Picking up car issues?

[cOoTeR]

I don't think the actual building of a Tesla is subpar. I think it is lacking as it rolls off of the line. My mother in law retired from a Honda manufacture plant a few years ago. Honda (I'm willing to bet most manufactures) have the same issues with miss aligned panels, paint defects etc. She's told me stories of doors that damage the front fender the first time they are opened, random dents in the body panels and other things. The difference is how they handle them. As a Honda rolls off of the line it goes to a section (I think they call it Final) where it gets inspected by several employees. If a gap is out of spec they try to fix it often times this could mean using some persuasion with a hammer. If the paint is messed up they try to fix it. If it's too far messed up the car gets sent back for the messed up sections to be corrected.

Honda employs lots of people for this step and has the luxury of having so many cars being produced that they can send it back for corrections or even scrap a bad one. Tesla cuts costs by not being as strict with their quality control. Basically they get the consumer to do the quality control inspection for them. Instead of spending money finding and fixing issues a consumer might not care about or notice, Tesla fixes what the consumer has an issue with. Their quality control for fit and finish is too lax in my opinion but a company that is spending more money than its bringing in on sales has to make cuts somewhere. Their development is what's keeping them afloat so that's where their focus is.

 

[boriszima]

The saga continues for Mike. Thanks for keeping us updated and sharing good information.
@Petrocelli - I thought you settled on getting model 3 after test driving it from a very interesting thread of yours?

 

[voip-ninja]

I don't think the actual building of a Tesla is subpar. I think it is lacking as it rolls off of the line. My mother in law retired from a Honda manufacture plant a few years ago. Honda (I'm willing to bet most manufactures) have the same issues with miss aligned panels, paint defects etc. She's told me stories of doors that damage the front fender the first time they are opened, random dents in the body panels and other things. The difference is how they handle them. As a Honda rolls off of the line it goes to a section (I think they call it Final) where it gets inspected by several employees. If a gap is out of spec they try to fix it often times this could mean using some persuasion with a hammer. If the paint is messed up they try to fix it. If it's too far messed up the car gets sent back for the messed up sections to be corrected.

Honda employs lots of people for this step and has the luxury of having so many cars being produced that they can send it back for corrections or even scrap a bad one. Tesla cuts costs by not being as strict with their quality control. Basically they get the consumer to do the quality control inspection for them. Instead of spending money finding and fixing issues a consumer might not care about or notice, Tesla fixes what the consumer has an issue with. Their quality control for fit and finish is too lax in my opinion but a company that is spending more money than its bringing in on sales has to make cuts somewhere. Their development is what's keeping them afloat so that's where their focus is.

I'm not aware of an automaker that doesn't have a process for fixing cars that finished assembly but aren't in condition to sell. Tesla must do this but perhaps the standards are quite low or they have too few inspectors for the number of vehicles they are building.

Q3/Q4 of last year there were photos of dozens if not hundreds of Model 3s with paperwork on their dashboards, in cold storage, waiting for rework.

If you buy a brand new car off of a dealer lot they will already have typically addressed this stuff because when they receive the car they have their own due bill noting any damages from transport or shoddy assembly from the factory. They get that stuff fixed before the car gets sold and if it's under a certain dollar figure they don't have to disclose it in most states. Cars get door dinged, fender benders, rims curbed, leather torn on test drives ALL THE TIME. Most consumers that don't go over them with a fine tooth comb would never know.

For Tesla, I honestly feel that they are behind legacy automakers in this area. They probably have a revolving door of people at the Fremont factory and you just might get a car that was not put together well.

Mine has some misalignments and the trunk was misaligned enough that I just fixed it myself. I took delivery at a time when there was really no option to walk away since we all thought we'd be losing the tax credit and didn't think Tesla would slash pricing.

Anyone buying a Tesla should absolutely reject it if it doesn't meet their standards. Do not accept body work unless you are 100% confident in what is being done. I believe Tesla pre-paints some body panels and pre-paints bumpers so potentially you could get a brand new bumper with factory paint put on to replace a damaged one.

 

[RobRain]

A positive anecdote to raise the spirits. Other than finding a parking space near the “unusual” Powell Street site, I had zero difficulties collecting my 3 Performance from Vancouver today. Was given as much time as I wanted to examine the car, offered all the help i wanted to get acquainted with it and was handled quickly and efficiently by the insurance broker (less said about the insurance premium for a (currently) UK citizen in BC the better). Car was as close to perfect as I needed it to be and this was confirmed when I took it down to Protex for PPF and ceramic - they lowered the quote for the paint correction after inspecting the car. One surprise to me was that the Model 3 comes with the chromed plate surround so now I’ve got an extra one to return to the Shop or hawk on eBay.

Anyway, please disregard this interruption, you can go back to griping (often with good reason) now.

 

[Petrocelli]

The saga continues for Mike. Thanks for keeping us updated and sharing good information.
@Petrocelli - I thought you settled on getting model 3 after test driving it from a very interesting thread of yours?

I had decided on a Tesla, but after more investigation I decided it was not a good time to own one in West L.A. Right now, the Model 3 is easily the most popular car around here. (For good reason.) That caused me to be concerned about service. Ultimately, I did not lease one.