Took delivery today of my Model S. (R433, Vin #1299: Performance, Black w/Tan, Obeche Gloss, 19" Wheels, Pano roof, Tech Pkg, Sound Pkg, air suspension, twin chargers.)
"Due Bill" on mine: Parcel shelf (of course), and... here's a bit of new news... my carbon-fiber spoiler was not attached. Back-ordered, and will be installed later at my service center. Definitely there are CF issues... but if your car only needs the spoiler in CF, they're delivering them anyway and will add the spoiler later. I've seen some people say that only 21" wheel cars are being delivered, but I'm a counter-example. I have "downgrade" 19" wheels and my car was ready 5 days ago. (Roadster list, however)
OH - one more piece. Every vehicle delivered starting yesterday has the v4.0 firmware installed at the factory. No waiting for the download and install. Love the on-screen release notes.
As for the vehicle itself, others have stated better than I can how amazing the vehicle is... I've driven many luxury and sports cars, and it's amazing how tight, responsive, and high-quality this car feels.
But have seen remarkably little about how these new "events" work. Maybe mine was different as it was a saturday, but upon arrival, my DS greeted me at the door, signed us in, and we looked at the car parked in the delivery bay while another family got signed in. They grouped us with this other family for the tour... and the process is you do the tour first, then your paperwork, then the walkthrough of the vehicle.
My biggest recommendation is this: If you life in the Bay Area, or can get here, you should REALLY do this tour and factory delivery rather than home delivery. It's an amazing process, and the tour was so much better and more impressive than I thought it would be. I was blown away by all that Tesla has accomplished, and seeing it all come together, and the cars in process, in testing, in various states of assembly, moving down the line, with robotic and human workers at each stage... not to mention just the scale of the physical plant itself, and ALL the systems, suppliers, components, technology, operations, that have come together in just 2 years. It's mindblowing... just the amount of test equipment and programming, and instructions on each station... that alone seems like years of work. You get to see aluminum stamping, paint areas (not the painting itself), the plastics manufacturing and assembly, the die creation, testing, storage, and swapping processes... you see everything from the desks of the workers (Elan's is a basic desk right in the middle... nothing fancy at all), to the area where the seats are assembled on site by the vendor who leases space FROM Tesla right in the factory, to even little things like the break areas, the storage of components, the training areas for new workers. It's all amazing, and it really shows you the scale of what this little company has accomplished.
Unfortunately, they're very strict about no pictures or video... when I asked why, they said it's not really for trade secret stuff (except the battery assembly room which is off limits), it's for problems they've had with misleading photos... a photo that showed half a huge room and then someone counted parts or bodies and then said it was clear Tesla was behind, or things were off schedule or something. as a public company, they can't let that happen and photos in a place like that could be very misleading.
Seeing the cars actually come together... the body, the paint, the subsytem assembly, systems install, plastics install, electronics, and the floorpan with batteries... seeing how various systems get connected and powered up for the first time, firmware installed, test areas, problem resolution, motor install... I could have spent all day there just watching it all happen and finished cars coming out the other end, being powered up for the first time, lights blinking on for the first time... then the amazing bamboo-floored final inspection area, before someone jumps in the car and takes it around the INDOOR (why not, no fumes!) test track. The most amazing part is the choreography on the main assembly line of the robotic welding, riveting, and systems install line. It's eerie, and beautiful... the robots are... well... graceful, how they flip and spin to get their tool/arm into a certain area, while 2-3 others work on other areas, then change their own arms to pick up another tool to do riveting or clamping or holding a large component. then the body moves to the next station, and by the 8th or 9th station, there's a real model S coming together and being powered up. Truly amazing.
One fun part for kids... not sure it happens on every tour, but at the plastics stamping/injection area where they make the plastic parts in molds, when we came through a worker switched out the die and instead of pushing out a plastic glove box backing piece or a trim piece, the machine pops out a scale model plastic shell shaped like a Model S. It was so cute. about 6" long. They cranked out 6 and handed them to all of us. Really cute... will try to take a picture of it.
The tour took about an hour and a half... it's a LOT of walking, the place is HUGE... but it goes quickly. The guides are great.
If you've debated making the trip, I'd really urge you to make the time and do it... you'll not be disappointed. I'm SO glad I didn't opt for home delivery and miss this. I feel so much better about being an owner and shareholder... this is an amazing company.
Anyway, after the tour (at LEAST an hour long, probably closer to 90 minutes), you head back to your delivery bay (there are only 4 total, so any delivery event could probably be 4 families taking the tour at once. Our tour had just 2 families that were there for pickup at the same time.) You finish your paperwork in your "semi-private" delivery bay, you've all seen pictures of those... and then you get your in-vehicle training going over everything. Then, (was somewhat of a surprise), you just drive it out of the building yourself. Somehow I'd have thought they'd drive it out for you given there's a tight turn from some of the delivery bays and you have to get through a relatively narrow "garage" type door. they're there to guide you if you need it, but it's really fun to drive out of the building and onto the roadway in your new vehicle.
"Due Bill" on mine: Parcel shelf (of course), and... here's a bit of new news... my carbon-fiber spoiler was not attached. Back-ordered, and will be installed later at my service center. Definitely there are CF issues... but if your car only needs the spoiler in CF, they're delivering them anyway and will add the spoiler later. I've seen some people say that only 21" wheel cars are being delivered, but I'm a counter-example. I have "downgrade" 19" wheels and my car was ready 5 days ago. (Roadster list, however)
OH - one more piece. Every vehicle delivered starting yesterday has the v4.0 firmware installed at the factory. No waiting for the download and install. Love the on-screen release notes.
As for the vehicle itself, others have stated better than I can how amazing the vehicle is... I've driven many luxury and sports cars, and it's amazing how tight, responsive, and high-quality this car feels.
But have seen remarkably little about how these new "events" work. Maybe mine was different as it was a saturday, but upon arrival, my DS greeted me at the door, signed us in, and we looked at the car parked in the delivery bay while another family got signed in. They grouped us with this other family for the tour... and the process is you do the tour first, then your paperwork, then the walkthrough of the vehicle.
My biggest recommendation is this: If you life in the Bay Area, or can get here, you should REALLY do this tour and factory delivery rather than home delivery. It's an amazing process, and the tour was so much better and more impressive than I thought it would be. I was blown away by all that Tesla has accomplished, and seeing it all come together, and the cars in process, in testing, in various states of assembly, moving down the line, with robotic and human workers at each stage... not to mention just the scale of the physical plant itself, and ALL the systems, suppliers, components, technology, operations, that have come together in just 2 years. It's mindblowing... just the amount of test equipment and programming, and instructions on each station... that alone seems like years of work. You get to see aluminum stamping, paint areas (not the painting itself), the plastics manufacturing and assembly, the die creation, testing, storage, and swapping processes... you see everything from the desks of the workers (Elan's is a basic desk right in the middle... nothing fancy at all), to the area where the seats are assembled on site by the vendor who leases space FROM Tesla right in the factory, to even little things like the break areas, the storage of components, the training areas for new workers. It's all amazing, and it really shows you the scale of what this little company has accomplished.
Unfortunately, they're very strict about no pictures or video... when I asked why, they said it's not really for trade secret stuff (except the battery assembly room which is off limits), it's for problems they've had with misleading photos... a photo that showed half a huge room and then someone counted parts or bodies and then said it was clear Tesla was behind, or things were off schedule or something. as a public company, they can't let that happen and photos in a place like that could be very misleading.
Seeing the cars actually come together... the body, the paint, the subsytem assembly, systems install, plastics install, electronics, and the floorpan with batteries... seeing how various systems get connected and powered up for the first time, firmware installed, test areas, problem resolution, motor install... I could have spent all day there just watching it all happen and finished cars coming out the other end, being powered up for the first time, lights blinking on for the first time... then the amazing bamboo-floored final inspection area, before someone jumps in the car and takes it around the INDOOR (why not, no fumes!) test track. The most amazing part is the choreography on the main assembly line of the robotic welding, riveting, and systems install line. It's eerie, and beautiful... the robots are... well... graceful, how they flip and spin to get their tool/arm into a certain area, while 2-3 others work on other areas, then change their own arms to pick up another tool to do riveting or clamping or holding a large component. then the body moves to the next station, and by the 8th or 9th station, there's a real model S coming together and being powered up. Truly amazing.
One fun part for kids... not sure it happens on every tour, but at the plastics stamping/injection area where they make the plastic parts in molds, when we came through a worker switched out the die and instead of pushing out a plastic glove box backing piece or a trim piece, the machine pops out a scale model plastic shell shaped like a Model S. It was so cute. about 6" long. They cranked out 6 and handed them to all of us. Really cute... will try to take a picture of it.
The tour took about an hour and a half... it's a LOT of walking, the place is HUGE... but it goes quickly. The guides are great.
If you've debated making the trip, I'd really urge you to make the time and do it... you'll not be disappointed. I'm SO glad I didn't opt for home delivery and miss this. I feel so much better about being an owner and shareholder... this is an amazing company.
Anyway, after the tour (at LEAST an hour long, probably closer to 90 minutes), you head back to your delivery bay (there are only 4 total, so any delivery event could probably be 4 families taking the tour at once. Our tour had just 2 families that were there for pickup at the same time.) You finish your paperwork in your "semi-private" delivery bay, you've all seen pictures of those... and then you get your in-vehicle training going over everything. Then, (was somewhat of a surprise), you just drive it out of the building yourself. Somehow I'd have thought they'd drive it out for you given there's a tight turn from some of the delivery bays and you have to get through a relatively narrow "garage" type door. they're there to guide you if you need it, but it's really fun to drive out of the building and onto the roadway in your new vehicle.
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