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Model S/X Round Steering Wheel & Retrofit
- Thread starter Chet S
- Start date
Can you comment on how the 17" looks with the wheel compared to the Yoke? I have MXP on order and I'm trying to decide between the Yoke and the Steering wheel. I do a lot of driving my family around and I end up up sitting watching YouTube while waiting, so I was curious if the wheel blocks the 17" screen any more than the Yoke?
Thanks in advance.
If you’re a family guy get the round wheel. Don’t even hesitate. It won’t block a thing.
WilliamG
Hinge Fanatic
That happened to me when Tesla did the airbag recall on my 2021. Nothing like doing 70mph on the highway and a heavy inside of your yoke comes flying out. Needless to say I was NOT happy. Just needs a firm push to get those locking pins pushed in. Tesla fail.A day after having the round steering wheel installed the airbag fell out on to my lap on the way home from work...
I had to drive home holding the connected airbag in with one hand. Not good or safe. I tried to pop it in myself but didn't want to damage anything.
I had a mobile technician come to my house and fix it about a couple hours later. He told me the technician that installed mine just learned how to install the steering wheel...
I was able to keep my yoke after a little back and fourth with the service advisor. They kept my airbag though, I wasn't aware they just throw them out...
Typical awful Tesla service.I will say the mobile technician was very helpful and down to earth.
Ouch! Family guy
I also prefer the round wheel in my daily driver. But then again I also prefer shifting in that car too!
Lester Green
Member
Attached is a picture of the view with the new round wheel. IMO the wheel doesn't blocked anything more than the yoke.
Attachments
WilliamG
Hinge Fanatic
I suspect it greatly depends on your height. How tall are you, and how low do you keep your seat? I’m near 6’6”, my seat is kept at its lowest position and I’d still like it lower.
Lester Green
Member
WilliamG
Hinge Fanatic
Yeah, I think I'd have trouble here. I did sit in a customer's Model X with an aftermarket wheel about a year ago or so, when we were both waiting for service at the local Tesla Service Center, and I couldn't see much of anything with the seat in the lowest position. I suspect it would be the same with an OEM wheel, but will have to wait and see if I can pop to Tesla and sit in a vehicle there.
fasteddie7
Active Member
To those that had the yoke and now the wheel, is the material drastically different? I opted for the wheel and I wonder if it will have the same issues as the yoke with coming apart.
Lester Green
Member
I believe the material is the same. I haven't had any problems with the yoke, but I've only owned since 9/22 and have 4k miles.
scrapps
Member
That's not true. It's different. See the other thread for a comparison. These threads really need consolidating. Who's getting the normal steering wheel?
Lester Green
Member
For what it's worth I just held my yoke next to my new round wheel. Without doing a materials analysis, they look and feel the same to me. Obviously not definitive.
I've seen people who "get used to" the yoke, I agree it is a cool sci-fi look and fine for driving straight or making slight turns, but I chose a Taycan 4S over Plaid back in 2022 because I did not want to force myself to learn something I have become extremely adept at over 40 years of driving, including several emergency maneuvers I suspect even yoke-pleased people probably aren't as adept at yet with the yoke as they once were with a round steering wheel. Now that the round wheel is out, the Plaid price dropped $30k, I traded in my Taycan 4S for a Plaid. The range, power, and space in the Plaid is a huge improvement. The handling, braking, fit and finish, and style (Porsche electronic sound made the drive much more visceral, and the 14 way massaging seats were awesome), I truly miss my Taycan 4S.
. But 1020 hp is a thing I just had to experience for a while!While I am happy to have a round steering wheel, and have gotten used to shifting on-screen, turn signals are only fine if you select them before turning the steering wheel. Like a yoke, I'm sure I can get used to it, but I don't want to and no one should be forced to retrain such fundamental habits unless the replacement is a HUGE improvement in every way. If someone comes up with a lever that can use the S3XY buttons to have a proper turn stalk I'll be all over that... heck I may even use S3XY buttons behind the steering wheel as that is so much more intuitive than existing turn signal buttons.
