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New Model S Plaid Ordered!
- Thread starter XHokie
- Start date
All cars can get dinged up in transport and the dealers usually fix them but in my experience it doesn’t happen nearly as often as what happens with Tesla which begs the question on why so many cars have issues from delivery unless it happened at the factory. I’ve ordered several cars from Lexus and BMW and some of those cars came from Japan and Germany and were absolutely perfect, no dings, chips or scratches anywhere. Even a Dodge I bought a few years ago was perfect. Not sure why Tesla has such issues delivering cars.
Agreed and it would seem to be something almost entirely in their control and "chain of custody" to hold themselves accountable for. I've also ordered from Land Rover and Audi, never had such an issue. In both of those instances, when the vehicle arrived at the dealer, I got a call the same day to prepare to pick up the next day with zero issues in terms of dings/damage to the vehicle in transit. Either they are using unprofessional or unreliable contractors to transport their vehicles and/or to meet their 'Street metrics, 99% vehicles produced are shipped out regardless of the physical condition it is in. Almost everything "passes" inspection at Fremont...
I'm actually surprised more owners aren't on Elon for improving QC and the delivery experience vs. FSD or other "sexy" projects he's been focused on.
Even if they used unreliable contractors/transporters it still doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even bad transporters know that they can be held responsible for damage and would try to be careful and would be so careless because the fix isn’t always cheap. The Model S is low but not as low as a lot of cars and I haven’t seen scratches underneath the bumper like I have seen with Tesla.
I know with my car the paint damage was not from transport. It looked like they took my door off and dragged it on the ground and then took a hammer to the inside of the door jamb to make it align but I have seen on here that a lot seem to be from transport…unless it’s not.
I know with my car the paint damage was not from transport. It looked like they took my door off and dragged it on the ground and then took a hammer to the inside of the door jamb to make it align but I have seen on here that a lot seem to be from transport…unless it’s not.
Well it was a $92k car at the start of 2021 before the Refresh added +$28k, and then another +$16k was arbitrarily added starting last June
A short update, with a more detailed review/update to be posted in the coming weeks…
My delivery experience - but first, BLUF, my expectations were low and I was nervous about this entire experience based on all the things I’ve read on this forum about delivery. With that said, here goes…
As of this morning, I was scheduled to pick up my vehicle at 12pm EST, but got a call around 11:15am that they needed more time to prep my vehicle and pushed me back to 1:30pm this afternoon. I said not a problem and appreciated them taking the time to prep the vehicle properly vs it being rushed. Honestly, this was not a big deal, so all good with me.
I show up about 1:40 (bad Uber driver…hopefully not a bad omen), the vehicle isn’t ready outside where the other vehicles that are parked for delivery today. I go inside and am immediately acknowledged and asked to begin by signing the MVPA and state DMV forms, but I request that I do not want to “accept terms” to offically take final delivery until I’m able to see/inspect the car. My Tesla service center understands and says they will finish the process after I’m satisfied with the vehicle. They said the vehicle was almost ready and will be pulled around. No problem, and I patiently wait at a table to the side. I won’t lie, I’m slightly annoyed because I would have figured the extra time by now would have been enough to have it ready to go for me, but again…all good, no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
My first reaction can only be described as anxious excitement! Upon initial glance on the outside, it looks amazing, aggressive and beautiful! I’m glad I went with black; my first black car in some time and it looks great on Model S. Now, I start looking closely for misalignment of panels, weather stripping, doors, etc. Nothing immediately jumps out at me after about 10-15 minutes of closely looking it over and a couple of walk-around the vehicle. I do notice under the front hood, on the driver‘s side, there’s a rubbery textured “strip” of something protruding out between the edge of the front trunk and driver’s side panel where there should naturally be some slight gap where those areas meet. Hard to describe, but hopefully that makes sense. Not an issue on the passenger side front trunk in the same area. Other than that, again, nothing on the outside that jumps out.
