An Open Letter to Tesla about the Model S and Model X

PREFACE

I love the Model S. I've driven nothing but P2's since 2021. The car looks amazing, and it's really easy to feel like the king of the road in it.

But I frequently find myself jealous or envious of people with a 3 or Y. But why would someone in an S or X, the "luxury" Teslas be jealous of a car half the price?

Let me tell you.

NVH is very bad

I won't mince words: I've fixed 17 rattles in my Model S and there are more. I probably fixed just as many in my last P2. The center console rattles and speaker grille rattles seem impossible to 100% fix.

There is currently paper towel stuffed in my rear air vent to keep stop a rattle that I was billed >$300 for Tesla to reproduce and say "we don't cover it since the part isn't broken." For $300 it would have been nice for them to put the paper towel back after they reproduced.

Even with the 17 fixed, it's still not as solid or quiet as the average 3 or Y now rolling off the line. Between Tesla service and myself there's probably >24 man hours just in addressing NVH.

Non-existent issue → fix pipeline

Most of the NVH issues I had on my 2021-produced S have the exact same problems in my 2024.

For example, two of the most common issues that appear to affect every P2 model S are still not fixed in the P3: bash plate creaking, and the rear seat latch rattles. Even worse, there is no fix at all for the rear seat latch rattles. Mine are still wrapped in tape. A $100,000 car shouldn't have tape wrapped around the seat strikers making it difficult to put the seats down when necessary. Meanwhile, the model Y at half the price they go down automatically.

The Ask

Many of us can live without steer by wire, 800v charging, even V2G/V2L despite the model Y once again getting something the luxury models lack. It is a hard pill to swallow to own and drive around the luxury models that feel like the cheap models. Redesign the parts that need redesigning. Stop refusing to fix rattles that shouldn't exist in the first place.