Ok so I took delivery of VIN #NF3503XX yesterday on day 517
Car came off the assembly line on June 20. I picked it up in Vegas on June 25. I came armed with the delivery checklist and was prepared to not take delivery if there were too many issues, especially the paint. So when I arrived I immediately found the car sitting in the 106 degree heat. I spent about 30 minutes checking all the paint and fortunately found no issues. Yes! (I washed it today to really get a good look)
Then I went inside and asked for a delivery person and found a young woman who said she could help me. She started going into their regular routine of, give me the check and then open your Tesla app on your phone and hit accept. Once you do this you own the car of course so I balked. I told her I wanted to spend a little time going through the car to make sure everything was in good condition and working order. She said “OK fine it’s outside”. I thanked her and told her I had already looked at the outside of the car and needed to look at the inside and check all the door functions etc. She said, “Oh, I can’t let you inside the car until you have paid for and accepted it.” I was prepared for this as I have heard many others run into the same problem. I emphasized my need to see the inside first. She called a manager. The manager asked, “what’s your concern sir.” I told him “everything really, and I won’t buy the car until I’ve checked the inside and doors.” He gave me a dirty look, grumbled and told the woman to let me into the car. (don’t settle for this can’t look inside b.s.)
I spent an hour in the 106 degree heat going over everything alone. In the end there were no visible problems inside the car other than a few dirty spots courtesy of the delivery team that I could clean myself later, minor seat leather rinkles on second row, minor misalignment of driver side FWD (passenger side was perfect), and a minor misalignment of the trunk hatch. But truly all these were and are very minor, and I am picky as hell when it comes to my cars. So I felt fortunate with the interior and exterior. I did however find that one of the Falcon Wing doors would not close about every other time. So they called a tech out, he checked it out and agreed there was a problem. They took the car back in the shop for about 45 minutes and had to remove the interior of the door and adjust some parts as they said the door was just slightly out of line and thus the sensors would not allow it to close.
Fortunately, the tech who helped me with the fix was much nicer and much more accommodating than the other two. In fact, once it was fixed he himself brought my very limited paperwork (so different than a regular car purchase) signed two small pieces of paper (30 seconds) linked my app to the car, hit accept, and I was done. Guy thanked me for waiting and apologized that the car was not in correct working order upon my arrival. Then I jumped into the Red Bat, grabbed the steering yoke and drove home listening to some Andrea Bocelli on the outstanding 22 speaker 960 watt sound system. Bliss
Observations and issues:
The car feels infinitely more premium than any of my other Teslas. I’ve had old S, 3, Y, and YP
The Falcon Wing doors are not opening fully most of the time especially when I am anywhere remotely close to another object even though there is plenty of room. Any suggestions from current owners on this one? Tech said sensors may be calibrating.
Yoke is no big deal and easy to adapt to
Steering wheel worm was all but non existent They must be getting better
Turn signals take a little practice
Did a full charge this morning to check max range and am indeed getting the 348 that it is rated for
The car was not well detailed. Lots of detail residue everywhere. Windshield inside was pretty smudged. I washed and detailed the car first thing this morning to get a really good look at the paint once it was truly clean. Did all the glass inside and out (lots of glass
) After all that I still found no paint issues or obvious defects in the car.
Conclusion: I was fortunate and got a good one. Very happy with the car