Delivery / Service Issues (panel gaps, delivery delays / issues / Service problems etc)

[Macb00kemdanno]

Yeah I know a couple of Tesla owners who took their car in for a paint correction (out of their own pocket) after delivery since the paint was pretty bad and they wanted it fixed before PPF was applied. Some people think this type of expense is normal and an implied cost to do business with Elon. I think at this point, you may need to adopt a similar mindset that you'll be coming out of pocket to make this right if your plan is to put PPF on as well.

Don't get me wrong, I do wish Tesla got this right for you as a new/excited owner. But the reality is Tesla is a big money-making machine now and they won't stay that way handing out goodwill repairs for these types of issues.

Getting some blemishes out of your windows should be do-able and I think trim waviness is kind of standard and not really something Tesla would fix anyway.

I don't know many people that would consider that "normal". We wouldn't expect the kind fit/finish problems reported here from a $40k to $60k Audi, BMW, or Mercedes, so why would we expect it from Tesla? This kind of stuff would be somewhat acceptable when Tesla was first starting out, but a decade in? The kind of stuff that people are reporting here is unacceptable at any price point. And Goodwill repairs? Fixing something that should have been resolved from the factory? That's not goodwill, that's actually finishing your job! And don't get me started on the thread I saw about the power rear trunk crunching into the C-pillar that Tesla wanted customers to pay for at first.

I'm picking up my M3 this Friday at 4:30pm and I'll be going over every inch of it. If there's anything out of whack, they're going to fix it -- period. It's my money, and I'm not gonna get bent over and take it. I never have in 20 years of buying new cars, and I won't start now

 

[bro1999]

I picked up my Model 3 yesterday (at the end of their delivery day). I found a few items while there and was told to open a service ticket, but they didn't explain how. On my drive home I found 2 more issues (alignment was way off, and side cameras flickering). What is the best way to get these issues logged as delivery 'defects'?

Submit issues via the app.

 

[bro1999]

I don't know many people that would consider that "normal". We wouldn't expect the kind fit/finish problems reported here from a $40k to $60k Audi, BMW, or Mercedes, so why would we expect it from Tesla? This kind of stuff would be somewhat acceptable when Tesla was first starting out, but a decade in? The kind of stuff that people are reporting here is unacceptable at any price point. And Goodwill repairs? Fixing something that should have been resolved from the factory? That's not goodwill, that's actually finishing your job! And don't get me started on the thread I saw about the power rear trunk crunching into the C-pillar that Tesla wanted customers to pay for at first.

I'm picking up my M3 this Friday at 4:30pm and I'll be going over every inch of it. If there's anything out of whack, they're going to fix it -- period. It's my money, and I'm not gonna get bent over and take it. I never have in 20 years of buying new cars, and I won't start now

I feel fortunate my 3 was pretty much defect free. Only things I found was a slightly recessed door handle on the right rear and a very annoying rattling sound coming from the front passenger area. Other than that, pretty much flawless. And I was looking real hard for issues too.

 

[holeydonut]

I don't know many people that would consider that "normal". We wouldn't expect the kind fit/finish problems reported here from a $40k to $60k Audi, BMW, or Mercedes, so why would we expect it from Tesla? This kind of stuff would be somewhat acceptable when Tesla was first starting out, but a decade in? The kind of stuff that people are reporting here is unacceptable at any price point. And Goodwill repairs? Fixing something that should have been resolved from the factory? That's not goodwill, that's actually finishing your job! And don't get me started on the thread I saw about the power rear trunk crunching into the C-pillar that Tesla wanted customers to pay for at first.

I'm picking up my M3 this Friday at 4:30pm and I'll be going over every inch of it. If there's anything out of whack, they're going to fix it -- period. It's my money, and I'm not gonna get bent over and take it. I never have in 20 years of buying new cars, and I won't start now

Lol, you should see how hard TMC users flame other TMC users who complain about fit/finish, gaps, and poor paint. Like it's super ugly. You can see in my post about measuring panel gaps... so many diehards came out calling me a loser because they think caring about finish is loser-thinking. Good news for me is my wife's Model 3 looks pretty good. It wouldn't be acceptable for Mercedes, but compared to some of the horror shows people have posted in the Delivery threads, this car looks amazing hah.

I completely agree with you, Teslas are marketed against premium nameplates like Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, etc. And if it's your money, you should get what you think is a fair representation of your expectations of what you get for spending your $. Naturally your expectations will differ from anyone else; so you should do what you think you got to do to be confident in your purchase.

