It depends on the segment and time range and market. MotorEasy conducted a survey in 2024 in the U.K. with 29,967 respondents. (https://www.whatcar.com/news/most-reliable-cars/n27337) The Tesla Model Y was the 9th (equal) most reliable car. However Teslas tend to fare poorly in the Consumer Reports survey in the U.S. I suspect one of the reasons for the discrepancy between this market and the U.S. is that the U.K. received Tesla shipments a lot later for new models - years, in fact. This gave Tesla time to iron out first-model issues. Another is potentially the location of manufacture. Most Teslas sold in the U.K. come from China and Germany. Most Teslas sold in the U.S. come from Fremont, California. There were widespread reports of strange manufacturing practises at the Fremont plan during the covid outbreak, like spray-painting cars in makeshift tents.
Interestingly, MotorEasy found that gas and hybrids were the most reliable. Diesel were the least reliable.
I'd chalk up the low diesel reliability to all the emission systems. Before all the Mercedes D's would run forever, million miles. Even the heavy truck engines could reach a million miles. Now the emission systems including EGR, SCR, and DPF, add injectors, plumbing and electronics. The EGR and DPF systems clog up with soot or burn up from regen
These studies don't really show a decent comparison between EV's, just car makers in general. We aren't trying to argue whether Tesla's are better than ICE car makers, but whether they're consistent or better against other EV's of other car makers.
However, if you look at the latest press release by JDPower (https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2025-us-vehi...) you'll see that Tesla now ranks right near the average. Significantly better than in previous years and ahead of other common car makers.
The dependability study could do with a segment purely on EV's, given that EV's as a whole are improving by roughly 33 PP100 per year.
I used the same links as the commenter above, of which I cited a more recent study and shows that Tesla isn’t as bad as they perhaps used to be.
If they really wanted to exclude them they wouldn’t have included them all.
I cited the study, because it was the same study commented above where the most recent study wasn’t mentioned.
I’m not bragging at all, but they’re just not as bad of a car as some people are giving them a wrap for. Heck they had the same number of problem reported as Ford, does that mean Fords are bad cars? No.
What I'm saying is just that Tesla are not "excellent cars and are still ranked at the top compared to the rest of the market" as you said. The fact that they move from the bottom to average still don't support Tesla as excellent cars when compared to the rest of the market. Note that I'm not asserting that "Tesla are the worst cars".
> And even then you’re bragging about Tesla being … average?
If you think about issues this way, I think it's fully unproductive. No one was bragging. The fact you see this as either unthinking bragging or unthinking criticism makes it very hard to talk about what matters: the facts of the matter.
They absolutely were bragging when they said this:
> Tesla's are excellent cars and are still ranked at the top compared to the rest of the market.
The actual facts show otherwise, of course, so now he’s trying the squid ink approach of emitting a lot of verbiage trying to say that average and excellent mean the same thing, but that’s just a distraction from the fact that their first statement was based on brand loyalty, not data.
I wasn't bragging, I can't brag about them because I don't own a Tesla nor serve to gain any validation or benefit if they do well or not.
A study has found that perhaps I was wrong in the eyes of a dependability study, but I still think they're an excellent car. I still think that if a Ford owner said that they think their Ford Ranger is an excellent car people wouldn't disagree because a dependability study put them as average.
This is what I mean - my impression is you can't tell the difference between someone commenting on a product and someone boasting about something they made or did. The OP (as far as we know) is not in a position to brag about the general status of Tesla cars, unless they are a senior person at Tesla.
If I said "BMWs are excellent cars" would I be bragging?
Isn’t Tesla Model S Plaid still ranked the fastest (maybe 1 or 2 $300k super cars are faster) while being the safest and have arguably the most advanced self drive available in the market?
I dislike Tesla as a brand; however, they're not particularly lacking considering their size and price point. JD Power's "ratings" are almost entirely based on surveys and are essentially worthless.
My Model Y is the most reliable car I've ever owned, except it eats tires quickly because it's so heavy. Just one anecdote of course.
I'll never buy another one as long as Elon Musk is associated with the company, but I'd be crazy to sell it now because it's paid for and it's a great car.
Bruh, JD Power is a joke, they said the Chevy Equinox is the most reliable compact SUV of 2024, look at any of their rankings, it’s all basically random, meaningless noise.
I assume they just create hundreds of oveRlapping categories to make sure everyone has something they will pay the license fee to talk about in a commercial
They're not actually that great of an EV anymore. The build quality is lackluster and the ride on the Model 3 in particular is quite harsh.
