After a rollercoaster of a time getting a new car, my new Model Y arrived yesterday. Prior to that I was driving a 2018 Nissan Leaf, and have leased Leafs twice before.
The Story
I ordered it on April 25th, but I wasn't sure I wanted it, vs. getting another Leaf. It's a superior car, but it's also nearly twice the price. My biggest hesitation was due to wanting to buy a house ASAP; the higher lease or loan payment of a Tesla would affect how much of a mortgage I could qualify for, and in the Burbank area, you need all the purchasing power you can get. I figured I'd put my order in, since it would be mid-June before it would arrive. But as the time got closer and my house hunting picked up steam, I asked the Burbank Tesla location if I could delay taking delivery of the car. They told me sure, no problem. I repeatedly asked how long I could delay, and if they needed to know by a certain deadline. Don't worry, they said, just let us know when you're ready.
When it came down to it, I decided another Leaf was the best option. The 230+ mile range of the 2021 Leaf was more than I needed (the 150 of the 2018 was adequate for all but the rarest of trips, and those I could manage with fast charging). And the lower monthly lease price (~$375/mo, up from $355/mo for my 2018) was more important to me right now. My 2018 lease was up at the end of July; I had already extended it the most they would allow.
But then it turned out there was literally only one Leaf in the color combination I wanted within 200 mi, at Gardena Nissan. Three years ago I had to go to San Diego to get the one I waned. There are plenty of Leafs in inventory, but they almost all have black cloth interiors, and I wanted the light gray leather. So I started chatting with the Nissan dealer about leasing that Leaf.
At the same time, my Model Y arrived. I sort of ignored the email asking for final payment, although I shot another email to Tesla about delaying. I was trying to figure out what to do about a new car. They called on a Saturday, saying it was ready to be delivered. I ignored it. They called on Sunday, and I talked to the guy, explained about my desire to put off getting it till I closed on a house. He told me to do that, I'd have to release the VIN assigned to me, and that I might not be able to get a car until September once I changed my mind.
That would mean I'd be without a car, in Los Angeles, for six weeks. Maybe more. I decided to release it and just get the Leaf.
But Gardena Nissan turned out to be super sketchy. For example, they insisted I had to buy an after-market LoJack-type system for $2,300. I told them I didn't want it. They said I had no choice, "but because I like you, you can have it for $1,100" (turns out, a new LoJack is <$700). The guy was also very fast-talking over the phone, trying to overwhelm me with fees and taxes and not letting me write stuff down. I called several other dealers to see if there was a way to get the one I wanted. But none of them could. And all of them were rated pretty poorly (three stars on Yelp. An exception was Alhambra Nissan, at four stars), and I was feeling pretty uncomfortable about it. So I looked long and hard at my finances and how much the Model Y would really hamper my house-buying efforts, and decided if I leased it (by far the cheapest option), the impact on my house-buying would be tolerable. So I went back to Tesla, hat-in-hand, and to ask if my VIN was still available. It had only been two days, after all.
It was not. They said they could put me back in the system, maybe one would appear in the next couple days, but it would probably be Sept. I decided to go for it. I was really put off by Nissan. I told Tesla I would accept more color and rim choices, if that helped speed things up. They said it would.
Lo and behold, a couple days later, my exact configuration became available (I never did verify that it really was a new VIN). I did the lease application, got it approved, then realized I didn't want to pay for the advanced autopilot option on the lease; even the Tesla rep had recommended against it, as it was a costly option that made little financial sense in the lease. So I asked Tesla to delete it.
Tesla Gets Shady
Unfortunately, Tesla said that if I wanted to delete the AP option, that I'd lose the pricing I had locked in back in April, and that my car would be $1,500 more (minus $10k for the deleted autopilot). This was a real blow. I had started to feel pretty good about telling Nissan to **** off, and about paying substantially more for a car, and now Tesla was being similarly shady. I considered giving up and getting the Leaf after all, and if there'd been even one more within 200 mi, I would've gotten it. But I didn't want to do business with that dealer.
