This is the first EV I’ve ever owned and I thought I’d post this review aimed primarily at those who are considering buying a Model Y. I could drone on with more detail, but these are the things that are important to me. Obviously, this is just one person’s opinion based on their own experience. Other owners may feel differently.
DRIVING
I absolutely LOVE driving this car. Acceleration and braking is unbelievably smooth once you learn how to adjust to one pedal driving with regenerative braking. As expected, car is very quiet and there is never any feeling of engine strain. In fact, driving an ICE car now feels like I’m in some antiquated, outdated contraption from the last century. Autopilot, which comes standard, works very well on limited access highways. Car will hold its lane using Autosteer feature and Tesla’s Traffic Aware Cruise Control will adjust your speed to the car in front even slowing to a full stop if needed. This makes bumper to bumper traffic MUCH less stressful (on one road trip, my wife fell asleep using this feature). Occasionally the car will brake and accelerate more aggressively than I would in this situation, but most of the time it works very smoothly, mimicking what I would do driving manually. Some might complain that it doesn’t follow the car in front as closely (distance is adjustable) as it should and allows people to cut in front of you, but it’s worked fine for me.
To me, the full self driving option is not worth the money. I got the subscription for the first two months but decided I didn’t need it for two reasons. First, FSD is a misnomer as it does NOT work on city streets (which Tesla has been saying is “coming soon” for years) only on limited access highways. When programmed, the car as it approaches a slower car in front of you will check the lane for clearance, activate the turn signal, and change lanes. It will also navigate you to your programmed exit, but once it gets you to the exit lane you’re on your own from there. Using Autosteer (which comes standard) if you want to change lanes, how hard is it to simply check that the lane is clear, activate your turn signal and move over? When you do, this deactivates Autosteer which you can reactivate as soon as you pass the slower car and move back into your lane. Second, a big reason for wanting FSD for road trips centered on concerns about backing in to Supercharger spaces which is necessary. Why Tesla didn’t put the charge port in the front of the car to prevent this makes no sense to me?? While the Autopark feature of FSD works great, there is one problem with it—it’s VERY slow. I discovered that the backup camera is so good that you don’t even need Autopark. The camera’s white lines show your driving path and adjust as you move the steering wheel, so if you keep those lines inside the lane markings you won’t have any problems. In addition, you have the sensors which warn you visually and audibly when you’re getting too close to an adjacent car or other object. In my opinion, if you hit anything while parking a Tesla, you’re either not paying attention or you’re a terrible driver! I’ve read where Tesla has dropped the ultrasonic sensors in new models in favor of Teslavision which accomplishes this using video only. I think this is a BIG mistake, unless they can program it to work as well as the sensors. It would be a dealbreaker for me without this feature as this car has a wide wheelbase and it’s easy to misjudge your distances. The sensors work great.
Of course, not everything about the car is to my liking. Ride could be a little smoother. It’s great on smooth roads, not so much on bumpy ones. Car handles and rides more like a sports car than an SUV. Phantom braking (where the car slows for no apparent reason) is an issue but it has happened very rarely, maybe 4-5 times in the year I’ve owned it and only when using Autopilot. Icons and text on the touchscreen are too small to be read easily while driving. Warning messages are a big problem in that they are too small to read and don’t stay displayed long enough. I wish Tesla would reprogram them using a MUCH larger font. And, of course, I’m not too happy about the big price drop after I bought it so buyers could qualify for the tax credit. But this isn’t really that big of an issue since I tend to keep a car for a long time (8-10 years) so it really won’t affect me.
RANGE
Forget about getting the EPA estimated range. If you’re like most drivers, you won’t achieve that unless you always drive on level roads with no adverse weather conditions, aren’t heavily loaded, and never exceed the speed limit. For me it’s been around 80% of the listed range but that’s not a problem. Listed range is 330 miles for the long range model, but I get about 250-260 which is plenty enough for my needs. On road trips, that’s roughly 3.5 hours of driving before charging, which is sufficient for me and allows a needed break. In real world usage, you’ll generally be fluctuating between 20-80% of battery level since charging above 80% takes longer even when using the superchargers.
Battery degradation is a thing. As the battery ages, the range decreases. I’ve lost about 5% of range after the first year and a full charge now shows only around 315 miles, which is not uncommon. Tesla warrants the battery for 8 years or 120,000 miles and my understanding is if the battery has degraded more than 35% during this time they will replace it.
CHARGING
I had a level 2 charging outlet installed in my garage (240 volt) and keep the car plugged in when not driving. It charges at a rate of about 30 miles of charging/hour and will fully charge overnight. I keep it charged to 80% and love never having to visit a gas station since I leave every day with a “full tank.”
