Backstory
I've always been into cars, and I was looking to get a new vehicle as my winter/practical car. I'm keeping my S4 and 718 Cayman S as well, so this was going to be in addition to those 2. I've been in enough Audi/BMW/Mercs/Porsches and wanted something different. Smooth power, roomy interior, cool factor and quiet ride were my main considerations. I don't need the all out performance of something like an X3M or GLC63 since I've got other cars. I wanted this to be a stark contrast to my current 2 vehicles.
Decided a MYP would be a good fit, especially with very strong resale value. I can keep it for a few years and see what the electric market is like with Rivian, electric Macan etc. The ordering and delivery process was terrible, but that's another story. It was easily the worst "dealership" experience I've had buying any car (new or used).
Anyways, I get my car on the evening of Dec 10th. By the afternoon of the 11th, it had a rear motor failure followed by a completely dead vehicle that's unable to drive.
Motor Failure
Picked up my blue on white MYP on the evening of Dec 10th. By the afternoon of the 11th, it had a rear motor failure and 2 mins later was completely undriveable and had to be towed to the dealer. It was being driven at 60km/h when a warning came up about the rear motor. A couple mins later, it was fully dead. Luckily I was near a friends house and parked it in their driveway. Would have sucked if this happened on the highway. I googled the error and it seems like this has happened to other people before, and usually pretty soon after delivery. Still, off too a pretty terrible start with the car.
Bad things I've noticed over the first 24hrs, coming from someone who's into cars and driven a bunch of stuff on street/track:
Build Quality: Wasn't expecting much here, so I was ok with some gaps and not having perfect panels. There was some glue residue on the edges of the panoramic roof, and there were marks on the headliner when I took delivery. The interior plastic piece on the b pillar has a massive gap between it and the roof on 1 side. Otherwise, I'm totally ok with it. I knew what I was getting into and wasn't expecting it to be on the level of the germans.
Closing the Door: You have to pull pretty hard to actually close the door. It wasn't just me either. Multiple people failed to close the door properly the first time they tried. You really have to slam it more than any other car I've owned. Not a very nice experience for the user. I can imagine some older person actually having trouble to close it properly.
Honk Upon Lock: I can't believe this car makes a cheap honk sound when you lock it like some early 2000s GM car. It should 100% have some pleasant sounding chip/beep.
Loud Seat Motors: Loudest seat motors I've heard, especially the lumbar.
Cheap Carpet Mats: I've already installed proper mats, but the stock carpet mats (only included for driver and passenger) are the thinnest and cheapest feeling carpet mats I've experienced. They're so lightweight and flimsy with no impression of quality. This doesn't matter too much, but it speaks to the cost cutting happening everywhere.
Can't View Songs on Phone? Unless I'm dumb, is there actually no way to view a list of all music on my iPhone and pick something? The interface between phone and the car is terrible and super limited. I really hope I'm missing something here. There isn't even an easy way to activate Siri since the in-car voice button will trigger the Tesla voice assistant. Very disappointed in the user experience here.
Flimsy Sunshades: Once again, more cost cutting. You can easily feel the cardboard inside them. There is absolutely no feeling of quality when operating them. There's also a little flap of fabric that covers the mirror instead of a sliding piece of plastic or plastic cover. Feels like something I'd expect in a $10k car.
Very Unrefined Suspension: This is probably my biggest "real" complaint. It feels like *sugar*. There is no sense of money or R&D put into it. It's so crashy when driving and you can literally hear creaks and noises from the suspension being transmitted into the vehicle while driving (with the music off). The dampening feels like crap and there's no reason for this car to ride this terribly. I bet you an A class has a more upscale feeling suspension. No adaptive dampening available is also a joke. I expected this based on some reviews, but it's next level bad. My Cayman S with Sport PASM feels light years ahead in suspension setup. Maybe if you're coming from a Civic or Camry this is acceptable to you, but if you've driven any modern car from a luxury brand, this is appalling.
Headliner: I'm probably just spoiled, but I thought most cars nowadays had a fabric headliner. Not the MYP. It looks like fabric, but when you touch it, it's a nasty cheap plastic type of material. Come on, I get you have to cut costs, but this is nearly $100k after tax in Canada.
Auto Dimming Mirrors: These work well enough, but the portion of the mirror that auto dims is small. There is a thick border around the auto-dim part of the mirror, where it's normal and reflective. I've never had another car where it stands out this much. You can almost be blinded by lights in this outer border since it's so chunky. It should definitely extend more towards the edges of the mirror.
