Roadster reliability

[Eberhard]

Hi guys. I'm interested the reliability of the roadster and Tesla in general since I'm considering a Model S. Hopefully you owners can share some insight.

1/ Do you use your car as a daily driver?
2/ What is your driving style: aggressive, or as an everyday commuter car, etc
3/ What is the range you usually get from a full battery charge?
4/ how long does it take to charge your battery?
5/ has your battery performance/range changed over time?
6/ how often does the car break down or require service?
7/ how much money do you spend a year on maintainance and servicing of the car
8/ how much does charging the car add to your electricity bill?
9/ what are common problems that you have experienced with the roadster
10/ if you had to do it all over again, would you still get the Roadster?


Thanks guy!

1. Yes
2. depends on situation and need - long distance drives are economic style - short more like races.
3. If necessary i can still do 400km. my personal record was 419.7km with around 40km left as reserve (did with 30.000km). Usually i do 300-320km.
4. 6-8h if near empty at 32A in my garage, could do in 2-3h if the roadster would charge at 3-phase. But Model S comes with 3-phase charging
5. i lost around 10-15% after 100.000km
6. hat problems with the blowers in the beginning, now more with hot PEM but have new solution to clean the PEM between inspections. does not happen Models S because being liquid cooled.
7. 3x€500 + spare parts + new rear tires every 10-15.000km + €1.200 insurance
8. charging its mostly free but at home €50/month
9. the window wiper are loud and rattle. replaced with special swiss blades
10. best car ever hat. will keep it, even when i get my Model S sig perf.

[LST]

this will get boring caunyd ; ))

1/ Do you use your car as a daily driver?
Yes, 95% of my yearly driving

2/ What is your driving style: aggressive, or as an everyday commuter car, etc
depends of the mood and distance, love to leave the Porsches, BMW's etc behind at red lights, (priceless)

3/ What is the range you usually get from a full battery charge?
304km standard mode 380-400km range mode depending on the amps i charge with

4/ how long does it take to charge your battery?
45 sec's, charging done overnight

5/ has your battery performance/range changed over time?
approx. 2% after 3 years

6/ how often does the car break down or require service?
never / standard check once a year (once there was a battery problem signaled, the rangers called me before i could do it, problem solved at TM expense within 2 days)

7/ how much money do you spend a year on maintainance and servicing of the car
CHF 600.-, + change of tires once every 8'000km ah i forgot, + windscreen wiper liquid ; )

8/ how much does charging the car add to your electricity bill?
if calculated at the normal suppliers cost: 200 CHF / year, for 12'000km/year, but really zero, because of my solar array

9/ what are common problems that you have experienced with the roadster
replaced the windscreenwiper blades and the brake pads, breaking is not top notch, due to the weight distribution and tire dimensions, rattles, wind noise on A pillar (which is common for a real Roadster)

10/ if you had to do it all over again, would you still get the Roadster?

over and over again, this is the best car i've ever had, with the fewest problems ever.

[Tesla 940]

Caunyd,

As a previous posted stated - look at some of the previous threads if you want information regarding "reliability". No disrespect to the people that posted here - but - what is posted makes it sound like everything is fine in Disneyland. Some people seem to have put Elon on a pedestal - here at work we call it "drinking the kool-aid (think Jim Jones and Jonestown). In my opinion, the Roadster has had more problems than probably any car in the last 10 years (I've been pretty lucky compared to some people). Granted, it is a limited production, first model, new company - all the BS. We are all early adapters and with that comes putting up with issues that the general public never would. I've said it before and I'll say it again - IF Consumer Reports could purchase an early Model S (maybe they are/have) they are going to OBJECTIVELY compare it to the competition, they will not have the rose colored glasses on, don't believe Elon is "god like" and will rip it apart.

Would I buy the Roadster again knowing everything I know today??? Hell Yes, it is a riot to drive.

[wiztecy]

I personally haven't had any issues with my Roadster, no rattles and nothing broken as well. My rattles came from the sun visors. I moved them a little and the rattle went away, the car is very solid. I've only had my roadster for about 4 months, but I've put 6,000 miles on it in that time and its been perfect to me. The records before that showed no issues for the 3,800 original miles and three years of time it was used. When I contemplated on purchasing this roadster I did my research on this forum and found the majority of people did not have major issues at all, I found some who had issues such as PEM, Blowers, AC condensers and Lotus specific things like knobs, etc. that these issues were corrected and fixed by Tesla right away and the owners satisfied. This is new technology, ran in small production numbers, and customer base small at the moment. You just don't get a large sample coverage nor the time of decades to revisit or expand on your design to make it better until time and learning factors are met. Compare the failures and breakdowns of an ICE vehicle that's made in the very high production numbers and look at the Tesla Roadster. Drive a VW and start counting all the things that break and fall apart on those rattle traps. Granted I love VW engineering but I do believe they purposely make things to break and annoy you... I don't understand how can't they get this right since the 70s and such a jump on learning cycle? Its not new technology at all and ICE engines had over a century to evolve and redesign. Granted today's ice engines are far better and reliable than the ones up to the '80's and '90s but still thats allot of time to learn and innovate. The number is very small for things going wrong on the Roadster when you look at quantities and time. I have strong confidence in Tesla and from what I've seen they did and do learn from past issues and do make an effort to fix and make it even better in the next production cycle. As for me I'm very happy for my problem free Roadster, that was one of the reason's why I love EVs... their simplicity.

