Model X after 2 years and 28k.

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--------Year 6 update page 13--------------

There seems to be some concerns about Tesla build quality/ageing so I thought I share how our X has got on as the main family car.

The X is now 2 years old and done just shy of 28K in that time.



Daily commute is 10 miles, the majority of trips are weekend family trips/holidays etc.

The interior of the car is hardly worn, even with white seats and accommodating a toddler daily and extended family every few weeks.







Exterior cannot say I’ve noticed any more stone chips than what’s expected, and overall am surprised at the lack of even parking dings etc. For a 6 seater family wagon it doesn’t look half bad especially with black wheels.





The car has however been back to Tesla for various issues picked up at delivery, this is the list I noticed shortly after delivery. For some bizzar reason Tesla choose to short these issues out one at a time rather than one big service visit, which meant lost of wasted Service/Loaner time from Tesla.

• 1: Boot not shutting without alarm.

• 2: Steering wheel damaged needed to be replaced.

• 3: Drivers seat 'rocking' needed to be replaced.

• 4: Very loud rattle from drivers A pillar needed A pillar rebuild.

• 5: Wipers not aligned.

• 6: Door sensors not the most uptodate, prevented software updates, needed to be replaced.

• 7: Both sun visors rattled and needed to be replaced.[/list]

Since these issues have been sorted the car has been fine, the last issues is the ‘yellow glue band’ around the 17inch touch screen which I believe is still an issue with many cars been made today. Am told Tesla have a fix coming but its not ready yet, the band doesn’t effect the use of the screen but you can see it at the top of the screen. Tesla have told me there will be a more permanent fix at some point in the future.



In addition I’ve have had the HEPA filter and CCS retrofit done by Tesla, both were pretty reasonably priced and done by a mobile range rather than me having to visit the service center. I’ve also swapped out the front speakers for some Focal units which have really improved mid-range sound quality.

Overall our car has functioned perfectly as the main family car, I see very little reason to swap it for a while yet, the car hasn’t been 100% perfect but since the delivery issues have been sorted visits the service center has been few and far between. There’s no rattles or noises.

The main warranty on the car runs out at 50K/4 years, the battery/motor is under warranty for 8 years. I’ll probably pay the £3300 Alliance wants for the extended Tesla warranty shortly as I can see us keeping this car for a while longer yet, and long term wise I think the overall reliability will be better than my old BMW but not close to my wifes Lexus which has had 0 issues in nearly 5 years.

I have no worries about keeping the car till 2025 especially with an extended warranty, its the only car I've owned that I consider a 'keeper'. It's not perfect, but no car is, considering the X is only 2nd car Tesla produced its pretty good effort.

By the sounds of some Model 3 delivery issues, Tesla appears to still not have learnt delivering a fault free product at handover saves them a whole load of follow up time, but as for the final product, I have no complaints.

Edited by gangzoom on Sunday 13th September 07:54

Edited by gangzoom on Sunday 24th September 20:08

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hyphen said:

Is that warranty price of £3,300 per year?

For 4 years and 50k, so £825 a year if you can make it last 4 years. So about the same as a BMW extended warranty for a M3 etc.

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hyphen said:

Thanks, sounds a lot better!

Sounds reasonable, although a little surprising that equivalent to BMW M, as contradicts the 'evs are simpler and lower maintenance' messages put across.

Not actually worried about any mechanical bits, but with main dealer labour rates of £150/hr+VAT than imported parts from the US, it woudlnt take a lot to generate a massive bill.

Got a while to decide yet though, but £850/year isn't much to pay in the grand scheme of things.

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lost in espace said:

its a 60 I think. Hoping to buy it at the end of his PCP.

The 60 was a great buy, pick of the range. Same battery as a 75D but over £6k cheaper at the time. Real life range 99% of the time was the same as a 75D as you can charge it to 100% daily and it was the same as a 75D been charged to 85%.

Overall I seem to remember is was nearly 50% cheaper than the top spec P100D L at the time - around £60k, absolute bargain when you consider the only difference between the two cars was the 0-60 time and about 80 miles of range.

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Turn7 said:

Its still as ugly as sin tho....

Its a family bus, my main view everyday from the drivers seat is actually pretty amazing.

My daughter loves napping in the car, so I spend ALOT of time staring out of that windscreen, to my surprise the powered doors and the view the windscreen provides are the two things I would find hard giving up.

I toyed with the idea of selling up and going over to a Performance 3 - space we could probably manage now, but giving up that view and having to go back to manual doors is hard to do, especially when those features get used all the time, where as a crazy 0-60 time and more range far less often.

I would consider moving to P100D L though once second hand prices take more effect. Its a shame Tesla have really scaled down the feature set on Y, which at one point I think was also going to have powered doors/massive windscreen.

Still really cannot grumble when the family bus offers views like this .

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xjay1337 said:

When you put it like that, it seems a rip off.

The interior barely has anything, it's just some seats and trim. the rest is done in the infotainment system.

Either they are making it expensive because it's an expensive car. Or they are saying they have no faith im their work!