HomeLink Garage Opener: Just another example of more cost cutting. Even Porsche gives this to you. I'm sure it's Tesla being cheap and not wanting to pay the license fee to HomeLink for every car sold. I know they offer it as a dealer accessory for like $400, but come on.
Straight Line Speed: It's actually not as fast as I expected. If you're not used to fast cars, this will feel like a space ship. If you're driven modern performance cars, it's nothing special. I feel like the MYP has an adequate amount of power. I feel like it needs another 100hp to be classified as a proper performance variant. My other cars both feel just as fast and launch significantly harder with launch control. The MYP rolls into the power softly from a dig. When you're rolling, it does feel great - but so does any other modern fast car if you're in the right gear.
Blind Spot Monitoring: It's just sad that the car doesn't have true blind spot monitoring like every other modern car. I knew it didn't have it (the chime/assist thing is garbage vs a proper system) so I was prepared for this, but just 1 more thing it's missing.
Rear Visibility: Terrible due to the slope of the rear glass. Worse than all its competitors. I'm ok with this but some people might not be.
Heated Steering Wheel: It seems to cycle on/off to regulate the temperate. The problem is that it's either nice and toasty or very noticeably colder when it turns off. I wish it be consistent. It's a stark contrast and very noticeable as it turns on and off while attempting to maintain a warm wheel.
Auto High Beam: Very inconsistent and basically unusable in my short night time testing. I live near some rural roads with a single lane in each direction and it wasn't very sure about when to turn the high beams on/off. I ended up turning it off after getting fed up with the system.
Good things about the car:
Smoothness: I love how smooth it is with no transmission. This is exactly what I wanted. Both my other cars have a DCT and they get pretty clunky in the winter when cold. It's very nice not to feel any shifts. Smoothness also goes for power delivery. It's not as fast as I expected, but I love how smooth it feels when accelerating.
Quietness: I was on the fence about this before getting the car. I expected it to be very loud on the highway based on some things I've read. I was very happy with the cabin volume and found it to be much quieter than expected. Maybe I'm just used to louder performance cars and that's why I think this is quiet, but regardless, I think interior noise is totally acceptable for what the car is.
Interior Space: This thing is massive inside. I love how much rear seat room you have, all the trunks and under floor storage you have. It feels so nice and airy while driving too. The way the windows are positioned and the drivers seat. I love how open it all feels. The white interior also helps out here.
Sound System: I had read some major complaints so I was expecting the worst. It really isn't that bad. It's half decent. Don't go expecting 7 series or S class quality, but I think it's totally acceptable for this class of vehicle. Those complaints were way overblown to me. I'm using bluetooth streaming from my iPhone which I believe is the 2nd clearest source with USB being the best.
Overall, I still think it's a decent car. I expected the cost cutting and knew about some of the downsides going into it, but it's always different once you actually own the car. For the reasons I wanted the car, it works well. The suspension is easily the biggest let down. If they give it air suspension, increase power and fix up their UX, I think they could have nearly perfect compact SUV. And offer some kind of luxury package for $5k to make the interior feel more expensive. Nicer headliner, nicer door cards, better carpeting, more sound deadening etc.
Also, I love to complain and nitpick basically every car, so I'm definitely more critical than most people. Your average buyer coming from a Prius would love this thing inside and out. I realize I'm more spoiled by nicer cars and having spent significant time with luxury brands.
Lmk if you guys have any questions! Happy to answer them.
Edit: replying to some basic questions. Will do more individual responses later on.
Yes, I'm still happy with the purchase. I knew what I was getting into. I just wanted to share my experience as someone who owns my current 2 cars (2017 Cayman S and 2012 Audi S4 w/ tune).
Straight line speed: I have dragy numbers for all 3 cars. With NO rollout:
718 Cayman S - 4.13 seconds
Audi S4 w/ tune - 4.32 seconds
Model Y Performance - 4.10 seconds
With rollout, all 3 cars are easily in the 3 second range. Numbers on paper don't always reflect what a car feels like in real life. I'm just saying that I expected the Y Performance to feel faster off the line vs combustion cars, but in reality it's nearly identical if you mash the throttle. Again, compared to the 2 cars I own. I'm not saying it's slow, but it's a speed I'm used to and find adequate. It doesn't feel like it's crazy fast. It IS very nice for passing power while cruising.
