I've had my P85D for about 6 months now, and man do I love how this car drives. It's so much more fun that my previous 85 which I had for about two years. Very happy with the upgrade.
However, in these short 6 months and 3000 miles of driving I've encountered what feels like an abnormal amount of issues (all minor thankfully) that, while fixed promptly by the Service Center, have been a constant source of annoyance for me and detracted somewhat from my enjoyment of the car.
This is the list of things I've encountered that have been fixed on my three visits to the Service Center so far:
- The passenger seat belt used to lock up very easily. My wife used to have to unbuckle herself, fully retract the seatbelt, and buckle up again while in motion for it to not constrict her.
- After rolling up the driver side window after the first long exposure of the car to the sun, the window got covered in some black, gooey excess butyl that was in the door assembly. It took a while to get the window fully cleaned up of this sticky stuff.
- The front passenger door handle used to be a bit unresponsive. Sometimes it would take a few pulls to open the passenger door.
- The front motor developed a loud popping noise that would happen on acceleration and right when regen kicked in. They fixed it by retorquing it.
- When making tight turns at very low speeds (e.g. when navigating around a parking garage) there was a popping sound that seemed to come from the steering system.
- There used to be a lot of noise coming from the front window triangle at freeway speeds.
- The front passenger side handle used to make a clunk noise when it receded.
- The front driver side door sometimes made a pretty loud, ugly noise unlike the regular thud when closing it. It turned out to be the door assembly unlatching or something like that.
And this is the list of issues that I currently have:
- There is a crackling sound coming from the upper dash portion that happens when driving on anything but the smoothest of roads. This one is particularly annoying because it's constant. If I apply some downward pressure on the dash it silences, but I can't keep my hand there all the time while driving.
- There is a creaking sound that sounds like someone stepping on an old wooden board that happens when accelerating from a complete stop. I can drown this one in music easily, but when it's otherwise quiet in the cabin it's pretty noticeable.
These are all minor things and mechanically the car has had no major issues at all and drives great. However, I've been thinking about it and I don't think I've been able to truly enjoy the car with no issues for more than maybe 2 or 3 weeks since I bought it. It feels like there's always been something going on with it that detracted from my enjoyment of the car, and I try to wait until multiple things pop up before going to the Service Center to have them fixed as a batch since they're all individually pretty minor.
I'm wondering if other people who got early P85Ds that were built during the mad rush to deliver by the end of 2014 are also dealing with issues like these (I got my car on December 30th). I knew what I was getting into when I bought one of the first P85Ds. I was thinking that I might hit some issues with the dual motor configuration or the autopilot software, but at the same time I was expecting that a car with VIN 67XXX would be much better built overall than my previous VIN 72XX from early 2013. In some ways it feels better built, but in some others not so much.
What are other people's experiences?
However, in these short 6 months and 3000 miles of driving I've encountered what feels like an abnormal amount of issues (all minor thankfully) that, while fixed promptly by the Service Center, have been a constant source of annoyance for me and detracted somewhat from my enjoyment of the car.
This is the list of things I've encountered that have been fixed on my three visits to the Service Center so far:
- The passenger seat belt used to lock up very easily. My wife used to have to unbuckle herself, fully retract the seatbelt, and buckle up again while in motion for it to not constrict her.
- After rolling up the driver side window after the first long exposure of the car to the sun, the window got covered in some black, gooey excess butyl that was in the door assembly. It took a while to get the window fully cleaned up of this sticky stuff.
- The front passenger door handle used to be a bit unresponsive. Sometimes it would take a few pulls to open the passenger door.
- The front motor developed a loud popping noise that would happen on acceleration and right when regen kicked in. They fixed it by retorquing it.
- When making tight turns at very low speeds (e.g. when navigating around a parking garage) there was a popping sound that seemed to come from the steering system.
- There used to be a lot of noise coming from the front window triangle at freeway speeds.
- The front passenger side handle used to make a clunk noise when it receded.
- The front driver side door sometimes made a pretty loud, ugly noise unlike the regular thud when closing it. It turned out to be the door assembly unlatching or something like that.
And this is the list of issues that I currently have:
- There is a crackling sound coming from the upper dash portion that happens when driving on anything but the smoothest of roads. This one is particularly annoying because it's constant. If I apply some downward pressure on the dash it silences, but I can't keep my hand there all the time while driving.
- There is a creaking sound that sounds like someone stepping on an old wooden board that happens when accelerating from a complete stop. I can drown this one in music easily, but when it's otherwise quiet in the cabin it's pretty noticeable.
These are all minor things and mechanically the car has had no major issues at all and drives great. However, I've been thinking about it and I don't think I've been able to truly enjoy the car with no issues for more than maybe 2 or 3 weeks since I bought it. It feels like there's always been something going on with it that detracted from my enjoyment of the car, and I try to wait until multiple things pop up before going to the Service Center to have them fixed as a batch since they're all individually pretty minor.
I'm wondering if other people who got early P85Ds that were built during the mad rush to deliver by the end of 2014 are also dealing with issues like these (I got my car on December 30th). I knew what I was getting into when I bought one of the first P85Ds. I was thinking that I might hit some issues with the dual motor configuration or the autopilot software, but at the same time I was expecting that a car with VIN 67XXX would be much better built overall than my previous VIN 72XX from early 2013. In some ways it feels better built, but in some others not so much.
What are other people's experiences?