As you may recall, two months ago we placed an order for a Tesla Model Y, at which time the wait was supposedly short. Well, after going through the process and having the order accepted it ended up taking longer than anticipated, with several messages from Tesla advising us of the remaining time frame but everyone being confident that it would arrive prior to the end of the quarter.
As it turned out we were finally assigned a VIN on September 30th, and on October 1st were notified that it was in Fremont awaiting transport to Colorado. Yesterday, October 5th, we received a text message, the same way that all of the communication was handled from the beginning, saying it had arrived in Boulder (the location of our sales center) and asking when would we like to pick it up. As long as it was after 10:30am on the 6th any time or day would work for them. We suggested 10:31am on the 6th and they were happy to accommodate that, so this morning we made the hour’s drive down there.
Upon entering the lot half an hour early which in the meantime had its 16 Supercharging stations completed as compared to the last time we were there, we saw several new Model Y’s lined up in front along with numerous other Teslas. I approached the first one, looked at the VIN and realized it was ours – the last five digits of the VIN happen to coincidentally be the same as a relevant personal number for me so it was easy to remember.
I had spent the last few weeks reading lots of horror stories about poor quality, paint damage, mismatched and misaligned panels, damaged interiors, and one recent one of a roof detaching so had been ready to walk away if this had any significant issues. I was also concerned about the vague prospect of potentially getting someone else’s reject.
As I poked around the outside of it I was relieved to note that there was nothing of significance to note, and inside was much the same along with the VIN tag stating it was built in October of 2020 so it’s certainly a fresh car, right out of the paint oven. The detailing crew was just finishing up and was taking care of removing a couple of tiny spots of glue on the windshield as well as some leftover masking tape on some interior bits.
We glanced at the other cars parked nearby and they seemed much the same, i.e. perfectly fine, either we got part of a good batch or the stories are simply overblown, I’ll be the first to point out that Tesla (often of their own doing in my opinion) certainly gets an outsize dose of media attention, with just as much of it bad as good. As our original sales consultant was not there today, someone else was filling in and asked us to let him explain some key features of the car if we were interested before we got to the paperwork assuming we didn’t see anything that needing correcting that he may have missed earlier in the morning.
We agreed and he had us get in and then showed us / reviewed a few basic things regarding operation, programming our key cards, and setting up the personal settings for each of us. (Depending on who unlocks the car by walking up to it with a phone on their person or uses a key card as a backup, numerous settings on the car automatically adjust depending on who ends up in the driver’s seat, nothing as vintage as a physical “memory” button).
After about ten minutes of explaining and answering questions (including very clearly explaining that “autopilot” is an assistance feature, not a self-driving feature, and not at all overselling its capabilities) he handed us a folder with paperwork, asked us to read it over while comfortably seated in the car and sign if it all made sense and then meet him inside. This involved us reading some easily understood paperwork including the bill of sale and registration forms and signing as indicated, all was in plain language in normal size type on regular paper, nothing unexpected. A few minutes later we were done, went inside and he was entering info into the system regarding us and finalizing transferring the car into our name in the Tesla database.
We wrote a check for the car (yes, they take a personal check and the associate related that he was twenty-five years old and had never himself actually handwritten a check, I instantly felt very old and looked about for a cane) which he perfunctorily glanced at before placing it in the folder, showed him our insurance information which he took a photo of and uploaded and then we were done.
No finance office, no crap about extended warranties, no upsell for anything beyond one question asking if we were at all interested in a quote for a Tesla Solar system (Our response: “No thank you”; then him: “No problem”), no BS about needing perfect feedback on a survey, and if we had no other questions or any other needs that he could attend to then he wished us a happy journey home as he had preprogrammed our address into the navigation system and it would guide us home once we started driving.
Holy crap, the sales process simply does not get any better than that, they’d rather sell the car to us, get us on our way and then use the rest of the day to sell more cars to other happy buyers else rather than keeping us hanging around for no good reason and everyone getting annoyed. I’ve had more hassle buying a pair of sneakers, never mind a car. And don’t start on about sure it’s easy if one just pays the asking price, no, unfortunately it really isn’t in most places, that’s usually just phase one, of course it’s helpful when the car doesn’t seem overpriced in the first place and you’re confident nobody else paid less either.
Since it had been a couple of months since we had driven the test car and this is really my wife’s car, she asked if we could drive around locally for a few miles before heading home separately, so we did to be sure she was comfortable and had everything adjusted properly and then she dropped me off and I followed her home in this week’s test vehicle, all the while realizing that I liked the test vehicle a lot but it was just so 20th Century while she was ahead of me in the lane, to say nothing of the future…
As far as the car is concerned, it’s a 2020 Model Y Dual Motor Long Range – so basically a full-time five passenger AWD vehicle with a big enough battery for 316 miles of range and a 0-60 time of 4.8 seconds. The only actual option we selected was the “Deep Blue Metallic” paint for an additional $1,000 over the $49,990 base price and of course the $1,200 destination charge. You can do the math, tax and registration are on top of that and we are eligible for a $4,000 tax credit from our home state which will take care of most of that so really it’s our own sales tax and registration that are coming back to ourselves, not “someone else’s tax dollars”.
While we were waiting for the car to be built a new Performance option was offered (and we can still select it at any time as it’s an over-the-air software upgrade, just push a button on our app any time we are so inclined) that would lower the 0-60mph time from 4.8 to 4.3 seconds, for a one time charge of $2,000. At this time we don’t need that, (4.8 without any loss due to altitude is excellent already), but I can’t think of many (ok, any) cars that you can improve the performance by that much for that little money and zero labor.
As a point of comparison there is an actual Performance model variant of the Y that costs an additional $10,000 and which results in 0-60 reducing to 3.5, top speed increasing to 155mph (from 135 on ours) as well as larger wheels, tires, and brakes and slightly reduced ride height and range. We certainly didn’t need that but the $2,000 performance upgrade option is comparatively well-priced.
Once home, my wife took one of the kids on an errand and then later this afternoon I finally had enough time to take it for a spin, hence this COAL update is really just a first impression and not super thorough like a regular review. I’ll follow up later after more time with the car and after having had enough time to really decide what is great and what might perhaps be less satisfactory.
For example, while we were happy that four seats are heated, we were not thrilled that the steering wheel wasn’t. On a cold morning that is generally a valuable feature, however we have been told that instead of that a better option is just to set the car to preheat a few minutes before departure and that climbing into a 70 or whatever degree cabin on a freezing day is even better than just a warm wheel and something that an electrically powered vehicle can easily do.
In any case, as I got in and adjusted myself I noodled around in the menus a bit and noted again that on the large 15″ screen the speed is at the top left (it would be in the picture if I was moving), a visual representation of the car and anything around it is below that (which varies depending on actual traffic and objects on the road or things around you in the garage), with the rest of the screen devoted to either a very detailed map or whatever menu is selected as on overlay. Along the bottom are dedicated areas for audio, HVAC, and a couple of other frequently used controls.
The steering wheel is simply styled with only two buttons, however both scroll up and down, can be pushed side to side, as well as depressed. These two spherical buttons control many functions on the screen as well as the mirrors and the tilt/telescoping wheel itself and audio volume.
Most controls can also be selected/adjusted by simply speaking a command, i.e. turn up the fan speed by one, lower temperature by three, turn on left rear seat heater to high etc. Or the same can be chosen along the bottom edge of the screen if one happens to be mute. In other words the most often used items are very easily accessible and do not necessitate either removing a hand from the wheel or glancing away from the road if one doesn’t want to.
But much more esoteric stuff can be selected by diving deeper, ideally when stopped of course. Wipers, Lights, Highbeams etc. are all automatic but can be overridden as desired and I’ve driven enough new vehicles from various manufacturers now to realize that all of this tech has been quite well-perfected for some time now.
Materials are of excellent quality, fit and finish was perfectly fine for any $50-something thousand vehicle and easily as good as many at higher price points, the faux leather looks and feels good (better than Toyota Softex, perhaps not as thick as the old MB-Tex), alcantara inlays in the door panels are welcome, the pillars and headliner around the glass on the ceiling are woven cloth, the wood strip is an open pore wood with texture, and there are various actual metal bits of trim. Dashtop materials and door uppers are soft, materials lower (knees and below I think) are harder.
