[d287]

I helped friends pickup a new Model Y Long Range today, and I did get to drive it a little ... so I've got some thoughts to share in case anyone's interested (in no particular order):

1. In normal mode it drives very similarly to the ID.4 on "B" mode in terms of how much regen it provides. They wanted it set to "creep" because they also drive an ICE car and with that setting turned on it felt exactly like the ID.4 in "B" in local driving.
2. It's definitely faster than the ID.4 - we did an acceleration test in the deserted road behind the Tesla store and it really moves. But it's not comfortable - almost whiplash inducing if you're not ready! I don't think I need that much speed, and certainly wouldn't pay the extra $2k for "acceleration boost"!
3. Granted it's winter time, but I didn't mind the lack of a sun shade on the roof as much as I thought I would - it's very heavily tinted, much darker than the ID.4's roof tint. Even accidentally looking directly into the sun through the roof felt like looking through one of those eclipse viewers.
4. The white interior is really, really white - I wouldn't want to own anything that bright white. It may look cool in the showroom, but it is a blinding white that isn't really that attractive. The woman who gave us the pickup tour said it gets dirty easily and to wipe it with a baby wipe if it does. Much prefer the Lunar Grey in the ID.4. Also, I'm not a very large person and found the base of the driver's seat to be oddly narrow at the base. The seats also had a softness to them that felt strange, but I got used to it after 15 minutes or so.
5. Not having a speedometer in front of the driver (either an instrument cluster or head's up display) really felt dangerous - it's a very long look away from the road ahead to see your speed. In order to watch the road (kids walking home from school, landscapers picking up leaves) I really had no idea how fast I was going.
6. They ordered the $1,000 Towing package. The car comes with a 2" receiver (but no insert) and a 7-pin plug. It took asking three people to find this out... but finally were told that the flimsy plastic cover over the trailer hitch is held on with 10 clips and it's impossible to remove without scratching the plastic (on a $60k vehicle that would annoy me a lot)... and re-inserting it scratches the plastic piece below it. I didn't like the look of the hitch on the ID.4 just sticking out (so bought a rubber insert to trim it out) but this is definitely worse - and less practical.
7. They asked about the lack of blind spot monitoring and cross traffic detection when backing out of a parking space, and were advised to watch the cameras on the screen and be very careful backing up. This seems like a feature I wouldn't want to live without!
8. The roof rack cross bars clamp onto the glass roof itself, which feels like something I wouldn't want any part of ... Why couldn't they just have put some threaded inserts under a cover and allowed you to attach it directly to the roof structure?
9. Fit and finish was largely okay, except one tail light was about 1/4 " (6 mm) lower than the surrounding sheetmetal of the lift gate. The other side was perfectly aligned with the non-movable portion of the tail light. Not sure how Tesla managed that, but it appears that the tailgate sheetmetal may have been pressed incorrectly. They were advised to ignore it... that it was "within tolerances" for Tesla.

 

[wildpitcher]

I helped friends pickup a new Model Y Long Range today, and I did get to drive it a little ... so I've got some thoughts to share in case anyone's interested (in no particular order):

