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Quality not so bad

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While I'm waiting for my Y, I've been reading posts all over the internet and I started to get worried about all of the quality / paint issues people post about so I decided to drive down to the Portland service center and check out the quality of the Y's myself. I'm happy to say that I looked at 14 different Ys in all different colors and there wasn't a single one that I wouldn't have accepted. I saw a tiny bit of variation in the charge door on one but I only noticed it because I was specifically looking for it. I checked the white ones for paint mismatch or splotchy paint and they were all fine. Panel gaps were good and there was nothing wrong with trim. VINs were all over the place from 10xxx to 26xxx. In the end, I felt much better and can stop stressing. Now, if I could just get my Y!
 
and don't forget there are owners with white MYs are driving around with mismatched doors and splotchy paint because they didn't notice it at delivery.

I can guarantee if I sent my wife to pick up our white MY and it had mismatched doors she wouldn't even notice.

I'm sure there are plenty of perfectly painted and assembled MYs out there. The red and silver ones I've seen look to have the best looking paint. Maybe those colors just do a better job of hiding the thin areas of the paint. Fact: plenty of MYs have had their paint depth measured and it's all over the map, in a bad way. Maybe they've cut back on the number of coats they spray so they can churn out more MYs to meet Elon's delivery demands? Who knows for sure. A family member has a white M3 that I inspected it closely and it has beautiful paint.
 
I can say that I just picked up my MY. All was good. Small punch list. Mainly realignment issues with the hood and the hatchback. My father worked in the auto industry and we painted cars at night flipping them. I have a pretty good eye for paint issues. I did not see any obvious drips, fish eyes, etc. I also thought the paint matching was very good. With that said, I am still considering some kind of protection for the car since I have heard the overall paint depth is not that great.

Took our first several hour trip in the car yesterday. Flawless :)
 
Also a lot of Tesla reps read and post here.

Went to a showroom yesterday and one sales rep sort of poked fun at me for planning on inspecting the car for about 30 minutes. He claims that people usually inspect their cars for less than a minute.

In addition he claimed that Tesla’s quality control is not inferior to German cars.
Furthermore it just seemed like they are doing me a favor by selling a Tesla to me, I was left stunned.
 
I just took delivery yesterday and there were only 3 minor issues: (1) the frunk is skewed a little towards the driver's side, (2) the passenger side doors are misaligned a little (either the back door is too high or the front door is too low), and (3) the microphone isn't working most of the time (throws an error). I am not an expert, but I went over all the paint and other alignment checklists and I think everything else is spot on.
 
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and don't forget there are owners with white MYs are driving around with mismatched doors and splotchy paint because they didn't notice it at delivery.

I can guarantee if I sent my wife to pick up our white MY and it had mismatched doors she wouldn't even notice.

I'm sure there are plenty of perfectly painted and assembled MYs out there. The red and silver ones I've seen look to have the best looking paint. Maybe those colors just do a better job of hiding the thin areas of the paint. Fact: plenty of MYs have had their paint depth measured and it's all over the map, in a bad way. Maybe they've cut back on the number of coats they spray so they can churn out more MYs to meet Elon's delivery demands? Who knows for sure. A family member has a white M3 that I inspected it closely and it has beautiful paint.


That's my whole point. I know what to look for and I specifically went and checked and couldn't find issues on 14 cars. It's a small sample size but combined with my experience of owning my X (the small issues I had were quickly corrected by Tesla), I feel much better.
 
Not to downplay anybody who has had issues, but remember that they are producing thousands of cars. If even a small percentage of them have some issues, that will result in dozens of posts from folks that are dealing with that. You don't get very many posts from people who have no issues. I have had zero issues with my car!
 
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I think everyone here is cautiously optimistic that after the 2st quarter push finished quality would improve, and on the surface it does seem that way. It is a black eye for Tesla's reputation however that they delivered so many poor quality cars just to boost sales numbers, but that is what it is at this point and supposedly they are re-tooling at the end of this month and hopeful that will also help improve quality.
If after the sales remediation efforts are limited to things like realigning the hatch and Frunk, most would be happy with that I imagine.
Many, including myself draw the line when we start talking repainting whole doors, fenders, etc...
 
The customers receiving great production tend to be very quiet, while those with issues tend to be very LOUD!

Tesla is making over 5,000 vehicles a week. Some of them are going to have flaws. Will depend on the individual customer if they will accept or reject the cars as presented.

Of course everyone wants to get the most perfect example ever produced, but that is not possible with large scale production.

Some owners Ego focus them on going over their delivery vehicles with not only a fine tooth comb, but also specialized lights, micrometer gap measuring devices, paint thickness gauges, 3 page check lists and high definition zoom cameras.

