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It's been a little over three months with the Plaid so I figured I would give an update on the car. I really have a love/hate relationship with this car.
What I love about the car is what many people buy these cars for. The powertrain is awesome and charging at home is great even though I park it outside, I just run the cable under my garage door. I love the fact that when I pull up near my house the car automatically raises to go up into my driveway and when I leave it lowers itself down.
That is where the love ends. Here is what I hate:
The car is really a Monday/Friday car, here are the issues:
1. At the factory they installed a broken driver's door panel which I'm not sure how someone thought that was okay (i have seen one person on the Tesla forums where the factory only installed two of four screws holding the door panel on because the holes didn't line up, how does that even happen?). On the rear passenger door where the edge was all scraped up, I noticed when wiping the door jambs that there are a few dents in the inside of the door as if someone just kicked this door panel around upon installation.
2. The passenger camera on the front right fender was always loose from the factory but I never thought about it too much, just figured it was typical Tesla quality. Last weekend while washing my car it felt a little looser so as I wiggled it a little to see what was going on, if fell out into my hands and I notice the clip was broken.
3. While the car was originally very quiet inside, after about 3,500 miles now my car has a lot of squeaks, creaks and rattles to the point where my wife asks me why the car sounds like a clunker.
4. The Software:
The touchscreen is incredibly laggy and sometimes doesn't even turn on until after I am already driving.
My driver's memory seat stopped working after one of the software updates and two software updates later it still doesn't work.
The user interface for the radio and XM is terrible and you can't rewind XM like you could on all of my other previous cars.
The automatic climate control doesn't even make sense and I have no idea if it actually works. Sometimes it blows a lot of air where I turn it on manual and then when I put it back on auto it then doesn't blow much air at all. .
The auto high beams are the worst I've ever encountered. I flash my high beams so many times at oncoming drivers as well as when I am behind someone that one of these days someone is going to have road rage on me.
The auto windshield wipers are just as bad. They go into high speed mode sometimes when its barely raining so I have to put it in manual mode.
When anyone makes a call to me when I am in the car the other side gets an annoying echo and it's almost all of the time.
Auto Pilot - One of the worst implementations I have ever encountered. It tracks great but if you put too much pressure on the wheel it shuts off and if you need to change lanes it automatically shuts off. There is also no "resume" button when it shuts off so you have to reset it every time. So basically its only good if you want to stay directly behind the car in front of you. There is also some phantom braking that will scare the crap out of you but that has only happened twice to me.
Auto drive/reverse out of Park (i.e. instead of swiping up or down to put it in drive, the car learns your surroundings and tells you to tap the brake to put it in drive or reverse which is really nice) - 9 times out of 10 it is intelligent but every now and then if you aren't paying attention and you rely on it and you press the go pedal you are going to smash into a wall in front of you. It happened to me once and scared the crap out of me so now I am much more careful.
Active Noise Reduction - This feature is somewhat useless and actually creates more road noise than when it is off and I'm not the only one that has had this problem. The worst part is it defaults to "on" but only sometimes with no rhyme or reason and I have to manually turn it off..I only know that it is on when I get a lot of road noise and then I check and somehow it turned itself back on.
Then there is Tesla Service - After getting my door panel replaced two months ago because they installed it wrong from the factory, they didn't provide a new carbon fiber trim piece (which wasn't reusable as the clips broke on removal) or the rubber window seal (which isn't reusable). The mobile tech that replaced the door put in an order for those two things and in three instances when I was scheduled to get the trim replaced, on the day of scheduled service, they would send me a reschedule note and push it back another two weeks. As a result, what was originally a two week scheduled service turned out to be two months of looking at an unfinished door panel where the window rattles every time I close the door..
So today I finally go to my service appointment to take care of the door panel trim and rubber seal, the broken side camera, the non-working memory seat function and an annoying rattle in the back seat which many people have. The door panel worked out great and the one annoying rattle was fixed. Here is where it went south. When I went out to my car I check the camera and it is barely on again (thank god I checked when I was there). I had to get a guy to come out and he was able to get a long tool to put behind the fender to clip it in properly otherwise it would have fallen off sometime down the road. Also, I had to pay $150 for the camera that I didn't even break but I couldn't prove it either. If this was Lexus it would have been an easy warranty item and even if I did break it, they would have goodwilled it, no doubt about it.
Then there was the memory seat issue, I asked if they were able to fix that and he didn't know. The guy that fixed the camera went back to talk to the tech that worked on my car and he said he couldn't figure out the memory seat issue so he said wait until the next software update and maybe that would fix it. Luckily there was a new software update today that I downloaded but it didn't fix it, bummer. But here is the rub for me, were they even going to tell me that they couldn't fix it? Why did I have to ask about it and why is this something so hard to fix since it seems like a software issue? I put a post on the Tesla forum and haven't had a response as to whether anyone else has this issue so I feel like I am screwed now and it will never be fixed although I did set up another appointment for them to look at it.
So there you have it, the good, the bad and the ugly. As much as I like this car it is so frustrating to own sometimes. For a software company that builds cars, I feel their software kind of sucks even though everyone says how they are so far ahead of everyone. The user interface is terrible and between all of the cars I have had, I really feel that the BMW iDrive is the best and easiest to use.
Then there was the memory seat issue, I asked if they were able to fix that and he didn't know. The guy that fixed the camera went back to talk to the tech that worked on my car and he said he couldn't figure out the memory seat issue so he said wait until the next software update and maybe that would fix it
Damn man, I really feel for you. It's almost comical how they find this ok on a $100k plus product. Microsoft used to do this with their software, fixing major bugs as they popped up making customers their beta testers
I warned you that first year Teslas are scary to own. It was like this with the Model 3 in 2017 and the Model Y when it came out. Subsequent years were much much better. My 2019 had 1 issue in the first month and has been perfect since. I say just sell it. If you like it, get a 2nd year with better QA.
