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Some friends bought a Model X about six months ago, spending over $100k — that’s down from the almost $150k that Tesla was demanding a couple years ago when we
by nixgeek 3y ago
Some friends bought a Model X about six months ago, spending over $100k — that’s down from the almost $150k that Tesla was demanding a couple years ago when we bought one (and both were fairly fully loaded).
First, my experience 2 years ago was the A/C compressor was so loud that during summer with cooling running at maximum, you couldn’t hold a conversation in the cabin because of the noise. Tesla investigated and eventually said “looks fine to us, there isn’t designed to be any additional noise abatement on the firewall between the front and the passenger space”. We had issues with our Falcon Wing doors, and we eventually sold the vehicle after a year.
Now, our friends Model X, that’s had ~6 non-trivial maintenance problems in six months, including the Falcon Wing doors failing three times, and they’re in the process of trying to get a refund through Lemon Laws.
Other acquaintances who own Teslas also have service issues on their Model X, the Cybertruck looks like an even worse mess, so I concluded over a span of multiple years, quality still isn’t a strong suit of Tesla, thus I’m not shocked to see there’s limited brand loyaly, and with increasingly viable competition, demand is falling?
I now have a Rivian R1S and we are incredibly happy with that vehicle, having put about 6000 miles on it. Mercedes EQS also seems like a reasonable choice in 2024, depending on what you want.
- ChumpGPT 3y agoYou're not buying quality when you buy Tesla, you're buying fashion. if you want quality buy a Toyota/Lexus.
- dragontamer 3y agoI'm a big fan of Toyota Prius Prime and RAV4 Prime. (High efficiency vehicles, Prius Prime is #1 most green car of ACEEE list, etc. etc.). But people buying Tesla aren't aligned to Toyota. But a better match to culture is likely Jeep Wrangler 4xe. Incredible offroading performance, reasonable towing capacity, large size / in-your-face advertising to some extent. And electrified, so that your daily commute is efficient and environmentally friendly. Etc. etc. There's a lot of competition these days. People who buy Toyota / Honda are people who care #1 about reliability and simplicity. But "Tesla Buyers" are more excited about niche features or feeling like their car can do something other cars cannot do (even if they never actually use that feature). And honestly, vehicles like Jeep Wrangler 4xe are best suited for that mindset. --------------- Or the new Dodge Charger EV. Now that Stellantis is making their EV push, I think Stellantis has better branding for what the stereotypical Tesla Buyer is going for... without the awfulness associated with Elon.
- macintux 3y agoI bought a new Wrangler last year, and I was sorely tempted by the 4xe, but Chrysler's track record with electronics is pretty poor. I'd lease one, but I don't think I'd buy one.
- LUmBULtERA 3y agoNaw, I and many people probably cross shopped Toyota's Prius Prime and Rav4 Prime with the Tesla Model Y. As of last fall and early this year, both models were barely to be found in Northern Virginia, and if you could find one within hours of where I live they were under huge dealership-fuckery with options and markups. When I finally was able to test drive a standard 2023 Prius, I decided its cargo space was way too small for what I was looking for. When test driving a Rav4 (not Prime) I decided its visibility (for me, maybe this is highly personal) was absolutely terrible compared to the Model Y. Model Y prices were VERY competitive compared to Rav4 Primes anyway, so that's what I went with. I've been very happy with it.
- themaninthedark 3y agoWe have EV sports cars, SUV, trucks and package vans but I have not seen an EV passenger van. I suppose they are out of fashion right now but honestly that is the form factor that I would be most interested in. I could use it for both home projects but also with the longer body it would have have a fairly decent range so wouldn't be bad for the family road trips. I don't like the idea of having to stop every 2 or 3 hours, 4 would be more ideal.
- dragontamer 3y agoChrysler Pacifica PHEV should be mostly electric on daily drives and then gasoline for the long trips. Honestly, passenger van / road trip vehicle makes the most sense in PHEV form factor out of all other styles IMO.
- cameldrv 3y agoYes on paper this looks like a great and very practical vehicle for many people, but boy am I hesitant to buy a Chrysler product with this amount of drivetrain complexity. You've got everything that can fail in a fairly high tech ICE drivetrain, plus everything that can fail in an EV drivetrain, made by the lowest reliability major automaker.
