fwiw, my first tesla, so apologies for some perhaps obvious things to prior Tesla owners.
first, thanks to all of those who worked hard on the delivery checklist. it is a big help, and for anyone who thinks it's overkill, in my opinion, it was not. i think more things could be added in fact. its a long list and took me quite a while to go through but sadly my delivery checked a lot of boxes for things not quite right. those are: several scratches that couldn't be buffed out, front door alignment issues, rubber seals sticking up slightly, gaps above the headlights off, roof misaligned slightly between FWDs, and a few more minor things. for anyone who hasn't taken delivery, i would recommend printing it out or at least using some version of it. i ordered the tow package and it wasn't installed also. took 10mins to get installed. the whole process of picking up the car ended up taking about 4 hours (!) because i insisted the specialist make notes and/or take pictures of everything. Tesla is great, but I've been burned too many times in the past with 'we didn't do that' so i wasn't taking any chances. i do think it sucks that so many little things were off. i'm not an engineer but anyone could see many of the little faults, and it makes me wonder if someone saw them coming off the production line and said deliver it anyway, or if they didn't see them. either way, not good for the sticker price you pay. i'm ok being a beta tester of sorts for an amazing product but its not the big / complex things that are wrong. it's the little/simple things. and frankly, for ~150k that simply should not be the case. i picked up last Saturday and now taking it back on Tuesday to get everything corrected, hopefully. i don't want a loaner Model S, i want the X!
Driving home, it did take me a while to adjust to finding everything on the screen, being new to Tesla. no big deal, but definitely a learning curve. there was a lot of traffic for me heading home after pickup so it was impossible to search around for things, even as simple as ludicrous mode. if i had to do it over again, i would have studied up a bit on the screen functions more prior to pickup (i certainly had a lot of time from when i ordered in September). they go over those functions with you at pickup but i would forget one piece of it and while driving was tricky. obviously only a very short term issue.
The front doors have also been a little tricky as many have mentioned here. i mentioned on another thread that they kind of pop open quickly. i live in a city. i had to grab it manually to stop the door from hitting a cyclist. i also park in a parking garage and the attendants had to stop using the key fob altogether because every time they tried to open the front doors, they would open one of the FWDs. They and i have had to manually stop the FWDs already several times before hitting something. they're afraid to park it too close to anything, which i guess is a win for me, in terms of ease of access and egress. they're also afraid of locking themselves/me out of the car with the key fob so they keep it outside of the car, unlike all other cars in the garage. they all also keep looking for a 'button' to open the charging port, as we have a few Model S's at the garage. FWDs have been a little bit tricky with 3 kids, as we've said several times 'who opened the door?' and i don't know if its my kids BSing me or they opened for another reason! (i realize 98% chance they're BSing me). Immediately at pickup, i disabled the auto door open, and enabled child door locks.
i'll skip over the driving part of this, lots of videos/posts about that. its awesome, i love how it drives. what i can add is it does handle rough nyc streets fairly well. air suspension seems to do a nice job, and i'm glad i got the 20" wheels.
Rear view mirror is small, but i have 6 seats so at least a better view out of it. but its smaller than most similar cars out there. side view mirrors also take a lot of getting used to for me for some reason. i realize i can drive with the rear view camera, but its too distracting for me to leave on. As for the windshield, I drove on a bluebird day with the sun directly overhead and i had no trouble at all. now, i normally wear sunglasses when driving when its sunny, so with those the windshield was great. for me, the sun shade they're mailing me will be overkill and i doubt i'll ever use it. (but please don't ask me if i'll sell it)
Phone holder/charger works fine but i wish it was easier to see my phone in that location, because i use Waze religiously and i like to cross reference it, while often needing my phone charging. i realize there are workarounds there but fwiw. speaking of cross-referencing, i was told the nav uses google maps but based on routings i've been given, i question that. it's possible/likely i'm wrong but its sent me on some questionable routes. i don't really trust it. so i'll get in the 'please let us use Waze on the big screen' camp. also, the nav directed me to make left turns on several streets where no left turns are permitted. i live here and know better but considering the amount of bikes, strollers, pedestrians, that needs to be fixed. (Waze, of course, did not have me turning there) i posted also about the USB music, hopefully a software update will let me pick up where i left off when shutting down the car. each time i get back in the car, i have to select: usb/songs/play. or if i was playing one album: usb/artist/album/play. too many clicks. just needs to resume playing.
as others have said, 3rd row is very tight for adults. i had a 5'1" friend sit in the third row. she moved her head forward and it was pressing against the black metal bar above the rear windshield. i'll just stop there on that. second row seats are narrow also, IMO, as many have mentioned. front row seats are very comfortable, but i do wish i could extend the bench (? the part of seat parallel to the floor) out a bit since i'm taller. its more comfortable if the seat is right under my knee but it doesn't get there. i agree with all here that seat backs are going to get crushed, especially with two booster seats in second row and a car seat in third row. there is not a ton of room in the second row behind me for the legs of my child in the booster. I've also had several errors that the second row seats came unlatched when i had to move them around a bit (to ironically load the big booster seat boxes to take home). that was a pain as i had to keep moving the seat back and forth until the error message disappeared. the screen said to press and hold to ignore (or dismiss?) but that didn't work.
