I took delivery of my MYP on 9/1/2021. Between then and now, including a 1.5 month stint at the body shop after getting rear-ended, I've now logged one year of seat time in this car and about 23k miles. Since I've been kind of obsessed with the car since I ordered it, I thought I'd post my ownership experience during the first full year of driving it here. It will be a bit random but I will try to put my thoughts into several categories.
Background:
-Before the MYP, I had driven 2 different generations of Honda Odesseys for about 13 years. I'm a big fan of minivans for their utility and with 3 kids it's basically required transportation equipment. Prior to that I was into poser sports coupes so I had a 2004 Infiniti G35c (automatic) and 1998 Honda Accord coupe.
-My oldest daughter got her driver's license in 2021, so it kind of freed me up from needing a minivan. However, I was actually interested in getting a new Odessey, but my wife said she would only agree to let me get a new car if I get a Tesla. I was like "OK'. Did some research into Teslas, determined that the Model Y probably made the most sense (can't afford Model X), saw the 0-60MPH time for the MYP, and started drooling.
-A friend has a 2020 MYLR that I had a chance to check out (didn't ride or drive, just sat in it) and was not impressed with the interior at all. My thought was that it felt more down-market than my daughter's Subaru Impreza. Still, by then I was pretty much on board with getting a Model Y, so I went ahead and booked a test drive at the local SC that's about a 20 minute drive away from home.
-My main concerns before the test drive was the lack of instrument cluster in front of the driver and the bumpy ride I kept reading about on these forums. I booked a 7PM slot for the test drive (last slot of the day) and the SA gave me an MYP and asked if I would like to take the car home for the night. I was more than happy to do so, which give me an extended chance to evaluate the car. On the way back home, I immediately got used to the lack of instrument cluster and actually kind of preferred the speedometer layout in the MYP, to that checked off the first concern. As for the rough ride, I tried driving around roads I travel on often around our city and some stretches that I knew was relatively rough, and came away thinking it was acceptable. During the test drive, I felt the interior (2021 refreshed) was actually pretty decent, so that's another plus. We also floored the car a few times, including with all 3 kids in the back, and was like "yep, sign me up" and placed the order for a blue MYP that night.
-Once I ordered the car, I decided to install a Tesla wall charger at home and setup installation with an electrician. Because our breaker panel is in a finished basement, the installation is on the more difficult side but it was done to my satisfaction. Our state also had a rebate for EVSE installation up to 30% in 2021, so that was nice.
Delivery:
-I ordered the car on 7/27/21 and it arrived to the SC on the last week of August, 2021. When the car arrived, the SA called and told me they found a paint imperfection that required bringing it to a certified body shop to correct, so I waited about 5 extra days to take delivery. I was already beside myself waiting for the car to arrive so that sucked.
-The car was delivered to my house on 9/1/21. The Uber driver they booked to take the delivery guy home showed up first, so that was kind of funny. I never saw the delivery guy as I went inside the house to do something and by the time I went back out, the car was on the driveway and the Uber had left.
-By this time I was well versed in Tesla pre-delivery checklists and had printed one out to use on delivery day. I'm actually not that OCD and have never did anything close to this when taking delivery of any other car I've bought. I could not locate any paint issues so I assume it was properly taken care of. Panel gaps looked fine to me, but I'm sure there are probably some that would bother some people. I did find a tiny ding on the driver side passenger door, but it was really small and I figured that something like this would appear somewhere on the car soon enough and didn't want to bother with it. I didn't find any other issues that needed to be taken care of.
Driving/Usage: When I was researching the Model Y, I thought it would be a very useful car for my lifestyle. After taking delivery, it became clear that the car is an even more useful tool than I had imagined.
-I've had literally zero range anxiety since getting the the MYP. I think it helped a lot that I've read tons of posts in these forums and knew almost exactly what I was getting into. I made sure to pay attention to the consumption numbers and real world conditions so I always know how far I can go. It also helps that there's a decent number of Superchargers around the Twin Cities to bail me out in case I do get into trouble. So far I have not gotten myself into a situation where I had to sweat whether I had enough range to get to my destination or supercharger.
-I think I've experienced one true phantom braking event, so perhaps I've been luckier than most. But I always have that in the back of my mind so whenever I see a car fairly close behind me, I usually disengage autopilot if I was using it. Otherwise I've enjoyed using AP, especially after installing a S3XY button behind the left steering wheel spoke to activate AP.
