Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 paint quality stereotypes dispelled by auto protection specialist
Being a relatively young carmaker compared to rivals such as Mercedes-Benz and McLaren, Tesla has dealt with growing pains over the years. Critics of the company have aggressively honed in on these challenges, constantly accusing the company of producing cars with bad build quality and substandard paintwork on a regular basis (among others). A look at Tesla forums online would reveal numerous threads about individuals complaining about the paint quality of the Model S, X, and most notably, the Model 3.
According to Former McLaren detailing specialist and AP3 Paint Protection Services owner Tiaan Krige, Tesla’s alleged paint issues are, for the most part, exaggerated. Krige is no stranger to premium vehicles. Being in the paint protection business, he interacts with some of the auto industry’s most exclusive cars regularly. Just last month, AP3 worked on a McLaren Senna, one of the British automaker’s most aggressive vehicles to date. Krige’s business, which operates from Alpharetta, GA, also provides its services to Tesla’s electric cars, and one of its clients is owner-enthusiast Kim of YouTube’s Like Tesla channel.
Speaking to the YouTube channel’s host, Krige mentioned that Tesla’s paint issues remind him of those faced by McLaren back in 2014, when the British supercar maker was producing its vehicles in higher volumes. “I actually worked at a McLaren dealership in 2014 doing their new car detailing and paint prep. McLaren started mass-producing production cars in 2012, kind of the same as Tesla, but you know, McLaren is $350,000-$500,000 (per vehicle). And the dust nibs, orange peel, all the paint defects that people seem to post about on Model 3s, I see on McLarens too,” he said.
Krige did recall that there was a particular batch of Model 3 last summer that had a larger number of vehicles with paint issues, but the quality of the electric cars’ paintwork has improved steadily since then. “We see a ton of Model 3s. The paint’s fantastic on 90% of the cars… There’s been a clear, linear progression in the quality of the paint,” the former McLaren detailer added.
Tesla is a company that is continually improving. Thus, it is not difficult to assume that the paint quality of a Model 3 produced next year will likely be even more refined than the vehicles being produced today. This constant improvement was recently pointed out by former GM CEO and longtime Tesla critic Bob Lutz, who admitted that a Model 3 he encountered in the wild had flawless paint and impeccable build quality — a complete antithesis to the Tesla stereotypes that have been disseminated by the company’s critics.
“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,” he noted.
Auto teardown expert Sandy Munro, who studied every single component of an early-build Model 3, previously noted that if Tesla had perfected the build quality of the electric sedan, it would “mop the floor with everybody.” Considering Bob Lutz’s recent comments about the Model 3’s build quality, as well as Krige’s insights on the vehicle’s paint, it appears that some floor mopping in the auto industry might soon be in order.
Watch Tiaan Krige’s insights on Tesla’s paint quality in the video below.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s golden era is no longer a tagline
Tesla “golden era” teaser video highlights the future of transportation and why car ownership itself may be the next thing to change.
The golden age of autonomous ridesharing is arriving, and Tesla is making sure we can all picture a future that looks like the future. A recent teaser posted to X shows a Cybercab parked outside a home, and with a clear message that your everyday life may soon look like this when the driverless vehicles shows up at your door.
Tesla has begun the rollout of its Robotaxi service across US cities, and the production of its dedicated, fully-autonomous Cybercab vehicle. The first Cybercab rolled off the Giga Texas assembly line on February 17, 2026, with volume production now targeted for this month. Additionally, the Robotaxi service built around it is already running, without human drivers, in US cities.
Tesla Cybercab production ignites with 60 units spotted at Giga Texas
The Cybercab is built without a steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors, designed from the ground up for unsupervised autonomous operation. Musk described the manufacturing approach as closer to consumer electronics than traditional car production, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds at full scale.
Drone footage from April 13, 2026 captured over 50 Cybercab units on the Giga Texas campus, with several clustered near the crash testing facility. Musk has noted that Tesla plans to sell the Cybercab to consumers for under $30,000, and owners will be able to add their vehicles to the Tesla robotaxi network when not in personal use, potentially generating income to offset the vehicle’s purchase cost. That model changes the math on vehicle ownership in a meaningful way, making a car something closer to a depreciating asset that can also earn by paying itself off and generate a profit.
During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call, the company confirmed plans to expand the Robotaxi program to seven new cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas. The service already runs without safety drivers in Austin, and public road testing of the Cybercab has expanded to five states, including California, Texas, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
Golden era pic.twitter.com/AS6pX2dK8N
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) April 16, 2026
Tesla announced its Spring 2026 software update, and it’s the most feature-dense seasonal release the company has put out. The update covers twelve named changes spanning FSD, voice AI, safety lighting, dashcam storage, and pet display customization, among other things.
The centerpiece for owners with AI4 hardware is a redesigned Self-Driving app. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving with a single tap and view ongoing FSD usage stats directly in the vehicle.
Grok gets its biggest in-car upgrade yet. The update adds a “Hey Grok” hands-free wake word along with location-based reminders, so a driver can now say “remind me to pick up groceries when I get home” without touching the screen. Grok first arrived in vehicles in July 2025, but each update has pushed it closer to genuine daily utility. Musk framed the broader vision clearly at Davos in January, saying Tesla is “really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”
On safety, the update introduces enhanced blind spot warning lights that integrate directly with the cabin’s ambient lighting, building on the blind spot door warning that arrived in update 2026.8.
Dog Mode has been renamed Pet Mode and now lets owners choose a dog, cat, or hedgehog icon and add their pet’s name to the display.
Dashcam retention now extends up to 24 hours, up from the previous one-hour rolling loop, with a permanent save option for any clip. Weather maps now show rain and snow with better color differentiation and include the past hour of precipitation data along the route.
Tesla has now established a clear rhythm of two major OTA pushes per year. As with last year’s Spring update, that cycle started taking shape in 2025 with adaptive headlights and trunk customization. The 2025 Holiday Update then added Grok to the vehicle for the first time. This Spring follows that structure: the Holiday update introduces new architecture, and the Spring update broadens it across the fleet.
Two notable features still did not make it. IFTTT automations, which launched in China earlier this year, were held back from this North American release for unknown reasons, and Apple CarPlay remains absent, reportedly still delayed by iOS 26 and Apple Maps compatibility issues.
Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 13, 2026
Lifestyle
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.
On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”
Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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- A piece of Iranian missile debris that struck Lara Shusterman’s Tesla Model Y in Netanya, Israel on March 30, 2026, after being intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group
The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.
Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation
Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.
Tesla’s golden era is no longer a tagline
Tesla’s last chance version of the flagship Model X is officially gone
