If the gap were an inch wide, but absolutely consistent to the micrometer, would you still say that the consistency of the gap was all that was important? I don't think you would. The gaps on the cars in Elon's photos may be absolutely perfectly consistent, but to my eye and from that angle, they are large enough that they make the trunk look misaligned. Illusion or no, it just doesn't look good.
In another thread, you challenged AnOutsider to look at other expensive cars on the road, and suggested that he was unfairly holding Tesla to a higher standard. I read your challenge yesterday and I took your suggestion to heart. I paid attention to the cars I saw on the road yesterday and today, especially the white and silver ones. What I found was that I do not see a gap as large as the ones I've seen on Model S on any other car, with the notable exception of a Karma I happened to come across. (On that particular Karma, the gaps were substantially larger and more uneven than those on the Model S.) I saw Lexus, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Toyota, Acura, etc.
I happened to end up at a light next to a white Lexus and it, like the other cars I had seen so far that day, had nice, consistent gaps around the trunk, so I snapped the photo. It seemed off topic to the Inside Tesla thread to post the photo there, so I posted it here instead. I'm absolutely not trying to hold Tesla to a higher standard than I would any other premium/luxury car maker, but I do expect the Model S to look as if it fits together as well as those other cars do.
A few weeks ago, I was thinking that perhaps the trunk gap was just an optical illusion -- an unfortunate manifestation of the particular choices made in where to put the trunk opening and how to place the seam. Something that was unavoidable, given the design, and I was thinking that I would just order the car in a dark color that would make gaps less apparent. Then I found that video that I posted earlier in this thread: Build quality: alignment of trunk - Page 10
Compare the cars in Elon's photo with the white Model S Beta that is in the video. The gaps on the car in the video are clearly substantially tighter than what's in Elon's photo. They look nice, and every bit as tight as that Lexus, despite the multiple shapings. The design prototype also showed very tight seams on the rear hatch. Tighter than the car in that video, in fact. It looked great in white and silver.
This is what I understood to be the design intent for the car, and is what I understood that Tesla intended to produce. Elon made his comments on the conference call about how seriously they were taking the fit of the body. I even arranged to go to the most recent Palo Alto "Get Amped" event to see how they were progressing, and I could clearly see that the newer cars had tighter gaps than the older ones. They were still a little uneven (the blue car's gap was wider on the right side of the car than on the left, and the black car's trunk wasn't flush at the rear), but things appeared to be improving. At least one Tesla person who had been to the factory said that things were even better in the week or so since those Get Amped cars were produced.
So, I was confident enough to order my car in white. But now I see Elon's photo. It's a photo that, from the tone of his tweet, he seems to be pleased with. But the gaps don't even look as tight as the cars I saw in Palo Alto, much less the car in that video. So, I'm concerned that Tesla's target is not what I understood it to be.
, it just isn't a big deal. Of course, I'm getting red, so none of the lines are very noticeable...
