I am buying a White Performance Y and our Tesla lot has over 10 that fit what I want. So I have spent some time going over the cars to try to pick out the best one. Yes, very OCD. Going over the cars I find the same issues pretty consistently. Here is what I have found
- The front lights not being flush with the car on the bottom. In some I can put my fingers in underneath. Most had this issue to varying degrees.
- The rear passenger light is loose. This is the light piece that is opposite the one where you charge the car. I have discovered that I can fix the issue and been fixing on all the cars on the lot. Basically it was never clipped into place. You can do yourself by pushing it in until clicks. I had graded all the cars before I realize you could fix. So had to re-grade afterwards. Before this problem meant a no go.
- The rear doors are not flush. This problems tends to be a lot worse on the passenger side than the driver. But found it on both. All 10+ of the cars I am grading had this issue to varying degrees. I measure how far my fingers go in on each car. I do wonder if this issue will go away over time and the foam or whatever breaks in. Because I have checked a few used Teslas and they do not seem to have the issue to the same degree.
- I watched a lot of YouTube videos and some of the problems in the videos were not present. So for example the rear hatch door was perfectly aligned on every one of the cars I checked.
- The problem that really bugged me and a few cars had is hard to describe. In the front around the lights there is a place where several pieces of metal come together. I have found on several of the cars the metal on one of the pieces that comes together is is bent up and not flush. I tried to push it down and it did not help. So these cars were all given an F by me. About 33% of the cars I looked at had this problem to a very noticeable degree.
- The best of the cars and the one I am going to purchase had a rough spot on the wheel. But I do not think it is from hitting a curb. It appears to be just a small defect in the wheel and I hope they will replace. I did not find this problem on a single other Tesla. Basically if you take your fingers and circle where the tire meets the rim I found the rough spot. It is very slight. I prefer the one I purchased did not have this issue but there was not another that was nearly in as good of shape. This one the front lights for example are nice and flush and there was not another that had the same. Plus the rear doors are NOT flush but they are the closes of all the cars but the demo one. The demo one the doors are perfect and why I suspect this issue probably goes away over time as the rubber piece breaks in.
BTW, I am old and purchased many cars in my life and never done anything like this before buying a car. But when I go outside and do the same inspection with our existing cars there is not one that has anything like these issues. I look at the cars and the pieces fit a lot better than the Tesla. The lights are flush. The doors are flush. Pieces are very well aligned. It makes me curious why is the Tesla so much worse than other cars in this aspect?
- The front lights not being flush with the car on the bottom. In some I can put my fingers in underneath. Most had this issue to varying degrees.
- The rear passenger light is loose. This is the light piece that is opposite the one where you charge the car. I have discovered that I can fix the issue and been fixing on all the cars on the lot. Basically it was never clipped into place. You can do yourself by pushing it in until clicks. I had graded all the cars before I realize you could fix. So had to re-grade afterwards. Before this problem meant a no go.
- The rear doors are not flush. This problems tends to be a lot worse on the passenger side than the driver. But found it on both. All 10+ of the cars I am grading had this issue to varying degrees. I measure how far my fingers go in on each car. I do wonder if this issue will go away over time and the foam or whatever breaks in. Because I have checked a few used Teslas and they do not seem to have the issue to the same degree.
- I watched a lot of YouTube videos and some of the problems in the videos were not present. So for example the rear hatch door was perfectly aligned on every one of the cars I checked.
- The problem that really bugged me and a few cars had is hard to describe. In the front around the lights there is a place where several pieces of metal come together. I have found on several of the cars the metal on one of the pieces that comes together is is bent up and not flush. I tried to push it down and it did not help. So these cars were all given an F by me. About 33% of the cars I looked at had this problem to a very noticeable degree.
- The best of the cars and the one I am going to purchase had a rough spot on the wheel. But I do not think it is from hitting a curb. It appears to be just a small defect in the wheel and I hope they will replace. I did not find this problem on a single other Tesla. Basically if you take your fingers and circle where the tire meets the rim I found the rough spot. It is very slight. I prefer the one I purchased did not have this issue but there was not another that was nearly in as good of shape. This one the front lights for example are nice and flush and there was not another that had the same. Plus the rear doors are NOT flush but they are the closes of all the cars but the demo one. The demo one the doors are perfect and why I suspect this issue probably goes away over time as the rubber piece breaks in.
BTW, I am old and purchased many cars in my life and never done anything like this before buying a car. But when I go outside and do the same inspection with our existing cars there is not one that has anything like these issues. I look at the cars and the pieces fit a lot better than the Tesla. The lights are flush. The doors are flush. Pieces are very well aligned. It makes me curious why is the Tesla so much worse than other cars in this aspect?