Turn/Wiper and Gear Selector stalks are solid with good heft, feel, and balance, and the center console bin lids, while of a piano black plastic that may scratch (perhaps a wood upgrade to those lids as in Model 3 might become available?) close with a soft touch on magnetic catches. Standard is a two-phone wireless charging pad, however an automatic garage door opener (Homelink) is not, but rather a $300 including installation option that must be installed after purchase, not at the factory. Lord Elon giveth, and Lord Elon taketh away…
The front trunk (frunk) has a large bin even on this dual-motor version similar to the one I had in my Porsche, and the rear hatch is spacious with another very large bin under the floor.
The cargo area is lacking a cover or any provision for one, but the glass is deeply tinted as well as being difficult to see into due to the shape and where the metal and glass surfaces are. The underfloor bins can hold a large volume if need be. There is no spare tire, we probably need to be sure we have some fix-a-flat or repair kits in the car if we will be out of range of a repair service call, that will be an area to investigate further.
That same rear hatch shape, while making it difficult to see in, unfortunately also has the opposite effect of being difficult to see out of, the high resolution screen on the monitor all turning to a huge image of what’s behind is a necessary feature on this car as what’s left as a vertical window area is not a very tall area. Were backup cameras not a thing, then a 2nd gen Honda CRX or Prius-like extra window back there would pretty much be a necessity.
Charging at this point is waiting for my electrician to install the Tesla fast charger in my garage, the device (from Tesla) costs $500 shipped with an 18-foot cord and installation of a new 60amp circuit along with around 40 or so feet of conduit up and over one of my garage bays and down a pillar will be another $600, after which we will be able to charge up in around five hours or so.
For the next week or two we will (if needed) use the Tesla Supercharger down near our local airport at a hotel, there are ten stations at that location, and the Tesla app has never shown less than eight stations available since I’ve been checking it for the last few weeks. The same app tells me that we currently have 182 miles of range left, where my four closest Supercharger stations are and where my four closest non-Supercharger but available with adapter chargers are along with the exact current quantity of available chargers at each of the Supercharger locations are at this exact point in time.
Driving the car is exhilarating, of course we only got it today, my wife has driven maybe 80 miles and me another 40 or so, so it’s still very new. There are zero rattles, but I have found two more small pieces of masking tape inside the car that I removed. It’s obviously dead silent while stopped, it holds itself in place (or can be set to creep), accelerates strongly from any speed or rest, and invariably you find yourself exceeding the speed limit as the acceleration is far stronger than normal with far less noisy feedback.
Braking is currently set to mainly regenerative and I’ve more or less already mastered the one-pedal driving method wherein you are just on the gas to some extent or not at all, and when not the car slows all the way to a stop, it is not difficult to judge how exactly to get it to stop exactly where you want it to this way although it’s almost impossible to explain to anyone that hasn’t tried it themselves. I can easily see how the brake pads and rotors will last forever, I don’t believe I touched the brakes more than a few times today and even those touches were more due to muscle memory than anything else.
In fact it’s a lot like a larger version of the Electric Mini Cooper that I enjoyed so much some time back, just faster, more powerful, with more range, and roomier, but with a similar feel and while obviously heavier, with the weight located so low in the chassis still with an exceptionally tossable feel along with a very secure feeling of being planted.
Headroom is very spacious what with the tinted glass ceiling without a cover and the edges are far enough away from my head as to not be intrusive at all, the seats are supportive and very comfortable, the legroom is capacious and the rear seat legroom is as good or better than most cars of this size.
The wheels on ours are the 19″ standard size, the covers (that apparently contribute to about 3% of the range) come off and hide what I find is a very attractive alloy (in silver) underneath, I have ordered a set of center caps and lug nut covers for those and will likely be making that change before the next update. We will be ordering a set of snow tires and perhaps dedicated wheels as well soon. The tire size is 255/45-19, the same on all four wheels.
More updates will be coming periodically, we will see how this all turns out in the long term, but as of now everything is as expected (actually better than expected, really, the delivery experience was one I was dreading and turned into a best case scenario). As time goes on we will learn more about the car, its features, things that differ from a “regular” car, and what we like and/or dislike.
We are far from “early adopters” but aren’t stuck in the past either, along with a willingness to explore the world and different cultures near and far, we find progress interesting (as well as inescapable). I’m sure not everyone will agree that this would be the right vehicle for them for various reasons and that’s perfectly fine (I myself am not particularly a fan of Mr. Musk’s general schtick), but I’m also not interested in ignorant commentary either.
If you have questions, please ask, I’ll answer honestly and openly, we are regular owners without any agenda. I’ve been openly critical of Tesla in the past and still believe they could do various things better, but have become impressed with the fact that they have not only survived but are thriving currently and although several others have cars on the horizon, some highly ballyhooed manufacturers have completely whiffed with their products to date and some others due to debut soon don’t instill the utmost confidence either. I do think this technology (electric mobility) is the future and that it’s proceeding quicker than many anticipate.
It will start (has started) successfully with passenger cars such as this one and its predecessors and will then continually expand to other segments. In case you agree and are inclined to do the same, if you use this referral code https://ts.la/james86546 when ordering one we both get a small benefit out of it. That being said, it’s a very interesting car from an interesting company that is absolutely far in the lead – mainly because they absolutely believe in it and are doing it because they want to, not because they have to or realize they can’t continue to compete in the marketplace without it.
More updates to this series to come “over the air” to your browser…Watch this space!
Congratulations; sounds like things are off to a good start. Happy motoring.
Maybe I didn’t look close enough but where is the speedometer? Does it show on that screen pasted in the centre of the dash, or somewhere else?
He said it up there: when moving it’s in the top left corner of the screen.
It’s at the top left of the screen. In the two shots where the car is parked, the “P” for “Park” displays instead. And where I’m stopped at a light, the (H) symbol for “Hold” is in that place since we have set it to just hold in place instead of creep forward. Presumably people know when they are stopped so there was no reason to display a large zero, thus other more relevant information is displayed instead.
The below pic was from our test drive (post linked near the top of this one), I shot it from the back seat, the number is large enough to be easily seen.
Tape marks on trim and glue on the windshield. Can’t wait to see if the Berlin built models will be better next year?. Latest news is that Tesla have cancelled their PR dept. Wonder if the after sales dept will be next?.
Sorry Tesla are not for me. They are just a means of transport. I-phone/white good on wheels.
I fully agree. What I see here is an anonymous appliance, a machine that brings you from A to B, nothing more. It probably has all the comfort other cars also have, and maybe even more, but for me a car is also -and for a large part- about aesthetics, emotion and fun to drive. This car, with its nondescript exterior, booooring interior and all the sex appeal of orthopedic shoes, does not check any of my boxes.
Yes, but something tells me that every update on our “white good”, “boring appliance” that “isn’t for you” will nonetheless be eagerly read by you two. But feel free to skip any and all of these posts in the future. Haterz gonna hate and all that…
Obviously you missed (more likely chose to miss) the part in the same sentence where I mentioned the leftover bits of tape and glue spots on the windshield were in the process of being removed by the detailing crew that was on the job when I showed up earlier than my appointment…Not seeing how Berlin is going to improve on that but yeah, clearly foreign workers are better and use magic to assemble cars etc…/s
It’s painfully obvious neither of you have ever driven an electric car, let alone one with dynamism built in. The one thing you are right on about though is that it IS in fact a way of getting from A to B. A way for the whole family to do so at once in a car designed to do so faster, quieter, more efficient, cleaner, cheaper per mile, and likely safer than any car we have owned to date.
Get ready gents, whatever brand you each favor is in the process of going electric as well for exactly the same reasons.
Whooo, hold your horses! I don’t think I’ve said anywhere I don’t like/want EV’s. I just don’t like the overall design of THIS car, whereas the Tesla model S is one of my favorite EV’s.
As for your remark “It’s painfully obvious neither of you have ever driven an electric car”: IIRC my first drive in a (Toyota) hybrid was back in 1999 and I’ve driven a variety of different EV’s and hybrids since 😉
When you write a review you can’t expect everyone to share your opinion/enthusiasm.
That’s not at all how your comment read. I’ve had similar experiences to yours and it sounded much more like you were comparing a modern electric car to a first generation Prius that anything else when it comes to the emotion and fun to drive part.
I do not expect or need everyone to be enthusiastic but nowhere in your comment did you even remotely let on that you in fact like the Model S or any other electric and your beef is with the actual design of this car in particular which would be a perfectly fair and acceptable criticism due to an opinion you hold yourself and that I would not take issue with. Having driven a Model S as well as a Model 3, this vehicle doesn’t drive al that different from it beyond having a higher seating position and more headroom.