The Media control unit is £3k replacement out of warranty, that seems like a lot but Lexus wants a similar amount for replacing the media unit in a IS300H.

Tesla are no worse than BMW/Audi/Merc, but reliability is poor compared to Lexus/Honda/Nissan.

As always the extended warranty is how risk averse you are. In a Lexus/Honda/Nissan your essentially throwing your money away, in a BMW I would you say your foolish not to take one. In the Tesla I personally still haven't decided.

On reflection though paying £3k for essentially 8 years/100k warranty on a £71k car seems pretty reasonable. If it was a Lexus I wouldn't bother but its not a Lexus.

But reliability isn't the sole determinant of a car for me, if it was I would just get a RX. I've experienced nothing in our X so far thats put me off longterm ownership, it is still however early days, which is why an extended warranty is been considered.

Edited by gangzoom on Monday 2nd September 06:44

Edited by gangzoom on Monday 2nd September 06:45

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Andeh1 said:

Interestibg write up!

How does the dealer network work for services etc, do you find you need to travel much further then the normal "main dealer" network?

First few visits I opted to go to Milton Keynes (from Leicester) as there was some excitement about seeing lots of Teslas, but when I got bored of that I had courtesy cars delivered to my home address whilst they collected mine, also 'ranger' visits to fix things on my drive.

I think Tesla may have stopped doing the courtesy car drop off and collect service at your home address, but luckily not needed any service centre visits for a while now.

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TTmonkey said:

OP you say it’s not perfect, what don’t you like, what would you change?

Personally I hate touch screens, not sure I could live with it.

Touch screen is fab, its so much better than any other infotainment system I've used, even the web browser is now fairly functional.

Worst is the 'worry' about reliability, on my BMW it was a case of every single squeak/drop of liquid on the driveway would send me searching for the next mechanical breakdown. Our Lexus on the otherhand I cannot even remember ever checking the oil dip stick!

The Tesla isn't as bad as the BMW when it comes to trying to anticipate failures, but neither do I have the same confidence that nothing will go wrong.....

Put it another way if I got in the car tomorrow and something catastrophic broke it wouldn't surprise or even annoy me, its never happened but am pretty sure it will happen at some point.

If Lexus built an EV like the X, or even any EVs at all I would swap our X for it without much thought.

I doubt the EVs Jaguar/Audi/Merc are coming out with are any better than Tesla on the reliability front. Reliability for me isn't 100% top of my car priority list but its not far off, the X does enough of the good stuff for me to put with any issues (or even worry about issues), but if offered a more reliable package I wouldn't turn it down.

Edited by gangzoom on Monday 2nd September 09:55

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xjay1337 said:

For the money you pay for a Tesla (which is substantial by the way) I would expect a better manufacturer warranty, 50k seems pathetic......

........ but certainly the interior to me seems very poor given the cost.

You seem to have confused the £ cost of the car with reliability. Do BMW/Audi/Merc offer any better new car warranty? Even Lexus is only 3 years and 60k.

If you want reliable buy a Kia/Nissan/Toyota, they are far better value cars and last much better. A Kona EV has more range than our X for half the cost, but I still rather drive our X .

As for interior 'feel' its all subjective, our other car is a Lexus and the Tesla for me is the much nicer to be in. Equally I've been in plenty of Audis all of them seem pretty on par with Tesla.

If you don't like the interior of the Tesla don't buy one, get an eTron or iPace or EQC, but just don't you think those cars are going to be any more reliable. There's a thread on here about how Audi UK advises stopping by the side of the road for 30 minutes is the solution to having wing mirrors that dont work properly.....Not the kind of problem you would expect in a Dacia Sandero which will cost less than just the options list on an eTron!

Edited by gangzoom on Monday 2nd September 10:25

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hyphen said:

Teslas history shows they have the 'happy to go to court rather than payup, even when wrong' attitude.

Thats not really a Tesla issue, more industry wide refusal to take responsibility for badly made/designed products.

Google 'BMW' and 'Class action lawsuit'

Tesla in my experience offers a similar ownership package to what you can expect from BMW and co, which is not saying much to be honest.

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Wingo said:

How has the car faired at holiday/trip time. Any long distance journeys done at home or abroad?

Holiday/trip time can mean up to 500 miles in a day for us or very rarely 850 miles in one day fully loaded up with clutter and two mountain bikes on a bike carrier.

Our usage isnt that heavy, longest one day trip was 300 miles. The driving/comfort is fine, but clearly 850 miles in a day needs stops.

The website below gives you an idea how long charging stops are needed for a 850 mile one day trip.

Thats some driving though, even at a non stop 85mph thats 10hr, average 70mph and 12hrs.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 3rd September 06:17

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simonwhite2000 said:

Also they 'stole' some range by one of these updates recently - bit like Ford coming round and swapping your fuel tank out for a smaller one. Its no longer what your purchased - have you been impacted by this?

Not yet but in future who knows.

What Tesla has recently done with reducing the usable kWh on some 85pack cars show how little real world data there is on lithium ion battery ageing for cars.

Anyone buying an EV should be under no illusions about the 'risk' they are taking with the newer tech.

