Model Y - Initial Impressions - Delights, surprises, disappointments and concerns

Bought a 23 Model Y without a test drive (no test drive available, but have test driven an older MY 3 some time back). Some initial perspectives after a week.

Delights:
1. Very spacious- doesn’t look like it from outside. Leg room and head room are pretty good.
2. Smooth app experience in-car and on phone
3. Plenty of storage

Surprises:
1. Ride quality is not bad at all. Much better than the Model 3. Comparable to other EVs. Not as soft as Hyundai Sonata Hybrid that we have but does soak up bumps reasonably well
2. Good turning radius for a car of its size

Disappointments/Annoyance
1. Regen levels are not adjustable
2. No 360 view for a 65K+ car in 2023
3. Not the best implementation of blind spot safety. No visual or audible alerts with turn signals on for the left side. Audible when there is a car in blind spot is the safest implementation despite minor annoyance. Now I have to get used to looking right and then looking left to turn.

Concerns:
1. Heavy low frequency resonance- just figuring out this is a problem that many are facing - just hoping it’s fixable and not really a torsional rigidity design flaw - Set up service appointment in 2 weeks
2. No rear safety- no cross traffic alerts, no auto brake for objects or pedestrians- almost ran into another reversing BMW but fortunately that car had better tech to stop
3. . Lane departure warning / assistance doesn’t work reliably. Low end cars give warning when straddling or drifting lanes.

Overall well built car and drives well. But certainly some concerns and disappointments.

"Tesla Model Y Dual Motor Solid Black (4)" by Damian B Oh is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog feed thumbnail

 

[gx9901]

Thanks for the advice. The point of modern mats is rhe containing ability with the high edges. I was not ready to trim the mats. If on a few road trips, we feel more storage within reach is necessary then I’ll revisit the underseat boxes and mat trimming. Again thanks

I don't have the 3D mats, but I have a set of Tuxmats and they also have high edges all around. My underseat bin became a pretty tight fit when I installed the Tuxmats initially and was a bit difficult to pull in and out, but after some time I think the mats sort of conformed to the underseat bin and it can now be pulled in and out relatively easily. I think maybe it would be the same for your 3D mats.

 

[ksnMY23]

Try adjusting the trunk stoppers then do the vinyl tubing method for the boominess. It has tightened up that low boom for me with minimal cost/effort.

Tried the trunk stoppers - that didnt work, so have set up time with service center - that's another pathetic experience. Two days before the appointment, they unilaterally rescheduled to 'offer me the best experience' - Hyundai offers better customer service..

 

[bobbyjae]

Tried the trunk stoppers - that didnt work, so have set up time with service center - that's another pathetic experience. Two days before the appointment, they unilaterally rescheduled to 'offer me the best experience' - Hyundai offers better customer service..

The vinyl tubing method made the most difference for me. Get a 5/16 vinyl tube from a hardware store and push it through the rubber around the hatch. Make sure you use a lubricant and it's a quick and easy process. Good luck!

 

[Sun&moon]

Bought a 23 Model Y without a test drive (no test drive available, but have test driven an older MY 3 some time back). Some initial perspectives after a week.

Delights:
1. Very spacious- doesn’t look like it from outside. Leg room and head room are pretty good.
2. Smooth app experience in-car and on phone
3. Plenty of storage

Surprises:
1. Ride quality is not bad at all. Much better than the Model 3. Comparable to other EVs. Not as soft as Hyundai Sonata Hybrid that we have but does soak up bumps reasonably well
2. Good turning radius for a car of its size

Disappointments/Annoyance
1. Regen levels are not adjustable
2. No 360 view for a 65K+ car in 2023
3. Not the best implementation of blind spot safety. No visual or audible alerts with turn signals on for the left side. Audible when there is a car in blind spot is the safest implementation despite minor annoyance. Now I have to get used to looking right and then looking left to turn.

Concerns:
1. Heavy low frequency resonance- just figuring out this is a problem that many are facing - just hoping it’s fixable and not really a torsional rigidity design flaw - Set up service appointment in 2 weeks
2. No rear safety- no cross traffic alerts, no auto brake for objects or pedestrians- almost ran into another reversing BMW but fortunately that car had better tech to stop
3. . Lane departure warning / assistance doesn’t work reliably. Low end cars give warning when straddling or drifting lanes.

Overall well built car and drives well. But certainly some concerns and disappointments.


View attachment 896494
"Tesla Model Y Dual Motor Solid Black (4)" by Damian B Oh is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog feed thumbnail

Buying with limitation and expectation same will be fixed in future. My friends says it is a joke if you call your vehicle as luxury. Because you have to adapt and compromise which other has as all that functionality as a basic. With their technology they should be able to fix. May be the Radar might come back because they have left one port in the frunk open for Radar. But pretty sure they might figure out something. Even Vision memory and distance calculation at low speed that will replicate as a USS.

 

[ksnMY23]

The vinyl tubing method made the most difference for me. Get a 5/16 vinyl tube from a hardware store and push it through the rubber around the hatch. Make sure you use a lubricant and it's a quick and easy process. Good luck!

