Change from alcantara to cloth on PUP???

[stevejust]

How? Where did Tesla promise to use Alcantara in the headliner for the Model 3? Pretty sure everyone is overreacting here...

1) To begin with, show me a single photo of a 3 interior without the alcantara-like headliner and inserts in the door. On Tesla's website, in the RC photos, and in the production 3s delivered to date. That creates a reasonable expectation in a reasonable consumer that their car, too, if they pay the $5,000 for the PUP, they'll get the interior that other people paid the $5,000 for and received.

This creates an expectation. This alone is not necessarily legally binding, but it is fairly strong evidence in a claim that, perhaps, Tesla falsely advertised the content of its PUP package.

2) Secondly, Tesla advertised the PUP as follows to people who purchased the 3:

You see where it says "premium materials" like "premium cabin materials"? If a juror were invited to see the alcantara interior everyone else who already received their 3 got and compare it to this new change, do you think the jury would agree that the new change is a premium material, or an inferior material? Remember, they might be shown Alcantara interiors in Bentleys and Buggatis, like the earlier pictures I posted.

At this point, Tesla is going to have to prove that the material isn't a substantive change between the premium materials people thought they were getting, and inferior materials like you would find on any 'ol car a person didn't pay $5,000 to upgrade.

There are several pending lawsuits against Tesla, many of which are spurious. But this is one that not only has legs, I would, if I had Tesla try to deliver a 3 to me with a crappier interior than what I thought I was paying $5,000 for, have to consider whether or not I was entitled to some kind of discount for the discrepancy. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't feel the same way.

 

[cab]

Boy this is a bummer. My S has cloth and the Alcantara headliner (which my old M5 had) was one of the things I was really looking forward to in the 3...much more premium looking. It's the A-pillars where you notice it every day.

 

[MP3Mike]

And yet I have seen people say that they like the new textile headliner in the S much better than the Alcantara headliner. (Specifically mentioning that the textile is more durable and easier to clean without leaving marks/discolorations.)

I think @islandbayy mentioned it in one of his videos when he had a loaner S.

 

[Glamisduner]

Everyone should cancel their preorders

 

[Stoneymonster]

How? Where did Tesla promise to use Alcantara in the headliner for the Model 3? Pretty sure everyone is overreacting here...

Nowhere. I was surprised to get it. That said, people have seen the car and have expectations so stealth changes are a PR problem. Legally? No way.

 

[jjwardSD]

@stevejust I would never ever consider a lawsuit over something this minor, and in fact don't even for major things. It is just one of the details that stuck out at me and I expected my replacement to have. I do hope Tesla learns and adjusts to become a better company and blow people away with their awesome cars. I am hoping the new headliners looks fine when I see it tomorrow, may not look that different.

 

[Brandon332]

I'm really starting to think that maybe they ARE changing the design vs this being a miscommunication/error. I remember that all early Model X's (up until some point in 2017 I think) had the alcantara strip on the dashboard until Tesla got rid of that. My Model X has the alcantara strip which I like a lot. I'm not sure why they'd get rid of it when it's a small change, but nevertheless they did it and it demonstrates their mindset on the issue.

 

[HenMeister]

Just wanted to chirp in here. I received my invite to order a few days ago and placed my order. Really excited.

Upon seeing this forum, I contacted the "inside sales advisor" who I was speaking to about my trade-in. I asked about what interior to expect, and asked if it'd be alcantara.

His first reply was: The premium upgrade package will be universal throughout, regardless of VIN. By that I mean if the premium upgrade package is cloth headliner, all Model 3 will have cloth.

He followed up a little bit later with: I just received confirmation that the headliner material in the Model 3 is textile.

Looks like with the additional $5k I dropped, I'll be getting a cloth/textile headliner. I'm excited to see it in person, but equally nervous, because what if it is significantly cheaper/worse than alcantara?

 

[T34ME]

I sat in @dturkes car last weekend. VIN was 20XX. The seats were black vegan (or dark grey if you prefer to cal it that) and door panels were black with a blackish suede type of material inserts. There is very little "headliner" in the car because of the glass roof (mainly just two cross beams, pillars. and side beam) and it is a whitish/greyish suede type of material, similar in texture to the door inserts. I don't know if the suede type material is Alcantara (which is a brand name) but it was a slightly fuzzy, soft material. I suppose someone might even call it a "cloth material" because some might say it kind of looks like flannel. I would have preferred the "headliner" material be the same dark color as door inserts, but that is just me.

