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Owner-Reported Problems · NHTSA

2020 Tesla Model 3 — Problems & Complaints

NHTSA has 451 owner complaints on file for this vehicle. Every report below was filed by a real owner with the US government's road-safety agency.

451
Complaints
filed with NHTSA
54
Involved a Crash
owner-reported
2
Involved Fire
owner-reported
33 / 2
Injuries / Deaths
across all reports
Years to Avoid

Tesla Model 3 — Complaints by Model Year

Years flagged AVOID have at least twice this model's average complaint count — the strongest public-data signal of a bad year.

0 complaints

0 complaints

0 complaints

0 complaints

26 complaints

1,030 complaints

615 complaints

451 complaints

666 complaints

765 complaints

428 complaints

218 complaints

0 complaints

0 complaints

Problem Areas

What Owners Complain About Most

Forward Collision Avoidance 156 reports
Unknown Or Other 81 reports
Vehicle Speed Control 69 reports
Service Brakes 48 reports
Steering 46 reports
Suspension 46 reports
Electrical System 42 reports
Lane Departure 35 reports
In Their Own Words

Recent Owner Reports

Vehicle Speed Control ODI 11499653 12/31/2022

I was on the exit lane coming from Costco on 12/31/2022 at around 12:20 PM with a speed of about 40 miles . My exit is about 100 yards away. Tesla model 3 that I’m driving suddenly accelerated at high speed and pulled towards right and hit the wall next to freeway exit lane. Then it hit the wall on rear tailgate and rolled to middle of freeway within a fraction of seconds. Two…

Seats ODI 11385765 12/31/2020

WHILE DRIVING, THE DRIVER'S SEAT WILL RANDOMLY START MOVING FORWARD, BACK, UP OR DOWN WITH NO INPUT FROM THE DRIVER. IT IS VERY DISTRACTING AND CAN MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO SEE OUT OF MIRRORS OR REACH PEDALS. NOTIFIED TESLA AND PROBLEM CONTINUES TO HAPPEN OCCASIONALLY AFTER 2 SERVICE VISITS ATTEMPTING TO REMEDY THE ISSUE. HAVE NUMEROUS VIDEOS OF THIS HAPPENING WHILE DRIVING. THIS …

Structure ODI 11445543 12/30/2021

The paint on the car is chipping all over.

Seat Belts ODI 11707511 12/29/2025

The car has message saying "Safety Restraint System issue" . There has been no event to cause this. No recent MVA or any stress or damaging incident to the seat belt or seat in general. Reviewing this on the internet, this is a common defect on Tesla's. The company won't fix it unless you pay them to do so which is crazy considering it is a defect in their safety system. And…

Exterior Lighting ODI 11499378 12/29/2022

Recall 21v-00d was registered DEC 2021, notice said waiting for parts. It's been OVER 12 months and no parts yet? Also, the phone number Tesla has listed on the recall notice and their recall info on your website goes to a self-service site that states to use your Tesla app to schedule a repair so there is no way of contacting the company directly to find out about the status …

Same Vehicle

Recalls & Crash Tests

Complaints are one half of the picture — see the official recalls and NHTSA crash-test stars for the 2020 Tesla Model 3, or check your exact car by VIN with the free VIN lookup.

Check Another Car

Problems Checker

Any year, make and model: open the Car Problems Checker. Data: NHTSA (US DOT, public domain), cached up to 7 days.

Questions

FAQ

Is the 2020 Tesla Model 3 reliable?
Owners have filed 451 safety complaints with NHTSA for the 2020 Tesla Model 3, most often about forward collision avoidance. Compare the complaint counts across model years above — a year with far more complaints than the model's average is the strongest 'avoid' signal in public data.
Which Tesla Model 3 years should I avoid?
The rule of thumb used by analysts: a model year whose complaint count is well above the model's own average (we flag 2× or more) usually had a real manufacturing or design problem — not just noisy reporting. Use the year-by-year strip on this page.
Where do these complaints come from?
Directly from NHTSA, the US government road-safety agency. Any owner can file a Vehicle Owner Questionnaire; NHTSA publishes them as public domain data. We cache each lookup for up to 7 days.
Do complaints mean a recall is coming?
Sometimes. NHTSA opens defect investigations when complaint patterns emerge, and investigations can end in recalls. Check the recalls page for this vehicle to see what has already been recalled.