Model X - Flawed or Flawless?

[aesculus]

The X is going to be the warranty nightmare of Tesla

Depends on how many they sell and how good the quality is eventually. I agree that there is a lot that can go wrong with the car (the seats and doors). But at some point they should be able to make these work reliably (maybe now?) and if they only have to replace 2 to 3 thousand sets, that is trivial in the long run when you end up making hundreds of thousands of cars over the lifetime.

It's not like they are going to wear out sooner and therefore all cars will need new components. Now if you want to talk about that then you could say the motors in ALL Tesla cars could perhaps be a warranty nightmare. Too early to tell on that one.

 

[Skotty]

There's a little bit of Star Wars phenomenon going on here. People really love the first 3 Star Wars movies (episodes 4, 5, and 6), while the next 3 (episodes 1, 2, and 3) tend to get a lot of criticism. While in fact, episodes 1, 2, and 3 were actually done much more professionally, and just had a few nagging flaws. But they got a ton more criticism. Same thing is going on with Tesla right now. There is nostalgia around the S, and it was quite successful. This set an unreasonably high bar for the X to live up to.

I don't have one myself, but I would guess In reality the X is probably a pretty good car, and has some cool new features never seen before in an automobile (in addition to everything else that we almost don't give it credit for, like being the quickest SUV ever). But it does have a few quirks that need to be worked out. Which I think is reasonable for a fairly new auto company building a highly innovative first-of-its-kind product.

I don't think in general people should be upset with Tesla right now over any problems with the X, so long as Tesla works out the quirks over time.

 

[Drivin]

There's a little bit of Star Wars phenomenon going on here. People really love the first 3 Star Wars movies (episodes 4, 5, and 6), while the next 3 (episodes 1, 2, and 3) tend to get a lot of criticism. While in fact, episodes 1, 2, and 3 were actually done much more professionally, and just had a few nagging flaws. But they got a ton more criticism. Same thing is going on with Tesla right now. There is nostalgia around the S, and it was quite successful. This set an unreasonably high bar for the X to live up to.

No Star Wars fan deserved jar jar binks

I don't see how the X was more professionally done than the S especially with regard to quality assurance.

 

[digicool]

Agree with Scotty, due to the persistence of recent memory, the quality of first Model Xs rolling out of the line are unfairly compared with the most recent Model Ss - which is flawed comparison! I was just reading about some early Model Ss that had power trains replaced and the like. While the major components like powertrain for the X were directly inherited from S, new complications like FWD and windshield are still the first of kind which is where we are hearing most issues about.

 

[Darryl]

K-MTG, IMO it might be more interesting to track the trend of issues showing up/getting fixed.


Darryl, is there a way to add entries to the my data page on ModelXTracker that owners can go update?
I am thinking, list the known major problems as check-able items and people can check the issues that they see.

We may then be able to plot trends on when the problems came and fixed.

I will fend the request over to Paul and see what he thinks. I know he has been swamped in moving the application to a new server and getting ready for the Model 3 launch.

Probably would want to track date discovered and date resolved.

 

[Mark Z]

52% with no problems on 3/27. Excellent.

I am most impressed with the scattered issues for the remaining results. No one issue stands out while 5 issues have more votes. This is encouraging. Even my early VIN only had three items to report on the poll (because my detailer corrected scratches that I did not report).

 

[Drivin]

52% with no problems on 3/27. Excellent.

.

Truly, truly excellent.

It is an unbelievable achievement to get past the half-way point in terms of $150k cars produced without problems. All those years in development really has paid off.

There needs to be a Nobel prize for engineering, manufacturing and QA. They can sweep all 3 awards!

Maybe with this monumental breakthrough they can achieve the near impossible 60% level with the Model 3!

Here's hoping!!

 

[Sunlight]

As a non-owning Tesla stalker and investor (and having just finished the Elon Musk book), I'd absolutely love to read/find out the 'full inside story' of what happened with the MX development.

Why the l-o-n-g delay? And it appears that it should have rightly been a lot longer as the first MXs stuffed out the door were too 'flawed/buggy'. Tesla really needed another 6-10 months to get the MX ready to build with acceptable quality at a decent speed. Presumably the pressure to set a date (already late) demanded an earlier-than-ready release date.

Whether this was a wise or foolish decision will pan out in the near future.

I completely get that Tesla does not have the experience or resources to run hundreds of alpha cars around to find design/assembly faults and they are producing an amazing, ground breaking car so one can reasonably expect some hiccups but some of the issues seem inexcusable to me.............

After so long in development why are the doors (general) giving so many problems? Fit; alignment; operation; seals and so on. And how do cars even leave the factory, let alone the SC, with scratches and other QC issues unresolved. The cost financially and image-wise in the longer run is so large.

With feedback from customers and many cars out on the roads I guess most of these issues will get resolved fairly quickly now and sorted out on the production line or before delivery.

Sadly the road noise issue may take longer to resolve (retro-fitable?) and really should not have been an issue after the MS and such a long gestation period.

On the positive side, I think that (following the MS example) the problems will get sorted so that it is an awesome and issue-free (within reason) car in the foreseeable future.