The 20 minutes it takes me to drive home, I do not turn any music on. I wanted to listen for any shakes, rattles, and/or rolls. Nothing...the car drives smoothly; very smooth and better than I expected. No rattles or creaks/noises, incredibly quiet compared to my older Model X and even the Model 3s that I have been renting from Hertz off and on while waiting for my S. I didn’t push it past about 75mph on the short drive home, but the acceleration is awesome and just powerful. Plus it’s still pouring rain most of the way home…
All in all, in about the 1 hour I have spent today driving the vehicle, I‘m happy with the quality of how the vehicle is put together and the very quite/comfortable ride. Maybe I just expected much worse. I also realized that the Active Noise Cancellation is turned on (by default?) and I’m not sure how much that helps reduce noise, but again…it is quiet and no rattles or squeaks in this car. I titled the screen in both directions, but I left it in the default/centered position while driving today. I did notice the plasticky piece behind it is not the most secured part, so we’ll see when I drive it with the screen tilted how that is.
I’m dropping it off for PPF on Monday, driving it very little between now and then. I will will post a more thorough review after that and spending more time driving, along with some pictures. That’s my story for now!
Any questions, feel free to ask.
P.S. - one more thing…my vehicle has the old/original Plaid badge on the rear trunk. I was surprised and expecting the “PLAID” word badge, but it’s the one that they originally put on the early Plaids. I guess they have gone back to those now? Nice!
My delivery experience - but first, BLUF, my expectations were low and I was nervous about this entire experience based on all the things I’ve read on this forum about delivery. With that said, here goes…
As of this morning, I was scheduled to pick up my vehicle at 12pm EST, but got a call around 11:15am that they needed more time to prep my vehicle and pushed me back to 1:30pm this afternoon. I said not a problem and appreciated them taking the time to prep the vehicle properly vs it being rushed. Honestly, this was not a big deal, so all good with me.
I show up about 1:40 (bad Uber driver…hopefully not a bad omen), the vehicle isn’t ready outside where the other vehicles that are parked for delivery today. I go inside and am immediately acknowledged and asked to begin by signing the MVPA and state DMV forms, but I request that I do not want to “accept terms” to offically take final delivery until I’m able to see/inspect the car. My Tesla service center understands and says they will finish the process after I’m satisfied with the vehicle. They said the vehicle was almost ready and will be pulled around. No problem, and I patiently wait at a table to the side. I won’t lie, I’m slightly annoyed because I would have figured the extra time by now would have been enough to have it ready to go for me, but again…all good, no big deal in the grand scheme of things.
- A side note…while waiting, I do take some time to observe their way of operating with other clients. This was not a “busy” delivery day for them. While I was there, another 4 customers show up to take delivery. All of them attended to properly and there are 4 primary Tesla “delivery specialists” working with us. There were about 12-15 vehicles outside waiting to take delivery today or at least seemed ready to be around the time I was supposed to. Mostly Model Ys and 3s, but a few Xs and Ss as well.
My first reaction can only be described as anxious excitement! Upon initial glance on the outside, it looks amazing, aggressive and beautiful! I’m glad I went with black; my first black car in some time and it looks great on Model S. Now, I start looking closely for misalignment of panels, weather stripping, doors, etc. Nothing immediately jumps out at me after about 10-15 minutes of closely looking it over and a couple of walk-around the vehicle. I do notice under the front hood, on the driver‘s side, there’s a rubbery textured “strip” of something protruding out between the edge of the front trunk and driver’s side panel where there should naturally be some slight gap where those areas meet. Hard to describe, but hopefully that makes sense. Not an issue on the passenger side front trunk in the same area. Other than that, again, nothing on the outside that jumps out.
- I also notice that this car has been very poorly detailed. It wasn’t exactly “dirty” per se, but it was just sloppy in how it was detailed. There were water marks all over the vehicle, parts that didn’t seem to be wiped down properly…factory “plastic wrap” still on certain pillars and doors, handles, etc. I think this service center’s version of “detailing” is a wash and a gentle surface wipe. Inside, not much better…again, not “dirty” but the carpet floor mats aren’t placed (still wrapped) and the car hasn’t really been vacuumed inside very well if it all. Also, there’s just smudges and fingerprints/hand marks on parts of the interior both in the front and rear seats. Just not clean…or detailed as it should have been. I didn’t pay close enough attention to the other cars that were being delivered but it doesn’t matter…just very annoying because it’s so simple to get right. It’s not like they didn’t have the time…
The 20 minutes it takes me to drive home, I do not turn any music on. I wanted to listen for any shakes, rattles, and/or rolls. Nothing...the car drives smoothly; very smooth and better than I expected. No rattles or creaks/noises, incredibly quiet compared to my older Model X and even the Model 3s that I have been renting from Hertz off and on while waiting for my S. I didn’t push it past about 75mph on the short drive home, but the acceleration is awesome and just powerful. Plus it’s still pouring rain most of the way home…
All in all, in about the 1 hour I have spent today driving the vehicle, I‘m happy with the quality of how the vehicle is put together and the very quite/comfortable ride. Maybe I just expected much worse. I also realized that the Active Noise Cancellation is turned on (by default?) and I’m not sure how much that helps reduce noise, but again…it is quiet and no rattles or squeaks in this car. I titled the screen in both directions, but I left it in the default/centered position while driving today. I did notice the plasticky piece behind it is not the most secured part, so we’ll see when I drive it with the screen tilted how that is.
