After having my model y for 5 months, I have to say that I unfortunately regret my purchase, because it's just not a good fit for me. And I mean that literally. For my body, the seat is not comfortable, and I can't achieve a comfortable driving position.
As I know others have discussed in other posts, for some people, me included, the seat bolsters are simply too narrow towards the rear, and it feels like I'm partially sitting on the bolsters themselves, which gives an uncomfortable feeling similar to as if I were sitting on a wallet in a back pocket. This leads to general discomfort and even a dull ache after time.
While it's less of a concern, I also find the back bolsters to be too narrow as well. These are less uncomfortable than the seat, but it adds to the feeling that the seat simply does not fit my body.
For those wondering, I'm 6'2" and 180lbs, and a lot of my height comes from a very long torso, and less so from leg length.
Which leads to the next problem. With relatively short legs, I sit relatively close to the dash. But with a long torso, my head ends up being very high up in the car. Even with the seat adjusted all the way down, I'm way too high up in the car. I have to duck down to see traffic lights. And if I keep a straight back and lean forwards, my forehead hits the headliner. I'm not entirely convinced that the airbag would actually protect my head in the event of a crash.
Now I get it, I have an atypical body shape, and I would have these issues in many other cars as well. The thing that irks me is that I've been driving a 2011 VW GTI for the past decade, and I've had no issues with seating position what-so-ever, and that's a significantly smaller car than the model y. The GTI allows me to lower the seat way lower than the model y. The model y seats are just sitting on a platform, which eats into what could have been space in which to lower the seat even further. If I could just lower the model y seat another 3-5 inches, I would be able to achieve a correct seating position.
I really like almost everything else about this vehicle, but it's frustrating that it just doesn't fit me! And of course you might be saying "boo hoo why didn't you test drive it first?". Well, yeah, that's on me, I should have. I test drove a Model 3 when it first came out and don't remember having either of these issues. When the Model Y price dropped, I jumped on it and ordered one off the lot within an hour of the announcement without a test drive as I was afraid they'd sell out quickly, thinking that the larger model Y would surely not have issues like this with it being a larger vehicle. But lesson learned; I always need to test drive vehicles going forward, and I learned that vehicle size is not always correlated to headroom, seat adjustment range, seat comfort, etc.
What am I going to do with the Model Y? I don't know yet, probably keep it and just suck it up. There isn't really any other EV that qualifies for the tax credit that I would actually want to own at this time. The price/powertrain/charging-network/value advantage of the Model Y is undeniable, so I'll probably just keep it and keep an eye out as the EV landscape evolves over the coming years.
As I know others have discussed in other posts, for some people, me included, the seat bolsters are simply too narrow towards the rear, and it feels like I'm partially sitting on the bolsters themselves, which gives an uncomfortable feeling similar to as if I were sitting on a wallet in a back pocket. This leads to general discomfort and even a dull ache after time.
While it's less of a concern, I also find the back bolsters to be too narrow as well. These are less uncomfortable than the seat, but it adds to the feeling that the seat simply does not fit my body.
For those wondering, I'm 6'2" and 180lbs, and a lot of my height comes from a very long torso, and less so from leg length.
Which leads to the next problem. With relatively short legs, I sit relatively close to the dash. But with a long torso, my head ends up being very high up in the car. Even with the seat adjusted all the way down, I'm way too high up in the car. I have to duck down to see traffic lights. And if I keep a straight back and lean forwards, my forehead hits the headliner. I'm not entirely convinced that the airbag would actually protect my head in the event of a crash.
Now I get it, I have an atypical body shape, and I would have these issues in many other cars as well. The thing that irks me is that I've been driving a 2011 VW GTI for the past decade, and I've had no issues with seating position what-so-ever, and that's a significantly smaller car than the model y. The GTI allows me to lower the seat way lower than the model y. The model y seats are just sitting on a platform, which eats into what could have been space in which to lower the seat even further. If I could just lower the model y seat another 3-5 inches, I would be able to achieve a correct seating position.
I really like almost everything else about this vehicle, but it's frustrating that it just doesn't fit me! And of course you might be saying "boo hoo why didn't you test drive it first?". Well, yeah, that's on me, I should have. I test drove a Model 3 when it first came out and don't remember having either of these issues. When the Model Y price dropped, I jumped on it and ordered one off the lot within an hour of the announcement without a test drive as I was afraid they'd sell out quickly, thinking that the larger model Y would surely not have issues like this with it being a larger vehicle. But lesson learned; I always need to test drive vehicles going forward, and I learned that vehicle size is not always correlated to headroom, seat adjustment range, seat comfort, etc.
What am I going to do with the Model Y? I don't know yet, probably keep it and just suck it up. There isn't really any other EV that qualifies for the tax credit that I would actually want to own at this time. The price/powertrain/charging-network/value advantage of the Model Y is undeniable, so I'll probably just keep it and keep an eye out as the EV landscape evolves over the coming years.
