Fit and Finish Issue. Anyone else?

IFlyPlanes said:

I'm not upset but I just don't understand how a brand new car out of the factory on December 11, 2015 could need body work already.
It feels like body work sullies that feeling of a brand new car.

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The reason is simple, but not satisfying. Tesla has poor QC at the factory and rushes deliveries at the end of a quarter. They knowingly push a lot of problems down to their loyal customers and overworked service team because that allows Tesla to ship more vehicles. If they paid more attention to QC, they would never hit even the low end of their lofty delivery goals. It sucks.

Unfortunately, Tesla's have always had varying degrees of "fit & finish" issues. It's not uncommon to find the frunk not aligned with the front quarter panels, or to see the chrome around the side windows sticks out a bit more here than there, etc. As most of the early VIN owners can attest, this has always been a major shortcoming for Tesla. On the up side, they will do their best to make it right for you.

Realistically, if they hired a few more highly attentive QC personnel, they'd probably save boatloads compared to having to fix stuff after the fact.

I picked up my vehicle end of March 2015 when they were in a mad rush to get cars out the door. I had pinches, dings, and dents on the bumper and rear quarter panel. Oh, they also left a huge buffing scar on my bonnet. All got taken care of by Tesla, but required time from me to take the car to the local SC for inspection and multiple days of having my vehicle left at the SC.

Unfortunately ours has had a bunch of these issues as well. We are scheduled in the middle of Feb to get try to get the side windows aligned correctly. I hate to say that our Tesla has been into the SC more times in one year than all of the other cars I've ever owned over their entire lifetimes. I do not subscribe to the "its all excused because they are a young company" mantra. We really want Tesla to succeed, they (Tesla corporate) just don't seem very interested in their customers. The Service Centers are for the moment, making up for all of the QC issues that continue to keep coming up. How much longer can they do that as the numbers of cars increases?

Mine was delivered 12/21/2015 at the end of the 4th quarter rush and mine is going into the body shop in Feb for frunk alignment issues. They were able to work out some at the SC in Charlotte when I was there but the gap difference needs a body shop. I've also noticed one of the rear quarter panels squeaks a bit as I think the panels are a little too tight there. These are nuisance issues that I wish I didn't have but hopefully they take of them for me. The added pain is that the closest SC from me in central NY is 3hrs away so I burn a whole day!

AgentWimplo said:

Mine was delivered 12/21/2015 at the end of the 4th quarter rush and mine is going into the body shop in Feb for frunk alignment issues.

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Same here. 12/8/2015 delivery and my frunk has a huge gap. SC couldn't fix it, so it's off to the body shop.

Mine has a gap bigger than an $80K car should have, and it's due to the shape of the frunk hood compared to the quarter panels, but since I bought used and saved 1/3 of the price, I just decided to live with it rather than be a pain. Besides, they already did body repair work on mine for a trunk dent that was my fault and they did it free of charge (garage door ding after 3 weeks of ownership). At this point I don't want to make waves when they've been so awesome to me already.

How long are owners and the media going to continue giving Tesla a pass for behavior unbecoming of a serious vehicle manufacturer? At least the stock holders have spoken.

In my opinion, owners shouldn't take delivery until the car is at required level of quality. Only by doing this they are going to make Tesla prioritize fit and finish issues. Tesla is going to improve over time but owner feedback is required to move this issue up in priority.

Turns out the SC was able to adjust and fix today and the car didn't need to visit the body shop. Going back to pickup tomorrow. Glad to return this BMW 528i loaner.....only other option was a older S 60 that wasn't going to be able to made the return trip for me in time today....so much for my Performance loaner I was hoping for