I really don’t understand the emotion some men have over EVs. I have driven the Model S, Model 3, a Nissan Leaf and they Hyundai Inoq.
The first second I moved away I knew gasoline was a dead technology.
I am a professional in my career, but it’s just amazing how many people who haven’t been to university themselves tell me how to do my job.
So here is what I say to the grumpy old men:
Don’t like an EV? Don’t buy one.
But others do like them and that is their choice just as much as your 7000 lb truck you drive to work.
I certainly didn’t read anything more than you don’t like the aesthetics. Personally I too think it looks too anonymous, but on the other hand I think it looks better than the current Toyota and Lexus models, which is ironic since for the longest time Toyotas were considered anonymous appliances.
They’re both probably from protective covers applied for shipping, like the stuff you peel off new phones and TVs now. Both of the last cars I’ve purchased have had tape residue left on them, one on the chrome around the windows, and one on the dashboard aluminum trim. It’s not a manufacturing defect, just porters/detailers at the dealership not fully prepping the car after transport.
While I can’t say I fully agree on the white goods given the performance offered, I do think other then the model S Tesla has an awful aesthetic. I’m not sure I’m alone on this either as there seems to be a lot of hate for the model X and 3 design wise.
And I completely (personally) agree with you in regard to the X (just not a fan, to me it looks too large to pull off the rounded egg look) and the 3 is better however I’m on record as not being a fan of the way the greenhouse looks too tall and upright compared to the rest of the car when viewed from the front head-on. Both are aesthetic opinions of mine, obviously others disagree, purely subjective.
I do not prefer slantback SUVs to ones with a more upright rear end, in large part due to the decreased utility aspect as well as visibility, however I’ll concede it’s done here due to range being deemed of more importance and apparently this shape is more aerodynamic and this helpful in that regard, thus at least there is a reason for it.
I happen to love the looks of the Model 3; I think it’s the best looking sedan of its general size currently sold. The Y unfortunately lost the 3’s sleekness when it was stretched vertically (inside and out, the Model Y looks like the reproportioned Model 3 it is). I too would prefer a more squared-off rear section for looks, interior space, and outward visibility, even if it hurts aerodynamics and thus range somewhat. I also wish the Y got the same chrome window outlines and door handles as the 3 and other Teslas, though I seem to be in the minority and Chinese Model 3’s have already switched to black trim. Given the popularity of aftermarket black trim, I’m guessing US models will go the same way.
A friend has a Model 3 and just got a Tesla solar installation with two power walls. That setup is pretty cool as well. I look forward to your “long term updates” on your Y! I was a skeptic a few years ago, but I’m becoming slowly converted.
Jim, something tells me you will have a very delightful ownership experience with your Tesla. It certainly has a lot fewer moving parts than anything else you’ve owned!
As one with a genetic streak of skepticism, I don’t necessarily view all change as being progress. However, the electrification of vehicles is progress as it provides a terrific alternative to internal combustion. This is an exciting time in the automotive world and I’m eager to hear more about your Tesla as your experiences unfold.
Incidentally, Mack just unveiled an electric garbage truck that is being tested by New York City. So the technology is beginning to expand to other segments.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90556334/new-york-city-is-testing-electric-garbage-trucks
Garbage trucks, delivery trucks and other such vehicles, school buses, transit buses, utility vehicles, all are obvious other applications. None of which are infallible either in their current/traditional form.
Change is progress even if it doesn’t work out, something was learned in the process. Not a decade ago people scoffed at turbochargers in pickup truckss. (Conveniently somehow ignoring that they also often hailed a Cummins TURBOdiesel as in a pickup one of the greatest things ever.) Now as you well know turbos are on the most common gasoline engines in the most common pickup truck and obviously spread far and wide in the overall industry. Electric is a bigger shift and while some makers went hybrid first and got their feet wet that way, others are just skipping that entirely and taking the deeper plunge. Eight years after the Model S debuted is enough time for me to realize that the tech seems solid, at least from this manufacturer that is “all-in” on it. I know we could also have gotten a bad one and something will show up going forward but the overall numbers seem to argue against that. Few of my previous owned vehicles have been completely trouble free either (I’ve never owned a Corolla though…)
Please don’t take my change statement as being critical (although I’ll freely admit it likely wasn’t worded as well as it could have been). Change for the sake of change, or change with no clear purpose or meaning, is where the struggle lies for it being considered as progress. Suppose Musk suddenly started to put vinyl roofs and wire wheel covers on all his cars. That is certainly change, but is that progress or regress? 🙂
I agree fully about busses, delivery trucks, etc being electrically powered being the way to go. There’s limitation regardless of technology but overcoming that is the beauty of innovation.
Your ownership experiences will undoubtedly be helpful to others around here. I’ve contemplated electric as my use case would be ideal in many circumstances but the timing just hasn’t been there as of yet.
Nope, I didn’t 🙂 The Model L (for Lido), an interesting concept indeed and yes, not progress for me either but if someone wants it, there’s no doubt an aftermarket vendor happy to supply…
I eagerly await the next installment, and for now am enthralled with your (wife’s) new car. There seems to be a lot to like here. And a 60 amp charger – wow, I remember touring some old houses where the electric service for the entire house was only 60 amps. I presume if you were willing to take forever you could plug into a standard outlet, or is that not an option?
My first two impressions – I am a little surprised that at this price you are not getting real leather instead of faux. And every time I look at that flat part of the front end I imagine myself sitting there cleaning bugs from it. So the dark color (which I love, incidentally) seems like a plus there. 🙂
It comes with a portable 20foot charger that you can plug into a regular 220outlet with an adapter for the most common car charger format (besides the Superchargers) and yes could also be plugged into a 110 outlet for total emergency use as that would only add less than two miles per hours, but enough to eventually get you to something with real power. Kind of like transferring fuel from your lawnmower’s tank to your car’s tank using an eyedropped.
Faux leather, just like on the Mercedes GL you rode in a few years ago that cost significantly more when new 🙂 It’s decent stuff, as usual there are different grades and what’s on offer here is nicer than what’s on offer in a lower-priced car. Like any other car I could of course have aftermarket leather installed, which just as in most other cases is of higher quality than what comes in most new cars, and at lower cost.
And finally, yes, bugs, it’ll collect them but being a sort of pointy end may avoid more than your minivan will. And no nooks and crannies in a grille (fake or real) to dig them out of either.
Several of the duplexes I used to own that were built in the 40’s had 110v 60a panels for each unit when I bought them. The building had a shared drop with one leg going to each unit.
The nice thing about the current Tesla EVSE, and some of the SAE compatible units is that they are programmable to allow them to be used with different sized circuits. Tell it that it is on a 60a circuit and it will draw up to 48a, tell it that it is connected to a 40a circuit and it will draw up to 32a. (3hr rule requires 20% down rating).
Yes and they are programmable as well from what I understand, i.e. if you wanted to have it charge at a slower speed than possible in order to possibly protect the battery more you could set it up that way, i.e. have it fully charge over 8 hours instead of 5 or whatever while it sitting there overnight. You can also tell it that you don’t want it to fully charge and just go to 80 or 90% or whatever and change it as/when desired.
A great review about a cool car… I can’t help but wonder if the current model EVs will be around and still on the road after 30-35 years though.
Congratulations.
For me, you hit it on the head with ICE engines suddenly feeling last century. That’s how I feel about these. I could not see myself buying anything else (3 LR of Y LR) if I was in the market right now.
I’d ideally have a fun little roadster for the weekends but as a car, I feel these are superior. And to elaborate on that: If you have your own charger, they always have max range when you get into them. They rarely break or need maintenance due to the design. They are silent, they are efficient, they are fast, and in a country like Denmark the tax structure makes them much, much cheaper than the cars they are compared to. No-brainer in my book.
I look forward to reading more updates.
I don’t read the traditional car magazines any more, so this write-up really explains a lot about how Tesla does things and captures buyers. Fascinating.
Having just bought a new Honda, we went through the sales experience, and it was “pretty good”. But reading up on yours, I realize that while the local Honda dealer employed reasonably good practices, there was still the bit of upselling, the visible “who gets credit for what” going on internally in the store, complete with the prominent white board roster of recent sales and salesmen, and a general wait, then rush, process. Then there was an extremely awkward public parading around of my exceptional credit score amongst the people there. I felt a bit violated on that one, and one could almost feel the salesman sensing another sale or three, never mind that careful shopping, buying the minimum necessary, and generally being a tightwad and not falling for their pitches, is what helps get one a good credit score in the first place.
