Model Y review after Test Drive

[RidgeRunner]

Over all I really liked the car and much of the reservations I had about it were overcome.
The overnight test drive in Houston consisted of a lengthy trip from extreme north side of Houston to extreme south side about an hour and a half each way. There was heavy traffic both ways consisting of overly aggressive lane changing, Mega pickup speeders, and slow industrial contractor type traffic vehicles. Surprisingly my return trip to south side in my "all the truck you need" Honda Ridgeline was more pleasant and less stressful.
I liked the model Y features, the screen controls were super, seats very comfortable, the cruise control worked great in stop and go, lane changing in auto pilot was excellent, There was very minimal sound penetration into the cabin from outside, cargo carrying capacity was quite adequate, and there was no wind noise at highway speeds. Tesla did a good job correcting the noise problem from a year ago.
CONS:
No Blind spot monitoring alert, other than the blaring horn of the adjacent driver you almost ran off the road.
Steering at highways speeds over small imperfections and bumps in the highway was stressful. One had to make slight micro motions in the steering wheel constantly.
Suspension: those small imperfections in the roadway was jarring and bouncing, keep a firm grip the wheel, don't let it move around as the car is bouncing. Trying to make a change on the screen could not be done, unable to touch the correct spot on the screen which kept moving around.
The auto steer could not be trusted because it occasionally jerked the car from side to side. This occasionally happens when initiating "Auto Steer". Maybe one could get used to it if you knew it was not going to throw you into the other lane.
This Tesla was a performance model Y. I don't know if suspension and steering is different on a Model Y long range that I ordered.
Realizing this post is too long, I'll ask questions and what can be done about these cons separately.

 

[ToasterStrudel]

I test drove a MYP and MYLR last week and went on highways and had no issues with the autopilot. When I need to use the screen I can easily put it on autopilot and make adjustments or whatever I need to on the touch screen

 

[spsheridan]

Surprisingly my return trip to south side in my "all the truck you need" Honda Ridgeline was more pleasant and less stressful.

Is it possible your return trip was more pleasant and less stressful because you are much more used to the Ridgeline’s handling, displays, and controls?

 

[Eric9610]

The MY does have blind spot monitoring built into the screen and will blink red if you have you signal on and then if you try the car will sound tones to alert you, you may have had this function turned off. Also the car has the ability to vibrate the wheel if you don't have the signal on and you are veering into another lane.

Related to the harsh ride I have noticed over the 6months of ownership they suspension has softened up.

 

[zpaul]

Is it possible your return trip was more pleasant and less stressful because you are much more used to the Ridgeline’s handling, displays, and controls?

As former 2017 Ridgeline owner I can say that Autopilot was pretty good there. It followed the road pretty well, used breaks when needed.
Best part - It also allowed you to switch lanes. The way it work is you turn signal and it allowed you to get into another lane and it will engage Autopilot after that.
On Tesla I definitely miss that feature because as soon as I turn signal on or try to get into another lane it disengages Autopilot.

But with Honda Ridgeline - they will never update anything, infortament or even Autopilot. It will stay the same all the years you own it. Main reason it was sold - glitchy infotainment that will randomly reboot itself while you are driving using Waze or talking through BT. Honda knows about the issue for the past 5 years but not in a hurry to solve it.

 

[RidgeRunner]

Is it possible your return trip was more pleasant and less stressful because you are much more used to the Ridgeline’s handling, displays, and controls?

Yes, true I'm more used to it. But it was the steering and bouncing around in the Tesla that I'm referring to. I see there are some rather expensive, don't know what they are called, shocks struts or what ever, that may help it the ride and consequently the steering too.

 

[RidgeRunner]

As former 2017 Ridgeline owner I can say that Autopilot was pretty good there. It followed the road pretty well, used breaks when needed.
Best part - It also allowed you to switch lanes. The way it work is you turn signal and it allowed you to get into another lane and it will engage Autopilot after that.
On Tesla I definitely miss that feature because as soon as I turn signal on or try to get into another lane it disengages Autopilot.

