[Alupis]

Their most commonly sold car is still a very expensive car (around $40,000 after all the dust has settled).

You can buy a $20,000 car and still expect body panels to be aligned correctly.

These quality issues Tesla is having are the absolute basics for automotive manufacturing. There's no reasonable excuse here...

[bgirard]

If you, like myself, prefer value and quality issue like body panel alignment then I agree, stay away from Telsa for now.

But it's subjective. I have friends that prefer an EVs with tech gadgets. And they're happy with their Telsa.

Feels like an efficient market to me. There's lot of car options at different price points and quality standards. Clearly a lot of Tesla's customer are happy with their offering.

[Alupis]

What's the argument here? That Ford, Kia, Toyota, Chevy et al should start mis-aligning body panels on purpose because some people will accept it anyway - or not know any better?

Of course not, that would be absurd. Tesla has enjoyed a ravenous fanbase for quite some time - majority of which might be willing to accept shoddy workmanship just so they can claim to own a Tesla - that doesn't make it right nor okay.

Like I said earlier... the quality issues coming out of Tesla have no excuses. They are the absolute basics of production automobile manufacturing. The basics.

30 seconds spent in QC would catch mis-aligned body panels... but they allow them to go all the way out to customers, and then pretend they had no idea what's wrong if the customer tries to reject the vehicle.

These things are not mutually exclusive - you can simultaneously be in love with your Tesla while also being disappointed at the lack of fit-and-finish and quality control.

[geoman123]

I think that's the exact point of the previous comment. Don't stand for misaligned panels? Don't buy a Tesla. The free market will promote those vehicles that have a good enough value proposition over the ones that don't.

I'd rather have a misaligned panel than a garbage infotainment system since my interactions with the infotainment are significantly higher. I'm assuming you don't check 99% of the cars you see for panel issues, but if it's a Tesla, you do - it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

While Tesla can probably improve its manufacturing and QC processes over time (as they have), other OEMs have it much harder with insourcing half the vehicle components back in-house while developing great software capabilities.

[offtop5]

Tesla owners tend to be higher income individuals, I.E you have the Kia to get to and from work, and the Tesla when you want to be cool.