Lots of car journalists found joy in all the build quality issues found on Tesla Cybertruck prototypes, largely because lots of car journalists secretly get a kick out of Elon Musk failing. It’s just reality — Musk is a controversial figure who says a lot of dumb things in addition to all the smart things he says, he tends to have more conservative values than many journalists, and also Tesla fans can be a bit annoying. Still, rooting against Tesla is a foolish endeavor, which is why I never do it and why I’m not at all surprised to see the production-spec Tesla Cybertruck looking so good at the southern California Tesla showroom I visited on Saturday. Here’s a look at all the up-close photos I took of a completely-finished Tesla Cybertruck.
After hearing about Cybertrucks showing up in Tesla showrooms, I called up my local Tesla store and asked if they had the EV brand’s hottest new machine — they did not. But they did tell me that I could find a Cybertruck in Buena Park, about 40 miles away from my place. Somehow I convinced my girlfriend to sit in traffic with me so we could look at a production-spec version of the Cybertruck we’d already seen on the roads (a pre-production mule) and at the Petersen Automotive Museum (just a design-buck, if I recall correctly). It was worth it (for me at least). Here’s a video of what I saw:
The showroom wasn’t packed, but parking was challenging, and it was clear there were still a lot more folks in there than would normally be — after all, this was everyone’s first glimpse of a production-spec Cybertruck (a salesperson confirmed it to be production spec). Folks were standing around taking pictures and chatting about electric cars. The vibes were great.
Let’s get straight to the parts of the Cybertruck that, on the preproduction trucks, drew the most ire from journalists: The tailgate fitment and the A-Pillar-to-cowl/hood fitment. Here’s the tailgate on the black Cybertruck that von Holzhausen drove to that Malibu Cars and Coffee:
And here’s the production-spec truck. Much better!:
It’s not perfect, as you can see in the image below, but it’s decent:
Now let’s look at that A-pillar-to-cowl trim, as well as the hood. Here’s how the Cars and Coffee Cybertruck mule looked:
And here’s the production-spec truck.
It looks mostly OK, though that gap between the fender and that front panel looks a little large and uneven on the passenger’s side:
The driver’s side appears to look better in the photos I took (note that I didn’t notice the difference in person — only when browsing my photos):
Here’s a look at the 285/65R20 (that’s about a 35-inch diameter) Goodyear all-terrain tires:
Here you can see the front steering knuckle; notice how the upper control arm (a bit hard to see, as it’s black) attaches to the knuckle via a ball joint that is located above the tire. This has become relatively common on modern automobiles for a variety of reasons that our suspension engineer Huibert Mees has pointed out here, but the short of it is that mounting the ball joint up high gives that upper control arm a larger moment arm to act against cornering loads (this can provide a number of benefits including reduction of control arm bushing deflection, which can mean less camber change, etc etc):
Here you can see the rear lower control arms, which appear to be stamped and welded steel. Also, under the rear overhang there appears to be a grille for a speaker, presumably for pedestrian protection/alerting:
Let’s have a look at that rear bumper:
Here are a few underbody shots. Things look nice and flat down there:
Here’s the front cooling opening, along with this slit-like headlights, which I quite like:
Here’s a closer look at the lights:
The windshield wiper is unbelievably huge in-person:
Let’s peek at the interior:
Here’s a close-up of the charge-port flap on the rear left fender (I don’t love this location; I think charge ports should be front-mounted, but I understand that it may not be worth the compromise):
Let’s have a close look at a camera on one of the B-pillars:
Under that camera you’ll see a small rectangular piece of glass with fingerprints all over it; I’m fairly sure that’s the door-open switch. Here’s a look at the rear door’s:
Check out the folded triangular-shaped mirror:
What’s the takeaway, here? Well, aside from the gap between the front fender and front fascia panel, the Cybertruck’s fit and finish looks decent from about six feet away (the truck was roped off). What’s more, it looks badass, and not just in the showroom, but on the street; I recently saw one driving towards me in LA, and it looks great! And I’m one of the folks who, upon seeing the truck debut around this time four years ago, nearly vomited. So I’ve fully come around to it, and am certain the Cybertruck will be a massive success.
