First P85D adopters stuck in black hole

[wk057]

Double posting a little (here and tracking thread) but:

Just spoke to my DS, he is still uncertain if the car will make it before the end of the year and has no details either way. I did mention that at least one other person is taking delivery in Devon around the last couple of days of the year and that I was hoping I'd be on the same truck. He hopes so as well but can't confirm either way. He did say that "we have some options" as far as the 2014 tax situation goes, and they would involve doing my trade in and such before the end of the year if needed, which I guess I could make work... my fiance will just be driving a rental ICE while I wait because I'll just steal her Model S in the meantime. lol.

 

[dsm363]

That is assuming our cars don't break down on the way

Why assume your cars will be defective? I would think a car built 60,000+ after the signature series would be more reliable than anything.

 

[redox]

Why assume your cars will be defective? I would think a car built 60,000+ after the signature series would be more reliable than anything.

It's a speculation, but reasonable:
1) lots of manual labor involved
2) outside resources used to do the work
That's quite error prone. I know they will be supervised, but I'm pretty sure they aren't going to check that the contractor screwed every bolt at the right torque or put the proper washer or lubricated correctly or added the right amount of thread-lock. They don't have time for that (nor is it practical/doable).

Keep in mind that 60K cars is _tiny_ in the business of car production. Check out GM's stats: ~10M cars last year alone. And they've been doing that for many many years!
So yes the quality is probably better than the early ones, but in the grand scheme of things, they are still a "car startup", so I doubt they are "more reliable than anything". Nothing wrong with that: they will mature in time.

-- Greg

 

[LetsGoFast]

It would be nice to receive an absolute assurance that the parts that need to be replaced are limited to the seat assembly. Hypothetically speaking, if the problem is one where the first front motors needed to be replaced, it would be a huge difference to have a car that was assembled on the line and delivered like that instead of having a car that had to be substantially dissassembled and rebuilt by hand by workers who don't normally do that job. The likelihood of inappropriately torqued connectors or badly sealed sound dampening and so on is much higher the more parts that are manually dissambled and rebuilt.

I'm somewhat suspicious that the problem is something akin to that. That would explain why they don't want to be forthcoming about the actual nature of the problem as well as why the delay is so long and the fix is described as very labor intensive. If the problem was as straightforward as replacing faulty next generation seats with old style seats, that could be done relatively easily -- seat removal and install is not especially labor intensive. If the problem is with some subassembly of the seat that might explain it, but it is impossible to know with the information we currently have. I'd be more comfortable if I knew for certain that the problem was restricted to the seat assembly, because then the most likely downside is limited to rattles which I hope to drown out with the cries of my motion-sick passengers.

I am comforted by the fact that at least some people seem to be emerging slowly from the black hole. My concern was that they would focus on the easier path of just cranking out new orders on the line and leave us hanging until the year ends. Its a bit of a shame that they have a bespoke assembly process. In a bigger car company, they'd just reassign us to a new car coming off the line and the manually rebuilt cars would be used for other purposes.

 

[dsm363]

Thanks. By anything I meant in general in relation to Sigs at least, certainly not more then models already produced in the hundreds of thousands.

Anyway, hopefully they are pulling in outside help for assembly of the seats and other related components. I doubt contractors would be touching the frame or any structural parts of the car.

 

[Jaff]

Yes, but what good is 10 million cars built, with millions of recalls...:scared::wink:

It's a speculation, but reasonable:
1) lots of manual labor involved
2) outside resources used to do the work
That's quite error prone. I know they will be supervised, but I'm pretty sure they aren't going to check that the contractor screwed every bolt at the right torque or put the proper washer or lubricated correctly or added the right amount of thread-lock. They don't have time for that (nor is it practical/doable).

Keep in mind that 60K cars is _tiny_ in the business of car production. Check out GM's stats: ~10M cars last year alone. And they've been doing that for many many years!
So yes the quality is probably better than the early ones, but in the grand scheme of things, they are still a "car startup", so I doubt they are "more reliable than anything". Nothing wrong with that: they will mature in time.

-- Greg

 

[commasign]

Spoke to my DS. No updates except to say they are "really close" and have all hands on deck to get the cars out. I reiterated my need to take delivery before end of year for tax credit purposes and she is certain that will happen. Next update in 48 hours. I can only imagine the chaos at the factory right now dealing with 1000 cars coming off the line per week plus trying to fix and ship the few hundred blackhole cars.

 

[flyboyzz1]

Why assume your cars will be defective? I would think a car built 60,000+ after the signature series would be more reliable than anything.

I typed this on my phone and the rolling eye smiley face didn't come through. I'm not worried about the quality of the car at all.

 

[randompersonx]

My status just updated to "Production Complete: Your Model S is being prepared for Pickup or Delivery."

 

[dsm363]

I typed this on my phone and the rolling eye smiley face didn't come through. I'm not worried about the quality of the car at all.

Ah, no problem

 

[NigelM]

This thread about Teslas and black holes kept reminding me of this ad; you might have all seen it but maybe it'll make someone smile....

 

[benjiejr]

Thanks for sharing this @NigelM! I have never seen it and I have no idea how I missed it... I thought I had seen EVERY Tesla-related video out there!

 

[wk057]

My status just updated to "Production Complete: Your Model S is being prepared for Pickup or Delivery."

Another black hole collapsed... I think mine must just be in a supermassive black hole.

 

[Beckler]

Maybe in the grand scheme of things, when waiting for delivery of the best car ever made from a company possibly on the verge of literally changing the world, small delays, perceived lack of communication or talking about seats isn't really important? At all. Just saying. Any Tesla purchase at this point is still 'early adoption' IMO. Have a nice day.

 

[randompersonx]

Another black hole collapsed... I think mine must just be in a supermassive black hole.

I'm confused -- are you saying that yours is still in production?

 

[wk057]

Sweet, my DS received his Nerf armaments today!

Jason,

I have received my weapon and I accept my mission! I will fight for you until the end!

The Devon service team has been warned and I’ll make it known to the factory as well!!

Thanks!

- - - Updated - - -

I'm confused -- are you saying that yours is still in production?

Yep.

 

[Canuck]

Not to make excuses for Tesla, since there are very valid criticisms in this thread, but shouldn't the title read: "Some first P85D adopters stuck in black hole." ?

 

[osama]

One of my two black hole cars emerged. This one went into production on 11/25. Delivery scheduled for 12/25 (no kidding).

 

[NigelM]

Not to make excuses for Tesla, since there are very valid criticisms in this thread, but shouldn't the title read: "Some first P85D adopters stuck in black hole." ?

We really don't like changing thread titles when there's already ~200 posts. Grammatically speaking the title will be wrong eventually as at some point they'll all escape the black hole anyway, we hope.

 

[randompersonx]

Not to make excuses for Tesla, since there are very valid criticisms in this thread, but shouldn't the title read: "Some first P85D adopters stuck in black hole." ?

All the cars from 11/21 -> 12/6 got stuck in the black hole (as defined by sitting in production for 2+ weeks with no feedback on what was going on), but a few emerged and were delivered -- and recently a few more completed (and have not yet been delivered).