So sad. . .the X is going back to service center :(

[Oloron]

Just out of curiosity, would you have bought the Model X if it didn't have Falcon wing doors?

I can't imagine anybody is rushing to buy the X because they've got to have those doors!

I just don't understand who makes these decisions at Tesla. They're nuts, whoever they are. Its an ELECTRIC VEHICLE that goes 250+ miles. That alone sells the car. Why the stupid gimmicks like FWD and disappearing door handles? Makes no sense to me.

Time will tell if they get all the bugs worked out in a timely way, I suppose. But rear seat accessibility aside, the FWD are huge attention magnets - and there's a lot of marketing value in that gimmick. There are no shortage of stories in these forums about crowds gathering when the doors are opened in parking lots.

Taking Ford as a benchmark, they spend about 3% of revenue on advertising (and much more than that on dealer incentives, etc.). Tesla effectively spends nothing, partially because of the gimmicks. On a $100k car, that's weighed against the $3k/car that someone like Ford would be spending. If it turns out that Tesla has to throw $1000 at a thousand or so of the first cars they produce to get things right, that's likely a trade off they'd happily make.

 

[hdnyc]

Just out of curiosity, would you have bought the Model X if it didn't have Falcon wing doors?

I can't imagine anybody is rushing to buy the X because they've got to have those doors!

I just don't understand who makes these decisions at Tesla. They're nuts, whoever they are. Its an ELECTRIC VEHICLE that goes 250+ miles. That alone sells the car. Why the stupid gimmicks like FWD and disappearing door handles? Makes no sense to me.

I'm not sure if we would have actually. Or we may have bought it, but only if it were way less expensive with regular doors. The doors look cool, which is a huge selling point, but they actually serve a purpose (when they are working properly!). For me, it is a lot easier to put a kid in a car seat with these doors, because the ceiling isn't in the way. It is easier to access the third row with a car seat vs. other SUVs. It is easier to get kids in and out in tight parking spots. The EV part of the equation is great, but I drive such short distances on a daily basis that it wasn't a primary motivator for me. I like the safety rating, the extra storage (under seats and in the frunk), and the FWD benefits.

 

[Drivin]

Taking Ford as a benchmark, they spend about 3% of revenue on advertising (and much more than that on dealer incentives, etc.). Tesla effectively spends nothing, partially because of the gimmicks. On a $100k car, that's weighed against the $3k/car that someone like Ford would be spending. If it turns out that Tesla has to throw $1000 at a thousand or so of the first cars they produce to get things right, that's likely a trade off they'd happily make.

I would hope they would not happily make that tradeoff.
I would rather spend 3% to generate overall market interest a product than 1% to keep customers (who already have the product) from bad mouthing a poorly QA'd product or worse, returning the product.
One is a proactive market building effort, the other is a CYA reactive effort.

 

[PeteP]

Sorry to hear about your problems, but I'm more amazed that this is the end of March and they are just delivering VIN 6XX. Can that be true? Considering the reports of calls made to California reservation holders a few weeks ago telling them that production slots had just opened up, I am wondering if there's a real demand issue here. Anyone have more information on this?

 

[thegruf]

Just out of curiosity, would you have bought the Model X if it didn't have Falcon wing doors?

I can't imagine anybody is rushing to buy the X because they've got to have those doors!

I just don't understand who makes these decisions at Tesla. They're nuts, whoever they are. Its an ELECTRIC VEHICLE that goes 250+ miles. That alone sells the car. Why the stupid gimmicks like FWD and disappearing door handles? Makes no sense to me.

In many ways this is easy to agree with (although calling people nuts is offensive and unecessary) , however there is a reason why Elon Musk is who he is, and Tesla have been the success they have, and it is not anything like as simple as it is an EV that goes 250+ miles.

They sorted the handles, they will sort the doors, and yes early adopters will have some frustrations; but this is only part of a much larger picture that Elon sees and most others can only guess at.

 

[nienco2]

I like the safety rating, the extra storage (under seats and in the frunk), and the FWD benefits.

can someone tell me where to find the safety rating because that is important to me as well TIA

 

[Drivin]

They sorted the handles, .

They did on the X?
When did they do that?

 

[Drivin]

can someone tell me where to find the safety rating because that is important to me as well TIA

There may never be an official safety rating since they don't usually test SUVs (with the assumption that since they are big, they are probably safe.

 

[aija SigX 649]

Got my Model X on Wednesday, and it is going back to the service center on Tuesday so they can investigate two issues I'm having:

1) The biggest issue is that one of the FWDs doesn't always open all the way, even if nothing is blocking it. For example, in my garage, there is PLENTY of room around the car. When I went to open the door from the key fob, the door only opened slightly and then beeped as if there is some kind of obstruction. I had to bend down underneath the door and manually override it using the little lever on the inside of the doorframe. I was able to raise it fully using the little lever, and when the door is fully open there is nothing near the door. When I pulled the car forward a few feet, the door opened without any issues, even though it was even closer to our shelves. The next morning, when I went to use the car (in the same spot as the night before), the doors would only open partially, even though they had opened fully the night before. Is anyone else having this same issue? Was it resolved? I've attached two pictures - one showing the door where it was getting stuck originally, and one showing how there is plenty of room in the garage for the doors to open.

2) I picked up the car on Wednesday, and the screen froze once on Thursday and once on Friday. This isn't as big of an issue as the door problem, but it is still annoying. For others with this issue, has it been fixed?