On a more serious note, Tesla is struggling to increase production to achieve their environmental goals and remain in business. The vehicle are built, transported and delivered by human beings that are under pressure to get them built and delivered at constantly increasing rates. The quality posts are still constant and truly represent that Tesla needs to do even better at quality control.

Bob Lutz was famously quoted saying "too much quality can put you out of business" Hard to accept, but probably true. If Tesla had focused on only delivering absolutely perfect finishes and panel gaps they might not be in business today.

At auto import shipping parking lots, there are huge facilities set up by Mequires and other companies that process many of the cars coming right off the boats. While they are waiting for pickup they will undergo close inspection under specialized lighting. They have powerful buffers and compounds plus painting facilities that can touch up flaws or scratches. They take advantage of those cars just sitting there waiting for trucks to give them a last minute touch up. Then after those trucks drop off at the dealerships they will again be given a once over inspection to fix any scratches from trucking/transportation.

Tesla handles this with end of line inspections plus service center reconditioning if customers point out issues upon delivery.
 
Being a part of these forums (or any product forums) is a double edges sword.

On one hand, it makes you more informed and engaged about the product you are purchasing. On the other hand, you become far more critical of items you might not have even cared about before and also listening to people complain about issues (complaints will always outweigh compliments).
 
Being a part of these forums (or any product forums) is a double edges sword.

On one hand, it makes you more informed and engaged about the product you are purchasing. On the other hand, you become far more critical of items you might not have even cared about before and also listening to people complain about issues (complaints will always outweigh compliments).
Couldn't have said it any better!
 
I test drove a MY last week and I did a quick visual inspection of a few of the normal items on that car and a few sitting on the lot. Paint seemed fine at least from the perspective that all metal was covered in paint. It seems that sometimes inside the door paint may not exist on some of the bolts. Panel gaps were fine just not perfect. The biggest thing I saw on all of them was the rear taillights seem to hang out farther than where the hatch meets. The demo unit I drove already had condensation in side the taillight so not sure if its because of that or bad seals.

I asked the rep if that particular location saw many production issues and he assured me that if there is anything they fix it on the spot.
 
Being a part of these forums (or any product forums) is a double edges sword.

On one hand, it makes you more informed and engaged about the product you are purchasing. On the other hand, you become far more critical of items you might not have even cared about before and also listening to people complain about issues (complaints will always outweigh compliments).
The poor QC in combination with increasingly poor customer service has earned Tesla scrutiny.
 
The poor QC in combination with increasingly poor customer service has earned Tesla scrutiny.
My intention was not to praise Tesla's QC nor was it to diminish the responsibility they have in delivering a quality product/have a decent customer service.

The intention was to point out that those on forums might be more hyper-critical of items simply because of their involvement in the forum, as opposed to if they werent. A lot of times we are made aware of issues from posts that we would never even cared about, but now that we know about it, we care about it.
 
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While I'm waiting for my Y, I've been reading posts all over the internet and I started to get worried about all of the quality / paint issues people post about so I decided to drive down to the Portland service center and check out the quality of the Y's myself. I'm happy to say that I looked at 14 different Ys in all different colors and there wasn't a single one that I wouldn't have accepted.

Thanks for doing that, this is one of the most credible and useful quality posts I've seen. Everyone else can only comment on their car and there's a whole lot of trolling and piling on from salty people that make it sound like the sky is falling and there's barely a Model Y that's acceptable.
 
I probably would not have noticed the alignment issues if not for the forum.

I would have noticed the water in the taillight though. Of course the SC declared it "within spec" the first round. It's now had water for over two weeks w/o any rain so I turned it in again (also they forgot to remove plastic on the rear glass). We'll see what happens.

I do recognize that Tesla is rushing things, and glad I got the car quick. I just think a $60k car could be checked over a fixed a bit before delivery.... going back to the SC just costs them more... again, this is a $60k car, not a $20k one.
 
I probably would not have noticed the alignment issues if not for the forum.

I would have noticed the water in the taillight though. Of course the SC declared it "within spec" the first round. It's now had water for over two weeks w/o any rain so I turned it in again (also they forgot to remove plastic on the rear glass). We'll see what happens.

I do recognize that Tesla is rushing things, and glad I got the car quick. I just think a $60k car could be checked over a fixed a bit before delivery.... going back to the SC just costs them more... again, this is a $60k car, not a $20k one.

I think they are playing the odds here. You are right that it costs more money.....BUT that only happens for the people that have the critical eye. This is all calculated IMHO. Then over time they won't have many issues at all once the manufacturing is really dialed in. I get their strategy. Customer focussed, no. Good for the bottom line, yes.