It has been a fantastic but short ride...

[puzzled]

You forgot beer

You have soy sauce too.. Kikkoman!

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[SupraBC]

I don't want to be planning around where I can stop to charge my car, which is still a longer stop than a 5 minute splash and dash for gasoline.

This is one my biggest issues with EV's. I want to plan my road trips around places I want to visit, restaurants I want do dine in and roads I want to drive in, not charging stations.

Plus I want to change gears, listen to the sound of a petrol engine as RPM's go up, actually use buttons and knobs instead of an ipad and see someone driving the same car every 2 minutes.

Thankfully for me I don't think I'll ever be in need of owning an EV as we're still decades away from petrol cars to disappear completely.

 

[romanLegion9574]

This is one my biggest issues with EV's. I want to plan my road trips around places I want to visit, restaurants I want do dine in and roads I want to drive in, not charging stations.

Plus I want to change gears, listen to the sound of a petrol engine as RPM's go up, actually use buttons and knobs instead of an ipad and see someone driving the same car every 2 minutes.

Thankfully for me I don't think I'll ever be in need of owning an EV vehicle as we're still decades away from petrol cars to disappear completely.

I agree, we're still at a point where anything other than commuter trips are something where the car dictates the planning, not you. I don't want to rely on an EV until I can dictate where we go, not the car.

 

[SneakylilPetey]

You have soy sauce too.. Kikkoman!

Hahaha my father retired from there. Good old Walworth Wisconsin

 

[SuupYota]

I don't know man, we don't have that here. From what I learned, all we have in WI is cheese and waterslides.

You guys used to have a sweet greyhound dog park and Congo river golfcourse out there. I miss my childhood trips there haha

 

[Moorman]

While I was waiting on a front bumper (~2mo) I rented a 2020 Model S for a month, then a base Model 3 for the remainder. My first impression (Model S) was the poor interior quality; the dash was wavvy, the panel around the screen didn't fit especially well at the bottom, and the A/C made a wheezing sound when pulling fresh air. The seats felt cheap, not especially comfortable...and hot, even blasting full A/C a longer drive would leave me with a sweaty back. I did grow to really like not dealing with gears, and the instant pedal response + torque was fantastic, just a little gutless over 40mph. The Model S is flippin huge; I could just barely fit it in my garage leaving no way to sit at my workbench. The tech stuff is great, really didn't expect to like that giant screen the way I did. Charging for free at work and never getting gas was awesome, especially at SoCal gas prices (even E85 is over $3/gal). Not a chance I'd spend twice the Supra's cost for it though.

The Model 3 standard range was a full-on disappointment. $42k for that, out of their freaking minds. $25k *maybe*. Range was a constant issue, went from 92% batt to 10% @ 111miles, not pushing it, not babying it 50/50 hwy/city (Carlsbad to Miramar, some furniture shopping, then back). I guess the storage space in it was nice? Still a large car in the garage, but I could at least sit at my bench.

 

[AutoDelight]

I'm a little late to the party i think but being a former Tesla Employee, before taking delivery, I would highly highly recommend fully inspecting your vehicle. I would as a consumer just be very cautious before you leave off with it. There are some Tesla's that are built immaculately but that is 5% - 10% of total built vehicles. Unfortunately to the public, you're not able to see the build book and some of the rework processes are very invasive. I don't mean to deter but just want to highlight the importance of inspecting everything before signing and driving off with it.

Also feel free to reach out if you got any questions. I will say as much as I can but did sign an NDA for specifics ?

 

[stylett9]

I'm a little late to the party i think but being a former Tesla Employee, before taking delivery, I would highly highly recommend fully inspecting your vehicle. I would as a consumer just be very cautious before you leave off with it. There are some Tesla's that are built immaculately but that is 5% - 10% of total built vehicles. Unfortunately to the public, you're not able to see the build book and some of the rework processes are very invasive. I don't mean to deter but just want to highlight the importance of inspecting everything before signing and driving off with it.

Also feel free to reach out if you got any questions. I will say as much as I can but did sign an NDA for specifics ?

How long ago did you work for Tesla? During your time there, did you observe improvements over time and genuine desire to manufacture better quality vehicles from Sr. Management?

I fully understand Tesla vehicles are far from perfect and still have a long way to come. But I don't necessarily want to sell their innovation short because of growing pains. Part of me feels they are doing pretty darn good considering they haven't mass produced for more than...5-10 years?

Interested to hear your perspective for whatever you can share.

 

[AutoDelight]

I'm a little late to the party i think but being a former Tesla Employee, before taking delivery, I would highly highly recommend fully inspecting your vehicle. I would as a consumer just be very cautious before you leave off with it. There are some Tesla's that are built immaculately but that is 5% - 10% of total built vehicles. Unfortunately to the public, you're not able to see the build book and some of the rework processes are very invasive. I don't mean to deter but just want to highlight the importance of inspecting everything before signing and driving off with it.

