qwk said:
The Model S has had it's share of problems, but you must be new to the internet or cars in general, if you think that no car manufacturer has problems. Every car made has "something" that is poorly engineered.
Nope. Started using web browsers when NCSA Mosiac was still being used and when Netscape Navigator, SLIP and PPP connections were new. Was using both the browsers frequently on X terminals (but eventually could use it on my own Windows machine). Yahoo didn't even have its own .com domain yet (was at akebono.stanford.edu) and Altavista was
the search engine. I remember still using some Gopher sites and I think I might've even had to telnet to CD Now. I also sometimes had to use the text-only (!) browser Lynx on Unix machines. Was using Internet email w/machines w/live connection to the Internet (not via BBSes that called others periodically to exchange mail) in 1992. Did software QA of web browsers for a living from 1997 to 2004.
As for new to cars... nope. Started driving ~22 or 23 years ago. Parents have owned cars before I was born. Used some of their cars from them until I was given a hand me down in 97. Replaced it w/the first car I bought w/my own money in late 01 (an 02 Nissan Maxima). I was active on maxima.org back then and later on my350z.com (when I bought an 04 350Z in late 03). Those along w/freshalloy.com were amongst the car forums I was semi-active to active on.
I've had the "pleasure" of experiencing the not very reliable GM cars my parents used to have.
I already stated what I've seen for Priuses since I've been following them since late 05 before buying my own in 06, including the intro of a new generation (Gen 3 aka ZVW30, that began w/model year 2010), 2 brand new cars (Prius c and Prius v wagon) along w/the PiP.
I've also been following the Leaf for awhile so I'm familiar w/its problems, including those of its 1st model year (2011).
I never said that any automakers have no problems. My point is that I've seen what reliable looks like for a very large vehicle population, including those of 1st model years and brand new vehicles. I've also seen what much worse that average reliability (in Consumer Reports) for the 1st model year of the Chevy Cruze looks like by chatter on cruzetalk.com. I've also seen in between (e.g. 03 350Z wasn't so good, esp. its manual transmission and its other problem spots (e.g. infamous front tire feathering) were pretty accurately reflected in Consumer Reports of the time).
qwk said:
High performance cars have a higher drivetrain failure rate than econoboxes. Since the Model S motor puts out about 4X the power of the leaf and prius, I'm not really surprised there has been some replacements. It seems like most of the replacements are for a little bit of noise that the inverter makes. Please show me any 416hp powerplant that is silent if you disagree.
There are plenty of reliable cars that aren't econoboxes and have 200+ hp.
For the 287 hp 04 350Z that I had from late 03 until mid-2011 and put on ~53K miles on in terms of drivetrain related problems: 0 transmission problems, oil seepage developed around a valve cover (fixed under warranty) and I apparently experienced the infamous "axle click" (fixed under warranty as there was a TSB). I guess you could call the gas gauge becoming inaccurate a drivetrain problem even though it's arguably electrical. Eventually, filling the tank never got the needle quite to full. That was it for drivetrain, IIRC.
Many of the problems I've seen on the Model S aren't powertrain related either (e.g. windshield stress cracks supposedly w/o any rock chips, pano roof problems) and some come from unnecessary self-inflicted complexity (external door handle problems, doors opening by themselves, electrical glove box release, etc.)
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