Body panel alignment and gap issues still persist

[watsongrg]

Im scheduled to take delivery of a long awaited SR+ next weekend.
This past week, I visited delivery center holding lots in Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale. Attendants there told me they are doing all day deliveries and as many as 40/day on the weekend. One concerning thing I noticed while looking over at least 200 Model 3's, is poor (sometime very poor) body panel fitment. Hoods with uneven gaps all around, doors that don't line up with fenders or each other at the bottom, trunk gaps uneven, headlights not flush with fender, & door handles overly recessed. I though they'd gotten these issues resolved.
Its a real shame to have such a nice looking car design and not make the effort to put it together right.
Really is unacceptable. Hyundai's are perfect these days, why can't Tesla get the body panels consistent ?
If mine's not perfect, I'm refusing it. From what I saw, less than 1 in 10 were acceptable.

Many were filthy beyond belief and obviously unprotected for the transport from Cali.

 

[vladmury]

They don’t have capacity for quality control, they are hurrying to produce as many cars as possible per week.

 

[OCR1]

I rejected an MR due to unacceptable gaps. When I went to pick up a LR RWD two weeks later I brought a tape measure with me and measured each gap carefully. The biggest variation from left side to right side was about 4mm. There was one piece of chrome trim that was about 6mm wider on the left versus the right. I pointed that out to them and they took it back to the service center to adjust it and about ten minutes later it looked fine. I would expect to see variation in gaps of up to 4mm when comparing left side to right side. I don't think these gaps will affect the reliability of the car. It's mainly a cosmetic issue so you will have to decide how picky you want to be. But I think your estimate of 1 in 10 cars having almost identical panel alignments is probably about right. You will wait a long time for a car if you get too picky. This is just not an area of focus for Tesla in their push to get to 10,000 cars per week.

 

[gobble]

Do they have the same issues with the model S?

 

[obstacle]

I tried to pick up a LR RWD M3 in Atlanta on Friday afternoon but refused delivery. Ding in back rear quarter panel, misaligned trunk with significant gap issues, sunken hood, and headlights not flush with hood and fenders. The service manager said the M3 met specs for Tesla but unfortunately it did meet my specs so I refused delivery.

My 2003 Accord (which was getting traded in for $1,500) with previously fixed front and rear end damage as well as any car I've purchased in the past 40 years all had uniform tolerances. A $50k+ vehicle should not be built like a 90's Kia. This is completely on Tesla as they never should have let this car get shipped Two M3's inside were in acceptable condition but I ran across others that had similar issues.

 

[Berus]

This past week, I visited delivery center holding lots in Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale. Attendants there told me they are doing all day deliveries and as many as 40/day on the weekend. One concerning thing I noticed while looking over at least 200 Model 3's, is poor (sometime very poor) body panel fitment.

Hmmm... So... you traveled all the way from Atlanta, GA to Fort Lauderdale, FL, AND had access to delivery center holding lots in both cities, where there were over 200 Model 3's... and you had carte blanche to just stroll around these lots checking fitment and alignment on all of these units.

Hehehe... Tell me, did this involve parkour, a cloak of invisibility, or do you normally just jet around the country inspecting corporate inventories with impunity? You certainly must lead an interesting life.

 

[banned-66611]

Big gaps might affect the range.

 

[Knightshade]

Hmmm... So... you traveled all the way from Atlanta, GA to Fort Lauderdale, FL, AND had access to delivery center holding lots in both cities, where there were over 200 Model 3's... and you had carte blanche to just stroll around these lots checking fitment and alignment on all of these units.

Hehehe... Tell me, did this involve parkour, a cloak of invisibility, or do you normally just jet around the country inspecting corporate inventories with impunity? You certainly must lead an interesting life.

I can't speak to his travel, but FWIW Tesla has been largely incompetent at managing inventory and holding lots so being able to wander them freely isn't at all surprising.

Locally for example they were initially "renting" the parking lot of a closed-down gym, with nobody from Tesla on site at all other than when moving cars to/from the lot (deliveries were still done at their offices).

Anybody could stop by and wander as freely as they wished (indeed there were several folks who did so here and posted pics)

Then they lost use of that lot (and for weeks basically slowed deliveries to a trickle as they had no place for cars to go, or redirected you to another SC hours away).

Then they began using a big crap lot they were borrowing from some body shop or something 20ish minutes away from their offices.

