4 ms·

How can a car have "quite bad" build quality and yet be "the BEST car you have ever driven"? Have you not driven any other cars?

kevmo 6y ago
My 98 Pontiac Bonneville drives better than a Model 3.
- fhe 6y ago
  Just curious: could you define better?
ReverseCold 6y ago
Just because it’s electric (feels really nice to drive), the range is good, and there’s a lot of storage space. Also, some other cars at the same price range have weird feature omissions like no rear seat-warmers or no automatic wipers, etc. But yes it’s clearly not as well put together as other cars. I don’t see how these are mutually exclusive.
- tobyhinloopen 6y ago
  What about a Volvo S60? I think the S60 is much nicer than a Model 3, and it’s similarly priced depending on what country you’re in
strawberrypuree 6y ago
Build quality is not the be-all, end-all of measurements in deciding the “best” car. This is a really common viewpoint among Tesla owners. We have our gripes, but those gripes are overshadowed by other things like the infotainment, acceleration, software, etc.
- enraged_camel 6y ago
  I mean we're talking about a car that literally has the risk of its roof blowing off. How can that NOT be the end-all-be-all?
  - nightfly 6y ago
    Model 3 != Model Y And other cars have had worse defects, (SUV rollovers, wiring fires, etc)
- spaceisballer 6y ago
  Also matters what build quality people are referring to. I know there have been plenty of people complaining online. Now a roof flies off of a Model Y and that’s terrible. But I’m not sure why all the other recalls don’t get as much coverage and this Model Y. I mean Volvo just had a recall for the Polestar for a problem that would cause total power loss. I understand Tesla is the hotness to hate and love.
jayd16 6y ago
You just take it to the dealer under warranty and sort out enough of the problems, I assume.
gambiting 6y ago
I mean, I used to have a Mercedes AMG before my current one, and it was simultaniously the worst and the best car I have ever owned. The worst because it was uncomfortable and built like a horse cart, everything in this brand new, very expensive mercedes creaked, rattled and squeaked. I've been back to the garage so many times for "minor" fixes just to make the car usable I nearly ended up hating it after the first year, then kind of ended up learning to live it and started enjoying it more. Which brings me to the other side - I loved the way it drove, it was like the extension of my mind and my body, it was like glued to the road and like a rocket if you wanted it to be. So yeah, I totally 100% get how you can simultaneously love and hate a car, especially if it's an expensive one.
- henrikschroder 6y ago
  Out of curiosity, a Mercedes AMG... what? C? E? G? SL? S?
  - gambiting 6y ago
    GLA45. Which yes, is nothing more than a fancy A class, so some excuses I've heard were "well, it's a 'cheap' AMG, what were you expecting". I don't know what was I expecting, maybe only that a £55k car won't have crappy plastics everywhere that creak every time you go over any bump. Having said that - I've spent enough time on AMG forums to know that the same problem exists even if you buy a C63 or E63, the build quality of the interior just isn't great(while the mechanical engineering arguably is, those cars are very reliable when it comes to the actual mechanical bits)
    - henrikschroder 6y ago
      Well, it is a cheap AMG... :-P But yeah, that's a weird segment that car is in. It's expensive, because the engine is expensive, but at the same time you're getting the exact same interior and fit-and-finish as the non-AMG versions of that class, which means an AMG S-class is very nice, while an AMG A-class is just not very nice at all. So yeah, your experience sounds exactly like what I would expect out of that specific model, and by just looking at the price tag, it's not very intuitive that that's what you're gonna get.
spaceisballer 6y ago
I guess people talk about build quality but my two year old Model 3 hasn’t had any issues. I will only buy electric cars from this point on after having the Model 3. How quick it is and I also happen to love the touchscreen and UI. Also no oil changes is fantastic. I’ve only rotated tires. My Audi maintenance costs just kept rising and rising. It’s odd people compare the Model 3 to a wide range of cars when it seems more apt to compare it to ICE cars like Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series. I think it’s superior to those cars, I don’t miss the amount of buttons they all have (buttons I personally never use). And I feel like all car interiors have started to get very cheap.

kevmo 6y ago

My 98 Pontiac Bonneville drives better than a Model 3.

fhe 6y ago
Just curious: could you define better?

