There are both nepotistic and noble reasons for this. There are biased buyers who are fully committed to and trust in the progressive purpose of the Tesla team, they would hesitate to speak ill of the company even if the car literally ate their children for food. The contrast for Tesla Motors is the prompt service received. Despite not having a traditional infrastructure, the company beats its opponents in terms of operational speed. The Palo Alto automaker's response time to problems is often overnight and always beyond convention. One customer with some play in his gears had his entire transmission replaced. Interestingly, the Tesla Model S isn't the only car to have been dropped from Consumer Reports' recommendation list. Even notable cars like the entire 5 Series (including the X5) and the GM Corvette have been demoted, and their customer service departments aren't known for being the best. However, those stories are not very successful, because with those there are no engines of Musk's Mighty Mouse on the guillotine. By the way, Musk downplayed the problem by saying that the cars with problems were phased-out first-generation models. TrueDelta (rival of Consumer Reports) also chimed in to say that Tesla Motors' reliability has a huge advantage