They DID have people on site here some of the time doing deliveries, but again there's no fence/gate/anything to stop anybody from wandering around and checking things out.



This is understandable though- I mean it's not like Tesla KNEW they'd be building, and need to locally store, a lot of cars, years in advance of actually needing to do so- right?

 

[watsongrg]

Hmmm... So... you traveled all the way from Atlanta, GA to Fort Lauderdale, FL, AND had access to delivery center holding lots in both cities, where there were over 200 Model 3's... and you had carte blanche to just stroll around these lots checking fitment and alignment on all of these units.

Hehehe... Tell me, did this involve parkour, a cloak of invisibility, or do you normally just jet around the country inspecting corporate inventories with impunity? You certainly must lead an interesting life.

Well, in fact I do “jet” around the country quite a bit. Lol. Airline employee, live in ATL based in FLL. On a long layover in FLL, I drove to the service center in Dania Beach to see what they had as available inventory, and found the holding lot on the way. Stopped and sure enough they let me look around. Back in ATL, I basically did they same thing, except the lot is at the delivery center.
Returned there (ATL) today and actually found a M3 with my assigned VIN #. Disappointingly, it has hood, door and headlight figment issues. Even the friend I brought along today agreed it’s not acceptable.
One on display in the Avalon showroom is perfect, I’ll happily take that one . I’m not being picky, in this day and age of precision, there should be very little variation and tolerance in the manufacture of this awesome car.

 

[jrs_66]

Im scheduled to take delivery of a long awaited SR+ next weekend.
This past week, I visited delivery center holding lots in Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale. Attendants there told me they are doing all day deliveries and as many as 40/day on the weekend. One concerning thing I noticed while looking over at least 200 Model 3's, is poor (sometime very poor) body panel fitment. Hoods with uneven gaps all around, doors that don't line up with fenders or each other at the bottom, trunk gaps uneven, headlights not flush with fender, & door handles overly recessed. I though they'd gotten these issues resolved.
Its a real shame to have such a nice looking car design and not make the effort to put it together right.
Really is unacceptable. Hyundai's are perfect these days, why can't Tesla get the body panels consistent ?
If mine's not perfect, I'm refusing it. From what I saw, less than 1 in 10 were acceptable.

Many were filthy beyond belief and obviously unprotected for the transport from Cali.

Looked at 200 M3? One in ten were acceptable? You must have many pics to share?

 

[jrs_66]

I tried to pick up a LR RWD M3 in Atlanta on Friday afternoon but refused delivery. Ding in back rear quarter panel, misaligned trunk with significant gap issues, sunken hood, and headlights not flush with hood and fenders. The service manager said the M3 met specs for Tesla but unfortunately it did meet my specs so I refused delivery.

My 2003 Accord (which was getting traded in for $1,500) with previously fixed front and rear end damage as well as any car I've purchased in the past 40 years all had uniform tolerances. A $50k+ vehicle should not be built like a 90's Kia. This is completely on Tesla as they never should have let this car get shipped Two M3's inside were in acceptable condition but I ran across others that had similar issues.

Sounds bad... pics?

 

[nikolas3]

Big gaps might affect the range.

and more wind noise in the highway?

 

[jkoya]

Do they have the same issues with the model S?

Tesla gave me a loaner Model S 100D when my Model 3 was in the body shop getting "Due Bill" items corrected. The panel gaps of the Model S 100D were much worse than my Model 3. Driver's side had panel gaps big enough to stick my finger in. Passenger side was much better.

 

[voip-ninja]

Well, in fact I do “jet” around the country quite a bit. Lol. Airline employee, live in ATL based in FLL. On a long layover in FLL, I drove to the service center in Dania Beach to see what they had as available inventory, and found the holding lot on the way. Stopped and sure enough they let me look around. Back in ATL, I basically did they same thing, except the lot is at the delivery center.
Returned there (ATL) today and actually found a M3 with my assigned VIN #. Disappointingly, it has hood, door and headlight figment issues. Even the friend I brought along today agreed it’s not acceptable.
One on display in the Avalon showroom is perfect, I’ll happily take that one . I’m not being picky, in this day and age of precision, there should be very little variation and tolerance in the manufacture of this awesome car.

According to Elon Musk, Tesla will, "very soon" have such tight tolerances that if someone measures a gap that is off it means their tape measure is broken.

No, seriously he said that in an internal memo to employees that was 'leaked'.