The Tesla Supercharging Network has been as advertised and it’s the primary reason I bought a Tesla in the first place. I wanted a car that could be used for both road trips and local driving and no other charging network even comes close to Tesla’s in the number of locations and charging bays for fast (level 3) charging. They are spaced about 40-50 miles apart along most of the interstate highways. Charging stops usually take only 20-30 minutes as it’s faster to only charge to about 80% and do it more frequently. On a hypothetical road trip for example, you could stop twice and fully charge for 45-50 minutes each time, or stop three times for 20 minutes each. Obviously, the three stop option requires less charging time overall. Tesla’s Trip Planner feature works well in this area, showing you where you need to stop, for how long, and how many charging stations are currently available. In the year I’ve had the car, we’ve been on seven road trips covering 16 different states from New York to Florida and have only had to wait in line once for a station (about 10 min.). I realize this may change as more and more cars are sold, but so far so good. At most stops a majority of the bays are empty. My only complaint about the supercharging is the cost. You pay a premium for being able to charge quickly (about 3-4 times what it costs at home).
FUEL ECONOMY
Charging at home is really cheap compared to gasoline, but on road trips not so much. I have put over 20,00 miles on the car in the year with about 40% of that on road trips. I have averaged 274 watt hours/mile (the car’s trip meter will display this on the touchscreen) which means I can travel 3.65 miles/kilowatt hour. I pay an average of 9.6 cents/kilowatt hour on my electric bill (more in the summer, less during the winter. So my fuel cost/mile is 2.6 cents. Current average gas price in my area is $3.28/ gallon and this equates to a little over 124 miles per gallon which is a big savings. On road trips I’ve paid an average of 35 cents/kilowatt hour at superchargers. This equates to 34 miles per gallon on the road. Not a great savings, but it’s still cheaper than gas and you’re not polluting the environment.
UPDATES
Tesla is constantly updating the software, adding new features and improvements to the user interface. There have been 10-12 updates in the year I’ve owned the car. To me, this is a great feature which means you aren’t locked in to what’s available when you buy the car and don’t have to buy a newer model to get the latest improvements. I’ve been very happy with most of the changes they’ve made which make it easier to operate the vehicle.
RELIABILITY
In the year I’ve owned the car, I’ve had absolutely NOTHING go wrong with it. Zip, zero, nada! The ONLY thing I’ve done is to rotate the tires every 6,500 miles. I realize other people have had some needed repairs and you will find many complaints on this website. I think part of this is the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” theory. People who have problems post about it. Those who have had no issues with the car don’t post about how great it’s been.
SUMMARY
After one year, based on my experience the car has exceeded my expectations. Is it perfect? Of course not. Would I buy another one? Definitely!
"0 Tesla Model Y 1" by Benespit is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
DRIVING
I absolutely LOVE driving this car. Acceleration and braking is unbelievably smooth once you learn how to adjust to one pedal driving with regenerative braking. As expected, car is very quiet and there is never any feeling of engine strain. In fact, driving an ICE car now feels like I’m in some antiquated, outdated contraption from the last century. Autopilot, which comes standard, works very well on limited access highways. Car will hold its lane using Autosteer feature and Tesla’s Traffic Aware Cruise Control will adjust your speed to the car in front even slowing to a full stop if needed. This makes bumper to bumper traffic MUCH less stressful (on one road trip, my wife fell asleep using this feature). Occasionally the car will brake and accelerate more aggressively than I would in this situation, but most of the time it works very smoothly, mimicking what I would do driving manually. Some might complain that it doesn’t follow the car in front as closely (distance is adjustable) as it should and allows people to cut in front of you, but it’s worked fine for me.
To me, the full self driving option is not worth the money. I got the subscription for the first two months but decided I didn’t need it for two reasons. First, FSD is a misnomer as it does NOT work on city streets (which Tesla has been saying is “coming soon” for years) only on limited access highways. When programmed, the car as it approaches a slower car in front of you will check the lane for clearance, activate the turn signal, and change lanes. It will also navigate you to your programmed exit, but once it gets you to the exit lane you’re on your own from there. Using Autosteer (which comes standard) if you want to change lanes, how hard is it to simply check that the lane is clear, activate your turn signal and move over? When you do, this deactivates Autosteer which you can reactivate as soon as you pass the slower car and move back into your lane. Second, a big reason for wanting FSD for road trips centered on concerns about backing in to Supercharger spaces which is necessary. Why Tesla didn’t put the charge port in the front of the car to prevent this makes no sense to me?? While the Autopark feature of FSD works great, there is one problem with it—it’s VERY slow. I discovered that the backup camera is so good that you don’t even need Autopark. The camera’s white lines show your driving path and adjust as you move the steering wheel, so if you keep those lines inside the lane markings you won’t have any problems. In addition, you have the sensors which warn you visually and audibly when you’re getting too close to an adjacent car or other object. In my opinion, if you hit anything while parking a Tesla, you’re either not paying attention or you’re a terrible driver! I’ve read where Tesla has dropped the ultrasonic sensors in new models in favor of Teslavision which accomplishes this using video only. I think this is a BIG mistake, unless they can program it to work as well as the sensors. It would be a dealbreaker for me without this feature as this car has a wide wheelbase and it’s easy to misjudge your distances. The sensors work great.
