Good News
A happy owner’s 6 year review.
from northern Wisconsin to Utah, mostly via I-80 this time, and Tesla is still the only brand of EVs that can make that trip with very little thought on where to charge.
- the only two repair/service items besides tires in nearly 3 years has been $112 for the 12-volt battery and $294 to fix a problem with my seatbelts. *
However, new Teslas use a small, much longer-life lithium-ion battery for this purpose.
The $64,000 question on everyone’s mind about an EV of this age and mileage is: what’s the state of the $15,000 drive battery?
The EPA range of my car was given as 310 miles when new. When your Tesla is charging, you used to be able set the charge limit to 100% and your car gave you a battery range estimate. However, with the latest software update, I have to actually charge to 100% to get the estimate. Mine is reading 250 miles just now. 310 − 250 = 60 miles, 60/310 = ~19% battery loss at 164,595 miles. Is that good? I don’t know. If I am really going to keep the car for another 10 years and 250,000 miles, and if the battery continues to degrade at the same rate, cross-country travel will become more difficult. However, I would be 95 years old then and cross-country travel may be out of the picture.
Odometer/Range/Range Loss
- 164,595/250/19%
- 150,000/261/15%
- 138,856/271/12.5%
- 122,000/280/9.6%
- 112,00/285/8%
- 90,000/278/10%
- 0/310/0% EPA range when new, but I never measured it myself.
It all lines up except the 90,000 miles estimate, which I can’t explain.
It also has some small dings that look like bugs where the paint has chipped. I would have to had installed an ugly front-end bra to avoid those chips. However, a new front facia for $650 would give me a brand-new front surface. I have the standard black vegan leather seats which still look perfect. The car has two USB charging outlets under the front console which are no longer working. Fortunately, it has two in the back of the car which still work, so we plug our phones in there. Also, my steering wheel is pealing a bit.
The owner is on the 5th set tires getting 30K per set. The owner is buying the cheapest available tires. Better more expensive tires will get more mileage but with how more more cost. The owner took the cheapest price path.
There is a complete list of expenses of the EV. The owner is aiming at getting 500K mile out of the vehicle. Personally I question whether the range will hold up. It may become just an errand vehicle.
On long distance driving using Tesla super chargers roughly equates to an ICE vehicles. But using home charging is a BIG savings.
Lastly the owners has spent $17000 on auto insurance.
Bad News
organizations that evaluate the safety and quality of a variety of products and systems. It is a widely respected independent evaluator.
TÜV has just published its 2026 reliability report, and it included a thorough assessment of electric vehicles for the first time. Echoing concerns that rental car companies and fleet companies have shared in past, TÜV found that the Tesla Model Y had shockingly bad reliability — the worst in the industry in a decade . It had a 17.3% defect rate for cars 2–3 years old, the worst TÜV recorded in the auto industry in 10 years.
The Model 3 also didn’t do well, with a 13.1% defect rate. That made it the third worst car tested, with only the Ford Mondeo between it and the Model Y at the bottom. But what is this out of, 15 vehicles? 20? 30? Nope. The evaluation covered 110 different models in the 2–3 year old car category.
Now, I have to say, it crossed my mind throughout the article that some Tesla fans will claim this is all part of a big legacy Germany auto conspiracy against Tesla and the evaluation was rigged. Looking at how the study is conducted, and how long it’s been going on, it’s hard to give even an ounce of weight to that idea. Of course, that won’t keep some people (probably many people) from making the claim.