Tesla Model ≡ Thread

[wdc330i]

Just had a tour of the ex’s Model Y. Wow. Body panel alignment hell. Assembly is kind of a mess. I hope that’s not the norm, but even a Mazda CX-5 puts it to shame. I’m sure it excels in other areas, but that’s kind of shameful.

I wonder how much correction they can do after the fact...

[John V]

Originally Posted by wdc330i

Just had a tour of the ex’s Model Y. Wow. Body panel alignment hell. Assembly is kind of a mess. I hope that’s not the norm, but even a Mazda CX-5 puts it to shame. I’m sure it excels in other areas, but that’s kind of shameful.

I wonder how much correction they can do after the fact...

That's just how a large percentage of Teslas are from the factory. The build quality is abysmal.

[wdc330i]

Originally Posted by John V

That's just how a large percentage of Teslas are from the factory. The build quality is abysmal.

Just awful.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by wdc330i

Just had a tour of the ex’s Model Y. Wow. Body panel alignment hell. Assembly is kind of a mess. I hope that’s not the norm, but even a Mazda CX-5 puts it to shame. I’m sure it excels in other areas, but that’s kind of shameful.

I wonder how much correction they can do after the fact...

End-of-quarter deliveries with Tesla have a horrible reputation.

They should be able fix it... Ours was also an end-of-quarter delivery and there were several cosmetic assembly issues (carpets not tucked in correctly in 3 places for example), a misaligned trim piece on one door (turned out to be they installed the left-hand side part on the right side -- so replacing the part was all that was needed), a bad seat belt sensor in the rear (would warn that it was unbuckled when the rear seat was folded), and the rear hatch close button would only register a press about 1/3 of the time. All of those have been fixed, but the car is now in the body shop for paint repairs to fix a bunch of imperfections in the paint (including 2 that were marked but not repaired before it left the factory!).

Tesla really needs to get their initial quality up -- this kind of stuff can ruin their reputation... Its getting worse -- all 3 of ours have had some issues at delivery. The S and 3 only had 2-3 minor issues at delivery, but were not quarter-end deliveries. The Y had a bunch -- if we hadn't been moving in a few weeks, we probably would have refused delivery...

But... None of these have impacted long-term reliability on any of the cars so far. The 3 is holding up real well -- with the only warranty service items on it in the last 2 years and 17k miles being a broken trim clip in the trunk that took a whopping 5 min to fix, and a minor misalignment of one of the door handles (it was no longer flush with the body)...

[wdc330i]

Originally Posted by ZBB

End-of-quarter deliveries with Tesla have a horrible reputation.

They should be able fix it... Ours was also an end-of-quarter delivery and there were several cosmetic assembly issues (carpets not tucked in correctly in 3 places for example), a misaligned trim piece on one door (turned out to be they installed the left-hand side part on the right side -- so replacing the part was all that was needed), a bad seat belt sensor in the rear (would warn that it was unbuckled when the rear seat was folded), and the rear hatch close button would only register a press about 1/3 of the time. All of those have been fixed, but the car is now in the body shop for paint repairs to fix a bunch of imperfections in the paint (including 2 that were marked but not repaired before it left the factory!).

Tesla really needs to get their initial quality up -- this kind of stuff can ruin their reputation... Its getting worse -- all 3 of ours have had some issues at delivery. The S and 3 only had 2-3 minor issues at delivery, but were not quarter-end deliveries. The Y had a bunch -- if we hadn't been moving in a few weeks, we probably would have refused delivery...

But... None of these have impacted long-term reliability on any of the cars so far. The 3 is holding up real well -- with the only warranty service items on it in the last 2 years and 17k miles being a broken trim clip in the trunk that took a whopping 5 min to fix, and a minor misalignment of one of the door handles (it was no longer flush with the body)...

She would be loving the car were it not for the (so far) cosmetic issues. It really does mar the overall owner experience. Maybe she can live with it. I'd return it. And I am cooled to buying one in the future.

Her car has multiple misaligned panels, and bad seams in the interior carpet. Those were the obvious flaws in the 5 minute walk around I did.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by wdc330i

She would be loving the car were it not for the (so far) cosmetic issues. It really does mar the overall owner experience. Maybe she can live with it. I'd return it. And I am cooled to buying one in the future.

Her car has multiple misaligned panels, and bad seams in the interior carpet. Those were the obvious flaws in the 5 minute walk around I did.

I’m with you ... bad alignment of body panels drives me crazy, I remember my 330Ci had the passengers door slightly lower then the rear fender and while I did fix it myself (Adjusted the door latch) it makes me look at all the doors of my cars since to make sure they line up ... also I remember my 93 Corvette had a exterior door trim molding that didn’t line up as well as multiple rattles in the hatch ... so frustrating

The more I read about Tesla the more I realize it isn’t for me.

[robg]

Originally Posted by wdc330i

Just had a tour of the ex’s Model Y. Wow. Body panel alignment hell. Assembly is kind of a mess. I hope that’s not the norm, but even a Mazda CX-5 puts it to shame. I’m sure it excels in other areas, but that’s kind of shameful.

I wonder how much correction they can do after the fact...

That sucks. I'm just not sure how much they care about improving build quality. It's been a thing for years now, and they're much more mature (and very well funded) company. The market has rewarded them despite this, so I'm not hopeful that they have a real motivation to improve.

[wdc330i]

Originally Posted by robg

That sucks. I'm just not sure how much they care about improving build quality. It's been a thing for years now, and they're much more mature (and very well funded) company. The market has rewarded them despite this, so I'm not hopeful that they have a real motivation to improve.

Agree. And they’ve set even higher production goals for themselves going forward. That doesn’t bode well for better assembly results.

[Alan]

So I test drove a Tesla 3, they basically give you the car and ask you to come back in 30 minutes, I ended up driving it around for 40 minutes because I went home with it so my daughter could drive it, she is a big Tesla fan ... I am not familiar with these cars but they told me it was the middle model with AWD and Long Range, also it said Dual motor on the back ... all I can say is OMG this thing is fast ... it is so addicting hitting that pedal feeling the instant power and hearing only wind noise ...

It is a really cool car, it also feels really sporty. The things shown on the iPad screen are pretty cool like the animations of the other cars around you, the animations of the stop lights, signs, etc.

Overall it was a really fun car.