Slowly Tesla is performing Alcantaracide relative to the Model 3 (maybe MS/MX too)...it's almost complete.
Tesla should at least tell those waiting for an order......if anything changes in what they are displaying on their website as well as what people saw during their test drive at the reveal event. It would be so easy to just tweet it.
Garlan, We finally agree on something. Sort of. Agreed on the batch process. If something changes at the time one goes to configuration. Something that is generally considered common knowledge one should be notified at that time, and after. After would annoy me as it has others.. I have always said that is valid. Common knowledge items would be like we care items. I don't care about your valve stems or bushings. You could get lost in the weeds. Performance items/Aesthetic items. Those are the big things looking back over the years of conversations. After that. I think they go back to the normal configuration process. That could be a while. Tweeting. That is where we differ. Saying one should tweet is still leaving out the many of the audience that many say are crying right now about the Alcantara they never even knew existed. Not in the car. What it even is. Now back to the VIN's
If I was purchasing an item the price of the Model 3.....I would want as much information as I could get. I don't want to soley hear from a bunch of people who love the product. I want "the whole truth". Cam you imagine someone coming to this forum looking for the whole truth / buy a Tesla / and find out later that this forum is only telling one side of the story? If the purpose of this forum is to encourage new comers to purchase a Tesla no matter what.....then I get it...and I totally missed the purpose.
Garlan, that's not what he was saying. There are plenty of threads on this forum about problems. I agree with @ohmman - there are lots of people who didn't care about the headliner, wouldn't have cared - but this thread has gotten them worked up. And it's a shame that their delight will be not quite as much, because of something they didn't know they cared about.
Its not about the headliner. That's the point. I'm not talking about the headliner. New people need to know that Tesla doesn't have model years and that they change things anytime they want and sometimes without even telling people. That's the truth and also a part of this thread.
You know what else would have made them not care? Delivering the first 2000 cars with textile headliner and not giving press and your employees something practically no one else is going to even have the option for. Or, in the alternative, not releasing a dismissive press statement that says you planned on doing that all along. No one would have cared.
Take it easy. Getting as much information as possible is fine and commendable. I didn't say we shouldn't have this thread - I said (and you quoted me!) The information is pretty clear early on. The vast majority of this thread is people expressing their personal discontent with this change. If someone didn't care, and they read this, their pleasure at a new car could be diminished. And if you don't have a problem with that, fine. But hopefully you can understand why I think it is "a bit of a shame."
While there exists the possibility of a potential owner absorbing some disappointment via osmosis of this thread, I feel like that possibly exists in general when reading these forums. I don't know if this thread is particularly dangerous. I do think that this "issue" was particularly offensive to some, but offers the same "danger" as the forum in general. Daily, I read many complaints about things that I don't care about and feel like I just move on.
Forums absolutely suffer from that. It's easy to see a huge thread like this and forget that the bulk of it is about two dozen of us.
Forums allow the covers to be pulled back. Sometimes they reveal the good of something or the bad of something.....or combination of the 2. I don't see a problem with that. For example. If Tesla screws up.....then they do. Its not the fault of anyone here. If they do well.....then say it. The problem of most forums come in when a forum has an objective or a bias that isn't shared with everyone.
This is just one of many threads all over the place where this venting has taken place. The very first post here was just a reference to the topic on the official forums: What happened to the Alcantara Headliner? | Tesla And there was a parallel thread here: CONFIRMED - Change from Alcantara to cloth on PUP??. And many more. So I don't think we have to feel too much shame about discussing it here. It was a hot topic in many places.
Looking forward, I think a key takeaway here is that Tesla should just be upfront about changes like this in an accurate manner. For example, we still to this day have confliciting information on whether this applies to Model S/X too (Tesla drops Alcantara headliners from Model S/X?). (I guess I'm leaning on it doesn't, but when a detail-oriented obsessive follower like myself doesn't know for sure, the average guy for sure does not either.) There have been other sorry examples of changes being handled badly, in this case in the other direction, such as making adaptive headlights standard and then not building them like that (e.g. Missing Adaptive Headlights... 4 months in... and Another Tesla Screw-up? (Three-position dynamic LED Turning Light)). They should find some solution where the product and the information and the expectation line up. In my experience features like this do matter to a portion of the car-buying public, that portion that has a tendency to visit automotive forums. Relying people being happy solely on ignorance on what changes in such a large product purchase is not a very good long-term strategy IMO. A much better one is Tesla finding some way of reliably offering timely and solid information on what the cars are built with - and doing it before it becomes a storm. The more forums like TMC become, out of necessity, automotive forums (instead of EV mission or investment forums) as the demographies change with more cars sold, the more people it will attract that do care about these things. If e.g. Audi had changed headliner by surprise, it would totally been a huge thread on similar forums. Every single thing (they release a list) they change always is, but since they are known/announced changes, their style is very different. (And we all know what happened when they didn't announce their diesel emissions...) I think it was a mistake on Tesla's part to try first not announce this and then, when they finally did after the fact, to try to spin this as a positive change. Nobody with an ounce of automotive history can buy this as a positive change, it just isn't believable, the change was to a cheaper, less premium material, so IMO they should have just communicated upfront about changing from suede-like to cloth-like, clearly told what it applies to, and left it at that. It would have been OK. The new material is fine in itself. Keep repeating this for every user-facing change in some reliable manner, rinse and repeat. Transparency. Over time people trust what you are saying and delivering more and more. This will always be a better strategy than trying to slip changes past people and hope they won't notice. The backlash when they do notice, will be much bigger than had you been upfront. I sincerely hope Tesla hears this.
I agree with you @AnxietyRanger. Unfortunately, Tesla tries to be purposely vague to allow themselves maximum flexibility. Alcantara-gate is an excellent example of when that approach does not work out. If they continue to operate fast and loose like this, they will need to figure out a better way to predict which changes will have blow back and get ahead of them. Tesla payed for Alcantara-gate with some expensive brand respect and loyalty.
They have changed the material after they took my second non-refundable deposit and kept silent about it. When I noticed it and asked they said you can take it or leave it. Thats not right!
This is the most important point. Some people didn't care about headliner, XM, AM, wheels or other stuff. Some do! How would you feel if after 2 year wait, 1 month after you configured your car and paid the non-refundable second deposit you come to pick up your car and something you cared about and expected it there is not, yet there is another car just like your sitting next to it with that option present and you are told that thats somebody else car and we decided to upgrade your car by removing the option you liked without letting you know and charging you the same money. How is this fair? What does it look like to you when they ask you to sign all the documents and pay the balance before they show you your car ?
Exactly the point!!!!!! This is the second Tesla for me and I feel they took advantage of my trust and resorted to bait and switch tactics.