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Comment by VirusNewbie | Hacker News Reader

My (2019) Tesla has been the most reliable car I've ever owned, but it sure seems like they're not interested in being a car company anymore.

Not having turn stalks and the drive selector, making me either pay for internet access or use bluetooth if I want to play spotify or youtube music (which I get for 'free' in cars with CarPlay or Android Auto), making the cybertruck way too big for a garage, discontinuing the model S and X...like are they even trying?

They used to have a third row option for the model Y, good for small kids or something, but then they got rid of that.

They were going to do the roadster, but didn't bother. They only have 6 paint colors, not even options for PTS. It's like they don't want to be a successful car company.

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That's an uncommon experience.

Tesla is a very strong leader for faults, breakage, and costly maintenance/repairs in the 3-5 year old segment.

See any European comprehensive car inspection statistics report.

Take the reports with a grain of salt. Tesla does not mandate maintenance. The cars in the reports are the ones who left factory and get checked after 3 years of intensive use without any maintenance. Check the light alignment, check rust in the brakes and check the suspension and the inspection will be fine. Still cheaper than 400-600€ bi-yearly coolant refill from other manufacturers. Plus Tesla has published repair manual which is very strong advantage for me. I am poor and maintain my cars by myself. Maybe I like it too.

> Still cheaper than 400-600€ bi-yearly coolant refill.

You are being scammed.

Still cheaper than 400-600€ bi-yearly coolant refill from other manufacturers

Wow, what car is that? Even Porsche owners would say, "Damn, son, they're taking you to the cleaners."

Mercedes does this yearly. It’s running gag from all the car influencers when they show the 800-1000€ service invoice of the EQS after first year. Imho it’s definitely a scam.

Teslas have too much play in bearings and steering column (from new) and unlike every other manufacture out there they refuse to follow the standards and says it is how it is supposed to be. This forces owners to pay to get a factory problem fixed with zero help from Tesla, otherwise their car will not pass inspections.

Also, it isn't normal for a 3-year-old car to risk dropping a wheel. You should read some more about this before you defend them.

EDIT: Here is a reddit thread about the problem (and an article in Norwegian):

>"Almost half of all Tesla Y fail mandatory tech inspection in Denmark and make headlines for it; similar numbers in Tesla-country Norway."

>"The most common issue remains slack in the wheel alignment and suspension, found in 22% of TMY's, as opposed to .1% of ID4's."

https://www.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1qmbm81/a...

> That's an uncommon experience.

The very first thing that Tesla was criticised for was terrible QA process. The quality was random and there were huge differences between factories. So I can totally believe there are plenty of Tesla made cars that made their owners happy. Of course few people can afford such gamble.

>That's an uncommon experience.

A big part Part of the reason tesla is considered less reliable is the number of recalls it gets, most of which are software related and fixed over the air.

In terms of maintenance, it is by far the lowest cost of ownership vehicle I've had, I'm in my 40s, not exactly new to owning cars.

2019 is far too new to make any pronouncements on reliability. Get back to us in 2035.

The car is still under warranty and they are talking about reliability. A good ol' Toyota will live longer than Tesla has been a company.

All EVs will naturally be more reliable than ICE cars because there are a lot less components that can break!

> Not having turn stalks

Aren't turn stalks back now?

Yes, they've gone back to the traditional physical turn stalk.

They don’t. Their market cap is higher than all the successful car companies combined. Becoming a successful car company would cost Elon half of his unrealized capital gains. It’s far better to be the company who is going to make us $30,000 robot slaves because that’s a bigger market and one he’ll own entirely.

The only question is what will be the next hype cycle when that succeeds about as well as the Cyber Truck.

> It’s far better to be the company who is going to make us $30,000 robot slaves because that’s a bigger market and one he’ll own entirely.

The Chinese are making humanoid robots too, and my bet is they'll be better and cheaper than Tesla's.

Oh I was in no way saying I agree with any of that, just explaining how his mind seems (to me) to work.

He hyped electric cars to the point where someone in here in 2017 told me I was nuts to buy an ICE car because there wouldn’t be any gas stations left in five years. That’s why his share prices are out of proportion to reality.

Now that it turns out the EV market isn’t growing as fast as it seemed when it was all early adopters, and autonomous delivery isn’t ready and won’t be for at best a few years, he’s gotta hype the next thing.

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