My Two Week Review - Heading towards 300,000 Miles

Hi All,

I really appriciated this forum for all the help and guidance as I was looking to make my purchase. I’ve been the proud owner of a 2023 Model Y LR for just over 2.5 weeks (Yep, weeks). I have logged about 2,500 miles. I drive over 30,000 miles per year, mostly for work. I live in cold Wisconsin so am interested in what the reality of winter driving will be but read enough feedback on this forum to move forward with my purchase.

I was planning to purchase a Toyota Camry XSE Hybrid until I switched to the Model Y thanks to the government tax incentive and Elon lowering the price. My numbers are subject to questioning but after building a spreadsheet including payments, fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc. I concluded that the Tesla was $28 per month cheaper than the Camry would have been…….over 10 years.

I know I could have driven the Camry 300,000 and for at least 10 years. Not sure I can do that with the Model Y, but gonna try.

So here are my thoughts, surprises, and disappointments.

Thoughts:
- I REALLY like this car. The tech is amazing. I don’t seem to have any of the build quality issues that some have had. (I have historically driven Corolla’s, so this is a step up for me.)
- The power is amazing. Just amazing.
- The super charger network (even in Wisconsin) is really good. They are everywhere I need them to be.

Surprises:
- I knew charging at home was going to save me money, but was surprised to find out that a full charge is less than $10. That’s great!
- Because of my long distance driving I’m simply going to have to charge at a super charge 3-4 times a week just to get home. I will have to charge to 100% at home, then use a super charger for 5-15 minutes. This is going to significantly cut into my estimated savings. Still cheaper than gas, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. For those that can charge almost exclusively at home, this is great.
- I got caught in a rainstorm and it dramatically reduced my range. I was surprised by the almost 5% loss in range just from 15-20 minutes of rain.


Disappointments:
- Super Charging is expensive. Based on 44 MPG (had I purchased the Camry Hybrid) my recent 850 mile trip to Ohio only saved me $10. I paid $60 in SC fees and would have paid $70 in gas.
- The lack of USS was known to me, but I remain disappointed. I bought the car anyway. I’m looking forward to updates that will hopefully improve some of the missing features I paid for.

Am I nervous about winter, yes. Am I glad I made the purchase, yes, so far. Do I like the car, yes!

I’m developing weird charging habits, probably uncessarily.

I arrive home and charge to 50%. Then set it to charge to the desired percentage the next morning when I need to go. Each day is different, so I’m not able to set it to one number and leave it.

I also feel I’m doing the two hardest things on the battery, but out of necessity for my lifestyle. I will charge it to 100% 2-4 times per week and leave the house almost immediately. I still will need to use a supercharger 2-4 times a week as well. This wasn’t what I hoped to do, but it is my reality.

Anyway, love the car. Hope things continue to go well.

oh, truck threw a rock and cracked my windshield on day 10 of ownership. Haha /sigh/

"0 Tesla Model Y 4" by Benespit is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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[spokey]

I've got a long trip coming up, I'm gonna try it. I guess the key is getting the right position

I kind of rest my hand on my knee and lightly grip near the bottom of the wheel. The little bit of steering wheel turning that the car naturally does is enough with this method for me. Yeah, I get an occasional nag but not often. I'm using FSDb probably >80% these days. I'll put it on just going down the street for the lane centering. Come to a turn, disengage the re-engage. Used it today going to the grocery store and to that Toyota dealer for the Camry service.

 

[Tronguy]

I kind of rest my hand on my knee and lightly grip near the bottom of the wheel. The little bit of steering wheel turning that the car naturally does is enough with this method for me. Yeah, I get an occasional nag but not often. I'm using FSDb probably >80% these days. I'll put it on just going down the street for the lane centering. Come to a turn, disengage the re-engage. Used it today going to the grocery store and to that Toyota dealer for the Camry service.

I've come up with two methods on the steering wheel attention follies:

1. Two hands on the wheel in their normal position. Cultivate a habit: slowly push the steering wheel to the left, then slowly push the steering wheel to the right, back and forth. Like breathing. After a while it becomes a habit and one doesn't even think about it. This keeps the Tesla happy.
2. One hand, either the right or the left, on the wheel at the 9 o'clock or 3 o'clock position. Just hang on. The car's random vibrations as it travels along will cause the weight of the arm to kind of bounce on the wheel, and that'll be enough to keep the Tesla happy. Most of the time. On long trips I've discovered that it eventually doesn't like that and starts complaining, but only sometimes. Switching hands usually fixes that. (I think the car thinks my hand is a defeat device or something.)