-We got a puppy about 3 weeks before the car got delivered. I was really looking forward to using the Dog Mode to see how it helps out with having a pet, and I've used it a lot over the past year. We take our dog out with us a lot more than we otherwise would have, knowing that she can stay in the car if we go somewhere she can't enter. One good example was when we went to an outdoor festival that my wife thought we could take the dog into. When we got there, a sign at the entrance said no pets allowed, so we put the dog in the car with Dog Mode on. I love Dog Mode so much that I've rented a Tesla for two out of town trips where we took our dog along.
-While my oldest daughter can drive herself most of the time, I still need to drive the other two kids to things like orchestra practice and lessons, often far enough from home that it makes more sense to stay and wait at the location. Having the Tesla Theatre and Camp Mode actually made me look forward to those occasions. A lot of times I'd take the dog along and we'd camp in the car while watching some video on the screen and waiting for the kids. This and the Dog Mode actually shouldn't be hard to implement on most EVs, but so far it doesn't appear to be available on many other brands. Certainly can't do this in my wife's Volvo C40 or my mom's fat etron.
-I've enjoyed the Tesla UI, both V10 and V11. I know a lot of people hate V11, but maybe because I only got to use V10 for about 3 months, I did not find V11 to be problematic at all. The lack of CarPlay also doesn't bother me. For me CarPlay kind of says "rental car" to me, and the only thing I kind of use when I'm in a CarPlay car is the podcast app to do fast forwarding once in a while. I think the logic behind how the Tesla UI is laid out matches how I my brain tend to function fairly well, so it works for me.
-Many people say that once you drive an EV, you can't go back to ICE. I'm certainly in that camp. I just find EVs so much better to drive on a daily basis. I'd like to maybe get a manual transmission car as a weekend toy someday, but no way am I daily driving an ICE again. It's just so smooth to drive and being able to "fill up" at home is awesome. I had forgotten what it was like to get gas in the middle of Minnesota winter (not fun), which is great.
-Speaking of winter, I find the MYP to be both great for the winter and a bit more range compromised than I had thought. Before getting the MYP, a Model X owning friend told me to expect around 30% decrease in range during the winter. I'd say that's about right above 20 degrees, but I've noticed that when it gets into the single digits, the range hit is pretty close to 50%, which is quite severe. Luckily for me, even with the decreased range, the MYP has enough capacity that it hasn't been a problem yet. On the positive side, I've gone through a Minnesota winter where I'm always getting into a warm car thanks to remote pre-conditioning. I understand some ICE cars can do this too, but I would not feel so great about pre-heating an ICE car so often.
-I've always wanted to drive on a track, and this year I finally got to do it via a local performance driving school. I took the MYP to this track 4 times this year, and had a blast each time. I don't have anything to compare it to, since this is the only car I've ever driven on a track, but it felt good driving on the track, and a dude driving a Saleen Mustang who was an EV skeptic told me he was impressed with what my car was able to do on the track. The only problem is that as I improved and drove faster, my track time decreased since I was using up the battery faster. Hopefully a supercharger or CCS charger gets built close to that track in the future so I can last a few more sessions.
-I've only taken the car on 3~4 trips requiring supercharger stops. A couple of trips from Minnesota to Iowa, and one trip up north to Lake Superior. Supercharger stops are as easy as advertised and around these parts I have not been to a crowded one yet. If I take the MYP on a long trip, I'd be more concerned about tire or drivetrain issues than any range related issues.
-OTA updates have been fun to get for the most part, and many useful features have been added. My favorites are probably the repositioned blind-spot camera view (and the view itself), new energy app (2022.36), and add waypoint. I love the lightshow too, useless as it is.
Trouble/issues: So far the car has been pretty trouble free, but I've been a bit unlucky with cosmetic damage.
-My spoiler seemed to be separating very slightly about a week into my ownership. I took it to Tesla and they put on a new one. However even at the SC, they weren't able to put the new spoiler on perfectly, as the service adviser explained to me that they weren't able to seat the spoiler completely so the center part isn't completely flush with the trunk, but the ends are. He said if they would replace again if I'm not happy with it. It actually looked fine, so I went home. A few weeks later I noticed the ends have a bit more of a gap than before, so I setup another appointment to swap spoilers. But...
