Hi Random206, sorry to hear about the delay. Not sure if it makes you feel any better but your car might be like one I spotted at the service centre yesterday. On the suggestion of a long time Tesla owner and being close by at the time, I visited the service centre (Perth) just to say hi. He also mentioned if they weren't busy they sometimes attend to small issues on the spot. On arrival there was another blue M3 but with a nasty graze on its front right fender (ok, ok, I should have taken a photo of damage and vin)...looks just like what you would get from a mishap with shipping container, or grazing a wall. Now this might have been an owner accident already but I don't think any blue aero wheels were delivered last week in Perth(??), just 3 blue M3P+. For the 38 odd M3 that had arrived in Perth, I have seen two with significant transport damage (red aero wheel charge port I reported on previous post and now this blue one, plus another one that had its charge port open from the trip across Oz). That is 2 out of 38 with transport damage visible from afar. Chances are there are probably more with damage that Autonexus can spot up close. So statistically for Perth at least, there is a greater than one in 19, (probably closer to 1 in 10) chance of getting that dreaded phone call with a delay.
I would guess Autonexus just calls Tesla and just reports damage they see to VIN x. Tesla then automatically delays delivery by 3 weeks or so. One week to allow transport to their service centre and asses damages, one week for parts shipment and one week to rectify. Since Tesla haven't seen the car when they get the call from the third party and thus they can't feed this info to us the owners, all they can do is delay by what they think is a realistic timeframe to rectify.
According to the guy who received his car 9 days earlier than everyone else in Perth, about Sept 7th (the red M3P+ one spotted with picture posted way back in this forum), every single M3 in Oz (at least in the first load) has had the 12V battery issue and all have been swapped out. This red M3P+ was delivered before they were aware of the problem and was delivered with the problem. Owner confirmed this and that Tesla had allowed him to drive vehicle as long as not get below 20% charge. 12V battery has since been replaced. 2nd M3 in Perth was delivered Sept 16th so for Perth, battery swap is delaying delivery by about 9 days.
So, for those getting pushed out 4-5 weeks, it could be there is cosmetic damage + battery. If fixed earlier than estimated (maybe service can fix things without parts etc) you might be bumped forward again (Like some are reporting). It would still be nice if Tesla just told everyone that theres been shipping damaged spotted which is the reason for the delay. However, I think because delivery team is swamped and they have no info at the time they are notified from Autonexus, they simply can't tell you.
The good news is the car, despite these delays and small cosmetic defects is awesome. We've had ours a week now and driving it hard and not a single issue with anything that counts. Also, can confirm for Perth at least, the service team is really enthusiastic and friendly and there is at least three of them here. Wife and I left with the impression that nothing was too small and everything would be dealt with and any issues that arrive in the future will be sorted with the same enthusiasm. Older Tesla owners I've talked to also confirm the service team here is great.
Don't know if that helps or not with your frustration with the delays but it really is worth the wait and I don't think you'll get a lemon.
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