Overall i'm still very happy with the car, I love it. i wanted to point out some things i didn't like out in order to help others, and maybe even help Tesla if you're reading! but I went in with eyes open, thanks in large part to TMC users for all the great info. i trust Tesla will fix all the things i pointed out, so i'm not too worried. i'm not bitching about the MX, just trying to pay it fwd a little.
first, thanks to all of those who worked hard on the delivery checklist. it is a big help, and for anyone who thinks it's overkill, in my opinion, it was not. i think more things could be added in fact. its a long list and took me quite a while to go through but sadly my delivery checked a lot of boxes for things not quite right. those are: several scratches that couldn't be buffed out, front door alignment issues, rubber seals sticking up slightly, gaps above the headlights off, roof misaligned slightly between FWDs, and a few more minor things. for anyone who hasn't taken delivery, i would recommend printing it out or at least using some version of it. i ordered the tow package and it wasn't installed also. took 10mins to get installed. the whole process of picking up the car ended up taking about 4 hours (!) because i insisted the specialist make notes and/or take pictures of everything. Tesla is great, but I've been burned too many times in the past with 'we didn't do that' so i wasn't taking any chances. i do think it sucks that so many little things were off. i'm not an engineer but anyone could see many of the little faults, and it makes me wonder if someone saw them coming off the production line and said deliver it anyway, or if they didn't see them. either way, not good for the sticker price you pay. i'm ok being a beta tester of sorts for an amazing product but its not the big / complex things that are wrong. it's the little/simple things. and frankly, for ~150k that simply should not be the case. i picked up last Saturday and now taking it back on Tuesday to get everything corrected, hopefully. i don't want a loaner Model S, i want the X!
Driving home, it did take me a while to adjust to finding everything on the screen, being new to Tesla. no big deal, but definitely a learning curve. there was a lot of traffic for me heading home after pickup so it was impossible to search around for things, even as simple as ludicrous mode. if i had to do it over again, i would have studied up a bit on the screen functions more prior to pickup (i certainly had a lot of time from when i ordered in September). they go over those functions with you at pickup but i would forget one piece of it and while driving was tricky. obviously only a very short term issue.
The front doors have also been a little tricky as many have mentioned here. i mentioned on another thread that they kind of pop open quickly. i live in a city. i had to grab it manually to stop the door from hitting a cyclist. i also park in a parking garage and the attendants had to stop using the key fob altogether because every time they tried to open the front doors, they would open one of the FWDs. They and i have had to manually stop the FWDs already several times before hitting something. they're afraid to park it too close to anything, which i guess is a win for me, in terms of ease of access and egress. they're also afraid of locking themselves/me out of the car with the key fob so they keep it outside of the car, unlike all other cars in the garage. they all also keep looking for a 'button' to open the charging port, as we have a few Model S's at the garage. FWDs have been a little bit tricky with 3 kids, as we've said several times 'who opened the door?' and i don't know if its my kids BSing me or they opened for another reason! (i realize 98% chance they're BSing me). Immediately at pickup, i disabled the auto door open, and enabled child door locks.
i'll skip over the driving part of this, lots of videos/posts about that. its awesome, i love how it drives. what i can add is it does handle rough nyc streets fairly well. air suspension seems to do a nice job, and i'm glad i got the 20" wheels.
Rear view mirror is small, but i have 6 seats so at least a better view out of it. but its smaller than most similar cars out there. side view mirrors also take a lot of getting used to for me for some reason. i realize i can drive with the rear view camera, but its too distracting for me to leave on. As for the windshield, I drove on a bluebird day with the sun directly overhead and i had no trouble at all. now, i normally wear sunglasses when driving when its sunny, so with those the windshield was great. for me, the sun shade they're mailing me will be overkill and i doubt i'll ever use it. (but please don't ask me if i'll sell it)
Phone holder/charger works fine but i wish it was easier to see my phone in that location, because i use Waze religiously and i like to cross reference it, while often needing my phone charging. i realize there are workarounds there but fwiw. speaking of cross-referencing, i was told the nav uses google maps but based on routings i've been given, i question that. it's possible/likely i'm wrong but its sent me on some questionable routes. i don't really trust it. so i'll get in the 'please let us use Waze on the big screen' camp. also, the nav directed me to make left turns on several streets where no left turns are permitted. i live here and know better but considering the amount of bikes, strollers, pedestrians, that needs to be fixed. (Waze, of course, did not have me turning there) i posted also about the USB music, hopefully a software update will let me pick up where i left off when shutting down the car. each time i get back in the car, i have to select: usb/songs/play. or if i was playing one album: usb/artist/album/play. too many clicks. just needs to resume playing.
as others have said, 3rd row is very tight for adults. i had a 5'1" friend sit in the third row. she moved her head forward and it was pressing against the black metal bar above the rear windshield. i'll just stop there on that. second row seats are narrow also, IMO, as many have mentioned. front row seats are very comfortable, but i do wish i could extend the bench (? the part of seat parallel to the floor) out a bit since i'm taller. its more comfortable if the seat is right under my knee but it doesn't get there. i agree with all here that seat backs are going to get crushed, especially with two booster seats in second row and a car seat in third row. there is not a ton of room in the second row behind me for the legs of my child in the booster. I've also had several errors that the second row seats came unlatched when i had to move them around a bit (to ironically load the big booster seat boxes to take home). that was a pain as i had to keep moving the seat back and forth until the error message disappeared. the screen said to press and hold to ignore (or dismiss?) but that didn't work.
Overall i'm still very happy with the car, I love it. i wanted to point out some things i didn't like out in order to help others, and maybe even help Tesla if you're reading! but I went in with eyes open, thanks in large part to TMC users for all the great info. i trust Tesla will fix all the things i pointed out, so i'm not too worried. i'm not bitching about the MX, just trying to pay it fwd a little.