But maybe for Tesla at this point in their history, it was actually a 'bridge-too-far' and a slightly taller, simple SUV MS would have been wiser with the spare resources going into the M3 development.

I just hope that Tesla has learnt some tough and painful lessons with both the MS and MX and that the M3 reaps all the benefits and its release is timely and problem-free (again within reason) and Tesla can catch the crest of the wave rather than fighting to survive the rip current..............

 

[vandacca]

...
Why the l-o-n-g delay? And it appears that it should have rightly been a lot longer as the first MXs stuffed out the door were too 'flawed/buggy'. Tesla really needed another 6-10 months to get the MX ready to build with acceptable quality at a decent speed. Presumably the pressure to set a date (already late) demanded an earlier-than-ready release date.
...

Elon had incentives in place to start "shipping" the Model X by September 2015. Those 6 vehicles that were "delivered" ensured that he got his incentive.

Also, even though Elon/Tesla is pretty good at resisting stock market influence, no company can completely disregard the stock market as it has dire financial consequences. Tesla has to impress Wall Street by delivering a significant number of vehicles per their original outlook.

Finally, Tesla is still a small company. They don't yet have the luxury of getting all the bugs fixed before shipping the first vehicle. They still need a cash influx to survive.

 

[ankitmishra]

Elon had incentives in place to start "shipping" the Model X by September 2015. Those 6 vehicles that were "delivered" ensured that he got his incentive.

Also, even though Elon/Tesla is pretty good at resisting stock market influence, no company can completely disregard the stock market as it has dire financial consequences. Tesla has to impress Wall Street by delivering a significant number of vehicles per their original outlook.

Finally, Tesla is still a small company. They don't yet have the luxury of getting all the bugs fixed before shipping the first vehicle. They still need a cash influx to survive.

I dont believe Elon is doing this for money as many people believe. Tesla announced Q3 launch and stuck with it for a long time. This is a hard-working and proud company. It has got a lot of criticism for missed deadlines. I believe they have taken that to heart and it was the result of that. I also believe Model 3 deliveries will begin in late 2017.

 

[ankitmishra]

Truly, truly excellent.

It is an unbelievable achievement to get past the half-way point in terms of $150k cars produced without problems. All those years in development really has paid off.

There needs to be a Nobel prize for engineering, manufacturing and QA. They can sweep all 3 awards!

Maybe with this monumental breakthrough they can achieve the near impossible 60% level with the Model 3!

Here's hoping!!

They don't need any awards from anyone. The only award they seek is to see people flock around Model X when they see one. They will be happy when the sales of Tesla will move higher and higher. This is an extraordinary product.

 

[sandpiper]

I don't think anybody outside the company can really have an appreciation for what Tesla has gone through to get this vehicle out the door. The bits of noise that escaped respecting the German door supplier are, without a doubt, the tip of the iceberg.

I've been in manufacturing for a long time, and I'm 100% certain that there has been a state of barely contained madness within Tesla over the 6-8 months prior to the first X deliveries, and that it continues still now as the ramp-up proceeds. I've been there are done that.

That Tesla managed to get the S, and now the X, out in the time frame that they have, with the level of innovation, with the list of new suppliers, with such a high degree of vertical integration, utilizing so few people and yet still achieving a relatively small number of first run production issues is nothing short of amazing. It's a testament to the commitment and capability of the team that Tesla has.

They're not perfect, but I am personally still in awe. The issues are, in the grand scheme, minor. We just have to let them work them through just as they did on the S.

 

[aesculus]

That Tesla managed to get the S, and now the X, out in the time frame that they have, with the level of innovation, with the list of new suppliers, with such a high degree of vertical integration, utilizing so few people and yet still achieving a relatively small number of first run production issues is nothing short of amazing. It's a testament to the commitment and capability of the team that Tesla has.

After my delivery experience and factory tour I would tend to agree with you. They have done some amazing things.

But having said that, they still need to make sure their early adopter community is well supported and satisfied with their early production cars or the entire process just becomes moot. So far I have been one of the lucky ones with what seems like a near perfect car.

 

[K-MTG]

I came across this video on YouTube:

Is this the issue you guys reported having?

 

[aesculus]

Pry it all the way open and then climb in and press the brake pedal to close it. That cleared it the one time it happened to me.

I think the sw can get confused sometimes if it encounters more resistance than it was calibrated for.

 

[CaliX]

I came across this video on YouTube:

Is this the issue you guys reported having?

That is what happened to me after I did the last update on my front passengers door they said it's fixed will find out tomorrow when I pick it up.

 

[Dr ValueSeeker]

Keep your service records carefully, in case you want to use the Lemon law in future to return your car.

 

[BornToFly]

Keep your service records carefully, in case you want to use the Lemon law in future to return your car.

What are you doing on this forum? All your posts have been negative, anti-Tesla troll postings. Get a life, and stop shorting the company. You will be penniless.

 

[K-MTG]

Get a life, and stop shorting the company. You will be penniless.

Wow! Harsh!

 

[ohmman]

What are you doing on this forum? All your posts have been negative, anti-Tesla troll postings. Get a life, and stop shorting the company. You will be penniless.

A tip. Click a username, then find the Ignore link. It's a very effective implementation on the new forum software. Even blanks out quoted text.