I’m dropping it off for PPF on Monday, driving it very little between now and then. I will will post a more thorough review after that and spending more time driving, along with some pictures. That’s my story for now!
Any questions, feel free to ask.P.S. - one more thing…my vehicle has the old/original Plaid badge on the rear trunk. I was surprised and expecting the “PLAID” word badge, but it’s the one that they originally put on the early Plaids. I guess they have gone back to those now? Nice!
The word “Plaid” was gone sometime in early 2022. I have a 2022 Plaid built in late 2021 with the word Plaid on the rear but took it off and put a square plaid badge from Amazon in its place and ordered a factory plaid badge for $8 from the service center. They are supposed to bring it to me next weekend.
That’s great to hear about your car having no issues. Mine had issues but nothing compared to what I’ve seen on here. I still wish my memory seat worked but if that is the only thing broken I guess I can’t complain too much but it sucks for getting in because that means easy entry doesn’t work.
That’s great to hear about your car having no issues. Mine had issues but nothing compared to what I’ve seen on here. I still wish my memory seat worked but if that is the only thing broken I guess I can’t complain too much but it sucks for getting in because that means easy entry doesn’t work.
I lost the memory seat function after one of the software updates and after 2 trips to 2 different service centers and hours of waiting, all I got was they couldn’t figure it out and said hopefully a future software update will fix it.
I posted that response from the service center here and people basically said it’s Tesla’s way of saying we have no idea what’s wrong and there is no fix so just go away. I gave up and after about 5 software updates it’s still not fixed.
Finally…after a couple of weeks getting XPEL Stealth PPF installed and glass tinted, the Dark Knight has arrived 
Just due to work and the vehicle being in the shop the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had a lot of time to drive it. I have a road trip coming up this weekend where I can finally spend some quality time with the car. I’ll post a more detailed review after that for anyone interested. So far though, very impressed and happy with this vehicle. I had one inconvenient incident which I’ll share later, but no major issues or concerns so far (knock on wood). If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away.
Just due to work and the vehicle being in the shop the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had a lot of time to drive it. I have a road trip coming up this weekend where I can finally spend some quality time with the car. I’ll post a more detailed review after that for anyone interested. So far though, very impressed and happy with this vehicle. I had one inconvenient incident which I’ll share later, but no major issues or concerns so far (knock on wood). If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away.
Leeclanual
Member
Leeclanual
Member
I just tried to PM you and for some reason it won’t let me. I thought it’s because I’m not a Supporting Member (i.e paying the annual fees), but even after doing that I can’t message you. Do you have to subscribe as well for us to be able to do that?
I thoroughly enjoyed reading through your delivery experience, thank you for sharing. I ordered an MS Plaid on 9/3 (MSM/19"/White Interior/EAP) and have a current EDD of 11/16 - 12/28. I could not be more excited, especially now, as I just hit a deer with my 21' M3LR last week. I will probably get the S before my 3 is fixed/drivable again. Did your car come from the factory with the all-seasons or did you put them on?
Thank you @J_Nixon , I tried to be as honestly objective as I could with my own experience and hopefully a good balance between the dichotomy of the extremes of negative and positive here. I hope your MS Plaid and delivery experience is an overall positive one as well. Sorry to hear about your M3LR, hope everyone safely made it through that.
My vehicle came with the summer tires. I purchased the all-seasons from Tire Rack and when the installer I used for PPF did their work, nearby was another auto shop they partner with to mount the tires and calibrate the TPMS. After over 800 miles of driving on the Michelin all-seasons, no issues and I'm very happy I went with those as the northeast seems have received an unseasonably cooler early fall this year.
Thank you, my wife and dogs are alright and the only causality was the deer and the car.
Good to know about the tires, as I’m in Maine and it was 24° this morning. As you said, cooler weather arrived earlier then expected this year!
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