Took delivery of VIN 24xx P90DL in Fremont on 2016/05/23

[Congo Line]

Jsollender, I think I would have not accepted delivery if there was something malfunctioning, like the door not working properly.

For cosmetic stuff, as long as they promise to fix it later and provide documentation of this, then it just wasn't worth the hassle and back-and-forth of leaving it there and waiting for them to fix it. I really didn't want to schedule another day for both my wife and I to take off work and drive over to the SC again. It also wasn't clear to me that they would be able to get it done within a short period of time.

I know that once the car is a few months old and has some wear and tear on it, I just won't care as much about it. So I can wait until my first service visit to get it all done. We are still enjoying the car.

 

[ohmman]

I was told that if that was a concern, I should probably look elsewhere for a car to buy since the drivetrain was fantastic...the rest you just live with. Apparently worry over fit and finish is old fashioned, "1950's" thinking. @ohmman , what are your thoughts?

Just to be clear, I wasn't the one who said fit and finish were '50s thinking. I believe you said that fit and finish were one of your top concerns, and if that's the case, the evidence suggests that Tesla's not the right direction for you. I don't think that's how it should be, but I think it's a bad idea to assume things are suddenly going to change.

It reminds me of a friend who went to school to become a teacher. When she finally got her job, she began complaining to me about the salary. I absolutely agree that teachers aren't compensated properly for their work, but it surprised me that she expected a higher salary. Teachers should get more pay, but her feeling that she'd get a job and suddenly decades of chronically low pay would reverse was an expectation that struck me as uninformed.

Once Tesla has shown that they deliver cars with tightly polished finish, then a buyer can expect to get a car with excellent fit and finish. Until then, caveat emptor.

 

[Martin VanB]

Regarding Fit and Finish: was recently on a brand new Boeing Dreamliner and the trim fell off the ceiling. I would rather go on a 5000 mile road trip with imperfect trim in a Model X than fly a Dreamliner again. Sorry if it's off topic.

 

[Coolcarx]

This situation is sad. The next few months are going to make this purchase a miserable experience. Been there, done that, still doing that. My favorite word for this is "Double minded". It's all the ups and downs, time kills, relationship battles, love hate for the car, and the dream of having the perfect car. After having so much time invested into the purchase it's very hard to walk away. Having kids that love the unique FWD's add to the pressure to make it all work out. Bottom line is there is no perfect car.

 

[Congo Line]

So just to update from my prior post, we just got our MX back from the detailer, who was installing paint armor. Detailing shop people were ecstatic about the car and its features. Compared to when we first picked up the car on Monday, today was a beautiful day, and it made for a really nice driving experience on the way home. Had previously told my wife I still liked my MS better, but now I'm not so sure. Am starting to appreciate the little details like the automatic front doors and ventilated seats, plus being able to look up through the pano windshield at the clouds and trees is really relaxing. Overall, I'm very happy we got this car, despite the fit/finish work that needs to be done. No regrets whatsoever.

 

[Colby Boles]

The car is now scheduled to go in to the Burlingame SC on June 6th and have all of the due bill issues addressed. I would have hoped it would be sooner, but at least that gives me a little more time with the car to notice any other outstanding issues.

I have the movable spoiler, but it seems to stay up all of the time, which seems wrong to me. Looking back at it, I don't think it has ever changed angle or position in a speed-dependent fashion. I'm assuming this goes down when you park, right?

Also the "Ultra HiFi Sound" seems particularly lackluster, even when parked, which was making me start to wonder if the feature is installed or not. I just played some music with significant bass and opened the rear hatch and felt around and it does seem like there is a sub operating on the right hand side, so I'm 75% sure I have it...

 

[goneskiian]

Glad to hear you're happier with that X now @Colby Boles!

There are some threads about the stereo system and the general consensus is that it's hard to tell how good it is unless you play some high bit rate tracks off of a usb thumbdrive. In other words, it's very source dependent. Good source = good sound. Crappy source = crappy sound.

 

[ohmman]

Also the "Ultra HiFi Sound" seems particularly lackluster, even when parked, which was making me start to wonder if the feature is installed or not. I just played some music with significant bass and opened the rear hatch and felt around and it does seem like there is a sub operating on the right hand side, so I'm 75% sure I have it...

I got the upgraded sound on my S, and didn't bother on my X. I would rather do it aftermarket, if I decide I care enough. I wasn't ever impressed with the "upgrade" quality.

 

[aesculus]

Yeah, I got the 2" accessory hitch but it looks like I got the tow package gratis. On another thread people were saying that the 'tow package light's can town 3500lbs vs 5000 lbs for the full tow because of some missing body reinforcement.

All of us early deliveries got the tow hitch when we ordered the accessory hitch. We just speculated that the body reinforcement must be missing but nobody to my knowledged checked. My product specialist just told us it was limited to 3500 lbs but he may have pulled that out of his hat.

