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Comment by makomk | Hacker News Reader

Based on the reliability statistics that organizations like Consumer Reports have collected, the Model S isn't that reliable - lots of drivetrain issues, mechanical issues with stuff like door handles, etc. Its owners just don't mind them because they're really enthusiastic about Tesla.

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The consumer reports on my Cadillac weren't indicative either.

I'll give Tesla a pass on door handles because I've replaced them on my Cadillac 3 times. Also body panels jiggle, buttons stick, fluids leak, electrical problems, should I keep going? Is there any equivalence here?

It amazes me that we can put an SUV sized robot on Mars but Cadillac can't make a car the bumper doesn't fall off of.

To be fair, GM builds very few Mars rovers.

They've built some lunar rovers though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Roving_Vehicle

(Not that it proves anything, ask Harrison Schmitt about the fenders)

get a hyundai?

and get poor brakes and mediocre engines?

>It amazes me that we can put an SUV sized robot on Mars but Cadillac can't make a car the bumper doesn't fall off of.

You realize that your Escalade would cost millions of dollars if it were produced to the same standard as Curiosity, right? It really is amazing that we can put an SUV sized robot on Mars, but aside from approximate volume, Mars rovers really have nothing at all to do with consumer vehicles.

Hook, line and sinker. HN never misses an opportunity over analyze rhetorical device.

To be fair, he/she is not really over-analyzing. You just made a pretty blatant logical fallacy to argue your point. Comparing a GM to a rover designed for space is apples to oranges.

https://pchiusano.github.io/2014-10-11/defensive-writing.htm...

It was actually a reference to a Chris Rock bit.

Since we are all sharing our own localized subjective experiences of a single instance of vehicle ownership, I have a 2015 GMC Sierra 1500 and have been nothing but pleased.

Heh, and I own a car from one of the "most unreliable" brands, Fiat. Only issue so far has been that cruise control disabled itself once.

>should I keep going?

No, you shouldn't. We get it, your current car is a lemon and you consider the Tesla, a car which you don't even own but drove for one day, to be of superior quality.

What exactly are you arguing?

That's just not true. The Escalade gets a score 258% lower than the average.

That's abysmal. And from your story, it sounds like you could've done a lot worse than to pick up a subscription no?

Look, I'm not a CR fanboy. I only signed up to check out ratings on induction cooktops. Turns out, there doesn't appear to be any (they basically just rate the spec-sheet, no actual reviews AFAIK).

So this discussion is the first time I've used it it's been good for anything. While they may not be perfect, they buy a vehicle, test it, run surveys. I'm not aware of any recent scandals. You're going to have to try harder to discredit them since you're not actually offering an alternative.

The reliability reports seem to stem from them being the first year or two that the model s was being produced. There were a handful of big issues (the motor winding issue being the main one I can think of) and a handful of smaller ones, but at this point they seem to have worked out most of the kinks.

Time will tell tell if they have long term reliability.

I've had several friends who have owned and sold their Model S rather quickly (less than 2 years) because of problems they had with cold weather - they lived in North Dakota and Minnesota. One of my friends remarked, "It's like they didn't bother to test this in an even mildly cold region of the country."

Everything from greatly diminished range (which is already well documented) to the drivers screen not working, or working intermittently and other weird stuff my friends attributed to cold weather.

Mildly cold region of the country?

Not sure which parts of MN and ND your friend lives in, but north-central MN like Bemidji or Grand Forks, ND are actually some of the coldest parts of the country.

Nothing about that weather is mildly anything.

It still could be a reasonable comment. 30F is mildly cold. Mildly cold regions will sometimes be 30F. It's possible that these problems manifest at 30F.

ND and MN also sometimes reach -20F, but the problems may (or may not) require so much cold to reproduce.

It shouldn't be too much to ask for a Tesla to operate normally in -20F. This is a mass produced American luxury car in 2016, not a Lada.

I don't really know anything about the cold performance of Teslas, but I agree with you.

It's a really popular car in Norway and they know a thing or two about cold weather.

Eh, I mean sort of, but Oslo is no colder than Chicago and it's warmer than Buffalo, hell NYC's average lows are only 7-10 degrees warmer than Oslo. Calgary makes all of them look like a joke.

I only have anecdotal evidence; a friend who owns a Tesla. He said the fit and finish issues on his Tesla are real but that he plans to trade it for a newer model and his wife's Lexus will be replaced be a Tesla as well.

He's basing that on his perception that Tesla is working out the quality control issues. I'm not in the market for a Chevy or a Tesla - key switch recalls come to mind for one and fit, finish versus price for the other.