I woudlnt go back to a combustion car but that doesn't mean EVs are for everyone.

If you want cheap, reliable, well tested motoring Tesla isn't the car for you, a sub £10k Nissan Leaf is a much better buy.....However with a real life Mway range of sub 50 miles in winter when new, so close to sub 40 miles after battery degredation the smaller range EVs really are only good for inner city use!

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Heres Johnny said:

A first generation leaf isn’t the best example. If I was recommending a car to the ensure but wanted to take the first step I’d say head to a bmw i3, a 94ah Rex can be had for £17k, a 120+ mile battery range and a mini petrol generator on board to charge the battery if you get caught out. No real range anxiety but can typically be used in EV mode 99% most days.

£17k is alot more than £8k which is what you can get a Leaf ok for now. Most people don't have £17k to waste on a town run around, even £8k is pushing it. Tesla prices even Model 3, is totally nuts to waste on any car for most people.

What we really need is for the like of Nissan to bring back the old £200/month no deposit deals.

Edited by gangzoom on Tuesday 3rd September 07:29

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Evanivitch said:

Didn't VW do the similar with the emissions fix? Many certainly report reduced MPG.

I suppose your right!

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Fat Wolfie said:

If I’m honest I was surprised at the short time is said - but also found it enlightening as in my head I’d always kind of assumed I’d be topping up to 100% when plugged in, just as I do in the car (I.e. always go to full when I stop for fuel even if I don’t need a full tank to get to my destination).

I suppose it’s a mindset change to go through that you don’t always need a “full tank” in the battery when you stop.

If you have home/destination charging unless your doing 850 mile in 14 hrs type trip you simply don't need to charge to even 80% for UK travel with any 200 mile range+ EV.

Most of the time we only need to charge for 10 minutes to give a decent buffer to arrive at the destination without having to drive slowly or worry about getting to the destination with 0%.

There are situations where EVs still don't work due to range - For example the twice a year work trip we do thats time sensitive with no destination charging, but for our needs our EV work amazingly well as the main family car, with our combustion car demoted to just fixed commuting and occasional use. Our Lexus has barely done 9K in the same time period of doing 28K in the Tesla.

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Wingo said:

We regularly see a few Dutch registered Teslas up in the French/Swiss mountains and quite a few hotels in the towns and villages have tesla chargers now.

We fully intend to take our UK registered Tesla back to the Swiss alps once our daughter is old enough.

We are planning this road trip hopefully next 12-24 months, cannot wait

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So said:

That's a bit poor and I read into it that the manufacturer doesn't believe in the longevity of its product.

4 years/50K is on par with pretty much every single other 'premium brand'. A brand new Audi is 2 years/unlimited miles, which means our car would be out of warranty already, where as with Tesla I have upto another 2 years is I can reduce the miles covered.

Given the 'average' UK car only covers 8k miles per year most people shouldn't hit the 50k miles limit Tesla offer.

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REALIST123 said:

What’s the bodywork warranty, re corrosion etc?

No idea, not thought about it.

Our Lexus has a 12 year warranty for corrosion, however some one tried to get Lexus to act on it due to corrosion on an mounting bracket in the engine bay (yes even Lexus have build problems!!) and Lexus headquarters in Japan have essentially found a get out clause so have refused to cover the work needed to correct the part.

The car in question is less than 5 years old.

Personally I don't trust any car manufacturer to back up their products once the main warranty is over. Plenty of stories on the web on how Kia/Vauxhall can/have got out of covering parts that fail despite their 7 year/life time warranty selling points.

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From the Tesla website,
The Tesla Parts, Body & Paint Repair Limited Warranty begins on the purchase date of the part(s), and coverage extends for a period of 12 months. Specific categories of parts have unique warranty coverage periods:

1. Sheet metal: Limited lifetime
2. Drive Unit: 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes firstVehicle #High Voltage Battery: 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first
3. Wall Connectors: 4 years
4. Touchscreen and microcontroller unit: 4 years

Looks like the body work is for life, but interestingly the MCU is only 4 years? So even extended warranty might not cover it. Will check before I buy the extended warranty, but if the MCU isn't covered pretty worthless and no point in extending the warranty.

No very clear if they are talking about replacment parts rather than new car builds.

tps://www.tesla.com/en_GB/support/vehicle-warranty

Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 4th September 10:19

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Heres Johnny said:

I do agree there's an issue with the "there's only 10 moving parts and nothing to go wrong" message and then not backing that up with the warranty - actions speak louder than words.

But a 'new' motor is covered for 8 years and unlimited miles. What combustion can manufacture offer the same type of cover.

The rest of the X has far more moving parts than any other car but actually the lack of any real horror stories about the doors from even people who have done 300k+ in these cars suggests they are way over engineered.

I have more worries about the air suspension, but theres not much you can do about them. Maybe someone will offer an coil replacement set when the cars get old enough.

The fact extended warranties are even been mentioned shows Tesla just aren't Lexus when it comes to reliability, but any BMW owner will feel at home will all the extended warranty discussions.

Edited by gangzoom on Wednesday 4th September 10:21