My guess is that the current accessory hitch is not ready yet, just like the fixed rear spoiler wasn't until recently. If you took delivery early you ended up getting two free items.

 

[Colby Boles]

I just wanted to give everyone an update on this car. It took a couple of weeks from delivery to get an appointment slot at the local Burlingame, CA SC to have them take a look at it if I wanted to get a Tesla Model S loaner since they were pretty busy. They are very nice and responsive there, but it did take them about a week to really dig into the car and all of the body / door / glass alignment issues.

For anyone who is wondering, if the chrome trim appears misaligned (e.g. sticking out too much) on your rear quarter window - this isn't simply a trim issue. The trim and the window glass are joined together as a single assembly and that is joined to the body with adhesive. Apparently, they use too much adhesive sometimes and these windows end up mounted sticking out more than they should. The whole assembly needs to be replaced to fix it. Trying to line the FWDs up to misaligned rear quarter glass just cascades the errors forward in the car to create other issues. If you have this problem - get it fixed.

The SC team looked all the mis-alignments on the car and decided it would be best to send the car back to Fremont and have the factory body fitment team try to fix it. The car was transported on Friday back to Fremont. I'll let you know how it goes from there.

 

[chloedog]

did they say anything useful about the (literally) glaring issues with the windshield? do they have any fixes or glass replacements planned for it?

 

[Colby Boles]

did they say anything useful about the (literally) glaring issues with the windshield? do they have any fixes or glass replacements planned for it?

I think I mentioned this elsewhere on TMC, but I brought up both the dash grille reflection issue and the ghost image issue to the service person. There was no remedy for the reflection issue, but he said he would do as I asked and see what the cost of a replacement dash grille piece would be. I had told him I was interested in getting an extra and seeing if I could paint it matte black.

With respect to the ghosting, he said there were some cases of windshields with varying thickness in parts creating regional distortions that made them problematic to look out of that they had replaced. He looked at mine and did not see that issue. Obviously this is not the same issue as the ghosting issue, so he had no real answer for that. My opinion is that the ghosting problem is fundamental to this glass geometry and driver position, so I'm skeptical that there is any easy fix for it, or that some windshields do not exhibit the problem. It would be interesting to see some sort of side-by-side comparisons of "good" and "bad" windshields to lay this to rest.

 

[ksquared]

I just wanted to give everyone an update on this car. It took a couple of weeks from delivery to get an appointment slot at the local Burlingame, CA SC to have them take a look at it if I wanted to get a Tesla Model S loaner since they were pretty busy. They are very nice and responsive there, but it did take them about a week to really dig into the car and all of the body / door / glass alignment issues.

For anyone who is wondering, if the chrome trim appears misaligned (e.g. sticking out too much) on your rear quarter window - this isn't simply a trim issue. The trim and the window glass are joined together as a single assembly and that is joined to the body with adhesive. Apparently, they use too much adhesive sometimes and these windows end up mounted sticking out more than they should. The whole assembly needs to be replaced to fix it. Trying to line the FWDs up to misaligned rear quarter glass just cascades the errors forward in the car to create other issues. If you have this problem - get it fixed.

View attachment 181778View attachment 181774


The SC team looked all the mis-alignments on the car and decided it would be best to send the car back to Fremont and have the factory body fitment team try to fix it. The car was transported on Friday back to Fremont. I'll let you know how it goes from there.

Thanks for sharing your experience. At least for you, Fremont isn't far away. That would be a nightmare for me. Hope you have your car back soon, and in perfect condition.

 

[Colby Boles]

Another update - I just got the car back from the SC (who got it back from the factory the day before) and things are considerably better.

* Panel alignment is very consistent top to bottom, medial to lateral.
* FWDs are drawn in correctly, aligning with other panels.
* Rear quarter window / trim is much better aligned with FWDs. Still slightly proud, but much better.
* Homelink firmware was customised to transmit for only 1 second, instead of 2, to prevent my roll door from re-opening because it was transmitting for too long.
* Driver's door latch was replaced to fix soft-closing problem

Overall, I am very happy with the service I received. It was unfortunate that the car had these problems from the start, but they really did make a big effort to fix the issues. From what I heard from the SC, the later VIN cars are much better, so if you are reading this and contemplating ordering a MX, you are probably unlikely to experience many of the issues that I did.

 

[aesculus]

Good to hear. Glad they can resolve these panel issues in the field.

 

[Colby Boles]

Good to hear. Glad they can resolve these panel issues in the field.

To be clear, they didn't really resolve it "in the field" - which I would say is at the SC. The SC had the car shipped to the Fremont factory and the body fitment team there took care of it. Which is not to say that the Burlingame SC was incapable of doing this work - they just felt that there were enough things wrong and the resource was close enough that they could do this, and I believe that was the right decision in this case.