I'm also going to ask them to look at the front driver's door - when it opens automatically, it sometimes opens into the car next to me in a parking lot.

Not sure if your problem with the partially opening FWD door was resolved yet, but curious if you tried unscrewing the recessed light bulb directly above the door ..wonder if it somehow interferes with the proximity sensor. Just a though.

 

[hdnyc]

Not sure if your problem with the partially opening FWD door was resolved yet, but curious if you tried unscrewing the recessed light bulb directly above the door ..wonder if it somehow interferes with the proximity sensor. Just a though.

It is still not resolved, but they are coming to pick up the car on Tuesday and investigate. I'm not going to touch anything like that before they arrive, I want them to see the problem for themselves! I will mention it to the Tesla person and ask them about it when they get here!

 

[hdnyc]

There may never be an official safety rating since they don't usually test SUVs (with the assumption that since they are big, they are probably safe.

Tesla Motors Inc Created Safest SUV Ever With Model X: Elon Musk

 

[Drivin]

Tesla Motors Inc Created Safest SUV Ever With Model X: Elon Musk

Sigh....Typical Tesla.

According to this NHTSA hasn't actually done the testing

Tesla “couldn’t flip” the Model X in internal crash tests: a look at the Model X’s safety features

And even here Must uses the words "would be" vs is. It is what they expect

Elon Musk: Tesla Model X deserves nearly 6 NHTSA stars, harder to roll over, side-impact

Now i do expect it will do great in testing.

 

[bobbykansara]

Just out of curiosity, would you have bought the Model X if it didn't have Falcon wing doors?

I can't imagine anybody is rushing to buy the X because they've got to have those doors!

I just don't understand who makes these decisions at Tesla. They're nuts, whoever they are. Its an ELECTRIC VEHICLE that goes 250+ miles. That alone sells the car. Why the stupid gimmicks like FWD and disappearing door handles? Makes no sense to me.

In retrospect (now with ~500 miles on my X), without the Falcon Wing Doors, I would have bought the Model S. I know it's extremely popular to bash the Falcon Wings on this and the official Tesla forums. But I personally *LOVE* the Falcon Wing Doors and IMO, it is what gives this giant electric mini-van the panache I desire from my cars. Without them, there is nothing visually intriguing about the X to set it apart from so many of the other big boxy CUV's on the road.

* PUTS ON FLAME RETARDANT SUIT *

 

[retinaguy]

can someone tell me where to find the safety rating because that is important to me as well TIA

NHTSA hasn't tested the MX yet. In a video on Andrea Jones' youtube page the Tesla rep says in internal tests they were not able to roll over the MX. Tesla expects the MX to be rated highly like the MS is.

 

[aesculus]

In retrospect (now with ~500 miles on my X), without the Falcon Wing Doors, I would have bought the Model S. I know it's extremely popular to bash the Falcon Wings on this and the official Tesla forums. But I personally *LOVE* the Falcon Wing Doors and IMO, it is what gives this giant electric mini-van the panache I desire from my cars. Without them, there is nothing visually intriguing about the X to set it apart from so many of the other big boxy CUV's on the road.

* PUTS ON FLAME RETARDANT SUIT *

I am with you on this. Personally since I use the middle seats, and even the rear seats so infrequently, it's not about ingress/egress. Its about style.

 

[madodel]

I am with you on this. Personally since I use the middle seats, and even the rear seats so infrequently, it's not about ingress/egress. Its about style.

I actually like that the FW doors are only for the second/third row entry. I rarely have anyone in those seats as well. That way I can usually chose when I want to unfurl the wings to attract attention. But I would have bought this car without the doors For me it is the pure joy of driving the X. Yes I could have bought an S, but I prefer an SUV and the more comfortable driving position.

 

[aija SigX 649]

It is still not resolved, but they are coming to pick up the car on Tuesday and investigate. I'm not going to touch anything like that before they arrive, I want them to see the problem for themselves! I will mention it to the Tesla person and ask them about it when they get here!

To clarify - I meant the recessed light in your garage ceiling just above were the door opens up to. From your pictures, the bulb appears to be directly above the door/sensor location ..so thought maybe there could be a cause/effect as I rarely see recessed/spot lights in a garage.

 

[CTemp222]

Sorry to hear about your problems, but I'm more amazed that this is the end of March and they are just delivering VIN 6XX. Can that be true? Considering the reports of calls made to California reservation holders a few weeks ago telling them that production slots had just opened up, I am wondering if there's a real demand issue here. Anyone have more information on this?

Picking up my X this Wednesday, VIN 6xx

 

[hdnyc]

To clarify - I meant the recessed light in your garage ceiling just above were the door opens up to. From your pictures, the bulb appears to be directly above the door/sensor location ..so thought maybe there could be a cause/effect as I rarely see recessed/spot lights in a garage.

Yes I thought that's what you meant - but I am having the issue in parking lots now as well, so it doesn't seem to be specific to my garage! This is how it looked today when I was out running errands. Sometimes it opens a little more, sometimes a little less, but rarely opens all the way on its own.

 

[ModelXBoy]

Yes I thought that's what you meant - but I am having the issue in parking lots now as well, so it doesn't seem to be specific to my garage! This is how it looked today when I was out running errands. Sometimes it opens a little more, sometimes a little less, but rarely opens all the way on its own.

Well i have not even tried to park my X next to another car and open the falcon door yet due to the problem i already had with front doors. But definitely your issue need to be fixed. We early adaptors are going to go through those problems together, eventually we will get the X that will meet our expectations.