Tesla’s Biggest Hurdle Is NOT Full Self Driving
By: Lewis Gavin
Tags: Technology, Electric Car, Cars, Tech, Tesla

Tesla's Biggest Hurdle Is NOT Full Self Driving

Quality control and customer service leave a lot to be desired

Photo by Bram Van Oost on Unsplash

I’ve owned my Tesla Model 3 for about a year now and I’m going to start by saying it’s a fantastic car. As an all-round daily driver, it’s quick, quiet, comfortable and very cheap to run. With Tesla’s Supercharger network and plenty of other destination charging options, road trips are easy too. I’ve had a fairly decent experience with Tesla and would happily buy again.

However, if you’ve never bought a Tesla before then there are some things you should know before making your purchase. They’re not your traditional car company and with that, you get all of the aforementioned positives, but some negatives too.

Here are some things to keep in mind when making your decision to ensure you won’t be disappointed.

Tesla’s Quality Control Leaves A Lot to be Desired

If you should know anything before buying a Tesla, it’s that the quality of their cars can be hit and miss. They are a relatively young car manufacturer that’s rapidly producing cars to meet demand and this sometimes shows in their cars.

Now no manufacturer is free from imperfections on brand new vehicles (my previous A-Class Mercedes needed its gearbox “fixing” 3 times before it was right) but Tesla definitely seems to come off worst here. Most common issues I see reported on forums or the Tesla Subreddit are panel misalignment, paint chips or faulty Media Control Units (MCU).

Now, this isn’t to say that all of Tesla’s cars are riddled with these issues, just that you should be aware that these issues exist before you buy your car. My opinion is that buying a Tesla requires a different mindset in a number of ways.

Be accepting of the lifestyle change of driving electric. Understand that the car (both hardware and software) is frequently updated. New hardware features will be added in the future that you will miss out on and the software experience can and will change (mostly for the better). They are a young company that makes mistakes due to rushing to meet demand and grow.

Now I’m not defending Tesla in any way here, you shouldn’t have to deal with poor quality no matter how great the potential is. As a consumer, you should only expect the highest quality when spending a lot of money on a vehicle, but realistically right now you should make sure you understand the 3 points above.

When I received my car there was slight panel misalignment, a small chip and we found out once we started driving and went to turn the radio on that the sound was only coming out of one of the speakers. Within a few weeks, I had an appointment at a Tesla service centre where they fixed all of this, the speaker issue was that they just weren’t plugged in! Either no one had been in my car and tested the speakers or they had become unplugged in transit (I’m guessing the former).

When you pick up your car you should definitely check it for defects. If you can live with any minor cosmetic issues then before accepting delivery of your car, make someone from Tesla acknowledge the issues and book you in to have these issues fixed ASAP under warranty. If anything technical or more fundamental is broken you can and should refuse the vehicle. That leads me nicely onto the next point.

Tesla Customer Service Is Definitely Hit or Miss

Now I have to first say that all of the initial issues with the car were handled with no questions asked and the process was fairly straight forward. However, my slot was 9 am and I didn’t end up leaving until 2 pm and you can see in the app when the car is being worked on and they definitely didn't start working on it right away.

I don't blame the service centre engineers here, they were clearly very busy and obviously overbooked. In this situation, you’d expect for your car to be worked on in your time slot, or if it’s going to take most of the day then to receive a loaner. However, I was told the work wouldn't take long and that I could work inside the service centre whilst I waited and was only confidently given a “finish time” about 30 minutes before the car was returned.

Again, not a huge deal, I could work and had access to free coffee and snacks but the end to end process and communication from back-end staff to front-end clearly has some room for improvement.

I also didn’t have a great experience with Tesla customer support. When I had a third party home charger (Pod Point) installed, the unit wouldn't charge the car for longer than 15 minutes before cutting out and reporting an error. Pod Point’s customer service team looked at the logs which were showing that the cable was at fault. This was the CCS Type 2 cable I received with the car.

I called Tesla customer support and a case was created whilst they looked into it. I called back a week later and they had no reference to that case, the person taking the call assigned me a new case and escalated it and I never heard back from Tesla again regarding this issue.

Now luckily, the issue wasn't with the cable at all, I checked it using other chargers and it worked just fine and Pod Point eventually came and replaced my charging unit. However, my support case at Tesla was just left and ignored which isn’t a great sign.

Again, all of this isn’t to scare or put you off. I absolutely love my Model 3 and would buy one again. I’m just trying to temper your expectations so you are prepared if and when you buy a Tesla.

Battery Range Anxiety

It’s the question on everyone’s mind when buying electric and this problem isn’t unique to Tesla but I thought it was worth mentioning at the end.

As someone who owns a 2019 Model 3 Standard Range Plus (SR), I can tell you categorically that a battery-powered car is not an issue and there is almost always somewhere to charge your car on long trips. Just make sure you can conveniently charge the car at home as this is where 99% of your charging will take place.

If you do a lot of long-distance driving then buy the long-range version. If like me, you’re predominantly using your car for commuting and would rather spend the extra money on the Full Self Driving package, then get the SR+.

Apart from that, you shouldn't worry about the battery at all. You can charge the car overnight whilst you sleep so you’ve always got “a full tank” for the next day and some energy suppliers give you cheaper EV rates overnight so charging the car costs anywhere between £2 to £5!

For long trips use the inbuilt navigation and the car will automatically add charge stops to your trip where necessary. You’ll be surprised at how many hotels, supermarkets and attractions have chargers too (and the charging spaces are often right near the front so you can feel smug with your priority parking space ;) ).