1. In normal mode it drives very similarly to the ID.4 on "B" mode in terms of how much regen it provides. They wanted it set to "creep" because they also drive an ICE car and with that setting turned on it felt exactly like the ID.4 in "B" in local driving.
2. It's definitely faster than the ID.4 - we did an acceleration test in the deserted road behind the Tesla store and it really moves. But it's not comfortable - almost whiplash inducing if you're not ready! I don't think I need that much speed, and certainly wouldn't pay the extra $2k for "acceleration boost"!
3. Granted it's winter time, but I didn't mind the lack of a sun shade on the roof as much as I thought I would - it's very heavily tinted, much darker than the ID.4's roof tint. Even accidentally looking directly into the sun through the roof felt like looking through one of those eclipse viewers.
4. The white interior is really, really white - I wouldn't want to own anything that bright white. It may look cool in the showroom, but it is a blinding white that isn't really that attractive. The woman who gave us the pickup tour said it gets dirty easily and to wipe it with a baby wipe if it does. Much prefer the Lunar Grey in the ID.4. Also, I'm not a very large person and found the base of the driver's seat to be oddly narrow at the base. The seats also had a softness to them that felt strange, but I got used to it after 15 minutes or so.
5. Not having a speedometer in front of the driver (either an instrument cluster or head's up display) really felt dangerous - it's a very long look away from the road ahead to see your speed. In order to watch the road (kids walking home from school, landscapers picking up leaves) I really had no idea how fast I was going.
6. They ordered the $1,000 Towing package. The car comes with a 2" receiver (but no insert) and a 7-pin plug. It took asking three people to find this out... but finally were told that the flimsy plastic cover over the trailer hitch is held on with 10 clips and it's impossible to remove without scratching the plastic (on a $60k vehicle that would annoy me a lot)... and re-inserting it scratches the plastic piece below it. I didn't like the look of the hitch on the ID.4 just sticking out (so bought a rubber insert to trim it out) but this is definitely worse - and less practical.
7. They asked about the lack of blind spot monitoring and cross traffic detection when backing out of a parking space, and were advised to watch the cameras on the screen and be very careful backing up. This seems like a feature I wouldn't want to live without!
8. The roof rack cross bars clamp onto the glass roof itself, which feels like something I wouldn't want any part of ... Why couldn't they just have put some threaded inserts under a cover and allowed you to attach it directly to the roof structure?
9. Fit and finish was largely okay, except one tail light was about 1/4 " (6 mm) lower than the surrounding sheetmetal of the lift gate. The other side was perfectly aligned with the non-movable portion of the tail light. Not sure how Tesla managed that, but it appears that the tailgate sheetmetal may have been pressed incorrectly. They were advised to ignore it... that it was "within tolerances" for Tesla.

Whenever I price a Y, it seems closer to a $70,000 vehicle.

Dave

 

[d287]

Whenever I price a Y, it seems closer to a $70,000 vehicle.

Dave

They paid $60xxx, after a $250 deposit and Tesla's $3,750 December discount. (They had the $1k Towing package and the extra cost red paint.)

Oh, and funny thing... they mis-printed the Window Sticker! It showed the car contained a $15,000 Full Self Driving package which it doesn't have... it had an $86k sticker price.

 

[wildpitcher]

Interesting. I priced one the other day on the Tesla website for $69K. Granted, it was red, which added 2K. I saw nothing online about a $3750 discount. I'll have to try it again.

Dave

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

Still a lot of money from my perspective and what you getting for the money.... another 30-40k could give you much better EV like BMW IX...or wait 2-3 years and you will be able to buy used one for less than Tesla Y.

 

[d287]

Interesting. I priced one the other day on the Tesla website for $69K. Granted, it was red, which added 2K. I saw nothing online about a $3750 discount. I'll have to try it again.

Dave

The discount is something they're doing only for deliveries in December - that is to make up for the fact that they aren't eligible for the tax credit until January... and the amount is what we expect the tax credit to be in January.

 

[d287]

Still a lot of money from my perspective and what you getting for the money.... another 30-40k could give you much better EV like BMW IX...or wait 2-3 years and you will be able to buy used one for less than Tesla Y.

Agree 100% - especially since the extra range isn't comparable... they over estimate their range a lot, whereas the German brands tend to underestimate. For instance, I get real world 240 miles in freezing winter conditions, which was my EPA range, and 30-40 extra in summer. Tesla promises 330 miles but folks I know who have them say they get 270-280 in real world summer usage, making it about the same as the ID.4.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

Agree 100% - especially since the extra range isn't comparable... they over estimate their range a lot, whereas the German brands tend to underestimate. For instance, I get real world 240 miles in freezing winter conditions, which was my EPA range, and 30-40 extra in summer. Tesla promises 330 miles but folks I know who have them say they get 270-280 in real world summer usage, making it about the same as the ID.4.

