Complaint volume
200 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
2024 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
200 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2024 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
200 Total complaints
20 Crash reports
0 Fire reports
12 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 unknown or other, exterior lighting, 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 20 crash reports, 0 fire reports, 12 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 7 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 12,614 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to unknown or other, exterior lighting, 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 2024 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.
2024 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2024 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
20 Crash
0 Fire
12 Injury
0 Fatality
11 Towed
9 Medical attention
What are the most common 2024 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 46
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 16
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 16
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 15
STEERING 13
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 7
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 7
STEERING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 6
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING 4
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 4
200 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | 1) Turn signal indicator (right side) does not always activate signal. It doesn't have the feeling that it was being pushed in. Has happened at least a dozen times since taking delivery, some of the times I have documented. Tesla says they won't just repair/replace it unless it's happening when I bring it in. Happens at random times. Cars behind me not alerted to me turning. 2) Turn signal indicator (both) cannot safely be used unless the steering wheel is in neutral position (car moving straight). This is especially true when in a roundabout and trying to signal to exit. It is impossible to select signal direction or even activate at all. This needs to be moved off of the steering wheel and onto a stalk like most other cars. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | Cruising at 75 and speed dropped to 55. There are at least 3 FSD/beta features in the driver set cruise control, did Tesla get approval to add those features to the cruise control? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | Cruising at 75 the speed suddenly drops to 55, the worst I had was changed from 75 to 40. This is Dangerous and needs to be changed. It drops speeds every day and before I can correct it the car usually drops a minimum of 5mph. If allowed I will start to report this every day until it is corrected as it is a huge safety issue for other drivers and potentially a deadly crash or road rage incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | About two weeks ago with driver set cruise control, the phantom braking was so severe that it took me down from 75 to around 15 if I remember correctly. The braking was so severe and at the same time self steered to the edge of the road along the guard rail that my body was unable to move quicker to correct the vehicle. Your system gets jolted violently without notice which takes a couple seconds to recover from and I decided to report this one after watching the San Francisco video. Fortunately, the two vehicles behind me were far enough away. This is absolutely not OK, I have had several severe braking incidents and each time it not only takes about 2-3 seconds to correct but also created back pain. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | I’m reporting an ongoing issue with the turn signal button on my 2024 Model 3, purchased a few weeks ago. From day one, the button has intermittently failed to activate. Initially, we thought we were not pressing it correctly, but after continued issues, it’s clear this is a malfunction. Last night, while driving on a busy road, the right turn signal failed repeatedly, forcing me to miss a highway ramp. This is not only frustrating but dangerous. I’ve since discovered similar complaints from other owners, which raises serious safety concerns. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | This model vehicle does not have traditional turn signal stalks, it has buttons on the steering wheel to engage the left and right turn signals. Intermittently, these buttons become completely unable to be pressed, and as a result you are unable to signal turns to other drivers. This is a serious safety issue, especially in some circumstances where turn signals are critical to a given situation. Tesla Service denied any attempt to fix this issue, citing that I was not pressing the buttons hard enough. I have driven this vehicle daily for months and understand how hard to press a button. No amount of force will allow the button to press when this occurs. I provided five videos of this to Tesla Service. Online, many other owners are reporting the same issue. I have a personal friend with a 2024 Model 3 with the same issue, and Telsa Service also turned him away and threatened to charge him a fee if he reported it again and they were unable to reproduce. Here is an example of a forum of drivers reporting the same. It does appear this issue happens when a driver accidentally rests their finger on the buttons for a period of time before using them. Seems like a software issue blocking the function of the buttons - which are likely capacitive. https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModel3/comments/1esjzlr/turn_signal_issue_on_new_2024_tesla_model_3/ | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The car looses power while Driving on roads and freeways. This has happened to me 3 times in less than a month. And after every power loss I tow the vehicle to the dealer the Tesla dealer says it’s fixed but this problem has happened 3 times start Oct 11th 2024 then on the 26th and today October 28th. The vehicle turns on drives then alerts to a problem with audible alarms followed by all indicator warning lights saying there’s a problem along with the brake pulsing when applying the brake almost like ABS is working but no need for it. The car is completely powerless no power steering but the center console works. Please help and pressure Tesla for a recall on this issue | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The left turn signal button will occasionally not work. Apparently this is a known issue but I have received nothing from Tesla about a fix. I took the car to Tesla Service today (currently there now) and they are telling me they will look for the problem. They gave me the same model demo car to take for a couple of hours and the same thing happened twice in a row to make lane changes on the freeway then never happened again. There are several YouTube videos about the problem. [XXX] being one. This problem makes this not only unsafe but also I could get a ticket for not signaling a turn. