I'm sorry to have to say this, but buying a Tesla in 2024 is a terrible choice - the car is horrible to drive, not to mention customer satisfaction, reliability and ethical concerns.
Hyundai and Polestar are way better electric options that are actually enjoyable and comfortable to drive
No, it is objectively not "horrible" to drive, the Model Y was the world's best selling car two years in a row for a reason.
But OP has clearly received a lemon, and Tesla service has a well-deserved reputation for being extremely slow when they need to fix any non-trivial issue. And in the OP's case buying the car in a country with no official Tesla presence is making things even worse.
> Model Y was the world's best selling car two years in a row for a reason.
I have no idea how it drives, and I am pretty sure the answer is not "horrible", but the sale numbers of a car that is ordered mostly online without test drives doesn't mean anything.
Tesla is the #3 after BMW and Rivian, among brands "ranked on the average percentage of owners who said in CR member surveys that they would buy the same vehicle again."
Reports can vary depending of the duration of the reliability period.
A while ago we saw here on HN a report from Danish mandatory technical inspection that showed that Model 3 were failing inspection much more than other EVs.
Reliability is a bit vague, it also depends on your mode of purchase (new, second hand) and how long you plan to keep your vehicle. People who only lease cars and swap them every 4 years need a reliable car out of the factory but don't care if everything start to fall appart after 5 to 6 years. People who keep cars for 10 to 20 years or who buy second hand have different requirements. The later will likely buy cars that would have already been fixed in a recall but need a car whose parts are cheap, easily serviceable by an independent mechanic and whose general reliability is good in the long term.
Nobody's complaining about the reliability of 20-year-old Teslas because the first Model S rolled off the assembly line in 2012. (Yes, I know, Roadsters are older, but they're modded Lotus Elises.)
The handling - the car understeers, every model I've driven (S, 3 and Y). I've not driven a X or truck (which I suspect have the same problem) or the Roadster (which I suspect doesn't since it's basically a Lotus with electric power train).
An slight over steering car is far easier to drive.
I thought these are inherent in electric cars (because of the heavy batteries) until I've driven a Polestar which is super nicely balanced - almost the best handling consumer car I've driven since the Baby Benz (yeah I'm that old), so it can be done.
Tesla is aware of the problem and they tried to fix it with torque vectoring in some variants.
Sure, they will go well on a long stretch of straight highway, which is what americans care about, but it's a different story in curvy european roads.
Around here, I’ve been seeing a lot of non-Tesla EVs. There’s also a lot of Teslas (mostly 3s and Ys). There’s a few Cybertrucks. I’m not a fan of their aesthetics, personally.
Some of the Hyundais look neat. That company has come a long way.
I was behind a brand-new Tesla Model S, a few months ago. Looked like about a $90K trim package.
The trunk was slightly out of line. Probably not enough to affect the seals, but plainly visible.
It would likely have taken two minutes with an Allen wrench to fix, and the fact that a car costing that much, was allowed to leave the factory in that condition, does not speak well for their QC.
While I understand the trepidation of supporting an organization whose leader openly makes Nazi salutes, I would not assume that South Korean chaebol leaders or Chinese conglomerate business owners have any better ideals.
Volvo’s owner is a front man for the Chinese government, who are supposedly not averse to ethnic cleansing, as far as I have read.
Hyundai and Polestar are way better electric options that are actually enjoyable and comfortable to drive