Elon Musk likes to say that it takes three generations for a product to reach its final, refined form. The Highland Model 3 is a great example of this. As for the Cybertruck, however, the all-electric truck clearly conveys the vibe of a first-generation product.

Joseph, who goes by the username Wolfgram on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum, is one of the first Cybertruck owners. Since receiving his Cybertruck nearly six months ago, Joseph has driven his truck more than 20,000 miles.

Although Joseph is a huge Cybertruck fan, he talks about some of the frustrations he felt as an owner of Tesla’s newest vehicle.

Joseph writes on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum: “I love my Cybertruck… have put over 20,000 miles on it in less than six months. However, the cheap plastic trim is inexcusable. Broken rock guards and mud flaps are all too common. And yesterday my sail panel FLEW AWAY while I was driving. Now I have no tailgate or tonneau cover buttons on the outside.”

Joseph adds: “I know this is a recall item, but I really hope there is a more durable version than this cheap, flimsy plastic cover!!!”

Under his post, Joseph shares a picture of his Cybertruck with the giga-cast exposed after the plastic panel covering his Cybertruck’s sail blew away. In case you’re not familiar, the Cybertruck sail is the triangular piece across the side of the truck bed that gives the Cybertruck its iconic triangular shape.

When trim pieces fly off in the middle of the road, it’s not ideal for any car, let alone a luxury truck that costs over a hundred thousand dollars. When trim pieces fly off in the middle of the highway, they can also become roadside hazards and cause car accidents.

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

Joseph can still open and close his cargo cover and access the tailgate using the central touchscreen or his Tesla app, but it would be better to access these functions from outside the vehicle.

As Joseph notes, Tesla has already identified this defect and initiated a recall. That’s a good start. But months after Tesla’s recall, the majority of affected vehicles still haven’t been fixed.

Moreover, this is just one of the numerous problems that Cybertruck owners are facing. Just a few months after production began, Tesla has already issued four recalls for the Cybertruck. These are…

• A defect in the accelerator pedal that allows the pedal cover to become loose and stick, resulting in unintended sudden acceleration. Two Tesla Cybertruck owners, one of whom accelerated directly into a house and another of whom struck a Tesla Model 3, claim their vehicles accelerated on their own, causing the accident.
• The second recall involves a defective windshield wiper motor that can render the windshield wipers inoperable. When a vehicle’s windshield wipers stop working in the middle of a rainstorm, it can cause significant visibility problems.
• The third recall concerns the Cybertruck’s hubcap. The hubcap can rub against the sidewall of the Cybertruck tires, causing accelerated wear.
• Finally, as mentioned above, the fourth recall concerns the plastic trim piece above the sail, which can come loose in the middle of the road, causing a loss of functionality for the owner and potentially making the vehicle a roadside hazard for other drivers.

Tesla has acknowledged all of these issues and is working to fix them. However, as Joseph mentioned, the electric car maker has not yet fixed other defective Cybertruck parts. Joseph says, “Broken rock guards and mud flaps are all too common.”

On the subject of mud flaps specifically, Tesla has installed hard plastic mud flaps on the Cybertruck to improve the vehicle’s aerodynamic properties and range. However, before driving your Cybertruck off-road, Tesla recommends removing the plastic mud flaps first.

Surprisingly, the issues listed above aren’t even among the biggest problems Cybertruck drivers face with their new vehicles.

If you browse any of the Cybertruck forums online, you’ll come across many more serious problems, including an unacceptably high rate of rear motor failure, high and low voltage system failures, steer-by-wire systems failing in the middle of the highway, and just plain broken Cybertrucks that give up the ghost and have to be towed to a Tesla repair shop.

To address the issue of stalled Cybertrucks, one owner says he is so paranoid that the vehicle will stall and the power doors will not open that he is afraid to leave his young children in the truck for even a few seconds.

There is a fear that the vehicle could be bricked up at any time, leaving the children trapped. There is a manual emergency release to open the door from the inside even if the vehicle is bricked up. However, people under a certain age cannot access it.

This person was afraid to put his young children in the Cybertruck after his Cybertruck broke down in the middle of the road four times and his truck had to be towed to the Tesla service center.

After his story made waves online, Tesla decided to give him a replacement Cybertruck. However, his second Cybertruck was also bricked, which led to Elon Musk having to personally intervene and Tesla technicians had to drill into his truck.

So, to sum up, if you spend a lot of time throughout the day browsing various Tesla forums like I do, you will find that the Cybertruck’s problem rate and number of defective parts are unlike any other vehicle (Tesla or otherwise).

However, let me know if you have had different experiences with Cybertruck or if you think the vehicle issues have been exaggerated. Share your ideas by clicking the red “Add new comment” button below. Also, be sure to check back regularly at torquenews.com/Tesla for the latest updates.

Picture: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

For more information, see: WARNING: I parked my Cybertruck in the sun for 3 weeks and the glass roof shattered from the heat – Do not tint the windows of your Tesla Cybertruck

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the development of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He reports on everything 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 he loves his truck and has already driven more than 20,000 miles on it; however,