Gary Zhou 
Key Points
- 🔍 The fit and finish of the Tesla Cybertruck has been a topic of debate as it approaches its first deliveries.
- 🚗 Some prototypes have shown fit and finish issues, but this is common for early production units.
- 🧐 Automotive veteran Sandy Munro emphasizes that prototypes may have imperfections that won’t be present in the final production models.
- 📊 Tesla’s vehicles, even in their testing phases, receive a lot of scrutiny for any flaws, but Munro believes they are on par with industry standards.
- 🛠️ Munro’s decades of experience in the automotive industry lead him to expect improvements in the fit and finish of production Cybertrucks.
- 🌟 Tesla fans often seek Munro’s opinion due to his extensive experience in the automotive field.
The fit and finish of the Tesla Cybertruck has been a hotly contested topic as the all-electric pickup is set to be delivered for the first time by the end of the year.
While there have been some prototypes that look good enough to make their way to customers already, there are others that have shown some issues with fit and finish.
However, this is nothing to worry about, Sandy Munro, a legend of automotive manufacturing, said to Insider, which wrote an article questioning the appearance of some Cybertrucks that have been built in the pre-production phase.
Munro highlights the importance of the prototypes and why they might not be as perfect as some may have expected.
“With prototypes, they’re not as fussy about panel gaps and things like that — so you can’t really throw rocks at that,” he told the publication in an interview.
In typical fashion, panel gaps and issues with Tesla’s vehicles are under a microscope. Nearly any mistakes the automaker makes, even with vehicles that are literally tests of production processes, are hit with a lot of examination and publicity in the media. But Munro says that what Tesla is showing is not any better or worse than anyone else would show with early production units.
“Everything that I see tells me that this is not quite ready for primetime, but it looks as good as anybody else would have,” he said.
Munro has been a notable name in the entire automotive field, but he has become somewhat of a sanctuary for Tesla and its fans. Over the past few years, he has gotten his hands on early builds of the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla’s two most recent vehicle releases, to examine fit and finish and overall build quality.
His opinion is sought after due to decades in the automotive industry.
With so many years of experience, the issues we are seeing with some of the Cybertruck builds are expected, Munro believes, based on his quotes in the article. Additionally, he said he expects production Cybertrucks to be “more polished,” and Tesla’s upgraded production lines will iron out any small mistakes and have the first units looking better than ever.
