I picked up my MS today!!
My wife drove to the dealership. As we got close I scanned the parking lot looking for mine. I saw one that could be mine plugged into a Supercharger. When I got closer I saw that it had out of state plates. Not mine.
I had her drive around the building so I could look into the delivery bay. Sure enough, there it was. It was quite a thrill spotting it for the first time.
I walked into the dealership. A Tesla solar guy was inside. I talked to him about solar and Powerwalls for a bit. When I was done with him I walked into the delivery bay to see my Tesla up close for the first time.
I started inspecting. There were several scratches on the front and back bumpers, as well as on the glass roof. I mean a LOT of scratches. None were deep. But there were just so many. Especially on the front bumper.
The rep helped me inspect. He spotted some scratches that I hadn't seen. It made me feel good that he was on my side through the process.
Then he walked me through the key fob functionality. Then I sat in the driver seat, he in the passenger, and my wife in back while he walked me through the software.
He took the car back to his detail guy, who buffed out as many scratches as he could. But there were many remaining.
Hemade a list of scratches and their locations, including taking several pictures. I took several myself. He explained that he will send the list to Tesla Service, who will contact me to set up an appointment. I was told they will most likely replace the front bumper and the windshield. This was a bit surprising. The front bumper definitely needs to be replaced based on the sheer number of scratches, but the windshield had only one scratch. Granted it is a substantial scratch, but I'm surprised they would replace an entire windshield over it. We'll see.
Also the back bumper might be replaced as well.
Apparently it's cheaper to replace all these parts than to spend technician man-hours trying to fix them up. Fine by me.
The hood was perfect. Not a scratch on it. The quarter panels looked good after they were buffed. The interior was nearly perfect. Just one minor scratch or smudge on a seat in a place that won't really be noticed. My kids will do more damage than that the first time they get in.
He pulled the car around, then came back inside and handed me the two fobs. I walked out into the now pouring rain, climbed in, dried off the interior of the door the best I could, then tried to decide what to do. Play with the software? Read the manual? Go to the wrap shop? At this point I hadn't decided on wrap or not. I can't wrap the bumpers until they are replaced. I called the wrap guy, who told me he could wrap everything but the bumper, then do the bumper later. That sounded good.
I put the car into drive, and nothing happened. It took me a minute to realize I was thrown off because there was no creep (that's a setting). When you're sitting behind the wheel of a brand new crazy expensive vehicle, you just don't think straight.
I avoided the freeway. I took surface streets 11 miles to the wrap shop. As I drove it occurred to me I should take a picture of the mileage. It had either 7 or 8 when I picked it up. I saw it on a graph, not the actual number. It's not obvious how to get to the screen that shows the number. I was driving as I played through the menus. Finally I found it. 9 miles. I snapped a picture.
I was driving carefully. I only had one brief moment to 'hit the gas' to see what it can do. Man that was fun, even though it lasted just 2 second. I can't wait to try it again.
I got to the wrap shop. $1600 for front clip, which means bumper, full hood, quarter panels, headlights, and mirrors. While there I decided to do the 4 doors too. $1600 for those. The guy threw in the A pillars, which would normally be $75. So I got the front 2/3 of the car for $3200. The price for the whole vehicle was either $5000 or $5500 (I got two different prices at two different times... something that makes my spidey sense tingle in a bad way).
Originally he was going to do it tomorrow, then let it sit until Friday morning. But I found him at a good time today between appointments, so he started on mine right away. Cool. Since he doesn't have to do the bumper right now he think he might be able to finish tomorrow and I can pick it up. I will take it back for the front bumper after Tesla has their shot at it.
All in all it was a positive experience. I am terribly excited to get it back in the next day or two to start driving it and playing with the software. I nearly skipped the wrap just for that reason. I know, shortsighted. But it's just that exciting to be in the driver seat after the long wait. The only negative was the sheer number of scratches, especially the front bumper. But they said they'd fix it and I believe it. Fortunately the interior is practically perfect, the rest of the exterior is great, and I couldn't find any other problems. Before going in I had convinced myself there would be serious problems and I couldn't accept the vehicle. Fortunately that wasn't the case.
Oh, the only other problem is we're expecting rain for a week! That just won't do. Saturday is supposed to be dry so I have one day to drive this thing over the next week.
** Very happy right now **