Unfortunately, I think the prevailing mindset on TMC is that Tesla isn't able to deliver s level of fit and finish on par with the luxury autos. So, continuing to expect that is "loser-thinking". You believe Tesla is going to fix the issues you find, but it's more likely you'll be in for a world of pain trying to get the outcome you want by expecting Tesla to solve it for you.

Some TMC users feel it's their duty to protect those poor souls at the service center from your desires. So instead, they think if you want to be extra picky, you need to go out of pocket for your own Concourse de Elegance level of paint adjustment and PPF. That is why I said it may be mentally healthier to adopt their mindset to just go with the flow and suffer some blemishes... than it is to try to force fit Tesla into delivering a Mercedes.

If/when Mercedes ever figures out EVs, then you can just go back to Mercedes.

 

[Alfred_Lanning]

Hey Everyone,

I took delivery of my M3P last week. Delivery experience was great, they dropped off the car where I told them, did a full inspection on panel gaps, paint etc. I was extremely worried I would be delivered a car with a ton of issues but everything seemed to be OK at first so I accepted delivery. I found a few items that I am able to live with and a few that I am not ok with at all.

The items that I am ok with are below.
1. Dirty marks on roof liner that will not come off - small but also not the end of the world.
2. Scratch on steering wheel - not that bad, also not great to have this on a brand new car.
3. Dirty marks on plastic parts of seats - not good but also seems like I can clean it.
4. Passenger door lever seems to be sitting inside more than the other doors, not that big of a deal but also not perfect.

Things that are not acceptable
1. Severe warping of front windscreen - it looks like you are looking through prescription glasses that are not yours and you get motion sick after about 10 min of driving.
2. Mild warping of drivers side glass - same issue as above.
3. Mild warping of passenger side glass - same issue as above.

The semi good news, I brought my car into service this morning and they were extremely nice and noticed exactly what I outlined above right away. They told me they were going to order new glass and install it as soon as they get it in. It will be a one day job so they will contact me as soon as it arrives. It is nice they did not push back since I was worried about that. But also doesn't feel great to pay this much for a car and immediately need to bring it into service. I also have to drive around with this glass for the time being and it's really not a great experience since it makes you motion sick from looking through the glass.

I responded to Tesla's survey that they email out asking how delivery was. I will be curious to see if anyone reaches out to me and ultimately I provided the feedback in hopes they can improve. I have been trying to convince my girlfriend to buy a Model Y and now she is apprehensive given how much she has heard about Tesla quality being sub-par and then seeing first had the issues I have on a 60k car.

Hoping the windows and windscreen can be resolved quickly and no further issues.

 

[bro1999]

Not an issue, but when did Tesla change the rear glass to the strictly horizontal defrost lines (versus the square pattern of the past)?

 

[pipp]

Hey Everyone,

I took delivery of my M3P last week. Delivery experience was great, they dropped off the car where I told them, did a full inspection on panel gaps, paint etc. I was extremely worried I would be delivered a car with a ton of issues but everything seemed to be OK at first so I accepted delivery. I found a few items that I am able to live with and a few that I am not ok with at all.

The items that I am ok with are below.
1. Dirty marks on roof liner that will not come off - small but also not the end of the world.
2. Scratch on steering wheel - not that bad, also not great to have this on a brand new car.
3. Dirty marks on plastic parts of seats - not good but also seems like I can clean it.
4. Passenger door lever seems to be sitting inside more than the other doors, not that big of a deal but also not perfect.

Things that are not acceptable
1. Severe warping of front windscreen - it looks like you are looking through prescription glasses that are not yours and you get motion sick after about 10 min of driving.
2. Mild warping of drivers side glass - same issue as above.
3. Mild warping of passenger side glass - same issue as above.

The semi good news, I brought my car into service this morning and they were extremely nice and noticed exactly what I outlined above right away. They told me they were going to order new glass and install it as soon as they get it in. It will be a one day job so they will contact me as soon as it arrives. It is nice they did not push back since I was worried about that. But also doesn't feel great to pay this much for a car and immediately need to bring it into service. I also have to drive around with this glass for the time being and it's really not a great experience since it makes you motion sick from looking through the glass.

I responded to Tesla's survey that they email out asking how delivery was. I will be curious to see if anyone reaches out to me and ultimately I provided the feedback in hopes they can improve. I have been trying to convince my girlfriend to buy a Model Y and now she is apprehensive given how much she has heard about Tesla quality being sub-par and then seeing first had the issues I have on a 60k car.

Hoping the windows and windscreen can be resolved quickly and no further issues.

Sounds like the service people were reasonable, which is better than a sharp stick in the eye. Was this in Marina Del Rey?

