Buyer Research

2022 Tesla Model S — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $33,000–$50,000. There are 2 high-severity known issues you need to know before handing over a check.

Deciding between model years? Compare the 13 Tesla Model S years we've written up →

Kestrel Take

The second year of the refreshed car, and the complaints are about how it behaves rather than what breaks: a quarter of the 136 filings are phantom braking on the highway, and the steering cluster is almost entirely people who cannot find the horn or the turn signals on the yoke. Those are things you can judge for yourself in an hour behind the wheel, which is exactly how this one should be bought. The sharper worry is buried in the electrical cluster — water getting into the low-voltage electronics, including one owner quoted over $20,000 for a soaked battery pack. NHTSA's campaign list for this exact model year is empty, but the same car in the years either side carries campaigns, so run this VIN through the federal lookup rather than trusting the year.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 136 owner complaints for the 2022 Tesla Model S, and 20 recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. The largest single group is the driver-assist and automatic braking systems at 24%. That is notable without being overwhelming — worth checking, not worth panicking about.

20 recall campaigns cover this model year. Recalls are repaired free, for any owner, with no time limit on most safety campaigns — but only if someone books it in. Ask the seller to show it was done, or have any dealer check the VIN; it takes them a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2022 Tesla Model S

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Phantom braking — hard, unprompted stops at highway speedHigh — wallet impact

Thirty-three complaints, 24% of the record and the largest cluster. Owners describe traffic-aware cruise or Autopilot at 65–75 mph and the car dropping 10–20 mph or braking hard with clear road, no glare and nothing in front. Several report it repeatedly on one long road trip; one describes the automatic emergency braking reacting late and awkwardly to a car crossing in a parking lot. Tesla addresses this through software, so behaviour varies with the build the car is on. There is no part to price: drive it on a freeway with cruise engaged, and take a passenger who can tell you what they felt.

Repair cost: Not yet priced — a safety matter first, a repair bill second

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the driver-assist and automatic braking systems (33).

The yoke: a horn you have to look for and turn signals on buttonsMedium

Twenty steering complaints, and the words that repeat are horn 44 times and yoke 36. There is no centre horn — it is a small touch pad on the right of the yoke that moves as you turn — and owners describe hunting for it during near-misses, plus taking their eyes off the road to find the indicator buttons when the wheel is part-turned. This is a design you either adapt to or hate, and there is a way out: Tesla sells a round steering wheel retrofit with a conventional centre horn. Sit in the car and sound the horn the way you would in a panic before you buy.

Repair cost (estimate): $700–$1,500 for Tesla's round-wheel retrofit, parts and fitting

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under steering (20).

Water reaching the low-voltage electronics and the restraint moduleHigh — wallet impact

Sixteen electrical complaints, 12% of the record, and the worst of them share a theme: water where it should not be. One owner traced a leaking air-conditioning condensate drain sitting directly above the safety restraint control module, which killed the airbag system and the steering wheel buttons with it. Another came back to a car that had shut down in a covered garage and was told the diagnosis was water damage and a battery pack at $20,578. A third found the airbag deployed in a parked, switched-off car. Before buying, lift the front floor mats and press the carpet for damp, and ask a shop to check for corrosion at the low-voltage grounds.

Repair cost (estimate): $900–$3,000 for a soaked restraint control module and its harness

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (16).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Phantom braking on the test drive — a hard slowdown on a clear, empty stretch
✗Damp carpet or a musty smell in the front footwells
✗Airbag or restraint warnings on the screen, however briefly they appear
✗Fumbling for the horn or the indicators when the yoke is part-turned
✗Corrosion or green residue on low-voltage ground connections under the frunk

Good Signs

✓A round steering wheel with a centre horn, factory or retrofitted, with the invoice alongside it
✓Dry carpet under the front mats and a dry area beneath the air-conditioning drain
✓Current software on the screen, updated within the last few months
✓Every campaign on the NHTSA VIN lookup showing closed for this specific car
✓Battery and drive unit warranty still running — 8 years from the in-service date, confirmable from the VIN