It looks like a Tesla has paid attention, and the people there realize that the new car is the thing, and it is not about the guy making the sale, trying to personally ingratiate himself with you, and getting you to remember his name. I look forward to finding out how things go for you “down the road”. Depending on how it goes, I could actually see myself buying one of these cars someday. I am reconciling myself to electric and non-home-serviceable cars full of software and plastic, though I am kicking and screaming, internally, along the way.
Congratulations on your new car! The whole dealer experience, in my experience, tends to in general get slightly better the more you spend (which is unfortunate in and of itself) but even the last Mercedes we bought took way too long and with way too many people and departments involved.
I can still rotate the tires, flush the brake fluid, add washer fluid, and if it ever needs it, change the brake pads, wiper blades, and cabin air filter myself if I choose to do so, there’s no magic there. I am not going to miss the regular or occasional need to change oil and filter, spark plugs, timing belts, engine air filter, coolant, patching an exhaust, or whatever else may come up though. And if my wife never has to see another gas station in her life, that’ll be too soon for her, the local Gas’n’Sip just isn’t that exciting place to hang out at, even for five minutes, who wants to firmly grasp the Covid handle every few days. 🙂 Curiously I think that having had a diesel eight years ago pushed her toward this, she loved and still mentions how that car’s increased range reduced the fuel stops by half.
Being a tinkerer and liking to see how things are put together, I don’t see much access to the mechanical bits of the car. It looks like the louvered panel between the windshield and the front trunk might offer some access, but that appears to be about it. Sort of like an iPhone, where you are not supposed to be able to touch or even look at what is making the thing work?
I didn’t see it mentioned in the main text of the article, but reduced vehicle maintenance over an ICE vehicle is another positive of EV ownership that should not be overlooked.
I didn’t realize they did away with physical buttons for lights/high beams too. I get that the systems work pretty well, but as a pedestrian, I gotta say, I HATE automatic high beams combined with inattentive drivers, I frequently have to shine my LED flashlight into oncoming cars so their high beams turn off. They make it just as hard for a pedestrian on the sidewalk to see as an oncoming driver. And to have to dig through a menu to turn that on and off means the driver just isn’t going to bother.
Drilling down through the menu while in motion doesn’t exactly sound safe, either. Maybe voice activation?
Congrats on the new ride, that’s a very nice shade of blue!
The straight line performance is undeniable. I also like the large greenhouses, and the exterior styling on the Model 3 is handsome IMO. Some other Tesla-isms (over the top minimalism on the interior, achieved by cramming everything into a distracting touchscreen) I don’t think I could make peace with. The lack of sound/fury during acceleration would be a problem if I was cross shopping this with a sports car, but for a family car I wouldn’t care. And frankly so many newer sporty/ “fun” cars have such unengaging powertrains (Civic 1.5T+CVT for example) that they may as well go electric and enjoy the performance benefits. I test drove a number of cars last year: F30 328xi, Q50 3.0T, Mazda3 2.5 6MT, Alltrak 6MT, all of them left me cold. A Tesla would feel more special I’m sure. I hope in a few more years Tesla will work out the final QC kinks as they get into the rhythm of a more established traditional car maker and all these horror stories are looked back on like the bygone early era of Hyundai Excels or something.
Thank you very much! Go drive one, I think you would like it, a lot. Your wife will more than likely love it and not let you leave without one. 🙂 If nothing else it’s a data point for you to compare everything else to firsthand.
A little secret – that Challenger Hellcat Redeye I drove for 48hours a few months ago was amazing. But after that 48hours I had had enough of the sound and the fury. The Tesla does make a noise, but it’s a quieter whirring noise that makes the acceleration all the more remarkable and has a charm all its own.
Note that the Performance trim of the Model Y is just as fast to 60 as the Redeye was (3.6 seconds). At a far lower price. And that’s at sea level. Anything over that the Tesla remains the same. Anyone who is into performance and scoffs at a Tesla (while usually refusing to test drive one lest their sensibilities be upset) are just in denial (I’m not meaning you here).
The horror stories are akin to those of the Dodge minivan transmission. There’s plenty of stories out there, yet people buy Dodge minivans and many never have an issue. And others do. At least with the Tesla the majority if not most issues are cosmetic, clearly visible when you take delivery and if deemed bad enough you can refuse delivery (and people have) and at most be out the $100 order fee although I’ll bet you could even get that back as it’s applied to the purchase price on the back end. You do not hand over the final check until you approve the car.
In the long run that will all get better, it has to as its cheaper and more profitable in the long term to build correctly on an assembly line than repair later (see Ford Explorer about that), but mine was fine, the ones around mine were fine, the ones in my neighborhood are fine, and the vast majority of people who’s cars were fine are not rushing out to make a video or write a blog about how their cars were fine and getting re-tweeted about their boringly good car all day long. At this point getting them out of the factory is likely the focus but the tipping point will be here soon as too many people remain turned off by the stories (as I was, until I did my own research and then ultimately just decided to take the plunge – just like you did with a Dodge.). The only reason we don’t have a charger in the garage yet is due to being worried about if the car would arrive in acceptable condition or need to be rejected. So now I’m waiting for my electrician.
My perfect Tesla would be something like a Model 3, but with early 90s Honda interior ergonomics plopped into it. The airy greenhouse and unfussy/understated exterior styling of the 3 in a way remind me of the old Hondas.
And if they really did get the AutoPilot fully sorted, I know my wife would love that to ferry her home after a late shift at the hospital. A fellow young doctor friend of hers did just that recently: bought a Model 3 and says he uses AutoPilot extensively.
Regarding the sales experience… I suspect that most Tesla buyers don’t set foot in a “sales center” without knowing exactly what they want and exactly how they’re going to pay for it. That means the sales experience can be exactly what happened to you.
By contrast an alarming (to me, at least) percentage of “other brand” buyers walk into a dealership not knowing what they want, what they need, what they can afford, or how they are going to pay for it. That leaves them ripe for the predatory picking of the “other brand” dealerships. I’ve heard altogether too many stories from friends and co-workers about truly lousy deals.
There’s an old adage that says, “Nobody can take advantage of you if you don’t allow it.” I want to feel badly for people who made lousy car deals but some of the reason they didn’t get a good deal is their own fault for not doing even the most basic of research or preparation before going in to a dealership.
By contrast, anecdotal evidence from my own experience and reading about the experiences of other well-informed and -prepared buyers makes me believe that *most* dealerships are reasonably well-prepared to streamline the experience for car buyers who know what they’re doing.
Is it right for dealerships to take advantage of ill-informed buyers? Absolutely not. But it does happen, and that is at least in part due to such buyers allowing themselves to be taken advantage of.
It’s not even the taking advantage thing, it’s just the business model in general.
The last Mercedes we bought back in 2014 (so easily a comparable average sale price place) we knew exactly which exact vehicle we wanted to look at, made an appointment, didn’t need financing, and it still took much of the day. We should have just said forget it.
The VW Touareg we bought in 2012 with a check for about the same exact dollar amount as this one also took several hours despite having prearranged an appointment for one particular car, the only one they actually had in stock.
The Highlander we had (still do until Carvana comes in a couple of weeks, need to move that up now actually…) was done using the internet department, that was better, we made an appt, looked at a couple of colors, drove one, and then he did the paperwork at the prearranged price (via internet), but still had the hard sell for all the other crap in the finance office with someone else that frankly was rude when I refused everything so it took a couple of hours without anyone explaining anything about the car to me.
The best prior experience was probably the 2014 Outback which again I used the internet dept of the dealer, it was ready when we got there, the sales person did all the finance stuff as well (so no other wait), and he just asked if I wanted to hear the pitch to which I said no and we moved on with the signatures. Still not sure why they needed half a ream of dot-matrix carbon copy paper that was hard to read though. That was the only time it was a one-person deal the whole way through for any car I have ever bought at a new-car dealer.
When I see an electric car I always wonder,” How long does it take to charge it from empty to full?”
It does it while the owner sleeps. Or any other time it’s sitting in its parking spot. Kind of like having a regular car and paying someone to fill it up via home delivery. Except nobody to pay and nobody has to come over.
Whenever I see a gas powered car I wonder: “Do that guy’s hands reek of gasoline or diesel and what other germs did he pick up from the filthy gas pump that has never been sanitized” and “Do his kids think the exhaust smell smells good and take deep breaths of it in the morning?” and lastly “I have far better things to do with my time than wait in line at a gas station, get out of the car, worry about someone skimming my credit card number, dealing with a flammable substance that can splash on me, wondering how many brain cells just died when I smelled the carcinogenic aroma of gasoline, standing there holding this nozzle, and then getting back in the car hopefully without smelly fuel on my shoes, clothes, or hands, and then have to get back to the road I was on.”
Of course I still do all of the above when I drive all the way across the country and back every other week in my other car as everyone does. 🙂
The convenience of overnight home charging is a huge lure for EV ownership. And many feel that popping the ~$1000 for the twice-as-fast home Level 2 EVSE is worth it.
On top of that, there’s the even faster DCFC (Supercharger for Tesla) which will charge to 80% in ~30 minutes.
I’m trying to quantify the cost of the home charger infrastructure – If the Tesla branded home charger cost $500 and the cost to install it costs $600, then that’s $1,100 total (although you could use the included charger cable and just install a dryer plug for minimal cost if you have space in the panel for far lower overall cost).
Anyway, assume 100,000 miles of driving in a regular car that gets 25mpg and has a 20 gallon tank. That’d be 200 fillups. Let’s assume ten minutes by the time you have pulled off the road, into a station that’s convenient, and do the business. So that’s 33 hours of time. With an $1100 initial cost that pays back at $33 per hour. I like to make more than that per hour so it’s a good deal. Of course there’s no reason this infrastructure will only last for 100.000 miles, if you can use it over 200k the hourly savings double and the cost halves. Never mind that most likely even if you leave it installed for the next home owner it adds some value to the house, i.e. isn’t a sunk cost. Yes there is time involved in plugging it in, but not sure how to quantify that. (ten seconds?)
Of course as stated the more you do it or if a more basic setup (glorified dryer plug and the included cable), then you could likely divide those costs by up to a factor of five or more. That’s what the Model S guy did down the road from me. He added his own circuit breaker to his panel, got the approved plug and uses the cable that came with the car.
In my case I wanted to leave that cable in the car in case my wife needed it on the road and have a dedicated cable and charger in the garage that won’t be tripped over and only needs connecting on one end (the car end).
Well said. As a side note, for longevity, it pays to do the research on those Level 2 EVSE home units. Of particular note were the units GM sold for the first gen Volt. The first was made by Lear, the second, GE. They were cheap, and looked it, with shiny plastic that would look right at home on a Tonka toy. With regular use, both of them had a real bad habit of crapping shortly after the warranty expired.
“In my case I wanted to leave that cable in the car in case my wife needed it on the road and have a dedicated cable and charger in the garage that won’t be tripped over and only needs connecting on one end (the car end).”
If the cable is left at home you can leave it plugged into the wall, spend $5 on a hose hanger at your favorite hardware store and keep the cable nicely hung up on the wall with no trip hazard.
I specifically didn’t want a situation where the cable was the default home use one and then for whatever reason was needed while away or forgotten to be taken. That to me is the real danger, not having a way to plug in if needed for some reason. Hence the dedicated home charger, the cost is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, and the “away” cable is left in the car.
I was just pointing out that using the included cable does not constitute any more of a trip hazard than the wall mounted unit, if done right. I can see the desire to have it in the car, as a “just in case” item, though I’m not sure of its usefulness. If you see that you aren’t going to be able to make it home or to a public unit where will you plug it in?
I’m trying to rationalize adding more power to my garage. You know, for a welder. And then maybe a Model Y. I’ve noticed a lot of the latter on the roads recently. Congratulations!
FWIW, telling an electrician that you want a 220/240 receptacle for a welder instead of an EV ‘might’ be a cheaper way to go. The problem is I don’t know the amperage requirements. In almost all Level 2 EVSE installations, a minimum of 32 amps is needed and that, alone, could be more expensive than using smaller gauge wiring for a 16A outlet.
You aren’t wrong, I do know that for my own family a dedicated charger with a place to hang the wand will mostly have the wand hung back up appropriately. A plug in the wall where we need to have it in our garage might cause the plug to wiggle partly loose especially with kids walking through the area and I’m less confident about the wand ending up in a dedicated spot every time. While nothing’s actually foolproof, this ends up being a better option for us. I may well change my stance on this over time. I understand that the included cable is limited to a lower charging rate though than the dedicated unit, although that’s likely not a big deal either in the long run.
I kind of want to install a regular 220 outlet as well on the other side of the pillar as there exists the possibility over time of more electric test vehicles, it’d be good to be able to charge at home rather than the case with the Mini Cooper for example where I was searching for public chargers.
Our first EV, first home charger, there’ll surely be a slight learning curve, I’m no expert (yet).
Personally I wouldn’t worry about the plug coming loose, the friction requirements for those high amp connections is pretty high, at least when new. Now if you are plugging and unplugging it every day then yeah in a couple of years it may get loose.
Definitely worth asking your electrician how much it would cost to run an additional circuit while he is already there and running wires to the same general location. Undoubtedly it will be cheaper to do it now vs later. It would also give you a “just in case” back up.
@Rudiger, well a honest electrician should charge you the same for the labor to run a circuit from the panel to the garage whether it is a 40a, 50a or 60a circuit. Of course the larger wire needed for the higher load will be more expensive per foot and that will add to the cost.
Of course that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people out there that will add a “rich person tax” to the quote when they think they can get away with it.
Yeah, that’s the reason I mentioned the possibility of a different amperage requirement between a welder and an EV. It would definitely require a larger gauge wire and that is easily a higher cost.
If that is the case, then an overall higher installation price for an EV circuit over one for a welder/dryer would, indeed, be justified. Probably the best course would to simply say the specific amperage requirement but I can’t imagine any electrician at some point asking exactly what it was going to be used for and, hopefully, pricing the installation on that basis, alone.
If you encounter that many problems in petrol stations then I can certainly understand the attraction of an electric car.
Thank you, I didn’t even touch on the geopolitical aspects, environmental aspects, direct waste of time and my money in regard to gas stations and Big Oil.
But at the end of the day and what really matters to us is that it’s a fun car to drive and does the job we need it to and for likely less outlay than what a comparable conventionally fueled vehicle would do it for. The other stuff is just icing on the cake.
You’ve stated my problem with EVs quite well. They aren’t yet practical for a traveling salesman. Most of my travel days require more than one fuel stop. Our Dutch salesman has an EV. Practical for the Netherlands maybe, but he has to drive to Germany and Italy too. As he says, the quoted range is illusory in cold weather driving at autobahn speeds. The 1st stop isn’t so bad. You’re ready to stretch and have a cappuccino. The charging break is welcome. By the 2nd stop, you just want to get to where you’re going. The wait becomes annoying. If the superchargers are all occupied, then you have another wait. Do this several times a week and you wish for your old ICE back. For my current job – no thanks. For the wife to run around town – great.
Great summary, I’m on the same boat making regularly 500-700 miles per day transfers, while ccasionally it’s up to 1000 miles visiting customers on the way so plane is not always a option. For such a distances, it’s nothing better to be able being on the way in few minutes again.
But for around town driving, EV makes sense and in the winter it’s great you do not need to warm up the engine. It will be great to hear also about the range on the long distance runs, especially in the winter time.
With the home charging, I think next best upgrade will be wireless charging on dedicated spot once the far less efficienty is solved. With charger on the wall, i guess it might become somehow boring to plug the socket every single day once you get home. And I’m sure once came day when you forget and find it in the rush morning car without the required range, but this can happend also with the gas although there is quicker solution.
Clearly an electric car is not perfect for every situation such as mega-drivers such as yourselves. No dispute there. But with 316 miles of range and, ok, even with 200 miles of range that would seem to be a little or lot more than just enough for “the wife to run around town”, no? Last year mine drove 14,000 miles in her car….right around what most people do that aren’t driving for a living.
The kid in me thinks: Drivable slot car!
The geezer in me thinks: North Platte, February, 20°F, 40mph headwinds, and 265 miles to Denver; should I stop to charge in Ogallala?
Looking forward to future installments.
Sure, I’d stop in Ogallala for a ten-minute splash that would add at least 80 miles or so and practice the in-car Karaoke while I wait. If you had your destination plugged into the navigation system the car would likely do that math and recommend the best place and time to stop anyway while routing you that way automatically.
Routinely topping off, although time consuming, is key to alleviating EV range anxiety. It’s rather analogous to flying a private plane; you don’t want to run out of fuel while in the air.
Routinely topping off is not time consuming, opening the door and inserting the plug takes a few seconds, ditto for unplugging and hanging the cord back on its holder. Charging at home every day definitely takes less time than it does to fill up with gas once a week.
The act of plugging/unplugging is not the issue. Finding a charge station and waiting for the battery to ‘fill up’ is.
If you’re on a road trip, the car’s navigation plans out your charging stops in advance. It also updates as needed for if you’re extra heavy on the accelerator. If you have the premium connectivity ($10 per month), it also has YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix. This past August, I drove my Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus from Las Vegas NV to Dallas TX and back. It performed flawlessly, and my car has a “rated range” of 240 miles. Rated range meaning 55 MPH, HVAC off, flat road, no wind, 75° F/24° C outside. The only hiccup was not Tesla’s fault. It was that many supercharger stations are at hotels; and traveling during a pandemic meant that sometimes their lobby bathrooms were closed to the public. Also, the forced driving breaks made for a much more relaxing trip
I think he means while on a road trip, don’t wait until you are near empty. Kind of like when crossing the desert in a regular car, most people don’t wait until they are on fumes before hoping for a gas station around the corner as they might in an urban area.
Jim’s correct. Another commonly used term is ‘opportunity charging’. Simply put, it’s charging whenever and wherever you can. And it’s sometimes a debated topic on charging etiquette between PHEV and BEV owners.
I’m looking forward to Jim’s experience with range, cold weather, and headwinds, all of which we have in spades in this part of the country. Recently I read:
‘Electric car put to the test in regional and rural NSW’
— ABC News Australia | 6 Oct 2020
It was interesting because the writers ran into headwinds and the car recalculated the range by taking 70 kilometers off of the 410 kilometer range originally calculated. We’ve all run into this with ICE cars so no dig on the EV for doing the same. Cold weather reduces ICE mileage too but usually only for short trips/around town. In any case, you run across gas stations much more frequently than charging stations on Western interstates.
FWIW, a few months ago, Car and Driver took a Chevy Bolt through Death Valley. They made it was 30 miles to spare but it doesn’t sound like it was a pleasant experience. For one thing, in order to save as much battery as possible, the didn’t use A/C and kept the windows rolled up.
Likewise, range anxiety reared its ugly head as the battery would lose significant miles when going up grades, but would come back as the battery regenerated on the way back down.
Congratulations!
Happy electric motoring!
I’m going to experience the Model Y vicariously through you. And look forward to more updates.
The purchase experience alone is a significant factor. I have a remarkably deep dislike of what that experience has been like too often, although there have been exceptions more recently in ours, like the TSX, and even the Promaster, where in both cases the purchases was essentially done via email, and picking it up was pretty uneventful. But I have scars from a few other times.
Thank you, I’m very glad this turned out to be a positive post, whew! 🙂 You know well that I have been a doubter or at least a “not 100% convinced-er” in the past.
The less interaction with third party people, however necessary they may think they are, the better, that’s true in most transaction, not just cars. Get the two principals involved or as close to it as possible and it either happens quickly or doesn’t at all. All the other hangers-on without any authority can and should just be eliminated from the process.
This is not only a positive post, but extremely informative. Rather than go on about the the attributes of the car, as compared to others, it is more about how you and your wife relate to the car. You are describing the changes in your lives and daily practices, because of the car. How the car improves your lives. Cars are much more than spec sheets or performance time slips. We interact with them, and they shape our lives and habits, in ways we aren’t necessarily even aware of (which is an intriguing feature of CC, to read how various cars of the distant and recent past have affected people’s lives). Your Tesla seems to have altered all sorts of little norms in your lives, in mostly very positive ways, so far.
I am both newly intrigued by the Tesla, after basically ignoring them for a good while now, and also intensely interested in how your own experience goes, over time. Being able to look over your shoulder, as you go, is a great advantage in understanding how this landmark car will shape and alter our car culture, and our culture, generally. I believe I will gain a much greater insight as to whether this car is a good fit for me and my family, before I ever sit in one. Your sharing will shape my expectations and refine my understanding of the car, once I get to it, or to one of its mechanical siblings.
Thank you so much for your work on this, and thanks in advance for any future postings.
Congratulations on a great car that does 90% of what most people ever need. And kudos to Tesla on the sales experience. I believe that most people don’t want to be sold, but they’re willing to pay for expertise and excellent service (which also means no hassles). It’s amazing that, if you give people what they want, people will pay for it…
So…no Truecoat I guess… 😉
Thanks and haha, I don’t doubt that if Tesla changes their paint technology or ever does something different, Musk might well actually call it “TruCoat”, he seems to get that sort of humor and indulges in it (Ludicrous Speed, Plaid, etc)…and would probably love to tweak traditional dealers in that way to boot. He could actually say that it’s put on at the factory!
I traded my 2010 BMW 328i coupe for a new Tesla Model 3 last year. I’ve been in love ever since! I also haven’t had any fit and finish issues and the car is super fun to drive. The center console in the Y is the same as the 3. I bought this vinyl wrap. I’m very happy with it. It’s a very close match and has a wood grain feel. I that they now have a real open pore wood veneer. They also have the same vinyl wrap for the door button and window switch surrounds. I don’t recommend those. They didn’t follow the curvature well, and I ended up removing them within a week. There are many other Tesla accessory sites. I personally would just stay away from anything that messes with the electrics or software unless it’s directly from Tesla. I’m happy to answer any questions you have about your car. https://www.rpmtesla.com/collections/model-3-interior-parts/products/model-3-vinyl-wood-console-wrap-gen-1-or-2-69-w-20-off
Thank you and thank you for the link as well. Tesla has spawned a whole new slew of small business catering to the aftermarket needs and desires, so even more jobs. Good for them.
I do not like that screen, so much so, that if I had no idea about a Tesla and thought I’d try one out seeing that screen would promptly make me exit the car. Sorry, but that is all I see and don’t want to see.
Congrats, Jim. This will be interesting to follow. I’m not a fan of the concept of the touchscreen interface, but the instantaneous silent acceleration, sharp handling, and good range of the Model 3 sedan catches my attention enough that I certainly wouldn’t write it off because of that. Variety in the automotive landscape is good, and there is nothing else currently out there like Tesla. Enjoy!
Congratulations on the new car! Tesla’s have become very thick on the ground in my neck of the woods, to the point where you would have thought they would have been top of mind when I answered the QOTD a few weeks ago about which car would I want to drive for 10 years if the initial cost was paid by someone else. So, that said, I will revise my answer to be a Tesla Model S.
I will be following the reports of your ownership experience closely. It seems you do a fair bit of mid-range distance driving (say, 2-3 hour trips each way) and I’d like to hear whether you end up with any range anxiety. This car seems to be ideal for about 90% of the driving I do, with the only exception being the occasional major cross-country trip (1-2x per year in non-COVID times). The other 10% could be covered by our other car (EVs or no, I don’t see us downsizing to a one-car household any time soon), which could be relatively larger and perhaps also better-suited to carrying large loads and/or a large dog.
Thanks! It’ll mainly be my wife’s car but she’s a Realtor as well so that involves a decent amount of driving sometimes and she goes to the Denver foothills semi-regularly in all kinds of weather so that’ll be interesting to watch. But I will surely take it on some of my “routes” around Denver, Wyoming, and the mountains, in different weathers.
We discussed the occasional cross country trip thing and while it could certainly do it (and we probably will sooner or later, likely to CA, we’d perhaps still be renting a Minivan or using our truck when we have a full load of people and luggage on board. Break down a 3000-5000 mile round trip and it may well make sense to rent something just from a wear and tear basis if there’s a lot of driving involved. That same logic held true when we were using the Highlander to do so, often a minivan could have been rented for much less than ten cents a mile which is the minimum I would ever assign to a car depreciation/maintenance calculation for that kind of thing.
I was going to skip this piece, as I have no interest in the Model Y ( is it like a Model 3 but taller ? ) but I enjoyed it no end. Very well written account.
Two queries – is there space for a spare wheel, and why would you dump the wheel covers if they help the range – does your wife not like them ?
Thank you! Yes, similar to the Model 3, in fact many parts are shared and many cosmetic pieces are styled alike if not actually the same. Some newer-developed under the skin parts will eventually be incorporated back into the Model 3 as time goes on, such as the heat pump.
There is not a dedicated spare wheel spot. There is I suppose room for one in the cargo bay if you were so inclined. One could have perhaps been built into the front trunk area as well. That is one aspect I am less than wild about as I have experienced flat as opposed to leaking tires, the last one about five years ago though when I ran over an allen wrench on my residential street.
I can take or leave the wheel covers as can my wife, we both happen to like the underlying alloy wheel design. I’m perhaps a little on the lazy side too though, so it’s not guaranteed that I’ll remove them. 🙂
Here’s a pic of how they look on someone else’s car.
With no factory spare this car is just begging for a continental spare! No? Oh, well. Happy motoring!
That $2000 Performance option sounds like the way IBM handles upgrades on their Z series mainframes. The additional processors are already there – they just have to be enabled and paid for.
Kind of…but I don’t think quite the same analogy…Capacity upgrade on Demand enables cores on the processor that are present (and good, some are mapped out bad during testing) once they have been entitled (i.e. paid for). Kind of follows the “service” model that you pay for what you use, not for the actual hardware itself…so if even if the cores are shipped and present on a system they can be selectively enabled. They also sell sorted processors that can run at higher frequencies and may have fewer cores (or same number of cores) but charge more for higher performance. I think for Tesla it is just a refinement of the firmware to get enhanced performance for the existing hardware…it’s not like they enable “more motors” or “more powerful motors” but the firmware enables more power from the existing motors…so a bit different in concept in my view.
One thing that hasn’t come up is the pre-existing Czechoslovak (originally, pre-split) electronics company of the same name, which predates the Tesla company we’re talking about in this article. I remember watching Star Trek dubbed in Slovak on a Tesla Television in Kosice in 1993. Not sure of their status now, but they made lots of consumer products for their markets. Now that Tesla cars are also sold (in eastern Europe), seems there’s been a bit of dispute on the use of the brand, since the electronics company apparently was named in 1946 (originated in 1921) so it’s use vastly predated the vehicle company.
Of course Tesla himself was from eastern Europe, his AC motor one could argue was such an innovation that one can scarcely imagine what industry would be like had it not happened…guess that’s the mojo they’re trying to capture with the name (plus of course the electric motor itself, but of course that was used on numerous other products besides electric vehicles long before the Tesla company existed).
Congratulations! I look forward to hearing more about your ownership experience over time. About a year ago, I went and test drove the Model 3. To say I loved it would be an understatement. After the drive, I texted my family and told them that I had been traveled to the future and it was amazing! The acceleration was incredible, the technology fascinating, and the silence…I could not begin to describe it. A bit dramatic perhaps but I find myself thinking that my next car could well be the Model 3 in either red or white. Using the center tablet was not as odd as I would have thought. Maybe it was because I have navigation in my car and am accustomed to looking in that direction when I use it. Are electric cars for everyone? Probably not but that’s okay. It’s a big country and people have different transportation needs. Hybrids, big block V8s and everything in between is there to meet one’s automotive needs and electric cars are another option. There are gaps in the infrastructure but to be fair, there were gaps at the turn of the previous century when the gas powered auto was taking off. The market will fill that need as demand grows.
When you noted that this review is a bit short on driving experience, I hardly noticed. Fantastic recount of the Tesla purchase experience, and it fills in some details for me – your sales facility is among the nearest to me – several hundred miles away! Accordingly it is all still a bit of mystery to me.
I’m mostly neutral on EV tax credits, I understand their purpose and to that end a cleaner environment for us all is hardly a bad thing. As a person that has spent part of a career responsible for accounting for cost, revenue and outlays, I’ll pose an alternative to the comment that it does not come at a cost to other taxpayers. The theory of sales tax as an offset does not work – essentially a statement that your sales tax stands in place of the funds the state will credit to your tax bill. If it were actually this direct, the anticipated funds from the sale of an anticipated number of cars is now short by the number of EVs sold, and the state will have to either make this up through reduced services or increased taxes on a broader base than just EV buyers (otherwise, what is the point of the credit?)
While I like Tesla’s exterior aesthetic, and greatly admired the Model S, the interior just doesn’t work for me with most of the controls and monitoring centered tablet style on the dash. Hybrid systems with tactile buttons where they make sense lend to a more intuitive driving experience, and certainly some things just belong centered in front of the driver.
Being used to Ford products, it’s hardly a surprise that I’m more interested in the approach to design and function that appears to be in the upcoming Mach E. While still too tablet focused for me (undoubtedly Tesla influenced), it appears to answer some if the issues I find most egregious with the Tesla design.
Dialing it back just a little isn’t a bad thing…….
Congrats Jim! I’ve got car envy! My next car will at least be a hybrid, but I wouldn’t mind the full leap to electric if the timing and finances are right.
Congrats Jim! This is the same location where I picked up my Model 3 Long Range a couple of weeks ago. You described the buying and pickup process perfectly. I picked one that was in inventory so my timeline was only a couple of days however my experience mirrored yours. It couldn’t have been easier and I much appreciated the Tesla approach over traditional dealers.
Also thanks for the link, I’m still using the 1,000 miles of supercharging. 🙂
Congrats Jim.
I bought myself a model S last year and can fully agree with your buying-experience.
Its really fast and hasslefree, and after 1 minute in the car I knew this is the future. I still drive it with a big smile on my face.
Occasionally I have to use the car from work, a 2019 VW Tiguan. The noise on acceleration, waiting for the transmission, waiting for the engine to rev up…..like you said, it’s back to the last century.
A kind word of advice, while the onepedaldriving is enjoyable, the brakes will seize if not used. Especially in winter you should use the «reduced mode» to exercise the brakes.
And don’t worry about the EV-critics, they are equivalent to those who opposed the transition from sail to steam…..
Hi all,
Wife here! Never posted before but I love reading your comments on Jims blogs. I just went and supercharged it and it took 23 minutes to get to 280 miles Range for $9.22. There were 3 other Tesla’s charging at the same time and they were all women so I liked that!! So far so good. I love zipping around town in it and tomorrow I will be doing more of a long haul trip about 110 miles round trip so super excited about that. I love the seats they are so comfortable and the screen is so cool. The kids loved it as well. It’s everything I have been wanting as my Highlander was getting a little dated for me. And nothing we looked at had any pizzaz. I’ll let Jim know how my trip goes tomorrow so he can report if so inclined and don’t forget to wish him a Happy Birthday today!
Allison, you’ve hit upon many good things but I have to admit you saved a good one for last. I’m sure Jim turning 39 has been tumultuous for him.
Perhaps instead of Jim reporting on your joint experiences the primary driver could report on her experiences? Just a thought! That way Jim will have more time to go to the junkyard.
Enjoy your Tesla.
Oh, by the way, congratulations on your first post. My wife has yet to post any comments here.
This is one of the few times I’ve seen someone write about what it costs to actually fill at a Supercharger. If it’s a typical example, and gas were at $2.31/gal, to match these numbers, the vehicle would have to get 70/mpg. And if it only took 23 minutes to achieve the 280 mile range, it puts Tesla squarely into the very real realm of being a viable alternative to an equivalent ICE vehicle for all but a frequent long-distance traveler (and we’re talking cross-country treks here).
I’ll fill in a few blanks here, the car had around 150 miles of range left when she recharged but she isn’t positive about that. She also filled it past 80% at which point I believe the charging slows down for the battery’s sake so it’s not exactly linear, up to 80% full charges faster than beyond that. So let’s not use this one as a good data point, I’ll make sure to get more info the next time.
Allison’s numbers did seem a tad optimistic. But they do bring up a good point, and that’s the Supercharger’s stated ability to get an 80% charge in 30 minutes. 80% of 316 = ~253. So, does that mean that, if you have less than 20% in the battery, you will only get up to 253 in 30 minutes? 316 – 253 = 63.
IOW, if you pull up to a Supercharger <63 miles, do you get an additional 253 miles in 30 minutes? If so, that's really not too bad and can easily see few Tesla drivers sticking around after they've gotten their 253 miles in 30 minutes.
It is not that you can put 80% charge in X minutes it is that you can charge up to 80%, from I believe 10 % in X minutes. As Jim mentioned the charge rate is far from linear. Attached is a graph of the charge rate curve at a supercharger for a Model 3. Couldn’t find one for a Y but I doubt it is significantly different.
For that reason you don’t “top off” when on a road trip. The navigation will get you there in the quickest time by more partial charges than less full charges. So yeah on a road trip that ~300mi of range is more like 150-200 when you factor in that you only charge to 80% and a safety margin on the bottom end.
