Rejected 4 cars, was told they would not request more cars for me

[NoMoGas]

I never said I am buying any of those, or that the gaps were perfect. But they do seem far better.

Not needed when it is noticeable from 10 feet.

Get over yourself. I've seen Lambrghinis with bad gaps. Dont get me started on Porsche. When you buy these cars you buy the TOTAL of the vehicle ie: supercharger network, fleet learning auto-pilot, over-the-air updates, safest vehIcle on the road, etc... but yea, gaps are the deal breaker? WTF?

 

[OCR1]

I find that as long as people are polite and respectful with the Tesla reps they will generally do whatever they can to make you happy. If they start to feel like you are being a jerk they will shut down and stop trying. I wasn’t there so I don’t know how the four rejections played out.

 

[Bimmerville]

A $50k car should not have these kinds of problems... either Tesla should stop pricing these as luxury cars or get their act together. No matter how much fun the car is to drive, some quality problems, missing features and design choices should not be blindly overlooked.

I was that close to ordering a 3 but I kept checking them out, taking drive tests and I'm slowly getting out of the wannabe fanboy mentality and into "wait for the e-tron or some other properly built EV".

Yep, I welcome the hoards of dislikes

I had a BMW before my Tesla. I frequented the BMW forums. People on there were always bitching about the panel gaps on their BMWs...and the "if you look at it funny you'll mar it" soft paint.

Enjoy your e-tron, where your NAV system will let you know where all the gas stations are and the price of gas at each.

 

[StealthP3D]

I've always driven Toyotas (Last few cars included a Prius and now a Prius Prime) and I'm used to cars that never break or have issues (I know every manufacturer has some issues but in general my Priuses (Priui?) have been indestructible.) The thought of having manufacturing defects or other problems and then needing to wait weeks for a fix is something that would drive me crazy. Some people buy Jeeps. They are incredibly unreliable but those owners deal with it because it comes with the territory if you want that car.

Don't think Toyota doesn't have serious paint problems:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/vehicles-defects-paint-toyota-1.4814545

The paint of hundreds of thousands of Toyotas is literally peeling right off. And after only a few years!

 

[scottm]

Bob Lutz was really hung up on gaps, for a while when he was heavily bashing the Tesla brand, but even he has come around lately and said gaps are fine.

 

[MP3Mike]

Don't think Toyota doesn't have serious paint problems:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/vehicles-defects-paint-toyota-1.4814545

The paint of hundreds of thousands of Toyotas is literally peeling right off. And after only a few years!

It's actually like ~1.7 million cars, with dates as far back as 2007. (And continuing until 2018.) So they majorly messed up painting for 12 years. And they are only just now starting to think about fixing it.

 

[TeeEmCee]

The OP is a classic example of Einstein's quote " Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results ".

Wait, was it not established that the vast majority of cars are actually without issues and only some owners, who disproportionately comment here, have had trouble with theirs?

How does the “over and over” part fit with that position?

 

[Nels]

Wait, was it not established that the vast majority of cars are actually without issues and only some owners, who disproportionately comment here, have had trouble with theirs?

How does the “over and over” part fit with that position?

Two ways:
1. The vast majority of owners did not bring calipers to the delivery center to measure tail light gaps.
2. Most consumers would give up and look elsewhere after two unsatisfactory products from the same manufacturer in a row, let alone three or four...given that there are other choices.

 

[tomas]

Two ways:
1. The vast majority of owners did not bring calipers to the delivery center to measure tail light gaps.
2. Most consumers would give up and look elsewhere after two unsatisfactory products from the same manufacturer in a row, let alone three or four...given that there are other choices.

Yes, it is weird. Not just that... showed up with calipers and camera with intent to both reject car and publish pix. There are only 2 explanations I can think of.

1) The experience of driving a Tesla is mind altering and spoils one for other cars. Some people fall for that, but dislike other aspects of the car... leaving them frustrated and vocal about “deficiencies”.

2) As the company on the NYSE with the most short selling activity, and a company that is disrupting 2 huge entrenched industries (auto and oil), Tesla is under attack by people with other motives.