- nixgeek 3y agoI don’t think either had an EV option suiting my needs when we bought a Model X? Meaning able to seat 6-7 humans and ~300 miles of range in the battery pack? Do they even have a viable option today? (I’m unaware how the Lexus electrification is going.)
- zamalek 3y agoAs for Toyota, 6-7 humans, it's either hybrid or you're SOL. I think the GP might have been referring to ICE?
- NovemberWhiskey 3y agoForget Toyota/Lexus, that's a bit of a red herring - the point is that there was literally no competition for Tesla in three-row electric vehicles when you bought yours. Now, you have the choice of a Mercedes-Benz EQB or EQS, a Rivian R1S (as you chose) or a Kia EV9 with Lucid, Hyundai and VW all with products about to enter the market.
- leereeves 3y agoToyota Motor North America sold over 200k "electrified" vehicles in the first quarter 2024. Their sales alone could account for the unsold Teslas. https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-motor-north-america-reports-march-first-quarter-2024-u-s-sales/ https://pressroom.toyota.com/toyota-motor-north-america-repo... Those are mostly hybrids, but reportedly, U.S. sales of gas-electric hybrid vehicles surge and electric-vehicle sales cool https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-automakers-race-build-more-hybrids-ev-sales-slow-2024-03-15/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/us-aut...
- darthrupert 3y agoI got a Tesla (model Y) because I wanted an reasonably priced family EV with long range. It seemed to be the best choice, and so far I'm not disappointed. I'm not gonna get another Tesla, but not because I dislike the brand, rather because one buys so few cars in one's life that it's more interesting to get something else.
- smallmancontrov 3y agoYeah, and the twitter opinions are really stinking up the brand so depending on your social group you may want to look elsewhere. Maybe Elon can get conservatives to buy EVs to "own the libs." Godspeed on that, but so far it doesn't seem to be working.
- krunck 3y agoI can't wait until Toyota makes an all electric Yaris.
- Integrape 3y agoI hope they bring back the Matrix as an EV
- jredwards 3y agoI'm buying a budget EV with the model 3. I'm pretty happy with that.
- cameldrv 3y agoThe thing is, I'd say Rivian is considerably more fashionable at this point. The only problem with them is potentially going out of business.
- lavezzi 3y agoIt's not fashionable either by any stretch of the imagination.
- m463 3y agoI don't think that's true. I think tesla has the most features of any EV. They started off with a clean slate and have done quite well. Their EVs have had the best Coefficient of Drag, have had state-of-the-art batteries, and some amazing motors as far as efficiency and/or power. Unfortunately, they started cheaping out. No dashboard on the model 3 and too many functions on the touchscreen, like defrost. They've done this sort of thing with every iteration, and now the latest cars have no gearshift lever/stalk (car guesses which direction you want), there are no stalks for turn signal, wipers, flashing headlights, etc. the newest steering wheel moved many of these functions to touch areas on the wheel itself horn wipers. And the buttons move with the wheel, so you need to take that into account when you aren't going straight. what if you're on a curve and need to access wipers? The touchscreen is a mess. First, the moving touchscreen is incredibly hard to touch in a moving vehicle and there is nowhere to rest your hand while you attempt it. For example, turning on the defrost or fog lights. I sort of wish the NHTSA extended the rules requiring a dedicated emergency flasher button to more of these critical functions a good driver needs to access directly. The FAA and the military take this stuff seriously for aircraft. They investigate accidents, and if a confusing control is the cause, they follow up and make changes. If only the millions of drivers of cars had someone to get their back.
- MrMan 3y ago[dead]
- misiti3780 3y agoI have had the exact opposite experience w/ both of my cars, multiple friends have had the opposite experience also - what is your point?
- dzhiurgis 3y agoS and X are not their bread and butter. Look at how well LFP 3's and y's hold up.
- tooltalk 3y agoLFP is for base, low-range models; Panasonic's NCA for the mid/perf trims and the MY in the US. Tesla's QC problem is serious and still affects all EVs made in the US -- the batteries in these EVs have little to do with it.
- dzhiurgis 3y agoIt’s important to discern drivetrain problems vs trim imperfections. I know X/S are expensive, but buying Tesla you have to accept some of the interior and exterior will not be as MB, but you do get some other benefits. These issues have nothing to do with reliability/longevity.
- bigtunacan 3y agoOne of my coworkers bought a Model S. At first he was always going on about how amazing it was. Then within the first year he started having all kinds of problems with it. He's now in the middle of a lawsuit trying to get a refund on it.