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Consumer Reports Calls Tesla Model S The Best Car Of 2014
- k-mcgrady 13y agoHere's a link to Consumer Reports article on it. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2014/04/top-picks-2014/index.htm http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2014/04/top-pick... Edit: They split it into categories a pick a winner in each and then somehow pick a 'best overall'. I like the Tesla but I don't understand how they can pick a 'best overall'. It doesn't seem like something that can easily quantified fairly. It's also worth noting the Tesla is over $30,000 more expensive than the most expensive winner out of the other categories.
- rll 13y agoIn the US, yes, but in some countries the Tesla is actually cheaper than the Audi (which is the car you are comparing it to there) because of tax breaks. See http://www.ibtimes.com/tesla-owners-norway-get-134000-tax-break-which-more-base-price-model-s-1507740 http://www.ibtimes.com/tesla-owners-norway-get-134000-tax-br...
- gutnor 13y agoConsumer Reports is targeted at people in the US too. Taxes in other countries means that cars get different engine, so for example in the past we used to get Audi with the power tweaked down in Belgium. Also Tesla is a lot more practical in Belgium (small dense country) than in Spain (where energy is expensive, there is no supercharger and your regular electricity contract is 15A (220V), so not enough to charge a Tesla properly in the average dwelling) There are so many factors, it is better for consumer magazine to focus on a single country.
- psaintla 13y agoDo people take anything consumer reports says seriously anymore? I was under the impression they started losing all credibility when they had a series of reviews where they ranked name brand products higher than their generic counterparts then it turned out the generic and name brand products were exactly the same (in some cases having come right from the same assembly lines) but with different badges.
- wtallis 13y agoHow does that discredit Consumer Reports? Customer service is a completely reasonable factor to include in product rankings. If you've got two products that are physically identical but one comes with a good warranty for a small premium, then the latter will be a better long-term investment unless the odds of failure are very small. (There's also the question of how long you can expect the no-name product to stay identical - they're more likely to cut corners without letting anyone know, whereas the name brands will usually at least tweak the model number included in the fine print.)
- Crito 13y agoNot that it was necessarily the case in the situation you are thinking of, but I believe that different brands often come off the same production line after QA is done. So a factory for Duracell AA batteries might simply rebrand the batteries that to not meet their QA bar as "off-brand" batteries. The slightly defected or substandard batteries could then be sold to the consumer for a much lower price than the Duracell branded batteries, without risking damage to Duracell's brand.
- larrys 13y agoI agree with that thought. In fact at times I have purchased OEM hard drives through the Apple store instead of on Amazon. My theory being that a manufacturer would (and this is important) be more likely to send their "A" production to Apple and do a better job of screening defects. Might not be important for a laptop bag but a mission critical part I'm willing to pay a few extra dollars. It's not a new concept in business that the better and more important customers [1] get better product and service. [1] Ever try to hire through a temp agency? You don't get the same crop of people that the big guys get who give them a lot of business.
- jotm 13y agoDoesn't really apply to HDDs or any other electronics manufactured in large numbers. They can't screen every item and they will try to use the best components in all of them. So you get the same DOA percentage from Apple branded HDDs and OEMs... And LG, for example, assembles worse monitors than their competitors, who are using the same panels LG sells them as an OEM...
- gagaga 13y agoAren't reviews on consumer products basically always going to be subjective?
- DanBC 13y agoThe friends and family test might be useful. "Would you recommend this product to your friends or family?" This test is used as an important indicator for healthcare. Improving this score is nationally important in England and all NHS providers have to try to ask all service users this question.
- jrells 13y agoA unique choice for "best overall" gets Consumer reports a lot of press coverage and traffic. There's probably not much meaning to "best overall" anyway, and its great for them to pick something flashy and new.
- samstave 13y ago"best overall"===Do Want.
- MBCook 13y agoI've lost respect for them since antenna-gate. They often rate Apple's phones the highest while writing articles about their horrible 'flaws'. It feels like two sides of the house aren't talking to each other. That said, the Model S is supposed to be very nice and is a cool advancement for the industry over 'yet another model year of Civic/Focus/whatever'.
- ericd 13y agoI would disagree - Consumer Reports is easily the most objective independent consumer product review organization that I've ever seen. It's not hypocritical to point out flaws in a product and chastise the company behind it for putting out spin while simultaneously viewing that product as excellent overall, despite its flaws. One of their big things is holding companies accountable and trying to promote truth in advertising and shame those that violate that trust, so if they see a company spinning as hard as Apple does, they're likely to call them out for it.
- 001sky 13y agoOdd, it's New Category this year, there was no "best overal" in the 2013 writeup... see, eg > http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2013/04/top-picks-2013/index.htm http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2013/04/top-pick...
- deletes 13y agoBut isn't the result at least somewhat biased, as the car is mostly sold to environmentally conscious consumers, who might knowingly or not ignore car's potential problems to promote the nature friendly aspect of it.