But with Honda Ridgeline - they will never update anything, infortament or even Autopilot. It will stay the same all the years you own it. Main reason it was sold - glitchy infotainment that will randomly reboot itself while you are driving using Waze or talking through BT. Honda knows about the issue for the past 5 years but not in a hurry to solve it.

whoa, Ridgeline's autopilot? interesting I have noticed on Ridgeline if you have Lane Keeping assistant on, at times it will track left or right on curves. But always will eventually wanders off the road and I have to take over, could it be something is broken? cruise control will slow down for vehicle in front but when traffic stops completely it turns off. Tesla does slow down and will come to a complete stop and will start when traffic moves again. I like that. Yep, Honda infotainment is cumbersome. Yep, the only thing they updated was the front end. Ha, I told 'em they would sell more if they would ditch that nerdy Pilot looking front end, and they did.

 

[RidgeRunner]

The MY does have blind spot monitoring built into the screen and will blink red if you have you signal on and then if you try the car will sound tones to alert you, you may have had this function turned off. Also the car has the ability to vibrate the wheel if you don't have the signal on and you are veering into another lane.

Related to the harsh ride I have noticed over the 6months of ownership they suspension has softened up.

Do you mean that after 6 months it did not bounce around as much?

 

[RidgeRunner]

I test drove a MYP and MYLR last week and went on highways and had no issues with the autopilot. When I need to use the screen I can easily put it on autopilot and make adjustments or whatever I need to on the touch screen

Yes there was a short stretch of new freeway where it was not a problem. I did put on auto steer there and it worked great. but boy did those tires scream on that new concrete pavement.

 

[zpaul]

whoa, Ridgeline's autopilot? interesting I have noticed on Ridgeline if you have Lane Keeping assistant on, at times it will track left or right on curves. But always will eventually wanders off the road and I have to take over, could it be something is broken? cruise control will slow down for vehicle in front but when traffic stops completely it turns off. Tesla does slow down and will come to a complete stop and will start when traffic moves again. I like that. Yep, Honda infotainment is cumbersome. Yep, the only thing they updated was the front end. Ha, I told 'em they would sell more if they would ditch that nerdy Pilot looking front end, and they did.

See I own Tesla for 2 month and Honda Sensing name already skipping my mind.
Lane Keeping Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Road Departure Mitigations System, and Collision Mitigations System worked just fine for me.
The only issue I had was on some turns the damn thing was seeing upcoming traffic and would slam the breaks pretty hard thinking of head collision.
All this functions are very similar to Teals Autopilot. Tesla also has some fantom breaking. Can't figure out what freaks it out some time.

 

[Noflash]

You should drive the Long Range trim with standard suspension and 19" rims.

 

[k.alexander]

Yeah, we took a LR with 20" rims on an extended drive two weekends ago. My wife driving, about 0.1 miles out of the dealership she finds the first set of potholes (which admittedly is not hard in and around Philadelphia, but my wife, oh, she has a special gift of finding and hitting them all). Anyways, I typically cringe in those situations. She's used to it and looks over at me, anticipating that I'm going to say something. My only response was, wow, this thing is so smooth over the potholes. And that's how it felt for the rest of the weekend. Her current car is a Volvo S60 for comparison. The SA told me that the LR with standard 19" wheels that we ordered would be even softer -- happy to hear!

 

[WADan]

