greymatter73
Member
Thanks so much for the awesome response! As much as I love the car, these things are really bothersome, so really hope they are able to take care of me. When I was waiting for delivery, it was delayed and one of the SA’s I talked to read the notes and said it was out for “service repairs,” so it makes me wonder if they saw issues with the car and just decided to deliver it anyways to meet the Q2 numbers. Either way, I’m dropping it off on Tuesday and will be ready to make a case for them to make this right.I get the feeling this forum is highly divided in terms of what is "acceptable" in terms of fit and finish. I'm new to this conversation around "finish", but I used to work in automobile manufacturing/HQ. Let me provide my perspectives (which you're welcome to believe or ignore as you see fit).
If your previous vehicle was manufactured sometime after 2010, I think you have certain expectations about what a new automobile should look like in 2021. As such, make sure you request to Tesla what you think you should get for you new purchase. Put Tesla in a position to defend/deny your request. Even if you think they'll eye roll you and be annoyed by you. Ask. It's your money. It's your car. Don't let people with low expectations guilt or shame you down to their level.
Anyone that posts about you being picky isn't spending a penny on your car. You should do what you think is necessary to get the car you think you paid for.
Automakers (likely Tesla as well) now use a combination of handheld and robot mounted lasers to assess in 3D space all gaps, flushness and build tolerance as a car is being assembled. It turns out, making a car quality actually reduces warranty claims and post-purchase costs. So it's wiser to spend the money to make the car good, instead of spending money making back-end fixes and excuses. The key though, is the automaker has to actually have the desire to remedy cars as they're being assembled so they are as close to "perfect" as they can be by the time they reach the end of the line. Tesla clearly just wants to push cars out so fast, they allow some real mingers out the door and likely just stopped giving AF about gap and flushness since they just want cars to leave the factory, and fixing issues slows them down.
The images you showed would be tough to swallow on a $15k econobox. They should be completely aborrent on a $40k to $60k auto.
Anyway, now-a-days, cars have "spec" that is typically 3 to 4 mm on any gap that exists between moving parts. And the tolerance to achieve this gap is usually 0.3 to 0.5mm. For example, FCA's Brampton, Canada plant now has 0.3mm tolerance to spec for major panel gaps and flushness. So if a spec gap is 4mm, then tolerable gap spacing variation is 3.7mm to 4.3mm with 0.6mm flushness variation on the plane. Robots document the spec of all vehicles and real-time adjustments are made to the robots as well as hand-assembly of parts to ensure the cars are finished with good alignment.
But it wasn't always the case. In the mid 2000s, spec was basically measured in batches with low-end tools. But some of the gaps you have on your car wouldn't pass a hand-held gap tool. That's how bad some of your panels and gaps are. But of course, some Tesla owners on this forum don't care about this stuff, so they'll tell you to stop being picky. If you leased the car, then yeah... maybe you shouldn't care too much since this car is a temporal part of your life. But if you plan on owning it 5+ years, you're the one that has to live with the car as it ages and gaps get worse.
Anyway, regarding the 4 images you posted:
1) Roof glass not even between the front/rear roof glass:
I agree this one is not conforming to a reasonable automotive build target. But the problem is such a thing needs to be remedied on the line and not post-delivery. I'm not familiar with how Tesla sunroofs drain, but you should get in writing up front that Tesla believes this is in "spec" and this sunroof should not be prone to leaking. So if your sunroof does leak (water or air), or begins to exhibit some really annoying sounds while driving, you have this issue documented day 1 that Tesla refused to fix it. This documentation is important since if your car develops issues at say 65,000 miles, that you have evidence a condition existed prior to the expiration of your warranty so you can pursue recourse at that time.
2) Passenger side door not even with the front quarter panel/fender:
Assuming you aren't just playing a camera trick with angles/parallax, that one is pretty bad. But of course Tesla could say it's "in spec." But that appears out of spec for any other automaker, even a Dodge or Kia.
3) Bubbled up trim piece on driver side rear door:
This one is tough, I personally think it needs to be fixed since it doesn't look like any interior seal I've ever seen and seems poorly applied. But since so many Tesla's look like this, maybe you just let this one go? Like maybe they all look like this or it's not possible to prevent it from looking like that?
4) Trim piece not connected to anything on the frunk:
That is 100% not right. It's not even an issue about spec. Automakers have hid all fasteners and tabs from view since the 1990s. I mean maybe some cars put fake rivets and bolts as some brash design element, but these types of tabs need to be invisible. Hopefully the fix is easy enough.
