Some thoughts.
I reserved the morning after the unveil (wanted to see before I signed). Though I doubt I'll see my car- or any wild Model 3- for some time, I've wandered around the threads a little to see what might be in store, quality control-wise, once they are in full production. Here are some things I've learned.
There are a lot of small-to-medium problems with the M3 involving the falcon wing doors not operating as the new owners think they should. There are some complaints about fit and finish. There are technical surprises ("ghosting"). There are very reasonable questions about how the car's software will work in the real world. The press (Wired, for one) is taking these complaints and using them as clickbait, hinting without quite saying so that a MX owner will be the laughingstock of his suburb as "the guy who spent a fortune on a turkey." Some owners, naturally, rise to defend their choice, and their car. Quite a few report no problems whatsoever.
For any new vehicle, much less one as complex as the M3, I think that's pretty remarkable.
I don't doubt that every new car has issues. "Don't buy the first year" is a warning written from experience. But what seems to set Tesla apart, and above, the thundering oil-burning herd is how they deal with those issues. Again and again, I see owners reporting problems and the company taking them seriously, not denying them, not ignoring them. Tesla seems to come up quite rapidly with a fix. Think about the battery rupture problem on the MS, and how fast those titanium plates went out to the fleet.
How long did it take Ford and Firestone to come clean over tire failures and rollovers?
So while the early M3's will probably be a bit wonky, I'm satisfied that the company will stand behind its product and come up with good engineering solutions as quickly as they can. Perhaps a long-established carmaker could mass-produce a clean sheet design with relatively fewer problems. But as a very new carmaker (and how many fall into that category anyway?), Tesla appears to be operating with a pretty high degree of responsibility and integrity.
So, when the M3 arrives, stand by for some annoying glitches. But I would expect Tesla to stand by its customers, too.
That's rare.
Robin
I reserved the morning after the unveil (wanted to see before I signed). Though I doubt I'll see my car- or any wild Model 3- for some time, I've wandered around the threads a little to see what might be in store, quality control-wise, once they are in full production. Here are some things I've learned.
There are a lot of small-to-medium problems with the M3 involving the falcon wing doors not operating as the new owners think they should. There are some complaints about fit and finish. There are technical surprises ("ghosting"). There are very reasonable questions about how the car's software will work in the real world. The press (Wired, for one) is taking these complaints and using them as clickbait, hinting without quite saying so that a MX owner will be the laughingstock of his suburb as "the guy who spent a fortune on a turkey." Some owners, naturally, rise to defend their choice, and their car. Quite a few report no problems whatsoever.
For any new vehicle, much less one as complex as the M3, I think that's pretty remarkable.
I don't doubt that every new car has issues. "Don't buy the first year" is a warning written from experience. But what seems to set Tesla apart, and above, the thundering oil-burning herd is how they deal with those issues. Again and again, I see owners reporting problems and the company taking them seriously, not denying them, not ignoring them. Tesla seems to come up quite rapidly with a fix. Think about the battery rupture problem on the MS, and how fast those titanium plates went out to the fleet.
How long did it take Ford and Firestone to come clean over tire failures and rollovers?
So while the early M3's will probably be a bit wonky, I'm satisfied that the company will stand behind its product and come up with good engineering solutions as quickly as they can. Perhaps a long-established carmaker could mass-produce a clean sheet design with relatively fewer problems. But as a very new carmaker (and how many fall into that category anyway?), Tesla appears to be operating with a pretty high degree of responsibility and integrity.
So, when the M3 arrives, stand by for some annoying glitches. But I would expect Tesla to stand by its customers, too.
That's rare.
Robin
