Greetings!
In earlier posts I voiced my disappointment in my 2023 Austin Built Model Y AWD's build quality. Misaligned doors, various squeaks and rattles, and other issues caused me to second guess my purchase, especially after putting up with build issues with my 2018 LR RWD Model 3. You can find specifics in my earlier post.
Since then I've returned the car to the local service center and they attempted to reposition the front door, and also tried to remove the various rattles. They were partly successful, but not fully, and I assumed I'd just live with it. I also noted that while in the service department the car's bumper was scraped and had to be replaced, which they did. To their credit, as I noted, they fully disclosed this to me prior to completing service. That's commendable and appreciated.
Despite my intent to "live with" the uncorrected rattles they became worse, so much so that I couldn't ignore them any longer. Part of the issue, I believe, is the local temperature has been near 100 degrees and humidity was high for several days. I brought the car into service that morning and the interior was relatively cool having been in the garage all night, but the morning heat (over 90) pushed the A/C to full power. Perhaps the plastic panels were affected and added to the squeaks I was hearing. Regardless of the issue I requested another appointment to see if the noises could be fixed a bit better.
Through the Tesla app the Mobile Service tech arrived at my home three days later, as scheduled. He had a full history of the issue, had spoken with the tech that did the initial repair before arriving at my home, and had a pretty good idea of what was wrong. We went on a brief ride together so he could better isolate the issues. He began work and within 90 minutes announced that all was well, inviting me to test drive with him to confirm.
On the test ride he explained the issues, and while working showed me specifically where the noises were coming from, and what he was doing to eliminate them. Basically there were two issues. The first was the main interior screen. Apparently the mount, while within tolerance, had a few less than perfectly aligned areas that caused the squeaks when riding on rougher roads. In normal driving it wasn't always audible. The first tech fixed it as well as he could, but the noises were still there. The second problem was newly discovered - another set of squeaks from the interior mirror housing area. This was the source of most of the continued noise. Apparently there is an internal gasket of some type that surrounds the plastic mirror housing that attached to the windshield interior. That gasket was either mis-aligned or defective, causing intermittent vibration that echoed through the mirror housing, mimicking the noise coming from the center display.
The tech was aware of the problem, and without any prompting from me disassembled the mirror housing and corrected the seal issue, fixing the problem. We also chatted about door/hatch alignment, lack of window frames as potential sources of wind noise/vibration, and the general build quality of Fremont versus Austin. He explained that the Austin cars (Giga Press) have a different mounting system for the front doors that provides less post production adjustment flexibility compared to the Fremont build. The result is that while the Giga Press does a very good job overall, there may be times when adjustments are needed and the tech needs to "find the best fit" within the limitations of the amount that can be adjusted.
That was the case in my car. The first visit to the Service Center made the door fit better, but not perfectly. My wife was very happy with the adjustment at the Service Center, allowing the door to open/close far easier without having to reopen/close it. So am I pleased that the car door isn't perfectly aligned? Well, maybe a bit, but life's too short to try to resolve the last 5% of a problem when the door is working well enough for my wife's needs. Same story with the rear hatch.
What was interesting was that the tech then looked at my wife's 330e, and while the tolerances of that car are indeed better than my Model Y, he showed me gaps on that car as well. Perhaps not as wide as the Tesla, but gaps nonetheless. He also saw more paint flaws than I had seen on both cars. He then told me another interesting thing. "With all the publicity about build quality people are very critical of any flaws in their Teslas. I understand their concerns, but compared to earlier years we've made lots of progress and continue to improve." After reviewing some enthusiast car sites (BMW, M-B, Porsche, Audi - I'm a member of all of them having owned models from each over the years) I had to agree with him. Like it or not there is a lot of "noise" around Teslas. I'm not excusing poor manufacturing, but clearly Elon is very visible and the Internet tends to magnify things, both good and bad.
So, in fairness, and now after not quite 3 months and almost 5,500 miles, I can say that the squeaks/rattles are largely gone, the doors all open/close easily and there are no lingering unresolved issues. The ride is still not as sophisticated as most of my German suspensions, but the ride of my 2023 Model Y Comfort suspension is noticeably better than that of my friend's 2022 Model Y. The rear area multi-hinged cover also reduces tire/road noise more effectively than her car as well.
