TL;DR at the end...
Woke up today feeling like Xmas morning with a collection planned at Bham. Everything went smoothly and I have to say the staff onsite were all incredibly welcoming, friendly and professional - very impressed by all the staff I talked to today.
At first glance, my M3P looked absolutely perfect with that perfect California shine in the mid-morning sun
Was feeling very pleased about my decision to purchase.
Then came the first knock... a deep scuff on the rear bumper where the paint had been taken down to the metal. It was about the size of a 5p coin so noticeable, but not the end of the world... quickly noted by the staff and I was advised they would probably just book a service and have the entire rear bumper replaced.
Ok, fine... but since I'm now inspecting the back of the car, I notice the boot lid is sitting proud from the rear window. Checked against some other M3s next to me, and mine was about 5-6mm out, with others being almost perfectly flush. The panel gaps on the boot lid were also horrendous.
Meanwhile, at the same time, my Wife notices both rear door frames were slightly misaligned... nowhere as bad as others that I've seen, but again, noticeable. Ok, so now we're up to 4 items and I've not even sat in the car yet...! Tesla onsite technician came out to inspect and agreed that the boot lid, and rear doors all needed aligning but "were in the tolerance range" - that old chestnut! (he was very good though, so can't knock him)
Made our way into the car and everything was better, but did spot what looked like a thumbprint on the Rear headliner near the coat hook... again, nothing major, but against an otherwise flawless roof lining, noticeable.
Pulled out my inspection sheet to start ticking things off ... I was still giddy with excitement but I now had this nagging feeling this was a dreaded "Friday car". I know it's illogical, but I just got the feeling this build hadn't received any love during production! I stepped out to inspect the frunk...
Well, as it turns out, I was so distracted by the fact my car had the new frunk/froot design (which I think looks much better btw), that I completely forgot to look at the underside of the bonnet.... it wasn't until the same technician who was helping me earlier just happened to walk past and let out an audible "ooohhff"! He pointed out that entire sections of the underside of the bonnet hadn't been painted, and worse still, the two corners of the bonnet where a small rubber screw is housed were just exposed metal! He advised me immediately that the entire hood wood need to be repainted or likely replaced... at which point my wife noticed one headlight had a rather large blemish on it. Hard to explain it but it looked like when you melt plastic and you're left with a clump of hardened plastic, and then you try and file it down.... which now meant, this "post collection" service apt would end up having to replace the rear bumper, bonnet
and headlight.
Believe it or not, at this point, I was still considering taking the car.... mainly on the assurance the staff were giving me that they would "pull out the stops" until everything was sorted. The technician even advised putting his name on the service notes so he could personally address it. As stated above, the staff were superb.
But then, since there were so many items being listed, the technician did his own walk around of the car and together we spotted that the windshield was (a) not aligned correctly but (b) on the driver side, as it approach the roof, the actual glass was "deformed" for lack of a better way to describe it, which he said would "definitely require a new windshield". The seals between the 3 glass sections were also all over the place compared to other models on the car park. At this point, both the technician and the sales rep said how disappointed they were this car had been allowed to pass QA and actually advised me not to take the car (secretly, I was still considering it, but Wife has made her mind up to reject it 3-4 items prior!)
So, after all the build up and excitement, we rejected the car and Tesla are going to try and find another one for me. I have to say, as disappointed as I am, I'm also frankly a little relieved that the technician took his time to help inspect the car with me. They see so many M3s every day so it's useful to have them "on side" and being frank and candid about the condition of the car. I did note that another M3P had a very misaligned bootlid, but on otherwise flawless windshield and roof, so it did get me thinking about how many new owners check the fundamentals before driving off.
I did talk to one other new owner who accepted his car but also had to book a service apt to address 3-4 small items (mostly panel alignment and paint issues) - he was also considering rejecting but ultimately, as the defects were mostly cosmetic, he accepted the car and had them log the issues to repair later.
My biggest takeaway from today is that Tesla have some wonderfully dedicated staff, but the build quality of the product is severely compromising the brand. One one hand, it speaks volumes to the desirability of their product that despite all these defects, I was
still considering accepting the car... but on the other... it was frankly a little embarrassing that an almost £60k car had such misaligned panels and missing paintwork.
Fingers crossed my next allocated car is a "Monday car"
TL;DR:
Rejected my car upon collection today due to the following issues:
- scuff on rear bumper down to the metal (new bumper required)
- misaligned bootlid, sitting proud from rear window
- misaligned rear door window frames
- smudge/thumbprint inside headliner (very minor as could be cleaned I'm sure)
- missing paint under the frunk lid/bonnet (including areas of exposed metal)
- weird but prominent mark on passenger side headlight (including scratches around the same headlight)
- windshield misaligned and slightly deformed on driver side
Tesla staff were very helpful and apologetic and are currently looking for another car to assign to me. I
strongly advise everyone takes a checklist when they collect their car - half of the items above I wouldn't have noticed without one as you do get overwhelmed with excitement and tend to overlook things.
