A bit off topic, but to me, the panel gap crowd is far more annoying than the software change crowd. I wonder how many EVER looked at the panel gaps on any other car they have ever owned, prior to reading about the “issues” with Tesla? And don’t get me started on the Tesla paint crowd.
Tim
Yeah its off topic, but my opinion on this specific phenomenon is, somewhat multilayered...
1. There used to be a LOT of people who were betting on Tesla to fail, financially. They had a financial incentive to try to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) in tesla products in general. Online / Social presence is one "grass roots" somewhat easy way to do that.
2. At their price point, Teslas are not put together with the same manufacturing tolerances that some other cars are in this price point. Teslas "feel" more "hand made" with all the good and bad that entails. Other cars in this price point, tend to be made with a lot tighter tolerances, from companies with LONG histories of manufacturing vehicles.
3. Teslas, in general, dont tend to break down as much (they obviously do break down, though). Most car forums are going to be filled with people trying to teach each other DIY heroics on how to fix X or Y, or complaints about transmissions / motors / etc etc. That mostly doesnt exist on a tesla site, but because people want to complai...er "talk" about something, and teslas dont have the same tight tolerances, "panel gaps" took off as the topic.
Once that happened, it took a life of its own, with people bringing panel gap measuring tools to pick up their new car.
As far as the paint, I have always wondered if the fact the paint is not as "robust" as other vehicles in this class has some to do with californias environmental laws (what type of paint they can use because the cars are made in CA), coupled with Tesla trying to survive as a company (cost cutting).
Sorry for the OT post, but having been here for only a little over 2 years, but on this site almost daily during that time, this is what I have noticed. I have also noticed WAAAAAAAYYYY more people that seem to enjoy trying to tear down the company on this site than I have on any other car site I have belonged to. There are people that post here still simply to stir up FUD / try to start stuff. Note, I am not saying this OP is one of those people, I want to be clear, but there are still people here who basically just delight in trolling others and stirring up #!$@$ and the mods do know it.
Since this site allows and encourages open discourse, and there is no requirement to be pro Tesla here, it makes it much harder to deal with people who Troll on purpose, masquerading as "discussion" (again, not saying that is this thread, or this OP).