2020 Tesla Model 3
This year drew an ordinary 445 complaints for a Tesla Model 3 — the model's median is 415. What they were about is the unusual part: 7% of them mention restraint, against 2.8% across the model's other years.
Generation 1 of the Tesla Model 3, which began in 2017. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 445 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 415 |
| Involving a crash | 53 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 21 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 130 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- restraint — 7% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the model's other years (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: restraint, fault, restraint system, safety restraint.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
Got a front passenger safety restraint system fault issue that Tesla wants me to pay for repair.
An error 'Front passenger safety restraint system fault' came up that seems to be a very common issue with someone people paying $1500 to nothing to fix.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 22V037000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 21V834000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V835000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 22V045000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 21V389000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V00D000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 21V387000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 21V846000 FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 21. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Tesla Model 3 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2020 Tesla Model 3? What happened to yours?
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