 

[Alfred_Lanning]

Sounds like the service people were reasonable, which is better than a sharp stick in the eye. Was this in Marina Del Rey?

This was the service center off SM Blvd near Century City.

 

[pipp]

This was the service center off SM Blvd near Century City.

Thanks! That’s good to know in case I get a car that needs some service…

 

[thewishmaster]

Not an issue, but when did Tesla change the rear glass to the strictly horizontal defrost lines (versus the square pattern of the past)?

Good catch. I haven’t seen anyone mention it, but the latest few delivery photos I could find all have the horizontal lines…

 

[teddy_kim]

Yeah I know a couple of Tesla owners who took their car in for a paint correction (out of their own pocket) after delivery since the paint was pretty bad and they wanted it fixed before PPF was applied. Some people think this type of expense is normal and an implied cost to do business with Elon. I think at this point, you may need to adopt a similar mindset that you'll be coming out of pocket to make this right if your plan is to put PPF on as well.

Don't get me wrong, I do wish Tesla got this right for you as a new/excited owner. But the reality is Tesla is a big money-making machine now and they won't stay that way handing out goodwill repairs for these types of issues.

Getting some blemishes out of your windows should be do-able and I think trim waviness is kind of standard and not really something Tesla would fix anyway.

Hey, the problem is that Tesla biz model is to take the money from people with poor quality product. I am not ready to be generous to Tesla as I don't see any reason to do it. It is so surprising to me that many guys like you admire Elon though his product is not decent as of today.

 

[holeydonut]

Hey, the problem is that Tesla biz model is to take the money from people with poor quality product. I am not ready to be generous to Tesla as I don't see any reason to do it. It is so surprising to me that many guys like you admire Elon though his product is not decent as of today.

Dude, you think I'm a fanboy of Elon? Like have you read my posts in that panel gap thread?

 

[teddy_kim]

Yeah I know a couple of Tesla owners who took their car in for a paint correction (out of their own pocket) after delivery since the paint was pretty bad and they wanted it fixed before PPF was applied. Some people think this type of expense is normal and an implied cost to do business with Elon. I think at this point, you may need to adopt a similar mindset that you'll be coming out of pocket to make this right if your plan is to put PPF on as well.

Don't get me wrong, I do wish Tesla got this right for you as a new/excited owner. But the reality is Tesla is a big money-making machine now and they won't stay that way handing out goodwill repairs for these types of issues.

Getting some blemishes out of your windows should be do-able and I think trim waviness is kind of standard and not really something Tesla would fix anywa

 

[Auss1e]

Anyone have issues with the rear window weather stripping? It’s like they cut it too far back. The other side is fine

 

[MLXXXp]

The other side is fine

The other side doesn't have the power lift mechanism. This gap in the weather stripping is normal for M3s with a power trunk.

 

[techlogik]

They "claim" this is normal due to the stripping and power lift mechanism. With that said, I know plenty of 2021s, including a guy I work with, where the alignment is near perfect even though the weather strip doesn't go all the way up. The issue obviously is, whatever order they are putting the glass on, and I assume it is going windshield, then sun roof or rear roof, if you have the front or next piece of glass off on the sunroof, you have no choice to get the lines of the glass/gaps between them, so what ends up happening is it ends up being a simple 2mm shifted to the right side of the trunk and moved off the left side giving that gap. Alignment issues all start with the first piece of glass, quarter panels/trunk etc...how they are installed/aligned. It could easily be resolved at the factory by having tighter standards/methods of installing all of the glass/panels and ensuring it is all set correctly..but they don't care, they are just throwing these things together as fast as possible and just giving the old same, hey, it's supposed to be like that and within "tolerances"...blah blah.

So to finish this rant, I take my car in to have them review/resolve several issues, they ended up fixing half of them. 3 of those were obvious, dented speaker grill, sunken door handle, and the front fender/quarter panel gap that meet next to the hood/headlight...well of course, they fix something then make the alignment of the hood like 1mm from hitting the panels now upon closing and screwed it up almost as bad from a visual inspection.

Unreal...how they were just to supposed to get the bumper piece lower that was poking up, all alignment was good, to match the quarter panel piece, and end up having it shifted closer to the hood is beyond me the piece that wasn't the problem....sigh...just a joke their QC and standards. Never see this with any other premium brand....

Now instead of the gaps looking perfect all around, I have this on the right front. As mentioned, the hood gap all around was perfect like the left front is, not anymore...thanks Tesla service!!!

