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Not All Tesla Model 3 Owners Are Happy with Their Cars on Closer Inspection

Most of us know the feeling you get on delivery day, after long and agonizing months of waiting for your precious new car to be built to your exact preferences.
Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3 12 photos
Photo: Stephen Huynh on Facebook
Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3Stephen Huynh's flawed Tesla Model 3
As long as the car gets there in one piece, nothing could ruin that day. Not the weather, not your boss, not anything or anyone. But after a few days, it's almost as if your eyes are only beginning to open. The fumes of pure euphoria are running thin, and you start noticing things. Little things that shouldn't matter, but somehow manage to spoil what heavy rain and finding out you were fired couldn't.

That's precisely what happened to Stephen Huynh and his Model 3. As you know, the wait for the most buyers of this vehicle wasn't measured in months, but years. Two very long years of breathing in every piece of news on the progress of the EV and constantly checking the e-mail account for that invitation to configure the car.

When the much-anticipated message finally comes, it's a few more weeks until you can actually take possession of the Model 3, at which point you're probably as intoxicated as the guy rambling Bible verses on the street corner. "Just give me the damn keys and disappear for the next two or three hours, I want to be alone with my new car."

Just five days later, Stephen noticed a few flaws. One of them was a rather massive crack in the paint in a place where you wouldn't normally look: right where the trunk release button is, on the underside of the crease running between the two taillights. The close-up pictures make it look very scary, but it's definitely the sign of a scrappy paint job from Tesla.

Stephen's second issue is one we're not so convinced of. He says the leather on the steering wheel is showing premature wear and posted a few pictures. From what we can see in the images, they don't necessarily look like cracks, but rather wrinkles. If it's natural leather, then some imperfections are totally acceptable in lower-cost cars. The luxury and premium brands pride themselves on using leather from cows who live in barbed-wire-free enclosures, meaning the leather should indeed be immaculate.

The third issue is Tesla's dreaded body panel alignment. Stephen posted four very telling pictures of the area where the trunk meets the pillars on both sides. You can see the RFID card sitting flush on one side, and taking off violently on the other. We're pretty sure Stephen might find a few other less than perfect fittings, but he must have felt this one was the worse.

Finally, and probably the most serious of them all, he complains about the car becoming "very unresponsive" at times. For instance, he says, the Model 3 would refuse to turn on after unlocking the doors. And when it did, the center display would remain off. According to Stephen, it can take up to two minutes before the EV finally decides to switch on.

There are probably multiple reasons behind all these problems, but they essentially boil down to just the one: Tesla's rush to bring the Model 3 to market. Whether we're talking about the company's decision to skip an important part of the testing phase or its current rush to meet the production targets, it looks like it's willing to risk swamping its already busy service centers by rolling out flawed cars rather than slowing down to iron them out.

It's saving grace so far was that owners were willing to overlook this sort of things just for the privilege of owning "the future." With the Model 3, though, Tesla might be tapping into a new customer base who won't be as forgiving.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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