Survey of UK drivers says Tesla Model S is most unreliable car

The
Tesla Model S.
Tesla

• UK motoring magazine What Car? surveyed more than
  18,000 car owners to establish the reliability of 159 models
  across 31 brands.
• The Tesla Model S proved the least reliable and was
  given a score of just 50.9%.
• Owners identified issues with the cars’ electrical
  systems and bodywork.
• “Just over half of the cars were out of action for at
  least a week and some fixes cost more than £1500,” What Car?
  said about the Model S.

More than 18,000 car owners in the UK identified the Tesla
Model S as the least reliable car out of 31 brands and 159
model.

Motoring magazine What
Car? gave the Tesla Model S a reliability rating of
just 50.9%, with owners identifying issues with the
car’s electrical systems and bodywork.

The car’s “electric powertrain is proving reliable,” What
Car? said, but owners reported bent seat frames, broken door
handles, and failures with parking sensors.

What Car? factored in how much cars cost to repair and how
long they were off the road for. When it came to the Tesla Model
S, “Just over half of the cars were out of action for at least a
week and some fixes cost more than £1500,” What Car?
reported.

41% of the Tesla Model S cars owned by those who responded
to the survey had faults. Of those, 30% had issues with bodywork,
19% had issues with non-engine electrics, and 7% had issues with
the interior trim.

Another 4% of these owners identified issues with battery,
brakes, steering, and the wheels and tires.

Tesla’s Model S, first released in 2012, was the second car
that Tesla ever produced and made waves in the industry, becoming
the first car without a combustion engine to win
Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award. 

While the Model S was placed in What Car?’s electric and
hybrid cars category, it received the lowest score out of
any car in any category.

It was 16.4 percentage points behind the second least
reliable car, the Land Rover Range Rover.

What Car? asked owners about car trouble they had faced in
the past 12 months, and ranked cars that were up to four years
old.

The overall most reliable car was the Toyota Taris, which was
given a reliability score of 100%.

The most reliable electric car, the category that the Tesla
Model S is included, was the Nissan Leaf, which was given a
score of 99.7%. 

Overall, What Car? found “that it is Japanese models that
continue to dominate the top of the reliability rankings, both
for car model and brand rankings,” according to a statement from
Editor Steve Huntingford. 

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