The Car
- VIN P12686
- 85 kWh Performance Plus
- Metallic Grey
- Body color roof
- Grey 21" turbines with Pilot Sports
- Black leather w/ red pipes
- Piano black interior
- Tech package
- Sound package
- Twin chargers
- Carbon spoiler (mine turned out to be the matt one, looks great in my opinion)
- Parcel shelf (living life on the edge)
The Tour
The tour was extremely interesting. Can't go into too many details thanks to the NDA, but we got to see all sorts of machines in action and the cars in various states of assembly, from bare parts all the way up to the finished cars being charged and tested on the indoor test track. There were several other parties in attendance, I'd say about 12 people in total. The place really is huge in scale. If you can come to the factory for collection, I wholeheartedly recommend taking the opportunity.
Delivery
Two of the three delivery bays were packed with pairs of charging cars for collection later in the day, and mine was waiting in the end bay by itself.
It was here that the first big hiccup of the day presented itself.
A minor glitch
Phone calls were made, and luckily the service center around the corner discovered that they had some grey wheels in stock with the right tires already fitted. So I carried on with the walk through, and once we were done, one of the service guys drove us around to the opposite northern end of the (enormous) campus where the service center is located. Things were fairly busy, with all the bays filled and several cars waiting to be looked at. Nevertheless, the staff were kind enough to slot my car up 2nd in line, since only a few customers were actually waiting with their vehicles and the wheel swap shouldn't take very long.
That's when hiccup number two happened. The only spare set of grey wheels in the shop included one wheel with a pretty long scratch down one of the "turbine blades". This was only spotted after it was fitted to the car, which was understandable, since it was more of a clear coat defect and hadn't gone all the way through the paint. Still kinda ugly though if you noticed it. Fortunately the gentleman from the service department who had been helping me out (Brian) agreed, and eventually I left with an order in progress to come get a fresh new wheel as soon as another one came in stock. My daily commute actually passes right by the factory on the way up 880 and across Mission Blvd to 680, so I can drop in whenever it comes and do the swap easily enough.
Getting her home
My remaining guest and I stopped off in Milpitas for a late lunch, and I ended up letting her drive the final leg home down 237 to Sunnyvale. It's very interesting to see things from the passenger seat. She was understandably quite careful with the car but we had a couple of opportunities to properly stretch its legs on the freeway. I can understand now why the people on the right side of the car seem to have as much of a Tesla grin as the people in the left seat. :biggrin: Getting shoved back at warp speed when someone else has the helm (if you'll pardon an appropriate Star Trek comparison) is a hell of a rush.
In the words of my copilot, while she drove:
Overall a really interesting day, and the bumps in the road were all dealt with extremely well, under the circumstances. A few glitches are totally understandable I think at this stage, and having them taken care of quickly and easily is really all I could ask. Tesla and the employees have, so far, come through on that front with aplomb.
An unexpected bonus
Pictures:
Snug in the delivery bay. Wait a minute, those wheels don't look right!
One proud owner (in need of a haircut).
My copilot for the day.
The Tesla Grin in full effect. :biggrin:
Passengers are affected too!
Terrible lighting, but here's the completed look with the right wheels. Better pics soon, I think.
A look at the greatly improved pedal positioning, so you can see the rearward accelerator offset.
