I Love My Tesla Cybertruck, but the Vehicle is Falling Apart

Elon Musk likes to say it takes three generations for any product to reach its final refined form. The “highland” Model 3 is a great example of that fact; however, when it comes to the Cybertruck, the all-electric truck is giving major first-generation product vibes.

Joseph, who goes by the user name Wolfgram on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum, is one of the early Cybertruck owners. Since he took delivery of his Cybertruck close to six months ago, Joseph has driven his truck more than 20,000 miles.

However, although Joseph is a huge Cybertruck fan, he shares some of the frustrations he has had owning Tesla’s latest vehicle.

Joseph writes on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum, “Love my Cybertruck… have over 20k miles on her in less than six months. However, the cheap plastic trim is not excusable. Broken rock guards and mud flaps are all too common. And, yesterday, my sail panel BLEW OFF while driving. Now, I don’t have any tailgate or tonneau buttons outside.”

Joseph adds, “I know this is a recall item, but I truly hope there is a more durable revision than this cheap, flimsy plastic cover!!!“

Below his post, Joseph shares a picture of his Cybertruck with the exposed giga casting after the plastic trim covering his Cybertruck’s sail blew off. If you are unfamiliar with it, the Cybertruck sail is the triangular piece over the side of the truck bed that gives the Cybertruck its iconic triangular shape.

Trim pieces flying off in the middle of the street is not ideal in any car, let alone a luxury truck that costs over a hundred thousand dollars. Vehicle trims flying off in the middle of the highway can also become roadside hazards and cause vehicle accidents.

According to Joseph, in addition to cosmetic defects, the plastic trim piece also holds vital vehicle controls, such as opening the Cybertruck’s tailgate and closing the tonneau cover.

Joseph can still open and close his tonneau cover and access his tailgate through the center touchscreen or using his Tesla app; however, it would be better to access these features from outside the vehicle.

As Joseph notes, Tesla has already identified this defect and issued a recall. This is a good start; however, months after Tesla issued a recall, the majority of the affected vehicles have yet to receive any remedy.

In addition, this is only one of the multiple issues Cybertruck owners face. Only a few months after starting production, Tesla has already issued four recalls for the Cybertruck. These are…

• An accelerator pedal defect, where the pedal covering can come off and get stuck, causing unintended sudden acceleration. Two Tesla Cybertruck owners, one who accelerated straight into a house and another who rear-ended a Tesla Model 3, claim their vehicles accelerated on their own and caused the accident.
• The second recall concerns a failing windshield wiper motor that can render the wipers non-functional. If a vehicle’s wipers stop working in the middle of the rain, this could cause major visibility problems.
• The third recall concerns the Cybertruck’s wheel cover. The wheel cover can rub against the sidewall of the Cybertruck’s tires, causing accelerated wear and tear.
• Finally, the fourth recall concerns, as mentioned above, the plastic trim piece over the sail which can get detached in the middle of the street, causing the owner to lose functionality and potentially becoming a roadside hazard for other drivers.

Tesla has identified all these issues and is working to fix them; however, as Joseph mentioned, the EV maker has yet to address other failing Cybertruck parts. Joseph says, “Broken rock guards and mud flaps are all too common.”

Specifically concerning the issue of mud flaps, Tesla has installed hard plastic mud flaps on the Cybertruck to increase the vehicle's aerodynamic properties and range. However, before you take your Cybertruck off-roading, Tesla recommends you remove the plastic mud flats first.

Surprisingly, all the problems we listed above are not even among the biggest issues Cybertruck drivers face with their new vehicles.

If you go on any Cybertruck forum online, you will find many more serious issues, including an unacceptably high rate of failing rear motors, failing high-voltage and low-voltage systems, steer-by-wire systems failing in the middle of the highway, and straight-up bricked Cybertrucks that die and have to be towed to a Tesla service center.

To touch on the issue of bricked Cybertrucks, one owner says that he is so paranoid that the vehicle will die and the electrically operated doors will not open that he is afraid to leave his little children in the truck even for a few seconds.

The fear is that the vehicle might become bricked at any moment, leaving his children trapped. There is a manual override to open the door from the inside even if the vehicle becomes bricked; however, those below a certain age cannot access it.

This person became afraid to put his little children in the Cybertruck after his Cybertruck left him stranded in the middle of the road on four separate occasions, and his truck had to be towed to the Tesla service center.

After his story caused an online stir, Tesla decided to give him a replacement Cybertruck; however, his second Cybertruck also became bricked, leading to Elon Musk having to intervene personally and Tesla engineers having to drill open his truck.

Overall, all this is to say that if you spend a lot of time going through various Tesla forums throughout the day, as I do, you will start to see the rate of issues and failing parts on the Cybertruck is unlike any other vehicle, be it a Tesla or otherwise.

However, let me know if you had a different experience with Cybertruck or believe the vehicle issues have been overblown. Share your ideas by clicking the red “Add new comment” button below. Also, visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

For more information, check out: WARNING: I Left My Cybertruck Parked In the Sun For 3 Weeks, & The Glass Roof Shattered From the Heat – Don’t Tint Your Tesla Cybertruck Glass

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.

A Tesla Cybertruck owner, who has owned his vehicle for a little less than six months, says that he loves his truck and has already driven it more than 20,000 miles; however,