[jeremejevs]

Not defending the gaps, but "most of the design tolerances" != "all design tolerances". There's much more to a car than just cosmetics. And I'm not claiming that those non-cosmetic parts are all top quality, just that it's possible that they are.

[ProfessorLayton]

Non-cosmetic gap: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/help-a-pillar-defect...

[Jasper_]

His next line clarifies that it is about cosmetic parts:

> Our car needs to be designed and built with such accuracy and precision that, if an owner measures dimensions, panel gaps and flushness, and their measurements don’t match the Model 3 specs, it just means that their measuring tape is wrong.

[treis]

I think it's more "design tolerances" != "manufacturing tolerances". Tesla could design their body gaps to be 1mm but that's meaningless without the ability to manufacture them to that tolerance consistently. Tesla's quality problems are clearly a production and not a design issue. No engineer at Tesla said "Hey, let's design the model 3 with gigantic body gaps".

[dragonwriter]

As I understand, panel gaps are not merely cosmetic, as larger gaps adversely impact aerodynamics and, thereby, performance and efficiency.