Complaint volume
640 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2021 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
640 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
640 Total complaints
43 Crash reports
5 Fire reports
16 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are forward collision avoidance, service brakes,forward collision avoidance, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 43 crash reports, 5 fire reports, 16 injury reports, and 3 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 42 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 18,076 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, service brakes,forward collision avoidance, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2021 Tesla Model 3?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2021 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
43 Crash
5 Fire
16 Injury
3 Fatality
37 Towed
18 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 198
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 57
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 53
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 40
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 32
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 18
VISIBILITY/WIPER 12
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 11
SERVICE BRAKES 10
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 10
640 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2024 | AIR BAGS | Front passenger safety restraint system fault alert popping up every few minutes while driving. It is the most irritating thing and there is no way for me to fix it without spending over $500 dollars. This is seemingly a common problem for this make and model through reddit posts and car forums. I was also told by a employee at the tesla service center that they see this very often. It is shocking that Tesla hasn’t taken responsibility in fixing this, when there is nothing any of us could’ve done to have this happen. I’ve seen people get quoted anywhere from $500-2,000 for this exact problem. It is so beyond distracting while driving. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | BACK OVER PREVENTION,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I started receiving messages that the cameras were occluded and that there was an error and ALL of my system safety features were disabled. No front forward collision warnings, no emergency braking available, nothing available and the system computer that showed all of the traffic and everything completely disappeared from the screen, the car has literally gone blind. All of this started happening on with the camera issues in May, but I thought that it was a software issue and would be addressed in the next update, although the critical disengagements were supposed to be sent to Tesla. I took the car to the service center on 9/4/24 at 9am, and they stated that the did a system test and saw that the triple camera was showing a fault and so they replaced the camera and gave it back to me the same day. Everything worked for the rest of that day for a service that took at least 3hours to figure out. Today after I get off of work at 1pm and I go to initiate FSD and I get 3miles from my residence( I live <8mi from my job) and the system disengages again asking me to take over and all of my critical systems have yet again been disabled. My whole safety is compromised at this point yet again. I immediately bring the car back and they tell me that it's going to take them an additional 30-45 mins to "diagnose" the issue although it's the same thing that's been happening that was supposedly fixed yesterday. After that wait time the service consultant comes back and tell me that the car is throwing all kinds of codes and that, "It's still safe to drive." When I told that it cannot be safe to drive if all of the critical systems were disabled he suggested that I take it and they can do a remote log pull so they can look more into the issue or I can leave it as the part that's needed needs to be ordered anyway. I don't know how they can order a part if they're claiming to not know what's wrong with it. Something else is going on that they don't want to take accountability for! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | STEERING,LANE DEPARTURE | lost power steering suddenly on the road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I am writing to file a formal safety complaint regarding a critical malfunction that occurred with my Tesla Model 3 on [XXX], in West Palm Beach, Florida. This incident raises significant concerns about the safety and reliability of Tesla vehicles, particularly following software updates. Incident Overview: On [XXX], around 5:00 PM, I placed my French Bulldog in the back seat of my Tesla Model 3 and closed the passenger side rear door. As I walked around to the driver’s side, all the doors locked automatically, and I was unable to open any of them. Despite multiple attempts to unlock the car using both my iPhone and key fob, the vehicle remained locked. My dog was trapped inside the car, and I became increasingly panicked, especially considering the extreme summer heat in Florida. I immediately contacted Tesla customer service, but after a 15-minute conversation, they were unable to unlock the car remotely. I was forced to call 911, and the fire department had to break the passenger side window to retrieve my dog. Even after the window was broken, the doors still wouldn’t unlock, and I had to pull my dog out through the shattered glass. Additional Details: The car was charged to 80% just a couple of days before this incident. After this incident, the car is completely dead. It is non-functional, and I cannot power it on or access any of its systems. The day before this incident, I completed a software update on my Model 3, which I believe may have caused or contributed to the malfunction. There is CCTV evidence of the entire incident, which I can provide upon request. My dog was severely traumatized by this experience and is now fearful of being in the car, even when it is parked in the garage. I was also extremely distressed during the incident, and the situation could have resulted in a much worse outcome. Please advise on the next steps for an investigation, and let me know if you require any further information or evidence. