Japanese brands in the lead – Tesla ends up far behind

In the used car rankings of an American consumer protection portal, Tesla took one of the last places. Japanese brands secured the top positions.

For a long time, Tesla was considered a technological pioneer by many electric car fans – especially because of its extremely controversial “autopilot”. However, the brand's cars are still not fully autonomous, which is why Tesla is now even facing legal problems. The quality of the electric cars is not always the best either: recently, all Cybertrucks had to be recalled because of a strange error. Botched repairs to Teslas are also a recurring topic on social media. Now a US consumer protection portal has evaluated the reliability of used cars – and Tesla found itself in the end.

Used cars aged five to ten years: Tesla ends up far behind

The evaluation of Consumer Reports (CR) The reliability of used cars is based on the experiences of owners of five to ten year old vehicles. For the ranking, cars built between 2014 and 2019 from 26 brands were evaluated – Tesla is the only pure electric car manufacturer in the comparison.

Consumer advocates see the main reason for Tesla's ranking as too little faulty technology

The Model S, first launched in 2012, and the Model X, available since 2015, were Tesla's first big steps into the automotive world. Consumer Reports points out that these early models of the US manufacturer were equipped with a lot of new technology that had not yet been sufficiently tested. Many owners reported CR of problems with the electric drive motor, the battery and the infotainment hardware. These defects lead to high repair costs and a poor placement in the used car ranking.

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At the top of the used car ranking: Japanese manufacturers

The top rankings in the CR-Ranking was secured exclusively by Japanese brands: Lexus, Toyota and Mazda took the positions 1 to 3. This good result is according to Consumer Reports This is mainly due to the car manufacturer's conservative approach to introducing new technologies. They tended to rely on proven technology and gradual improvements, which was usually reflected in the increased reliability of their vehicles.

BMW is the best German manufacturer in the CR-Used car ranking at 7th place. Mercedes (10th place), VW (14th place and Audi (16th place) are in the middle field.