If I were to review my car earlier it would be a 3/5 for the reasons noted. Today, it's a solid 4/5. Could it be better - yes, but my main issue about noise is resolved, the newest software updates are helpful, and my total ownership efficiency is 254 Wh/Mile with 45% home charging, 48% SuperCharging, and 7% free Level 2 charing at various locations. The combination saved me $583 versus gasoline costs. Much of the savings is related to Tesla restoring 2000 free SuperCharger miles that were unused from my 2018 Model 3 when I sold it - I never asked for the reinstatement, they just added it back even before the recent incentives were initiated. Those miles made my roundtrip to FL essentially free. By the way, despite my car having "only" 279 miles of range, on my trip to FL I stopped every 3 hours or so to refresh myself. That's my normal time between breaks. The longest SC session I had was about 30 minutes, on an older 150KwH shared charger in FL. All the other stops were faster. There was no discernible impact on total charging time/delay with the SR battery pack. I don't know how the 4680 pack will age, but for me it's fine.
So what did I learn? Several things. Tesla is still a young company, trying to accomplish several goals simultaneously. Any company would run into challenges is such an environment. They seem to be learning and trying to improve. It's not perfect, but with a run rate approaching 2 million cars/year, introducing the Semi, CyberTruck, opening new Giga Factories, negotiating NARC access for many OEMs, while running SpaceX, the Boring Company and Twitter/X I don't know many other CEOs who would be crazy enough to try to do as much as Elon is attempting.
Is my car noticeably better than the 2018 Model 3? Objectively it has less range, but AWD, is more efficient, and has far more utility, even though it has about 30 miles less range than my Model 3. The list price for my LR RWD Model 3 was over $54K, including a $2K discount for what is now standard autopilot. I did have the 19" wheels on the Model 3. The Y listed for under $50K with all the improvements updates/upgrades. I can argue about USS and some other things, but in reality they don't affect me. My rear view camera allows me to park in the garage without issue. The only issue is that the front camera often leaves me too far from the front of the parking spot in malls when I park nose first. Not a deal breaker. Overall I have a 5 model year newer car for less up front cost, lower operating costs, better efficiency and more utility. I find that objectively remarkable, and have resumed my "enthusiastic supporter" ownership designation.
Finally, look at my EV ownership history in my signature. My Model Y is less expensive than either BMW, and far better than all of them in every objective measurement. The only car that competes, in my opinion, is the BOLT EUV which is a very competent car at an amazing after tax rebate price. I've compared all of my cars in a separate post, if you're interested. The Tesla remains the one to beat, and I believe it will retain that title for a least a few more years. We'll see what happens when other OEMs have access to the NACS chargers and offer more competition.
"#Tesla service vehicle in #Australia" by johnjones is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
In earlier posts I voiced my disappointment in my 2023 Austin Built Model Y AWD's build quality. Misaligned doors, various squeaks and rattles, and other issues caused me to second guess my purchase, especially after putting up with build issues with my 2018 LR RWD Model 3. You can find specifics in my earlier post.
Since then I've returned the car to the local service center and they attempted to reposition the front door, and also tried to remove the various rattles. They were partly successful, but not fully, and I assumed I'd just live with it. I also noted that while in the service department the car's bumper was scraped and had to be replaced, which they did. To their credit, as I noted, they fully disclosed this to me prior to completing service. That's commendable and appreciated.
Despite my intent to "live with" the uncorrected rattles they became worse, so much so that I couldn't ignore them any longer. Part of the issue, I believe, is the local temperature has been near 100 degrees and humidity was high for several days. I brought the car into service that morning and the interior was relatively cool having been in the garage all night, but the morning heat (over 90) pushed the A/C to full power. Perhaps the plastic panels were affected and added to the squeaks I was hearing. Regardless of the issue I requested another appointment to see if the noises could be fixed a bit better.
Through the Tesla app the Mobile Service tech arrived at my home three days later, as scheduled. He had a full history of the issue, had spoken with the tech that did the initial repair before arriving at my home, and had a pretty good idea of what was wrong. We went on a brief ride together so he could better isolate the issues. He began work and within 90 minutes announced that all was well, inviting me to test drive with him to confirm.
On the test ride he explained the issues, and while working showed me specifically where the noises were coming from, and what he was doing to eliminate them. Basically there were two issues. The first was the main interior screen. Apparently the mount, while within tolerance, had a few less than perfectly aligned areas that caused the squeaks when riding on rougher roads. In normal driving it wasn't always audible. The first tech fixed it as well as he could, but the noises were still there. The second problem was newly discovered - another set of squeaks from the interior mirror housing area. This was the source of most of the continued noise. Apparently there is an internal gasket of some type that surrounds the plastic mirror housing that attached to the windshield interior. That gasket was either mis-aligned or defective, causing intermittent vibration that echoed through the mirror housing, mimicking the noise coming from the center display.
