We drove our MYLR7 from our home in the NorCal Sierra Foothills down to San Diego, where we embarked on a cruise over Thanksgiving. Normally I would have taken my Subaru Ascent but since we now have the MY, we thought it would be interesting to test it on a longish road trip. The MY has a LOT of storage. We each brought a 4 wheel carry-on bag, and I had a suit bag as well as a backpack. Each of our 3 kids had their backpacks with them, and my wife had her usual big oversized overstuffed tote. We found that we were easily able to fit all of our luggage in the vehicle using the rear subtrunk and with the 3rd row seats folded down. We only partially filled the frunk. Amazing. With our Subaru, I would probably have had to bring our rooftop carrier.
We charged up to about 85% at home and then drove to Anderson's Split Pea Soup, where we then charged up. It was a nice spot for the kids to eat their breakfast - we brought sandwiches since we had left at 7am. We then charged again in Tejon, where it was crowded. That's a major spot for fast food right before the Grapevine. The Tesla software is rather optimistic when it indicates your next charging spot. I found that we actually never made it to the planned charger, having to stop earlier than planned. That's probably because my wife drove at 85-90 mph down I-5 lol. The car is super stable and quiet at speed. Our June 2022 production vehicle actually rides decently on the freeway, although if there's broken tarmac, then it rides like my sports car.
Because the charger at Tejon was nearly full, Tesla limits the charge to 80%. I was actually able to manually adjust the charge to 85%. Going over the Grapevine (which I've done many times) was no big deal. The biggest issue is usually right at the start of the thing where the big trucks have to gear down and slow to a crawl. So you've got trucks occupying two lanes on the right, and then the cars are all jockying for position as they try and see who's got the most power up the hill. The real shocker was my SOC rapidly decreased - all the way down to 50% by the time I got over to Santa Clarita by Magic Mountain. Big climb, full vehicle at speed - not surprising I guess.
We then had to sit in the usual crappy stop and go traffic. It was here that I found out that Tesla's adaptive cruise in stop and go traffic isn't the smoothest. Even with follow distance set at max of 7, the car would kind of jerk forward when accelerating from a stop, and then when it slowed again, there was another abrupt jerk. You'd think Tesla would program it to be a little softer. And before you ask, yes the car was already in chill mode. Other than that, it was just a matter of being patient and letting the car do the work as we waifed thru LA traffic. We charged again down in North San Diego at a high power charger. I think it as a 250 kWh unit. Boy that thing is fast. We went from 17% to 80% in about 20 minutes! That's impressive. It was barely enough time for a bathroom break.
We finally got to our hotel and parked the car. The car sat for 7 days and only lost 2% charge. That's much better than my Subaru, which had a dead battery on our last cruise return. Coming back, it was a total slog, as it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and EVERYONE was on I-5. It took us 14 hours to get home! I drove the entire way and I was exhausted afterwards.
Total spent on charging down south was $70 for 168 kWh. Coming back it only cost $27 for 121 kWh as there was free charging along I-5 that day. Yay! That result in a huge cost savings as compared to my Subie, since gas is well over $5/gal in SoCal.
Wants - Apple CarPlay. Tesla maps suck. Sorry but they do. Even Apple's maps are better. Apple maps tell you exactly which lane to be in. It tells you what's coming up ahead and gives you plenty of warning time before turning or exiting. Tesla's nav just says exit here. Sometimes that's not enough time. Also it's not easy to move the route to a different freeway with the Tesla map. Also the integration with my iPhone's messaging system is awful. Voice texting is nowhere as good as with CarPlay.
Likes - I love the streaming that comes with premium connectivity. It's got a sizeable music library. So now I don't have to worry about preloading new music onto my iphone before a trip. Hulu and Netflix are also big bonuses, as they're great babysitters when we're waiting for a charge.