I've been going for #1 because, well, back in Driver's Ed, the rule was "Both hands!". The problem is that if one puts both hands on the wheel and don't do anything else, the hands kind of balance and there's no net torque on the wheel. A minute or so of this and the car starts complaining. So, back-and-forth, gently, does the trick, but it's kind of a pain to get to the point where the "habit" is working.

Yeah, and I am running FSD-b. I'm a-telling you, though: the older versions of FSD-b were much worse with their algorithms and would complain even with single hands. One one run one could go 100 miles sans alerts; on another, with no apparent changes, one would be lucky to go a mile down the road and would sometimes end up intervening (breaking the TACC/LK lock) because anything short of that wouldn't quiet the alarms. The current 11.4.x and 11.3.x versions are much better in that regard.

 

[spokey]

Interesting. I couldn't say the FSDb nag seems much different for me going back to 10.2. But maybe I just forget how bad it was.

 

[mswlogo]

Don’t charge to 50% when you get home. Charge to 80% or 90% if you regularly need that range. 50% is fine if you don’t drive much. It’s silly if you drive a lot.

Especially in winter you’ll be throwing away a heated battery and paying to heat it up again to charge in the morning.

I think you’ll be in the hole come winter at current gas prices. But that’s ok. Hopefully you are ahead year round net.

 

[spokey]

Don’t charge to 50% when you get home. Charge to 80% or 90% if you regularly need that range. 50% is fine if you don’t drive much. It’s silly if you drive a lot.

Especially in winter you’ll be throwing away a heated battery and paying to heat it up again to charge in the morning.

I think you’ll be in the hole come winter at current gas prices. But that’s ok. Hopefully you are ahead year round net.

I typically charge to 50 but bump it up if I'm going somewhere the next day. I usually do it on the app but use teslafi if I'm not plugged in.

I use scheduled charging but wonder how much it helps . Ditto for precondition. Charging usually gets done at least an hour before departure and precondition almost always 15 minutes at which point the app prompts me to turn off the HVAC. So I actually set my departure for 15 minutes late. I'm pretty much leaving within a minute or two of the 'done' message.

I don't have TOU rates so I set my off peak period to end around 3pm. That way the charging will go later if necessary. I did have it even later but found that sometimes I'd come home, plug it in and the car would immediately start charging. So I lowered it to 3 as I'm not likely plugging in even if I'm home at that point.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I actually have a method that practically eliminates the nags.
Resting one of my hands lightly - literally the weight of my arm hanging on the steering wheel by one finger, while the elbow rests on the center console
Never get nags

IME the nags aren't just related to steering wheel engagement - it's the interior camera watching the driver. If you are inattentive - regardless of how much pressure is on the steering wheel - it'll nag you every two minutes or so. It is the inattentiveness that matters most IME when using AP, not the steering wheel engagement - at least on our 23 MY LR.

 

[Art84]

For Camry you forgot to calculate these maintenance things:
1. Brake pad and rotors. With 300K you will replace those at least 4 times. Total: $1000
2. Spark plugs - every 100K miles. Total: $300-500
3. Timing and driving belts. This service is also pretty expensive, every 100K miles. Total: $1500-2500
4. Break fluid, coolant replacement - every 50K miles or so. Total: $1000

So over the 300K miles, you are looking at $4000-5000 to cover those services.

For Tesla you probably use more sets of tires than for Camry.
One set of tires on Tesla will last 30-40K miles, depending on your driving style. On Camry you probably get around 60K on one set of tires.

 

[Konicom04]

IME the nags aren't just related to steering wheel engagement - it's the interior camera watching the driver. If you are inattentive - regardless of how much pressure is on the steering wheel - it'll nag you every two minutes or so. It is the inattentiveness that matters most IME when using AP, not the steering wheel engagement - at least on our 23 MY LR.

I agree with that - it seems to not like the driver holding up a phone

 

[spokey]

For Camry you forgot to calculate these maintenance things:
1. Brake pad and rotors. With 300K you will replace those at least 4 times. Total: $1000
2. Spark plugs - every 100K miles. Total: $300-500
3. Timing and driving belts. This service is also pretty expensive, every 100K miles. Total: $1500-2500
4. Break fluid, coolant replacement - every 50K miles or so. Total: $1000

So over the 300K miles, you are looking at $4000-5000 to cover those services.

For Tesla you probably use more sets of tires than for Camry.
One set of tires on Tesla will last 30-40K miles, depending on your driving style. On Camry you probably get around 60K on one set of tires.

I don't buy some of that.

For one, Camry's have had timing chains for awhile now so toss that one.
Your average brake is 75K? Yeah I'd buy that for a normal ICE but not the hybrid.
I drive pretty conservatively Lifetime: 264 watts per mile (Kansas trip has temporarily bumped that up a couple). If I get 30K out of my OEM tires, I'll count myself lucky.