Do I think it’s going to make for the best work-truck, with its huge sail pillars that make accessing the small bed difficult? No, I don’t. But who cares? Most people buy trucks these days to look cool, and the Cybertruck does that beautifully in my eyes. The first production trucks are to be delivered in just a few days; the floodgates are opening.
= 
finter 
So much for the laser windshield wipers. Something tells me getting a replacement for that thing won’t be as easy as going down to the local Autozone.
Hopefully Tesla just used off the shelf wipers from the truck stop. A bit more inconvenient then the local Autozone, but not unobtanium.
At 3:05/6 as David moves the shot from passenger side to front, it almost looks like there is a huge gap between the front right wheel flare and the body. Trying to pin this down, it looks as if the top surface of the flare juts out from the body parallel to the ground (or even inclines slightly up?) before turning to a sharp downward angle. This seems to be a great place for dirt/grime to gather, and I don’t understand it at all: why not just slope down? I’m no designer or engineer, but this seems like needless complexity—and a somewhat jarring detail.
yes, I am picking nits. Duly acknowledged.
To actually something about the truck.
I don’t like the trend toward bigger and taller trucks with giant flat grills.
I don’t like the looks, it’s looks like different for difference sake. Difference can be interesting and can shake up design language for the future. This isn’t interesting I hope it doesn’t drive auto design this direction. You should be able to do so much more with the packaging and design of an electric vehicle and this is what they chose. Bring back the swoopy deco lines from coach built cars.
The conceit that it looks cyberpunk or more specifically like something out of Blade Runner is just silly. It’s like they’ve never watched Blade Runner because the closest design to this in the film is an origami unicorn.
I listen to metal bands with crazy stylized names. I have practice decoding these name. To me the logo it reads Naertrikk.
It’s the bed I don’t like. As a truck, everything in the bed should be accessible from the sides as well as the back. You can’t reach anything close to the back window in this bed. Design form should follow function, not the other way around. Like David said: it will probably used for show rather than work.
Based on all the full size trucks I see where I live, you can’t reach anywhere in the bed from the sides since the bedsides are about 5’7” high. Then again, 75% of the trucks I see are also for showing off.
True. Trucks are getting really tall. As to use, I live in North Dakota. It is probably flipped where 25% are for show.
I am not going to pass judgement until I know whether it gets the dishes clean without pre-rinsing. If it gets the dishes clean without pre-rinsing then good job Tesla, you’re up there with Bosch (on that one criteria).
The dishes might get cleaned, but the heated dry requires a subscription option and they won’t be smudge free either, Lots of fingerprints even on the “clean” dishes.
Right below the charge port flap is the slot for detergent, pre-wash, and rinse-aid
Calling Elon ‘conservative’ implies that there’s some thought or substance behind what he says, when it’s clearly calculated to just troll his audience (who are wealthy electric car buyers and presumably skew kind of liberal). Not to wade too far into politics but didn’t he, on basically back to back days, pump up ‘replacement theory’ (an antisemitic trope) and then accuse Arabs of calling for another Holocaust? This is not a deep thinker here. It’s just a man who truly, deeply, desperately wants to be popular and can’t figure out why he isn’t. Sad!
Also the truck is fine, I guess. I’m not an off-roader and it has zero appeal as a functional work truck. I think a big 3-row SUV kinda thing would be a way more compelling form factor for this, and possibly more appealing to Tesla buyers? And since there’s no bed geometry to worry about they could really go overboard with the styling.
I suspect part of Musk’s trolling is because he wants more Conservatives to buy Teslas down the road as “one of them” and he’s sufficiently confident (or arrogant) to believe his vehicles are popular enough to survive a few principled defectors; at least until one or more legacy automakers like Toyota or a yet-to-be-named Chinese brand introduces something compelling and affordable enough to surpass Tesla.
Here’s the question that I have. How many shims does this specific vehicle have to manage the panel gaps, and how much money was spent on fitting various body panels to find the best fit?
as a mediocre carpenter, I have the same questions
I cannot imagine how much time quality engineers/technicians are going to spend trying to make the car look presentable to customers and that’s an optimistic approach. They might just ship the cars directly to customers and deal with it in the service center instead
Thanks for all the info David!
