The Tesla Model S is no longer ‘recommended’ by consumer reports


Brand New Tesla Model D S S Cars On August 2, 2017, a court in California sat in front of the Tesla Showroom in Madeira. Tesla will report second-quarter earnings today after the closing bell.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Tesla’s Model S sedan will no longer be “recommended” by consumer reports due to its declining reliability, the influential rating organization announced Thursday.

According to Jack Fisher, senior director of auto toe testing at Consumer Reports, the electric car’s rating was downgraded in the annual Auto Toe Reliability Survey as a result of air suspension and difficulties with the main computer and touchscreen controls.

“We see a variety of problems with that car,” he told CNBC. “It’s been rippling through its life cycle.” Ranked as top rated vehicle.

Older models in general are better justified in reliability as companies troubleshoot issues like the era of vehicles, but Tesla has continued to update cars without making many changes to their exterior, including over-the-air, or remote, updates – The emerging trend in the auto industry led by Tesla.

The Model 3 now recommends the only Tesla vehicle customer reports for customers. Overall, Tesla ranks second in the reliability study. Due to the Model S as well as the Model Y it dropped two places from a year ago, which was on sale earlier this year and is “better than average reliability”. According to customer reports, problems with the Model Y include quality issues with body hardware and paint.

The Tesla Model S Dual Motor All Electric Sedan is on display at the Brussels Expo in Brussels, Belgium on January 9, 2020.

Sejord van der Wall | Getty Images

Many of the problems identified by customer reports continue to plague Tesla. On Monday, the company notified owners of older Model S and Model X that they would return them for repairs if the company had to pay out-of-pocket before fixing the problem in their main computers. The problem manifested as a blank touchscreen or other interruptions in the system and was related to a memory-device failure in the computer that stores data from the vehicle.

Out of the 26 brands ranked in the survey, Japanese auto tomers performed best. For the first time, the Japanese brand Mazda is at the top of the non-profit organization’s credibility list. Historically, it has been ranked second and third by Toyota and Lexus, respectively. Buick, Honda and Hyundai followed as “more reliable” than other brands. Ford Motor’s Lincoln brand, 11 places a year ago, behind Tesla, ranked last in the study.

Covering the 2000-22020 model years, the survey is based on data collected from more than 300,000 vehicle owners. Nonprofits then assign different name-plates to predict new vehicle reliability scores based on the amount of problems they report and other measures.

The reliability rating is a key element for the overall score of a customer reports vehicle and whether it is “recommended” for customers. Overall scores include performance of road-tests, results of owner satisfaction surveys, whether the vehicle comes with major safety systems, and results of crash tests if applicable.

Here are the ratings:

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