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Comment by LanceJones | Hacker News Reader

Not that they shouldn't address quality issues that persist over many cars, but the demand curve and customer satisfaction ratings suggest Tesla doesn't need to focus heavily on class-leading quality (yet).

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Public sentiment can change pretty quickly. Combine halfass build quality with halfass repair service, and "bought once, it was a massive headache to repair, still didn't work, won't buy again" is a common customer story. It'll be hard to come back from that.

Similarly, people getting hyped up on finally getting a new car, a Tesla. Only to have to take it in after 1 day and being told it would be 2-3 weeks to service it. Then having to take it back in for service again less than a month old, only to be told there's no parts, it will be another 2-3 weeks...

People can go from mega hype-person to mega detractor quite fast.

Yep. I was an early adopter, but now when people ask if I’d recommend buying a Model 3 my answer has changed to that I probably wouldn’t in 2022, mostly due to shoddy build quality and subpar service experiences.

It affects vehicles especially. There are whole generations of people who will never buy a Harley or a British-branded car or a Fiat because of how absolutely shithouse they were in the 70s through mid-nineties (well not the British cars, because they went bankrupt).

Those sentiments trail any actual improvements for a long time.

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