Summary
A survey in the Netherlands revealed that 31% of Tesla owners are considering selling their cars due to Elon Musk’s controversial actions, including his involvement in politics and handling of misinformation on X (formerly Twitter).
About 40% feel embarrassed to own a Tesla, though 51% say Musk’s behavior doesn’t affect their view of the car.
Musk’s leadership of X has also driven users away, with 46% leaving or considering leaving the platform.
Parallel criticism of Mark Zuckerberg for removing fact-checking has fueled similar debates over tech leadership and misinformation.
I used to work on them (along with other cars) professionally.
Saw half a dozen Teslas get stuck in the parking lot during my two years there, usually picking someone up. The cars would just shut down and refuse to move. Sometimes they had to be towed.
The plastic trim and underbody panels are poorly made and poorly fitted. You will often notice edges cut off of them so they almost fit in place, but often the one on the underside of the back trunk will have a ripple to it.
The metal body panels are also bad. Uneven spacing between panels is common. Often a quarter panel will have a small gap (as it should) on one side of the car, but on the other side the panels are actually touching. Other times the gap will be uneven along a single seam.
Nearly everything on the car is held together by single-use plastic push-pins, or metal self-tapping screws into plastic and metal panels. If you are really lucky you will get a metal screw into a nylon backing. Where Toyota or Subaru would use a reusable screw or fastener, Tesla alway uses something cheaper and disposable.
We also commonly came across loose fittings on connectors on various wiring harnesses, which we could sometimes fix by just jamming the wire into the hole. Not really something we ever saw on other manufacturers.
I lived in Fremont for a few years, the site of one of their factories. My friends who worked there had so many stories of problems being noticed on the line, and being told to just move it along.
Maybe they do unusually bad work in Fremont, and the Teslas made elsewhere are better. I’ve mainly seen these issues on Models S, X, and 3, i left that job before the Cybertruck was available
Separate from all that, i personally think the touchpad display seems unsafe. All functions of the car to be performed or modified by the driver should be possible without looking. A touchpad requires you to look at it, whereas physical buttons can be felt before being pressed.
Consumer Reports gave the X and S 30/100 in reliability, among the lowest scores they gave in that category.
Well, good thing I have the Y, which apparently was “Best Electric Car of Year 2024” by Consumer Reports.
https://insideevs.com/news/710663/tesla-model-y-best-electric-car-consumer-reports/
TBF i never worked on a Y
On every 5th drive it randomly makes a hell of a rattle though at low speeds… sounds like something like gravel gets between the front tires or something. Also the boot hinges are somehow busted (requires manual closing to properly close), which the Mobile Service Tech is unable to fix.
So I can vouch for that lack of build quality for sure.