Model Y - Initial Impressions - Delights, surprises, disappointments and concerns

Bought a 23 Model Y without a test drive (no test drive available, but have test driven an older MY 3 some time back). Some initial perspectives after a week.

Delights:
1. Very spacious- doesn’t look like it from outside. Leg room and head room are pretty good.
2. Smooth app experience in-car and on phone
3. Plenty of storage

Surprises:
1. Ride quality is not bad at all. Much better than the Model 3. Comparable to other EVs. Not as soft as Hyundai Sonata Hybrid that we have but does soak up bumps reasonably well
2. Good turning radius for a car of its size

Disappointments/Annoyance
1. Regen levels are not adjustable
2. No 360 view for a 65K+ car in 2023
3. Not the best implementation of blind spot safety. No visual or audible alerts with turn signals on for the left side. Audible when there is a car in blind spot is the safest implementation despite minor annoyance. Now I have to get used to looking right and then looking left to turn.

Concerns:
1. Heavy low frequency resonance- just figuring out this is a problem that many are facing - just hoping it’s fixable and not really a torsional rigidity design flaw - Set up service appointment in 2 weeks
2. No rear safety- no cross traffic alerts, no auto brake for objects or pedestrians- almost ran into another reversing BMW but fortunately that car had better tech to stop
3. . Lane departure warning / assistance doesn’t work reliably. Low end cars give warning when straddling or drifting lanes.

Overall well built car and drives well. But certainly some concerns and disappointments.

"Tesla Model Y Dual Motor Solid Black (4)" by Damian B Oh is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog feed thumbnail

 

[enemji]

3. Not the best implementation of blind spot safety. No visual or audible alerts with turn signals on for the left side. Audible when there is a car in blind spot is the safest implementation despite minor annoyance. Now I have to get used to looking right and then looking left to turn.

Learn to look at the screen when wanting to change lanes. The visualization will show vehicles around you and if in the blind spot, they will be marked red. All you need to do is use your turn signals to activate the function

 

[enemji]

Another newb here. Only about 500 miles in the 3 months I've had my 2022 MY. I really love the car but share many of the disappointments discussed here such as lane departure, lack of front camera, and no overhead view with surroundings. I have come to expect features like this because the cars I have driven for the past 10 or so years have included them.

In addition to these "first world" type complaints I have found some basic ergonomic items lacking. For example, I have trouble finding the door handles in the dark because they are flush and nearly car color. Once located the handles cannot be opened with one or two fingers like most other modern cars.

The disappointments have not detracted much from my enjoyment of this car, and many can be addressed with adjustments and aftermarket parts. I have made quite a few purchases of good quality, easy to install parts and am working on adjusting the car and myself to the car.

Interesting. My grandmother has no problems with the door handles.

 

[SpicyPaneer]

I use lane departure with the blind sport cameras and you can see the side your car on the side before you make the turn.

 

[mylapore]

Learn to look at the screen when wanting to change lanes. The visualization will show vehicles around you and if in the blind spot, they will be marked red. All you need to do is use your turn signals to activate the function

I am not a fan of this - especially when doing a quick lane change to the left on a highway. Quite often when the car ahead of you is moving too slow or abruptly slowing down, I don't think it is practical to look down to your right at the screen before making a lane change to the left. It would be ideal to get the blind spot info from the left side mirror (absent) - so I resort to the old school way of looking over my shoulder which at least gets me looking in the correct direction.

 

[enemji]

I am not a fan of this - especially when doing a quick lane change to the left on a highway. Quite often when the car ahead of you is moving too slow or abruptly slowing down, I don't think it is practical to look down to your right at the screen before making a lane change to the left. It would be ideal to get the blind spot info from the left side mirror (absent) - so I resort to the old school way of looking over my shoulder which at least gets me looking in the correct direction.

I agree and I had to adjust to prepare myself ahead of time for lane changes and not resort to last minute “quick” lane changes

 

[SkyDog]

Learn to look at the screen when wanting to change lanes. The visualization will show vehicles around you and if in the blind spot, they will be marked red. All you need to do is use your turn signals to activate the function

I don't trust that the screen visualization will always show all of the cars around me. I think it's dangerous to rely on that working correctly, so I always look with my mirrors

 

[Smeghead]

Interesting. My grandmother has no problems with the door handles.

I'm probably older than your grandmother.

 

[Macb00kemdanno]

Learn to look at the screen when wanting to change lanes. The visualization will show vehicles around you and if in the blind spot, they will be marked red. All you need to do is use your turn signals to activate the function

I find this counterintuitive to making lane changes and downright dangerous. Why would I look down and to the right at my screen to move to the left lane? It seems so ridiculous.

I currently have a M3, and a 2023 MY is on the way to replace my wife’s 2017 Subaru Outback. Compared to my car, she currently has three features that I don’t have:

- Blind spot monitoring that works every time and puts a little orange light in the mirror if someone is in your blind spot.
- Audible alert when you drift out of your lane (or are coming close to it) that works reliably
- Rear cross traffic alert.