How long ago did you work for Tesla? During your time there, did you observe improvements over time and genuine desire to manufacture better quality vehicles from Sr. Management?

I fully understand Tesla vehicles are far from perfect and still have a long way to come. But I don't necessarily want to sell their innovation short because of growing pains. Part of me feels they are doing pretty darn good considering they haven't mass produced for more than...5-10 years?

Interested to hear your perspective for whatever you can share.

I worked there for about 10 years in R&D/Pilot/Manufacturing. Was based in the Fremont plant. I left the company in 2019.

There was pushes in quality improvements over the years but sometimes felt that they were throwing dart and seeing what sticks. Increase headcount was a push and quality engineering was doing their best to improve on many of the defects but with the Model S/X, many defects from warped panels/panel gaps were unfortunately innate due to welding aluminum and warping from that. Paint/Body issues were highly looked at but the majority of defects came from the manufacturing process itself. I for one do not like pointing the finger at the manufacturing team but S/X manufacturing was majority manual versus automation. Model 3/Y was designed/engineered to be manufactured in higher volume and the main line itself does about 50%-60% automation but there are multiple Model 3/Y lines and only one line was majority automated. That itself has had many issues as they have to dial in the automation and the innate growing pains of doing that but to ramp up in production, there was another line built which was dubbed the "tent line" where the majority of processes were manual labor which is why again you see many of the quality issues.

There were an improvement in quality of the 3/Y over the S/X but it was inconsistent depending on which line it was created on. All of these are outside of the engineering defects like bumpers "melting" off. Even the times were roofs flew off the car was dependent on which line it was created on.

Unfortunately, the quality engineering/quality team was overwhelmed with the defects but a push from you know who on ramping up production caused quality to take a back seat over units built.

The Model 3/Y line does have a lot of potential once they fully dial in the automation on that line and get away from the manual line as many of the defects once again stem from manual processes and human intervention. The body of the 3/Y is mainly steel over the use of aluminum, the engineering of the 3/Y for battery packs is more robust as the battery pack is meant to truly be apart of the vehicle rather than being a separate entity which can be quick swapped.

In my opinion, quality has improved since I've left, i still have many connections within Tesla but they definitely still have a long way to go. Ideally, reduce the quarterly/yearly ramp up by X% to really focus on quality. The constant push for higher volume and new products are really hurting taking away that focus but unfortunately there is enough demand to constantly push for higher volume.

Just my $0.02. Hope this was somewhat insightful

EDIT: Forget to mention, going to a more minimalistic design was two fold, one aspect was aesthetics but one of the main reasons was to reduce complexity and cost making for ease of manufacturing. Example is that the minimalistic dashboard in the Model 3/Y makes it easier to manufacturer LHD and RHD vehicles reducing the need to create design and create new parts specific for both LHD and RHD vehicles. If you remember when the S/X first were introduced, there was a lot more customization on the type of wood you want on your dash or the type of trim you want. One change that i personally hate was removing the panoramic sun roof, reason for that was obvious, there were quality issues and to reduce cost of making excess of those parts for service and customer complaints were to remove that in general and go to an easier to build all glass roof.

There is a lot of talent in that company, people who worked in world class manufacturing and other car companies are there but working environment and a micromanaging someone makes it difficult for them to do implement changes that would be for the better.

 

[MYA90SUPRA]

And mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes.

I lived in WI for 22 years id say the mosquito is the state bird.

 

[digicidal]

I lived in WI for 22 years id say the mosquito is the state bird.

You can't have all those lakes without having a ton of stagnant (or near enough) water around. We don't have those problems here... just miles and miles of UGLY as far as the eye can see.

I don't like mosquitos, but I'd like to see a color other than tan one of these days... I hear it's nice. I mean outside of a golf course that is.

 

[Last Lemming]

I drove a Tesla and while it was quick it did not enthrall me at all and felt very much like an appliance. Very one dimensional experience. I’ve heard horror stories of reliability from owners at car meets as well. Oh well enjoy it while it lasts I suppose.

 

[Cruzifer]

My ex owned a Model 3 (base) and it was nice but pretty boring after awhile. The quickness was nice but other than that, meh. Seats aren’t that comfortable and it just felt, idk, like nothingness I guess lol.

i know it’s the future tho so by the time they come out with a affordable 2dr model I’m sticking with the Supra.

Also, the Model 3 she had was in really good shape. Not quality issues I could see. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[CarGuy11]

I drove a friends Model 3 & he drove my Supra.

 

[Klee101]

Tesla EVs look like beluga whale.

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