees, fee charging and loaner cars (which aren't needed for if your car is reliable).

 

You have listed a couple of anecdotal incidents. I can list >50K anecdotal experiences where no one has this kind of issue. This is just silly.