- keithwarren 13y agoI am not an environmentally conscious consumer and I am going to buy one when our current lease is up. I am a monetarily concious consumer who sees the value in a high quality car which maintains its value well, has good purchase incentives. I also have a family and have seen the amazing safety record the car has put together so far and I am a hacker on top of all of it and have been to a Tesla center and explored the Model S. It is a technical marvel imho. All of these things make me want one, not some green aspect.
- twoodfin 13y agoJust out of curiosity, would you be likely to buy one without the assorted tax incentives?
- keithwarren 13y agoYes, the federal is the only one that applies for me. My states has nothing in addition.
- alexeisadeski3 13y ago>I am a monetarily concious consumer who sees the value in a high quality car which maintains its value well... Wouldn't battery degradation bite into that?
- stcredzero 13y agoWouldn't battery degradation bite into that? Not nearly as much as for some other cars, as it's a modular part that can literally be swapped out in 90 seconds.
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- ck2 13y agoNow please make a $10k model so I can get one. Either that or I'll have to wait a decade for one with a depleted battery and rebuild the pack myself.
- kreek 13y agoNot a Telsa but my Chevy Volt lease payment after rebates etc. is less than my cable bill; plus I get carpool stickers which down here in SoCal are priceless. My first American car after many Japanese and one German, and it's the most solid of the lot.
- dmd 13y agoHow high is your cable bill? I don't see the Volt leasing for anything under $200. My cable bill is $80. What am I doing wrong, or what are you doing right?
- toomuchtodo 13y ago> after rebates etc.
- mncolinlee 13y agoI own a Nissan LEAF. A new Nissan LEAF only costs $199 per month to lease after the federal rebate. It's cheaper in some states. If you currently spend over $100 per month on gasoline and charge the LEAF offpeak, you could think of it as a less capable $10k Tesla after rebates and gas and maintenance savings.
- btian 13y agoBuy a motorcycle. 10k probably won't get you any new car, and certainly not a luxury sedan.
- laxatives 13y agoI went this route. I love my bike, but I'm probably paying a good bit of the difference on traffic tickets/lawyers and being boned by bad weather. The weather is probably a non issue in the Bay Area though. There's also that first accident thats probably in my near future to look forward to...
- goeric 13y agoTesla will reach $500 per share within 3 years, if not sooner. When Gen3 comes out, it'll basically be the iPhone of cars. Everybody will want one. The stock does seem a bit overvalued currently and I wouldn't be surprised to see some drops in the coming weeks. But regardless, $500 within 3 years. Mark my words.
- kudu 13y ago> Everybody will want one. How many people do you think can afford a ~$100k vehicle?
- josh-wrale 13y agoThe Gen. 3 is expected to be much cheaper than ~$100k.
- adamkittelson 13y agoThe Gen3 vehicle is supposed to be ~30-40k.
- catshirt 13y agothe argument when the iPhone was released was similar
- angersock 13y agoThey don't need to afford it to be dumb enough to sign on a loan for one. Tesla gets the sales revenue, and later the customer goes to collections. Everyone wins.
- SilasX 13y agoWow -- no matter what car is available over the next 10 months, it can't possibly be better than this one! Anyone else hate "year inflation"?
- MartinCron 13y agoThis is hardly a new thing with model years.
- MBCook 13y agoThat was the entire point of model years. They needed way to make people want to upgrade their 'old' car. So instead of making the Ford Focus for 10 years there is the 2013 Focus and the 2014 Focus and.... Now your Focus is only a 2012 Focus. You're behind.
- MartinCron 13y agoThe fact that the 2014 focus goes on sale in 2013 only serves to accelerate this. Not all vehicles are produced this way, some motorcycles are literally identical from model year to model year and get "blessed" with the year they happen to be sold.
- MBCook 13y agoThey basically make up updates to cars. Just little tiny tweaks to justify the new number. Fully new generations still only come every couple of years or so.
- adamkittelson 13y agoFWIW Tesla doesn't use model years. Technically the model year is encoded in the VIN but it flips over at the start of the calendar year and isn't associated with any particular changes to the vehicle. Tesla has been adding features as soon as they're ready since launch. (e.g. parking sensors, power folding mirrors, upgraded seats etc)
- larrys 13y agoI wondering how many people on HN own a Tesla? HN appears to have true love for any story surrounding Tesla.
- lutusp 13y ago> HN appears to have true love for any story surrounding Tesla. That might have more to do with the fact that the Tesla is largely software-driven than that it's relevant to HN's readers as Tesla owners. Also, it's a model for a future environmentally friendly car. I say it that way because driving a Tesla using present-day coal-generated electricity isn't a huge improvement from an environmental perspective, but a future power grid that's more reliant on wind, solar and nuclear, greatly changes an electric car's environmental impact.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoI think it's because its a revolutionary auto maker that iterates like a software startup. They innovate like we want to innovate.
- lutusp 13y agoYes, that sounds likely too.
- pkulak 13y agoProbably not many. But everyone who doesn't have one wants one!