[Doug_G]

C No disrespect to the people that posted here - but - what is posted makes it sound like everything is fine in Disneyland. Some people seem to have put Elon on a pedestal - here at work we call it "drinking the kool-aid (think Jim Jones and Jonestown). In my opinion, the Roadster has had more problems than probably any car in the last 10 years (I've been pretty lucky compared to some people).

That's a bit harsh. I've had cars with WAY more problems than the Roadster (looking at you, Ford). I've had cars that have had zero issues, then as soon as the four-year warranty was up everything came apart (looking at you, Toyota). I've also had cars that were totally reliable for four or five years and then had a few things crop up (Nissan). But I've never owned a car that was perfect.

The Roadster is not perfect, but the problems I have encountered have been minor and were corrected under warranty.

[NigelM]

That's a bit harsh. I've had cars with WAY more problems than the Roadster (looking at you, Ford).

Cross out "Ford" and write "Mercury" and I agree with you 100%. Thinking about it, I suppose Mercury is/was Ford!

[PRJIM]

That's a bit harsh. I've had cars with WAY more problems than the Roadster (looking at you, Ford). I've had cars that have had zero issues, then as soon as the four-year warranty was up everything came apart (looking at you, Toyota). I've also had cars that were totally reliable for four or five years and then had a few things crop up (Nissan). But I've never owned a car that was perfect.

The Roadster is not perfect, but the problems I have encountered have been minor and were corrected under warranty.

After the warranty expires, the Roadster will be a very expensive car.

[wiztecy]

>After the warranty expires, the Roadster will be a very expensive car.

Compare apples with apples. Any car of that class costs $$ to maintain.

Here's a clip from a Lamborghini forum on maintenance costs. Note we DON'T need oil changes, we don't need clutches, we don't need all the maintenance that ICE vehicles require:


If I'm not mistaken, my dealer charges $125 and hour. An oil change cost aroung $400. Major service at 15k mile interval is around $4k. Clutch could be than around $5k. Other than those, the car is pretty much bulletproof. Of course, I'm talking about the Diablo, Murci and the G-car could be similar.

[vfx]

Hi guys. I'm interested the reliability of the roadster and Tesla in general since I'm considering a Model S. Hopefully you owners can share some insight.

1/ Do you use your car as a daily driver?
2/ What is your driving style: aggressive, or as an everyday commuter car, etc
3/ What is the range you usually get from a full battery charge?
4/ how long does it take to charge your battery?
5/ has your battery performance/range changed over time?
6/ how often does the car break down or require service?
7/ how much money do you spend a year on maintainance and servicing of the car
8/ how much does charging the car add to your electricity bill?
9/ what are common problems that you have experienced with the roadster
10/ if you had to do it all over again, would you still get the Roadster?


Thanks guy!

I think these questions are only mildly relevant to the Model S. As has been stated above the Roadster was built by Lotus to Tesla's specs (shipped here as a roller). Lotus is famous for questionable build quality (pre-Tesla cars often smelled of cigarettes) and Tesla actually brought up the fit and finish with each generation of Roadster and has made Lotus a better build company.

Arguably battery questions are valid since there are no other cars to compare to, but with 6 years and tons more engineers and money, even that technology has improved. Do searches for each of your questions. Each has been covered ad-nauseam individually.

Tesla had 10,000,000 miles of Roadster data to start from a clean sheet for the Model S design and build. Not much use to compare.

[PRJIM]

>After the warranty expires, the Roadster will be a very expensive car.

Compare apples with apples. Any car of that class costs $$ to maintain.

Here's a clip from a Lamborghini forum on maintenance costs. Note we DON'T need oil changes, we don't need clutches, we don't need all the maintenance that ICE vehicles require:


If I'm not mistaken, my dealer charges $125 and hour. An oil change cost aroung $400. Major service at 15k mile interval is around $4k. Clutch could be than around $5k. Other than those, the car is pretty much bulletproof. Of course, I'm talking about the Diablo, Murci and the G-car could be similar.

The Roadster is in the Mercedes SL, Porsche 911, Jaguar XK class; not really the Lambo, Ferrari class. If you amortize the battery replacement cost and add that to the yearly maintenance costs of the Roadster; what do your adjusted figures look like? Direct maintenance costs should be taken with a grain of salt; with an electric car there are also indirect maintenance costs, these could be far more significant than an ICE vehicle.