-I got rear-ended on the highway a month into my ownership. The car was thankfully drivable and the tailgate actually worked fine, despite the car hitting me sustaining a decent amount of damage on the driver side and the airbag deployed (actually popped out of the car for some reason). It took almost 2 months to get the car into the body shop and another 1.5 months to do the repairs. The repair cost was only about $6,500 (covered by other insurance), which was much lower than I thought it would be. I had to drive a Nissan Kicks and a Kia Rio while the MYP was in the shop, so that wasn't fun. One small bonus that came out of this was that the body shop attached the spoiler to the new liftgate and apparently did a much better job than Tesla SC, since it has not lifted at all so far.
-My MYP got hailed on twice within a 4 month period. The first one had some near golf ball sized hail and resulted in $3,500 of damage. The second one was smaller and I think there was 5~6 total dents on the car, but it was spread onto like 4 different panels so it cost over $600 to fix. I've never had a car that got hailed on in close to 30 years of driving, so I guess this is some extreme bad luck that's hopefully behind me.
-I noticed some chirping coming from the driver and passenger seats when cornering after a few months of driving. It sounded kind of like metal sliding against metal. I opened up the seat back and found one of the plastic rings holding a metal rod against the seat frame was loose. Re-seating the plastic ring resolved the chirping sound. I haven't heard any other rattles or chirps, so I guess the car is fairly well built otherwise.
Dislikes: Honestly I struggle to come up with dislikes, but nothing is perfect and there are a few things I wish was different.
-No shuffle on Tidal. WTF Tesla? Seems like something they forgot to implement and just won't bother to add it in.
-No 360 camera view. I had never used something like this until my wife got her Volvo C40. I don't find it to be a must have, but certainly would be very nice to have, especially in a high tech car like the MYP.
-Staggered tire setup. Since I probably can't tell the difference between staggered and squared setup, it would have been better if it came squared so the tires can be rotated and last a little longer.
Overall: I have thoroughly enjoyed owning the MYP so far. It has fit my lifestyle extremely well and I find it to be very enjoyable to drive. While I don't know if I could justify paying the current prices for it, I'm definitely happy I got it when I did. Since taking delivery of the MYP, I've also driven my wife's Volvo C40 and my mom's fat etron quite a bit, and being perfectly honest, for me personally, the MYP is the no brainer choice. It may not be the case for other people who value the good attributes of those other cars, but the MYP has just been almost perfect for what I want/need in a car. Here's hoping for a relatively trouble-free rest of my ownership experience.
Background:
-Before the MYP, I had driven 2 different generations of Honda Odesseys for about 13 years. I'm a big fan of minivans for their utility and with 3 kids it's basically required transportation equipment. Prior to that I was into poser sports coupes so I had a 2004 Infiniti G35c (automatic) and 1998 Honda Accord coupe.
-My oldest daughter got her driver's license in 2021, so it kind of freed me up from needing a minivan. However, I was actually interested in getting a new Odessey, but my wife said she would only agree to let me get a new car if I get a Tesla. I was like "OK'. Did some research into Teslas, determined that the Model Y probably made the most sense (can't afford Model X), saw the 0-60MPH time for the MYP, and started drooling.
-A friend has a 2020 MYLR that I had a chance to check out (didn't ride or drive, just sat in it) and was not impressed with the interior at all. My thought was that it felt more down-market than my daughter's Subaru Impreza. Still, by then I was pretty much on board with getting a Model Y, so I went ahead and booked a test drive at the local SC that's about a 20 minute drive away from home.
-My main concerns before the test drive was the lack of instrument cluster in front of the driver and the bumpy ride I kept reading about on these forums. I booked a 7PM slot for the test drive (last slot of the day) and the SA gave me an MYP and asked if I would like to take the car home for the night. I was more than happy to do so, which give me an extended chance to evaluate the car. On the way back home, I immediately got used to the lack of instrument cluster and actually kind of preferred the speedometer layout in the MYP, to that checked off the first concern. As for the rough ride, I tried driving around roads I travel on often around our city and some stretches that I knew was relatively rough, and came away thinking it was acceptable. During the test drive, I felt the interior (2021 refreshed) was actually pretty decent, so that's another plus. We also floored the car a few times, including with all 3 kids in the back, and was like "yep, sign me up" and placed the order for a blue MYP that night.
-Once I ordered the car, I decided to install a Tesla wall charger at home and setup installation with an electrician. Because our breaker panel is in a finished basement, the installation is on the more difficult side but it was done to my satisfaction. Our state also had a rebate for EVSE installation up to 30% in 2021, so that was nice.