And as I've posted prior, here is my trunk and my coworker's. See the slight difference? Part is the trunk being off on the left side and not matching exactly with the top roof line, the other part is the glass being misalinged..just a few millimeters and this is the result between a good alignment and a bad one. Then, if you move the trunk and adjust that over...guess what, now you have a gap between the rear quarter and trunk that is too big...so there are multiple issues.

Ok enough, you get the point...it is just bad factory QC/tolerances and techniques at Tesla.

 

[thewishmaster]

Got mine today and it’s almost perfect.
Stuff I’ll be reporting:
- front trunk lid is misaligned
- the entire front driver side door needs to be pulled inward by a couple mm
- the front bumper has some minor paint defects including one corner by the headlights, which for sure was noticed and marked in pink marker but was neither corrected nor cleaned up fully for whatever reason, but also there’s some diagonal pattern of what looks to be misapplied paint running up one corner - need to look more closely under different lighting, hard to capture otherwise. The front ultrasonics also don’t quite match the bumper in color so not sure what’s up with that; don’t really care, just found it strange
- finally it sounds like the front right brake pad is dragging on the disk which I thought was the pedestrian speaker noise at first but I can tell them apart for sure. Only 10 miles on the car right now so maybe it’ll go away after a little more driving?

Otherwise there’s some smudges and adhesive residue in a few random places including the inside of the passenger window, will note but otherwise I’m not too concerned. Interior looked pristine including the door seals and everything seems to be aligned as far as I can tell.

You win some you lose some - my last car had a vin almost 1 million units lower, but had its own constellation of minor issues including crooked steering wheel, misaligned doors, trunk lids, roof glass, and a few spots of paint issues, not to mention a bunch of incurable rattles inside.

And as I've posted prior, here is my trunk and my coworker's. See the slight difference? Part is the trunk being off on the left side and not matching exactly with the top roof line, the other part is the glass being misalinged..just a few millimeters and this is the result between a good alignment and a bad one. Then, if you move the trunk and adjust that over...guess what, now you have a gap between the rear quarter and trunk that is too big...so there are multiple issues.

This morning I was going to say that the MSM looks misaligned but my car is closer to yours than the other one - the trunk lid itself seems close enough to perfect where I wouldn’t want them to touch it, but the rear glass for sure is misaligned and turned slightly to the passenger side similar to yours, which is noticeable if you compare the two sides where they meet the roof glass. I spent extra time looking at it and the roof glass actually seems fine besides the slightly asymmetrical rubber trim that comes up slightly higher on one side than the other.

 

[Macb00kemdanno]

Got mine today and it’s almost perfect.
Stuff I’ll be reporting:
- front trunk lid is misaligned
- the entire front driver side door needs to be pulled inward by a couple mm
- the front bumper has some minor paint defects including corners by the headlights, one of which for sure was noticed and marked in pink marker but was neither corrected nor cleaned up fully for whatever reason, but also there’s some diagonal pattern of what looks to be misapplied paint running up one corner - need to look more closely under different lighting, hard to capture otherwise. The front ultrasonics also don’t quite match the bumper in color so not sure what’s up with that; don’t really care, just found it strange
- finally it sounds like the front right brake pad is dragging on the disk which I thought was the pedestrian speaker noise at first but I can tell them apart for sure. Only 10 miles on the car right now so maybe it’ll go away after a little more driving?

Otherwise there’s some smudges and adhesive residue in a few random places including the inside of the passenger window, will note but otherwise I’m not too concerned. Interior looked pristine including the door seals and everything seems to be aligned as far as I can tell.

You win some you lose some - my last car had a vin almost 1 million units lower, but had a similar constellation of minor issues including crooked steering wheel, misaligned doors, trunk lids, roof glass, and a few spots of paint issues, not to mention a bunch of incurable rattles inside.

J/K, hope you enjoy!

 

[thewishmaster]

View attachment 698878

J/K, hope you enjoy!

Lol! As long as they don’t mess up the bumper paint any further and it doesn’t rapidly develop rattles I’ll be a happy camper it’s definitely a Tesla brand of “perfect”

 

[Chris416yyz]

So the email says they ordered this part:

NA-M3 PASS SEAT ASSY LHD RH PRM PUR BLK No Lumbar
Part #: 7654324-01-D

They also ordered this part earlier but like I said this didn't solve it so they went with the one above.
UPPER B-PILLAR, ASY, PREMIUM, RH
Part #: 1086255-01-K

so this ended up being the part they replaced on my passenger seat. It’s the passenger seat assembly, only difference on the part is mine ends with a C rather than a D. Ended up fixing the rattle in the seat.