This is NOT a discussion-turned-argument I want to heavily jump into; so this is pretty much all will say on this subject. The panel gaps have been a major issue in Tesla's history. But of the issues they've had, they have been minimizing them over the years. They are one by one picking off every complaint people have had with Teslas (New S interior quality, etc..). Panel gaps are next:
It's clear that originally, pretty much all of the money went into the powertrain and battery. Now, the money (because there is more of it), is going to the powertrain and battery, interior, and chassis development. Some of the issues I've seen have seen have been borderline egregious, and others overly dramatized. I agree that a 130k car can and will do better. However, I think many of us believe (rightly so IMHO), that you aren't going to find a car this well engineered for the LR/Plaid pricing. This company has effectively only been building cars for 9 years, yet it has overtaken the 100+ years of "engineering experience" the other companies are supposed to have. In a 10th of the time! IMO, we are taking Tesla's experience in powertrains and next-level engineering, and are associated it to a being a much older company than they really are. Not that we shouldn't expect good quality, because that is what will improve Tesla.
Plus, it's not like other manufacturers don't have quality issues. The initial ramp of the new Shelby GT500 (a car that can cost over 100K, and that is built by an established company), was terrible, with many QC issues that could not be excusable. The $10,000 painted stripes option was often done improperly, and had to be corrected, hoses under the hood came pinched, misaligned hoods and trunks, cobra badges falling off, etc...
The C8 Corvette went on sale and
immediately started having quality issues, with leather dashes lifting, intake grills not being strong enough, crap paint, etc... The new Bronco has also gone on sale and instantly had soft top and wind noise issues, as well as surprise markups from overly greedy dealers. They rushed it.
Just today, it has come to light that Ford has issued a recall for the very thing they mocked Tesla over last year.
I think like many things in Tesla's history, QC will improve, as reports out of GigaShanghai have shown. That is Tesla's first ground up car factory, and people are loving the QC. Apparently there are almost no issues, and the cars are being built really well over there. The same will happen with Texas that hopefully goes online next month. Once Texas is fully online, the rumor is that Fremont will be fully redesigned to accommodate the new paint shop, assembly machines, etc... That's when we can expect truly world class quality out of a Tesla. IMO though, even before then, once this production ramp is done, they will be able to iron out all of the kinks in these cars. Elon himself said the best time to buy a car is before or after a production ramp. Like all other companies, things can and have gotten weird during.
(Disclaimer: This is just my opinion and mine alone, so I don't mean to set anyone off here. Please keep that in mind.)
I really like Lucid, and have $LCID also, but it's important to remember that Elon also wanted high quality at the start of production. Tesla actually slowed production in 2012 to do "quality over quantity". Apparently, it all went to crap when the M3 arrived. So we'll see where Lucid and Rivian are on that front in 5 or 7 years. What we are hearing is what Lucid is
hoping to do right now. Hopefully it's the same in the future, but they will have some issues no doubt until they figure things out.
