Once in a while something comes along that very quickly it becomes obvious that this is going to change the World. The first time I saw an early iPod that one of my daughter’s friends had and a saw how it worked I thought it was remarkable. The first day after buying and using my own iPod I knew that the World of recorded music would never be the same. The same thing has happened with our Tesla Model Y. The Model Y is a remarkable leap forward in automobiles and is changing that industry forever.
Tesla is a new auto maker and that is one of the things that makes this car so great. They had no legacy to draw from and so they had to invent their car from nothing. And it is obvious that the design team responsible for how this car has come out must be rich with some of the best and most logical minds in the industry. The car is not perfect, but it is pretty darn good.
As an example of smart design lets take what you have to do to get your phone to pair with the Tesla Y. Our last two cars an Acura MDX and a Jeep Wrangler can pair with smartphones, but you have to get out the manual and go through a number of complicated steps to do the pairing. The Tesla Model Y is simple and obvious. I put my phone of the center console. I used the Tesla touchscreen and touched the phone symbol. I then searched for available signals and touched the one that was my iPhone. That was it. No manual of instructions needed.
Not long after getting this car we had the Tesla home charging wall unit installed. I wanted to set it to charge during the super low cost per KW that is between midnight and 6am. This was super easy to do. I plugged it it and the screen came up automatically with all the settings you need that are easy to understand and easy to set.
Driving this car is a pleasure. I have the full self driving package installed on this car and it does work, but around town it is easier to just drive it manually or just use the adaptive cruise control. I just installed the more advanced self driving software and have just now come back from testing it out. It does work. But it almost takes more energy and skill to keep watch over it than just driving it regular. I do use the adaptive cruise frequently as it is so darned good, but full self driving is really for freeway use or it areas that are not complicated and not that busy. In my opinion.
I find the steering of the Tesla to be great. Mine is set to comfort and not standard. The power steering is light and positive in its feel. It gives the feel of a sports sedan, but to me not a sports car. The thing is fast. Really fast. And we have the dual motor long range, not the performance version. I tried setting the acceleration at chill and to me that was not as good as the standard setting. Acceleration from a stop is quick, but what is a surprise is how fast it goes from 40 to 80. It seems like the timing for that change is instantaneous, but whatever it is is small. Having the regenerative braking on also means you can slow down from higher speeds quick and easy.
The floor carpet could be better. I would recommend getting some rubber mats of some kind. We have not done so yet, but plan to soon. In my opinion there is a bit of fragility to the car. On our car the construction and parts seem to fit and work well, but the body and components are to me not heavy duty in the way of our Acura or Jeep. The ride and handling of this car is what I would call firm. We have not taken it on a long trip of over 150 miles yet so I don’t want to make too much of a final guess at the comfort level, but right now I would say this might not be the best long distance cruiser.
And that is all for now except to say that we both really like the car. I don’t have my first electric bill yet since making the change to the EV plan with super low late night rates. I am curious to see what the cost is to run this car compared to a gas car. My guess is that the Tesla is much cheeper to run.
Bob Nuttmann 