Of course, not everything about the car is to my liking. Ride could be a little smoother. It’s great on smooth roads, not so much on bumpy ones. Car handles and rides more like a sports car than an SUV. Phantom braking (where the car slows for no apparent reason) is an issue but it has happened very rarely, maybe 4-5 times in the year I’ve owned it and only when using Autopilot. Icons and text on the touchscreen are too small to be read easily while driving. Warning messages are a big problem in that they are too small to read and don’t stay displayed long enough. I wish Tesla would reprogram them using a MUCH larger font. And, of course, I’m not too happy about the big price drop after I bought it so buyers could qualify for the tax credit. But this isn’t really that big of an issue since I tend to keep a car for a long time (8-10 years) so it really won’t affect me.
RANGE
Forget about getting the EPA estimated range. If you’re like most drivers, you won’t achieve that unless you always drive on level roads with no adverse weather conditions, aren’t heavily loaded, and never exceed the speed limit. For me it’s been around 80% of the listed range but that’s not a problem. Listed range is 330 miles for the long range model, but I get about 250-260 which is plenty enough for my needs. On road trips, that’s roughly 3.5 hours of driving before charging, which is sufficient for me and allows a needed break. In real world usage, you’ll generally be fluctuating between 20-80% of battery level since charging above 80% takes longer even when using the superchargers.
Battery degradation is a thing. As the battery ages, the range decreases. I’ve lost about 5% of range after the first year and a full charge now shows only around 315 miles, which is not uncommon. Tesla warrants the battery for 8 years or 120,000 miles and my understanding is if the battery has degraded more than 35% during this time they will replace it.
CHARGING
I had a level 2 charging outlet installed in my garage (240 volt) and keep the car plugged in when not driving. It charges at a rate of about 30 miles of charging/hour and will fully charge overnight. I keep it charged to 80% and love never having to visit a gas station since I leave every day with a “full tank.”
The Tesla Supercharging Network has been as advertised and it’s the primary reason I bought a Tesla in the first place. I wanted a car that could be used for both road trips and local driving and no other charging network even comes close to Tesla’s in the number of locations and charging bays for fast (level 3) charging. They are spaced about 40-50 miles apart along most of the interstate highways. Charging stops usually take only 20-30 minutes as it’s faster to only charge to about 80% and do it more frequently. On a hypothetical road trip for example, you could stop twice and fully charge for 45-50 minutes each time, or stop three times for 20 minutes each. Obviously, the three stop option requires less charging time overall. Tesla’s Trip Planner feature works well in this area, showing you where you need to stop, for how long, and how many charging stations are currently available. In the year I’ve had the car, we’ve been on seven road trips covering 16 different states from New York to Florida and have only had to wait in line once for a station (about 10 min.). I realize this may change as more and more cars are sold, but so far so good. At most stops a majority of the bays are empty. My only complaint about the supercharging is the cost. You pay a premium for being able to charge quickly (about 3-4 times what it costs at home).
FUEL ECONOMY
Charging at home is really cheap compared to gasoline, but on road trips not so much. I have put over 20,00 miles on the car in the year with about 40% of that on road trips. I have averaged 274 watt hours/mile (the car’s trip meter will display this on the touchscreen) which means I can travel 3.65 miles/kilowatt hour. I pay an average of 9.6 cents/kilowatt hour on my electric bill (more in the summer, less during the winter. So my fuel cost/mile is 2.6 cents. Current average gas price in my area is $3.28/ gallon and this equates to a little over 124 miles per gallon which is a big savings. On road trips I’ve paid an average of 35 cents/kilowatt hour at superchargers. This equates to 34 miles per gallon on the road. Not a great savings, but it’s still cheaper than gas and you’re not polluting the environment.
UPDATES
Tesla is constantly updating the software, adding new features and improvements to the user interface. There have been 10-12 updates in the year I’ve owned the car. To me, this is a great feature which means you aren’t locked in to what’s available when you buy the car and don’t have to buy a newer model to get the latest improvements. I’ve been very happy with most of the changes they’ve made which make it easier to operate the vehicle.
RELIABILITY
In the year I’ve owned the car, I’ve had absolutely NOTHING go wrong with it. Zip, zero, nada! The ONLY thing I’ve done is to rotate the tires every 6,500 miles. I realize other people have had some needed repairs and you will find many complaints on this website. I think part of this is the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” theory. People who have problems post about it. Those who have had no issues with the car don’t post about how great it’s been.
SUMMARY
After one year, based on my experience the car has exceeded my expectations. Is it perfect? Of course not. Would I buy another one? Definitely!
"0 Tesla Model Y 1" by Benespit is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
EPA total deception; I get in the low 200 miles; Can’t seem to go to far without making pit stops; Can’t rotate the tires, no camber in the rear; Probably get about 25K miles out of them; Outch 
21’ are not cheap and last, the sudden price drop after I bought it
…
