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So.... I rejected my collection car today :(
- Thread starter JS77
- Start date
OneTinyFish
Member
I don't know much about non-Tesla carmaking but is it plausible this is similar build quality as other brands just now the problems are first seen by customers instead of ICE dealership middlemen?
OneTinyFish
Member
Not sure but it's evident (see the leaked Elon email) that they are under extreme pressure this year in particular and are rushing builds out the factory door. There isn't time to quality check sufficiently.
Sorry for the OP - you made a difficult choice but a good one. What I'm most pleased about is the tone of this discussion. 18-24 months ago anybody who criticized build quality or shared a similar experience on this forum would have been accused of having a short position in TSLA stock and also lectured about what a great car it is and that ANY faults are outweighed by all-electric tech wizardry. In this thread, I see an honest discussion with an evolving consensus building around M3 initial quality which is "good enough" but certainly not "world class". As TSLA enthusiasts, we share checklists and encourage each other to inspect carefully and demand better. Makes me feel good to be part of the community.
I noticed on collection four faults, which were 2 misaligned doors which they tried rectifying which still weren't perfect, manufacturing paint defect on nearside wing and chip on front bumper. They said they would order new front bumper that come painted, would only take 40mins to swop and I could wait. When i got home noticed mark and crease in the centre of the bonnet which i probably missed due to looking at the other defects. Car bought on lease via works salary sacrifice scheme. Tesla then informed me a few days later the bumpers were on back order and would need to come into bodyshop for bonnet.
Liaised with lease dept at work and decided to reject and i was told to return car within 7 days.
It will be 2 weeks on Friday since I returned the car and still awaiting a new RN number and being match to new car despite being told by the lease company prior to returning they had cars in stock and same spec - white performance. They indicated quick process to swop car.
Seriously considering now cancelling the order and getting EQC or Etron considering the amount of issues on collection now being reported. Seems a very high chance the replacememt car will have defects. Tesla will be in serious trouble once the other major and quality manufacturers catch up, especially in Europe. Musk knows what he is doing, only concerned about numbers and profit which is totally unacceptable, these cars are not cheap!
Shame on u musk
Liaised with lease dept at work and decided to reject and i was told to return car within 7 days.
It will be 2 weeks on Friday since I returned the car and still awaiting a new RN number and being match to new car despite being told by the lease company prior to returning they had cars in stock and same spec - white performance. They indicated quick process to swop car.
Seriously considering now cancelling the order and getting EQC or Etron considering the amount of issues on collection now being reported. Seems a very high chance the replacememt car will have defects. Tesla will be in serious trouble once the other major and quality manufacturers catch up, especially in Europe. Musk knows what he is doing, only concerned about numbers and profit which is totally unacceptable, these cars are not cheap!
Shame on u musk
OneTinyFish
Member
I think you made the right choice.
In contrast - I took delivery of my car in June - with similar issues (paint, alignment, trim, top roof glass scratches etc) - after 5 (3 weeks last time, already week 2 this time) visits to the SC in West Drayton they have still not been able to fix the issues completely - I get a Model X every time I drop my car off - but even that is getting to a frustrating point. If they cannot fix in this go - that's it - we will just live with it
Everyone at Tesla is well aware of how they ship cars out - I had a good discussion with the SC foreman - he says they are mostly just fixing production faults.
Car tech is great - but overall I'm not getting my money's worth!
In contrast - I took delivery of my car in June - with similar issues (paint, alignment, trim, top roof glass scratches etc) - after 5 (3 weeks last time, already week 2 this time) visits to the SC in West Drayton they have still not been able to fix the issues completely - I get a Model X every time I drop my car off - but even that is getting to a frustrating point. If they cannot fix in this go - that's it - we will just live with it
Everyone at Tesla is well aware of how they ship cars out - I had a good discussion with the SC foreman - he says they are mostly just fixing production faults.
Car tech is great - but overall I'm not getting my money's worth!
Jason71
Well-Known Member
That may have been true in the US. You guys play everything like its a team sport. I'm not so sure it was ever true in the UK. We tend to be a bit more self deprecating and pragmatic.
Our idea of a short position is knowing whose turn it is to get the whiskys in next.
OneTinyFish
Member
ny
exactly my experience...hyundai build quality was/is so much better than tesla's its embarrassing.
exactly my experience...hyundai build quality was/is so much better than tesla's its embarrassing.
Superchargers are good but most people won't use them. Or even better they will be encouraged to go further afield due to free miles or even the cheapness .. in Dorset we dont have a super charger yet...yet there are plenty of teslas.
Truth be told is tesla is currently the benchmark for EV's, end of. In future this might not be the case but until then it is what it is...
OneTinyFish
Member
OneTinyFish
Member
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 sunWas 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.
Sorry for all the problems. What you really want is a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday car. On Mondays, people are still hung over from the weekend.
kcrane
Member
My son and daughter both picked up M3's 10 days ago, one performance, one SR+.
Both checked the car's over against a full checklist.
The issues were with the SR+: a seatbelt error when someone sat in the passenger seat. This was fixed immediately and a scuff on the small gloss black trim panel behind the door mirror. This was replaced a few days later. .
No problems with the Performance model.
Both cars now in daily use and working perfectly (as does my own 10k miles M3P).
Of course there shouldn't be issues with brand new expensive cars and it must be frustrating to have to reject one. Thankfully they're not all bad
My understanding this applys if you sign then return the car within the 7 day window Tesla offer.
Even then I've read people still being able to get same spec etc but maybe more down to luck?
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