So I ate the $1,500, and deleted the AP (which I had really wanted; it was one of the biggest draws to the Tesla for me). Whatever, I said, I'm done dealing with this. A week and half later, my car arrived.
Oh, I also don't like that they deleted the radar sensor, and tried to tell me that's a good thing, because it generates conflicting data. If that were the case, why didn't they remove it from all the cars? If that's the case, why are they disabling features until they can gain confidence it works without radar? If they can't, will they recall the cars and put the sensors back in? That whole thing is shady, too.
My Thoughts So Far
Generally, the car is excellent. We all know why we're here. Fit and finish is fantastic (except for a 0.5 mm gap along part of the dash trim which really doesn't bother me). The display is nice (excusing the unfortunate lack of driver console), and the software and UI are vastly superior to that of the Leaf (or probably any other car maker). Car systems are, for the most part, well thought out and integrated. I have yet to drive it on the freeway or really do anything more than a couple quick local errands.
And I hate to admit it, but I do like that my friends are impressed by it; they were generally unimpressed by my Leaf, although I think that's primarily due to Tesla's celebrity status, and otherwise ignorance about EVs among the muggles.
My criticisms:
The Story
I ordered it on April 25th, but I wasn't sure I wanted it, vs. getting another Leaf. It's a superior car, but it's also nearly twice the price. My biggest hesitation was due to wanting to buy a house ASAP; the higher lease or loan payment of a Tesla would affect how much of a mortgage I could qualify for, and in the Burbank area, you need all the purchasing power you can get. I figured I'd put my order in, since it would be mid-June before it would arrive. But as the time got closer and my house hunting picked up steam, I asked the Burbank Tesla location if I could delay taking delivery of the car. They told me sure, no problem. I repeatedly asked how long I could delay, and if they needed to know by a certain deadline. Don't worry, they said, just let us know when you're ready.
When it came down to it, I decided another Leaf was the best option. The 230+ mile range of the 2021 Leaf was more than I needed (the 150 of the 2018 was adequate for all but the rarest of trips, and those I could manage with fast charging). And the lower monthly lease price (~$375/mo, up from $355/mo for my 2018) was more important to me right now. My 2018 lease was up at the end of July; I had already extended it the most they would allow.
But then it turned out there was literally only one Leaf in the color combination I wanted within 200 mi, at Gardena Nissan. Three years ago I had to go to San Diego to get the one I waned. There are plenty of Leafs in inventory, but they almost all have black cloth interiors, and I wanted the light gray leather. So I started chatting with the Nissan dealer about leasing that Leaf.
At the same time, my Model Y arrived. I sort of ignored the email asking for final payment, although I shot another email to Tesla about delaying. I was trying to figure out what to do about a new car. They called on a Saturday, saying it was ready to be delivered. I ignored it. They called on Sunday, and I talked to the guy, explained about my desire to put off getting it till I closed on a house. He told me to do that, I'd have to release the VIN assigned to me, and that I might not be able to get a car until September once I changed my mind.
That would mean I'd be without a car, in Los Angeles, for six weeks. Maybe more. I decided to release it and just get the Leaf.
But Gardena Nissan turned out to be super sketchy. For example, they insisted I had to buy an after-market LoJack-type system for $2,300. I told them I didn't want it. They said I had no choice, "but because I like you, you can have it for $1,100" (turns out, a new LoJack is <$700). The guy was also very fast-talking over the phone, trying to overwhelm me with fees and taxes and not letting me write stuff down. I called several other dealers to see if there was a way to get the one I wanted. But none of them could. And all of them were rated pretty poorly (three stars on Yelp. An exception was Alhambra Nissan, at four stars), and I was feeling pretty uncomfortable about it. So I looked long and hard at my finances and how much the Model Y would really hamper my house-buying efforts, and decided if I leased it (by far the cheapest option), the impact on my house-buying would be tolerable. So I went back to Tesla, hat-in-hand, and to ask if my VIN was still available. It had only been two days, after all.
