Is there ‘really’ quality control issues in the UK?

[JAR897]

I’ve seen a lot of “noise” over the last few days with regard to quality control of the model 3 in particular within the UK, however...

...As the UK Head of digital for one of the globes most successful confectionary companies (guesses welcome!) I appreciate there’s often a bias towards negative sentiment with online reviews (the UK is a nation of moaners, I’m afraid to say).

Therefore, I’m keen to know; is the quality control of M3 actually a problem in the UK, or is it just another case of negative sentiment online review bias?

 

[JAR897]

In response to my own question(!) it would appear perhaps it is just bias, as one would generally measure quality of experience online through something called “Net Promotor Score” which analyses the % of people who would advocate / recommend to a friend a service or product...

And it appears Tesla referral is a really key part of the buying experience? Which would allude to the majority of UK owners being comfortable to advocate the Tesla brand, and thus Quality Control a biased topic?

 

[JAR897]

...And also keen to understand the split between negative service/customer service and actual product quality control.

 

[JAR897]

Tesla is fixing its notorious quality issues, according to nearly 5,000 Model 3 owners

 

[MrBadger]

I think it would be fair to say that all manufacturers have their own fair share of quality issues, but unlike other manufacturers, for whatever reason (possibly too rushed, possibly arrogance due to market position, possibly a bit of both?), they don't seem to do much to fix the problems before the customer takes possession. A PDI seems to be something Tesla pay very little attention to if they do one at all.

I have always been of the attitude that its not that a problem has arisen, it is how that problem is rectified. Unfortunately, Tesla can fall very short here. At times it is almost (or actually is) impossible to communicate with them and when you do, you can ask 5 different people the same question and get 5 different wrong answers. For some reason, their staff do not know how to say "I do not know" so you get some made up story, and at other times, it transpires that you have been blatantly lied to. I think some of this comes back to the attitude that Tesla are doing us a favour rather than us being a customer that allows Tesla to flourish. I must admit, if Tesla were not the only vehicle manufacturer who sold vehicles that met my requirements, I would have walked several times. There are some great staff in Tesla, but there also seem to be a few really bad staff, systems and processes that seem to cause unwarranted issues.

Finally, the car is always evolving, so ownership experience changes on a month by month basis. It is not unusual for big backward steps to be taken or promises to become forgotten. I often wonder how many of the promised FSD features have now been deleted from the product backlog.

I'm sure much of this is down to rushed schedules (certainly less busy collection centres seem to fair better than more busy ones), but unfortunately, that is used often as a valid excuse.

imho Driving experience is good, not so for the ownership experience.

ymmv.

 

[asherwood]

I’d say their quality control is very poor before delivery and they focus more on volume of delivery.

Well they delivered my car with very deep scratches on the front bumper and body panels which were not level and needing adjusting.

If there was any quality checks on the cars before delivery, these issues would have been seen. So they either have a very poor tolerance or what’s acceptable or they just don’t bother checking their cars.

The car had been cleaned incorrectly leaving lots of swirling, but I’d say this is normal for any car brand.

 

[Dilly]

Without wanting to talk up problems, my experience with delivery was a little turbulent. I was due to collect from Dartford 25/3. It turned out that the car was actually at Brent Cross. With Lockdown announced I didn’t fancy the long drive even though it was just about legal. Cambridge, who organised my test drive, worked really hard for me and got it home delivered on 26/3. For that Tesla wins my customer service approval.
In terms of build quality issues, mine is a good one thus far. Everything lines up properly and is sealed properly and there are no finish issues.
It’s a great car to drive manually but autopilot/TACC needs a lot of work to make it a steady ride.
At present, buying a Tesla is still a ‘leap of faith’

 

[NewbieT]

I think there probably are more issues than more established brands. You should read “The Machine That Changed the World” about lean manufacturing defects - the American factories struggle(?d?) culturally compared to Japan and Germany. In true lean manufacturing you stop the entire production line if you find a fault.

People expect £40k+ cars to be perfect on delivery and sadly M3s often aren’t. PDIs would be the way but Tesla don’t want cars sitting around being fixed.

There are also some poor design details which other manufacturers with years more experience have learned to design out too.

That said they’re great cars to drive and good technology. Most people once they’re used the car will end up with the odd mark here or there anyway and probably decide to overlook the imperfections.

Referrals amount to about £100. Does it really bias owners re: quality? I don’t think so. I would advocate Tesla (NPS) but I would also share the bad as well as the good - you wouldn’t want any comeback if your friend had a load of defects in their new car.

...in if we think about ‘customer service‘ and therefore ‘experience’ we can probably all agree Teslas communication for sales is poor.

 

[Keeper]

I have had issues with my new Tesla. But I had problems with most other new car that I have owned. But I have to say that I have no complaints about the Tesla brand or business or any Tesla personnel that I have encountered thus far.

I put QC issues being raised down to Tesla owners having the ability and being more likely to contribute to technical blogs like this, which is not a bad thing and I would like to think that Tesla, one way or another, is listening.

 

[ACarneiro]

I have had no major issues with my car so far. Many of the niggles (slow charging being my only major problem) were, in fact, software problems therefore not a manufacturing or design problem.
I suspect whilst Tesla may have more issues than established manufacturers, these are still relatively uncommon (my sister also had some door seal issues with her M3 and these were rectified fairly smoothly back in Portugal).

