Tesla Model Y One Month Report

 

It's been exactly one month since I picked up my Tesla Model Y - christened 'Val' due to the build date of February 14 - and I have to say, as a quick summary - it has exceeded all of my expectations to date!

I guess that is kind of a boring take, and frankly, there are a few things I don't like about the car - or, maybe I should say 'like less' because there isn't much to dislike about it. I'll also note that this early update is before I've taken any road trips - we do have one scheduled to Upstate NY this coming weekend, and I figured that would be worth it's own report. 

But let's start with the good stuff..... I did a lot of research prior to purchasing this car, leading to a reasonable (but high) set of expectations going in. I had read about the quality issues (panel gaps, paint issues, dirt/smudges from factory handling) as well as the range "issues" (I put that in quotes because people had unrealistic expectations that the car would match the EPA rating of 326 miles, when in reality very few cars match their ratings, ICE or otherwise). I also made sure that I had a home charging set-up as well as some key accessories ordered (floor mats, jacking pucks, shelves for the console, front license plate holder).So I felt fully prepared for the car.

I have to say that my expectation level has been blown away! Upon pickup, after a scan of the exterior and interior, I have to say that the panel gaps were all perfect, no dirty spots in the interior and the paint quality seems very good to me. The color is fabulous! So the initial impression was great!

The driving experience is way beyond anything I expected, even after 2 test drives. The car is totally silent and the wind and tire noise is much less than anticipated. The acceleration is addicting. The technology, in most cases, is very easy to access and works well. Having Spotify available 'in the car' vs streaming from the phone is great, although I wish we also had Sirius/XM in the same format. (See below for some comments on how this all works - this is one of the 'less liked' features of the car.) The sound system is very good to my ears - good bass levels out of the box, and better when pumped up a bit, like I prefer. The voice commands seem pretty comprehensive as well, although I am still learning them. One strange omission seems to be the ability to turn on all of the exterior lights via voice. But maybe it's there and I haven't used the correct command. 

There are a lot of things you can tailor to your preference - the usual seat/mirror/steering wheel position (which are saved in your driver profile) but also driving mode (Chill/Standard/Sport) as well as steering effort (Comfort/Standard/Sport) Driving mode affects the acceleration and regen braking (tones both down a bit). I've been doing Standard and Sport and that seems to be good for me.

I've also tested out the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer. TACC essentially allows you to set a following distance from another vehicle and the car will maintain that distance when in cruise control, and when you pull out to pass will accelerate back up to your set speed. Autosteer - which is an additional function - keeps the car centered in it's lane while using TACC. Pretty cool and it seems to work pretty well in the few times I've engaged it. You can use TACC without Autosteer but not vice versa. This is the standard Autopilot suite that comes with the car.

I did run the battery down to about 25% a couple of weeks ago, so I could check out the Supercharging experience. I went to the location in North Brunswick, 10 minutes from my home. It charged from 25% to 50% in about 11 minutes, adding 48 miles of range in that time. It charged at up to 115 kW, which is below the rated speed of 150 kW at that location - but the temp was only 40 degrees so that probably impacted it. But the process is the same as at home - pull up, park, plug. No big deal. And if I didn't have the free miles, it would have cost me about $5.00. So pretty cheap. The next test will be to try out a non-Tesla charging point - I set up accounts with ChargePoint, Electrify America and EVgo and will try one of those that is close to my home next week.

I mentioned earlier some of the foibles of the sound system - Spotify is included on the car and you can easily stream anything from your phone. For example, SiriusXM - you can stream from the phone but it's occasionally a little clunky - if you exit the car and then come back in, taking the phone with you, it takes a few minutes (literally) to reconnect. And with Spotify, if you leave that to listen to another format (FM radio or stream from the phone), the playlist goes back to the very beginning and then will shuffle from there. Ideally, it should simply pick up where it left off until you change the playlist. Maybe in a future software release. 

I've also had an intermittent issue with the car connecting to the home Wifi network. Most of the time it works fine but a couple of times I've had to reboot the screen to get it to work. That's important because the car won't download a software update unless connected to Wifi. I will say that since the last time I did this 2 weeks ago it's been fine.

The final 'complaint' is that the 2 USB-C ports on the back of the console, intended for rear seat passengers, don't seem to be working. I'm sure those can be fixed with mobile service, but I'm not going to have them come out for just that.

So that's it for now. Next update will be after our first road trip!