 

[spokey]

I agree with that - it seems to not like the driver holding up a phone

I get a different nag. I don't touch my phone. It's always on the charger. But if I look at the screen too long it says something about paying attention whereas the steering wheel says to turn the wheel slightly or something like that. I almost never get the pay attention nag.

 

[Johnny Vector]

I don't buy some of that.

For one, Camry's have had timing chains for awhile now so toss that one.
Your average brake is 75K? Yeah I'd buy that for a normal ICE but not the hybrid.
I drive pretty conservatively Lifetime: 264 watts per mile (Kansas trip has temporarily bumped that up a couple). If I get 30K out of my OEM tires, I'll count myself lucky.

The watts/mile is not closely related to tire consumption, I think. W/mi is mainly how fast you drive; tread wear is how fast you accelerate and stop, and how fast you go around corners. You can wear out tires fast just by driving around town without raising your average energy use very much.

I'm at, uh, (checks app) 30,500 miles and it looks like the tread is about halfway to the wear bars. So I expect to get 50k miles or more out of the OEM tires.

 

[Johnny Vector]

For Camry you forgot to calculate these maintenance things:
1. Brake pad and rotors. With 300K you will replace those at least 4 times. Total: $1000
2. Spark plugs - every 100K miles. Total: $300-500
3. Timing and driving belts. This service is also pretty expensive, every 100K miles. Total: $1500-2500
4. Break fluid, coolant replacement - every 50K miles or so. Total: $1000

So over the 300K miles, you are looking at $4000-5000 to cover those services.

For Tesla you probably use more sets of tires than for Camry.
One set of tires on Tesla will last 30-40K miles, depending on your driving style. On Camry you probably get around 60K on one set of tires.

You do still need to replace the brake fluid on the Tesla every few years. They say every 3 years but I bought a brake fluid conductivity tester and am hoping it will tell me when it really needs replacing. Anyway that should be the same for EVs and ICEs. But you're correct about the coolant; EV coolant doesn't see the high temps that ICE coolant does, so it basically lasts forever.

 

[James1967]

I am a native Cheesehead and recommend winter wheels and tires. That aside, I also know that living in a cold climate will impact range significantly when the battery is cold soaked.

I have Wall Connector installed in my garage in Chicagoland and set my departure time for preconditioning and am still working on it. Summer doesn’t seem to matter, but winter is a pretty big deal.

My car is a December-deliver 2023 MYLR so I have some experience with the cold weather. Definitely paying attention here. I don’t drive as much as the OP but I’m definitely watching stats.

 

[father_of_6]

Also, if you're driving it correctly then you'll need new tires at *least* annually.

 

[Art84]

You do still need to replace the brake fluid on the Tesla every few years. They say every 3 years but I bought a brake fluid conductivity tester and am hoping it will tell me when it really needs replacing.

Kind of...
It's important to replace a fluid because it absorbs moisture very well and over time, water in the fluid can unexpectedly create steam pockets when breaks are overheated so you lose the breaks because of that.
With Tesla, it's not that critical, because friction brakes are more of additional assistance rather than the main braking source. For most of the people, they rarely get warm, not talking about being hot. So the risk of having steam pockets in the fluid is almost zero.

 

[Art84]

I don't buy some of that.

For one, Camry's have had timing chains for awhile now so toss that one.
Your average brake is 75K? Yeah I'd buy that for a normal ICE but not the hybrid.
I drive pretty conservatively Lifetime: 264 watts per mile (Kansas trip has temporarily bumped that up a couple). If I get 30K out of my OEM tires, I'll count myself lucky.

Yeah you right... didn't google well. Camry has a chain. Well, it a big saving on maintenance.

 

[Konicom04]

Yeah you right... didn't google well. Camry has a chain. Well, it a big saving on maintenance.

Ironically, automakers at some point went from chains to belts because chains just weren't holding up and were really noisy.
Then, with improvement in metallurgy, and manufacturing techniques, all went back to chains again.

 

[spokey]

Also, if you're driving it correctly then you'll need new tires at *least* annually.

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Guess I'm not driving right. 3 years on the OEM tires and they were at 6 last checked 3K ago.

 

[father_of_6]

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Guess I'm not driving right. 3 years on the OEM tires and they were at 6 last checked 3K ago.

Yeah, that's a good indication of a faulty engagement with the accelerator. You want to be pushing the pedal all the way down for maximum enjoyment - it says so in the manual.

 

[124chase]

Elon says the batteries will last 300k to 400k miles. You have to be getting closer. What is your range compared to when it was new?