MX Imperfections: Some Perspective

[Mike M]

I just wanted to take a moment to share a couple quick thoughts, especially in regards to the ease we have of complaining about our Tesla's. From some of the stories I've read here at TMC, I felt rather lucky when I picked up my MX 90D last month and ONLY had a piece of misaligned trim, two minor FWD misalignments, a sticky power port and a couple small paint defects. Everything else on the car worked well, and the interior was immaculate.

After taking our MX in last week at the Denver service center and a couple day delay getting the vehicle back due to the FWD alignment issues, I had an appointment to take the MX over to our friends at Colorado Detail for some tint work, llumar films wrap and GTechniq Crystal Serum treatment. In one of the bays at the time was a brand new, just delivered Lamborghini Huracan. Colorado Detail's owner, after going over some of the paint defects on my MX showed me some serious paint defects on the Lambo, along with misaligned trim, etc. The reason for showing me? He wanted to let me know, virtually every car he sees has some issue, particularly when it comes to paint and body, even $200k supercars.

I appreciated the reminder that we really are dealing with technologically advanced, yet still almost custom hand built cars. So, should we expect better of Tesla when our cars come with issues? Absolutely. At the same time, its good to remember even Audi, BMW, VW and more sometimes can't get out of their own way with their own build and finish issues.

 

[jschwefel]

Great perspective! Thank you for reminding us.

 

[NikeWings]

I swear good attitudes foster great outcomes...........have a blast!

 

[Electroman]

Would rather have a car with a few cosmetic blemishes that has an electric motor, an inverter and a great battery under the hood, than the one with perfect alignment and perfect paint but with a gas engine, radiator, catalytic converter and mufflers underneath.

You can fix the cosmetic issues, but how are you going to fix those glaring manufacturing and design defects in an ICE car?

 

[outie]

I've had BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche. None comes close to all the trim/panel alignment issues I have with my X.

I consider myself having high tolerance because I consider the other cars I had as perfect in build quality. While I noticed the imperfections on the X I didn't care much during delivery. It's just a car and it will run on roads full of debris and rocks.

However, it's still a car that has been most imperfect on delivery. It's a fact that it's worse than the other cars in the comparable price range. It's also the only car I have that it has to go back to the shop for FWD issue right after I drove outside of the delivery center.

 

[Rich Meister]

Pic or it never happened... LOL

 

[stefan.bc]

Would rather have a car with a few cosmetic blemishes that has an electric motor, an inverter and a great battery under the hood, than the one with perfect alignment and perfect paint but with a gas engine, radiator, catalytic converter and mufflers underneath.

You left out quite a lot of imperfections/issues that can't be easily fixed: ghosting, car seats, sensors/software, heating, misaligned body panels etc
If my car had only the ones mentioned by you I would be so happy.

 

[MS16]

You left out quite a lot of imperfections/issues that can't be easily fixed: ghosting, car seats, sensors/software, heating, misaligned body panels etc
If my car had only the ones mentioned by you I would be so happy.

If the SC techs can't fix the defects in my car, I'm not sure a great attitude will fix them either.

Perhaps denial will work better.

 

[tinc]

I'm conflicted just like some of you are regarding the quality of our Ss and Xs. Most of us feel like to pay 6 figures for a vehicle, there is that feeling that everything should be near perfect since we are spending a lot of money on this vehicle. The other side is that Tesla is still a new company and the other manufacturers have decades of know how in manufacturing and we are still pretty much early adopters with Tesla.

As Tesla gains more experience and knowledge, I feel that they will improve just like the other manufacturers and probably one up them as well. I mean what other car is there in the market you would rather drive, in the same class? I'm pretty happy with the car, despite some of the nuances that I wish the cars (S and X) would have.

 

[Hitman007]

You guys do realize we are the Beta testers on the X! That vehicle in another year will be awesome but those of us "testers" in the first few years of production are working out the bugs and engineering issues for future owners. If Tesla survives as a company both X and S will true top shelf luxury cars by 2019. Until then.... welcome to beta testing.

 

[NikeWings]

I didn't expect the many challenges, substantial noise and complaints I had researched to simply vanish, just because I was ordering "my car". I made the decision to plow ahead with eyes wide open. Room for improvement? All over the place, yes. Regrets of jumping in? None at all, no.

 

[stefan.bc]

I'm conflicted just like some of you are regarding the quality of our Ss and Xs. Most of us feel like to pay 6 figures for a vehicle, there is that feeling that everything should be near perfect since we are spending a lot of money on this vehicle. The other side is that Tesla is still a new company and the other manufacturers have decades of know how in manufacturing and we are still pretty much early adopters with Tesla.

As Tesla gains more experience and knowledge, I feel that they will improve just like the other manufacturers and probably one up them as well. I mean what other car is there in the market you would rather drive, in the same class? I'm pretty happy with the car, despite some of the nuances that I wish the cars (S and X) would have.

You guys do realize we are the Beta testers on the X! That vehicle in another year will be awesome but those of us "testers" in the first few years of production are working out the bugs and engineering issues for future owners. If Tesla survives as a company both X and S will true top shelf luxury cars by 2019. Until then.... welcome to beta testing.

When a bad car seat is installed we are not talking about engineering.
When some windshields are warped, or have different levels of ghosting but they still get installed we are not talking about engineering.
When paint is not perfect we are not talking about engineering.
When a FWD sticks out/not aligned properly we are not talking about engineering.
etc
Most of the issues can be solved in the factory before the car is delivered and they do not require an engineer to work on it. All the above can even be fixed in the SCs before delivery.

After 30.000 cars and a second iteration(nov 2016) we should not be beta testers anymore.