Some of the comments I hear almost universally from prior Model 3 owners when they switch to an Ioniq 5 is how much nicer the ride quality is and how nice it is to have buttons on the dash again.
I have a Model 3 2024 and the "ride quality" is beyond any other vehicle I've been in. I genuinely get a little excited every time I drive it. Best car I've ever been in or drove, and it's not close.
If you want to provide anything other than your isolated impression it'd be helpful to know what cars you're comparing it too. Civics? Audis? Ford F150s?
On the whole seems a little... over enthusiastic...
You should relax a bit. Model 3 ride was a bit 'sporty' compared to others. Some people like that, other prefer it softer. There really isn't a clear 'right' and 'wrong' here. But on avg. people seem to prefer it a bit softer, so they adjusted it slightly.
Successive version always do slight changes like that over time, that how car companies work. Old owners don't need to be happy about it, or think about it at all.
Supposedly. As far as I understand, whether it was fixed or not will be decided by a completely separate group of people. At some point, Tesla can just lie, and don't expect people will be able to verify.
I think Elon found a glitch it tech-bro reasoning: you promise a product, people believe you and buy it, then they realise that it is not what was advertised, but it is OK, because new version has it now, so you can't complain, it is your fault in the eyes of your peers, you should have made a better research or whatever.
Your FSD has almost got you killed? Don't worry, this is your fault, and anyway the bug was already fixed in the update. Probably. This time for sure.
Sorry but its clear you aren't thinking logically.
The changes in the new 2024 version, specifically changed the suspension setup and you can mechanically verify the difference between the models because there were mechanical changes.
You need to drop the FSD rhetoric, there are an enormous amount of Tesla drivers who couldn't care about FSD, but simply enjoying the car as an EV.
You are thinking logically only if you are a shareholder. Then it makes absolute sense to think like that to stay hopeful.
From the consumer POV who doesn't own shares in the brand, it makes no sense at all.
> enormous amount of Tesla drivers who couldn't care about FSD but simply enjoying the car as an EV
Are there an enormous amount of disappointed Tesla drivers as well who stuck with it because of a sunk cost fallacy?
Should, for example, CyberTruck owners who spend 150K on a bullet-proof car be happy that in the new 2026 version the panels finally will stop falling off?
Should the few million people who purchased Tesla Model 3 feel better that the new version finally drives like a car?
All cars have pain points and whilst people in an existing Model 3 might be annoyed ride quality has been improved in the new model, it is good that the specific pain point has been addressed. Afterall you wouldn't stop improving your car simply because you didn't want to annoy existing customers.
Either way, in prior comments you couldn't come to terms with them possibly fixing something like that in the first place.
No it's pretty good now. This isn't a software update. It's either softer or it's not. Of course it is subjective. There are plenty of cars with even softer rides, but they tend to feel a lot more floaty, especially in corners, and I personally don't like that.
Still ugly af. Wouldn't touch it. The only well designed car ever made was the model S, and even that is long in the tooth now and was due a refresh 5 years ago. But CYbeRtrUck ...
Combine that with FSD rubbish bait and switch, nutjob CEO, and the cratering of any brand goodwill ... I won't touch those cars if you paid me (seriously).
And honestly, I recognise the innate progression of the technology ... but others have caught and surpassed to the point that I don't have to worry about buying the lesser car anymore when I go elsewhere.
Not that it should matter but those downvoting your comments have high karma and long histories of making positive contributions here.
Please just make an effort to use HN as it's intended. It's only a place where people want to participate because so many people put effort into keeping it that way.
But they aren't. What Tesla has going for them primarily is the Supercharger network.
The Cybertruck is a complete disaster of a vehicle with so many issues (eg [1]) that the only reason people buy them is to make a political statement from a group that 3+ years ago wouldn't have been caught buying an EV.
Teslas are drivable iPads. Many people (myself included) not only hate this (because it's hard to use without looking) but it's also lazy design. By this I mean, it allows manufacturers to say "we'll fix it with a software update" (and then probably never get around to it) whereas haptic controls require more thought and effort to be put into the UI/UX during manufacturing.
For other Teslas, there have been a host of other issues, some small, some not. For example, the seats were unreliable if adjusted too often so Tesla made an OTA update to limit how much you can adjust the seats to avoid failure [2].
The only thing propping up Tesla sales now are trade restrictions on BYD.
The only part I don't know why people would trust is the FSD/Autopilot of which I wouldn't recommend people to buy. But as an EV its an excellent car.