With a tremendous amount of excitement, well-known tech reviewer Marques Brownlee took ownership of a brand new Tesla Model S P100D this past September. Positioned as Tesla’s top of the line car, the Model S P100D can go from 0-60 MPH in just 2.5 seconds flat. Appropriately, Tesla touts the Model S P100D as the fastest production car in the world.
While Tesla clearly has the speed aspect of car design figured out, the company still appears to be struggling with relatively basic quality control issues. In a new video posted to YouTube, Brownlee — an admitted big Tesla fan — relays that while he loves his Tesla, he’s beginning to grow impatient with what seems like an endless stream of problems.
“Small problems happen a lot in Teslas, it seems, because their manufacturing tolerances aren’t as tight and they’re not as good at quality control,” Brownlee begins.
Turning his attention to his own experience, Brownlee relays that his P100 D, which was one of the first units off of the assembly line, began to see serious problems just five days after picking it up. Specifically, Brownlee noticed that his steering wheel would sporadically malfunction and lock up when taking left turns across traffic, hardly an idea time or place for something to go wrong. When this happens, Brownlee explains that he has to forcefully turn the steering wheel in order to complete the turn.
With his life potentially at risk, Brownlee decided to have Tesla figure out what was going wrong. About two weeks later, Tesla determined that the car needed a new steering rack.
Once a replacement was installed, Brownlee assumed everything was A-ok and began driving the car extensively. However, the problem ultimately resurfaced a few months later when turning across traffic onto a highway.
“That’s a lot to happen to a new expensive car in the first couple thousand miles of ownership,” Brownlee adds.
You can check out Brownlee’s full rundown of his Tesla Model S ownership experience below.
