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An Owner Documented His Issues

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The varying degrees of issue reports across current owners begs me to ask some questions. If a car such as the one in the video ever made it to a SC, to what degree can it be "prepared" for delivery to the customer? Are there some SCs that have Tesla wizards that can fix any issue and some SCs with hacks that can't? Was the QC at the factory non existent for a period of time early on, but now in full effect? And last but not least was bob in the video promised a new car off the current line?
 
Watching the video did bring back memories of similar issues. After I cleaned my "used" driver's seat with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, the SC took care of all the remaining problems. Here are a few that were noted by the OP and corresponding results on my teenage VIN.

The Falcon Wing Door not opening out is due to sun heat on the door. Tesla reengineered the mounting of the sensor. Fixed.
The passenger door not opening was solved by replacing the door latch. Fixed. (Also, try standing away from the FWD sensor.)
The driver window making noise or window alignment. One visit to the SC and it works perfectly.

New vehicles can be like buying a new house. You create a punch list of issues and the contractor solves them.
 
Ghosts of NUMMI, the worst plant in GM's dodgy history. Fit and finish issues would be appalling in a Tata subcompact. Neither Honda nor Toyota would ever allow a car like that through QC. Tesla needs to focus. This sort of experience will be magnified a thousand-fold when production moves beyond first-adopters and true believers. No automobile company would survive the kind of publicity that would generate.
Robin
 
Ghosts of NUMMI, the worst plant in GM's dodgy history. Fit and finish issues would be appalling in a Tata subcompact. Neither Honda nor Toyota would ever allow a car like that through QC. Tesla needs to focus. This sort of experience will be magnified a thousand-fold when production moves beyond first-adopters and true believers. No automobile company would survive the kind of publicity that would generate.
Robin

Nummi was co-operated by Toyota.
 
There is not much in this video that isn't already a known issue. White seats are known to tear and Tesla has acknowledged it and promised an improvement. Doors are having problems and people have criticised Tesla more than enough for that. It will be resolved in this quarter in my opinion. Now, panel gaps have been occurring from time to time. And I don't think they will stop until Tesla becomes stable and boring. People who are saying they are holding Tesla to same standards as any other car maker have questionable argument. Same standards can't be applied to Tesla as no other company is as extraordinary as Tesla. It's like people are saying why a supercomputer utilises so much electricity in cooling and requires maintenance when their calculator keeps on going on and on even if it's treated like dirt.
People who like a no problem car should wait till the car is in market for few years. New things are done by trying and failing. A lot of problems show up when car is produced in numbers.
 
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Jeffgtx:
Yes it was. They saw it as a way to learn the North American market. GM hoped to learn the secrets of "lean manufacturing." The Japanese couldn't believe what that saw at NUMMI. Workers were showing up drunk, they were driving screws with hammers to keep the line going. Parts were stripped from finished cars to complete cars still in assembly. The parking lot was filled with new cars that couldn't move, had been built incorrectly, with the wrong parts, and had to be fixed by special "tiger teams" to get them off site.
Toyota brought a lot of GM guys to Japan to try to learn how to build cars better. GM decided there was nothing to learn and bailed on the cooperative arrangement. What Toyota learned from the experience, they never said. Though the Japanese are famously polite.
Robin
 
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Hmm... one can see that he has aftermarket tint added to the front (and probably rear) windows. Most tint installers disassemble the doors so they can put the tint below the door line. I wonder if the tint installers screwed up something when re-assembling the front and falcon wing doors. Could the dirty back seats also be attributed to any after-market parts he had installed in the car? I think there is more to the story.
 
That is bad. I still dont believe uploading a video of it to youtube is the correct thing to do to such a young company.

No company should put out a product this bad. No excuse for it. Period.

I LOVE Tesla. I spend way too many hours in the comment section of articles defending Tesla - well, honestly, just defending the truth (on the WSJ articles, I am "Carl Saxton"). But, I simply could not possibly defend this.
 
