4 ms·

The horror stories about 3 month wait for parts and the videos of water intruding into new vehicles, are keeping me away.

Waterluvian 7y ago
I love Tesla for its effect of pushing the EV industry forward. And I love Tesla early adopters for largely funding and justifying investment in this. But yeah, every time I daydream about owning a Tesla, I realise that it's my daydream about owning an Apple Newton.
- billiam 7y ago
  This.
taf2 7y ago
so i have an x and when it rains we do sometimes get some water into the back seat when raising the trunk... but to keep this in perspective... the car is like an iphone compared to your flip phone. 2007 was a long time ago so maybe people forget just how impactful that phone was when people first tried it out. That is the exact same experience I have had when first owning and S and now an X. A minor issue like water when raising the trunk on an exceptionally rainy day is just that minor when you compare it to the amazing feeling you get when the over the air update alert hits your phone and you start to wonder whether you'll get the latest update to detect stop signs. Or as I recall in 2014 - an audio up/down control near the passenger seat. Imagine if you were annoyed at the UI in your current car. With all of it's physical buttons that is it. You have no luck unless you buy a different car. In a Tesla if the UI is an issue they'll push an update and you'll have a new car without buying one. Let alone the buying experience of a Tesla vs anything else. Go online swipe your credit card... wait sometime and show up at a Tesla store and drive away with your car or they deliver it to your house. No haggling, no sleazy car salesman just a new car that gives you that feeling of an iphone in 2007 vs the old flip phone.... I am sure i sound like a fan boy... and I know my wife wishes i'd stop talking about it but it's pretty freaking worth it and nice.
- mikestew 7y ago
  Imagine if you were annoyed at the UI in your current car. Don’t have to, the UI in the Leaf (at least in the first gen), sucks. But you know what would annoy me more? If my $50K+ car leaked water. That’s something the industry figured out over fifty years ago. I’ll take a shitty UI over over water invading spaces I won’t find out about until the rust and bad wiring show up.
  - Damogran6 7y ago
    Depends on the vehicle...Our C5 Corvette didn't get teh last minute deflectors and used to spill water on the rear speakers when opening in the wet. They fix a lot of problems, but the customers demanding new designs every few years means we still keep fixing some of the same problems over and over.
    - beamatronic 7y ago
      I’m talking about water pouring out of the sunroof, and coming out of the dashboard
- whatshisface 7y ago
  I'll weigh in on the curmudgeon side. The knobs in my car were perfect from the day I bought it because they were optimized by engineers over decades. If there was ever a UI issue, it was corrected before I was born. Because the controls are physical I can operate them by touch and habit while focusing on the road. Years of driving have resulted in mental circuits that automatically detect stop signs and manage lane-keeping with zero conscious attention, just as easy as walking. No-haggle direct manufacturer purchases are good, though. I can only agree with that.
  - RandallBrown 7y ago
    Lots of things have changed in cars since you born and their interfaces have hardly been perfected. Namely things to do with phones like navigation, music, or phone calls. Not to mention things like improved climate control or safety (like the sentry system.)
coder1001 7y ago
Once Tesla's operations are running smoothly, most of these issues should fix themselves.
- MBCook 7y ago
  We’ve been hearing that for years. What keeps holding it back? Why aren’t things smooth yet?
  - qaq 7y ago
    Because they are ramping up rapidly?
    - MBCook 7y ago
      It’s just that every time it seems like they might be about to start to get stable they launch some new vehicle and we go through another period of ‘ramping up’. The older vehicles don’t seem to get stable even though the S has been out for years now. People use the 3 (or truck or...) as the excuse for why things are still a bit rough.
      - qaq 7y ago
        To me ramp up is more a function of org. grows than specifically new model.
      - coder1001 7y ago
        For a company breaking new grounds and pushing EVs, I would give them at least another 10 years. It is not ideal, but you have to take into account that it takes time to build your network (charging/service centers etc.). That's why if the money comes, the rest will fall into place (in time of course!).
        MBCook 7y ago
        So if I were to buy a Tesla today I should expect their service department to be problematic for possibly 10 years? That doesn’t sound odd to you? I get when they were selling the roadster or early S. But 10 years from now?
docbrown 7y ago
Tesla has always had body alignment issues since their first attempt, the Model S. It’s honestly quite unfortunate because these models are suppose to be a shiny example of American manual labor pushing out the new luxury model that would set Tesla up to enter the mid level market with a Model 3. Sadly, technological advances, a backlog of orders, and minimal factory space, all contributed to a decline in quality. Don’t get me wrong, these are absolutely beautiful cars, but in terms of actual construction of the vehicles, GM and Ford has nailed this to perfection with their automatic + human labor assembly lines. They’re able to produce numbers right now that Tesla can only dream about with a much higher satisfaction rate, I would think. If Musk wants to really compete with the Big 3, he has to focus on quality all the way around and not just the ability to slap bigger batteries in and more speed through firmware updates. If you want to make a car, focus on the basics of it—the actual body, making sure my door lines up with my front fenders. Such basic cosmetic issues that are overlooked constantly on the cars coming from the Tesla factory.
- SEJeff 7y ago
  The quality on the 3 is fine. I've heard so many panel gap anecdotes and "fit and finish" problem that I was a bit excessive in my inspection of my Model 3 before I took delivery (November 2018). It was fine. There are no quality problems that I've been able to ascertain. The only real kind of weird thing is the polarized glass on the roof turns a really strange but beautiful color when it gets wet. The car drives like nothing I've ever driven, not even a higher end mercedes.
  - jmelloy 7y ago
    It looks so weird and cool when it's wet that I wonder if they did it on purpose. It delights strangers who see it the first time.
    - SEJeff 7y ago
      Yup! My daughter absolutely adores it
mkhpalm 7y ago
I personally would buy one if I could. But if I'm not allowed to get parts for it and work on it then its not a viable vehicle to me. I can't be beholden on whatever schedule the service department has or how fast they can get parts. Which sounds like not very fast.

Waterluvian 7y ago

I love Tesla for its effect of pushing the EV industry forward. And I love Tesla early adopters for largely funding and justifying investment in this. But yeah, every time I daydream about owning a Tesla, I realise that it's my daydream about owning an Apple Newton.

billiam 7y ago
This.

taf2 7y ago

so i have an x and when it rains we do sometimes get some water into the back seat when raising the trunk... but to keep this in perspective... the car is like an iphone compared to your flip phone. 2007 was a long time ago so maybe people forget just how impactful that phone was when people first tried it out. That is the exact same experience I have had when first owning and S and now an X. A minor issue like water when raising the trunk on an exceptionally rainy day is just that minor when you compare it to the amazing feeling you get when the over the air update alert hits your phone and you start to wonder whether you'll get the latest update to detect stop signs. Or as I recall in 2014 - an audio up/down control near the passenger seat. Imagine if you were annoyed at the UI in your current car. With all of it's physical buttons that is it. You have no luck unless you buy a different car. In a Tesla if the UI is an issue they'll push an update and you'll have a new car without buying one. Let alone the buying experience of a Tesla vs anything else. Go online swipe your credit card... wait sometime and show up at a Tesla store and drive away with your car or they deliver it to your house. No haggling, no sleazy car salesman just a new car that gives you that feeling of an iphone in 2007 vs the old flip phone.... I am sure i sound like a fan boy... and I know my wife wishes i'd stop talking about it but it's pretty freaking worth it and nice.

mikestew 7y ago
Imagine if you were annoyed at the UI in your current car. Don’t have to, the UI in the Leaf (at least in the first gen), sucks. But you know what would annoy me more? If my $50K+ car leaked water. That’s something the industry figured out over fifty years ago. I’ll take a shitty UI over over water invading spaces I won’t find out about until the rust and bad wiring show up.
- Damogran6 7y ago
  Depends on the vehicle...Our C5 Corvette didn't get teh last minute deflectors and used to spill water on the rear speakers when opening in the wet. They fix a lot of problems, but the customers demanding new designs every few years means we still keep fixing some of the same problems over and over.
  - beamatronic 7y ago
    I’m talking about water pouring out of the sunroof, and coming out of the dashboard
whatshisface 7y ago
I'll weigh in on the curmudgeon side. The knobs in my car were perfect from the day I bought it because they were optimized by engineers over decades. If there was ever a UI issue, it was corrected before I was born. Because the controls are physical I can operate them by touch and habit while focusing on the road. Years of driving have resulted in mental circuits that automatically detect stop signs and manage lane-keeping with zero conscious attention, just as easy as walking. No-haggle direct manufacturer purchases are good, though. I can only agree with that.
- RandallBrown 7y ago
  Lots of things have changed in cars since you born and their interfaces have hardly been perfected. Namely things to do with phones like navigation, music, or phone calls. Not to mention things like improved climate control or safety (like the sentry system.)

coder1001 7y ago

Once Tesla's operations are running smoothly, most of these issues should fix themselves.

MBCook 7y ago
We’ve been hearing that for years. What keeps holding it back? Why aren’t things smooth yet?
- qaq 7y ago
  Because they are ramping up rapidly?
  - MBCook 7y ago
    It’s just that every time it seems like they might be about to start to get stable they launch some new vehicle and we go through another period of ‘ramping up’. The older vehicles don’t seem to get stable even though the S has been out for years now. People use the 3 (or truck or...) as the excuse for why things are still a bit rough.
    - qaq 7y ago
      To me ramp up is more a function of org. grows than specifically new model.
    - coder1001 7y ago
      For a company breaking new grounds and pushing EVs, I would give them at least another 10 years. It is not ideal, but you have to take into account that it takes time to build your network (charging/service centers etc.). That's why if the money comes, the rest will fall into place (in time of course!).
      - MBCook 7y ago
        So if I were to buy a Tesla today I should expect their service department to be problematic for possibly 10 years? That doesn’t sound odd to you? I get when they were selling the roadster or early S. But 10 years from now?

docbrown 7y ago

Tesla has always had body alignment issues since their first attempt, the Model S. It’s honestly quite unfortunate because these models are suppose to be a shiny example of American manual labor pushing out the new luxury model that would set Tesla up to enter the mid level market with a Model 3. Sadly, technological advances, a backlog of orders, and minimal factory space, all contributed to a decline in quality. Don’t get me wrong, these are absolutely beautiful cars, but in terms of actual construction of the vehicles, GM and Ford has nailed this to perfection with their automatic + human labor assembly lines. They’re able to produce numbers right now that Tesla can only dream about with a much higher satisfaction rate, I would think. If Musk wants to really compete with the Big 3, he has to focus on quality all the way around and not just the ability to slap bigger batteries in and more speed through firmware updates. If you want to make a car, focus on the basics of it—the actual body, making sure my door lines up with my front fenders. Such basic cosmetic issues that are overlooked constantly on the cars coming from the Tesla factory.

SEJeff 7y ago
The quality on the 3 is fine. I've heard so many panel gap anecdotes and "fit and finish" problem that I was a bit excessive in my inspection of my Model 3 before I took delivery (November 2018). It was fine. There are no quality problems that I've been able to ascertain. The only real kind of weird thing is the polarized glass on the roof turns a really strange but beautiful color when it gets wet. The car drives like nothing I've ever driven, not even a higher end mercedes.
- jmelloy 7y ago
  It looks so weird and cool when it's wet that I wonder if they did it on purpose. It delights strangers who see it the first time.
  - SEJeff 7y ago
    Yup! My daughter absolutely adores it

mkhpalm 7y ago

I personally would buy one if I could. But if I'm not allowed to get parts for it and work on it then its not a viable vehicle to me. I can't be beholden on whatever schedule the service department has or how fast they can get parts. Which sounds like not very fast.