Australian Tesla owners unfazed by poor J.D. Power quality rating

Australian Tesla owners have largely shunned its poor ranking in the latest J.D. Power quality survey, pointing to generally swift resolutions to issues and the innovative technology in the vehicles.

Some owners were also critical of the testing criteria used by the authoritative J.D. Power organisation that is considered the benchmark for the quality in the automotive industry.

While its share price going into orbit has been making headlines, Tesla has also been in the news for the wrong reasons, placing last in 2020 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study.

The USA’s 2020 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study asks owners about problems experienced in the first 90 days of new car ownership and includes failures as well as tech features that are difficult to use.

In the survey Tesla received a quality score of 250 PP100, meaning 250 reported problems per 100 vehicles, or a concerning 2.5 problems for each car. That’s in just the first three months of ownership, remember.

With lower scores better, Dodge and Kia came out on top with 136 problems per 100 vehicles. The industry average was 166, while premium brands BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi scored 176, 202 and 225 respectively. The worst of the traditional car makers was Land Rover, with 228.

Remedy more important than problems

Australian Tesla owners giving comment, in general, seem little concerned. All who responded to our requests for comment were members of the Tesla Model 3 Australia Facebook group. The vast majority said they were satisfied with their Tesla’s quality, and with the brand’s swift actions to remedy problems.

None reported they were put off by the J.D. Power report, and none said they’d not consider owning another Tesla. On the contrary, a few said they’d now never consider buying another brand.

Many owners questioned J.D. Power’s findings as being too simplified. Australian Model 3 owner Tom Gleeson said: “A misaligned piece of trim is equal to a seized gearbox as far as J.D. Power is concerned.”

Tesla owners Stuart Lamble echoed such sentiments. “The J.D. Power report only measures issues, not how significant these issues are nor how responsive the company is in fixing the issues,” he said. “My experience with Tesla has been if you can identify an issue and how to reproduce it, they’re responsive and get it sorted.”

Tesla was profiled for the first time in the 2020 study – now in its 34^th year – but J.D. Power stated Tesla is not officially ranked among other brands as it doesn’t meet ranking criteria.

“Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla doesn’t grant us permission to survey its owners in 15 states where it is required,” said Doug Betts, president of the automotive division at J.D. Power. “However, we were able to collect a large enough sample of surveys from owners in the other 35 states and, from that base, we calculated Tesla’s score.”

Teslas very different

Part of the challenge with Teslas could be how different they are to traditional brands, both from an infotainment perspective and how they drive. From the minimalist interior that relies more on a touchscreen to the electric drive that incorporates semi-autonomous driving marketed as Autopilot, a Tesla is a very different beast for many.

The quality study says it “measures components that fail and features that are difficult to use, hard to understand or don’t work the way owners want.” Electric cars, including Teslas, are complex machines, and with increased complexity and numerous innovations, it’s more likely new owners will struggle to understand every aspect without some guidance.

While headlines raged around Tesla’s poor results, we thought we’d go straight to the source and talk to Australian owners about their experiences.

Robin Dean, owner of a 2015 Model S, slammed the findings as being rubbish. “I’ve got 200,000km on the clock, great car, better than my previous Toyota LandCruiser,” she said.

Toyota is widely regarded as a benchmark for quality, but even it finished below the 2020 IQS average, with a score of 177.

Annabelle Walker said of her Model 3LR: “Love the car. Any issues were resolved immediately without question. I don’t mind if it’s not perfect as long as issues are satisfactorily resolved. We’d buy another one in future.”

Tesla faithful defend the brand

One of the true Tesla champions, Adie WekwaMatsika, gave an inkling of the passion surrounding the Tesla brand; many Tesla owners are big fans of the brand. He said of his 2019 Model 3: “Best car on the market and competitors are a decade behind.”

Not that the owners didn’t report quality glitches with their Teslas.

Of the problems experienced, Dev Raga said his Model 3 had a misaligned door handle and some software glitches; David Nye and Chris Reeve each have a Model 3 Performance with minor trim issues, while Matthew King’s Model 3 SR+ had a dead main display screen and the glovebox wouldn’t open.

Tesla far from perfect

A few grumbles about paint and panels, delivery wait times, lack of order updates, and sub-standard communication cropped up, but overall, praise was heaped on Tesla not quibbling on repairs, implementing fixes in a timely manner and its mobile service.

A few noted the cars’ overall quality may not be up there with the premium Germans, but many accepted this as a trade-off for owning such ground-breaking technology. There was also suggestion that Tesla owners have higher expectations on quality, were more likely to air their grievances and more likely to complain about relatively minor issues.

Model 3 owner Robin Claessen said the technology is amazing and she loves driving it but “the build quality leaves a lot to be desired. Scratched glass windows before delivery, door panels misaligned and water ingress inside the seals of the windows. Perhaps we should all wait until these cars are made in Germany before buying.”

Mark Steiner also reported his brand new Model 3 had four airbags go off after “a minor incident.” He said: “No damage to the car, but $18,000 repair for the airbags. Tesla is not releasing my car’s electronic data, are not investigating and not taking this seriously.”

For reference, a sample of the comments we received from Tesla owners are reproduced below.

What Tesla owners said of their cars

David Nye, Model 3 Performance “Stealth” (M3P-)

“We could not be more satisfied. One very minor trim issue, fixed very promptly in our garage by mobile service. We’ve bought many new cars, and our Tesla is by far the best.”

Dev Raga, Model 3 (waiting for a Model Y)

 “The main issue I had was the driver door handle became misaligned. Not a major issue and they fixed it. Telsa make some rookie mistakes. Their software has glitches which are solved with updates. The staff at their Richmond location need more training and customer service needs to improve. Tesla owners perhaps complain more. Their customers are possibly previous customers of major European brands which have better quality so they expect the same or similar.”

