Tesla lags auto industry in quality, finds new J.D. Power study

I also find that a very weird measure, especially when you want to report on the quality of said vehicles. It'd also be interesting to know what kind of problems customers face. A not perfect paint job is annoying, but its certainly not as bad as motor problems in the early beginning. I cannot prove this with numbers from the study, but I'd also assume that, depending on the car the customer buys, he usually has a diffferent idea of what can be considered good quality or not. I know people who were annoyed because the stitches of their drivers seat were off by a bit. On the other hand I know Ford owners that lost buttons on their infotainment unit and just hot-glued them back in. But as you said, just reflecting on the initial impressions of a vehicle doesn't say anything about more important measures like long term reliability, TCO etc. Having a study evaluate the problems a vehicle sees within the first 75.000km would be a lot more interesting and would also allow better conclusions.

However, this study proves the several reports of automotive journalists around the world. Most people considered the Tesla vehicles decently good, but not matching the price tag Tesla puts on them quality wise. During the Model 3 production hell the quality problems became especially apparent with completely misplaced side-panels, the worst paint jobs I've seen on a mass produced vehicle among several other issues.

FWIW, in my experience, the New York Times almost always links to the original source.

Now if you also read the same you will find the Chinese side of Tesla apparently has an entirely different outcome. Their quality is superb with workers across the plant invested to the point no one wants to embarrass another. So what to do US side? Having had friends and family in the industry where they worked the line you get the same issues you have in any business. There are those who are just there to punch a clock and it is always some other person's job. Please don't try the tired retort of pay, myself and I am sure others here can attest to having worked with people who pay isn't going to fix them.

Well if Tesla cannot insure the people at all stations on the line think otherwise they need to invest heavily on the end of the line and make sure that their delivery centers have no reason to ever have to work on a customer's car. Those employees must be able to fail a car without question. The only acceptable issues at that point would be damage during transit.

I know my next EV will not be a Tesla, they have nothing in their pipeline I want; well let me be honest nothing I should buy but that truck is obnoxious enough to just have; and another fear is they are not concentrating on quality.

I up-voted your comment due to your succinct comment about how newspapers 'hide' their sources. It seems totally unnecessary to me and not how the internet is supposed to work. If every news article linked to the original press release then we would see what a sham it is - a 'Chinese Whispers Game'.

After voting your comment up I then remembered the time I got called out for using the phrase 'Chinese Whispers'. A guy on my team who was ethnic Chinese but with a fully developed sense of British humour had called me out. He wasn't entirely serious but he did ask me why I used the phrase, by which time the penny dropped that he was Chinese and that I was in a spot of bother!

In America they have 'The Telephone Game' which means the same as 'Chinese Whispers'. This is all well and good, a drop-in replacement phrase, however most British people have no idea what the Telephone Game is. Chinese Whispers is a phrase that a British child can understand even if they have never met a Chinese person or played the game before.

There is nothing on your linked Wikipedia page about how the phrase 'Chinese Whispers' might be considered harmful. However, after the one time I was confronted partially in jest about the phrase, I would recommend using the phrase sensitively.

Newer Volvos (since being acquired by China) have had notoriously bad reliability, and as far as I know, this is established. An anecdote: a couple each purchased a certain Volvo model (same car), one turned out to have severe engine problems, while the other was fine. Turns out that the problematic car was made in China, whereas the other was manufactured in Europe.

Kia and Hyundai have really stepped up their game recently. Excellent value, safe and reliable cars, and very good quality, so I'm not surprised there.

In many other places you could order a new custom built car online fifteen years ago. That this is somehow revolutionary in the US still is pretty unique.

> a good electric car before anyone else had one

This motivation is sad.

Even if they come to you to service your car, aren't there still issues with actually getting fixes in a timely manner? I recall reading about customers who needed replacement parts and having to wait weeks/months to get it fixed.

"J.D. Power asks vehicle buyers about their experience during the first 90 days of owning a newly purchased car or truck. The Silicon Valley electric-car maker avoided past scrutiny by the 34-year-old survey because of a quirk in some state laws that require an auto maker’s permission to use new-vehicle registration data to contact customers. Tesla hasn’t provided that permission, according to J.D. Power."

It goes on to say that the data was collected from 35 states that do not require Tesla's permission.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/tesla/model-s/first-dri...

> Inside the car there are plenty of rich feeling materials, but Tesla still hasn’t quite worked out how to put them together yet. There was the odd squeak from the interior trim when on the move, and some very large gaps around a cubbyhole’s lid.

These are the defects that consumers seem to be complaining about.

I too add a "PDF Warning" to links most of the times, but have no idea why I should continue doing it, now that I think about it.

The story would be much different in that case if my car had been worth 30k Euros.

my 2009 kia rio has a superior paint finish, and more consistency in fit for doors and windows compared to a showroom tesla. This genuinely surprised me. I wish I had taken some photos to prove my point, because without it its all going to be put down to subjectiveness.

The Kia rio has "generous" gaps around doors, boots and bonnets. However they all have consistent distances, its not like one door sits higher than the other.

The showroom model 3 had one door higher than the other. The weather seals are going to be asked to do a lot there.

Then there is the paint job.

In the showroom all the model exhibited paint issues. Stuff like uneven coating, or incorrect ratios of pigment/mica to binder, so that where there are sharp corners there is bunching, lumps or roughness.

So yeah, whilst I agree, people who own low end models are going to complain less, having seen (and wanted to buy) a tesla, I'm not surprised that fit and finish is such a problem.