“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Glenn Howerton had a lesson in Murphy’s Law with his Tesla Model X. So much so that the actor behind Dennis Reynolds says the experience with the inoperable EV “sent him into a rage.” 

Glenn Howerton had such a nasty experience with his Tesla Model X that he told customer support they had ‘lost a customer’

Like just about every celebrity and successful show in 2025, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has a podcast. But, like those other podcasts, the conversation tends to veer off course sometimes. This time, it was Glenn Howerton talking about his hellacious experience with his Tesla Model X. 

“I drive a Tesla. I drive a Tesla Model X. Okay, the key fob stopped working on my car,” Howerton said in a 2023 episode of the podcast. “I park on the bottom floor of the parking garage.” That was just the beginning of Howerton’s comedy of frustration. “For the app to work, you need to have an internet connection– on your phone and the car.”

So, under thousands of tons of cement, Glenn Howerton’s Model X wasn’t connected to the internet. Paired with his malfunctioning key fob, the Model X wasn’t going anywhere. His Model X was a 5,148-lb paper weight. After a new fob battery in an attempt to coax some life into the EV, Howerton talked to 12 Tesla specialists over eight hours.

Howerton says Tesla failed him, but humanity picked up the pieces

“I had a very difficult time getting through to any of these people.” Understandably, his patience disappeared after being “tossed” from one specialist to another. Glenn Howerton says he was “lacing into this guy, and I was like ‘you guys lost a customer today.’” Ouch. “I’ve been a Tesla customer for 10 years,” the actor added. “You lost a customer today. This is f***** up. You’ve got to fix this.” 

To add to the irritation of it all, Howerton says customer service resigned to being unhelpful by the end of the exasperating phone call. “Well, I guess there’s nothing we can do.” It ultimately took the help of garage staff to find a suitably low-slung tow truck to recover the Tesla from the sub-seven-foot garage. 

It’s almost too funny that Glenn Howerton starred in the last episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” season 16. In the finale episode, “Dennis Takes a Mental Health Day,” Howerton’s character wages a war on technology with one prop at its core: a rebadged Tesla Model S.

The rental EV, under the name “Tsuma” rather than Tesla, drives Dennis mad when it locks him out and leaves him stranded on a country road. Maybe a bit of real-life experience behind that story, huh?