The more I look at this, the more it grows on me as well. And I wouldn’t say a 6+ bed is a small bed.
Congrats to the Tesla team for stepping outside the traditional norms of the big three and putting together a truly transformational product.
You can be sure they are putting a lot of extra effort into getting these first few as good as possible. As a buyer at least you know they can look good but I’ll bet a shiny new penny that these arent “production spec”.
Also, why roped off? Is it made of cardboard?
If anyone touches it, the panels will shift or fall off, as they’re held tightly together with hopes and dreams.
Having been around a few stainless steel appliances, I’m guessing they wanted to prevent fingerprints/handprints.
It’s looking horrible. But maybe I’m just too old school.
Think of it more like a Lamborghini. More “look at me” then actual transportation. Then it starts to make sense.
All the compromises and the “so ugly it must be expensive”. I think it accomplishes the job nicely.
It fits in with people that have the attention span of a gnat from tiktok
Outrigger wheel covers will not last long after the first few cases of curb rash, and Chevy did a better job on the Bolt with opposed, synchronized wipers capable of 32″/800mm blades. I also question the side glass. If they’re bullet resistant, how do trapped passengers break out while the truck’s sinking?
Tesla owners (and passengers) always go down with their ship.
Tesla are also boats. Or Submarines. I can’t remember. There is a brilliant comment by Musk out there somewhere about it.
Same way passengers are going to break out of most windows…….. Tempered safety glass is pretty strong, and unless you’re one of the people who keeps a glass breaker in the cupholder you’re not likely to break it.
I was just wondering if I can find replacement wipers at Autozone or NAPA Auto Parts. Will that be a dealer-only sort of thing?
It’s very funny how few of the comments on here are actually about the vehicle in question. Glad to see this is in better shape than the other pre-production models we’ve seen floating around. I’m a fan of taking a more radical out there design approach… I’m not sure it’s resolved enough to have truly pulled it off, at least not yet – hope I can see one in person to really give it a good look over. I have seen some comments though about that interior which, given the amount of time it took to bring the damn thing to market seems like no one actually designed it. It was like they put a basic CAD placeholder inside and forgot to go back and design it!
At the end of the day though I’m happy that it’s super weird and out there, and not just another bland jelly bean shaped crossover indistinguishable from the every other vehicle in its class
thanks
It looks like a kitchen appliance. Jesus it’s ugly
Ok let’s try to be positive here…
I like the upper nose and hood.It’s actually quite good.
Um.. yeah that’s it.Sorry i cant get even slightly excited for the rest of it.It’s stupid and always will be stupid.
Those wheels especially.How do you make custom tires look that bad?? FFS lose the cheap hub caps.They’re appalling.
I want to like the brushed stainless but any praise there will have to wait.I want to see first how repairable it is.In theory anyone can buy a flap wheel can fix small scratches. Dents or big scratches? Whole new panel?
I was wondering about that repairability too. Will a simple fender bender result in an insurance total loss? That stuff ain’t cheap, I hear.
That’s probably a big part of the reason why the body is supposed to be so strong: stainless is usually not repairable once dented, unless you want to paint the whole car.
I wonder if paintless dent repair methods are feasible?
I understand that om Deloreans work hardening of stainless makes it impossible to pop anything more than a tiny ding without cracking the panel.
Interesting.As i understand it (and i’m probably wrong),this happens with certain alloys.I wonder if they can choose a type that doesnt work harden?
But i guess that may bring other issues
I’ll say this: I dislike Musk, I dislike Teslas generally, and this is absolutely not the car for me, but at least it’s not another generic crossover.
They aimed to do something unique, and by god they (eventually!) delivered. I don’t like it, but I didn’t expect it to get this far, and that deserves some credit.
I’ve got the same thoughts about the challenger EV – ain’t for me, but at least someone’s doing something interesting somewhere out there.
The Chubbachuck has the same vibes as the Nazi Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet: an intriguing and deeply flawed conveyance from a company that doesn’t reflect my morals or aspirations.
I’m curious how it will look with normal rims and rubber
They did it on the autopian instagram
It’s pretty dumb.
But, my biggest reason for never considering a Tesla is Elon Musk.
If Elon dropped dead tomorrow, followed by me having enough money to make occasional random stupid vehicle purchases…..maybe I’d consider it.
