Well, the Problem Threads are Slowing Down Considerably

[Buddyroe]

I monitor the X threads to get a pulse on how the X roll-out is progressing. I am not only interested as a fan of Tesla, but I also make investment decisions on how the company is doing - more than just charts and financials. This roll-out and the costs associated with the X will not affect today's stock price, but, they show up later. Also, the general customer service experience tells a lot too. Since I haven't yet bought a Tesla, I can only put my hand on the pulse of Tesla through these threads.

The last 4-6 months have been an absolutely nightmare with the X ramp up. I don't think anyone, in their most dire thoughts expected it to be this bad. But, I did believe and I still do that the FaWDs are a major problem that engineering or manufacturing cannot correct. There are just more functionality problems than pluses with the doors. Add in the difficult (and expensive) design and build process, along with the incredibly expensive repair process, and you land where we are today - with Tesla getting crushed in the media and losing the reputation they earned for building great, problem-free cars (granted, the drive-train issues in the S had already tarnished it a little).

That said, my continued review of these problem threads have shown that they have gone WAY down in the last couple of weeks. Is it possible that I am wrong and they are getting these doors figured out? Are they more functional than I thought (I am ALWAYS open to being 100% wrong)? Or, has Tesla stopped building the X until they can get the problems worked out?

 

[sukhi]

A couple of potential explanations:
- As you mentioned it is likely that the new deliveries have slowed down as there has been a post quarter-end lull.
- Folks are having the same issues that have been already discussed here. (auto present door, double vision, FWD sensing etc.)
I think there is some solace in seeing that others have had similar problems and hopefully Tesla is working to fix this issues with SW updates and or sensor changes.

 

[30seconds]

Were you around here for the S launch? So far the X is better.

The doors are fine. It's a solvable problem and then for a vehicle of this class it really stands out. Buyers of 100k vehicles typically don't like it when the Hyundai's of the world roll out the same feature list for $50k

 

[Merrill]

Before I post about this issue I will tell you that I spent over 40 years driving Jaguars. If you put Tesla the company in perspective these problems are to be expected, this is a young company doing something that no one else has ever done. The Model X is complicated, I will not go into whether or not they should have simplified it but it is very different and that is something that attracts me to it. I believe they will at some point resolve most of the issues and we will start talking about some other problem they are having. I do have feelings for those who are having issues and waiting so long to get them fixed. I tend to look at the future and have a positive feeling for what Elon and Tesla are trying to accomplish.

 

[aesculus]

It is odd the Elon allowed himself to get sucked into another one of these quality nightmares like the roadster and s had and now the X. Does not bode well for the Model 3.

But I love my Model X and all it's quirky features. But I agree that if his target was families, then missed the mark. Hence why the Honda Odyssey is the go to car in that segment.

 

[ankitmishra]

People dismissing falcon wing doors are terribly wrong. And its not my opinion, its just that they are wrong. But I guess it's a fault in basic human nature. Whats ironic is that they are criticising and shooting down innovation in a forum thats about Tesla, a company which has constantly shown the world how outdated their image of car was. It's great that we have things in the world where a single person can take decisions, otherwise nothing extraordinary would have been achieved. People scared of new things are too many and would have shot down every attempt to explore new stuff.

 

[Brandon332]

@Buddyroe do yourself a favor and invest your time elsewhere. I've been able to afford placing a Model X because of a couple of years of good investing, and considering either buying or shorting Tesla is a fools game. If you're looking to make money, short Sears, or buy Gamestop, but TSLA is far too emotionally charged

 

[guidom]

Personally, first 2 weeks were tough with the front doors, but after replacing a latch and making sure the door was properly aligned, it's been great so far. For the falcon wing door, I had one day it was non-responsive and a hard reset fixed it. Basically a software issue not a hardware issue (needs an update that will facilitate resets for the doors). Besides that, Falcon wings have not generated any complication and add a big part of the fun.

I agree this is the most complicated car we have owned (and we have owned a few German and English luxury cars in the past and present). Perhaps right now it's not thoroughly simplified / audited with real world experience to be a simple everyday family car. But for people that love tech / new innovative things, it's the perfect car. It has had some quirks, and when it spends a day in the SC it definitely is annoying, but since customer service is great, it minimized the annoyance when I had to take it to the SC.

Only have 1,000 miles so far, so I will know more by 3-4k miles, but so far it's been an amazing ride.

 

[ModelXBoy]

I think many model X owners already took their car in for problems fixings. The new Xs are not been produced yet. So we are seeing a little break during this time. I expect more
People will either complain or compliment the X once their cars are back from the SC again. The problems of the X are mostly to do with doors, wind shields, poor quality assembly and painting. Hopefully once production starts again those areas will be addressed and fixed so they do not affect future owners.

 

[Mark Z]

There are some new problems. As the Model X ages you might experience a flatting of the seal around the Falcon Wing Door opening. While not a problem in a regular vehicle, Tesla Motors chose to add sensors in the seal. False signals occur as the seal flattens.

The handle for the trunk load floor is metal and might last the life of the car. However, the frame that holds the metal handle has a limited life span as the plastic hinge is flexed and cracks. I am pleased to report that the handle is not needed as the trunk load floor can be grabbed on the edge. It isn't as handy, but the trunk load floor can still be used as each handle hinge may eventually snap and break.

 

[sukhi]

I think many model X owners already took their car in for problems fixings. The new Xs are not been produced yet. So we are seeing a little break during this time. I expect more
People will either complain or compliment the X once their cars are back from the SC again. The problems of the X are mostly to do with doors, wind shields, poor quality assembly and painting. Hopefully once production starts again those areas will be addressed and fixed so they do not affect future owners.

I think you got it right. Of all the issues, the ones that disappointed me the most are related to the poor workmanship on alignments, paint job, seals, rust issues. There is no excuse such shoddy quality in a car of this class.

 

[ModelXBoy]

I think you got it right. Of all the issues, the ones that disappointed me the most are related to the poor workmanship on alignments, paint job, seals, rust issues. There is no excuse such shoddy quality in a car of this class.

I am not even in that stage yet. My door is not even working. Once door fixed for my X then I will worry about the assembly issues.

 

[sukhi]

I am not even in that stage yet. My door is not even working. Once door fixed for my X then I will worry about the assembly issues.

I understand the frustration. While not as bad of a situation as yours, I have disabled auto present, set FWDs to low open position to get around it. Of course as many others we are not using the 3rd row seats.
My point was that I am personally more accepting of challenges with the new unproven technologies versus the shoddy workmanship.

 

[ohmman]

I understand the frustration. While not as bad of a situation as yours, I have disabled auto present, set FWDs to low open position to get around it. Of course as many others we are not using the 3rd row seats.
My point was that I am personally more accepting of challenges with the new unproven technologies versus the shoddy workmanship.

I'll say again that I believe the workmanship failures are a result of rushing them out the door for end of quarter numbers. Disappointed that my vehicle is in that group, but at the same time I'm happy to be driving it and to have it for some early summer road tripping.

As far as auto-presenting front doors, I knew that feature would be turned off when I saw Elon demonstrate it at the delivery event. I get the feeling that the main idea is to have it become a part of a future summon release. Have the car meet you in the driveway and welcome you with open doors or something.. I guess that's another feature I'll be disabling if so.

 

[guidom]

I'm not sure how widespread worksmanship quality issues are. For me the problems have all been the "new tech". Haven't really had a problem with quality compared to other similarly priced cars. If you look with a microscope there will be issues, but overall it's been ok on that front

 

[sukhi]

As far as auto-presenting front doors, I knew that feature would be turned off when I saw Elon demonstrate it at the delivery event. I get the feeling that the main idea is to have it become a part of a future summon release. Have the car meet you in the driveway and welcome you with open doors or something.. I guess that's another feature I'll be disabling if so.

I am still hopeful that SW can take care of many of these issues. My worry would be if it is all tied to sensor issues that become a HW issue.
Ultimately as a believer in Tesla, I am excitedly looking forward to the future functionality being enabled on my Model X. That's is one of the biggest innovation by Tesla wherein my car today will evolve into a better car tomorrow.

 

[Buddyroe]

@Buddyroe do yourself a favor and invest your time elsewhere. I've been able to afford placing a Model X because of a couple of years of good investing, and considering either buying or shorting Tesla is a fools game. If you're looking to make money, short Sears, or buy Gamestop, but TSLA is far too emotionally charged

You make a terribly bad assumption to assume that I would ever short Tesla. I am already significantly long and have more on the sidelines waiting to see how my sentiments are as far as investing more in Tesla. Trust me, I have done VERY well, TSLA, and if they get their crap together, there's a lot more to be made. But, not if they keep producing cars where 1/3 to 1/2 have to come back for warranty repairs in the first 3 months.

We Tesla fans will tolerate that in our cars (lumping myself in as a Tesla fan), but the average person will NOT. When the Model 3 comes out, it won't be entirely made up of Tesla lovers like yourself and me. It will be everyday car buyers and they will pitch a dang fit if the car has these kinds of issues.

 

[ModelXBoy]

The wealthier a person is, the less complains filed against Tesla because the amount of money spent on the car is relatively less important to them. But if 35000 is someone's life saving or something difficult to aquire over a long time. You bet they will complain until their mouth fall off. Plus with some busted arteries. So tesla better get their quality control together for the mass market where people might not tolerate anything less than what they paid for. There is no room for error.

 

[ankitmishra]

I keep hearing this excuse of "Hey, I am helping Tesla by continuosly criticising Model X unique features because average person won't tolerate such issues with Model 3".
This is questionable assumption that economic capability of a person defines their tolerance towards growing pain of innovation. I don't believe that. A Model 3 buyer surely might have less money but he/she might be more understanding of the issues with new technology. It's a very questionable assumption by people.
Also, Model 3 doesn't have these awesome doors. It doesn't have monopost seats. All the problems in Model X are due to these new features. Yeah, paint mishaps and finish issues are also there but again I would use the same reasoning as above.
It's just that some people have low tolerance for pain that comes with something new and they have poor understanding of how new things are done. The amount of money they have doesn't have anything to do with it IMHO.

 

[ModelXBoy]

There are "certain" people I ignored like the one above. How come I can still see his "non sense" when I am not logged in. Weird!