Even Bob Lutz thinks Tesla has good fit and finish now.

"But, when next to the car, I was stunned. Not only was the paint without any discernible flaw, but the various panels formed a body of precision that was beyond reproach. Gaps from hood to fenders, doors to frame, and all the others appeared to be perfectly even, equal side-to-side, and completely parallel. Gaps of 3.5 to 4.5mm are considered word-class. This Model 3 measured up."

https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a28008116/tesla-model-...

Agreed, I have a 2019 Model 3. My car does have a few panel gaps that are not the exact same width from one side of the car to the other, but you are literally talking about a millimeter or two here or there, no one would ever notice. I've never heard of anyone complaining about the paint job on a Tesla, the paint on ours looks perfect. The interior seats are super comfortable, probably the most comfortable car seats I've ever sat in, and I've never seen any defects with the seats either.

Overall Tesla's customer satisfaction is really, really high. Most owners are extremely satisfied with their cars, even if they have a few warts. They really are the Apple of the automotive world.

> Overall Tesla's customer satisfaction is really, really high

That's because most of the owners have new cars.

Wait until they need to have their car serviced by Tesla or until their batteries degrade and are subject to a forced OTA "upgrade" that removes capacity i.e. Model S.

https://electrek.co/2019/10/04/tesla-software-updat-battery-...

I've had mine serviced a couple times, and it's been an absolute pleasure compared to my Audi or Porsche.

There are horror stories as recently as today in r/teslamotors. Some of the service centers are quite good, some are just terrible.

I'm not sure how this is unique to Tesla

Aye, I've dealt with Ford and Mazda dealerships that were utterly abysmal. Others were better. Hit or miss quality of dealerships and service centers is not a surprise and not a flaw of the brand per se.

"But Tesla is a luxury model that competes with Porsche and should make me feel fancy and be super nice etc etc" ...eh kinda, but not really, IMO. The S model does but future models are aimed at a more down-market segment and are going mainstream.

It's still pretty variable, actually. Mine is pretty good (built 9/19), with only a few discernible misalignment. But other people who have taken delivery in just the last couple months have had terrible alignment. Maybe most are perfectly acceptable, but it is incorrect to suggest it is a completely solved problem.

Does it really matter long-term? A lot of people seem fixated on it. I get it if you are buying a car at the moment. Then there’s an innovation vs. quality issue. For the company though, it seems like it should be far easier to catch up on the quality of the trim as it’s purely executing on something many OEMs have already figured out, and there are proven, known ways to fix those types of issues?