Bumper Alightment At Delivery

[Leobnovel]

So I took delivery of a white model 3 about 1 month ago. At delivery I noticed the bumper was way off alignment. I was considering refusing delivery but the salesperson brought out a mechanic and they assured me it was going to be an easy on / off type of thing. I had them write on the due bill, " bumper needs alignment".

I took the car into the service center for a turn signal issue, a steering wheel noise, and the bumper alightment. A week later when I was called in to the pick up the car, I noticed nothing was done for the bumper alignment. I pointed it out and they sent me back home, and told me it would be a few days.

It's been another week now, car has been sitting at the body shop in the sun missing the front bumper. I called Tesla and after being told 3 times I would get a call back, someone finally spoke with me and told me my fenders had to be repainted, and my hood had to be blended in order to align the bumper.

The manager is going to call me tomorrow because I've told them I refuse having the car repainted because that's not what was originally promised to me. I didn't pay 60k to have a body shop repaint my cars entire front end. The salesperson and mechanic did not mention there would be repainting involved. At this point I want another car.

Wanted to get some options from you guys to see if anyone has had this issue before?

 

[Leobnovel]

Opinions **

 

[Glamisduner]

That blows I wouldn't think they would need to do any painting either. I wish I knew what to tell you I would push for a new car or see if you can get some diminished value back.

 

[Leobnovel]

Yeah if I had known it was going to be an entire front end being painted I would just have refused delivery. As for diminished value, I doubt they'll offer anything serious enough to make it worth keeping the car. Im going to speak with them tomorrow and push for another car, I guess we'll see what happens.

 

[super20g]

Im going to speak with them tomorrow and push for another car, I guess we'll see what happens.

I bet they will try to pacify you with some freebies and tell you how much hassle is involved on your end for them to buy back the car and replace it...

If you try to trade the car in somewhere in the future and they run a paint meter over it, they are going to wonder why the front clip has been repainted... Saying the front bumper cover needed realigned is going to sound odd to them, because it does sound odd...

Not sure what to tell you other than only do/accept what makes you feel whole on the purchase...

 

[Glamisduner]

Did you find out why it needs to be painted? Did they just up "needs paint" and needs to be aligned? have a picture?

 

[Leobnovel]

So here's the deal, I believe they need to repaint the fenders because the alignment issue starts from the fenders. So I'm assuming if they remove the fenders they're going to have to repaint them because of chips/cracks that will show up in the paint. They told me "we noticed dimples in your paint and want to repair them by painting the fenders." I didn't notice a single "dimple" in the paint. When I told them to just leave the "dimples" alone and to just align the bumper, the manger told me they had already begun the painting process, which I had clearly told them not to do. The car has been there for about a week, now they've finally begun work on it when I told them I would refuse the car if they did. They're going to talk to there legal team and let me know on Monday.

The only picture I have is at delivery showing the alignment issue, which doesn't actually show how bad it really is.

 

[OmahaG8]

I had a Tesla ranger come out to do some misc things (replace taillight with moisture, replace weatherstripping in rear passenger door due to warping defect). I asked him to see if he could adjust my bumper to fit more flush with the taillights.

Dude took out the whole frunk area to get this done, and didn’t take off the bumper completely but a large portion of the clips, and it sits much better - honestly the front end looks different/better to me at a glance.

I guess my point is, if a mobile Ranger can do this, I’d be frustrated with your experience. Sorry to hear that.

 

[Leobnovel]

UPDATE:

Spoke with someone at the service center who told me that another option became available. They would have a fender and a hood painted at the factory and send it in for an installation. I agreed as its the quickest measure to getting the car back. As of now its been about 5 days since I agreed to that and there is no ETA on parts or when the repair will actually be completed.


Really upsetting, this isn't what you expect when you purchase a 60K+ car. I had the car for about a week, and they've had it roasting under the sun and at the body shop for about three weeks. Really unfortunate. I've heard great stories of how Tesla's customer service is amazing, but for me the experience has been the complete opposite, since delivery.

 

[super20g]

I am amazed they are shipping factory painted panels... Hopefully they give you some good ones that match well and no other damage is done to the car during the repair. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Leobnovel]

I was thinking the same thing, isn't that a bit odd? Can the factory actually paint single pieces ? Doesn't the paint station paint the entire car at once?

 

[neroden]

I was thinking the same thing, isn't that a bit odd? Can the factory actually paint single pieces ? Doesn't the paint station paint the entire car at once?

They absolutely can send factory-painted panels, though I'm not 100% sure how they do it. At least they can send factory-painted hoods, doors, and bumpers. Not sure they'd be able to do so for quarter panels, for example.

The factory painting process for spare pieces is probably different than for whole cars. But it seems like it's not the same as the "in the shop painting" process. Or maybe it's panels from cars which failed final inspection for some other, functional reason and were disassembled?

They always warn you that the paint might not quite match your car (because of minute differences in paint color from day to day and hour to hour of production). But I had a new hood installed on my Model S which I was told was factory painted (after some really bizarre damage to my old hood caused by a defective windshield wiper... weird story) and I can't tell the difference in color.

 

[Oldman]

I can‘t imagine they really have factory painted hoods, bumpers etc. No other car manufacturer does this and never heard of Tesla doing it either.

 

[Dan Detweiler]

Upon my initial inspection of my car at delivery there was a misalignment or the front bumper and frunk lid. They took it into the service area and 15 minutes later and it came out looking perfect. Not sure what your specific issue was but they can definitely take care of some pretty significant alignment issues on site...and quickly too.

Dan