8 ms·

For what it's worth, I have an almost identical experience. Build quality is not good, and every service-center visit leaves you feeling like they are stuffing

For what it's worth, I have an almost identical experience. Build quality is not good, and every service-center visit leaves you feeling like they are stuffing the service centers with way more issues than the people there can handle. Even with all this, the drive feel of my MS is insane and the screen/app are lightyears ahead. I honestly enjoy driving again, even pre-pandemic with crazy traffic. Their offering is so good it outweighs the crappy support. If some other car company would step up to the plate and try to complete with similar tech but offering higher reliability, I would go for a test drive immediately. Side-note: service at Tesla used to be golden. When they first started, they all knew they were pricy cars and everyone expected some growing pains leading to QC issues. It was great - they would loan you a top-model performance tesla while your car was in the shop (great up-sell!!!), they were doing far more of their "mobile service" (super handy, they drive to you and fix the car where you are), and you would get one agent that called you almost daily with an update. As they have expanded more towards mass market they have gone the way of google - trying to automate humans out of the loop. It's basically a miracle to talk to a human at a service center now, everything is "schedule it in-app where you get 200 characters to explain your issue, we send over an estimate, you can't call to discuss it either approve or don't, drop your car, use our SMS platform for 100% of communications because email might "violate your privacy" (read: leave a data trail), handle the fact that different agents get your SMS at different times and some have no idea what the history is, handle that agents now "have to reply to all messages before they leave" and you're getting hurried "here's my panicked update" messages at 11:30 at night. I personally feel they missed an opportunity to offer "luxury service lanes" for folks buying the luxury line when they went mass market.

amatecha 6y ago
Dang, this sounds like taking literally everything I hate about "the future", and doubling down on it. I just had a bad experience with a dealership where I thought my thorough explanation (including error codes) was sufficient to narrow down the issue, but they completely ignored anything I said and did their own thing, which ended up solving exactly nothing. I ended up getting the diagnostic fee waived and have now taken the vehicle to an independent shop, where I can speak 1:1 to the owner and actually have my input listened to and respected.
- hamiltont 6y ago
  Ha ha I totally feel that. Especially for a high-ticket item, give me a human to talk to!! I can't stand it when support is crippled by "policy" - half the time I think they can't either.
  - toss1 6y ago
    Seems that these sorts of "policies" & practices strongly contradict Musk's semi-famous directives about crossing company boundaries to get things done, not respecting the chain of command [0,1] This forces everyone into the same malfunctioning funnel, and it doesn't appear to work for the employees either. Tons of respect for Musk's accomplishments, but I hope it doesn't go the way of Google which is famous for nonexistent customer support... [0] "Anyone at Tesla can and should email/talk to anyone else according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company. You can talk to your manager's manager without his permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else's permission. Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens. " [1] https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-email-from-elon-musk-to-tesla-employees-descr.html https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-email-from-elon-musk-...
- zdragnar 6y ago
  Speaking of hating the future, the all-digital, gigantic touchscreen interfaces terrify me. I have a 2011 F150 lariat trim truck, and it is not only swanky on the inside, but isn't phased at all by hauling timber, logs or back woods dirt trails that smaller vehicles get stuck in. One of my favorite features, though, is that there is NO touchscreen. Every control is a physical button or knob, and I can use any of them from touch and muscle memory alone. I fully expect the truck to survive another 200k miles or so, but dread the day I have to get something newer.
  - mind-blight 6y ago
    This is why I love Subaru. Their new cars have a touch screen, but it's mainly for display and advanced settings. Every important control (audio, lights, climate control, etc.) is analog
rk1987 6y ago
My experience with service center has been exactly the same.
tallanvor 6y ago
I rented a BMW (not a luxury model, the cheapest automatic available from Sixt in Denmark), and the experience was much better than any car I've driven before. The touch screen worked fine, and having a big map on the center console and a small map on the panel behind the steering wheel was really impressive to me. Adaptive cruise control, lane assist, and proximity warnings made driving much less stressful than it used to be. But I also have owned a car in 12 years, have only rented 4 cars in that time, and borrowed a parent's car occasionally when visiting them, so I don't really know if BMW's work is really ahead of many others or if they're more standard features you see in all cars.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  How much of that BMW will still be working after five years?
  - adpcm 6y ago
    Everything. Why do you think it would not?
    - keeganpoppen 6y ago
      from what i understand they are somewhat notorious for being fickle / needing lots of maintenance. which is certainly the experience my father has had with his, haha. still loves it, though.
      - llampx 6y ago
        BMWs have taken a big leap forward in reliability since the E36 and E46.
  - Unklejoe 6y ago
    Personal anecdote: I'm still driving the 2011 BMW 335i that I bought in 2014. It now has 265,000+ miles. The key with owning a BMW is to do all of the maintenance yourself. That brings the cost of ownership back down to planet Earth. I've replaced the water pump twice, high pressure fuel pump once, and the radiator. Plus a few odds and ends. If I had paid the dealer for this work, I'd be totally in the hole. One thing I will give BMW is that they know how to design a chassis. The car has all of the original suspension components and the steering is still as tight as the day I got it. No clunking, no rattles, no bouncing, etc.
soyiuz 6y ago
> If some other car company would step up to the plate and try to complete with similar tech but offering higher reliability, I would go for a test drive immediately. VW's commitment to the electric market with ID3 and ID4 is a big deal, given that the success of their Golf/Touareg platforms. VW/Audi fit and finish are second to none, along with their size and ability to compete at the entry-level price point.
- kazen44 6y ago
  Also, something like a renault zoe is selling like hot cakes because it is a relative cheap and small car. Also, it's a really simple car aswell (which is great in my opinion).
- hamiltont 6y ago
  thanks for the pointer

amatecha 6y ago

Dang, this sounds like taking literally everything I hate about "the future", and doubling down on it. I just had a bad experience with a dealership where I thought my thorough explanation (including error codes) was sufficient to narrow down the issue, but they completely ignored anything I said and did their own thing, which ended up solving exactly nothing. I ended up getting the diagnostic fee waived and have now taken the vehicle to an independent shop, where I can speak 1:1 to the owner and actually have my input listened to and respected.

hamiltont 6y ago
Ha ha I totally feel that. Especially for a high-ticket item, give me a human to talk to!! I can't stand it when support is crippled by "policy" - half the time I think they can't either.
- toss1 6y ago
  Seems that these sorts of "policies" & practices strongly contradict Musk's semi-famous directives about crossing company boundaries to get things done, not respecting the chain of command [0,1] This forces everyone into the same malfunctioning funnel, and it doesn't appear to work for the employees either. Tons of respect for Musk's accomplishments, but I hope it doesn't go the way of Google which is famous for nonexistent customer support... [0] "Anyone at Tesla can and should email/talk to anyone else according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company. You can talk to your manager's manager without his permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else's permission. Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens. " [1] https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-email-from-elon-musk-to-tesla-employees-descr.html https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/this-email-from-elon-musk-...
zdragnar 6y ago
Speaking of hating the future, the all-digital, gigantic touchscreen interfaces terrify me. I have a 2011 F150 lariat trim truck, and it is not only swanky on the inside, but isn't phased at all by hauling timber, logs or back woods dirt trails that smaller vehicles get stuck in. One of my favorite features, though, is that there is NO touchscreen. Every control is a physical button or knob, and I can use any of them from touch and muscle memory alone. I fully expect the truck to survive another 200k miles or so, but dread the day I have to get something newer.
- mind-blight 6y ago
  This is why I love Subaru. Their new cars have a touch screen, but it's mainly for display and advanced settings. Every important control (audio, lights, climate control, etc.) is analog

rk1987 6y ago

My experience with service center has been exactly the same.

tallanvor 6y ago

I rented a BMW (not a luxury model, the cheapest automatic available from Sixt in Denmark), and the experience was much better than any car I've driven before. The touch screen worked fine, and having a big map on the center console and a small map on the panel behind the steering wheel was really impressive to me. Adaptive cruise control, lane assist, and proximity warnings made driving much less stressful than it used to be. But I also have owned a car in 12 years, have only rented 4 cars in that time, and borrowed a parent's car occasionally when visiting them, so I don't really know if BMW's work is really ahead of many others or if they're more standard features you see in all cars.

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
How much of that BMW will still be working after five years?
- adpcm 6y ago
  Everything. Why do you think it would not?
  - keeganpoppen 6y ago
    from what i understand they are somewhat notorious for being fickle / needing lots of maintenance. which is certainly the experience my father has had with his, haha. still loves it, though.
    - llampx 6y ago
      BMWs have taken a big leap forward in reliability since the E36 and E46.
- Unklejoe 6y ago
  Personal anecdote: I'm still driving the 2011 BMW 335i that I bought in 2014. It now has 265,000+ miles. The key with owning a BMW is to do all of the maintenance yourself. That brings the cost of ownership back down to planet Earth. I've replaced the water pump twice, high pressure fuel pump once, and the radiator. Plus a few odds and ends. If I had paid the dealer for this work, I'd be totally in the hole. One thing I will give BMW is that they know how to design a chassis. The car has all of the original suspension components and the steering is still as tight as the day I got it. No clunking, no rattles, no bouncing, etc.

soyiuz 6y ago

> If some other car company would step up to the plate and try to complete with similar tech but offering higher reliability, I would go for a test drive immediately. VW's commitment to the electric market with ID3 and ID4 is a big deal, given that the success of their Golf/Touareg platforms. VW/Audi fit and finish are second to none, along with their size and ability to compete at the entry-level price point.

kazen44 6y ago
Also, something like a renault zoe is selling like hot cakes because it is a relative cheap and small car. Also, it's a really simple car aswell (which is great in my opinion).
hamiltont 6y ago
thanks for the pointer