I've always been into cars, and I was looking to get a new vehicle as my winter/practical car. I'm keeping my S4 and 718 Cayman S as well, so this was going to be in addition to those 2. I've been in enough Audi/BMW/Mercs/Porsches and wanted something different. Smooth power, roomy interior, cool factor and quiet ride were my main considerations. I don't need the all out performance of something like an X3M or GLC63 since I've got other cars. I wanted this to be a stark contrast to my current 2 vehicles.
Decided a MYP would be a good fit, especially with very strong resale value. I can keep it for a few years and see what the electric market is like with Rivian, electric Macan etc. The ordering and delivery process was terrible, but that's another story. It was easily the worst "dealership" experience I've had buying any car (new or used).
Anyways, I get my car on the evening of Dec 10th. By the afternoon of the 11th, it had a rear motor failure followed by a completely dead vehicle that's unable to drive.
Motor Failure
Picked up my blue on white MYP on the evening of Dec 10th. By the afternoon of the 11th, it had a rear motor failure and 2 mins later was completely undriveable and had to be towed to the dealer. It was being driven at 60km/h when a warning came up about the rear motor. A couple mins later, it was fully dead. Luckily I was near a friends house and parked it in their driveway. Would have sucked if this happened on the highway. I googled the error and it seems like this has happened to other people before, and usually pretty soon after delivery. Still, off too a pretty terrible start with the car.
Bad things I've noticed over the first 24hrs, coming from someone who's into cars and driven a bunch of stuff on street/track:
Build Quality: Wasn't expecting much here, so I was ok with some gaps and not having perfect panels. There was some glue residue on the edges of the panoramic roof, and there were marks on the headliner when I took delivery. The interior plastic piece on the b pillar has a massive gap between it and the roof on 1 side. Otherwise, I'm totally ok with it. I knew what I was getting into and wasn't expecting it to be on the level of the germans.
Closing the Door: You have to pull pretty hard to actually close the door. It wasn't just me either. Multiple people failed to close the door properly the first time they tried. You really have to slam it more than any other car I've owned. Not a very nice experience for the user. I can imagine some older person actually having trouble to close it properly.
Honk Upon Lock: I can't believe this car makes a cheap honk sound when you lock it like some early 2000s GM car. It should 100% have some pleasant sounding chip/beep.
Loud Seat Motors: Loudest seat motors I've heard, especially the lumbar.
Cheap Carpet Mats: I've already installed proper mats, but the stock carpet mats (only included for driver and passenger) are the thinnest and cheapest feeling carpet mats I've experienced. They're so lightweight and flimsy with no impression of quality. This doesn't matter too much, but it speaks to the cost cutting happening everywhere.
Can't View Songs on Phone? Unless I'm dumb, is there actually no way to view a list of all music on my iPhone and pick something? The interface between phone and the car is terrible and super limited. I really hope I'm missing something here. There isn't even an easy way to activate Siri since the in-car voice button will trigger the Tesla voice assistant. Very disappointed in the user experience here.
Flimsy Sunshades: Once again, more cost cutting. You can easily feel the cardboard inside them. There is absolutely no feeling of quality when operating them. There's also a little flap of fabric that covers the mirror instead of a sliding piece of plastic or plastic cover. Feels like something I'd expect in a $10k car.
Very Unrefined Suspension: This is probably my biggest "real" complaint. It feels like *sugar*. There is no sense of money or R&D put into it. It's so crashy when driving and you can literally hear creaks and noises from the suspension being transmitted into the vehicle while driving (with the music off). The dampening feels like crap and there's no reason for this car to ride this terribly. I bet you an A class has a more upscale feeling suspension. No adaptive dampening available is also a joke. I expected this based on some reviews, but it's next level bad. My Cayman S with Sport PASM feels light years ahead in suspension setup. Maybe if you're coming from a Civic or Camry this is acceptable to you, but if you've driven any modern car from a luxury brand, this is appalling.
Headliner: I'm probably just spoiled, but I thought most cars nowadays had a fabric headliner. Not the MYP. It looks like fabric, but when you touch it, it's a nasty cheap plastic type of material. Come on, I get you have to cut costs, but this is nearly $100k after tax in Canada.
Auto Dimming Mirrors: These work well enough, but the portion of the mirror that auto dims is small. There is a thick border around the auto-dim part of the mirror, where it's normal and reflective. I've never had another car where it stands out this much. You can almost be blinded by lights in this outer border since it's so chunky. It should definitely extend more towards the edges of the mirror.
