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Fremont delivery - car refused

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Keep in mind folks, manufacturers have markups or profit margins that must be considered when pricing a car. Those are roughly going to be the same manufacturer to manufacturer give or take. The traditional car companies do NOT sell their cars to customers. They sell them to dealerships. The dealerships then decide how much of a profit they can make on any given car. No matter what deals the dealerships make the manufacturers are still making their profits (or not in the case of EVs that they sell at a loss to gain the credits needed to sell their gas guzzlers). Any deal you get or don't get is coming out of the DEALERSHIP's margin, not the manufacturer.

Tesla is eliminating that entire process. I don't care if the dealership makes 10K off a purchase or $10, this is money saved by buying direct from the manufacturer. Are Tesla's profit margins greater than traditional manufacturers? I honestly don't know and don't care. For me, the lack of hastle and the knowledge that I am eliminating the middle man make it well worth the effort.

Dan
 
To caveat off of what Dan said, there is a price point that dealers cannot go past. If they do, they are taking the hit fully. Also, some of the dealerships do not own their own inventory, they take out a line of credit of sorts from the manufacturer. It makes it so that if the dealer gets the car for $35k from say Ford, then they have to sell it for no lower than $35k. If they do, they have to make up the difference to Ford. Just what the final line in the sand is for profitability of a dealership is, I do not know. It varies dealer to dealer I imagine.
 
Hi everyone-

I'm sharing this so others can learn from my experience. My midnight silver EAP aero Model 3, VIN 68XX (manufactured 3/18 according to door sticker) was scheduled for delivery today @ 10 AM at the Fremont Delivery Center. Reading enough reports of car defects, I removed my emotion from the car pickup process and expected that there could be issues. My goal was to document everything and only reject the car in an extreme circumstance.

First issue was almost expected, a panel gap issue. The gap between the passenger side fender where it meets the A pillar was awfully large. The rubber end cap that bridges these two panels on the window was out of alignment because of it. The delivery specialist agreed that it looked out of spec, and would have the service manager take a look.

Next, I noticed a bunch of hairline scratches on the tail lights. Looks like it was from very reckless detailing. Not a dealbreaker either, but annoying.

Next, I got into the car and notice dirt on the plastic piece that covers the bottom edge of the door. Then, I run my fingers along the plastic and notice a very deep set of scratches...almost from someone kicking their shoe in the plastic while working on it. Using a flashlight revealed permanent damage to the plastic.

IMHO, all of these were minor except for the panel gap. I was still OK taking the car home at this point. My delivery specialist had the car driven from the delivery room to the back for the service team to see if they could buff out the blemishes and confirm the panel gap issue/document it.

Twenty minutes later, they confirmed that all of the issues were valid and there was nothing they could do about it now. I said OK, we signed the paperwork, and the car was driven to the front for me to drive home.

I was EXCITED now. I was about to drive my Model 3.

Keep in mind that the delivery room is very very dark. You will miss things, even with a flashlight. When I went outside to put my bag in the trunk, the first thing I noticed was a GIANT set of scratches about 6-8" on the rear bumper. How is this possible? Now, I'm just pissed. This can't be buffed out, and is going to require a repaint.

So my options were: 1) refuse delivery or 2) deal with an unknown repair period, without even knowing if a Tesla service center could repair this (might have to go to a body shop). I chose to refuse delivery. The car is back at the factory and I may end up getting a different VIN depending on what is ready first.

The kicker is that the service manager said something to the effect of "someone tried to remove this scratch already." I got the impression that this was a known defect either at the factory or the delivery center and they attempted delivery with it. Not cool.

Not a great experience, but the moral of the story is: if you care about a $55,000 car looking like a $55,000 car, go to your delivery appointment expecting to reject the car, and then be happy when you don't. Take your time to thoroughly inspect the car, with a flashlight, in both indoor & outdoor lights. There is a big difference in what Tesla can do when they own the car vs. when you take possession.

All of the paperwork has been voided, and now waiting for a follow-up this weekend. On the plus side, I did get a loaner Model S.

Hope this info helps someone!

-Dan
Thanks for sharing. This is great mindset to go in with, I’m going to borrow it.
 
Hi everyone-

I'm sharing this so others can learn from my experience. My midnight silver EAP aero Model 3, VIN 68XX (manufactured 3/18 according to door sticker) was scheduled for delivery today @ 10 AM at the Fremont Delivery Center. Reading enough reports of car defects, I removed my emotion from the car pickup process and expected that there could be issues. My goal was to document everything and only reject the car in an extreme circumstance.

First issue was almost expected, a panel gap issue. The gap between the passenger side fender where it meets the A pillar was awfully large. The rubber end cap that bridges these two panels on the window was out of alignment because of it. The delivery specialist agreed that it looked out of spec, and would have the service manager take a look.

Next, I noticed a bunch of hairline scratches on the tail lights. Looks like it was from very reckless detailing. Not a dealbreaker either, but annoying.

Next, I got into the car and notice dirt on the plastic piece that covers the bottom edge of the door. Then, I run my fingers along the plastic and notice a very deep set of scratches...almost from someone kicking their shoe in the plastic while working on it. Using a flashlight revealed permanent damage to the plastic.

IMHO, all of these were minor except for the panel gap. I was still OK taking the car home at this point. My delivery specialist had the car driven from the delivery room to the back for the service team to see if they could buff out the blemishes and confirm the panel gap issue/document it.

Twenty minutes later, they confirmed that all of the issues were valid and there was nothing they could do about it now. I said OK, we signed the paperwork, and the car was driven to the front for me to drive home.

I was EXCITED now. I was about to drive my Model 3.

