Categories: Auto

Will the car also collapse?

Tesla is a young automaker and therefore cannot match the level of fit and finish provided by established premium car manufacturers. We have heard of incomplete panel gaps, paint problems and misaligned trim, but to our knowledge it is the first time that a Tesla steering wheel has fallen into the hands of the driver (and while driving, nothing less).

The report comes directly from Blackpool, UK, where a new Model 3 owner, who had received his car for about a month, making it essentially a brand new vehicle, reported that the steering wheel had detached when he backed into his vehicle. alley. On this day, the car had been driven for approximately 20,000 hours and the owner considers himself lucky that the wheel accident happened exactly at the end of his trip.

Mention the other problems you encountered with the car beforehand. Apparently, this was due in October of last year, but it did not happen until after mid-March, when the order to close the COVID epidemic- 19 was executed and he was no longer able to manage it. She still managed to put about 340 miles into the car since receiving the delivery, but that was much less than she had expected; the owner says he's a longtime Tesla fan who has been waiting for eight years to own one of these cars…

Tesla picked up the car and returned it the next day with the steering wheel securely attached. According to NY Post, which quotes the owner,

Tesla has confirmed that the steering wheel was not attached to the body with a bolt, and they are investigating what happened in production. The standards agency and Cecile here in the UK are also doing extensive research. "

However, you can imagine how such an event can affect confidence in a car (and the automaker that made it), all the more so as it is about a car manufacturer with an erratic record in terms of automotive quality. assembly. It is not the first time that a Tesla with missing bolts is delivered, but this time, one of them was supposed to hold the steering wheel in place, which makes it a lot more serious than before.

And before taking the comments to let us know that other manufacturers have this problem, we do some research to see if other (established) car manufacturers have similar problems. It turns out that Ford issued a recall for 1.4 million cars in 2018 whose steering wheels could fall; The cause was a steering wheel bolt that was too short and could cause a problem similar to the one reported by this Model 3 owner.

Hyundai also recalled some 44,000 Santa Fe and Santa Fe Sport models in February 2018 due to a similar problem. We didn't find any information about the wheels falling from Hyundai, but the owners of the Ford Fusion sedan have reported that its wheels have loosened or swayed and even fell completely. However, it must be said that in both of these cases it was a design problem (the bolt was not long enough and ultimately worked alone), not a problem of assembly.

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