You will awake Tesla fanatics.....they don't discuss what is real world miles per full charge, they point you to Tesla advertising department and numbers on the paper.

 

[truthseeker]

In normal mode it drives very similarly to the ID.4 on "B" mode in terms of how much regen it provides. They wanted it set to "creep" because they also drive an ICE car and with that setting turned on it felt ex

I own both. Unless they picked up a used Model Y made before October 2020, the regen mode on the Model Y is way more aggressive than the ID.4 B mode.

 

[d287]

I own both. Unless they picked up a used Model Y made before October 2020, the regen mode on the Model Y is way more aggressive than the ID.4 B mode.

Nope, brand new car with a Nov 17 build date. I only drove it on 25 mph roads, but I also have an AWD ID.4 which has more regen than a RWD?

 

[truthseeker]

Tesla promises 330 miles but folks I know who have them say they get 270-280 in real world summer usage, making it about the same as the ID.4.

I get barely 230 in my 2022 ID.4 Pro S with Gradient at 70 mph in the summer. 3.0 miles per kWh times 77 kW battery. Not sure how you are able to get 270 /280 unless you are driving at 50 mph and yours is RWD.

Tesla overestimates its range, but it’s still about 40-50 miles more range than the AWD ID.4.

 

[truthseeker]

Nope, brand new car with a Nov 17 build date. I only drove it on 25 mph roads, but I also have an AWD ID.4 which has more regen than a RWD?

I own a 2022 AWD ID.4 Pro S with Gradient. The Model Y regen is about 50% more aggressive. Maybe the battery was cold on the Model Y when you picked it up (cold as in below 40F). Model Y can’t do regen at all (or very little) with a cold battery.

 

[d287]

I own a 2022 AWD ID.4 Pro S with Gradient. The Model Y regen is about 50% more aggressive. Maybe the battery was cold on the Model Y when you picked it up (cold as in below 40F). Model Y can’t do regen at all (or very little) with a cold battery.

Sure it was cold, I guess- about 50 degrees out. But that’s crazy if the regen varies that much by temperature - how do you predict when to lift off the pedal? Seems dangerous… Speaking of dangerous regen on the Tesla, I was surprised to see they have a setting that lets you disable brake usage on lift when the regen isn’t available due to a cold or full battery… that seems surprisingly risky to keep varying the pedal feel depending on battery conditions. The Tesla person advised not to turn that off as it’s dangerous to drive with it off!

 

[WBF25]

For a brand that touts their crash safety (how they calculate that is for another thread), their delivery reps sure warn against doing a lot of things for safety…. I get all cars have things you can disable that make it less safe, but usually you have to acknowledge a message to that extent when you do it too.

 

[cpf]

I get barely 230 in my 2022 ID.4 Pro S with Gradient at 70 mph in the summer. 3.0 miles per kWh times 77 kW battery. Not sure how you are able to get 270 /280 unless you are driving at 50 mph and yours is RWD.

Tesla overestimates its range, but it’s still about 40-50 miles more range than the AWD ID.4.

I thought 230 is almost exactly what the window sticker shows for high highway range ?

 

[truthseeker]

Sure it was cold, I guess- about 50 degrees out. But that’s crazy if the regen varies that much by temperature - how do you predict when to lift off the pedal? Seems dangerous… Speaking of dangerous regen on the Tesla, I was surprised to see they have a setting that lets you disable brake usage on lift when the regen isn’t available due to a cold or full battery… that seems surprisingly risky to keep varying the pedal feel depending on battery conditions.

At 50F, the regen level shouldn’t have been that different. I was talking about much colder temps. When the regen level is decreased, you get a warning on the screen.

I think one of the recent firmware updates actually changed the behavior, so now the brakes are applied when the regen level is decreased because of the cold battery, but I haven’t been able to test it yet, as the temps here are in the 70s during the day instead of being in the 30s, as normally at this time of year.

New Teslas don’t get a software update until a few weeks after the delivery, so the first few months their updates are usually behind the ones that have been in ownership for a while.

