After nearly a year and a half of dutiful service, Edmunds has sold its long-term Model S, and the postmortem on their time with the Tesla proves, once again, that building a car from scratch is hard.
Edmunds' wrap up includes the list below, with details of 28 "service campaigns" that were not part of the regularly scheduled maintenance. Their 2013 Model S went through four drive units, a battery replacement and at least one screen replacement, along with replacing all 20 lug nuts when the dealer noticed they "were beginning to swell". That's a new one on us.
Edmunds points out that its 2013 example was an early production model, so several of the fixes were made as running changes on later models, and that most of the repairs were made during the same dealer visit, with only two of those requiring the car to be left overnight. But for a scant 17 months, that's a laundry list of repairs, and Edmunds sums it up thusly:
Bottom Line: The Model S is a fast, comfortable and technologically brilliant luxury sedan, but numerous problems with its touchscreen, tires and drivetrain make it hard to recommend.
Photo: Edmunds