David Simpson, 2019 Model 3P+

“I’ve had zero issues, and it’s the best car I’ve owned after years of Audis and BMWs. Basically, it’s a total paradigm shift from everything before it.”

Dave Sag, Model 3 LR  

“I had many communication issues in the gap between ordering and taking delivery of the car. When I got it all was mostly forgiven. They still owe me some promised Supercharger kilometres and are not responding to emails.”

Adie WekwaMatsika, 2019 Model 3

“Body finish issues at delivery, software glitches due to regular updates, some of which are pushed in beta. Overall, no regrets. Best car on the market and competitors are a decade behind.”

Robin Dean, 2015 Model S

“I say rubbish (to the J.D. Power findings). I’ve got over 200,000km on the clock, great car, better than my previous Toyota LandCruiser.”

Annabelle Walker, Model 3LR

“Love the car. Any issues were resolved immediately without question. I don’t mind if it’s not perfect as long as issues are satisfactorily resolved. We’d buy another one in future.”

Chris Reeve, 2020 Model 3 Performance

“Quality of the car is great and it drives like a dream. By far the best car I’ve owned. I had a couple of minor trim issues. Credit to Tesla they ordered the parts and replaced them based on my say so without any squabbling. I’ve owned plenty of brands, and so far, Tesla have treated me with more respect and integrity that the others ever did. An issue a traditional manufacturer would need the car in the shop for, and need looked at by technicians, is often just sorted by simple over-the-air software by Tesla.”

Matthew King 2019 Model 3 SR+

“I had a dead main display unit two months into ownership. Car was towed for free to the local service centre and I was given Uber credits while they waited for a new part. New computer was fitted and back in full swing within three days. The glove box wouldn’t open and Tesla came to my work within a few hours and fixed it in minutes.”

Stuart Lamble

“The J.D. Power report measures only issues, not how significant these issues are nor how responsive the company is in fixing the issues. My experience with Tesla has been if you can identify an issue and how to reproduce it, they’re responsive and get it sorted.

If I was to ping Tesla on anything, it would be on their communication which is, quite frankly, seriously sub-standard on multiple levels. It is the number one thing they need to deal with and would go a very long way towards easing the unrest I’m seeing in some people.”

Tom Gleeson, Model 3  

“A misaligned piece of trim is equal to a seized gearbox as far as J.D. Power is concerned. Importantly for me, the small issues I’ve had their mobile service came to me so the inconvenience was trivial.”

Dave Connell, Model 3 SR+

“We had a minor paint defect, and as we are in Tasmania, getting it fixed isn’t straightforward. We were given touch-up paint at our request, which we were happy with. Tesla did offer to have the car transported to the nearest authorised repaired (two hours away) to have a panel repainted, which would have taken a week, but we decided it was too much hassle for a small paint problem.”

Christopher Cook, Model 3 SR+

“My car arrived with a minor scuff on the steering wheel gear stalk. Tesla replaced the entire steering wheel base assembly. Can’t say fairer than that.”

Tim Freeman, Model 3P

“I had a rear seatbelt mechanism fail. I auto-booked a repair with an unacceptably long wait time for service. I was able to expedite this after speaking to a rep on the phone and the repair was ultimately done in my garage.”

Annabel Harwood, Model 3

“I’m 100 per cent satisfied with no problems. I had stupidly high expectations and my Model 3 has by far exceeded them all.”

Jenny Potts, 2019 Model 3 Performance

“I had a minor cosmetic issue. Tesla came to my house and fixed it within a week. The service was great. What other OEM will send the service tech to your house?”

Benjamin Anderson, Model 3 P3D 

“Yes there are problems, many of them. None of them are deal breakers and all fixed incredibly conveniently with mobile service vehicles and treated seriously by highly professional Tesla staff. I’d buy again.”

Ken Rosebery, 2019 Model 3 SR+

“No issues, I love it, best car ever. The finish on the car, for the price, is not up to Audi or Mercedes, but it’s not bad and that’s not why I purchased it. The beta version of the FSD (Full Self-Driving) of course has issues, but it’s exciting to be part of the regular software bug fixes and enhancements to the driving and ‘self-driving’ experience.”

Wade Bowmner, 2019 Model 3 SR+

“Driven just over 3000km, nothing to repair, no contact needed with Tesla. Everything works fine unless I do something daft. Interior boot panels and back of the rear seats I question for manufacturing quality, but these are quite small things really.”

Bruce Stewart, 2019 Model 3

“It arrived in perfect condition, had it 10 months now and no problems so far.”

Eric Dressler, 2019 Model 3

“After 8000km no issues so far, so can’t complain.”

David Lind, Model 3

“Had my reservation since day two, so waited over three-and-a-half-years for delivery. It proved to be totally worth the (excruciating) wait and exceeded every expectation.”

Jeremy Mansfield, 2019 Model 3 SR+

“No issues with fit, finish or operation whatsoever. I’m 100 per cent satisfied after driving 17,000km. It is simply an awesome car to drive. The Tesla support line has also been really helpful.”

Francois Moss

“I never buy the same car twice, but can’t see myself buying other than another Tesla. The best thing I’ve ever bought.”

Thomas Meier

“Minor issues. Fixed in under two weeks. Love the car.”

Gordon Howe

“Minor issues with paint and panel alignment, and a squeak in the glovebox. All fixed without question or complaint from Tesla.”

Ed Vorm

“I’ve had my Tesla for four months and have had not one thing go wrong. All the outside panels fit with no gaps and the paint is A1. I love the car and use it every day.”