I did not buy my car from the dealership lot. They had to put in an order and I waited 3 months for it to be finally available for me to pick up. I could track everything happening with the car. The car was sitting in the container port for an usually long time (2 weeks) so when I asked my dealer he tracked it down and said there was curb damage to the wheel and they had to wait for replacement.
Now, I don't expect this kind of service from Tesla but my point is it doesn't matter if you are able to test drive it or not from the dealership and inspect for defects; the manufacturer should have a rigorous quality process that doesn't let these kind of slip ups to happen and if it does happen make it right by the customer.
> so when I asked my dealer he tracked it down and said there was curb damage to the wheel and they had to wait for replacement.
So having a Dealer deal with it helped? As in they did the inspection for you and got it fixed? It's practically equivalent to buying off a lot if you think about it without the extra step of you doing another inspection to catch what the dealer might have missed.
With Tesla it's between you ordering and the factory shipping. No additional independent QC like the Dealership and no chance to pre-inspect.
Now, I don't expect this kind of service from Tesla but my point is it doesn't matter if you are able to test drive it or not from the dealership and inspect for defects; the manufacturer should have a rigorous quality process that doesn't let these kind of slip ups to happen and if it does happen make it right by the customer.