My opinion is that it seems a lot of good will is being shown towards Tesla because most of us are early adopters and probably enthusiastic of the brand and the major shift it represents. We are willing to contextualise these faults to a new manufacturer entering a cut throat market and still learning from "basic" design mistakes.

This good will will be in short supply as Tesla cars become more mainstream and I am hoping that by then Tesla will have made enough mistakes to come out with a truly top quality vehicle from the get-go. It certainly seems that they are lean, agile and clever enough to do that.
This may well by the Model Z (or whatever the affordable one will be called).

 

[Obliter8]

From my perspective working in a large US corporate, it seems to me like party of it is having a 'can do' attitude. This seems to be impossible in most global companies.

Want to ship every last car you can get your hands on in a quarter? Can do, even if it means rammed service centres and low customer satisfaction.

Want to compete against ancient car monopolies, despite starting from nothing? Can do, even if it means you learn as to go, your customers learn with you.

Want to not just rely on existing automation technologies, but actually reach for true autonomous driving? Can do, even if it means many of your customers will judge your current car's capabilities harshly against their experiences.

Want to actually change the world by making EVs a true proposition? Can do!

I would back them over the incumbents, even if it means putting up with some crap in the short term. One day they will become fat and lazy too. Until that day, I think most accept the price of that attitude as acceptable.

 

[Ant M3]

I think it’s well documented that Tesla need to get back to good customer service
They market themselves like Apple, yet the service at Apple is far superior.
My collection experience (Birmingham) was a real let down. The facilities seemed to be an old Mercedes dealership that had gotten a lick of paint to turn into a Tesla one, however is was grubby, dirty, cramped. The staff were friendly enough but appearance was scruffy.
The facilities were not good enough for the premium car sector and to be told that the car has only 13% battery and I needed to go to a supercharger (which was about 35-40mins away) was a real let down. The guy said that they don’t have chargers at the SC and only use the 13amp plug !!
I do love my M3 but the experience with the SC was an embarrassment

quality issues... not too bad imo with only
Minor issues so far

 

[ACarneiro]

I think it’s well documented that Tesla need to get back to good customer service
They market themselves like Apple, yet the service at Apple is far superior.
My collection experience (Birmingham) was a real let down. The facilities seemed to be an old Mercedes dealership that had gotten a lick of paint to turn into a Tesla one, however is was grubby, dirty, cramped. The staff were friendly enough but appearance was scruffy.
The facilities were not good enough for the premium car sector and to be told that the car has only 13% battery and I needed to go to a supercharger (which was about 35-40mins away) was a real let down. The guy said that they don’t have chargers at the SC and only use the 13amp plug !!
I do love my M3 but the experience with the SC was an embarrassment

quality issues... not too bad imo with only
Minor issues so far

Interesting. I picked mine up from Birmingham as well. It was actually a Mini dealership that got taken over by Tesla.
When I got my car in August it was shabby, clearly still in the process of being taken over. Decoration was not done, car wasn't charged. Fairly poor-is experience (despite the lovely staff).
I overlooked it because they'd moved to that facility literally the week before,
It's disappointing to hear that this has apparently not improved in nearly a year!

 

[LukeUK]

I'll be going there next week, so I'll let you know if it's improved (or gone down hill) at all!

 

[TomD]

I think the QC is definitely lacking but I think the "noise" makes people look for more issues than they normally would have.

My last car was a Mercedes and I didn't look for any issues with paintwork, alignment etc. With my Tesla I had read about all the issues so I like nearly everyone else who collected on the day I did spent a long time looking at everything in minute detail!

 

[Mr Miserable]

...As the UK Head of digital for one of the globes most successful confectionary companies

A chocolate finger?

 

[MadScientist]

I think the QC is definitely lacking but I think the "noise" makes people look for more issues than they normally would have.

My last car was a Mercedes and I didn't look for any issues with paintwork, alignment etc. With my Tesla I had read about all the issues so I like nearly everyone else who collected on the day I did spent a long time looking at everything in minute detail!

I totally agree and I think Tesla have acquired a bad rep which gets played on. Having said that, I wouldn’t find any of the following acceptable: trim or seals not properly attached, any noticable dents or scratches, any water ingression.

 

[ACarneiro]

... and their CS is undeniably utterly bollocks.

 

[Ant M3]

Interesting. I picked mine up from Birmingham as well. It was actually a Mini dealership that got taken over by Tesla.
When I got my car in August it was shabby, clearly still in the process of being taken over. Decoration was not done, car wasn't charged. Fairly poor-is experience (despite the lovely staff).
I overlooked it because they'd moved to that facility literally the week before,
It's disappointing to hear that this has apparently not improved in nearly a year!

Ahh was it a mini dealership ... I stand corrected lol
But yes I picked mine up at the end of November and it was a *sugar* hole then ... can’t say for now but it looked like a temporary dealership similar to a pop up shop you see around Christmas time

 

[AnthonyLR]

My M3 which was delivered in late March is fine. I have had the paint ceramic coated at Azuri Cars in Stevenage and Graham said he thought Tesla had done a good job with the paint. Very few car manufacturers do perfect paint, but Tesla is the one taking the flack.