Journal · August 28, 2026 · updated July 13, 2026
The Delivery Inspection: What's Fixable After You Accept
Most delivery-day advice is a list of things to look at. That's the easy half. The hard half is knowing what happens to each thing you find — because a Tesla delivery inspection isn't pass/fail. It sorts every fault into one of three buckets, and the buckets have completely different outcomes.
Bucket 1 — cosmetic, and time-limited
Paint chips, swirls, overspray, panel misalignment, trim gaps, scuffed wheels, marks in the interior. These are the ones people find, and they're the ones with a clock attached.
Tesla's delivery documentation asks for cosmetic issues to be reported within a stated window after delivery — historically a short one, measured in hours or a small number of days. The exact window is written in the paperwork you're handed or shown in the app, and it's the only version that governs your car. Read that line before you sign; don't take a number off a forum, and don't take one off this page either.
Bucket 2 — functional, and covered by warranty
A door handle that doesn't present, a camera that errors, a charge port that won't open, a screen that reboots. These aren't a delivery problem at all — they're a warranty problem, and the Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty covers defects in materials and workmanship independently of when you noticed them.
That's genuinely good news, and it's the reason not to panic at handover over something electronic. You are not losing a right by driving away with a faulty camera. Book it in the app, get it fixed. The clock that matters in bucket 1 does not apply here.
Bucket 3 — significant, and worth pausing over
Structural damage, evidence of a prior repair on a car sold as new, a VIN that doesn't match the paperwork, missing equipment you paid for, or damage severe enough that you wouldn't have bought the car had you seen it in a showroom.
This is the bucket where accepting delivery genuinely narrows your options, and it's the only situation where refusing delivery is the proportionate response. It is also rare. Don't reach for it over a panel gap.
The document that decides bucket 1: the due bill
A due bill is a written list of items the delivery centre agrees to correct after you take the car. It's the standard mechanism, it's not exotic, and asking for one is normal.
What makes it work is specificity. "Paint issues" is not a due bill entry. "Chip, driver's door, lower rear edge, approx. 3 mm, photographed at delivery" is. Vague entries are the ones that get discussed away six weeks later when nobody remembers what was meant.
Get a copy before you leave. If it exists only as something someone said they'd note down, it doesn't exist.
The inspection order that actually finds things
Sequence matters more than length, because attention runs out. Outside first, in daylight, before you sit in the car:
Sight down each panel from a low angle
Bodywork faults show in reflection, not head-on. Crouch at each corner and look along the panel toward the light. This one step finds more than the next five combined.
Walk the shutlines
Hood, frunk, doors, trunk, light clusters. You're looking for consistency side to side, not perfection.
Edges and handles
Paint damage concentrates where the car was handled during transport and prep.
Glass and seals
Roof, windshield, and anything trapped under a rubber seal.
Wheels and tires
Curb rash on the rims, and confirm all four tires match — brand, model, and size.
Then the interior
Trim alignment, seat controls, screen, and press the panels for rattles.
Function check last
Charge port opens, mobile connector or cable present, key cards work, phone pairs.
What refusing delivery actually costs
It isn't free and it isn't reversible on a whim. Your Motor Vehicle Order Agreement governs the order fee and what happens to it, and refusing a car generally means going back into the allocation queue rather than getting a different one that afternoon. Financing approvals and trade-in quotes both have their own expiry dates that keep running while you wait.
So the honest calculus is: bucket 3, refuse. Buckets 1 and 2, accept and document. The middle ground people imagine — refusing delivery to force a fast fix — mostly produces a longer wait and the same fix.
The referral benefit is not on this list
Worth saying plainly, because it's the question that arrives at delivery bays: the 3 months of free full self-driving (supervised) was decided when you paid your order fee, not today. Nobody at the delivery centre can add it, and nothing in the inspection above endangers it. If it isn't showing, the place to look is your order summary and your account — the mechanics of why it can't be added afterward are the same on delivery day as they were the week you ordered.
What does happen today is that the account activates against the new VIN. If you want the narrower version of that — just the referral steps, nothing about paint — that's the delivery-day checklist.
Related questions
Does a Tesla referral code cost me anything?
No. Applying a referral code is free and needs no account or sign-up. You add it before you place your order and Tesla attaches the current buyer reward — in the US that's 3 months of free Full Self-Driving (Supervised) on a new Model 3, Model Y or eligible Cybertruck, or $400 off Tesla Solar.
What does a Tesla referral code actually get me in 2026?
In the US: 3 months of free Full Self-Driving (Supervised) — roughly a $297 value at about $99/month — on Model 3, Model Y and eligible Cybertruck (Premium AWD & Cyberbeast). Tesla Solar buyers get $400 off. It is not "free supercharging" or a "prize drawing" — those were the old, retired program.
Can I add a referral code after I've ordered?
No — Tesla will not attach a referral once an order or reservation number exists. You must click the referral link (or enter the code) before you configure and pay. If you already ordered without one, you can't add it retroactively. See the checkout walkthrough.
Sources:
- Tesla Support — Refer and Earn
- Electrek — Tesla referral program guide
- Not a Tesla App — referral FSD incentives