Regardless of the growing litany of mechanical errors being recorded against Tesla motors, owners seem to love their luxury rides all the same. Tesla car owners are showing they are in a for-better-for-worse relationship with their cars even as reviewers identify tens of quality issues with the cars. The truth, however, remains that it is not clear whether the upcoming Tesla Model 3 EV will be generally accepted by consumers if it happens to have a litany of quality issues like its predecessors.
According to a report released by J.D Power and Associates, Tesla's Models S and X cars are hallmarks of several mechanical issues, yet owners love them all the same. Both the battery and the all-electric vehicles are seen as status cars of luxury regardless of their quality issues, and this is largely because people are developing a kind of cult following for Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, SpaceX and Solar City among other companies. Despite the fact that consumers spend over $100,000 on Tesla cars, the purchase of the cars seems to be on the increase despite several reported quality issues, Forbes wrote.
It seems the more reviewers are finding faults with Tesla's Model S and X vehicles among others, the more rich consumers are going for them. According to Kathleen Rizk, the director of global automotive consulting at J.D Power, one would have thought that the mixed reviews heaped on Tesla's battery and electric vehicles would have generated negative brand perception among consumers, but this is never the case because the brand's sales continue to be on the increase. The higher the cost and expectations people have for Tesla cars, the more they seem to understand when negative reviews surface about their purchases.
The journal Consumer Reports in 2015 noted that Tesla Model S was not recommended for purchase due to reduced reliability, yet this downgraded score did not really affect the total sales of the cars for that given year. The reason for this among others is not far-fetched: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has developed a cult following, according to NBC News. This cult following can be likened to the kind that late Apple's CEO Steve Jobs enjoyed during his lifetime with Apple's products.
That is not all; people who buy Tesla cars regard themselves as "early adopters of new technology" and pioneers of latest auto techs, Rizk noted. To this extent, they take negative reviews about their purchases in good strides and care little about such reviews when they do not personally experience the faults listed. It is however not certain if customers will be immune to any quality issues with the Tesla Model 3 EV, which will be mass-produced and cost less than the others, and set to debut by July this year in the US.