The tech was aware of the problem, and without any prompting from me disassembled the mirror housing and corrected the seal issue, fixing the problem. We also chatted about door/hatch alignment, lack of window frames as potential sources of wind noise/vibration, and the general build quality of Fremont versus Austin. He explained that the Austin cars (Giga Press) have a different mounting system for the front doors that provides less post production adjustment flexibility compared to the Fremont build. The result is that while the Giga Press does a very good job overall, there may be times when adjustments are needed and the tech needs to "find the best fit" within the limitations of the amount that can be adjusted.
That was the case in my car. The first visit to the Service Center made the door fit better, but not perfectly. My wife was very happy with the adjustment at the Service Center, allowing the door to open/close far easier without having to reopen/close it. So am I pleased that the car door isn't perfectly aligned? Well, maybe a bit, but life's too short to try to resolve the last 5% of a problem when the door is working well enough for my wife's needs. Same story with the rear hatch.
What was interesting was that the tech then looked at my wife's 330e, and while the tolerances of that car are indeed better than my Model Y, he showed me gaps on that car as well. Perhaps not as wide as the Tesla, but gaps nonetheless. He also saw more paint flaws than I had seen on both cars. He then told me another interesting thing. "With all the publicity about build quality people are very critical of any flaws in their Teslas. I understand their concerns, but compared to earlier years we've made lots of progress and continue to improve." After reviewing some enthusiast car sites (BMW, M-B, Porsche, Audi - I'm a member of all of them having owned models from each over the years) I had to agree with him. Like it or not there is a lot of "noise" around Teslas. I'm not excusing poor manufacturing, but clearly Elon is very visible and the Internet tends to magnify things, both good and bad.
So, in fairness, and now after not quite 3 months and almost 5,500 miles, I can say that the squeaks/rattles are largely gone, the doors all open/close easily and there are no lingering unresolved issues. The ride is still not as sophisticated as most of my German suspensions, but the ride of my 2023 Model Y Comfort suspension is noticeably better than that of my friend's 2022 Model Y. The rear area multi-hinged cover also reduces tire/road noise more effectively than her car as well.
If I were to review my car earlier it would be a 3/5 for the reasons noted. Today, it's a solid 4/5. Could it be better - yes, but my main issue about noise is resolved, the newest software updates are helpful, and my total ownership efficiency is 254 Wh/Mile with 45% home charging, 48% SuperCharging, and 7% free Level 2 charing at various locations. The combination saved me $583 versus gasoline costs. Much of the savings is related to Tesla restoring 2000 free SuperCharger miles that were unused from my 2018 Model 3 when I sold it - I never asked for the reinstatement, they just added it back even before the recent incentives were initiated. Those miles made my roundtrip to FL essentially free. By the way, despite my car having "only" 279 miles of range, on my trip to FL I stopped every 3 hours or so to refresh myself. That's my normal time between breaks. The longest SC session I had was about 30 minutes, on an older 150KwH shared charger in FL. All the other stops were faster. There was no discernible impact on total charging time/delay with the SR battery pack. I don't know how the 4680 pack will age, but for me it's fine.
So what did I learn? Several things. Tesla is still a young company, trying to accomplish several goals simultaneously. Any company would run into challenges is such an environment. They seem to be learning and trying to improve. It's not perfect, but with a run rate approaching 2 million cars/year, introducing the Semi, CyberTruck, opening new Giga Factories, negotiating NARC access for many OEMs, while running SpaceX, the Boring Company and Twitter/X I don't know many other CEOs who would be crazy enough to try to do as much as Elon is attempting.
Is my car noticeably better than the 2018 Model 3? Objectively it has less range, but AWD, is more efficient, and has far more utility, even though it has about 30 miles less range than my Model 3. The list price for my LR RWD Model 3 was over $54K, including a $2K discount for what is now standard autopilot. I did have the 19" wheels on the Model 3. The Y listed for under $50K with all the improvements updates/upgrades. I can argue about USS and some other things, but in reality they don't affect me. My rear view camera allows me to park in the garage without issue. The only issue is that the front camera often leaves me too far from the front of the parking spot in malls when I park nose first. Not a deal breaker. Overall I have a 5 model year newer car for less up front cost, lower operating costs, better efficiency and more utility. I find that objectively remarkable, and have resumed my "enthusiastic supporter" ownership designation.
Finally, look at my EV ownership history in my signature. My Model Y is less expensive than either BMW, and far better than all of them in every objective measurement. The only car that competes, in my opinion, is the BOLT EUV which is a very competent car at an amazing after tax rebate price. I've compared all of my cars in a separate post, if you're interested. The Tesla remains the one to beat, and I believe it will retain that title for a least a few more years. We'll see what happens when other OEMs have access to the NACS chargers and offer more competition.
"#Tesla service vehicle in #Australia" by johnjones is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
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