‘The car is a lemon’: Die-hard EV fan takes Tesla to NCAT after five-year ordeal with $93,000 Model S

An Aussie mum is seeking a refund from Tesla after a five-year ordeal with her $93,000 Model S, marked by dozens of failures and downright “weird” glitches.

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A NSW mum-of-three and diehard electric vehicle supporter is seeking a refund from Tesla after a five-year ordeal with her $93,000 Model S, saying while it’s “the best car I will ever own” it has “also been the most terrifyingly unreliable”.

Anne Bishop, from Nambucca Heads on the mid-north coast, purchased the second-hand 2015 Model S 70 from Tesla in 2018 but began experiencing problems within weeks of purchase.

Over the past five-and-a-half years, Ms Bishop says the car has experienced 12 major failures and more than two dozen minor failures, requiring towing on four occasions up to 500 kilometres each time.

“The bottom line is it’s a lemon,” she said.

“I don’t know why they can’t just take it back. I do think my experience with my car is unique. I’ve met so many people with a Model S that have never [had any of these issues].”

Ms Bishop, who is “passionate about sustainable technology” and has been a fan of EVs since her first electric motorbike in 2008, lodged a case with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) last month seeking a “substantial” partial refund from Tesla.

“I love my car,” she said.

“It is the best car I will ever own, but it has also been the most terrifyingly unreliable. I don’t want to drive anything else. I just want to be able to rely on my car to do what it is intended to do — drive.”

Anne Bishop is taking Tesla to NCAT over her ‘lemon’ Model S. Picture: Supplied

In one instance she “had to climb in the passenger window, seven months pregnant when multiple door handles failed”, according to Ms Bishop.

“It has broken down on me on the way home from ED with my son, ultimately requiring towing due to yet another MCU [media control unit] failure,” she said.

With three young children aged two, four and seven all with “varying degrees of disability”, Ms Bishop is far from souring on Tesla or EVs as a whole.

“We’ve even gone ahead and bought a Tesla battery for the house while this was going on and replaced my husband’s old ICE car with a Model Y,” she said.

“It’s a leap of faith but we believe in the technology.”

When it works, she says driving her Tesla is “brilliant”.

“They’ve changed the future of transportation,” she said.

“I think autopilot has saved our lives. It’s probably the one singular reason we went for another Tesla. I genuinely do think it’s saved our lives, we’re so sleep-deprived. It does need supervising like a toddler with scissors — on occasion it tries to drive you off the road for no good reason. But the cognitive load it takes off your shoulders, it makes long drives in particular much more enjoyable and relaxing.”

In her 16-page NCAT complaint, Ms Bishop accuses Tesla of repeatedly misrepresenting Australian Consumer Law, failing to keep adequate records of fault logs and express warranties, keeping the majority of communication unwritten and refusing to put statements in writing, and failing to provide certain documentation about the car’s maintenance.

“As much as I believe in Tesla’s vision for the future of transportation, I would not have purchased this car, had I known how unreliable it would be, nor how dishonest Tesla would repeatedly be,” she wrote.

Tesla’s standard warranty period is four years.

‘It is the best car I will ever own, but also the most terrifyingly unreliable.’ Picture: Supplied

The car had two warranties, a nose-to-tail warranty which expired in November 2022, and battery and drive-train warranty which expired in November 2023.

Under Australian Consumer Law, consumer guarantee rights — which may be more extensive than the manufacturer’s warranty — can apply if a major failure occurs outside the warranty period.

Ms Bishop said while she always expected there would be “road bumps” with new technology, she finally had enough and thought “oh gosh, this is ridiculous” when the car broke down two months out of warranty “on a busy road at rush hour with three small kids and a dog in the car”.

Tesla found the rear drive motor had failed, as well as the RH master charger.

The MCU, essentially the brain of the car, has also suffered continual malfunctions and failures since purchase and continues to malfunction despite being repaired three times, according to Ms Bishop.

“It’s never worked properly,” she said. “It throws the most random errors. I go and park it sometimes and come back to find a window open. So many weird, random things, individually they’re minor but the fact it’s been five-and-a-half years without a diagnosis is just weird.”

Tesla ultimately paid to replace the drive unit at a cost of about $10,000, but Ms Bishop had to pay to replace the RH master charger and the MCU, which she says is still not working properly.

“I paid $8500 to get the car back,” she said.

Later going back over her home battery charging logs, she noticed what appeared to be issues with the RH master charger as early as August 2022 — within the warranty period — but noted the car “never pushed any notifications of this failure” which was also not identified by Tesla during an end-of-warranty service in October 2022.

Elon Musk said Tesla ‘won’t forget’ early adopters who ‘took a risk’. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

She further alleges that after a minor scrape with a traffic cone just after purchase, a panel beater found evidence that “rats had been nesting in the car”.

“Given this was not detected by Tesla prior to the supply of this vehicle, I do not believe they met their own express warranty and misleadingly portrayed that this vehicle had passed the [Certified Pre-Owned] Standard,” she said in her complaint.

She is seeking a refund of the $8500 repair bill plus a partial refund of $75,000 for the car purchase.

A mediation on Friday was unsuccessful and the case has been set for a full hearing.

Ms Bishop has been asked to provide NCAT with an independent expert report, which could cost her up to $3000.

In her complaint, Ms Bishop cites statements made by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk “regarding the longevity, durability and quality of engineering and manufacturing in Tesla cars” as contributing to her decision to purchase the car, as well as “express warranties” implied in his online comments.

“Wanted to say thanks to all that own or ordered a Tesla,” Mr Musk said in one tweet cited in the complaint. “It matters to us that you took a risk on a new car company. We won’t forget.”

Ms Bishop said if she were Tesla “and this had been the experience of one of my customers, I’d be giving them a new car, a full refund and an apology”.

“My last car was a $13,800 Toyota Echo,” she said.

“It went for 13 years utterly flawlessly, never had so much as an unexpected repair. I expected much better from Tesla. When I bought the car I told [the sales rep] I was happy to keep my Echo for 13 years, I’m sure I’ll be happy to keep this for 20. He said, ‘Absolutely.’”

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

Originally published as ‘The car is a lemon’: Die-hard EV fan takes Tesla to NCAT after five-year ordeal with $93,000 Model S