I have not seen the OP's car so I can't speak specifically to his issue. But from the two cars that I have seen the interior materials including "headliner" looked like premium materials. Whether it is Alcantara or not is a moot and mute point to me. It looked like Alcantara to my eye.

 

[03DSG]

Damn it, someone else on the main Tesla forum is saying all production is now textile. NOOO What happened to the Alcantara Headliner? | Page 3 | Tesla

This is the main Tesla forum

 

[Drax]

Does anyone have photos of the new textile vs Alcantara? I’m interested in seeing the difference.. The Model 3’s I’ve seen all have had the Alcantara, and that’s the expectation I had going in too.

 

[Brandon332]

Just wanted to chirp in here. I received my invite to order a few days ago and placed my order. Really excited.

Upon seeing this forum, I contacted the "inside sales advisor" who I was speaking to about my trade-in. I asked about what interior to expect, and asked if it'd be alcantara.

His first reply was: The premium upgrade package will be universal throughout, regardless of VIN. By that I mean if the premium upgrade package is cloth headliner, all Model 3 will have cloth.

He followed up a little bit later with: I just received confirmation that the headliner material in the Model 3 is textile.

Looks like with the additional $5k I dropped, I'll be getting a cloth/textile headliner. I'm excited to see it in person, but equally nervous, because what if it is significantly cheaper/worse than alcantara?

NOOOOO WHY TESLA, I have a real thing for the alcantara liner THIS REALLY MAKES ME SALTY :-0

 

[stevejust]

Nowhere. I was surprised to get it. That said, people have seen the car and have expectations so stealth changes are a PR problem. Legally? No way.

@stevejust I would never ever consider a lawsuit over something this minor, and in fact don't even for major things. It is just one of the details that stuck out at me and I expected my replacement to have. I do hope Tesla learns and adjusts to become a better company and blow people away with their awesome cars. I am hoping the new headliners looks fine when I see it tomorrow, may not look that different.

Let me ask you @jjwardSD what you would have done about the adaptive headlight issue, which was a lot like this? If you're not familiar with that, after adaptive headlights were advertised on the S and X, there were cars being delivered without the adaptive headlights. People were figuring this out, and they were getting adaptive headlights installed at service centers after delivery. But that's a relatively easy fix, compared to the headliner situation.

If you had paid for adaptive headlights, and not received them, and they refused to change them out, what would you do?

@Stoneymonster -- is the failure to include adaptive headlights legally actionable or no? To me, the only difference here is that in the adaptive headlight situation, which is the last time I can think of Tesla had this kind of problem -- people could point to adaptive headlights in the specifications of their car, and that they didn't receive them.

Here, I'm not aware of anywhere that Telsa specifically said the premium cabin materials would be alcantara, but the problem for Tesla remains that they advertised premium cabin materials. And now if Telsa doesn't use cheaper materials in the base interior, then what?

I am an owner and shareholder. But I have to remain objective about this. When Tesla does something bait-and-switchy that's kind of shitty, I've got to call them out on it. They don't get a pass just because I love their cars and support their mission. As a matter of fact, it becomes more important to me that they do things well and right.

 

[jjwardSD]

@Drax @T34ME I arranged to go in and view and hopefully take pictures tomorrow morning of whatever they have in my area that they are saying is the textile. Still holding out hope that it is all a bunch of confusion, but given what I have been told it doesn't sound like it. The person that checked multiple cars knows he difference between the two. As long as it looks good I am fine with it.

 

[jjwardSD]

@stevejust They would not have refused to change the lights out for me, I guarantee it. Tesla has bent over backward for me through a not so fun experience, why I haven't ran away screaming. They will do almost anything to make customers happy in the end.

 

[Brandon332]

Here's a thought, do you think they swapped out only the white headliner? I wonder if, when the white seats become available and the headliner is black, the BLACK one will remain alcantara?

 

[03DSG]

Here's a thought, do you think they swapped out only the white headliner? I wonder if, when the white seats become available and the headliner is black, the BLACK one will remain alcantara?

The Alcantara headliner on all Model 3 to date is a light grey, not white.

 

[Brandon332]

The Alcantara headliner on all Model 3 to date is a light grey, not white.

Ok light grey then, same thing. Same thought still applies, what do you think?

 

[206er]

I guess it does suck if you had your heart set on alcantara.

That said, as someone coming from a Honda and Acura faux leather and cloth background who is planning to buy the base 3, I could care less about alcantara. Now if the base 3 is delivered without tires or door window glass, I'll be pretty miffed.

 

[playoutside]

My Inside Sales Advisor told me today that all 3’s have the same headliner. So until I see a textile one, I imagine this is what I’m getting: