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Is there anything worse than an expensive thing that's shoddily made?
Below, professional car detailer Jessica Tran of JT Mobile Detailing goes over the horrendous fit-and-finish of a Tesla. It's difficult to imagine any other car manufacturer getting away with this stuff:
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Pro Car Detailer Demonstrates the Horrible Fit-and-Finish of a Tesla
First time I ever rode in a Tesla — only a few months ago — I accidentally opened the door while traveling 30+ MPH. Silly me for thinking it was the window control — nope, the driver informed us that "everyone does that."
Lax quality control could be why some of these vehicles catch on fire. When they do, apparently they can only be extinguished with a large fire-proof blanket and a 2-person effort. Plenty of toxins that like to burn.
I've owned a US-built '21 Model 3 for 6 months, and I find the quality very varying. The interior and inside is mostly faultless as far as I can tell, and no worse than previous VW's, Subaru's, Honda's and Audi I've owned. The exterior is not as good though. There's the quite common problems with uneven shutlines and gaps on the front bonnet and the tailgate and the doors on the driver side doesn't really line up. Meanwhile the worst part is probably the rear fenders around the wheels, where there's visible signs from the tooling and stamping of the metal. Thankfully only visible in certain light conditions, but still. That said, even on so called german premium cars, you can tell the color difference between the plastic bumpers and the metal fenders, because matching those are so hard. So I guess nobody's perfect, but Tesla still has some way to go.