Last year, Tesla won a recommendation for the Model 3 thanks to a last-minute upgrade to its braking software. But on Thursday, the magazine rescinded its endorsement of the vehicle due to poor results in its customer survey.
“Model 3 owners in our spring survey sample reported some body hardware and in-car electronics problems, such as the screen freezing, which we have seen with other Tesla models,” wrote ‘s Patrick Olsen.
“The vast majority of these issues have already been corrected through design and manufacturing improvements, and we are already seeing a significant improvement in our field data,” a Tesla spokesperson told in an emailed statement.
Tesla continues to lead all other car manufacturers in the ranking of owner satisfaction. But that wasn’t enough to secure the magazine’s recommendation for the Model 3.
People who responded to the survey cited a number of different problems.
“The touch screen would intermittently begin acting as if someone was touching it rapidly at many different points,” one member wrote. “This fault would cause music to play, volume to increase to maximum, and… rescale and pan the map in the navigation system.”
Some respondents reported unexplained cracks in the rear window—a problem that observed with one of its own test vehicles. Others pointed to issues with vehicle paint or trim.
This isn’t the first time has dinged Tesla for reliability problems. Back in 2015, the magazine gave the Model S such a high rating that it had to recalibrate its rating scale. But a subsequent survey found that newer Model S vehicles had more problems than earlier ones. Consumer reports rescinded its recommendation for the Model S later in 2015.