Buy one, keep it for a while, get rid of it and move on to the next stupid purchase.
I hope you realize that the profits from one Cybertruck sale or even 10,000 Cybertruck sales will never be a relevant fraction of Elon Musk wealth.
I think most people that don’t want to buy a Tesla because of Elon are aware of that, but they still don’t want to give him any money at all, and more importantly, don’t want to own something made by a company that he owns.
I do not give a single fuck.
If one cent of mine goes to Elon, that’s too much.
What if he loses money on the sale? As he likely will on the first hundred thousand Cybertrucks?
Okay then, my buying a Cybertruck may very well encourage others to do the same, in some small way, contributing, however slightly, to the sales of the next hundred thousand.
1. Props to Tesla for trying something new and different
2. It’s scary and not in a good way. More in a Neill Blomkamp way
3. It’s also hideous
> a grille for a speaker, presumably for pedestrian protection/alerting
And other inappropriate noises Musk decides to make available
I do sort of wish I could customize the sounds on my Bolt, even fart noises. I’m chronologically an adult, but I still like to giggle at the simple things in life.
Rick-rolling unsuspecting pedestrians, remotely, while the car is parked and empty = priceless.
David, I appreciate that the Autopian is mostly apolitical, and that’s OK – political discourse is necessary, but in the age of social media the tribalism is so strong that any venue of political conversation becomes as dirty as a slaughterhouse. Better to have designated places for it, away from what’s dear to our hearts (God forbid I get blood on my Autopian shirt!)
However, I think Elon has long passed the threshold of “more conservative than most journalists” – he isn’t “controversial”, he is just poisonous. He has become a toxic influence not only in public discourse (racist stuff on/workplace abuse at Twitter, union busting at Tesla etc), but also on strategic stuff (aligning with Russian talking points, cutting Starlink over Ukraine etc). He amassed, one way or another, an impressive portfolio of strategic business (we can add starship, supercharger…), but now he is leveraging this in very asshole ways.
The man is poisoning the wheel for everyone else, and of course that stains any enthusiasm I could’ve had for his cars. I myself love that something as nonsensical as the Cybertruck exists, and I even like the design (I swear!) but it is quite difficult to separate the man from the company at this point – so much so that I would prefer to avoid all things Tesla at this point. Yet here I am, because I’m still an autoenthusiast at heart, and couldn’t resist shiny new pics…
But as much as I would love to keep ignoring Elon, I think I would be remiss if I didn’t express why the brand is tainted for me. Sure, the obsession on the old lightning place is annoying and pervasive, but it is not without reason.
Sure, we can celebrate the car for what it is, and even laugh at its shortcomings for what they are – but whatever I’ll will people have towards Tesla itself is generated and nurtured by Elon and his dumb edgelord tyrant agenda, so my advice is:
Tl,dr: lets just keep him out of the Autopian as much as we can 🙂
Edits mostly for spelling (not a native speaker).
Well said. I once admired him. Now he is a horrible and bigoted human being with far too much power and influence. I’ll do everything I can to never send any of his companies a single penny.
“cutting starlink over Ukraine”? You mean that time he gave free internet access to the Ukrainian military for months? You’re really complaining about the cessation of generosity as proof that he’s a horrible person.
He cut Starlink right at the beginning of a crucial counteroffensive, so no, he gets no props. He’s just a Putin bitch.
Oh for fucks sake, this stupid canard is almost as ignorant as the clueless people who want the US to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine (hint: getting into a shooting war with a nuclear power is baaaaaaad). Starlink is geofenced to current Ukrainian territory and is contractually prohibited from being used for military purposes- the “counter-offensive” was naval drone strikes on the port of Sevastapol that was not, and never has been, under Starlink coverage. Ukraine high command requested an extension to Crimea that was not granted, and carried out the failed drone strike anyway. They then blamed Musk for “shutting down” the network and causing the attack to fail. Despite no evidence, rags like the NY Times and WA Post uncritically repeated this claim as fact only to quietly edit their articles and walk back claims later. This inconvenient truth has escaped the Musk-deranged, who continue to exercise zero critical thinking about the whole situation.
