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Comment by ryzvonusef | Hacker News Reader

But this not the grapevine; iirc they generate results from (if not anonymous then atleast not publicly shared) replies to Consumer Reports subscriber survey.

So from the entire pool of CR subscriber base who agree to reply to their annual survey and who self-report to own Teslas, this group both overwhelmingly chooses to report significant number of car issues AND chooses to report great satisfaction?

What is up with this group of people?

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I think it's because people who buy a Tesla are fans of Tesla, so the well known reliability issues aren't a problem to them. They aren't buying a Tesla for practical reasons like affordability and reliability, they're buying a Tesla because they want to own a Tesla. It's the same as people who buy poorly made expensive designer clothes and accessories.

Helping move away from petro-powered transportation is a huge incentive for a lot of people. And it's not like Teslas are terrible or have a worse driving experience than other cars.

There is a reason that every single electric car made by anyone is sold far in advance, including non-Teslas where charging on road trips is still a sub par experience.

> Helping move away from petro-powered transportation is a huge incentive for a lot of people.

If somebody was serious about this as their primary motivator, they'd buy a much more reliable / affordable vehicle like the Bolt or Leaf.

satisfaction is subjective, reliability is more objective: "how many times have you needed to get this car serviced in the first N years?"

what's more, the cognitive biases that lead someone to convince themselves they're satisfied with their purchase apply whether speaking to friends or a formal survey

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