McLaren Delays Some MP4-12C Deliveries Over Quality Niggles

It's been a long road to the McLaren MP4-12C. We attended an event last year for the opening of McLaren San Francisco and got to experience the MP4-12C (or 12C as they call it) first hand. For some customers, the wait has been years. It is about to get just a bit longer.

AutoWeek is out with a report about slowed production at McLaren's plant in England. The delays are due to some minor quality issues that have impacted some of the first deliveries - a total of 59. While there was some rumors about the issues being safety or performance related, McLaren says that is not the case.

Tony Joseph, head of McLaren North America says: "There are no safety concerns for the delay....we've had some quality-related issues in a few cars we wanted to address before we continue to deliver customer cars." The issues are things like condensation in the headlamps, door function and a premature draining of the battery. Niggles to be sure, but thankfully they aren't anything serious. Joseph says not all of the 59 deliveries experienced any problems, and that they are fixing what they see on a case-by-case basis.

The delay should ensure that future deliveries (179 destined for the United States) aren't affected. Joseph says he'd rather delay the cars getting to customers by a few weeks if it means not having to fix any issues later. We certainly agree with that. For those who have plunked down the money on the car it can't be a pleasant experience having any issues. However, all along McLaren has demonstrated a relentless focus on quality and attention to detail. With that in place we're sure this will be ironed out quickly.