Delivery:
-I ordered the car on 7/27/21 and it arrived to the SC on the last week of August, 2021. When the car arrived, the SA called and told me they found a paint imperfection that required bringing it to a certified body shop to correct, so I waited about 5 extra days to take delivery. I was already beside myself waiting for the car to arrive so that sucked.
-The car was delivered to my house on 9/1/21. The Uber driver they booked to take the delivery guy home showed up first, so that was kind of funny. I never saw the delivery guy as I went inside the house to do something and by the time I went back out, the car was on the driveway and the Uber had left.
-By this time I was well versed in Tesla pre-delivery checklists and had printed one out to use on delivery day. I'm actually not that OCD and have never did anything close to this when taking delivery of any other car I've bought. I could not locate any paint issues so I assume it was properly taken care of. Panel gaps looked fine to me, but I'm sure there are probably some that would bother some people. I did find a tiny ding on the driver side passenger door, but it was really small and I figured that something like this would appear somewhere on the car soon enough and didn't want to bother with it. I didn't find any other issues that needed to be taken care of.
Driving/Usage: When I was researching the Model Y, I thought it would be a very useful car for my lifestyle. After taking delivery, it became clear that the car is an even more useful tool than I had imagined.
-I've had literally zero range anxiety since getting the the MYP. I think it helped a lot that I've read tons of posts in these forums and knew almost exactly what I was getting into. I made sure to pay attention to the consumption numbers and real world conditions so I always know how far I can go. It also helps that there's a decent number of Superchargers around the Twin Cities to bail me out in case I do get into trouble. So far I have not gotten myself into a situation where I had to sweat whether I had enough range to get to my destination or supercharger.
-I think I've experienced one true phantom braking event, so perhaps I've been luckier than most. But I always have that in the back of my mind so whenever I see a car fairly close behind me, I usually disengage autopilot if I was using it. Otherwise I've enjoyed using AP, especially after installing a S3XY button behind the left steering wheel spoke to activate AP.
-We got a puppy about 3 weeks before the car got delivered. I was really looking forward to using the Dog Mode to see how it helps out with having a pet, and I've used it a lot over the past year. We take our dog out with us a lot more than we otherwise would have, knowing that she can stay in the car if we go somewhere she can't enter. One good example was when we went to an outdoor festival that my wife thought we could take the dog into. When we got there, a sign at the entrance said no pets allowed, so we put the dog in the car with Dog Mode on. I love Dog Mode so much that I've rented a Tesla for two out of town trips where we took our dog along.
-While my oldest daughter can drive herself most of the time, I still need to drive the other two kids to things like orchestra practice and lessons, often far enough from home that it makes more sense to stay and wait at the location. Having the Tesla Theatre and Camp Mode actually made me look forward to those occasions. A lot of times I'd take the dog along and we'd camp in the car while watching some video on the screen and waiting for the kids. This and the Dog Mode actually shouldn't be hard to implement on most EVs, but so far it doesn't appear to be available on many other brands. Certainly can't do this in my wife's Volvo C40 or my mom's fat etron.
-I've enjoyed the Tesla UI, both V10 and V11. I know a lot of people hate V11, but maybe because I only got to use V10 for about 3 months, I did not find V11 to be problematic at all. The lack of CarPlay also doesn't bother me. For me CarPlay kind of says "rental car" to me, and the only thing I kind of use when I'm in a CarPlay car is the podcast app to do fast forwarding once in a while. I think the logic behind how the Tesla UI is laid out matches how I my brain tend to function fairly well, so it works for me.
-Many people say that once you drive an EV, you can't go back to ICE. I'm certainly in that camp. I just find EVs so much better to drive on a daily basis. I'd like to maybe get a manual transmission car as a weekend toy someday, but no way am I daily driving an ICE again. It's just so smooth to drive and being able to "fill up" at home is awesome. I had forgotten what it was like to get gas in the middle of Minnesota winter (not fun), which is great.
-Speaking of winter, I find the MYP to be both great for the winter and a bit more range compromised than I had thought. Before getting the MYP, a Model X owning friend told me to expect around 30% decrease in range during the winter. I'd say that's about right above 20 degrees, but I've noticed that when it gets into the single digits, the range hit is pretty close to 50%, which is quite severe. Luckily for me, even with the decreased range, the MYP has enough capacity that it hasn't been a problem yet. On the positive side, I've gone through a Minnesota winter where I'm always getting into a warm car thanks to remote pre-conditioning. I understand some ICE cars can do this too, but I would not feel so great about pre-heating an ICE car so often.
