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Body panel alignment and gap issues still persist
- Thread starter watsongrg
- Start date
It depends who you are talking to at Tesla. I’ve taken 2 factory tours, and at each tour they show the “ clay models “ that are the standard, accurate to within 1/1000 of an inch. I have some “borderline” fitment issues that raise the same question of “ what is the allowable deviation from spec ? Why the clay model ? That’s the design goal. I expect to hear the “it’s within specs” line, and will take pictures of 5-10 cars on the lot, and compare to mine. If most other cars do not contain my defect, I’m telling them I’m not satisfied.
jkoya
NA2 NSX
My delivery advisor said "It's within spec" on almost every alignment or gap question I had. Of course, I asked him what the "specs" were. He said he didn't know, but my car was "within spec", because the car was sent to them for delivery...
My take on this is that they can get away with the within specs line, until they get busted for using the line. I don’t do body work, but things like wheel alignment and and inverters have written specs. How could you “bin select” performance motors without a spec to meet or exceed. I’m curious what measurement devices they use for alignment and gaps on body panels. If anyone is in the body business, feel free to chime in.
jkoya
NA2 NSX
Even though the delivery advisor refused to put my panel and trim complaints on my Due Bill, I called the SC and they told me it would be no problem to have my concerns taken care of. Tesla certified body shop fixed all my alignment and gap issues, some of which were added about 2 1/2 months after delivery. I emailed Nor-cal concerns with pics of the issues and they added them to my service profile, no questions asked.
You do what's right for you. No idea why you're trolling Tesla forums though if you have no interest in buying one - just want to trash on a car you don't even own or have first hand experience with. I don't care if you've *test driven* one and seen pics online of some isolated issues, until you own one you have zero standing to speculate on what it's like...to actually own one.
I had a mobile tech come out to see about two door panel trim pieces rubbing on the drivers side. I thought it was due to a misalignment in the door panels. So it turns out the trim piece was not installed properly. He adjusted it and ordered me new pieces since these are scratched. He definitely noticed the door alignment and tried to fix it but was having difficulty. He was also concerned that aligning the doors might cause other issues such as wind noise and recommended I go to the SC if it really bothered me. He noted this. For now I am going to leave it alone. Overall car has good fit and finish except for this.
jordanair45
2019 Model 3 SR+ w/ FSD
Well I just had my 2019 SR+ delivered and everything is good except for tiny gaps around the headlights and some misalignment issues . For example the rear passenger door seems to be a little lower than the rest , and needs extra force to close it , but all other doors close smoothly
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TomServo
Active Member
200K+ vehicles produced and they are still being delivered like this. Why?
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
BMW has produced like 200+ million vehicles and they still make mistakes like putting the wrong seat in-
https://jalopnik.com/bmw-has-at-least-one-quality-control-inspector-who-play-1793020065
Build quality is an area Tesla has improved dramatically last couple of years- even Tesla-hater Bob Lutz has admitted it's a ton better now. But nobody delivers perfect quality 100% of the time.
Not even Lexus (who's usually the poster boy for quality- the new one I purchased custom-ordered a number of years ago came with a dead pedal that had a broken attachment tab from the factory and had to be replaced post-delivery by the dealer)
I took delivery of a Model 3 long range in late March. Had a number of fitment issues (both rear doors sticking out when shut, headlights sticking out, sunken hood, uneven hood alignment, misalignment where front bumper meets passenger quarter panel (one side much higher than other, not just a large gap), gap where chrome trim pieces meet over rear window, among others). I took delivery from someone who worked in the factory so no opportunity to get a due bill. After two service visits, only half the issues were resolved. The others were deemed to be within spec. Service center basically told me to live with the hood and bumper issues so I paid $500 out of pocket to have Tesla authorized body shop fix. Hood isn’t perfect but close. Body shop says it is warped and can’t make it perfect. So apparently a warped hood is within spec according to Tesla. I don’t regret my purchase and love the car. But experience with the service center and Tesla advisor has left a very poor impression. After paying $50,000 for a new car, I don’t think it is acceptable to be told to pay out of pocket to fix the factory’s sloppy manufacturing. My $0.02.
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