- mikecarlton 13y agoSure, HN is full of early adopters, so why not cars? Here in silicon valley, you see them all over the place. We just picked up our second -- my wife got her 40kwh model last year. It's a big investment, but we've kept all of our cars 10 years (except for the Leaf's they replaced :)
- tlb 13y agoI've got nearly 20,000 miles on mine. One thing I just discovered is that the tires, 21" super-soft compound high-performance Michelins, only last 20,000 miles and cost $2900 to replace. This works out to $0.145 / mile, which is 3x more per mile than electricity costs me. And about what you would spend on gas for a 25 MPG car. I didn't really buy it for the savings, though.
- _stephan 13y agoCan't you now replace the tires with cheaper ones?
- woofyman 13y agoWhy buy a very expensive, high performance car and use cheap tires ?
- umsm 13y agoBecause electric cars tend to be high performance as a side-effect of the tech used. Personally, I am more interested in the car because of the gas savings. I won't buy the Tesla S to test it on the nurburgring.
- jevinskie 13y agoBecause the owner of the car was lamenting the price of replacement tires. Why would you not point out cheaper alternatives?
- run4_too 13y ago"High Performance" anything tends to mean doesn't last too long and more expensive when it breaks. I'm sure the 19" standard tires are a little better on both counts.
- dangrossman 13y agoBuying another set of high-cost low-life performance tires isn't a requirement of any Model S trims, is it? You could replace them with some ordinary all-season tires when the included ones wear out?
- bane 13y agothetruthaboutcars.com calls the 2014 Accord Hybrid the best car of 2013 if that matters. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/02/review-2014-honda-accord-hybrid-with-video/ http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/02/review-2014-honda-a...
- r00fus 13y agoImpressive. Still, reading the review and the comments, I'm still a bit concerned about a) the fact that it uses more of a series-hybrid approach to battery charging while b) having only a 1.3kwh battery. Ride and cabin noise are very important, but even the Accord doesn't have air suspension like the Tesla Model S or many Mercedes models.
- Shivetya 13y agoWell lets be real shall we, the Accord Hybrid plug in starts at 40k. It is priced within the reach of far many more households than the Tesla or Mercedes are. Then to top it off, I doubt the tax payers are ponying up 7500 dollars towards its purchase, so its a double win.
- r00fus 13y agoMy 2005 Prius has a 1.3kwh battery. A 2014 hybrid can do much better - not to mention the fact that it doesn't sound like it's aggressively managing battery life like my Prius does (which still gets 53 MPG highway).
- goggles99 13y agoWell how political...
- mrfusion 13y agoSo here's what's been bothering me about electric cars. The battery life. I'm lucky to get 2 or 3 years of battery life out of a laptop or iPhone battery. So it scares the bejezess out of me to have similar technology as half the value of my car. Can anyone re-assure me? Is there anything that lets car batteries last significantly longer than phone batteries?
- cma 13y agoTesla Roadster has been out long enough to see. One thing different is they have you always leave the car plugged in when not in use as much as possible so they can manage temperature. They also slow charge after ~80% which most phones won't do.
- aasarava 13y agoThe batteries come with long warranties. Even early Honda Civic Hybrid models from 2005 had 8 year warranties and a lawsuit extended that to 9-10 years. Prius batteries are, anecdotally at least, lasting even longer. I would imagine there's a very good warranty on the Tesla batteries, given their track record of standing behind their product.
- DEinspanjer 13y agoMost smartphone batteries have only a single cell in them. Laptop batteries vary more, but you could expect around 4 to 8 cells in many of them. The individual battery cell has a pretty hard limit on the number of times it can be cycled (i.e. discharged and recharged). Your typical AAA NiMH rechargeable has a lifetime rating of about 100 cycles I believe. If a battery pack has multiple cells, they can be connected to each other in parallel or in series (and any combination of the two choices). In series gives you more voltage (i.e. kick), in parallel gives you more amperage (i.e. duration). If the electronics hooked up to it are "smart" then any parallel sets of cells in the battery can be charged separately. This means that the laptop might drain parallel set A down to 30%, set B down to 50% and set C down to 90% leaving you at an overall percentage of roughly 56%. If you then hook the charger up, the laptop will charge the lowest set A first, then B, then finally C. If you stop charging before it gets to C then you've saved an entire charge cycle on that set which means it lives a little longer. So.. now on to the Tesla. It has 8640 individual cells wired into 16 parallel sets of 540 in-series cells. The car will selectively drain and charge each individual set to maximize the life of the battery. By default the car also does not charge the battery to 100%. The default is 80% which gives you a typical range of about 230 miles. That leaves more choice to the charger about which parallel sets to charge without reducing the life of sets that are nearly full by topping them off. If you are going on a long trip, you can put the car in "range charge" mode which will force it to top off to about 260 miles of rated range. The predictions based on modeling so far is that the battery should retain over 80% of its total capacity even after 8 years of typical use.