ReverseCold 6y ago

Just because it’s electric (feels really nice to drive), the range is good, and there’s a lot of storage space. Also, some other cars at the same price range have weird feature omissions like no rear seat-warmers or no automatic wipers, etc. But yes it’s clearly not as well put together as other cars. I don’t see how these are mutually exclusive.

tobyhinloopen 6y ago
What about a Volvo S60? I think the S60 is much nicer than a Model 3, and it’s similarly priced depending on what country you’re in

strawberrypuree 6y ago

Build quality is not the be-all, end-all of measurements in deciding the “best” car. This is a really common viewpoint among Tesla owners. We have our gripes, but those gripes are overshadowed by other things like the infotainment, acceleration, software, etc.

enraged_camel 6y ago
I mean we're talking about a car that literally has the risk of its roof blowing off. How can that NOT be the end-all-be-all?
- nightfly 6y ago
  Model 3 != Model Y And other cars have had worse defects, (SUV rollovers, wiring fires, etc)
spaceisballer 6y ago
Also matters what build quality people are referring to. I know there have been plenty of people complaining online. Now a roof flies off of a Model Y and that’s terrible. But I’m not sure why all the other recalls don’t get as much coverage and this Model Y. I mean Volvo just had a recall for the Polestar for a problem that would cause total power loss. I understand Tesla is the hotness to hate and love.

jayd16 6y ago

You just take it to the dealer under warranty and sort out enough of the problems, I assume.

gambiting 6y ago

I mean, I used to have a Mercedes AMG before my current one, and it was simultaniously the worst and the best car I have ever owned. The worst because it was uncomfortable and built like a horse cart, everything in this brand new, very expensive mercedes creaked, rattled and squeaked. I've been back to the garage so many times for "minor" fixes just to make the car usable I nearly ended up hating it after the first year, then kind of ended up learning to live it and started enjoying it more. Which brings me to the other side - I loved the way it drove, it was like the extension of my mind and my body, it was like glued to the road and like a rocket if you wanted it to be. So yeah, I totally 100% get how you can simultaneously love and hate a car, especially if it's an expensive one.

henrikschroder 6y ago
Out of curiosity, a Mercedes AMG... what? C? E? G? SL? S?
- gambiting 6y ago
  GLA45. Which yes, is nothing more than a fancy A class, so some excuses I've heard were "well, it's a 'cheap' AMG, what were you expecting". I don't know what was I expecting, maybe only that a £55k car won't have crappy plastics everywhere that creak every time you go over any bump. Having said that - I've spent enough time on AMG forums to know that the same problem exists even if you buy a C63 or E63, the build quality of the interior just isn't great(while the mechanical engineering arguably is, those cars are very reliable when it comes to the actual mechanical bits)
  - henrikschroder 6y ago
    Well, it is a cheap AMG... :-P But yeah, that's a weird segment that car is in. It's expensive, because the engine is expensive, but at the same time you're getting the exact same interior and fit-and-finish as the non-AMG versions of that class, which means an AMG S-class is very nice, while an AMG A-class is just not very nice at all. So yeah, your experience sounds exactly like what I would expect out of that specific model, and by just looking at the price tag, it's not very intuitive that that's what you're gonna get.

spaceisballer 6y ago

I guess people talk about build quality but my two year old Model 3 hasn’t had any issues. I will only buy electric cars from this point on after having the Model 3. How quick it is and I also happen to love the touchscreen and UI. Also no oil changes is fantastic. I’ve only rotated tires. My Audi maintenance costs just kept rising and rising. It’s odd people compare the Model 3 to a wide range of cars when it seems more apt to compare it to ICE cars like Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series. I think it’s superior to those cars, I don’t miss the amount of buttons they all have (buttons I personally never use). And I feel like all car interiors have started to get very cheap.