At the Marina Del Rey delivery center last night, just as I was finishing signing my paperwork, my delivery specialist said "Alright, let's take you out to your car." At that very moment, another employee came up to him and said, "Actually Franz is going to take him to the car." The first thought that crossed my mind was "Franz.. as in, von Holzhausen?! The man who designed every Tesla since the Model S?! That would be amazing, but that can't be right. There must just be another delivery specialist here named Franz." I turned around, and there he was. We shook hands, he asked me how my day was going, I responded, "Well it was going great, but now it's f**king phenomenal!" He walked me out to my car, showed me around the outside, opened the door for me and said, "Get in!" He went around to the passenger side, got in, and showed me the ropes. He proceeded to spend about 45 minutes showing me every single menu option on the touch screen and how everything inside the car worked. Having read the entire manual, I already knew pretty much everything he was showing me but I kept my mouth shut and tried to just enjoy the fact that the man who designed the Model 3 was giving me a tutorial, meanwhile making sure my jaw wasn't stuck to the floor. I said, "How often do you do this?" He said, "Not very often." I asked, "Why, why do this?" He said, "I was on my way home from work and figured I'd swing by. I love to see the excitement from people like you and share what we've created." I asked him if he would sign my dashboard, but he replied, "No, that wood trim is way too beautiful! How about the inside of the sun shade?" I obliged, and now the inside of my passenger side sun shade is signed "Franz". I told him he could graffiti my entire car if he wanted, I wouldn't care. I had him sign the case of my die-cast Model 3 as well. The car was flawless. I inspected every panel gap with a fine toothed comb and couldn't find a millimeter of misalignment. After reading so many horror stories, I found it hard to believe there were no noticeable defects on the car. I said, "The panel gaps are literally perfect - did you make sure this one came out flawless like this?" He just smiled and said, "Nope, this is the first time I'm seeing this car, but things are always improving." I continued down the four-page Model 3 delivery checklist another user posted on this forum and everything was absolutely perfect. Two of the delivery specialists working at the service center came up to me at separate times and said something along the lines of, "How cool is that - Franz delivered your car!" They were in disbelief as well. My original delivery specialist was outside in the parking lot trying to get an autograph from Franz as well before he left. I got the impression that this was a very unique occurrence, so much so that even the employees were geeking out about his presence. Just wanted to share my experience because I feel like there has been much more negative information posted about the quality of the cars than the positive - you rarely hear people say, "My car was in perfect condition when I received it!", it's almost always complaints about what is wrong. I had a perfect experience, the car is amazing, drives and handles like a dream. I get the feeling I'll be in love with it for a long time to come, and I hope your Model 3 is perfect too.
That is SOOOO cool!!! And just another reason why I love this company, and of course their cars. They are proud of what they’re doing, and rightfully so. Thanks for sharing.
Proabably because you look like the younger version of him. Pants and all . In any case, you now have bragging rights to one of the coolest Tesla deliveries.
Best first post ever! The best part is it happened to someone who truly appreciated it. Congratulations!
What a lucky man! congratulations!! And even better luck checking off your checklist without any issue!!! Always good to hear/see things improving.
Yeah, I wonder how many “normal” people (aka, people who don’t live on this forum) would have actually known who that was? Maybe there was some kind of screening process, to make sure it was someone who would know? Thanks for sharing and documenting the experience with us!
Tesla is obviously really struggling if they have to pull the design team in to help with deliveries.
I posted across several platforms because I was excited to share the story, and I don't know what a Bild photog is and I was never at a reveal, just a non-owner who waited in line on 3/31/16.
I honestly don't think there's any way they could screen for who knows him or not, it was really just incredible timing having been at the delivery center about to take delivery when Franz stopped by on his way home from the design studio. Just one of those crazy coincidences I guess.
Fabulous story, congrats. Rubbed elbows with Franz at the handover party VIP lookout, but delivery day, that's a classic!