Keep in mind that the delivery room is very very dark. You will miss things, even with a flashlight. When I went outside to put my bag in the trunk, the first thing I noticed was a GIANT set of scratches about 6-8" on the rear bumper. How is this possible? Now, I'm just pissed. This can't be buffed out, and is going to require a repaint.

So my options were: 1) refuse delivery or 2) deal with an unknown repair period, without even knowing if a Tesla service center could repair this (might have to go to a body shop). I chose to refuse delivery. The car is back at the factory and I may end up getting a different VIN depending on what is ready first.

The kicker is that the service manager said something to the effect of "someone tried to remove this scratch already." I got the impression that this was a known defect either at the factory or the delivery center and they attempted delivery with it. Not cool.

Not a great experience, but the moral of the story is: if you care about a $55,000 car looking like a $55,000 car, go to your delivery appointment expecting to reject the car, and then be happy when you don't. Take your time to thoroughly inspect the car, with a flashlight, in both indoor & outdoor lights. There is a big difference in what Tesla can do when they own the car vs. when you take possession.

All of the paperwork has been voided, and now waiting for a follow-up this weekend. On the plus side, I did get a loaner Model S.

Hope this info helps someone!

-Dan

Hi Dan,

Thank you for your posting.

My Tesla is almost finished with production according to an email from the company. Can I inspect the car before signing any docs? I got online in May and deliver is going to be sometimes in August. If that possible? It seems to me that everything is been done so in a rush. I prefer to wait and get the car right than finding some issues a month later.

Thank you for your response.
Manuel
 
Hi Dan,

Thank you for your posting.

My Tesla is almost finished with production according to an email from the company. Can I inspect the car before signing any docs? I got online in May and deliver is going to be sometimes in August. If that possible? It seems to me that everything is been done so in a rush. I prefer to wait and get the car right than finding some issues a month later.

Thank you for your response.
Manuel

Insist on inspecting it before signing. Don't take any of their nonsense.
 
Don't you suspect these rejects are just being offered to the next customer? There really aren't that many options available, so someone is probably waiting for the rejected spec. Sucks if Tesla is just hoping the next customer isn't a forum reader.
 
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Don't you suspect these rejects are just being offered to the next customer? There really aren't that many options available, so someone is probably waiting for the rejected spec. Sucks if Tesla is just hoping the next customer isn't a forum reader.
Caveat emptor: the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.

OTOH, it's likely that when a car is rejected, Tesla fixes those specific items before selling the car to another person. Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
 
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Keep in mind folks, manufacturers have markups or profit margins that must be considered when pricing a car. Those are roughly going to be the same manufacturer to manufacturer give or take. The traditional car companies do NOT sell their cars to customers. They sell them to dealerships. The dealerships then decide how much of a profit they can make on any given car. No matter what deals the dealerships make the manufacturers are still making their profits (or not in the case of EVs that they sell at a loss to gain the credits needed to sell their gas guzzlers). Any deal you get or don't get is coming out of the DEALERSHIP's margin, not the manufacturer.

Tesla is eliminating that entire process. I don't care if the dealership makes 10K off a purchase or $10, this is money saved by buying direct from the manufacturer. Are Tesla's profit margins greater than traditional manufacturers? I honestly don't know and don't care. For me, the lack of hastle and the knowledge that I am eliminating the middle man make it well worth the effort.

Dan
Actually, Tesla is the manufacturer and the middleman with their showrooms and service centers. Model 3 buyers are paying full retail price (MSRP).
 
Actually, Tesla is the manufacturer and the middleman with their showrooms and service centers. Model 3 buyers are paying full retail price (MSRP).

No-one pays list price on cars bought through dealers. The list is just there to make the discounts look good.

What makes Tesla really expensive are the finance deals. When you buy with finance from other manufacturers they usually throw in some big up-front discounts in the form of "deposit contributions" and the like, and then make that back from the interest and from getting the car back to sell in most cases at the end. But with Tesla you don't get any of that, you just pay list price + interest.

Tesla also give you a rather short warranty and the cost of fixing common faults out of warranty is astronomical, although at least in most European countries if something like the drive unit goes you would probably have a good legal case for getting a free fix.
 
Im a little challenged with anyone touching those VW based platforms at all. I realize that fit and finish is different from the emissions scandal, but they were part of the culture that found it acceptable to allow that to happen. Something had to have been a miss deep in the heart of that company's leadership.

Sorry to disagree, especially as our second car is a VW Touran TDI affected by the Dieselgate scandal, but I think you can't mix up those two subjects. From my experience VAG vehicles (whatever subsidiary) were always perfect upon delivery, fit and finish was excellent.

The emissions scandal otoh is as much a scandal of politics allowing car industry lobbyists to dictate legislation as it is a scandal of misusing the regulations so much that it becomes pure cheating.
 
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No-one pays list price on cars bought through dealers. The list is just there to make the discounts look good.

Only partly true.
Few pay list/MSRP on common cars, unless they get taken for a ride by a crafty salesperson.
However, on highly desirable or early model year cars (GT3, M2C, etc), you will frequently pay well above MSRP.


Tesla also give you a rather short warranty and the cost of fixing common faults out of warranty is astronomical, although at least in most European countries if something like the drive unit goes you would probably have a good legal case for getting a free fix.

There nothing short about Tesla's warranty.
4 years / 50K miles is the standard for all luxury German cars.
8 years or 100,000 miles battery warranty is better than of any other EV.

Vehicle Warranty
 
Minimum to get the tax break? In the UK there is a minimum battery warranty to get the grant.

8 years / 100k is minimal by EV standards. Kia and Hyundai offer a lifetime warranty on their batteries, for example.

Also Kia offers 7 years on the rest of the car. 4 years/50k is very low for the car, the German brands only get away with it because they are expensive rip-offs who sell you the extended warranty.