Complaint volume
412 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
2023 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
412 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2023 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
412 Total complaints
70 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
36 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, steering, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 70 crash reports, 1 fire report, 36 injury reports, and 1 fatality report. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 39 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 14,505 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, steering, unknown or other?
- 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 2023 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.
2023 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2023 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
70 Crash
1 Fire
36 Injury
1 Fatality
56 Towed
26 Medical attention
What are the most common 2023 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 76
STEERING 51
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 28
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 20
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 20
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 14
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 11
STRUCTURE 10
VISIBILITY/WIPER 9
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 8
412 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2023 | SEAT BELTS | After Tesla upgraded their insurance driving behavior to raise rate when the driver side seat belt is not engaged; the car doesn’t warn the driver through visual or audio alert about driver side seat belt not engaged. The car clearly indicates if any of the passenger seat is not engaged; but not for driver side. I had driven for many miles until I realized seat belt was not engaged and car never alerted me. I have already created a service request with Tesla but I feel this is just not an isolated incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | Autopilot now requires so much force to confirm you have your hands on the wheel it’s disengages causing rapid deceleration and steering into the other lane or shoulder. Also requires confirmation at times when the driver should be looking at mirrors when passing etc instead of watching the display. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the recent rear drive unit internal part failure in my new Tesla Model 3. The incident has left me fearful that this issue may occur again, and I am genuinely worried for my safety. I implore you and all the employees at Tesla to be honest and transparent about this defect or failure. The gravity of the situation became apparent when I realized how fortunate I was that the car did not come to a halt on the train tracks. The potential consequences could have been catastrophic, not only for myself but also for the passengers on the train. It is alarming to think that such a dangerous situation could arise in a vehicle that is merely five months old. This level of negligence is unacceptable. The rear drive unit failed and the car stopped. I was instructed to reset. I did it twice but still not working. I am lucky it happened on a not busy street and was able to steer the car to the side of the road before it became disabled. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | Ever since I purchased my 2023 Tesla model 3 I have periodically experienced a phenomenon widely referred to on the web as "phantom braking". Google it (though you probably already know about it). When it makes the biggest impression on me is when I am driving at over 50 MPH on an open highway and the car suddenly slows down, to the extent that it feels like someone is applying the brakes. Every time it happened in recent memory there were no cars in front of me for hundreds if not thousands of feet, which is why it's surprising because there has never been an apparent reason for the sudden deceleration. Instinctively, I look in the rear view mirror to see if anyone is behind me because if someone were relatively close behind me such a sudden slow down could, IMO, cause an accident - or at least alarm the other driver enough to slam on their brakes. Having read about phantom braking I believe that Tesla removed the traditional LIDAR (or equivalent) technology used by other car makers for adaptive speed control or a similar feature, and instead relies solely on cameras to make judgements. This decision, IMO, has led to a dangerous weakness in the reliability of Tesla's cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Autosteer was engaged while approaching Weatherford, OK on I40 - Sporadically, the vehicle slammed on the brakes, even though nothing was in front of me, and nothing was behind. The vehicle dropped in speed by almost 20 mph. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | WHEELS | Found wheel with 8000 miles with no damage form potholes or anything of the shorts to have a crack. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | STEERING,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | Summary: FSD malfunctioned, failed to disengage, causing loss of steering control, thus causing car to steer into wrong lane and resulting in an accident. Tesla Service Center refused to inspect unless car is fixed. Car was sent to Crash Champions ( autobody shop) and was quoted $35k to fix. Car was deemed as totaled by Tesla insurance. No response from fsdbeta@tesla.com I suspect that the latest FSD software update has caused my car to lose control. Time of incident: 19:28 pm Location : [XXX] , [XXX] Entering from [XXX] . Weather condition: Clear night, well lit. Low traffic. What happened:
My car has been driving in FSD on Lawrence Expressway and it was doing everything correctly. Approaching that upcoming tight bend, the FSD slowed down the car, and I took over by steering the steering wheel to the right to deactivate FSD and taking the tight turn, right before the white rows of triangles on the street. At this moment, the steering wheel forcibly turned to the opposite direction (i.e. left). I tried to correct the steering wheel by turning right even more, but the steering wheel wasn’t responding to my input for a split second. At this moment, my car is now on the wrong lane of Wildwood Ave and my car finally responded to my steering input. I had to swerve in the opposite direction to avoid the incoming traffic and ended up brushing against an SUV, followed by an impact on the curb, before finally slowing down. Seeing that there was incoming traffic from the back, I drove down to a residential street to park my car for safety reason. The SUV driver called the police to handle the situation, we had our information and testimonies recorded down. I have already followed the safe practices of driving with FSD according to the manual, but in this situation, I am not certain which technology is responsible for causing my car to override my manual steering input. This led to me to question the driver safety systems in this car. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | STEERING | On 12-2-23, I started to feel my steering wheel getting stiff while driving.The car started to feel unsafe to drive as it was very difficult to steer to the point that I ended up being unable to turn and hit a curb on two occasions. On 12-3-23, I started getting alerts in my vehicle about traction control being disabled, automatic emergency braking unavailable, stability control disabled and that I needed to schedule a service center appointment. I dropped my vehicle off at a Tesla service center as I felt that the car was unsafe to drive because turning was very difficult. The service center diagnosed my car and indicated that my steering rack needed replacing along with a wheel alignment. It was not covered by my warranty as the service center believed that the issue was due to impact because of the curbs that I hit. However, these issues occurred prior to the impact and the curb hits were a result of the failing steering rack. I purchased my vehicle on 6-17-23, and it was manufactured at the end of 05-23. My vehicle had 10k miles on it before the steering rack needed replacing. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When using Cruise control the car will brake suddenly even when there is no obstacle in front. This happens often. The phantom braking can be dangerous if someone is following at freeway speeds and not expecting the car ahead to brake. Also, when using cruise control the windshield wipers are automatically placed on auto. The windshield wipers will then go on and off as the sunlight changes, when no precipitation is evident. We often have to pause cruise control because the windshield wipers will not stop. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | When I was trying to park my Tesla Model 3 car it suddenly accelerated and hit a parked car in front of me. I took the car to the repair shop and told them the situation. My reason for the accident didn’t make sense to them so I stated that I may have pressed accelerator instead of brakes but I know that I didn’t press the accelerator. My car has been at the repair shop since 10/14/2023. So, far no one from the Tesla Motors, Inc. came to investigate the claim. Even if they repair the car, I don’t feel comfortable driving the car due to the fact that unintended acceleration may repeat itself. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle will repeatedly aggressively brake while using “Enhanced Autopilot”, posing a danger to any cars behind. Complaints given to Tesla have been unresolved. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | AIR BAGS | I have front passenger Service Alerts for the code SRS system and it happened many times. Tesla does service center can not fix the problem and keep telling me monitor the problem if it happens again. The code is RCM2_a636_ocsFaulted. Tesla service center tested the SRS system, updated software calibration and lastly today Tesla technician send me the software update and I updated it. The code shows up right away when I drove the car to the local super market. What can I do about this problem Sir. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Adaptive cruise control falsely decelerated on dozens of occasions during a single 500 mile road trip. Sudden braking in the vicinity of other vehicles may cause a crash. Tesla's service technician stated "no hardware related faults were found" and "potential incorrect object detections leading to slowdowns may occur". | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I was driving my 2023 Tesla 3 on the street last night and it suddenly slowed down and stopped. The error code DI_a137 appeared on my dash screen. I was able to pull to the side but my rear was at the edge of an intersection. My niece and I could have been hit as my car is black and it was dark. I was able to shut down and restart the car by and exiting and entering my car. I am scared to drive my car on the freeway or on busy streets. I could be rear ended if my Tesla 3 decides to slow and stop suddenly again. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | STEERING,SUSPENSION,SERVICE BRAKES | Bought a 2023 Tesla model 3 performance that vibrates from the day I bought it. After 12 service visits, new wheels tires and even a new brake rotor the car is still vibrating. Tesla seems to say it’s normal and that all teslas drive like this but no other vehicle manufacturer has ever produced a car that vibrates. It’s unsafe and scary to drive this car the way it is. They tried fixing it at first hence why so many parts got replaced but since they don’t know how to fix it they wanna just push the “it’s normal and within spec” speech to me. Please get a recall going to address the ongoing steering wheel vibration problem faced by numerous owners as shown on numerous threads and forums. This is unacceptable. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | STEERING,LANE DEPARTURE | Vehicle started displaying warning messages as I pulled out of garage - "steering assist reduced" and "lane departure avoidance features unavailable." Afterwards, I noticed vibration and clicking sensation while turning steering wheel and driving at low speeds. I performed a software reset but messages were still there. Then I performed controls, safety, power off procedure. Messages disappeared, but steering still felt jerky. This happened when the vehicle had approximately 2,300 miles on it. A few days later, when exiting the garage, steering wheel was initially locked. It then "popped" when I applied gentle pressure to turn the wheel and the warning messages returned. Steering felt stuttery afterwards. I scheduled service appointment with Tesla. They replaced steering rack. I have had no problems since. Currently at 3,700 miles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | vehicle auto stopped in the middle of the parkway | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Random phantom breaking when using cruise control at high speeds. Goes from 70-40 mph and always worried someone is going to rear end me when my car automatically rapidly slows down for no reason. Huge hazard and risk! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | STRUCTURE | The Tesla model 3 rear bumper came off completely while driving in rain when I drove into a very light puddle. Having a rear bumper detaching completely off could be a serious hazard for someone that driving a motorcycle on the road it could result in a deadly accident. this problem has been addressed to Tesla and they do not have a service bulletin or a recall for 2023 model only 2018 model through 2021 models. The vehicle has been inspected by Tesla. No warning signs where indicated when the rear bumper detached completely while driving | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving North/East on Highway 87 at 1215pm, kind of into the sun (Sun was to the right of us), the car would not maintain cruise control without constantly applying the brakes forcefully. No cars in the immediate vicinity during the event, though there were other cars on the highway at the time. Returning south on the same road, about an hour later, no issues whatsoever. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I was reducing my speed as I approached a stoplight, and my vehicle rapidly and aggressively increased in speed. It made a revving sound and lurched forward, causing me to rear-end a truck. There is no possible way that this was human error and it was terrifying. The person who I rear ended mentioned that the impact felt like a double impact, as if I was continuing to accelerate after he was hit. I have requested the data from the accident time period from Tesla. An insurance representative is organizing an inspection. This was the second incident where the vehicle lurched forward on it's own. The first one happened about six months prior when I was at a complete stop. It did not cause an accident but it did frighten me into an audible scream. I did not report it because after some basic information gathering, I decided that it somehow must have been human error. Every claim I've seen has had the outcome of user issue. During both lurching incidents, a revving sound was made and it felt like and electrical surge of some sort. I am extremely clear on the fact that I did not cause the vehicle to dramatically crash and I feel helpless to know that it will likely be ignored by Tesla. What if I had been in front of a cross walk when the vehicle surged and lurched forward and a life had been seriously injured or even taken? Something must be done to expose this issue and get to the bottom of it. I am happy to provide any additional information in order to prevent this from creating future disasters. It just happened four days ago so the information I have is limited. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | As part of transitioning from radar to a camera based system (this affects model years '22 onward), Tesla, has "temporarily" disabled key features such as lane departure, blind spot alerts and emergency braking. Though disabled, these features are still selectable (not greyed out) when the user chooses safety options. These features, which are available on most modern cars, have been disabled for many months with no committed date to restore functionality ... this poses a major safety risk. This should impact Tesla's NHTSA safety rating which will pressure the company to re-enable these basic safety features ASAP. Thank you. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom Breaking when in adoptive cruise control | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | SEATS | On July 5, 2023 my front passenger seat assembly was replaced due to a passenger safety restraint system fault. Two days ago I discovered two black self tapping bolts sitting behind the front passenger seat on the floor mat. The front passenger seat assembly was only connected to the car chassis by the two front mounting bolts. It was possible to tip the seat forward by pushing on the headrest. I am now able to screw these two bolts almost completely back into the chassis using fingertip pressure only. Either these bolts were never installed during seat replacement or they simply rattled loose and fell out. This attachment hardware needs to be designed for repeated installation removal cycles over the life of the vehicle and should require considerable torque for installation and removal. Something is seriously wrong! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | STEERING | Model 3 steering assistance just stopped working. The car was immobilized and towed | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |