Tesla Model X had quality problems

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Michael Karpf flew earlier this month to the Tesla Motors factory in Fremont, Calif., to pick up his new Model X electric sport-utility vehicle—known for a 200-plus mile battery range and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's claim that it's "the fastest SUV in history."

The 75-year-old retiree planned to drive it across the country with his wife and son to their home in New Rochelle, N.Y. But the new-car gleam of Karpf’s $138,000 titanium-on-beige P90D Model X faded with a string of problems as soon as he left the factory—delaying his journey.



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One of the wildly designed, upswinging “falcon wing” rear doors failed to close. The other falcon wing door failed to open, except from the inside. One falcon door didn't sense an overhang and bashed into it, leaving a ding in the door. The driver’s door window wouldn’t motor down properly, until it dislodged a piece of chrome stripping that was restricting its progress.

All these problems required separate visits to the factory in Fremont and service center in Santa Monica, both of which Karpf noted handled the problems quickly and completely.



Quote:
In response to Consumer Reports' questions about these quality issues, a Tesla spokeswoman wrote in an email: “We are committed to making the world's most reliable cars. While we have seen some issues with early Model X builds, the issues are not widespread, and we are working closely with each owner to respond quickly and proactively to address any problems. We will continue to do so until each customer is fully satisfied. This commitment is one of the reasons why 98 percent of our customers say they will buy another Tesla as their next car.”



Quote:
Such issues are expected from a brand-new model. Consumer Reports recommends against buying a vehicle in its first year of production—especially a ground-up vehicle with the incredible complexity of a Tesla. Even the Toyota Prius, noted for bulletproof reliability, slipped slightly during its 2010 redesign.

In this case, the Model X shares underpinnings with the Model S sedan, but it also features numerous features not seen in the sedan.


https://www.yahoo.com/autos/early-build-tesla-model-x-suvs-face-quality-133951162.html

The falcon wing rear doors are too complicated, it will be a headache to owners for many more years, especially after warranty. Normal swing doors are more reliable and cheaper to manufacture.

Model 3 is a low cost car, and doesn't have sophisticate/complicate features like model S and X. The flush mounted door handles of model S had a lot of problem too.
 
There are enough people throwing money at him that it was a calculated risk that will make this debacle moot.
 
Are the falcon wing doors really any more complicated than the tailgate on any hatchback/suv? You mean if I open either of the rear doors on my cars into something above them they might get dented? Holy cow. When will federal regulators come save me from this risk???

Anyway, a car with problem with a door lock is news now? Wow. At the risk of getting political, I wonder if we can get the candidates to weigh on these issues?

Here's an idea, pick any car in history and google "car name door problem" and see if there are any hits.....

Article should be gullible senior spends chunk of retirement fund foolishly... suffers buyers remorse... seeks bailout via press.
 
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Originally Posted By: bepperb
Are the falcon wing doors really any more complicated than the tailgate on any hatchback/suv? You mean if I open either of the rear doors on my cars into something above them they might get dented? Holy cow. When will federal regulators come save me from this risk???

Anyway, a car with problem with a door lock is news now? Wow. At the risk of getting political, I wonder if we can get the candidates to weigh on these issues?

Here's an idea, pick any car in history and google "car name door problem" and see if there are any hits.....

Article should be gullible senior spends chunk of retirement fund foolishly... suffers buyers remorse... seeks bailout via press.

The falcon wing doors are much more complicated than any door of any vehicle ever built. It has enough sensors to avoid all surrounding obstacles, at least it was supposed to.

The door handles on model S is flushed with body, when owner approaches the car it will swing out so the owner can grasp it to open the door, when the door is closed the handle will retreat back into the door.

I think the complain is valid, when you pay $100+k for a vehicle you expect it works perfectly for few years before you need to have it serviced.

In general, the more sophisticated/complicated features the more chance it will failed, and costly to repair after warranty.
 
There's more "stuff" emanating from this company than covers the ground at the Chicago stockyards. Those of you who actually pay taxes might like to know how much Muskie has snagged in grants from the Federalies.
 
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Originally Posted By: HerrStig
There's more "stuff" emanating from this company than covers the ground at the Chicago stockyards. Those of you who actually pay taxes might like to know how much Muskie has snagged in grants from the Federalies.


Yep. Elon's companies are only competitive because he somehow talks uncle same into massive handouts.
 
Originally Posted By: KingCake
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
There's more "stuff" emanating from this company than covers the ground at the Chicago stockyards. Those of you who actually pay taxes might like to know how much Muskie has snagged in grants from the Federalies.
Yep. Elon's companies are only competitive because he somehow talks uncle same into massive handouts.

I like to know how much did Tesla and SpaceX got from various Federal, state and local government that no other company got in similar conditions.

If you like to know a car company received substantial amount of money some years ago, look for a company start with "G".

They got $50,000,000,000 USD bail out money in 2008 by Federal government, they paid back $38,000,000,000 USD few year ago. The Federal government(you and I and other taxpayers) lost $12,000,000,000 USD.

In 2010 Tesla had $460,000,000 USD loan from US Dept. of Energy, they paid it all back plus interest in 2013, Federal government(you and I and other taxpayers) made small profit from this loan.

Are you upset that we didn't make a killer from a loan to Tesla ? Because we didn't have a chance to convert the loan($460 mil) to Tesla stock ? If we did then we would make few billions.
 
Tesla has exhibited poor decision making in their car designs towards proven details that will not cause issues as well as supplier selection. The question will this immaturity be a problem with every new model or is just growing pains? My guess is both. Tesla tries too hard to be different - different can cause issues. They also seem to try to be different for no apparent reason. The falcon wing while kind of cool was unnecessary. They need to decide when things are really important and eliminate designs details that are not ready yet.

Possibly they are not pilot line producing enough cars.
 
Originally Posted By: Nate1979
Tesla has exhibited poor decision making in their car designs towards proven details that will not cause issues as well as supplier selection. The question will this immaturity be a problem with every new model or is just growing pains? My guess is both. Tesla tries too hard to be different - different can cause issues. They also seem to try to be different for no apparent reason. The falcon wing while kind of cool was unnecessary. They need to decide when things are really important and eliminate designs details that are not ready yet.

Possibly they are not pilot line producing enough cars.


Tesla has some features that are new and very helpful, 1 of them is over-the-air software download to upgrade or to fix some problems.

They, from Elon Musk to project lead ..., should just concentrate on making their vehicles reliable with proven technologies. Things like model X falcon door and giant windshield, model S flush mount door handle ... should not be on the car now. These fancy/complicated features may be on trial later.

These fancy features are good for marketing but headache for owners when it failed.

The other problem is part suppliers. Tesla has very little experience in dealing with suppliers, head of purchasing dept needs to go to Toyota or Honda or other companies to learn how those companies deal with their suppliers.
 
If reliability is such a concern go buy a Lexus.

Reliability isn't the end all be all of cars. Shouldn't there be a cutting edge car company making products no one else can? Pushing the envelope a little bit, maybe stumbling sometimes but working to make it right.

Nobody expects a Ferrari to go 200,000 miles without some work. And people pay plenty for them. This is a ground up new vehicle. Some problems with a door handle would be overlooked from any other make.

As to government money, I'd agree. Show me a car maker that isn't getting it at the local or federal level. Not sure what Cali paid Tesla to setup shop at NUMMI, but other states sure pay a bundle to get makers to setup shop there including foreign owned brands.
 
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