Things that I can attest to (for HN folks who may be considering a Tesla):

1. Model Xs always have problems. The gull wing doors often have issues. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is bringing the rating of the entire brand down.

2. The first 6 months or so of production of any new model (not refreshed, just new) has been super sketchy. Tesla does not do this well. That said, they seem to clean it up relatively quickly, but imho it never should have happened in the first place.

3. Once they get past the initial production hiccups of a model, they seem to be very consistent. I had heard stories of Model Ys having build issues, so I accepted mine at the showroom rather than having it delivered. I had an 80-point or so build quality checklist that I told them I wanted to review. They said that they hadn’t seen build quality issues in “a long time” (this was in 2021, over a year after model y release), but they were fine with it. I found no issues. I think that this is fairly standard. Do they have Mercedes level of build quality? No. Do these flaws happen often enough that one should expect it in their new Tesla? Also no. I think that this is really overblown except for newly released models.

4. Regarding any sort of media/publication (perhaps not Consumer Reports, but I’m not sure), they know that they can get clicks/sales by bashing on Tesla, so I think that they often create sub-optimal testing conditions in order to guarantee a negative aspect of the review. As a simple example, I lost a lot of respect for top gear when they went on and on about how teslas aren’t good for race track driving due to the time a full charge lasts on a race track versus the time it takes to charge it to full. It was labored and disingenuous. Stock Teslas aren’t optimized for racing. Additionally, they could have charged up to 50-60% in a few minutes very easily. It really just took away from what could have been a much more interesting review if they had been more flexible (e.g., charging to a lower state of charge more often, like most owners do). All that said, there are some legitimate complaints to make, like some of the ones I mentioned above, but most of the click-bait pieces don’t really seem to hit the mark.

My suggestion to people is to take a test drive (at a minimum) before judging teslas. A lot of the negativity is overblown and/or misplaced, imho. The only way to know for sure is to see it for yourself.