Tesla Model S leads the pack in customer satisfaction. Again.
Tesla Model S owners are still in love with the electric car more than two years after its launch. The Tesla Model S sedan topped Consumer Reports' annual customer satisfaction ratings this year, just as it did last year.
Charles 'Chip' Monk recharges his Tesla Model S electric car at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport in Chattanooga, Tenn. The sedan topped Consumer Reports' Customer Satisfaction Index for the second year in a row.
Mark Kennedy/Chattanooga Times Free Press/AP/File
More than two years after its launch, it seems owners are still in love with the Tesla Model S electric car.
The Tesla sedan topped Consumer Reports' annual customer satisfaction rankings this year, just as it did last year.
For these rankings, the consumer-testing group surveys owners of vehicles one to three years old and asks if they would buy their cars again.
In the case of the Model S, a whopping 98 percent of owners surveyed said "yes."
In addition to plus points like a well-appointed interior and pleasing driving dynamics, Model S owners noted the low operating costs compared to a similar gasoline sedan as one of the car's top perks.
While customer satisfaction doesn't appear to have decreased appreciably over the past year,Consumer Reports' own enthusiasm for the Model S has been dampened somewhat.
The Model S scored a 99 out of 100 when Consumer Reports first tested it, and it was later named Best Overall vehicle for 2014.
However, staffers noted a number of minor problems--including software glitches and a broken CHAdeMO charging adapter--in its 2012 test car.
Those reports are anecdotal, though, and don't affect the magazine's reliability ratings, which are based on another owner survey.
Owner-satisfaction scores are separate from those reliability rankings and Consumer Reports' own vehicle recommendations, although this year 8 out of the top 10 cars in the customer satisfaction index also received the magazine's coveted "Recommended" rating.
And while the Model S led the rankings this year, customer satisfaction appears to be high across the board.
Of the 280 models included in the survey, the average satisfaction rate was above 70 percent, and only four vehicles had less than 50 percent of owners say they would "definitely" purchase that model again.