21–30 of 231 posts
I drove a rental Tesla recently. We were parked in a long line waiting to board a ferry and I was playing chess on the main console. When the line started to move, I tried to too and car just wouldn't go or start. People stuck behind me started getting impatient and honking while I was trying to figure out what had happened, turning off and on again, pressing random buttons, accidentally popping the trunk, etc. It to…
This survey is incredibly suspect ... as the author themself states, there's an inherent bias for non-american brands. I find it surprising the FCA and GM cars are topping the list, while being notoriously unreliable in the car community. Also worth noting that both Toyota and Ford have been ranked as worse than industry average. I'm not saying that Tesla(s) don't have quality issues, but this survey seems pretty mea…
>The J.D. Power US Initial Quality Study, which gauges problems encountered in the first three months of ownership. A very questionable definition of "reliability".
JD Powers get maligned a lot, but they're an industry tool used by manufacturers to measure themselves against others. The survey has incentives to be accurate.
The Initial Quality Survey is basically a measure of how happy a customer is with their new car. I think a luxury brand like Tesla does especially badly because customers are already aware of (and sensitive to) potential issues with paint, body panel alignment & scuffing whereas mainstream brands' customers may not be scrutinizing their cars as much
Warning: anecdote. My boomer parents have a Tesla and complain constantly about its reliability. However, often this is a consequence of their own disinclination to the more "techy" interfaces that Tesla favors. There are several cases where what they see as the car's failures might be seen, by Tesla say, as user error. There's a good lesson about design and demographics there. If you're selling expensive cars in the…
>The J.D. Power US Initial Quality Study, which gauges problems encountered in the first three months of ownership. A very questionable definition of "reliability".
I don't doubt that Tesla's are less reliable by other definitions, but I agree that this isn't a great measure. Tesla's have lots of new and untested technology. That's their appeal. If toyota wanted to be less conservative and start using blazing new technologies in their cars, I'm sure we'd see the same issues there. Teslas are notorious for software bugs that eventually get fixed. What i'm more interested in is wh…
The Toyota Prius was the first mass produced hybrid vehicle and is notoriously reliable.
>The J.D. Power US Initial Quality Study, which gauges problems encountered in the first three months of ownership. A very questionable definition of "reliability".
I don't doubt that Tesla's are less reliable by other definitions, but I agree that this isn't a great measure. Tesla's have lots of new and untested technology. That's their appeal. If toyota wanted to be less conservative and start using blazing new technologies in their cars, I'm sure we'd see the same issues there. Teslas are notorious for software bugs that eventually get fixed. What i'm more interested in is wh…
>The J.D. Power US Initial Quality Study, which gauges problems encountered in the first three months of ownership. A very questionable definition of "reliability".
I don't doubt that Tesla's are less reliable by other definitions, but I agree that this isn't a great measure. Tesla's have lots of new and untested technology. That's their appeal. If toyota wanted to be less conservative and start using blazing new technologies in their cars, I'm sure we'd see the same issues there. Teslas are notorious for software bugs that eventually get fixed. What i'm more interested in is wh…
If you look at their history of rewards[0], you'll find that many times they choose the big three american companies vehicles over clearly superior import vehicles. They're vehicles on the page show one vehicle from each of the three big automakers in the US, one Chevy, one Ford, and a Dodge. There's also a Volvo in there that I'm sure fought some battles in conference rooms to get there.
I nearly get triggered every time I heard about these awards in commercials. They are not to be trusted.
Audi and Volkswagen; Chevy, GMC, and Cadillac; Ford and Lincoln, etc are essentially the same vehicles. I suspect the more luxury you go, the higher the expectations you have for your vehicle. The interesting exception is Lexus and Toyota.
Anecdotally, I'm surprised to see Subaru with such high defects. I know a lot of friends with Subaru's and have only heard one bad thing - the seat springs wore out after several years of daily driving.
I drove a rental Tesla recently. We were parked in a long line waiting to board a ferry and I was playing chess on the main console. When the line started to move, I tried to too and car just wouldn't go or start. People stuck behind me started getting impatient and honking while I was trying to figure out what had happened, turning off and on again, pressing random buttons, accidentally popping the trunk, etc. It to…