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Personally, I like these videos, and I'm very long TSLA, very much a fanboy and evangelize regularly. However, I'm the first to admit that Tesla has QC issues (particularly with software) and Tesla has communication issues. Both are likely attributable to their high rate of growth, but both need improvement.

By way of background, I'm on on my second go-around as a Tesla beta-tester (2012 Model S, early MX 90D). I've also worked with three different service centers in Los Angeles (starting with the original West LA center) and probably average 2 appointments/year since my first year.

While service is ultimately great, one thing I've learned with our Model S is that you have to clearly document* all problems -- big and small. That's both for the benefit of getting your problem fixed -- but also for the benefit of the SC technician to learn about all the various production quirks that can occur. Finally, I think it can remind the Fremont engineers that they still have some incremental improvements to make (e.g., Mark Z's points about the sensors being relocated).

The other thing I've learned is that you have to be persistent in figuring out all your issues or you'll be frustrated how they constantly crop up. Videos like this -- whatever the motivation in posting -- are highly helpful in knowing what to look for.

Our MX won't be going into service until week 6 after delivery (that'll be early May). My punchlist is already 10+ items long (with at least 50% of the same issues -- though some to a lesser degree -- as this video, plus a few more big-gish and small-ish).

If anyone is interested, here are a sampling of our issues so far (see how they are similar even though my car was made much later?):

- Passenger door stuck problems (I have experienced virtually all those). Door clicking on both both front doors.
- Rear hatch alignment issues (mine were more severe as they caused body/paint damage due to misalingment)
- Chrome gaps (same as video)
- Window scraping (ours on the the FWDs and horizontal instead of vertical lines)
- Front seat motor problems (probably mostly software)
- That pesky recall
- FWD door slow "collapsing" if it hasn't been opened all the way
- Phantom inconsistent proximity sensing by both the front doors and the FWDs.
- (Still need to inspect for rust)




* Written language documentation doesn't seem to sufficient or the problems will persist. By way of example, 3+ years after taking delivery, we only just now got our squeaky seatbelt replaced (original MS owners will recall that rear passenger and occasionally front passenger buckles squeaked because they weren't installed correctly). It took me driving into the service center and showing my third technician the problem before we finally got it fixed. (The problem was obviously never big enough to merit its own trip -- the car was actually in for its second go-around at fixing the rear leaky taillight.)
 
There is not much in this video that isn't already a known issue. .
Here is something not previously known: Tesla has so disrespected this customer that it was okay to take his money and then pass off what clearly was a flawed car. Just insulting! Maybe they could have said, "look the car has some minor issues but if you will take delivery before the 31st we will fix it all 100% next month".
 
Watching these forums, I find it quite odd to see all these statements and counter statements about being long or short on TSLA stock. Ins't it possible that some of us just want to have a conversations about the merits or demerits of a company's product and services without it devolving into accusations about benefiting from the company stock one way or the other. Sometimes our relationship with a company might be just about getting the fair value for a specific product purchase and the service thereof. No more and no less. More often than not, being an investor or a consumer have nothing to do with each other. There are many companies whose products I would gladly use but would never invest in that company and vice versa.
 
People need to understand the difference between QC problem and QC problems lead to body damage. My X has just a simple latch problem and some painting issues. But here is the diagram on how my car takes more than "lemon law" required which is more than 30 days to fix:

Latch problem failture ---> Busted bolt joint problem ---> Door panel damage (Body shop involved) ---> top pillar damage (body shop involve) ---> glass shattered by body shop ---> waiting for parts ---> wrong parts received ---> reorder window and install ---> still waiting.

The chain of problems all happened in SC.

Total 32 days in SC right now

This is how all started.

Bottom line, normal SC fixes and swap parts are easy fixes, but once body shop is involved, there will be world of troubles.

ModelXBoy
 
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