A Funny Thing About Door Gaps

[Woosie]

I’ve owned an Acura MDX since new in 2016. We love the car, my spouse especially; we paid north of $50k for it. Just today I noticed a gap in the c-pillar. What did I do - nothing, because the car works great, is quiet and does not rattle.

This got me to thinking about the myriad of posts about M3 gaps...are we being pickier than usual because the purchase price is same as my Acura: north of $50k, or because we expect perfection because we waited 2+ years to get the car??

 

[bthienthai]

I think it has something to do with the Tesla name. It's a young company. So people tend to scrutinize it more than an established car company. Just like when you're a young engineer, nobody trusts you and criticize everything you do. But when you are an old fart with 20+ years of experience on your hat, nobody would believe you'd make a mistake.
I went to a meet to see a M3 up close and personal for a 2nd time today to check out those gaps and misalignment. It's almost like a hit and miss. One car would have some gaps here, but another car doesn't. But there are some. So I thought to myself, "what they said are true. Some gaps seem to be quite big"
Then I went home and check the gaps on my 2015 Mercedes C class. Low and behold. There are a few gaps as big as M3. There are less, but they do exist.
The bottom line is, and this is my personal opinion, I believe those gaps and misalignment are forgivable. It's also great if they agree to fix them for us. But I care more about the car's reliability and performance than anything else. So, if it runs great and doesn't give me headaches, I'm ready to accept those imperfections. To tell you the truth, it's quite hard to see them, until you get really close to inspect.