Tesla: “People keep buying our cars, must not be an issue”
Fan People: “Tesla is the future”
Silent Majority: “Yeah, I’m just gonna keep waiting for a normal car maker to release an electric car”
Nissan, a normal car maker, released a huge number of Leafs with improperly implemented battery cooling and battery charge/storage voltage management systems, which resulted in terrible cycle life and drops in range capacity in the 1st and 2nd generation Leafs.
They warranted those, though, right? Meanwhile, I'm still driving our first-gen Leaf here in the mild weather of the Pacific Northwest (granted, ten years later that battery isn't at its best anymore). EMMC doesn't care about what the weather is like in your neighborhood.
Yeah, you're right. Which only makes it worse. My original point was that those in Anchorage suffer just like those in Phoenix. But perhaps those in Phoenix have comfy, air-conditioned batteries but persistent storage that fries in the heat.
Toyota every year since 1980: "Don't worry guys the new truck frames won't rust out, also sorry last year's truck frames rusted out it was out supplier's fault"
People on the internet: "Warlords in Africa like the Hilux, the only truck they have a supply chain for, therefore every Toyota truck and SUV must be great"
80% of Toyotas ever made are still on the road[0]. I know plenty of people who drive Toyotas older than they are. I have high doubts most Teslas won't be bricked by poor software within the decade.
80% of Toyotas ever made are still on the road[0].
...the rest made it home. But in seriousness, that's exactly what I've been thinking in general, and especially reading this article: Teslas aren't going to age well. I hope I'm wrong, because I don't wish mechanical failure on anyone's car, but even Toyotas get a little loose with one or two hundred thousand miles. What's going to happen to those one-off production line mods to get the car out the door ten years from now? Now we're seeing eMMC failures for which Tesla is trying to charge the customer (seems those that can afford a Model S could easily afford a lawyer, too; but I digress). I don't have a smoking gun to point to, but much like code smell these just don't smell like devices that you'll pass on to your kid when she gets her license ten years down the road.
It takes something beyond hubris to trust a dealer's claim on an issue like that.
The OEMs are always creating crafted studies to underlying claims like that for their advertising campaigns. Dodge was running a similiar claim in their ads awhile back.
I've often wondered if 80% of everything isn't still on the road. Depending on one's source, 70% of Harley-Davidson motorcycles are still on the road. Not only does Harley go back over 100 years, they made some real shit over the years (hello, 70s AMC Harleys). But if 70% of those are still running, I have no problem believing 80% of just about any make of vehicle are still going.