-I've always wanted to drive on a track, and this year I finally got to do it via a local performance driving school. I took the MYP to this track 4 times this year, and had a blast each time. I don't have anything to compare it to, since this is the only car I've ever driven on a track, but it felt good driving on the track, and a dude driving a Saleen Mustang who was an EV skeptic told me he was impressed with what my car was able to do on the track. The only problem is that as I improved and drove faster, my track time decreased since I was using up the battery faster. Hopefully a supercharger or CCS charger gets built close to that track in the future so I can last a few more sessions.
-I've only taken the car on 3~4 trips requiring supercharger stops. A couple of trips from Minnesota to Iowa, and one trip up north to Lake Superior. Supercharger stops are as easy as advertised and around these parts I have not been to a crowded one yet. If I take the MYP on a long trip, I'd be more concerned about tire or drivetrain issues than any range related issues.
-OTA updates have been fun to get for the most part, and many useful features have been added. My favorites are probably the repositioned blind-spot camera view (and the view itself), new energy app (2022.36), and add waypoint. I love the lightshow too, useless as it is.
Trouble/issues: So far the car has been pretty trouble free, but I've been a bit unlucky with cosmetic damage.
-My spoiler seemed to be separating very slightly about a week into my ownership. I took it to Tesla and they put on a new one. However even at the SC, they weren't able to put the new spoiler on perfectly, as the service adviser explained to me that they weren't able to seat the spoiler completely so the center part isn't completely flush with the trunk, but the ends are. He said if they would replace again if I'm not happy with it. It actually looked fine, so I went home. A few weeks later I noticed the ends have a bit more of a gap than before, so I setup another appointment to swap spoilers. But...
-I got rear-ended on the highway a month into my ownership. The car was thankfully drivable and the tailgate actually worked fine, despite the car hitting me sustaining a decent amount of damage on the driver side and the airbag deployed (actually popped out of the car for some reason). It took almost 2 months to get the car into the body shop and another 1.5 months to do the repairs. The repair cost was only about $6,500 (covered by other insurance), which was much lower than I thought it would be. I had to drive a Nissan Kicks and a Kia Rio while the MYP was in the shop, so that wasn't fun. One small bonus that came out of this was that the body shop attached the spoiler to the new liftgate and apparently did a much better job than Tesla SC, since it has not lifted at all so far.
-My MYP got hailed on twice within a 4 month period. The first one had some near golf ball sized hail and resulted in $3,500 of damage. The second one was smaller and I think there was 5~6 total dents on the car, but it was spread onto like 4 different panels so it cost over $600 to fix. I've never had a car that got hailed on in close to 30 years of driving, so I guess this is some extreme bad luck that's hopefully behind me.
-I noticed some chirping coming from the driver and passenger seats when cornering after a few months of driving. It sounded kind of like metal sliding against metal. I opened up the seat back and found one of the plastic rings holding a metal rod against the seat frame was loose. Re-seating the plastic ring resolved the chirping sound. I haven't heard any other rattles or chirps, so I guess the car is fairly well built otherwise.
Dislikes: Honestly I struggle to come up with dislikes, but nothing is perfect and there are a few things I wish was different.
-No shuffle on Tidal. WTF Tesla? Seems like something they forgot to implement and just won't bother to add it in.
-No 360 camera view. I had never used something like this until my wife got her Volvo C40. I don't find it to be a must have, but certainly would be very nice to have, especially in a high tech car like the MYP.
-Staggered tire setup. Since I probably can't tell the difference between staggered and squared setup, it would have been better if it came squared so the tires can be rotated and last a little longer.
Overall: I have thoroughly enjoyed owning the MYP so far. It has fit my lifestyle extremely well and I find it to be very enjoyable to drive. While I don't know if I could justify paying the current prices for it, I'm definitely happy I got it when I did. Since taking delivery of the MYP, I've also driven my wife's Volvo C40 and my mom's fat etron quite a bit, and being perfectly honest, for me personally, the MYP is the no brainer choice. It may not be the case for other people who value the good attributes of those other cars, but the MYP has just been almost perfect for what I want/need in a car. Here's hoping for a relatively trouble-free rest of my ownership experience.