Over all I really liked the car and much of the reservations I had about it were overcome.
The overnight test drive in Houston consisted of a lengthy trip from extreme north side of Houston to extreme south side about an hour and a half each way. There was heavy traffic both ways consisting of overly aggressive lane changing, Mega pickup speeders, and slow industrial contractor type traffic vehicles. Surprisingly my return trip to south side in my "all the truck you need" Honda Ridgeline was more pleasant and less stressful.
I liked the model Y features, the screen controls were super, seats very comfortable, the cruise control worked great in stop and go, lane changing in auto pilot was excellent, There was very minimal sound penetration into the cabin from outside, cargo carrying capacity was quite adequate, and there was no wind noise at highway speeds. Tesla did a good job correcting the noise problem from a year ago.
CONS:
No Blind spot monitoring alert, other than the blaring horn of the adjacent driver you almost ran off the road.
Steering at highways speeds over small imperfections and bumps in the highway was stressful. One had to make slight micro motions in the steering wheel constantly.
Suspension: those small imperfections in the roadway was jarring and bouncing, keep a firm grip the wheel, don't let it move around as the car is bouncing. Trying to make a change on the screen could not be done, unable to touch the correct spot on the screen which kept moving around.
The auto steer could not be trusted because it occasionally jerked the car from side to side. This occasionally happens when initiating "Auto Steer". Maybe one could get used to it if you knew it was not going to throw you into the other lane.
This Tesla was a performance model Y. I don't know if suspension and steering is different on a Model Y long range that I ordered.
Realizing this post is too long, I'll ask questions and what can be done about these cons separately.

Not sure if you are aware of voice control (of many functions).

 

[Peelz]

return trip...I found the opposite getting back into our car for the 3 hr drive home. LOL I craved the serene experience of the Y.

the steering has 3 settings - can be adjusted from sport to chill. my wife likes the sport, I like it chill. It is a noticeable difference.

 

[Eric9610]

Do you mean that after 6 months it did not bounce around as much?

I would say they are less firm and more absorbent of road imperfections. I will say though that the ride is on par for other cars of this weight with 20" rims. I personally did not like the way the MY drives on the 19" vs the 20" as I did back to back overnights with a version of each before buying.

 

[LargeHamCollider]

As others have said the 20” rims make the ride much “sportier”, they also reduce your range (a lot!), wear out quicker, are more expensive to replace and are more easily damaged. Autopilot makes road trips WAY less stressful than in other vehicles. It takes some people a while to get comfortable with it, took me just a few days but took my parents about 10x that long.

 

[RidgeRunner]

See I own Tesla for 2 month and Honda Sensing name already skipping my mind.
Lane Keeping Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, Road Departure Mitigations System, and Collision Mitigations System worked just fine for me.
The only issue I had was on some turns the damn thing was seeing upcoming traffic and would slam the breaks pretty hard thinking of head collision.
All this functions are very similar to Teals Autopilot. Tesla also has some fantom breaking. Can't figure out what freaks it out some time.

Hey Paul, it could be the problem with radar, and this may be why Elon is dumping radar. On my test drive, I did notice cars on the side were appearing and disappearing like flashing on the screen. BTW, did your Ridgeline ever open all windows and sun roof on its own. Its a problem with the key Fob. It happened to me three times on the 2018 model. Once it rained in from the sun roof and got into the enclosure of the sensor by the rear view mirror. spent a few hours trying to drying out the enclosure.

 

[Firocity]

As others have said the 20” rims make the ride much “sportier”, they also reduce your range (a lot!), wear out quicker, are more expensive to replace and are more easily damaged. Autopilot makes road trips WAY less stressful than in other vehicles. It takes some people a while to get comfortable with it, took me just a few days but took my parents about 10x that long.

I wouldn't say reduce your range a lot. You are probably talking about 10-15 miles which in reality doesn't change the amount of supercharging stations you would need to stop at on a road trip.

 

[RidgeRunner]

As others have said the 20” rims make the ride much “sportier”, they also reduce your range (a lot!), wear out quicker, are more expensive to replace and are more easily damaged. Autopilot makes road trips WAY less stressful than in other vehicles. It takes some people a while to get comfortable with it, took me just a few days but took my parents about 10x that long.

yep I can believe that. We are probably older than your parents too.

 

[RidgeRunner]

return trip...I found the opposite getting back into our car for the 3 hr drive home. LOL I craved the serene experience of the Y.

the steering has 3 settings - can be adjusted from sport to chill. my wife likes the sport, I like it chill. It is a noticeable difference.

I Was going to change to chill but it was already there.