pharvey wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 10:35 pm
STEVE G wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 9:24 pm
My main reservation about buying a Tesla would be build quality because American car companies just don't have a reputation for that, or reliability.
It's one of the reasons why VW is selling a lot of EVs in Europe because people trust them more.
I've enjoyed a test drive of a Model Y recently and the Model S a few years (and upgrades) ago. I'm due to try the Model 3 (and Model Y again) in the next couple of months - why not if I can get away with it?!
Plus, I'll have quite a few more questions to ask due to this thread!
All I can say is that I've been impressed (especially with performance). I certainly have my reservations - cost, UK infrastructure etc. but was not overly concerned with quality of the Tesla. That said, I/we were test driving top-of-the-range units, all singing, all dancing (and cost prohibitive). I currently drive a C-Class Mercedes CDI AMG - similar size really to the Model 3, but taking batteries or engine out of the equation, a far heavier car - and that's down to build quality IMHO. Weight is certainly an issue for EV's due to batteries and that will and must effect build quality quite frankly.
I posted the below a while back, but would add this guy is not one to accept cheap/poor build quality and never mentioned poor quality of the Model 3 to me.
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I’m going to have to disagree with you on a couple of issues here Pete - if you do a search for Tesla build quality you’ll find a lot and a lot of relatively negative comments and whilst things do seem to be getting better, they have a long way to go to be up there with the big motor manufacturers, although some of them have reliability issues too. The Tesla 3 appears to be the best of what they have to offer.
Also, regarding build quality, all EV’s are inherently heavy and of course the bigger the battery, the more weight you have to carry, but weight and build quality are not necessarily mutually exclusive - you just need greater engineering input to overcome the increased weight dynamics.
As far as performance goes, Tesla were the pioneers of being fast and affordable with reasonable range, so that in itself was a good thing because it forces other manufacturers to do likewise.
Personally I’ve never sat in a Tesla so can’t give an accurate report, but having looked through the windows I wasn’t overly impressed with the layout on the earlier models - to me they looked cheap and cheerful - things may have moved on by now!!