Overall I'm impressed with the car. Despite its quirks, it's a highly functional vehicle for our family. It drives well and has way more power than a family car would ever need. It's stable at speed and it has a ton of storage. My only wish is that it were a bit larger. Our triplet boys are now 11 years old. In 3 or 4 years, they'll be 6 feet tall (or near that), and the MY will fee cramped. The MX isn't all that much bigger. Tesla should come up with a true full sized 3 row SUV. We may have to order a Rivian R1S. But in the meantime, it looks like the MY will be the family run around vehicle.
We charged up to about 85% at home and then drove to Anderson's Split Pea Soup, where we then charged up. It was a nice spot for the kids to eat their breakfast - we brought sandwiches since we had left at 7am. We then charged again in Tejon, where it was crowded. That's a major spot for fast food right before the Grapevine. The Tesla software is rather optimistic when it indicates your next charging spot. I found that we actually never made it to the planned charger, having to stop earlier than planned. That's probably because my wife drove at 85-90 mph down I-5 lol. The car is super stable and quiet at speed. Our June 2022 production vehicle actually rides decently on the freeway, although if there's broken tarmac, then it rides like my sports car.
Because the charger at Tejon was nearly full, Tesla limits the charge to 80%. I was actually able to manually adjust the charge to 85%. Going over the Grapevine (which I've done many times) was no big deal. The biggest issue is usually right at the start of the thing where the big trucks have to gear down and slow to a crawl. So you've got trucks occupying two lanes on the right, and then the cars are all jockying for position as they try and see who's got the most power up the hill. The real shocker was my SOC rapidly decreased - all the way down to 50% by the time I got over to Santa Clarita by Magic Mountain. Big climb, full vehicle at speed - not surprising I guess.
We then had to sit in the usual crappy stop and go traffic. It was here that I found out that Tesla's adaptive cruise in stop and go traffic isn't the smoothest. Even with follow distance set at max of 7, the car would kind of jerk forward when accelerating from a stop, and then when it slowed again, there was another abrupt jerk. You'd think Tesla would program it to be a little softer. And before you ask, yes the car was already in chill mode. Other than that, it was just a matter of being patient and letting the car do the work as we waifed thru LA traffic. We charged again down in North San Diego at a high power charger. I think it as a 250 kWh unit. Boy that thing is fast. We went from 17% to 80% in about 20 minutes! That's impressive. It was barely enough time for a bathroom break.
We finally got to our hotel and parked the car. The car sat for 7 days and only lost 2% charge. That's much better than my Subaru, which had a dead battery on our last cruise return. Coming back, it was a total slog, as it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and EVERYONE was on I-5. It took us 14 hours to get home! I drove the entire way and I was exhausted afterwards.
Total spent on charging down south was $70 for 168 kWh. Coming back it only cost $27 for 121 kWh as there was free charging along I-5 that day. Yay! That result in a huge cost savings as compared to my Subie, since gas is well over $5/gal in SoCal.
Wants - Apple CarPlay. Tesla maps suck. Sorry but they do. Even Apple's maps are better. Apple maps tell you exactly which lane to be in. It tells you what's coming up ahead and gives you plenty of warning time before turning or exiting. Tesla's nav just says exit here. Sometimes that's not enough time. Also it's not easy to move the route to a different freeway with the Tesla map. Also the integration with my iPhone's messaging system is awful. Voice texting is nowhere as good as with CarPlay.
Likes - I love the streaming that comes with premium connectivity. It's got a sizeable music library. So now I don't have to worry about preloading new music onto my iphone before a trip. Hulu and Netflix are also big bonuses, as they're great babysitters when we're waiting for a charge.
Overall I'm impressed with the car. Despite its quirks, it's a highly functional vehicle for our family. It drives well and has way more power than a family car would ever need. It's stable at speed and it has a ton of storage. My only wish is that it were a bit larger. Our triplet boys are now 11 years old. In 3 or 4 years, they'll be 6 feet tall (or near that), and the MY will fee cramped. The MX isn't all that much bigger. Tesla should come up with a true full sized 3 row SUV. We may have to order a Rivian R1S. But in the meantime, it looks like the MY will be the family run around vehicle.