It was not. They said they could put me back in the system, maybe one would appear in the next couple days, but it would probably be Sept. I decided to go for it. I was really put off by Nissan. I told Tesla I would accept more color and rim choices, if that helped speed things up. They said it would.
Lo and behold, a couple days later, my exact configuration became available (I never did verify that it really was a new VIN). I did the lease application, got it approved, then realized I didn't want to pay for the advanced autopilot option on the lease; even the Tesla rep had recommended against it, as it was a costly option that made little financial sense in the lease. So I asked Tesla to delete it.
Tesla Gets Shady
Unfortunately, Tesla said that if I wanted to delete the AP option, that I'd lose the pricing I had locked in back in April, and that my car would be $1,500 more (minus $10k for the deleted autopilot). This was a real blow. I had started to feel pretty good about telling Nissan to **** off, and about paying substantially more for a car, and now Tesla was being similarly shady. I considered giving up and getting the Leaf after all, and if there'd been even one more within 200 mi, I would've gotten it. But I didn't want to do business with that dealer.
So I ate the $1,500, and deleted the AP (which I had really wanted; it was one of the biggest draws to the Tesla for me). Whatever, I said, I'm done dealing with this. A week and half later, my car arrived.
Oh, I also don't like that they deleted the radar sensor, and tried to tell me that's a good thing, because it generates conflicting data. If that were the case, why didn't they remove it from all the cars? If that's the case, why are they disabling features until they can gain confidence it works without radar? If they can't, will they recall the cars and put the sensors back in? That whole thing is shady, too.
My Thoughts So Far
Generally, the car is excellent. We all know why we're here. Fit and finish is fantastic (except for a 0.5 mm gap along part of the dash trim which really doesn't bother me). The display is nice (excusing the unfortunate lack of driver console), and the software and UI are vastly superior to that of the Leaf (or probably any other car maker). Car systems are, for the most part, well thought out and integrated. I have yet to drive it on the freeway or really do anything more than a couple quick local errands.
And I hate to admit it, but I do like that my friends are impressed by it; they were generally unimpressed by my Leaf, although I think that's primarily due to Tesla's celebrity status, and otherwise ignorance about EVs among the muggles.
My criticisms:
- I would not say I'm a satisfied customer. That is, I don't feel great about the transaction. I think the price book change was an unnecessary kick in the nuts, especially given that I can still add autopilot, and under the lease it will simply increase my monthly payment (by $277!). Had I never elected the AP option in the first place, I could have added it at any time.
So, pro tip: Don't add software features until the day you're ready to sign the payment paperwork.
And I still feel a little perturbed by the radar sensor thing.
- It's astonishing the car doesn't have a 360° top-down view, something I loved on my last two Leafs. The car is bigger than the Leaf, and I have to park between two pillars. Sure, it has the ultrasonic sensors, but I don't trust them. There's no substitute for the top-down view. Maybe if they at least turned on the cameras and put them up on the screen in a multi-view kind of layout. The sentry views could be helpful. I'm having trouble parking it accurately on the first try.
- The white leather is very bright. Today was my first day driving in the sun, and the strip across the dash is blinding. I may get a wrap put on it (does anyone know if airbags deploy from it?). It was also already scuffed, but my buddy with a Model 3 said it's not hard to keep clean. But I would have preferred a light gray.
- Visibility is severely hampered by the front passenger headrest. I like to angle my rear-view mirror to let me look out the right-rear windows (as well as out the back). I have to tip the passenger seat way back to get the headrest out of the way. On my Leaf, it was the rear headrests that blocked the view, but I normally just removed those, as I rarely have passengers in the back.
- After I close on a house, I will probably opt to get the AP. I really want all those features, but I think it's very overpriced. I'm put off by Tesla's claim about "full" self-driving (to me, "full" self-driving means it can drop me off at the airport and come pick me up when I get back), but I don't have confidence it will arrive any time soon. In the meantime, the features it does have probably aren't worth $10k. But they're really neat and I want to play with them.