I think the reality is that the extreme speed with which the Model 3 line was put together, which bypassed some of the normal line tuning process that manufacturers do is responsible for this. Someone had a post about 5-6 months back about the company that Tesla brought in to help them with tuning the assembly was not able to do it because Tesla wouldn't give them enough time.

I'm interested in potentially upgrading to a Model Y in 2-3 years but only if Tesla has got this stuff sorted out.

 

[Darren Donovan]

Im scheduled to take delivery of a long awaited SR+ next weekend.
This past week, I visited delivery center holding lots in Atlanta and Ft. Lauderdale. Attendants there told me they are doing all day deliveries and as many as 40/day on the weekend. One concerning thing I noticed while looking over at least 200 Model 3's, is poor (sometime very poor) body panel fitment. Hoods with uneven gaps all around, doors that don't line up with fenders or each other at the bottom, trunk gaps uneven, headlights not flush with fender, & door handles overly recessed. I though they'd gotten these issues resolved.
Its a real shame to have such a nice looking car design and not make the effort to put it together right.
Really is unacceptable. Hyundai's are perfect these days, why can't Tesla get the body panels consistent ?
If mine's not perfect, I'm refusing it. From what I saw, less than 1 in 10 were acceptable.

Many were filthy beyond belief and obviously unprotected for the transport from Cali.

Won't be long before you'll read responses like "Don't worry about the gaps, once you drive the car, you'll forget about all the issues", or "Just accept it, you'll be helping to advance the mission", or "every car makers have issues, even MB or BMW,....", or "Tesla is still a young company with growing pains", or the default "Are you a troll trying to spread FUDs",.......Lol.

 

[Knightshade]

Won't be long before you'll read responses like "Don't worry about the gaps, once you drive the car, you'll forget about all the issues", or "Just accept it, you'll be helping to advance the mission", or "every car makers have issues, even MB or BMW,....", or "Tesla is still a young company with growing pains", or the default "Are you a troll trying to spread FUDs",.......Lol.

Naah- by all means if it shows up with gaps, insure they put in writing on a due bill they will be fixed, and stay on service to do so properly.

Mine had none, but Tesla certainly still has such problems more than they should on new cars.


Doesn't change the fact I'd much rather have a car that's awesome to actually drive and use, with a couple of easily fixed cosmetic issues... than a car that LOOKS perfect but has a ton of mechanical/reliability issues.

 

[dsvick]

While I don't doubt that there were some with gaps, I do find the 9 in 10 figure to be a bit hard to swallow. If 90% of model 3's being delivered were unacceptable we would certainly here a lot more about it than we currently do. Either that or the OP has fairly exacting tolerances themself.

As far as being dirty, that doesn't surprise me at all, most cars from most manufacturers travel across the country with relatively little protection and get a final wash prior to delivery.

 

[OCR1]

Body panels are supposed to have gaps. That’s how you can open the front door of the car without it rubbing against the rear door of the car. What gave Tesla a bad rap early on was when people were comparing the size of the gap on one side of the car to the other side. So if on the driver’s side the front and rear door have 3mm of separation, and the same doors on the passenger side have 8mm, there is a variance of 5mm. It’s very common for all cars to have some variance. The question is how much variance is deemed acceptable.

I brought my tape measure when I took delivery of my Model 3. I was able to measure variations from passenger to driver’s side of as much as 6mm. However, the 6mm was really the chrome trim, not the door panel itself. The service center was able to adjust the trim to get it down to 3mm. Some of the panels do have variations of up to 4mm on my car. It’s not great, and I would expect better from more well established brands. But realistically nobody is going to notice it unless they are really looking closely. If you want a car with perfect fit and finish, Tesla is probably not your brand of choice. I know Elon is working on making things better in this area. But from what I saw at the Costa Mesa delivery center this week, there were still gap variances of up to 6mm on most of the cars I walked around and inspected. I believe these issues are mainly cosmetic and will not affect the reliability of the car.

 

[Mrtee733]

Does anyone what their gap or fit design spec is? How many mm constitutes being out of spec. A service rep told me one of my gaps was likely within design spec before even looking at the issue. It seemed like a line that's used so no work needs to be done.

 

[banned-66611]

Does anyone what their gap or fit design spec is? How many mm constitutes being out of spec. A service rep told me one of my gaps was likely within design spec before even looking at the issue. It seemed like a line that's used so no work needs to be done.

It doesn't really matter what their rep says. They are just trying to fob you off. What matters is if you are happy.

If you are not happy, reject the car.