Even without those features, I still prefer driving my car over hers. I’m in my early 40s and have been driving since the mid 90s. So my base driverset was formed before all of this newfangled tech came around.

I don’t feel less safe driving my car versus the Outback; I just use my eyes and head. The M3 has excellent visibility IMHO so I’ve never really had a problem with blind spots.

As a parting thought, a lot of this assistive safety technology is a crutch to overcome poor design decisions by manufacturers. A lot of cars today have higher belt lines (reducing the amount of glass to see out of) and are doing funky things with rooflines and the rear quarter windows which makes it hard to see out of when looking over your shoulder. Same goes for backing up, sight lines are so bad that you can’t see much around you.

So in the end, many cars NEED this tech because they are design/safety handicapped from the start. Then folks start getting reliant on it no matter what.

 

[enemji]

I find this counterintuitive to making lane changes and downright dangerous. Why would I look down and to the right at my screen to move to the left lane? It seems so ridiculous.

I currently have a M3, and a 2023 MY is on the way to replace my wife’s 2017 Subaru Outback. Compared to my car, she currently has three features that I don’t have:

- Blind spot monitoring that works every time and puts a little orange light in the mirror if someone is in your blind spot.
- Audible alert when you drift out of your lane (or are coming close to it) that works reliably
- Rear cross traffic alert.

Even without those features, I still prefer driving my car over hers. I’m in my early 40s and have been driving since the mid 90s. So my base driverset was formed before all of this newfangled tech came around.

I don’t feel less safe driving my car versus the Outback; I just use my eyes and head. The M3 has excellent visibility IMHO so I’ve never really had a problem with blind spots.

As a parting thought, a lot of this assistive safety technology is a crutch to overcome poor design decisions by manufacturers. A lot of cars today have higher belt lines (reducing the amount of glass to see out of) and are doing funky things with rooflines and the rear quarter windows which makes it hard to see out of when looking over your shoulder. Same goes for backing up, sight lines are so bad that you can’t see much around you.

So in the end, many cars NEED this tech because they are design/safety handicapped from the start. Then folks start getting reliant on it no matter what.

I totally agree and we need to unlearn and relearn the new way.

 

[exxxviii]

I totally agree and we need to unlearn and relearn the new way.

This is not a better way. It is actually dangerous at worst and ineffective at best. A better way is here - when a driver makes a mistake, a good blind spot warning system puts an alert in the driver’s natural field of view, and if they driver misses that, the car actively pushes back. The Tesla does neither.

 

[dafish]

1) I saw brief mention of replacement side mirrors that were larger/wider? More details please!??

2) Tesla's blind spot awareness is against every form of reasonable training available to almost any driver, pilot, etc. Training yourself, or being expected, to look to a non-critical area for additional information is counter-productive at best, dangerous at worst. This is why BSA set into the side mirrors is almost universally accepted as the optimum placement. Tesla placement is irresponsible devotion to a design philosophy, nothing more. Or less.

I'm surprised the 3rd party world has delivered us a wider mirror with alerting integrated. Deliver it in black and it should sell like hotcakes.

3) There is also no question drivers aids, when used as most do, reduce driving skill. That's not an indictment of the value of the aid, it's a reflection of the responsibility of the average american. That doesn't mean each of us must fall into that trap anymore than we should accept poor BSA placement.

 

[enemji]

This is not a better way. It is actually dangerous at worst and ineffective at best. A better way is here - when a driver makes a mistake, a good blind spot warning system puts an alert in the driver’s natural field of view, and if they driver misses that, the car actively pushes back. The Tesla does neither.

Have you tried it out? Does it let you change the lanes when the vehicle is in your blindspot and marked red?

That said, it would have been better if that blindspot warning visualization screen was behind the steering wheel.

 

[BitJam]

1) I saw brief mention of replacement side mirrors that were larger/wider? More details please!??

I have these. They are fantastic! No more blind spots. Simple as that. Search for "model y wide angle side mirrors". I got them from Hansshow but there are much less expensive ones available now.

Very easy to install yourself. Pop out the old mirrors. Move the wires to the new ones and pop them in. Some people have been complaining recently that the defrost wires were not long enough to connect. So you might want to look for ones that come with extra wires. They do not auto-dim.

 

[exxxviii]

Have you tried it out? Does it let you change the lanes when the vehicle is in your blindspot and marked red?

That said, it would have been better if that blindspot warning visualization screen was behind the steering wheel.

Yes, I actually made a mistake and started to change lanes into another car. Nothing. I saw the car late and avoided contact. I’m not even sure if the screen was red. The left side of the screen is hidden a little behind the steering wheel.

Tesla blind spot is functionally non-existent and not trustworthy as a safety feature.

 

[enemji]

Yes, I actually made a mistake and started to change lanes into another car. Nothing. I saw the car late and avoided contact. I’m not even sure if the screen was red. The left side of the screen is hidden a little behind the steering wheel.

Tesla blind spot is functionally non-existent and not trustworthy as a safety feature.

Huh. That was not expected.

That said, I am just saying what I have started doing. Using the visualization screen to keep track of vehicles around me and changing lanes only when there are no one showing close around me.

It was hard. 30 years of using cars with no blindspot system. Took me almost 10 months yo learn and trust the visualization screen.

 

[dafish]

Not surprised. I was shocked at how poorly LKA works on a Tesla. I'm sure hoping it gets better, for at present it worked 30% of the time in my two demo rides. Oddly the Mitusbshi Outlander, of all things, was amazing. It was subtle, but if cranked up it kept a car dead in the center of a lane. That said Y was the worst modern vehicle in that regard I've seen.

I don't have enough experience no know, I wrote it off to "huh, they need to get Tesla Vision worked out. The loss of USS is pretty visceral". I dunno. Was it this bad before the pulled USS?

Keeping it in perspect, none of what I drive today has it, so I'm not freaked out. Still, how in hades is car made today not better at LKA and BSA? Just weird. Guess I'm hoping it gets better. Lots better.

 

[arbitrage000]

Not surprised. I was shocked at how poorly LKA works on a Tesla. I'm sure hoping it gets better, for at present it worked 30% of the time in my two demo rides. Oddly the Mitusbshi Outlander, of all things, was amazing. It was subtle, but if cranked up it kept a car dead in the center of a lane. That said Y was the worst modern vehicle in that regard I've seen.

I don't have enough experience no know, I wrote it off to "huh, they need to get Tesla Vision worked out. The loss of USS is pretty visceral". I dunno. Was it this bad before the pulled USS?

Keeping it in perspect, none of what I drive today has it, so I'm not freaked out. Still, how in hades is car made today not better at LKA and BSA? Just weird. Guess I'm hoping it gets better. Lots better.

LKA, AP, FSD etc don't use USS. So no difference between cars with or without USS. USS is only used for slow speed parking assist and gimmicky parking features.

 

[woolymammoth17]

Not surprised. I was shocked at how poorly LKA works on a Tesla. I'm sure hoping it gets better, for at present it worked 30% of the time in my two demo rides. Oddly the Mitusbshi Outlander, of all things, was amazing. It was subtle, but if cranked up it kept a car dead in the center of a lane. That said Y was the worst modern vehicle in that regard I've seen.

I don't have enough experience no know, I wrote it off to "huh, they need to get Tesla Vision worked out. The loss of USS is pretty visceral". I dunno. Was it this bad before the pulled USS?

Keeping it in perspect, none of what I drive today has it, so I'm not freaked out. Still, how in hades is car made today not better at LKA and BSA? Just weird. Guess I'm hoping it gets better. Lots better.

All of Tesla's driver assist features are a joke. Missing USS is shocking on a $50k plus vehicle in 2023.

 

[arbitrage000]

All of Tesla's driver assist features are a joke. Missing USS is shocking on a $50k plus vehicle in 2023.

I don't know about that, the car using just basic (free) AP can drive me around on any road even on unmarked dirt roads. Not many other manufacturers (if any) can do that. A lot need mapped highways to use LK, many can't handle any significant curves and I'm not sure if any can drive you on unmarked dirt roads without issue.
I've also been really impressed with Tesla's EAB which so far has just been warnings, I've slowed it down myself before it had to brake itself but it has alerted me a number of times at a respectable distance. Much better than my CX-5 did. Yesterday it went off as I came out of a roundabout and my angle was aimed straight at a pedestrian before I made my gradual left turn to straighten up in the road. Pedestrian was lit up in red and it beeped at me.

Yes the blindspot stuff isn't as good as the others. I'd like to have the light in the mirror or even an indicator near the speedometer on the screen. The cars on the display only light up in red if the turn signal is on but I'd like them lit up without the turn signal on if a car is in the blindspot. I've now gotten used to glancing at the blindspot camera which I moved to the upper left location.

I haven't had to test out the car preventing me from changing lanes into someone. It has directed me back into my lane a few times when I drifted over the line slightly.

You also have the option to run the car showing the three cameras all the time. That can be useful as you always have awareness of both blindspots and a better rearview (as long as camera is clean).

 

[GoVols!]

I think when we come to absolutely rely on electronics to be a good driver, we are going in the wrong direction. In other words, good situational awareness, proper mirror adjustment so that there is no blind spot, and just being a good, attentive driver, imo, makes all the artificial driver aids redundant and not *mandatory*. I think we tend to become less attentive, lower quality drivers when we heavily depend on technology to do everything for us.

The reason we see more electronic safety features is because vehicles literally have more blind spots compared to years past.
Older autos were more squared off and with larger windows in many cases. They simply had less curves. Also, many more cars are the road. Keep in mind, less people pay attention while driving(texting, eating, grooming) and these safety aids are to help these drivers from killing you and them. My wife’s bimmer has saved us backing up. It’s not because we weren’t paying attention, it’s because you have huge suvs/trucks blocking your view and have to back up very slowly until you can see but many times some impatient person just drives fast down the parking aisle knowingly seeing your rear end but won’t slow down or stop to allow you out. The rear detection recognizes people/cars before the backup camera does.