Laravel one to many relationship save method empty attributes - forms

Question

I am trying to save a relationship with the Laravel save method:
public function storeContact(Request $request)
{
$user = User::firstOrNew(['email' => $request->input('email')]);
$user->save();
$message = new App\Message([
'message' => $request->input('remarks')
]);
$user->message()->save($message);
}
var_dump($request->all) confirms both fields are available in the request.
All relations work. hasOne, belongsTo are configured in the models. The relation is saved like expected (but message field is empty)
When I var_dump($message), there are no attributes in the collection.
I already tried fillable and guarded on the models without any effect. These should not be necessary for the save method though because this uses a full Eloquent model instance.
What am I missing here??

Answer 1

I think I found the culprit.
When I use a __construct on a model it fails. When I instantiate a model with a __construct no variables are passes as attributes. Even if the __construct is empty.
Test with __construct method
class Message extends Model
{
protected $connection = 'system';
public function __construct()
{
}
// ...
}
$message = new App\Message(['remarks' => 'Test remarks']);
var_dump(message) // does NOT contain attributes!
Test2 without __construct method
class Message extends Model
{
protected $connection = 'system';
// ...
}
$message = new App\Message(['remarks' => 'Test remarks']);
var_dump(message) // does contain attributes!
This looks like a bug in Laravel to me.