At some point I'll do a thread on my ownership experience as a first time Tesla guy, but you capture a lot of my thoughts on the Yoke. Ultimately the steering wheel is not something one should have to re-learn and while I think it's completely useless, what they should have done is what they are doing now, i.e., give people the option of one or the other from day one.
This is useful perspective for me. I traded my Raven MS Perf in 2020 for a Taycan Turbo after only owning the MS for a year (I've always been a Porsche guy, but had really wanted to try Tesla). The Plaid was semi-tempting, but the yoke was a full stop no, and then the lack of stalks compounded it. The Turbo isn't quite as quick as my Raven was, but it's quick enough. I get around 275mi so range is good enough for me as well, and space is a non-issue. Although the sheer insanity of the Plaid became really tempting again, between the wheel option and the price cuts, hearing your comments about handling (incl 4 wheel steering and chassis control), braking, fit and finish, and all of the little quality of life stuff (sound, massaging, ambient light, CarPlay, etc) brings me back to reality. I'll continue to enjoy the Plaid vicariously. I suspect going back from the Turbo I'd really regret it. At least I still have the MY for my "Tesla fix"I've seen people who "get used to" the yoke, I agree it is a cool sci-fi look and fine for driving straight or making slight turns, but I chose a Taycan 4S over Plaid back in 2022 because I did not want to force myself to learn something I have become extremely adept at over 40 years of driving, including several emergency maneuvers I suspect even yoke-pleased people probably aren't as adept at yet with the yoke as they once were with a round steering wheel. Now that the round wheel is out, the Plaid price dropped $30k, I traded in my Taycan 4S for a Plaid. The range, power, and space in the Plaid is a huge improvement. The handling, braking, fit and finish, and style (Porsche electronic sound made the drive much more visceral, and the 14 way massaging seats were awesome), I truly miss my Taycan 4S.
While I am happy to have a round steering wheel, and have gotten used to shifting on-screen, turn signals are only fine if you select them before turning the steering wheel. Like a yoke, I'm sure I can get used to it, but I don't want to and no one should be forced to retrain such fundamental habits unless the replacement is a HUGE improvement in every way. If someone comes up with a lever that can use the S3XY buttons to have a proper turn stalk I'll be all over that... heck I may even use S3XY buttons behind the steering wheel as that is so much more intuitive than existing turn signal buttons.
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I am far from the biggest Tesla fan but so many things they get right. There are finally some good workarounds for some of the issues. One of my most annoying ones was lack of CarPlay. With Carlink T2C, the workaround to get CarPlay on the 3 and S has worked very well. One the big screen in the S, it is pretty awesome actually. Responsiveness has been very good too.This is useful perspective for me. I traded my Raven MS Perf in 2020 for a Taycan Turbo after only owning the MS for a year (I've always been a Porsche guy, but had really wanted to try Tesla). The Plaid was semi-tempting, but the yoke was a full stop no, and then the lack of stalks compounded it. The Turbo isn't quite as quick as my Raven was, but it's quick enough. I get around 275mi so range is good enough for me as well, and space is a non-issue. Although the sheer insanity of the Plaid became really tempting again, between the wheel option and the price cuts, hearing your comments about handling (incl 4 wheel steering and chassis control), braking, fit and finish, and all of the little quality of life stuff (sound, massaging, ambient light, CarPlay, etc) brings me back to reality. I'll continue to enjoy the Plaid vicariously. I suspect going back from the Turbo I'd really regret it. At least I still have the MY for my "Tesla fix"
Fit and finish has been hit or miss. My Y was pretty much perfect from the factory. I spent hours in 100F+ heat going over the car with a 4 page checklist and couldn't find anything. It was put together better than my last AMG Benz. I sold it to and the subsequent owner has put another 50K flawless miles on it other than tires. Model 3 was pretty good. Minor hoor alignment issue and has been flawless so far. My MS LR had a door and hood alignment issue. It was fixed and was great until I sold and got the Plaid. Plaid was used but seemed to be put together even better than my LR. Only issue seems to be the common one of the rear seat rattle. So overall pretty good for fit and finish.