Thank you. Will try if the Service Center appointment doesn't fix it.

 

[ksnMY23]

Buying with limitation and expectation same will be fixed in future. My friends says it is a joke if you call your vehicle as luxury. Because you have to adapt and compromise which other has as all that functionality as a basic. With their technology they should be able to fix. May be the Radar might come back because they have left one port in the frunk open for Radar. But pretty sure they might figure out something. Even Vision memory and distance calculation at low speed that will replicate as a USS.

I didn't have any expectation of luxury. The price is premium, but the overall experience is not. Tesla has a long way to go to catch up on other aspects of the total car experience. They are focusing on tech, but really lagging behind in other areas. Learning is not in the culture of the organization from my limited exposure to Tesla delivery, support, service.

 

[Walch1102]

Teslas are designed to be either self driving or almost completely driven by the meat bag, it lacks an "assisted driving" mode which allows you to move the steering wheel without disengaging the active lane assist, I find it very annoying that every time I need to move the steering wheel to avoid a pothole or pass a slow car I have to reengage AP. Even less capable systems like Honda Sensing or Toyota Safety Sense functions better in this area.
On the other hand if I'm in AP cruising on the highway I fully trust it over any other systems (maybe the only one comes close is Super Cruise).

Not sure I followed this at all. Why would you trust a call that has inferior lane keep assist?

To be clear, lane keep assist just means keeping the vehicle in the lane. I had a Volvo and it would either work or it would disengage. Tesla bounced me around a wide lane, and seemed far less reliable. Granted, this was only durig a test drive. And I still bought it so it didn't deter me enough, but that's my experience. Sounds like others who have owned a Tesla for a while confirms this.

 

[Walch1102]

This thread branch is all about Tesla’s basic AP (and blind spot) relative to others in the market. Not self-driving.

What's the difference? For the purposes of just keep the vehicle in the lane while on AP, FSD won't be better than basic AP right? I'm confused.

 

[Walch1102]

I didn't have any expectation of luxury. The price is premium, but the overall experience is not. Tesla has a long way to go to catch up on other aspects of the total car experience. They are focusing on tech, but really lagging behind in other areas. Learning is not in the culture of the organization from my limited exposure to Tesla delivery, support, service.

Surprised you didn't research and know this going in. Maybe you're just a baller like that.

 

[exxxviii]

What's the difference? For the purposes of just keep the vehicle in the lane while on AP, FSD won't be better than basic AP right? I'm confused.

This thread branch was about missing or inferior common safety features, including LKA among a few others. Another person further branched comparing FSD to other advanced self-driving cars, which was a non sequitur from the basic feature conversation.

Tesla does a great job keeping the car in the lane with basic AP, and that one behavior is probably the same for EAP and FSD and probably equal to any other car with LKA I have driven recently. But if you are using basic AP, Tesla sucks at consistently failing to disengage, forcing disengagement when suspending would be better, and requiring manual re-engagement when nobody else does it this poorly.

 

[hmmwv]

Not sure I followed this at all. Why would you trust a call that has inferior lane keep assist?

To be clear, lane keep assist just means keeping the vehicle in the lane. I had a Volvo and it would either work or it would disengage. Tesla bounced me around a wide lane, and seemed far less reliable. Granted, this was only durig a test drive. And I still bought it so it didn't deter me enough, but that's my experience. Sounds like others who have owned a Tesla for a while confirms this.

Lane keeping in Auto Pilot mode is very good, I find it far better than others, I have never had the car ping ponging between the lines, but sometimes I wish in curves it'll bias towards the shoulder instead of faithfully keeping the car in the middle just to create more safety margins. It's far more centered and reliable than Chevy's pre super cruise LKA for example, HS and TSS are better but cannot maintain position in tight curves. On the highway I can engage AP and all I have to do is rest my hand on the wheel and it'll drive itself for the entire duration of the trip.

What I dislike is AP will disengage if you actively move the wheel to avoid a pothole for example, then you have to reengage it, while others will automatically resume lane keeping. Tesla also has safety lane keeping while AP is disengaged, and it'll only nudge you back when you're drifting off the lane, this might be what you have experienced, if you can confirm you're in AP mode when the bouncing happened then there is something wrong with the car.

 

[Dougfox]

I’ll be picking up a MYLR in a few weeks. Reading through this thread I am a little confused & concerned about these common safety features. I am coming from a 2019 Honda Pilot. I test drove a 2022 MYP for about 10 minutes.

1. If I turn on my turn signal and tesla shows me the camera and I still continue to merge into another car’s lane, it won’t beep at me or fight me at the steering wheel?
2. If I back out of my driveway and there is a kid I don’t notice in the camera, the car won’t auto break?
3. No cross traffic alerts when backing up?

I feel reliant on these safety features.

 

[ksnMY23]

I’ll be picking up a MYLR in a few weeks. Reading through this thread I am a little confused & concerned about these common safety features. I am coming from a 2019 Honda Pilot. I test drove a 2022 MYP for about 10 minutes.

1. If I turn on my turn signal and tesla shows me the camera and I still continue to merge into another car’s lane, it won’t beep at me or fight me at the steering wheel?
2. If I back out of my driveway and there is a kid I don’t notice in the camera, the car won’t auto break?
3. No cross traffic alerts when backing up?

I feel reliant on these safety features.

1. It’s supposed to but doesn’t in my case
2. Definitely NO
3. Definitely NO
Let me clarify further. Tesla AutoPilot (included) does have a setting to give an audible warning chime OR assist steering action. In my case it doesn’t work whether I am changing lanes into a car in blind spot or unintentionally straddling lanes. I am taking my car to SC - hopefully fixable but many have said it is not reliable. Lack of radars is the likely reason in my opinion
Cross traffic alerts needs radars to work reliably. New Teslas don’t have them.
Don’t mean to discourage you but sharing to avoid disappointments like in my case.

 

[exxxviii]

I’ll be picking up a MYLR in a few weeks. Reading through this thread I am a little confused & concerned about these common safety features. I am coming from a 2019 Honda Pilot. I test drove a 2022 MYP for about 10 minutes.

1. If I turn on my turn signal and tesla shows me the camera and I still continue to merge into another car’s lane, it won’t beep at me or fight me at the steering wheel?
2. If I back out of my driveway and there is a kid I don’t notice in the camera, the car won’t auto break?
3. No cross traffic alerts when backing up?

I feel reliant on these safety features.

Ditto above:

1. Blind spot warning & intervention - generally does not work
2. Rear pedestrian intervention - No
3. Rear cross traffic - No

 

[Dougfox]

Ditto above:

1. Blind spot warning & intervention - generally does not work
2. Rear pedestrian intervention - No
3. Rear cross traffic - No

I’m not ashamed to admit that I need these features. I might cancel my order. All this tesla hype yet so far behind. I’ll wait to see what my insurance quote is.

 

[ksnMY23]

We tend to downplay the importance of such safety features. It is a shame that Tesla is lagging way behind on side and rear safety that my 6 year old $25K Hyundai has. MYLR is a good car in a few ways but it lacks some basic safety that’s standard in the industry.

 

[exxxviii]

I’m not ashamed to admit that I need these features. I might cancel my order. All this tesla hype yet so far behind. I’ll wait to see what my insurance quote is.

It is a tough call for sure. I did not know about the blind spot and rear cross traffic misses until after I got my car. But I did know it was lacking a few other features I really wanted, like SiriusXM, head-up display, and CarPlay.

On the other hand, the actual electric vehicle aspects of the Teslas are truly unmatched. They handle well, they accelerate like freaks of nature, and the human-machine interaction and automation are advanced far beyond anything else on the market. And right now, they are an incredible value.

 

[Sun&moon]

usually you buy a car with 60 grand you enhance your style or comfort. With Tesla you have to live with it. In short this will increase your resilience.

 

[arbitrage000]

On the other hand, the actual electric vehicle aspects of the Teslas are truly unmatched. They handle well, they accelerate like freaks of nature, and the human-machine interaction and automation are advanced far beyond anything else on the market. And right now, they are an incredible value.

Exactly. That is the reason you buy a Tesla....not to get a luxury car with a full suite of safety features that rely on radar units and ultrasonics. I'd love a few more tech/safety features like 360 view, HUD, blindspot indicator and better warning and a front bumper camera. At least I snagged one of the last USS builds. Radar would be nice to add in more safety. However, I have no disappointments with the car as I knew all of this going in and at least for backing up I find the 3 camera view to be all I need to not hit anyone. Even fun that you can drive with the 3 camera view live all the time instead of trying to see through the RVM with that pinhole view out the rear window...LOL

The other big reason is if you want to roadtrip....CCS in N. America is getting worse and worse by the day....new cars on the road outpacing new chargers and charger reliability is terrible. You have ID4 and others using their free charging to hog 350kw chargers that their car can't even support to charge to 100%. Everything I read and watch on YT makes it seem a never ending gong show at CCS charging stops.

 

[SpicyPaneer]

Exactly. That is the reason you buy a Tesla....not to get a luxury car with a full suite of safety features that rely on radar units and ultrasonics. I'd love a few more tech/safety features like 360 view, HUD, blindspot indicator and better warning and a front bumper camera. At least I snagged one of the last USS builds. Radar would be nice to add in more safety. However, I have no disappointments with the car as I knew all of this going in and at least for backing up I find the 3 camera view to be all I need to not hit anyone. Even fun that you can drive with the 3 camera view live all the time instead of trying to see through the RVM with that pinhole view out the rear window...LOL

The other big reason is if you want to roadtrip....CCS in N. America is getting worse and worse by the day....new cars on the road outpacing new chargers and charger reliability is terrible. You have ID4 and others using their free charging to hog 350kw chargers that their car can't even support to charge to 100%. Everything I read and watch on YT makes it seem a never ending gong show at CCS charging stops.

Ryan Shaw experience on YT with his Rivian with electrify america , he stated it’s getting worse also.