UPDATE
Picked up my Model 3 a week ago from Mt. Kisco. Overall, things went very well. For TLDR – skip to the bottom.
After having our delivery postponed a week, my wife and I arrived last Friday at 4pm for our 5pm appointment (3 hour drive – we didn’t want to be late). We hung around the waiting area for the duration. The place was busy but calm – a steady stream of people coming in and being waited on, but not crazy. Just a few minutes before 5pm, our delivery representative came over and introduced himself and we got started.
My wife and I were a little hesitant to hand over our money, sign and “take delivery” of a vehicle before we had even inspected it, and were considering asking to see the car before we signed anything, but we were so nervous/distracted/excited we forgot to ask and just got caught up in the paperwork. There were about a million things which I had imagined going wrong for our delivery, but none of them happened. We did however encounter two problems - neither of which were Tesla’s fault. (I had sent them outdated registration info for my previous car, and so they were not able to use my new custom NY plates which I had brought. They issued me new plates instead – real metal ones, not paper, which surprised me. The second problem was a typo on my insurance card, which incorrectly said the date of my policy started in 2017.) Everything else was smooth – I had no trade-in, and was paying full cash so it was an easy transaction.
What seemed like hours to me getting these things resolved was actually minutes – we had finished signing the paperwork, shake hands, and they led us out to a waiting white Model X shuttle to take us over to the warehouse, just a few blocks away. When I got in the shuttle, I looked at the clock and it was only 5:30pm – I was amazed, it had felt like forever somehow.
They drove us into the warehouse where there were about 100 different Teslas all crammed together, with a few pulled out waiting for delivery. As soon as I started to inspect the car, a flurry of guys came over and started polishing it top to bottom. I was really trying to get a close look of the vehicle to make sure nothing was wrong, and it felt like they were deliberately doing this to block/distract me. After a minute or two of this, one of the guys said “would you like us to polish it up?” and I said “sure”…then to my surprise they took the car about 100 feet away and went all over it with power buffers for what seemed like an eternity while we stood there with the young woman who was our delivery coordinator. I was worried something was wrong, and they were trying to hide it. After all of my preparation for this moment, learning what to check, etc,. and I was failing hard at this. We talked with the young woman for awhile – I could write a whole post on her but suffice to say they are working 12-hour shifts there, processing 40-70 new owners a day, and they look really, awfully tired and strung out. I told her the worst push was over, and she replied “No, we still have the end of Q4 and that is going to be hell.” I felt like I should tip them, but only had a few bucks for tolls on the way home.
We eventually got the car back and she gave us a very quick run through of the controls, settings, etc. She had asked if I was familiar with the controls and I said I had watched a lot of videos online, and I think this gave her the impression we knew more than we did. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have said that. Once we were left alone I literally forgot how to do almost everything. The car only had about a 50% charge on it, and we had a long way home, so she offered us to use the heavy-duty charger there in the warehouse before we left. We spent about 20-30 minutes charging up while we played with the controls, set up our USB music, paired our Bluetooth etc. We took our time because we were not psyched about driving home in rush-hour traffic at night in unfamiliar territory.
As soon as we did start driving, I fell in love. It drove so easily that I got used to it pretty much right away. On the drive home I could already see my wife warming up to the car more and more, and she LOVES the sound system. She asked it to play random 90's Rock, and the first song it played was one of her favorite and obscure bands...she clasped her hands to her face and said "oh my god car I love you".
TLDR - It has now been a full week. I can report there were no issues with the car – everything seems to look and work just fine. I had thought the tire pressure monitors weren’t working because it didn’t report any data for either tire at first, but after a day or two it corrected itself. Bluetooth phone unlocking the drivers door has worked every time I have walked up to it. Dashcam records without issue. Have already taken a trip to Vermont and back and loved every minute. (My wife drove for one part “just until the next town”, but then when we got there she said “well, the NEXT town”, and then the next, lol. She has now said she wants a Tesla of her own.) Got to drive in the snow for the first time this morning on the way to work, and it handled better than I expected.
Tesla has been clearly in over their head on deliveries, and it is straining their staff – I felt bad for the folks at Mt. Kisco - my hats off to them, but they deliver. This car is wonderful – it is like driving a fighter jet. Keep the faith – it is worth the wait.
Sorry for the very long post – I just needed to get all of that out. So happy.