HomeLink Garage Opener: Just another example of more cost cutting. Even Porsche gives this to you. I'm sure it's Tesla being cheap and not wanting to pay the license fee to HomeLink for every car sold. I know they offer it as a dealer accessory for like $400, but come on.
Straight Line Speed: It's actually not as fast as I expected. If you're not used to fast cars, this will feel like a space ship. If you're driven modern performance cars, it's nothing special. I feel like the MYP has an adequate amount of power. I feel like it needs another 100hp to be classified as a proper performance variant. My other cars both feel just as fast and launch significantly harder with launch control. The MYP rolls into the power softly from a dig. When you're rolling, it does feel great - but so does any other modern fast car if you're in the right gear.
Blind Spot Monitoring: It's just sad that the car doesn't have true blind spot monitoring like every other modern car. I knew it didn't have it (the chime/assist thing is garbage vs a proper system) so I was prepared for this, but just 1 more thing it's missing.
Rear Visibility: Terrible due to the slope of the rear glass. Worse than all its competitors. I'm ok with this but some people might not be.
Heated Steering Wheel: It seems to cycle on/off to regulate the temperate. The problem is that it's either nice and toasty or very noticeably colder when it turns off. I wish it be consistent. It's a stark contrast and very noticeable as it turns on and off while attempting to maintain a warm wheel.
Auto High Beam: Very inconsistent and basically unusable in my short night time testing. I live near some rural roads with a single lane in each direction and it wasn't very sure about when to turn the high beams on/off. I ended up turning it off after getting fed up with the system.
Good things about the car:
Smoothness: I love how smooth it is with no transmission. This is exactly what I wanted. Both my other cars have a DCT and they get pretty clunky in the winter when cold. It's very nice not to feel any shifts. Smoothness also goes for power delivery. It's not as fast as I expected, but I love how smooth it feels when accelerating.
Quietness: I was on the fence about this before getting the car. I expected it to be very loud on the highway based on some things I've read. I was very happy with the cabin volume and found it to be much quieter than expected. Maybe I'm just used to louder performance cars and that's why I think this is quiet, but regardless, I think interior noise is totally acceptable for what the car is.
Interior Space: This thing is massive inside. I love how much rear seat room you have, all the trunks and under floor storage you have. It feels so nice and airy while driving too. The way the windows are positioned and the drivers seat. I love how open it all feels. The white interior also helps out here.
Sound System: I had read some major complaints so I was expecting the worst. It really isn't that bad. It's half decent. Don't go expecting 7 series or S class quality, but I think it's totally acceptable for this class of vehicle. Those complaints were way overblown to me. I'm using bluetooth streaming from my iPhone which I believe is the 2nd clearest source with USB being the best.
Overall, I still think it's a decent car. I expected the cost cutting and knew about some of the downsides going into it, but it's always different once you actually own the car. For the reasons I wanted the car, it works well. The suspension is easily the biggest let down. If they give it air suspension, increase power and fix up their UX, I think they could have nearly perfect compact SUV. And offer some kind of luxury package for $5k to make the interior feel more expensive. Nicer headliner, nicer door cards, better carpeting, more sound deadening etc.
Also, I love to complain and nitpick basically every car, so I'm definitely more critical than most people. Your average buyer coming from a Prius would love this thing inside and out. I realize I'm more spoiled by nicer cars and having spent significant time with luxury brands.
Lmk if you guys have any questions! Happy to answer them.
Edit: replying to some basic questions. Will do more individual responses later on.
Yes, I'm still happy with the purchase. I knew what I was getting into. I just wanted to share my experience as someone who owns my current 2 cars (2017 Cayman S and 2012 Audi S4 w/ tune).
Straight line speed: I have dragy numbers for all 3 cars. With NO rollout:
718 Cayman S - 4.13 seconds
Audi S4 w/ tune - 4.32 seconds
Model Y Performance - 4.10 seconds
With rollout, all 3 cars are easily in the 3 second range. Numbers on paper don't always reflect what a car feels like in real life. I'm just saying that I expected the Y Performance to feel faster off the line vs combustion cars, but in reality it's nearly identical if you mash the throttle. Again, compared to the 2 cars I own. I'm not saying it's slow, but it's a speed I'm used to and find adequate. It doesn't feel like it's crazy fast. It IS very nice for passing power while cruising.