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Using cruise control to go with the flow of traffic the vehicle will slow down for any random flashing lights far away or vehicle in next lane causing all vehicles to slow down unnecessarily. FSD and beta programming does not belong in driver set cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | LANE DEPARTURE | Have to swerve the vehicle back and forth to get the alarm to shut off. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The button turn signal will not function about 10% of the time making it very dangerous for me when I do need to signal. People attribute this problem to resting your thumb over the button for an extended period of time and the steering wheel no longer registering the input. I believe that this is a tremendously dangerous design flaw. Tesla should return to the stalk turn signals. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving at highway speeds, the driver initiated what was to be a standard lane change from right to left to accommodate traffic merging onto the highway into the right-hand lane. About halfway through the lane change, the vehicle automatically and unexpectedly braked hard, locking the wheels. This led to high stress and back/neck pain. If traffic had not been light at the time, the vehicle would likely have been rear-ended. The vehicle was operating in traffic-aware cruise control during this event. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using Traffic Aware Cruise Control the vehicle would rapidly decelerate with no warnings of potential collision and with no actual emergency situation existing on the road. In a single trip that spanned both day and night there were three rapid declaration events occurring both when light or dark outside. Vehicle display wouldn't show any messages as to the reason for declaration. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The push button turn signals occasionally do not work. The buttons are completely unable to be pushed and activated. This issue occurs several times a day when attempting lane changes, left and right turns. I am unable to duplicate the issue on-command, but it occurs often enough and in situations where it is very dangerous, particularly in traffic when a turn signal is necessary and it will not activate. When I took the car in for servicing the issue, the technician confirmed that this is a known issue. They replace the entire turn signal and steering wheel assembly. But it did not solve the issue as the issue continues. There are no warning lamps, messages, etc. It simply does not work sometimes and randomly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | STEERING,EXTERIOR LIGHTING | Since delivery of my new Tesla Model 3, the haptic turn signal buttons intermittently fail to register inputs despite repeated presses. This issue began immediately and occurs without any warning lamps or error messages. I am requesting the NHTSA to investigate this matter promptly due to the significant safety risks posed by the malfunctioning turn signal system in the Tesla Model 3. The inability to reliably signal turns and lane changes endangers not only us but also other road users. **Safety Risk:** • At highway speeds, I was unable to signal lane changes, leading to dangerous situations where other drivers were unaware of my intentions. • In one critical incident, I needed to make an emergency lane change to avoid road obstacles but could not activate the turn signal, nearly resulting in a collision due to surrounding drivers not being alerted. • Driving in high-traffic areas like Austin increases the hazard, as the lack of signaling can lead to rear-end collisions or sideswipes from drivers unaware of merging or turning maneuvers. **Reproduction and Inspection:** First Service Attempt: Reported the issue to Tesla; they replaced the steering wheel after months of waiting. The malfunction persisted, with turn signals failing again on the drive home. Second Service Attempt: Tesla service center acknowledged the problem but stated there is no mechanical failure they can address. They informed me it's a design flaw with the haptic buttons not consistently recognizing presses and that no fix is available. The problem has been reproduced and observed by Tesla technicians but remains unresolved. **No Alternative Signaling Method:** Tesla's design eliminates traditional turn signal stalks, relying solely on these haptic buttons. When they fail, there's no alternative method to signal, exacerbating the safety risk. Numerous reports from other Tesla owners indicate the same problem, suggesting a widespread safety defect that warrants immediate attention. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driver set cruise control has FSD imbedded that causes the vehicle to slow down drastically on its own. The car has brake tested several following vehicles so far. I’ve seen this before many times of other Teslas but thought it was the driver and now I know it was not. This causes a chain reaction of braking and smoking tires. I am positive this has created accidents but the ones involved have no idea how it started many vehicles ahead. The lane keep assist pillar cameras do not work in the dark, this has taken me by surprise already. The phantom braking on highways is awful, it is so bad that I am afraid to drive in the winter. The torque of the wheel sensor is not safe, when auto steer disables it can take you by surprise causing you to swerve into on coming traffic. The car accused me of using a cheat device one time so I decided to try it and surprisingly I found that it is actually much safer than using my body weight. These are extremely unsafe for busy traffic and slippery roads. I have videos showing it and will get more. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | STEERING,EXTERIOR LIGHTING | Left and right turn signal buttons located on the steering wheel intermittently does not work when pressed. I have taken my car to a Tesla service appointment on 10/11/24. There diagnostic system did not show an error and Tesla choose not to offer a repair or help of any kind. I feel unsafe driving my vehicle. Upon a google search, it appears I am not the only 2024 model 3 customer with this issue. I am unable to upload a video, but I have one that I can submit if provided further instructions. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | STEERING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Steering wheel has buttons for turn signals (they removed stalks in 2024 model 3). I’ve had several dangerous incidents where the turn signal buttons have failed to activate. This caused me to panic and nearly get into an accident on several occasions. I brought in for service and they said this is a KNOWN problem with 2024 model 3. What a joke! They told me to bring it back in once I can replicate it 3 times again. Apparently we are lab rats. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Lane change turn signal/indicator buttons stop working. Multiple times go to change lanes and the indicators have disabled themselves. There are no stalk based turn signals/indicators on the 2024 Tesla 3, only steering wheel indicator touch buttons. Searching on internet says the buttons can disable themselves on Tesla 3 if you rest your fingers near the indicator buttons. This is a huge problem if anticipating a turn or lane change. When you are ready to legitimately use them they are often disabled causing panic and causing you to look down to understand the issue, while at speed while on highway. Feature should be disabled entirely or at least optionally disabled.. or stalks available as retrofit. Super dangerous not being able to indicate when desired. Thousands of these cars on road with same issue. While also a bad design that the signal buttons rotate with steering wheel in general, (eg. almost impossible to indicate and exit while in a traffic circle, or indicate immediate left then right turn, as the buttons are no longer at 9/3 as they would when driving straight, but now some random angle away from hands that have had to re-grip during a tight turn) the buttons disabling themselves for a perhaps 5 second period on a whim is crazy dangerous and main reason to raise this safety issue. This seemingly affects all 2024 Tesla Model 3. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | STEERING | The turn signals buttons for the refreshed Tesla Model 3 (Highland) get stuck, preventing drivers from activating either the left or right signal. This malfunction poses a significant safety hazard as it compromises communication with other drivers on the road. There is no indication or symptom prior to the issue appearing. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | STEERING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Turn signal buttons on steering wheel are getting stuck and causes them to be inoperable. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | My wife and I recently purchased a new 2024 model 3 Tesla with the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving feature. We chose this vehicle because my wife has a long daily commute and we wanted to make the drive easier for her. We test drove a similar model in early August. When we were testing the Full Self-Driving feature, the car failed to safely exit the freeway three times in our short test drive, causing my wife to have to take over. Both times, the car seemed to become confused by traffic cones as it prepared to exit the freeway, causing it to either miss the exit or to change lanes rapidly and unexpectedly, nearly colliding with other vehicles. When we reported this to the employees at the Tesla dealership, we were told that the car needed a software update to address the issue. It is now a month later and we received our vehicle a couple of weeks ago. I have not heard of the release of any software update addressing the issue we experienced. Given that this is the exact feature that prompted us to purchase the car and our intention was to make things safer for my wife, not the other way around, I would very much like to find out when this will be addressed. There are many drivers who currently use the Full Self-Driving feature and I am concerned that it is extremely unsafe. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | Ever since receiving this vehicle, the turn signals will intermittently not work. This is the new 'stalkless' turn signal design, using push buttons on the steering wheel. When going to signal a lane change, either direction, the button will not register me pressing it, no matter how hard I try to mash on it. It will not signal, resulting in a dangerous, illegal situation for myself and other drivers either missing my turn, causing a distraction while trying to rectify the situation, or forcing me to make a lane change or navigate a turn without signalling. I have found a slight workaround that works some times, which is to press the button to signal the opposite direction of my intention, then switch it back. Again, this is dangerous. When I raised a service request to Tesla, the soonest available service date given was over 2 months out from when I raised the request. That means I am forced to drive a dangerous, unreliable vehicle without being able to reliably properly signal my intention to other drivers. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | The rear motor failed on my car. It has less than 4,000 miles on it. It is already being worked on. The car barely gave me 10 seconds before it lost power, locked up and wouldn’t move. Yes. They told me the rear motor failed and needed to be replaced. Tesla inspected it themselves and confirmed the issue. Yes, they appeared 10 seconds before it died, I had no other warnings prior to that. This was extremely dangerous as I barely had time to get to a safe place. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING | On several occasions, the turn signal indicator buttons on the steering wheel failed to activate the signal. The button appeared to be jammed, it was not possible to feel the "detent" when pressed. This puts myself and others at risk due to the inability to properly signal when preparing to make a turn which has to then be aborted. I've found the button can only be "unstuck" by clicking the opposite turn signal indicator one or more times (this act can also be confusing to surrounding drivers). This happens randomly. Vehicle was brought to service center however they were not able to replicate the concern. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |