Test Drive car in Illinois had rusty chrome badge

Took a Model S for a drive from the Tesla Old Orchard store in Skokie, IL

My Wife noticed that it had quite a bit of rust on the T badge ahead of the front door on the drivers side, it looked like it would next begin staining the paint below it. We use a lot of salt on the roads here, we live close to where it is mined and it is cheap, so we get tons of the stuff spread far and wide at the slightest hint of a snowflake. So corrosion is expected, it is like living close to the ocean, salt gets in everywhere. Dodge minivans around here get rust under the rear window within three years like clockwork. Since the Model S has an aluminum body and the chrome looking badges are made of rust resistant plastic, it must be the related attachment hardware in the area is made of a ferrous material not treated to be rust resistant. With a new car we all expect things like this, these early models are kind of like Beta versions and as problems pop up they will be addressed.

Would something like this and other pitting problems on the badges be covered by Tesla? Is that considered normal wear and tear? Did the person(s) who experienced pitting and corrosion on his badges on this forum get them repaired or replaced by Tesla under warranty? I am considering putting a Model X on reserve, but I will be driving in the same conditions as the test drive car, if it gets rusty badges and stains, I won't be happy with my cars appearance.

This badge is back lit by LED's so there obviously is hardware in there that can become rusted. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/04/30/automobiles/480-tesla1.jpg

As far as you know, ALL badges are glued on? Looks like you don't know very far.

I don't need to refer to a photo to know that it was rusted, my Wife, myself and the Tesla employee all saw the rust, it was rusty. It was not barely noticeable, the rust was very obvious and there is zero doubt of its reality, that is not why I posted the topic. As I said, the rust was in danger of staining the cars paint job directly under the badge. The issue is not weather I am making this up, the issue is what will Tesla do when this shows up on other cars. There will always be those who choose not to believe you because it does not suite their preconceived notions, there is nothing anyone can do to convince these people. Your reply is implying that I am not telling the truth, I plan on buying a Tesla car within a year, I have no reason to make up negative stories, I am simply reporting what I saw. I am a big Tesla supporter, I just want to know if this is a known problem and if so, how will it be handled.

The only false rumor is that you have a positive influence on this forum. You are offensive, very much so, I do not respond to obvious forum trolls.

EarlyAdopter said:

Nixter,

I'm quite certain Tesla would fix this under warranty.,...... nor have I seen any such corrosion on my 5 month old Model S which has seen winter driving on salt and sand.

Click to expand...

You are probably right, and I'll bet that if we could trace the history of the Tesla Model S that I test drove, we would see that it is a very early Model S and it was parked outdoors all winter, and it was driven as a test drive car every day, which means it was being driven constantly in Chicago's Northern Illinois wet winter conditions. The corrosion was mainly located on the ends of the badge, the middle of it being noticeably less rusty. I think it likely that underneath the emblem we might see two metal attachments, probably some kind of bolts or rivets. It will be a simple fix to use stainless steel components or coat the existing hardware with a rust resistant compound perhaps use plastic attachment hardware or even adhesives which are commonly used in the industry. If that car is the only one with corrosion on the emblem, then it could be a mundane problem like the emblem became loose and the weather was able to get inside and cause rust to occur, a very easy fix if that is what happened, and isolated to that one car.

An rare incident no doubt, probably caused by a unique set of circumstances related to the local conditions, and limited to this one high use vehicle. I see hundreds of rusty Dodge vans and cars around here and I am astounded that Dodge can see this as clearly as the rest of us and then still do nothing about it, this has to hurt their sales immensely. Tesla seems to be run by smart people, and exterior corrosion issues will probably be addressed and corrected quickly. To have your flagship product be publicly marred by easily preventable blemishes would be counterproductive to the goal of increasing sales. There is a good chance that Tesla is aware of the situation and it has already been fixed on all new production runs.

We are planning on putting a $5k reservation on a Model X very soon, I won't let this incident change our minds, I think that Tesla will take care of its customers. I am more worried that Tesla's will become ever more popular and it will become very difficult to get one, than rusty components becoming a big problem.