Want a used car that works? You’d be wise to not get an older Tesla.
In Consumer Reports’ latest ranking for used cars, the Elon Musk-run automaker came dead last in terms of reliability, trailing by over forty points from the top spot on a scale between 0 and 100.
CR’s tests focused on models that are between five to ten years old. Out of 26 tested brands, the two best brands, according to CR’s reliability verdict, are held by Lexus, with a score of 77, and Toyota, with a score of 73. Fellow Japanese automakers Mazda, Honda, and Acura round out the top five with scores between 58 and 53.
Things get dire when US carmakers enter the fray. All but one of the bottom ten brands in the list are American. The best of the worst was Chevrolet at a score of 40. But Tesla makes that failing grade seem respectable with its absolute rock bottom rating of 31, trailing Jeep by just one point.
The embarrassing ranking is a reflection of the automaker’s manufacturing woes and its reputation for questionable quality control. CR calculated the reliability rating based on a survey where users reported problems about their cars, which in all involved more than140,000 cars from the 2016 to 2021 model years. The problems are weighed based on their severity, CR said, and from there, the number of problems each car experiences is compared to the average number of problems for cars of that same model year.
For new cars, the reliability picture looked much different for Tesla: it jumped in CR’s ranking from 18th place to 9th, based on an analysis of the last three years of car models. Even this victory, though, came with an embarrassing wrinkle: the Cybertruck. According to CR, Tesla’s most reliable new car, the Model Y, boasted a stellar score of 81. But the infamously troubled pickup wasn’t even half that, with a rating of just 34. In other words, it’s less reliable than any other type of Tesla that’s been on the road for ten years already.
That’s hardly surprising. The Cybertruck, which Musk boasted would be “apocalypse-proof” and capable of stopping bullets, has already been recalled a staggering ten times in barely just two years of being sold. (It’s also not bulletproof.)
The issues it’s been recalled for are even more of a blemish. In March, Tesla recalled nearly every single Cybertruck ever sold at that point — which wasn’t a particularly huge number, to be fair — after it discovered that its trademark stainless steel body panels could fly off while driving because of the shoddy glue used to hold them in place. It also faced a recall for literally losing power while driving, and another for its accelerator pedal getting stuck in the down position.
CR isn’t the only automotive tester to find faults with the cars. The Cybertruck broke down in the middle of being trialed by reviewers at the car site and marketplace Edmunds, leaving them stranded in the parking lot.
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