Featured Toyota Falls In Brand Loyalty Rankings After Customers Defect To Tesla

Oh man . . . . when it rains - it pours. Especially when Tesla has quality issues of its own. At least Toyota has multiple service centers in every state ... while Tesla's remain overcrowded and can take much longer to get into an appointment.
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Toyota had better step up its game. They need an EV. To heck with hydrogen fuel cells.

 

it's their own fault. they built the bridge, but failed to cross it themselves.

on the plus side, they make a bundle on gassers, and there's plenty of time to catch up.

 

Teslas have about two orders of magnitude fewer moving parts. The recurring maintenance is much lower than for a Toyota. For example, brake pads last a very much longer time.

Bob Wilson

 

You know that on hybrids, brake pads last a long time too, right?

On that note, Tesla has made a lot of questionable (at best) decisions. Motorized vents? No thanks, just one more thing to break.

 

Toyota isn’t hemorrhaging customers to Tesla, more like a slow bleed. According to the survey, 5%.
That said, I left Toyota because they had no plugin options, and I have seen no reason to go back yet.

I do find the recent Toyota commercials a bit ironic.
After years of putting down BEVs they are now touting that they have the “more electrified vehicles than any manufacturer”.
I got a good chuckle out of that one

 

Brake pads can last 5 years or longer on a hybrid. Reliability of Toyota cars isn't the problem. The problem is they are not building enough EVs. Or even PHEVs and hybrids to meet the demand.

 

As Tesla prices keep coming down the more I become intrested in owning one some day.

A Tesla would work for where I live and electricity is far cheaper. I don't like starting my Avalon and the wife always has to run back inside leaving the passenger door open and the cabing filling full of exhaust smell.

 

Tesla has let the expansion of their service centers lag behind the growth of car sales. In addition to the regions without easy service access, they existing service centers are experiencing back ups. The extended delays and wait times for those that do need service is increasing customer dissatisfaction.

 

Those are dealers who are independent of Toyota. Worse, the dealers are not good places for technicians to work. Go with an independent shop if you can.

Bob Wilson

 

Then I'm screwed. I go with the dealer (that's over 200 miles away) because here I've only had bad experiences with all the local shops. One installed the wrong bolts on the suspension causing them to fail at the strut to steering knuckle (kind of throws you for a loop when that comes apart, litterally). Another ruined the tires on the car. Another cut a brake line and we didn't know about it until we were in the car leaving the shop and ran into the rear of the car in front of us. Another took several hours and charged me hundreds and never fixed the problem, which I ended up fixing myself (brake light controller).

You can't trust an independent shop mechanic. You just can't. I like newer cars, but at the same time I feel doomed when it comes to getting them fixed. About the only place I've gotten some decent car work done is a dealership over 200 miles away. And when they did make a mistake, I didn't have to fight them to get them to make it right. They were very nice and apologetic about their mistake and did what they could to make things right.

 

As an owner, I don’t see this.

My wife’s Tesla was just in for some minor body work. Appointment was available within a week (car was drivable).
Brought it in Monday, picked it up Wednesday. 1 panel repaired, one replaced.

 

Likely Tesla is having trouble finding qualified help like everyone else

 

Personally if I were to buy an EV I'd go with a Chevy Bolt. Way cheaper than a Tesla, even the larger EUV, and while it's a bit of a budget car in features it seems pretty reliable and has a lot of range. Plus Chevy service centers are everywhere.

 

a lot of people are happy with their bolts, and they do seem reliable. a bit on the small side, but if that isn't a problem, they are a good deal if you can find one.
unfortunately, they are being discontinued.

 

If you do, hopefully it's this year.

Good bye Bolt! It was nice knowing you!

Also, I don't know how Chevy and Nissan compare, but when I had the Leaf the Nissan service centers around me didn't work on EV's and wouldn't even make another key for one

 

My understanding is the maximum charge rate for a Bolt is 50 kW which makes long distance travel ... a challenge.

Bob Wilson

 

But is some 100kw more worth nearly $20,000 more? If my car were abducted by aliens today (hopefully they let me go) I'd be very interested in buying a Bolt because it's about all I can afford. Teslas are great and all, but the price FOR ME is still too much. And last I checked, I gotta kinda be either purchasing the vehicle or leasing it in order to legally take it home and drive it. If I don't do that it doesn't matter how fast it charges.

 

My 2019 Tesla Model 3 Std Rng Plus has a peak charge rate of 178 kW and then follows a triangular slope down to 0 kW in about an hour. This means 15-25 minutes is all I've needed to reach the next SuperCharger. Ah HA! A calculus problem.

Assuming the Bolt is a level charge rate at 50 kW, we can compare the area under curve, the charged kWh:

NOTE: this is 'back of the envelope' as I don't have a Bolt to benchmark. I leave a more detailed analysis to those with more time and interest ... nit pickers.

So to reach 25 kWh about half charge, the Tesla does in less than 20 minutes while the Bolt takes 30 minutes or about 50% longer. On a long distance trip with multiple charging stops, the Bolt will fall further and further behind. For a 1,000 mile trip, my Tesla would need about six charging sessions. If the Bolt squeezed in six charging sessions, it would spend an extra hour charging, losing an hour on the road which would be about 70 miles short, 930 miles.

Bob Wilson