I warned you that first year Teslas are scary to own.
the S has been out 10 years. yes the plaid is new and has an interior refresh, but the software and cameras are the same across S's. it's just inexcusably bad.
i think tesla has no business selling cars $130K or more. if someome gave me a model S plaid, i'd sell it immediately.
I say just sell it. If you like it, get a 2nd year with better QA.
i think selling it is a good idea. i see no reason to expect a 2nd year model will have better QA, just because your 2019 model 3 worked out for you.
So now that you have experienced the glory of tesla how does your old LS600 stack up other than power/MPG?
Your report is exactly why I don't have much interest in EVs yet, I want Lexus quality with the Tesla powertrain and GM open access and modularity. Right now that just doesn't exist.
the S has been out 10 years. yes the plaid is new and has an interior refresh, but the software and cameras are the same across S's. it's just inexcusably bad.
i think tesla has no business selling cars $130K or more. if someome gave me a model S plaid, i'd sell it immediately.i think selling it is a good idea. i see no reason to expect a 2nd year model will have better QA, just because your 2019 model 3 worked out for you.
tesla QC sucks.
Uhhh no. The software is all new for the new Model S and on completely new hardware. It's been proven across all of the Tesla ranges that Tesla quality improves after year 1. Go look at Model 3 and Y ratings over time.
Just because you hate Tesla and literally criticize then at every turn, every thread at every opportunity, doesn't mean everything you say is true. People actually have good Model S out there.
Uhhh no. The software is all new for the new Model S and on completely new hardware. It's been proven across all of the Tesla ranges that Tesla quality improves after year 1. Go look at Model 3 and Y ratings over time.
Just because you hate Tesla and literally criticize then at every turn, every thread at every opportunity, doesn't mean everything you say is true. People actually have good Model S out there.
Tesla has been improving their manufacturing process, and I'm confident these quality issues will disappear. They have made leaps and bounds with Model 3 quality, some of the new S and X Plaid I've been seeing look stunning (I personally like how the X looks).
So now that you have experienced the glory of tesla how does your old LS600 stack up other than power/MPG?
Your report is exactly why I don't have much interest in EVs yet, I want Lexus quality with the Tesla powertrain and GM open access and modularity. Right now that just doesn't exist.
I loved my old LS600 but it was a completely different type of car. The power was so smooth in that thing and it had all the options of a true luxury car at that time and had the first LED lights which looked really cool, nice leather dashboard and the wood shift **** which was different from the 460. As you already know it wasn't an efficiency hybrid, it was a power hybrid so MPG on the highway really where the hybrids don't add anything was about what a 460 would get which was actually pretty good. You could drive around using the electric motors only as long as you were doing under 30 mph if I remember correctly and I thought that was so cool. Quality was ok but definitely had some small issues like the valve springs, brake actuator, seat TSB and glove box rattle.
I warned you that first year Teslas are scary to own. It was like this with the Model 3 in 2017 and the Model Y when it came out. Subsequent years were much much better. My 2019 had 1 issue in the first month and has been perfect since. I say just sell it. If you like it, get a 2nd year with better QA.
I'm still going to keep it a while and when I was at the service center I saw the new headlights and tailights and they looked much better so I could always upgrade to a newer one in a couple years. I'm just happy the door panel is finally fixed so I didn't have to look at an unfinished panel any longer. I just wish my memory seat worked. You probably think it is just set it and forget it but when I drop my kids off at school I move my seat up a good bit so they have room to get out and it was nice to hit one button while I'm driving off to get the seat where I like it vs. have to find the right spot every time.
I'm just shocked how such a high tech company can't get the little things right which should be in their wheelhouse. It's not a big deal but even my non-carperson wife says how the screen sucks when listening to radio/XM.
One thing I forgot to mention is the yoke which I still really like a lot but the lack of a stalk still sucks. I try to remember where the left and right buttons are since there is a raised line separating the two and I still look like a moron when I hit the wrong button.
Also, the turn signals aren't as smart as they should be (kind of like autopilot, auto high beams and auto wipers). They are smart when changing lanes since you hit the button and when you are done changing lanes, they will turn off by themselves. The problem is when you are moving in another lane to actually make a turn it still thinks you are just changing lanes and will turn off so you have to hit the turn signal twice, once to get in the turn lane and then again to make the turn because it turns off automatically since the car thinks you are only changing lanes. With most cars I have you the one touch turn signal to change lanes where it just blinks three times and fully push down or up to make an actual turn. There really is no need to change something to make things worse.
Well it's good to hear that you are getting things fixed. Tesla is suffering right now from the same problem Apple was when they released the iPhone 4...high demand and lack of ability to fill the supply fast enough. That's why Antena gate emerged. They kind of missed the fact that putting the antena where you hold the phone would block the signal, this was due to rushing the manufacturing process. The thing I dislike more than the quality issues is the trying to change things like removing stalks, changing to predictive shifting and or using the screen to shift just to say "hey, I'm different". But as other EV companies begin to fill in the void, Tesla will be forced to continue to improve.
Plaid is still among the fastest, cheapest hypercars that exists, and definitely the most efficient
Funny you mention predictive shifting. I just got back from the grocery store and there is a car parked 24 inches in front of me and the predictive shifting says to tap the brake to drive. I’m thinking how the heck does it not see the car parked right in front of me. I got a scare one time so now I am more aware. I think I just bought one of the dumb ones or something. Since the software is new I would expect it to get better.
03-26-22, 07:08 PM
