The steering wheels have come off because they're missing a retaining bolt. It's a problem with Tesla's shoddy build quality rather than a design fault.

They claim the price reduction (it's not a discount, it's a change to the list price) is because costs have reduced and they want to pass that on to customers. I think it's safe to assume that it's probably actually the 30,000-odd cars they've got sat in stock.

Tend to agree with you, the one I walked round last week ( it was in bits for a suspension rebuild..its still there,saw it today?) was a eye opener, under the skin it looked really cheaply built....

I’m surprised the steering wheels have stayed on for so long . There’s only one retaining bolt , if that’s missing, then it’s just the friction fit between the wheel hub and the splines on the column. The build quality on these reminds me of Lotus and BL cars from the 80s .

It's the same on every single car I've seen in the last 25 years. One retaining bolt in the middle.

There has clearly been a factory mess up. In fairness to Tesla they are not the first, or no doubt last, manufacturer to do something like this. I suspect a recall will be needed to check all cars.

I think I am right in saying UK examples are built in China or possibly Germany so probably not affected.

Edited by pd on 09/03/2023 at 10:29

Are you sure it's not a safety device to prevent the person sitting there over-riding its self-driving function?

No. I think it must be a security device so you can take it away with you!

A right nut who forgot the nut, how is this possible maybe the robot had an off day and fell asleep.