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | SUSPENSION | While getting a routine tire change, my mechanic alerted me to the fact that nuts were missing from the rear suspension on both sides. On one of them, the bolt had nearly slid out as a result, and could have been very dangerous as it did so. The tires had been rotated at this shop prior to this, and they had not noticed it. So the nuts must have loosened enough to fall out between 21,496 miles on 2/15/2023 and 26,278 miles on 6/16/2023. We never noticed anything out of the ordinary with regards to noise, vibration, or handling. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | SUSPENSION | Without any warning from feel unstable, wobbly, or noisy, my car began pulling hard to the right as I was going straight on a small street. I was going about 10 m-15 miles an hour. My steering wheel did not respond to my efforts to straighten the vehicle and my brakes did not slow the car’s path. I was only stopped by two parked cars on the side of the road that I bounced off of. When I got out, bystanders pointed to the sheared tie rod on the front passenger side. The witnesses stated it was clear from their view that if I had been going faster on a wider street there would have been severe injury Instead of only three cars being damaged. My car was three years old and had passed its annual inspection one week before. The police were called twice but did not come within three hours so the car was towed without a police report. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | SEAT BELTS | Rear left seatbelt randomly stopped latching properly. Seat belt buckle goes into the latch but doesn't stick inside and just slides right out. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Location: 35.084609,-92.414194 While driving through the roundabout north to south on Amity road, the car has twice now applied automatic emergency braking while exiting the roundabout. There is a billboard 200ft from the road with an image of a person on it. The car is confusing that as a person in the road. This has caused my dog to be thrown (thankfully buckled in) and us to almost be rear-ended both times. This is extremely dangerous issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | AIR BAGS | I am writing to report a serious safety concern regarding the non-deployment of airbags during a recent traffic accident. The incident involved a collision where I was struck on the driver’s side front. Despite the severity of the impact, the airbags did not deploy, which raises significant concerns about the effectiveness and reliability of the airbag system in such scenarios. Incident Overview •Accident Type: Collision with impact on the driver’s side front •Airbag Response: No airbag deployment Safety Concerns The non-deployment of the airbags during this incident is alarming, as airbags are a critical safety feature designed to protect occupants during a collision. In this case, the failure of the airbags to activate could have resulted in serious injury or even death, depending on the circumstances. The lack of deployment suggests a potential defect in the airbag system that may compromise the safety of other vehicles of the same make or model. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | SUSPENSION | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed the contact noticed a knocking sound coming from the suspension with no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the vehicle was diagnosed as the front suspension lateral link separated. The contact was informed that the front suspension lateral link needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 51,543. | Crash: No Fire: No | 51,543 |
| Jul 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 MPH, the vehicle experienced phantom braking, causing the contact to lose control of the vehicle. The contact was driving in a rainstorm during the failure and stated that the vehicle had not hydroplaned nor had the accelerator pedal been released. The contact stated there was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure occurred another time during a rainstorm. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a local dealer or independent mechanic. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 74,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 74,000 |
| Jul 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Horn does not work. Seems to be a regular occurrence in this model. SAFETY ISSUE! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2024 | AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS,SEATS | Passenger SRS system fault. Initial error is due to a fault with the occupancy sensor. Presumably disabling or degrading seatbelt pre accident tensioning and proper airbag deployment. Also causes repeated & distracting beeps throughout drive. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Ever since Tesla rolled out an update for everyone to beta test FSD, the adaptive cruise control has been changing speeds when near interstate type exits and entrances. I've had it change from 75 down to 40 mph which is dangerous in traffic. This change in speed some times is just a drop to the next 5mph increment, such as from 73 to 70. Sometimes it is more from 73 to 65 at the same place/exit. It is not consistent. The only thing consistent is it's near exits even when not in an exit lane or nearest lane to the exit. This "Feature" needs to be removed as it is unpredictable which makes it dangerous. Owners manual [XXX] Cruising Near or On Exits INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2024 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | The vehicle, a 2021 Tesla Model 3, had an episode of sudden unintended acceleration. I was almost stationary waiting to make a left when the car accelerated by itself, left the road, crossed a grass field at high speed and crashed into bushes. The vehicle was not on auto pilot, it resulted in damage of almost $ 20.000 as estimated by insurance. The vehicle is available for inspection, it will be checked by Tesla service after the damage is fixed. There were no previous warnings, this is the first incident of this kind. It is not clear what component malfunctioned, probably some electric/electronic device in charge of acceleration. It was obviously a very dangerous event that could have jeopardized my safety and/or some others. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | While driving, no warning, car went dead, no control over lights, windows (can’t use hand signals), power steering, unclear if parking brake worked. Had towed. 12v battery died. No explanation as to why there was no warning. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2024 | SERVICE BRAKES,VISIBILITY/WIPER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla ADAS detects non existent objects and issues collision alerts and phantom brakes randomly if there is no cars in front of the Tesla, braking abruptly and almost getting me into rear end accidents. Tesla ADAS freaks out when making lane changes randomly, shaking violently and giving the driver and its passengers a fishtailing simulation. Auto wiper triggers randomly while it's sunny, distracting the driver and forcing an interaction on the center console to stop it. Auto wiper cannot be turned off as it reengages upon using Tesla ADAS. The rear view camera lags. It stutters and shows me a delayed view. Compounded by the Model 3's very small rear view mirrors and side mirrors, this is incredibly dangerous as I have no way of gaining sufficient visibility of the back of the car. Tesla service told me this is all normal. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I have a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The current owners manual shows how to open the rear doors in the event of loss of power using an emergency latch at the bottom of the door pocket. Our car doesn’t have that latch in the rear doors (though the front doors each have one). This concerns us and we feel it is unsafe for the back seat passengers. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | STEERING | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving approximately 40 MPH, the vehicle made a violent right turn inadvertently crashed into a ditch, and rolled on the driveway. The contact sustained a concision. Medical attention was needed. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a lot. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 44,410. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | 44,410 |
| Apr 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using the Full Self Driving Mode (FSD) the vehicle will randomly and without warning slam on the brakes at highway speeds and decelerate to 30-50mph on an active highway. If the highway is multilane, the car will slow and attempt to change lanes. It appears the vehicle thinks that something is in the road, even if the road is clear. This happens multiple times on my longer road trips, and is very concerning. It did this yesterday with a semi-truck closely behind me. The vehicle has gone into service and I did bring up the issue, but the service team was unable to assist on this issue (screenshots attached). The software currently installed in my vehicle is 2024.3.15, the latest available from Tesla. This issues has been ongoing from every software update I have had in the car however. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | See attached document for complaint | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When using cruise control, auto lane assist and auto pilot, the vehicle will brake or slow down without apparent reason. This can happen suddenly and dramatically. This can happen when there are other cars nearby, but also when there is no other traffic on the road. It is distressing enough when there are no other cars nearby, but can be a hazard when there is other traffic behind me and they have no warning this is happening. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This car, like many Teslas, is experiencing what has been come to be known as phantom braking. When in the autopilot or full self driving, this car will occasionally to frequently, depending on the day, suddenly break where it will decelerate from say 65 mph to 45 or 50 in a very short period of time. This can happen in very busy traffic conditions. It seems to happen when I'm going faster rather than slower. For example, I haven't experienced it so much on City Street. It seems much more prominent on highways. This is an issue that has many YouTube videos about. It has been reported by many Tesla owners as well as the media. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On March 31st, Tesla alerted me that I had been "granted a 30-day complimentary trial of Full Self-Driving" capabilities. They didn't make it clear that the service was automatically enabled (vs. allowing me to opt-in) and did not provide any information about how it operates. Because I have no interest in the service, I didn't click the "Learn More" button in the email. Since the service was turned on, the car has unexpectedly "grabbed" my steering wheel twice while I was driving. I now understand that it's possible that I turned it on without knowing it but, again, I wasn't given any instructions. I was terrified. When I pulled over and tried to find an "off" button, I discovered there is none. When I spoke to Tesla today, I was told that there is no "off" for the service and that all I can do set it to the least invasive setting and "live with it" until the trial period expires on April 30th. I can still feel the car self-adjusting my speed and steering. I remain terrified that it's going to cause an accident. The bottom line: because I've had the car for two years and did not purchase AutoPilot, I KNOW there's a way to disable it entirely. Tesla is simply refusing to do it and using me as a lab rat with no regard for my safety. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My vehicle is 3 years old and has roughly 52000 on it. After a recent software update (within the past month or so) all of the automatic safety features such as automatic braking, blind spot monitoring, cruise control stopped working on the vehicle. I brought it to Tesla and they confirmed the issue and said the entire ECU needs to be replaced, a $2700 expense on a 3 year old car. There is a warning message every time I start the car that says the automatic breaking is not working. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |