Would a news article help?

[brianman]

Where do you see that?

Twitter / elonmusk: Tesla made 100 vehicle bodies ...

Tesla made 100 vehicle bodies this week for the first time. Really proud of the team! Pic of S/N 396

 

[Beavis]

Reservation holders are not some monolithic uniform group. Anyone reading the forums knows there are hundreds of different opinions being debated here. It is a mistake to assume that the OP speaks for the reservation holders. I, for example, do not share the OP's opinions on the issues cited.

 

[Kevin Harney]

Also to me this reads the service must be done by a Tesla Tech but it does not say that the owner must bring it in to have it done. Only that servicing by a non-Tesla tech will void the warranty.

 

[Robert.Boston]

Also to me this reads the service must be done by a Tesla Tech but it does not say that the owner must bring it in to have it done. Only that servicing by a non-Tesla tech will void the warranty.

That's what GeorgeB said, but it's not what the warranty says. The text of the warranty controls, not a blog post or a message on a third-party forum. Read the text for yourself HERE. The relevant passage is:

This New Vehicle Limited Warranty does not cover any vehicle damage or
malfunction directly or indirectly caused by, due to or resulting from normal
wear or deterioration, abuse, misuse, negligence, accident, lack of or
improper maintenance, operation, storage or transport, including, but not
limited to, any of the following:
• Failure to take the vehicle to a Tesla Service Center or Tesla
authorized repair facility upon discovery of a defect covered by this
New Vehicle Limited Warranty;
...
• Any repair, alteration or modification of the vehicle, or the installation
or use of fluids, parts or accessories, made by a person or facility not
authorized or certified to do so;
...

 

[Trnsl8r]

Reservation holders are not some monolithic uniform group. Anyone reading the forums knows there are hundreds of different opinions being debated here. It is a mistake to assume that the OP speaks for the reservation holders. I, for example, do not share the OP's opinions on the issues cited.

+1 right here. Not to mention that the participants on this forum are but a small minority subset of the reservation holders.

Additionally a news article would NOT help anything. If anything it would just damage Tesla's possibilities of succeeding, and I don't think anyone of us wants to see that. It's already been proven that Tesla reads our opinions on this forum. Having it plastered on a news site/paper would not do anything but damage.

 

[vfx]

I didn't mean to imply 396 was the actual VIN, just that the frame has a VIN.....

Wonder what parts have numbers that are matched to the VIN? Will collectors in the future want to blueprint these early cars?

 

[jerry33]

You lost me on this one. Should I have said the frame has a VIN associated with it already, would that wording work better?

What I got out of it was, "What are all the parts that have VIN number markings?". In an ICE car there are a number of parts marked with the VIN number so that they can be traced if the car is stolen and disassembled. Teslas don't have an ICE, but there may be other parts that are marked.

 

[favo]

S/N is a standard abbreviation for serial number, which is what I assume Elon was referring to. That would indicate the 396th body made. I would not assume that such a body would necessarily be a part of the vehicle with VIN 396. Some parts might not pass QA and would either be rejected outright or sent back to the line for correction. Plus, some parts will just be stockpiled, and frankly, it doesn't (or shouldn't) matter which of those goes into which car, assuming the parts are no longer being significantly tweaked. Most likely, every part has a serial number, so they can track defects and just manage inventory.

Also, from the Department of Redundancy Department, please don't say VIN number; just say VIN. VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number. :wink:

 

[AustinPowers]

Tesla, stop peddling your cars in Europe...

Now what kind of remark is that? If Tesla want to stand any chance of selling 20.000 or more vehicles a year they damn well better care for other markets than just the US too.

And it's not that Tesla are doing much to promote the Model S here. They are trying to sell off the last Roadsters, but as far as the Model S is concerned, no info, no advertising, not even the store personnel can tell you anything specific.

So don't get worked up, we don't get any "amps" right now.

 

[SimonJ]

Now what kind of remark is that? If Tesla want to stand any chance of selling 20.000 or more vehicles a year they damn well better care for other markets than just the US too.

And it's not that Tesla are doing much to promote the Model S here. They are trying to sell off the last Roadsters, but as far as the Model S is concerned, no info, no advertising, not even the store personnel can tell you anything specific.

=So don't get worked up, we don't get any "amps" right now.

+1. I was bored well before I got to this point, and when I got to the tiresome "peddling your cars in Europe"... I laughed and realised this was parochial nonsense. Bless and diddums, are you worried that the focus is being taken off the good ol' US of A and that awful incomprehensible Yerp is somehow "taking over"? I will add to AustinPowers comments and tell you this: there ain't ANY emphasis on Yerp regarding Model S, in fact Yerpeans are getting a little tired of the lack of information. So, Tesla IS almost 100% concentrating on the USA. Also, I would agree with the comment "Reservation holders are not some monolithic uniform group". Absoflaminlutely. You do not in any way speak for everyone!

 

[SimonJ]

By the way, just to clarify.... I wasn't being disparaging too Americans in general, I read it back later and it seemed a bit harsh... my comments were aimed at the ludicrous (to my mind) comment about "peddling". I fully understand it's a US built car, and all of that.... so it's no surprise it's going there first, I just thought the comment was naive, ill-informed, protectionist and, in the long run absurd... do people know how large the exec market in Europe is? It's huge, and has the magic fleet cars in it too.... not, as I understand, a US thing...

 

[pguerra]

@aviators, thank you for the corrections. My main point is for Tesla to communicate with their customers. A delay in the line due to a defect could be communicated to the future owner as a delay that will be corrected. A knowledge of how the factory is running the builds, even a general and vague explanation, would help. Reservation number is just used for tracking, and to build in that order is, I agree, impossible. But for the amount of future owners on here confused about the process (from what I've seen goes back to July), and the hodge-podge of intel that comes in from different sources, to include rumor, could be better resolved with customer service and feedback. IMHO

This has been answered today with TSLA's 8-k. In a nutshell: supplier issues have resulted in production delay issues which have resulted in revenue issues which have resulted in risk of breaching capital ratio requirements by March 2013 of DOE loans. Hence, TSLA now needs to offer more stock. Ugly. Who wants to believe this company now?

Now people are canceling orders b/c of what you mentioned above and probably now b/c of bad financial press and lack of faith in the company.

Am I an idiot for sticking it out? Maybe...only time will tell. I can say that I would prefer waiting a few more weeks to get a perfect car (which isn't possible given the lack of rear seat cup holders, lack of interior storage, and non-power folding mirrors. So yeah, maybe I am an idiot).

However, I still have some faith in Tesla, and I hope to get a perfectly made EV (especially given it's 100k price).

 

[dsm363]

So far, all physical aspects of the car are rock solid. Software in places needs updating (nav unit) to add features that are missing but that is easier than fixing something mechanically wrong.

 

[Robert.Boston]

As the WSJ says in its article this morning:

Many established car makers with long histories of launching new models struggle to hit ambitious launch schedules without compromising the assembly quality of their vehicles.

So it's not as though this is the first time in automotive history that it takes a bit longer to get a quality car out the door.

 

[sp4rk]

Article?

Sorry, but that post was a rant that you'd send to Tesla. Not an article. Perhaps a LETTER to the editor. Fail.

Robert.Boston ... I have to second the VIN comment! My pet peeve is hearing someone ask me for a PIN number!

(Enjoy your day Robert!)

Let's see where the stock ends up today ... here's to 29?

 

[doug]

Just a friendly reminder that this site has an "ignore member" feature.

 

[VolkerP]

No post will push me to use that feature. I study different opinions to find my own blind spots. It is inconvenient but an indispensable requirement to avoid fanboyism and group think.

I just keep skimming through the posts. If something strikes me the wrong way, I look at the author, and then usually I think "oh, well... this guy/gal again."