Why do Teslas have such wide panel gaps compared to other cars?

[argon2018]

I have noticed that my frunk has uneven panel gaps and the rear glass panel is slightly uneven such that the right side is lower and wider than left side. Prob would have never cared or paid attention to this until this forum. Comparing to almost all other cars, the gaps are a bit wider

another observation is that the tail lights fog more than other cars...curious why that's the case

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

it's a bunch of things.

The fast ramp up likely meant things machinery/processes never got fixed. So some legitimately terrible stuff got released. Like my car was delivered with a bumper that wasn't aligned on one side and was protruding by a few mm's. Tesla likely knew about this before shipping it, but opted to take the chance on me keeping the car. I did take delivery with the promise that they'd fix it. They mostly fixed it, but they likely lost me as a long term customer. I'll probably jump to Porsche once the Taycan is released. It's not just this kind of issue, but all around the 3 just isn't that durable/rugged. I want something a bit more well put together. I do like the car, but it's mostly because I really enjoy EV drive trains.

With the Model 3 the price range is enormous so it's hard to the perfection you expect from an $80K car on vehicle that is priced at $35K in a different configuration. If you were to take complaints I think most of the people complaining about panel gaps, and misalignment are going to be from P3D+ buyers like myself.

The paint sucks. There is no getting away from this one. I've bought a lot of cars in my life, and no one has paint as bad as Tesla. Luckily there are ways to fix this like ceramic coating, wraps, etc.

Mostly it comes down to lack of competition. You, and I both signed on the dotted lines. It's not like we had anything else we could have got that brought to the table what the Model 3 did. So we accepted it faults.

 

[gilscales]

I noticed a few things with mine as well, overall I'm just one of the people who are not bothered as much by these things as I am probably just blinded by my love for the overall car, the handling, the drivetrain, I even think it looks good!

 

[ewoodrick]

I have noticed that my frunk has uneven panel gaps and the rear glass panel is slightly uneven such that the right side is lower and wider than left side. Prob would have never cared or paid attention to this until this forum. Comparing to almost all other cars, the gaps are a bit wider

another observation is that the tail lights fog more than other cars...curious why that's the case

My question is - What is your sample size? Have you measured, let's say a 100 different cars and seen what their numbers looked like?

It's a really common thing to focus on one thing and skew the results in your mind. One thread lately showed a great example of this. It was a "Have you noticed that just about all Model 3s are X color?" Each of the responders could swear that in their area, one of the colors was much more prevalent then the others. Mine is blue, therefore I see more blue Teslas.

 

[argon2018]

sample size is comparing Tesla Model 3s to Audis BMWs Lexus Mercedes even Toyotas in a parking garage and on the street as I drive. I would never go back to any other car but that's something I have noticed that's visible.

Again it's an observation. Tesla IMO still years ahead of other car companies.

 

[thewishmaster]

Really depends on the car you're referencing since construction varies (e.g. certain panel shapes / combinations are just easier to align consistently); the panel gaps on my Model 3 don't stand out as particularly noteworthy compared to my last car, a BMW. Pretty sure the hood or front bumper was slightly misaligned on my BMW as well. Something like this would bother me though

 

[Perry]

sample size is comparing Tesla Model 3s to Audis BMWs Lexus Mercedes even Toyotas in a parking garage and on the street as I drive. I would never go back to any other car but that's something I have noticed that's visible.

Again it's an observation. Tesla IMO still years ahead of other car companies.

On the over all skate (drive train, suspension, battery, electronics, etc.) yes. On anything above the skate (body/interior build), they are way behind. Service is also terrible.

 

[jkoya]

If you were to take complaints I think most of the people complaining about panel gaps, and misalignment are going to be from P3D+ buyers like myself.

This totally describes me - DBM P3D+ owner with a misaligned frunk hood and multiple paint defects on delivery. After a 2.5 month wait from delivery day, my car finally goes in on Monday to get fixed. Like you, I plan on getting a Porsche Taycan (or Audi e-tron GT) as a replacement for the Model 3.

 

[PrGrPa]

Bigger gaps mean the car is easier to assemble and remain in tolerance. You can rely on the squishy parts to ‘seal’ the holes.

The whole narrow gaps thing is something of a marketing angle. Like signature engine noises between manufacturers. As long as the car is wind and water tight, the gaps aren’t so important. I’m reminded of the shift towards fatter flexible seals along the edges of bonnets (hoods) that seemed to happen in possibly the late 90s/early 00s on many European car models. Cut wind noise, meant hoods could be less rigid and less precisely fitted. Lighter, cheaper, faster, and fewer post-delivery alignment problems.

 

[banned-66611]

It's all down to process. Family member recently bought a Honda Jazz, and the panels are tight. The build quality is fantastic, because Honda spent decades perfecting it. Tesla is focused on ramping up production numbers, quality will have to come later.

 

[sg021]

I would guess it stems from rushing to market, and being willing/forced to accept the build quality coming off the line at the time.

Sample of one obviously, but our Model 3 was delivered at the end of October. When I looked it over closely next to our Mercedes they are about equally good. I couldn't really say which one was built better.

We don't have any paint issues either, must have been a good day at the factory.

 

[UngaBunga1989]

The panel gaps on my M3P are better than they were on my last Audi. My M3P was built in late-November 2018.

That said, Tesla’s Quality Control is generally NOT in the same class as auto makers who have been doing it for 75 years. Of course the technology in the cars is light years ahead of those other manufacturers. So, there are trade-offs for being on the leading edge.

If you are a perfectionist, stay away. Sadly you will be missing out on one of the finest driving automobiles ever made, but if you tend to sweat the little stuff (like slightly larger panel gaps), know thyself and steer clear.

It’s funny, but only in this age of automation would something as inane as “perfect panel gaps” actually be considered a virtue. My M3P has more soul than anything that has come out of BMW or Audi for the past 15 years (IMHO)...I really don’t care about a dust spot or two in the paint on imperfect panel gaps. I just press the accelerator and smile...

 

[WarpedOne]

Some buy the car to drive it.
Others buy the car to look at it.

 

[PJFW8]

This totally describes me - DBM P3D+ owner with a misaligned frunk hood and multiple paint defects on delivery. After a 2.5 month wait from delivery day, my car finally goes in on Monday to get fixed. Like you, I plan on getting a Porsche Taycan (or Audi e-tron GT) as a replacement for the Model 3.

Both good choices but at twice the price! I will seriously consider the Audi when they achieve 300 plus range and some charging infrastructure. By the way the panel gaps and paint on my red serial number 19,xxx 3 were very good. No significant correction was needed before paint protection. The 2016 Fusion Energi it replaced had trim misalignment. irregular panel gaps and paint mismatch on the bumper skins. I have noticed that Model 3 awd production cars seem to have slipped. Hopefully Tesla can get this right,

 

[voip-ninja]

it's a bunch of things.

The fast ramp up likely meant things machinery/processes never got fixed. So some legitimately terrible stuff got released. Like my car was delivered with a bumper that wasn't aligned on one side and was protruding by a few mm's. Tesla likely knew about this before shipping it, but opted to take the chance on me keeping the car. I did take delivery with the promise that they'd fix it. They mostly fixed it, but they likely lost me as a long term customer. I'll probably jump to Porsche once the Taycan is released. It's not just this kind of issue, but all around the 3 just isn't that durable/rugged. I want something a bit more well put together. I do like the car, but it's mostly because I really enjoy EV drive trains.

With the Model 3 the price range is enormous so it's hard to the perfection you expect from an $80K car on vehicle that is priced at $35K in a different configuration. If you were to take complaints I think most of the people complaining about panel gaps, and misalignment are going to be from P3D+ buyers like myself.

The paint sucks. There is no getting away from this one. I've bought a lot of cars in my life, and no one has paint as bad as Tesla. Luckily there are ways to fix this like ceramic coating, wraps, etc.

Mostly it comes down to lack of competition. You, and I both signed on the dotted lines. It's not like we had anything else we could have got that brought to the table what the Model 3 did. So we accepted it faults.

The problem is that other manufacturers do have similar price spread in models and have pretty consistent tolerances and quality control between all of them.

BMW for example builds, at the entry level, base model 320i for $35,000 and then at the high end $65,000 fully loaded 340xi is built in the same factory. Panel gaps, paint quality, interior assembly are all the same within that range. If assembly and finish are perfected for cars at the start of the range then the top end where customers are more demanding takes care of itself.

My car was not nearly as bad as some of the ones here. It does have a badly fitted glass roof and I suspect that's a source for some wind noise I am hearing on the high way as you can see that one leading corner of the roof is several mm higher than the one on the other side. I have several body panels misaligned that would not be noticeable to a less picky person than myself, but then again I've been driving premium German sedans now for almost 20 years before switching to Tesla.

My wife was getting out of the car yesterday and asked me if the seal around the B pillar mirror pod was supposed to look like it has a big rip in it... I checked the driver side, which is the same, and said "yup, that's how it's supposed to be".

When I was polishing the car prior to ceramic coating I ran into multiple fish eyes but fortunately no big scratches through clear coat, no major dust nibs (some small ones though), and no paint runs. My car isn't painted in the door jambs and I see it every time I am getting into or out of the car.

I'd say that I'm far more irritated with things going on inside of the cabin than I am with the annoying paint/finish quality of the exterior. Shortly after my car was delivered it started making a bizarre squealing sound when turning... technician thought it was a bad hub but they confessed to actually finding something loose inside the body of the car from when it was built. I had a rattling seat belt tensioner in the passenger side anchor point that was muffled by a mobile tech using some felt. I have some other rattles that seem to come and go. It's probably not worth the effort to try and pinpoint them, even though they drive me nuts, because Tesla have demonstrated to me that they don't have the tools or skills to fix these issues, and not sure they care.

I had some noise in my 328xi and they used a microphone setup to pinpoint it to a squeak in the center console, and they swapped it out.

After owning my 340xi for a year it started developing a squeak in the door seals after the car got wet that lasted for several days. The dealer replaced the door seals and when the problem came back they took the car for an entire day and used 3m tape on the entire edge between the doors and frame and eliminated the issue. They were always extremely responsive to my concerns about these issues.

Tesla technology is absolutely the best for electric automotive drivetrain.... but when other manufacturers catch up in this area and deliver a top level of fit and finish and a massive service network things might get a bit harder for Tesla... competition at that point will have arrived for them.

Today, there's nothing on the market that drives like a Tesla Model 3.