Consumer Reports: Tesla

means nothing, owners love them. and they can't make them fast enough

 

Thanks for sharing. It makes me feel better about my decision to stick with Toyota. Reading the posts on this board as obsessively as I do, I was beginning to wonder if my trust was misplaced, with all the problems I'm seeing reported here. I am still convinced, however, that the decision to buy a Toyota looks better and better as the years go by. I even recall seeing a graph in a particular issue of Consumer Reports that shows the gap between the reliability of a Toyota vs. other manufacturers widens as the cars age. It makes me want to throw a brick at the TV every time I see a Chevy ad bragging about how they top all the JD Power reliability surveys.

 

quote: 'along with elon musks botched plans to take tesla private' tell you everything you need to know about the source

 

Toyota's especially the Prius are extremely reliable cars, I could see it everywhere and also saw it on truedelta. I also saw the Teslas at the bottom of truedelta reliability, and I bought one knowing it.

Teslas are more about feelings than being rational

 

or emissions and renewables

 

The source may have a deficient understanding of Musk's objectives and strategy, that doesn't mean the data presented is invalid.

 

the data is simply owners opinions, based on a myriad of car features like infotainment

 

maybe CBS feels good about passing the story on because their stock is so deep into the toilet.

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Consumer Reports ratings are based on opinions rather than the number of reported problems? That is not how I understood their articles when I was a subscriber to the magazine. If what you say is true, I would have thought Tesla would have scored higher, based on your statement that their owners love them (which I don't deny).

 

how would they find out the number of reported problems?

 

Consumer Reports' Car Reliability FAQ - Consumer Reports

They are claiming it is based on owners surveys, the accuracy of which I'd never really questioned. Certainly owners could have selective memory when it comes to listing the problems they've had with their car, based on whether they had a favorable overall impression of the car or not, but that should still have allowed Tesla to score higher, since people like those cars as much as they do.

 

But most owners rave about their rides, so it can't be most owners, can it?
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I think the Prius has gone down to Toyota's average. Which is still good

That could be said about any new car purchase.

The reported problems come from the owners, and what they call a problem may not actually be one. Ford's rating went down because of Sync when they first implemented it. The system was working, but because they botched the interface, people reported as a problem. The same may have happened for transmissions that the owner deemed to be shifting too hard, but was within spec.

Another issue with CR's problem ratings is that it treats all problems the same. The sun visor falling off isn't the same level of issue as randomly stalling.

We don't know what all the problems are for the Teslas. There could be a bunch of noise complaints. Well, BEVs are quieter to begin with, so sounds a person never noticed while in their ICE car, become noticable in the BEV.

With all that said, has Tesla dropped from the top spot on CR's satisfaction survey?

 

I would say that there a 2 groups that rave about their rides: young men and retired old codgers who frequent boards like this. I don't think they would form a majority of owners for most car brands.

 

i would simply say that owners surveys are unreliable. perhaps more so than their cars. i do not doubt toyota's reliability. but i do believe cr's method of analysis is lacking.

to me, reliability means 'does my car get me where i want to go, or does it break down'?
all cars break down, but there are varying mileages, maintenance and etc.
i would just take it with a grain of salt.
from what i have read, tesla has had teething issues, but also continues to improve and is highly reliable.
where that puts it against other manufacturers is debatable.

 

I'm no longer a subscriber, so I don't know for sure, but I would suspect they haven't dropped in that survey. Does anyone else have that information?

 

I think a lot of it might have to do with expectations vs reality.
I really like my Model 3. Several things exceeded my expectations.
But there are many little, fixable things, mostly with the user interface that they should have gotten more right to start with.
The version 9 update I got a week ago fixed several of my complaints.

Another common complaint is about using a bluetooth phone as the key. Not as reliable as a fob.
The key card always works, but you have to take it out and tap it.

But the basic charging, driving. MPGe and ride are great -- I don't see or hear anyone complaining about that.

Mike

 

Not to defend Tesla or Chrysler, but I like Chrysler mini-vans, and CR has done more to try to kill them with bad reliability ratings over the years. I have had a few problems but not too much issue. The depreciation on paper saves me tons of car tax in Virginia, at least.

 

No, I bought the Prius to lower my gas consumption, but it was boring to drive, so I bought a motorcycle. The Tesla is fun as hell so I sold my motorcycle