As for the no rear cross-traffic alert, this is true. It’s very strange that the Model Y doesn’t have it. I think Tesla could enable it by leveraging Tesla Vision, so I’m not sure why they haven’t yet. Maybe they will, but it’s definitely an issue. However, it’s not the only EV that doesn’t have it. Fisker Ocean doesn’t have it in the Ultra and Sport trims without an additional $5,900 package.

Another thing that the Model Y doesn’t have is 360 view, but neither does the ID.4 except in the 2023 Plus trim. Neither does Fisker Ocean without yet another $5,900 package.

The cushy seats is how the Model Y compensâtes for a terrible suspension. You didn’t get to experience how bad the Model Y suspension is because you drove it at 25 mph.

The blind spot monitoring now is better than it used to be on the Tesla. When you turn on the blinker, you can configure the screen to show the camera view from the side, so you can see your blind spot very clearly, but you have to glance at the screen on your right to check your blind spot on the left. You get used to it, but this feature didn’t even exist a few months ago. I don’t know what happens if you try to veer to switch lanes to the left while there is a vehicle in your blind spot. Do you get an audible warning? Haven’t tried it. Neither do I know what the ID.4 does in such a case.

However, I can find flaws with the ID.4 too.

I will be trading one of my EVs for a PHEV in the next few months, and frankly, I haven’t decided yet which one I will get rid of yet: ID.4 or Model Y. Either one has pluses and minuses. The biggest minus of the ID.4 is its low range at highway speeds and the dismal state of the non-Tesla DC charging infrastructure. This makes the ID.4 impractical for road trips.

 

[d287]

When you turn on the blinker, you can configure the screen to show the camera view from the side, so you can see your blind spot very clearly, but you have to glance at the screen on your right to check your blind spot on the left.

I don’t know what happens if you try to veer to switch lanes to the left while there is a vehicle in your blind spot. Do you get an audible warning? Haven’t tried it. Neither do I know what the ID.4 does in such a case.

The blind spot camera with blinker on looks like what Honda has been doing for years and Hyundai I think now does it as well - it’s a good idea, but I don’t like having to glance at the center screen instead of the mirror…
As for the changing lanes, I didn’t try it in the Tesla, but the ID.4 definitely let’s you know - it vibrates the wheel and actually pushes back against you if your move will put you in harm’s way.
(Edit: I think Honda only does the camera on the passenger side, when you’re looking to the right anyway)

 

[p__x]

Not having a speedometer in front of the driver (either an instrument cluster or head's up display) really felt dangerous - it's a very long look away from the road ahead to see your speed. In order to watch the road (kids walking home from school, landscapers picking up leaves) I really had no idea how fast I was going.

This is what I found incredible to me that people don't complain about the location of the "speedometer" in the Tesla. I found it off-putting when I first saw the design, and it's just as bad in real life. I used to own a Prius and having a front center speedometer was fine, I could see the speed in my peripheral vision w/o having to change focus. With the 17 inch monitor they welded onto M3/MY the focal point is very far away between the speedometer and the road.

I can tell that the original concept must have been to use a head-up display, but then they ended up cheaping out on it.

 

[VW TECHNICIAN]

Every time I drive one of Y or 3 models it makes me wonder who was in charge of getting this approved to the market.

 

[truthseeker]

This is what I found incredible to me that people don't complain about the location of the "speedometer" in the Tesla. I found it off-putting when I first saw the design, and it's just as bad in real life. I used to own a Prius and having a front center speedometer was fine, I could see the speed in my peripheral vision w/o having to change focus. With the 17 inch monitor they welded onto M3/MY the focal point is very far away between the speedometer and the road.

I can tell that the original concept must have been to use a head-up display, but then they ended up cheaping out on it.

This is really the least of my complaints about the Model Y. The speed is listed in the upper left corner of the screen, so you can see it with peripheral vision and get used to it like after a second short drive.

There is also now a 3rd-party binnacle available with a replacement dash for $1,000 installed or $800 self installation.