PS- wanting a cease fire and peace talks does not make you “Putin’s bitch”, it makes you a decent human being. It’s easy to rant about killing all russians and making Putler pay when you’re nice and safe thousands of miles from the front lines.
Errrr…. what? We need an update to Godwin’s law, stat, for people who just throw out comparison to Putin devoid of any kind of proof beyond “That guy/gal did something I don’t like.”
I’m not a Musk fan, but it’s sorta critical to understand things like “nuance” and “context” and so on. Because I do like my citations and sourcing, a link and a quote. Link:
There’s a big difference between providing Internet access to everybody within non-disputed territory (like Ukraine) – or even territory currently being contested… But – Crimea, which was seized back in 2014 by Russia, is a political hot potato, as our very own State Department decided that appeasement was the preferred path forward in the wake of that attack. Making Starlink available over Russia (which is what this would be doing in order to facilitate an attack against, again, Russian territory) violates State sanctions currently in place against Russia, and moreover would probably violate ITAR as well. Anybody who’s had to sit their ass through 8 hours of ITAR training in the tech world would know this, as would anyone who’s ever had to deal with State ECCN when dealing with controlled items.
That’s why military contractors operate on military contract – which Musk clearly wasn’t on. And later a military contract was proffered and the problem solved.
It’s fairly obvious that Musk’s major concern was here was not about appeasing Putin, but about being a facilitator in a – under current State Department guidelines – non-defensive war of aggression against Russia (which has everything to do with the nature of attacking Crimea vs. defending Ukraine). If you’re doing that kind of thing, you want to be operating under military contract.
Which was later offered, and provides Starlink immunity should any of its communication devices and/or services be made available in a State-sanctioned geography.
Holy shit that’s a lot of cope.
Once again, folks, “People doing things we don’t like” or “People explaining complex reality using multisyllable words” isn’t cope or anything akin to it.
It took me about 5 minutes to write that comment out, because – unlike upthread commenters – I do not simply draw lines from “Guy did something I don’t like, and that I don’t understand” to “This guy is in the pockets of somebody he directly competes with” (who was the major provider of launches to ISS and the like before SpaceX? That would be Russia).
If you operate a tech service, you sorta have to draw within the lines, and it’s not terribly difficult to understand if you have to work at all adjacent to that industry.
Well, I didn’t know any of that, thanks for explaining (and not being an asshole about it).
One fewer item in my list, would edit it out if I could. But unfortunately the man has many more, so the overall meaning stands.
It would look much better if they just rounded the roof. I mean do you really need that much windshield? You look down at the road, not up.
Same questions as usual: pricing, range, power, etc. If it’s a good deal, I can overlook a lot of the its, um, looks. I never flat out hated it. But I never loved it either. That said, I honestly think at this point, the most practical offering at the moment may be the RAM PHEV if they can deliver it quickly. But we’ll have to see.
I mean, let’s be honest, a lot of current ICE truck offerings are pretty ugly monstrosities as well.
Hard NOPE. I’d rather stuff my $$$ up a crack enthusiast’s arse than give it to a guy who’s this —><— close to being Alex Jones. FFS he doxxed a college kid who is now getting death threats for what Musk called a “false flag operation” which is InfoWars levels of far-right stupid.
I’m sure I’ll soon be seeing these eyesores sporting AR15 and Don’t Tread On Me stickers all over the more inbred regions of Florida. (shudder)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/20/business/brody-musk-lawsuit-invs/index.html
While I’m sure there are MAGAs supporting Musk, I honestly don’t think there are many that will fork out the dough for one of these, but we’ll see.
They’ll sell well enough. Americans generally don’t care about where their junk comes from or the slaves forced to screw it together. The Chubbachuck will be no different though I’d rather push a rusty Esteem than buy one.
yeah, but DJT hates EVs, so it’s a bit of cognitivie dissonance for the MAGA folks.
There are supposedly tens thousands of people who have paid a $50k deposit on the new Roadster, I know a guy who paid it in 2017. There are always more idiots than you imagine.
If this Cybertruck gets that side of this nonsensical culture war to actually embrace EVs instead of being overtly hostile to them, isn’t that a good thing?
Not if it profits a fascistic man-child demagogue. The idea of Musk becoming even wealthier literally frightens me.