With the installed base of the S, a lot of aftermarket parts, should you be so inclined, to bolster the track capabilities of the car. Great upgrades, suspension upgrades and a whole host of parts to make the S into a track monster if you want, or just enhance its backroad capability. The car is pretty much a blank canvas in someways and the potential is enormous. Not to mention nobody does tech better in a car than Tesla does.
My plans are brake upgrades, maybe some speaker upgrades, debadge the car and take off the wing and slap on a P90D sticker on it and go have some fun. There isn't a better bang for the buck car currently out there for the street. For the track, neither a Taycan nor a Plaid are going to be my first choice anyway.
Yes, I hated the yoke, but a factory option to replace it. That and the lack of stalks have been my biggest complaints about the S. When I look at the pluses and minuses, there isn't anyone making anything I'd buy right now in the same class as the S. For the 3, I might look elsewhere. Tesla service can still be hit or miss but the SuperCharger network is unmatched. The Tesla Forums are an awesome resource as there is a huge base of Tesla owners and only have to deal with 4 basic models so far until CT. Not as many Taycans out there or Lucids, or whatever.
As a result, there are a lot of vocal owners (both good and bad) but the book of knowledge on these cars and aftermarket support is unmatched for any other EV currently. With the sheer number of owners, a lot of problems get turned from a molehill into a mountain. At the same time, there is a tremendous amount of crowdsourcing of solutions. This is a huge plus to me. I don't care as much about a problem if there is a solution or workaround. Very quickly someone came up with a solution to the yoke in the aftermarket. Let's take an issue with Porsche that was one of the reasons I didn't buy a Taycan.
Is there any solution to the lack of one-pedal driving? This is one of the things I love about most EVs. I get why Porsche did it. Tesla used to allow you to adjust regen. Then they took it away. It is supposed to be coming back. So if you want super low amount of regen (basically almost none) and want to use.2 pedal driving, you will have that option. Porsche doesn't give you an option.
With the Plaid you also get a track mode. Pretty cool feature which has some great benefits, fun to play with (drift mode) and gives you torque vectoring which is vastly superior to the optional limited-slip differential.
If Porsche started adopting some of the things Tesla is doing with S, I'd definitely consider it when I replace my Plaid. I also appreciate when Porsche claims a performance stat, basically any random car of the line will meet, or beat it. At least with the ones I've bought in the past. I definitely like the amount of Porsche factory options customization but I also like the Tesla pretty much gives me 90% of what I want without dropping another 50k to get what I want; improved brakes aside. I do like the simplicity of a single-speed gearbox. Less complexity is a good thing and why I never jumped on the Model X bandwagon as I didn't want to deal with the Falcon wing doors.
At the end of the day I don't care what is the label on the car. Whether it is a prancing horse, snorting bull, flying lady, feral cat, or Stuttgart crest, I buy something that I enjoy driving and fit for my purpose, not to impress people. Others have different priorities. Fortunately, we all have choices and without Tesla in the market, there wouldn't be a decent EV alternative. Porsche likely would have never built the Taycan. What I do appreciate about Tesla, is they didn't try and convert an existing ICE platform to an EV.
The fact that you can use the S3XY buttons in general gives me hope and I may go that route in general. I asked if they planned to make any smaller ones as well.
Got the round steering wheel installed a week ago. Drove around with a bit to give an honest opinion. So, when I first got the car, I thought the Yoke sucked. Then I kinda got used to it, thinking it was not that bad. Well after one week of driving with the round steering wheel I can tell you... the Yoke totally and utterly sucks. The round wheel makes the car so much better and easier to drive. I enjoy the car much more now. Yes the touch buttons on the wheel are still not great, but I can live with that. The wheel itself is also nice, good quality, nice material. A bit smoother material than the Yoke it seems, similar to Model 3/Y. Personally I think it's a no brainer to get the round wheel, unless you drive only straight roads and never have to park.
darkelf23
Member
The steering wheel definitely feels better than the yoke, although not as supple as the one in my wife's GV70. All in all the steering wheel is a better experience for me than the yoke. And after a few days I was no longer reaching for the phantom indicator stalk.
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