 

[TeeEmCee]

Yes, it is weird. Not just that... showed up with calipers and camera with intent to both reject car and publish pix. There are only 2 explanations I can think of.

1) The experience of driving a Tesla is mind altering and spoils one for other cars. Some people fall for that, but dislike other aspects of the car... leaving them frustrated and vocal about “deficiencies”.

2) As the company on the NYSE with the most short selling activity, and a company that is disrupting 2 huge entrenched industries (auto and oil), Tesla is under attack by people with other motives.

There is truth behind the sarcasm of both of your points. Both however could be fully mitigated in the same way: just build the cars properly and then service them with honesty and integrity. The public has shown that they respond very well to hard work, courage and a bit of humility.

 

[Nocturnal]

Yes, it is weird. Not just that... showed up with calipers and camera with intent to both reject car and publish pix. There are only 2 explanations I can think of.

1) The experience of driving a Tesla is mind altering and spoils one for other cars. Some people fall for that, but dislike other aspects of the car... leaving them frustrated and vocal about “deficiencies”.

2) As the company on the NYSE with the most short selling activity, and a company that is disrupting 2 huge entrenched industries (auto and oil), Tesla is under attack by people with other motives.

Occams razor suggest that he is just a crazy person, but #2 is plausible.

#1, nah. I don't believe that more than 1% of the car buying public would ever consider even thinking about the spaces between body panels, let alone measuring them and rejecting a car because of them. I've shown my car to thousands of people, not one has looked at it and said "hmm, let me examine those panel gaps for inconsistencies".

 

[T3SLAROD]

This has to be the funniest thread on here.... calipers

 

[Nocturnal]

I'd like to reiterate, the fact that Tesla allowed this guy to order car #4 after rejecting 3 is a huge failure in policy. Even if he had taken car #4 this sale would have been thousands of dollars in the red. Not to mention a customer like this would no doubt take up an excessive amount of time in constant warranty claims. "Firing" unprofitable customers is something smart businesses do.

 

[electricar]

I would have fired him as a customer after car #2. Letting him receive 4 cars is nuts.

You are right this is a quinella of insanity but the OP wins this staring contest because Tesla blinked first.

 

[MrG_NY]

My display was a little bit offset, but I find it okay and didn't returned my car.

View attachment 446237

How do you see out the front? Look to the side or hang your head out the window.

 

[MrG_NY]

For the taillight they took it in and claimed it was adjusted, but I saw no difference. It was not just the trim, but the whole door, the bottom of the door was lower.

Tail light can be fixed easily. The door I would have said adjust it before taking it.

 

[Daniel in SD]

To defend OP, Tesla produces a lot of rejectable cars and someone is going to get 4 of them in a row. It's just statistics...
Rejecting a car is a way better option than having it repaired, so much less hassle and time. And in the grand scheme of things better for everyone since Tesla can find a buyer for the car who doesn't care about such things.

 

[Trips]

I'd like to reiterate, the fact that Tesla allowed this guy to order car #4 after rejecting 3 is a huge failure in policy. Even if he had taken car #4 this sale would have been thousands of dollars in the red. Not to mention a customer like this would no doubt take up an excessive amount of time in constant warranty claims. "Firing" unprofitable customers is something smart businesses do.

100% agree as Tesla needed to cut their losses as this was never going to be profitable transaction. This guy was never going to be happy and Tesla is just not a good fit for him.

 

[Jenremoved]

This is a little bit of a thread jack, but a small someone who wouldn’t think to look at stuff like this upon taking delivery of a car, what should I actually care about and look for?

 

[MrG_NY]

The tail lights I wouldn't have rejected the car for. One was 2mm one way and the other was 2-3 mm the other, not a problem. The door gap and trim I would have asked to have fixed. We didn't see the bottom of the door that he said was to low. But at the same time being the 4th go around I would have done the same thing in Teslas shoes.

But to be fair we don't know exactly what the other 3 looked like either. But all cars if you look real close all have variances in gaps.