Stereotypical conservatives are rarely Elon stans.
The most common public perception was and remains that Teslas are hippy futuremobiles peddled by Electric Space Man.
I still feel like 90% of the people that buy this thing are the types of intellectuals who will pronounce it “Cyba-chuck” without a whiff of irony. All the time.
This just looks so unbelievably stupid…and always will to me. Everyone has different tastes in vehicles just like w/ music, movies, etc. I really just can’t help but truly hate this so much (good thing I don’t HAVE to/be forced to like it either by Stans)
Disclaimer: ABSOLUTELY nothing against DT- one of my favorite writers here! Just wanted to ask (if you happen to see this) if you were gonna write about fixing up that awesome Nash Metropolitan or the Jeep overlanding cat vehicle? Thanks! I appreciate all that everyone at The Autopian does!
The overlanding CAT Jeep is getting fixed SOON!
So awesome! Thanks David!!!
For extra hilarity, drop a small Caterpillar engine in it. (Probably a lot of work for very little benefit, but the CAT logo would have dual meanings!)
You had me confused there.For a few seconds i was thinking caterpillar tracks
I still really don’t like it, but I can appreciate it on some level. But I think another issue is the wheels are super ugly. If they give it more palatable wheel options, it might grow on me.
As someone that actually like the looks, I have to agree that the wheels are indeed stupid. They have knock off hotweels vibes, and not even custom tyres do the any good!
I won’t buy this thing but I understand it, and I love it.
Something David said in the first paragraph really struck me, though.
Most CEOs and corporations are liberal by default – not by nature – but by default. And this rarely attracts controversy.
I think that is an interesting thing for everyone to consider.
I don’t know many CEOs that I would call “liberal”. Maybe Libertarian. My company allowed the local Republican Party to use our phones for fundraising after working hours. Most CEO are smart enough not to publicize their politics and crazy personal ideas. Elon does not appear to be following that playbook.
Not libertarian. Neoliberal. Markets first and the workers be damned.
“Most CEOs and corporations are liberal by default – not by nature – but by default.”
How do you figure that?
Yeah, I don’t think that’s the case, really. Maybe not MAGA, but far from Liberal.
How about some citations for that? Because that sounds insane. Slapping a Pride Flag on your advertising in June doesn’t count as “liberal”.
Really gonna have to disagree with your liberal CEO’s and corporations idea.
First, a hard “no” to CEOs being liberal. But the issue with Musk isn’t that he is conservative, it is that he is evil, a nasty human being, who does real harm to others. Bigoted, anti-semitic, etc. are some of my issues with him. He’ll never see one of my hard earned dollars.
Have you met a CEO? They are the definition of fiscally conservative. Socially conservative? Usually not, because generally companies have a need to cross demographics for the sake of sales – social conservatism has some very nasty habits, I say as one of the multitude of people targeted by social conservatives for the mere act of existing. But they will also throw their weight behind one if it furthers goals of loosening regulations or lowering corporate tax rates.
“Most CEOs and corporations are liberal by default”
Holy shit dude. No. I know them and it ranges from fiscal conservatism (although unprincipled, unlike how I like to think mine is) to really deranged stuff like Musk believes.
There are no progressives. If you think there are then cite a company that welcomed a new union and worked with it.
If you are thinking of ESG that is gaslighting of the public to prevent real government regulations and interventions. And it works. It actually has you thinking CEOs and companies are liberal.
-LGBTQ – Guess what, LGBTQ people are some of the best employees and biggest consumers. Interestingly companies are a lot more quiet about reproductive freedom because more unwanted pregnancies coming to term means more consumers and more cheap labor.
-Immigration – Yeah, companies like cheap labor.
-Globalization – Yeah, companies like cheap labor and global consumer markets.
-Neocon Interventionism – Yeah, companies like fat government contracts.
Yeah, every liberal cause a company supports comes down to a big version of the bridal store owner who threw her weight behind marriage equality because if two women get married she could sell two dresses. Equality is good business.
I think reproductive rights are really complicated for a corporation though. As you said, more babies means more consumers and more cheap employees. But the other side of the coin is childless families have a lot more disposable income. It would be a matter of the business they’re in.