Say you have a 500mi road trip. You charge it to 100% at home, but instead of stopping once along the way and charging it to 100% it will be quicker to make two stops charging to 60% each time vs one much longer stop to charge it to 100%.
Hi Allison,
Congratulations on your new ride! Hopefully we’ll get out there one of these days to check it out.
It will be fully charged waiting for you when you finally do!
Nice addition. A very interesting vehicle. I think my usage pattern could accommodate an electric vehicle. I am just too cheap to spring for one. Maybe in ten years as they age a bit. I am interested in your ownership experience as it remains really hard to find balanced coverage on anything Tesla.
I also recently picked up a 2020 blue model Y. I’ve had it for a couple weeks now and overall I love it. I’d heard all the nightmare build quality stories, but my model Y was absolutely perfect. The biggest issue I’ve had is the well documented “phantom braking” while on autopilot. It’s happened a handful of times now and I worry that at some point I may get rear ended if someone is tailgating me at the time.
For home charging, I just had a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed for $250 and I’ve set it up to start charging at midnight every night.
Oh and I agree the one pedal driving is awesome. Took me about 1 minute to adjust to it and it’s amazing how much easier it makes driving around town.
If only the paint, while still being the colour you want it to be, could be a solar charger! Imagine the galvanized steel underneath sending those free electrons to the battery!
My issues are that I’m renting and I’m not even allowed to put up a hummingbird feeder where I’m at, much less a charging panel and cable which could be stolen. I can see my landlord running over the cable with the lawnmower while I’m charging, too.
That range would be sufficient, 350 miles per fill is what I got with my last car, and I don’t mind waiting (and eating a meal and walking to stretch) while it charges at a supercharger. I don’t see myself driving more than 700 miles a day now anyway.
When they get down to $25,000, I would definitely be in the market for one tho.
If I as a landlord lost a few potential tenants due to them saying the reason they didn’t want the place or didn’t renew a lease was because they couldn’t charge an electric vehicle I’d turn that into a selling point and install one for them. Or better yet, allow any tenant to install it at their own cost with the understanding that it stays when they leave. Make the system work for you and everyone else the next time you look for a rental place.
Yep, yep, yep. Those are precisely the considerations I will have in mind whenever I move – besides the usual ones about crime, neighbors, location and the local community. My next new car will either be a hybrid or electric.
I wonder when new apartment construction will start incorporating superchargers, or at least Level 1 chargers in the parking lot? If I was building a house, I’d definitely ask my contractor to install one.
Adding a 220/240V NEMA 14-50 32A receptacle in the garage would be the best course of action, whether the homebuyer has an EV or not.
I don’t know how much more it would cost to install one during construction, but it would definitely be worth considering in ‘any’ new home being built today (especially in California).
Happy Birthday, Jim!
Thanks Fred!
How can Tesla ever hope to compete with Lexus or even Toyota with a grille so small!
Between the cylons at Toyota and the stormtroopers at GM, ya gotta wonder why the car designers are channeling the villains in science fiction…
This explains everything in the industry today, this guy is designing cars
Great write up, looking forward to see how you experience goes. If I wasn’t retired I think I would buy an EV for commuting to work and just generally running around.
I’m really disappointed in how long it has taken to get a hybrid pickup on the market.
With one pedal driving it won’t take too long to make my Mustang almost theft proof. Three pedals? And why the hell is this cue ball thingy sticking out of the console?
GM first offered a hybrid pickup in 2004 although it was a hybrid in a slightly different fashion than most hybrids. The more commonly thought of version came along in 2009 but was canceled after 2013 due to poor sales. This drivetrain was offered in the Chevrolet Silverado, Avalanche, and Tahoe along with the GMC Sierra, Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade.
The only vehicles I recall the GM hybrid system being available in were the trucks and SUVs. I don’t think it was availabe in the Avalanche or Cadillac-equivalent. I’m pretty sure about this, too, because, at the time, I was seriously considering buying an Avalanche and if it had been offered with the hybrid system, I probably would have bought one.
With that said, besides getting better fuel mileage in the city (I believe it was roughly the same as on the highway, i.e., 20mpg on either), the system was marketed more towards contractors that needed portable electricity in the field. I don’t know if it worked as well as a portable generator might have, but that was the idea.
Regardless, as was stated, the hybrid system sold poorly and was withdrawn after a few years.
Congratulations! Beautiful car….
And considering what other European and Asian luxury SUVs are going for these days, I think that’s a great deal.
Sorry if it’s been asked and answered before; this is a very long post!
How hard is it to dim or completely turn off the dash screen? That might seem like missing the point with this car, but I simply cannot pay proper attention to the road and surroundings with a widescreen TV staring in my face. People are taught to pay attention to screens from birth, and even my fellow Boomers can’t resist the draw of the image.
The best button on the dash of my C-Max is the one that blacks out the screen. The Tesla won’t have that, I assume, because it would have to be ON the screen.
It’s just so obviously the future.
Faster than will ever be needed, silent, inherently low centre of gravity for good handling, and at 280 miles, more range than many will ever need. (For example, despite much mythologising, Oz has long been a highly urbanised population: incredibly, the average driver does only 10K miles a year, which I work out at a full charge every three weeks for this thing!) It seems very nicely finished, and the tech is like any other modern tech that’s been even half-sensibly done – looks a bit overdone/intimidating at first and you adapt to it quickly. Further, the actual propulsive tech is inherently simple and as seven year-old S’s show, totally reliable.
The looks are neither great nor awful, but oddly enough, in the absence of a Bugatti Atlantic to put in one’s glass garage for staring at, we spend all our motoring life inside our cars looking out and not vice-versa.
That said, I suspect the stark-office chic of the place you DO sit, the interior might eventually pall a little, but then again, when motoring, one really should be looking out at the roads anyway.
It seems a damn fine machine, and frankly, if had the money, I would.
I hope your choice vindicates itself. I strongly suspect it will.
Congratulations to you and your wife on the new purchase Jim. I look forward to further updates. Despite the fact that I love my old iron, I am more than open to having a fully electric car in our garage someday. Most certainly it is a path to the future. Once the infrastructure in my area makes it more viable, I will certainly look at one seriously.
I have never driven a Tesla but I think I would like the one pedal concept for the regen braking. One thing I did not like about our Prius was the brake feel with the top of the pedal being regen that then transitioned to the hydraulic brakes. Each stage was distinctly different feeling and it was a compromise in my opinion.
Good luck with the Tesla, wishing you many happy miles.
I’d like to hear about someone’s experience with a used Tesla. Does a second (or third) owner still get the same level of service for over-the-air upgrades, repairs, Supercharger access, etc? Can independent garages get repair parts easily? Not necessarily the electrical stuff but body panels, suspension parts, glass or lights that can get damaged.
Here’s an article on an owner’s experience with 100,000 miles on his two year old Model 3:
https://electrek.co/2020/09/26/tesla-model-3-high-mileage-extreme-low-cost-minimal-battery-degradation/
And here’s a 400,000 mile Model X:
https://electrek.co/2020/05/11/tesla-model-x-extreme-mileage-repair-maintenance/
Jim, that looks like a good buy, and looks like a good buy, if you get my meaning. Stunning in that blue! And that interior is a masterpiece. Reading this and looking at the shots (and looking close up to a Tesla as I did a while back) makes you realise that even a Jaguar i-Pace or Merc EQC have a long way to go to claim any “future proofed”, rather than just “electric”, status
As much as I like my Alfa, it sounds like your sales and handover experience was the complete opposite of mine…I was called an hour to ask if I’d paid for the car (!), invited to fill out a survey as the first step and then not given an owner’s manual…….whilst the computer was told I’d bought a Fiat Tipo……though letting a car go away on an uncleared cheque seems a bit odd.
I sense that my next car will not be a pure ICE, not least because my mileage has dropped from 2000 a month to 4000 to six months, so if this goes or merges into a long term change of some sort, any replacement moves out to the right, and a hybrid of some sort comes in.
And Allison, you’ve got a nice present for Jim’s birthday…..;-)
Congrats of buying the best EV in the market today!
I am going to follow this for sure, nice to see some honest real world experiences from someone who is honest about the car.
(I work as a technician for Tesla, so more then a bit interested of course)
while we were happy that four seats are heated, we were not thrilled that the steering wheel wasn’t.
Tesla has announced they’re adding heated steering wheels to the Model 3. Haven’t read anything about the Y getting them, but these two move almost in lockstep.
Thanks for sharing. I’m planning to order one next spring and it was good to hear your positive experience.