Tag: car update

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

I didn’t video the first drive. We were all excited, I had family in the car, and I know a few of them don’t want to be on video.

However. It was very exciting. To be fair, almost every time I purchase a new car and get to drive it, I’m excited. My wife might be more excited, and as she said, it’s the best car we’ve ever had. And we’ve had a lot.

General Thoughts

The car is smooth. It’s strange to just get in, pull down the right lever and start driving. No starting that car, which feels very futuristic, Minority Report-ish. It’s also strange that when I shift gears, the car doesn’t move. I have regenerative braking on, which holds the car until the accelerator is pressed. So when I pick Reverse in my garage, I need to press the pedal for the car to move.

The acceleration is smooth and instant. I tend to drive more carefully, watching the energy and saving power. I did the same thing when we first got our Prius, actually, throughout the life of the Priuses we’ve had. The feedback makes me try to game the system and get the most efficient ride. I also did this in the BMW, though getting 22.1mpg over 21.5mpg isn’t terribly exciting.

I have hit the pedal hard a few times and my stomach jumps a bit each time. I was in the left lane at a stop light, and needed to make a right turn at the next corner, about 1/8mi ahead. I pressed hard and jumped from 0-40 in a couple seconds and was able to change lanes to the right without cutting off the person next to me. They’d barely entered the intersection when I was already past it.

The large screen is easy to use and not distracting. Watching speed slightly down and to the right isn’t that hard compared to looking straight down. I do wish a HUD or small display was straight forward, but I think I’ll get over that.

The rear window is small. When 5 of us were in the car, all I could see is my son’s face out the rear. Fortunately, I could easily put on the cameras and see behind me by glancing at the screen.

We’ve gone about 400 miles, which is a lot in a week.

Controls

I’m learning to use controls more smoothly. The basics of turn signals are easy, and the headlights come on and switch low/hi automatically and quickly. The controls for cruise work well, and I’ve lightly used Autopilot.

I saw someone with hazards on the other day and was wondering how to turn them on. I looked through lots of menus, finally searching in the owner’s manual, which is a digital copy in the Software section. Apparently, there’s a button for this, which I like. I do want some programmable physical buttons for some things.

After that, I wanted to make sure I could turn on wipers. We don’t get much rain in Colorado, but we can get sudden downpours, so I practiced with both the screen and pushing in the left stalk.

One thing I accidentally learned was mute. I wanted to try out the voice controls, and pressed the left button. That mutes audio, which is very handy when there isn’t a knob. My wife’s truck has volume buttons on the radio and steering wheel and quickly muting is a pain. This works well.

I’ve only tried navigation and minor audio changes with voice controls, but I might try more. I am trying to look away from the road less, so it’s good to get used to that.

In a week, I’ve also learned not to pull the door handle and only push the button to open doors. That’s took a few days.

I do use cruise control often. On the country roads, with rolling hills, it’s easy to go too fast or slow, so I set this often and I like how it works. I really appreciate it slowing when the car in front of my slows.

The last control is the lack of control. After a week it’s still weird to get into the car and not have to do anything to start going. It’s also weird to get out without shutting things down.

Overall

I constantly feel like I’m an actor in Minority Report, with a future car. The smooth dash, no dials in front, the quiet, it’s very futuristic. As I noted, I game the power a lot, but when you do want or need to move quickly, it moves. The acceleration is still very exciting.

The car turns smoothly, the suspension feels tight, and like a few of the high performance cars I’ve owned, the Model Y responds crisply and rightly to my input. It’s a nice extension of my, which I like. I’ll keep testing Autopilot and trying to understand the limits and benefits. It’s nice, but not great.

So far, quite happy with the vehicle.

There is a video with some thoughts and  impressions on my channel. Check it out and let me know what you think.

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y. If you are thinking of ordering one, I’ve got a referral code. You get 1,000 free Supercharger miles and so do I. Use: http://ts.la/john92950

This week I got my car. Actually our car, and I’m not sure if my wife or I is more excited.

We started Monday, with finalizing paperwork. I got my insurance card uploaded over the weekend, but didn’t realize I needed to add in the policy number and expiration manually. I did that, and then we made the final payment for the pickup. I’ll write about that as well, since that was an interesting experience.

The Plan

In any case, we had scheduled the pickup for 4pm. I had tentatively planned to be out of town part of this week, so I asked to get it early. The agreed to try, but said to give it to the end of the day, just in case.

Our plan (my wife, two boys, and me) was to go hiking and then pick it up later. As we got ready in the am, one of our party wasn’t feeling well and we decided to scrap the hike. We still wanted to get together, so we met in town.

About the time we got together, I got an email from Tesla that the car was ready. Since I wasn’t sure what this meant, I emailed the delivery center. Within a minute they sent a reply that we could come over.

The Pickup

This wasn’t the completely smooth process I’ve heard about from a few people online, but it wasn’t bad. We arrived at a quiet delivery center. There was one customer inside and one employee. The employee took my name and went to fine paperwork. Meanwhile, my wife and I showed our boys the Model 3 and Y in the showroom. They hadn’t been with us when we test drove the car, so this was their first experience.

After about 10 minutes, the rep came back with paperwork and asked me to accept delivery in my account to get started. I said we wanted to check out the car, and he was happy to oblige. He told us the car was on the supercharger and took us out to see it.

The Inspection

He showed us how to get in with the key card and then said to take our time and come find him. We then commenced our inspection. I had a [paper checklist]() and my son was using the mobile app companion, and we walked around.

The first thing my middle son found was the front hood appeared slightly off center. The gap on the lower right was more than the lower left. You can look at the video, and you can see it, but it doesn’t appear to be a big deal. At least not to me.

The body looked fine otherwise, the wheels were good, no droopy doors, no chips or marks in the glass. The interior looked good to us, clean and unused. I think the car had 15mi on it when we got in, which was fine. Probably some light testing.

We checked all the features and switches, of which there are few. Lights worked, windows, everything seemed fine. A license plate bracket was in the car, as was the mobile connector and tow hook. We adjusted seats, folder them, and spent about 30 minutes going through a nitpicky look at the car.

It was a better inspection then I’d done on most other cars I’d bought.

While all of us were in the car, my oldest son noticed the coat hook on the driver side wasn’t closing. It wouldn’t latch. He pressed it a dozen times and it finally stayed closed. Then we tried it again and it took 48 presses to get it to stick. Yes, we counted.

Closing the Sale

As we were finishing, the car got to 90% and stopped charging. I walked in and got a rep, who came out with the paperwork. She also brought a service tech, who looked at the hook. He wasn’t sure what was wrong, but said to just book an appointment if we wanted to leave soon.

The rep opened paperwork and I accepted delivery in my account and then signed my name about 6 times. It was the easiest sale I’ve ever completed outside of private party sales. Then I logged into the app and the car recognized my phone.

The rep then helped me get other drivers added, and gave us 2 extra key cards. One for my son and a spare since they come in 2 packs. We spent about 10 minutes programming drivers and getting accounts set up. Then he showed me a couple controls and said to enjoy it.

Overall, the process was about 45 minutes for us. Some of that I attribute to us coming early, but I appreciated them accommodating us. The process was very smooth, I’m pleased with the quality of the car, and I think Tesla did a nice job here.

A few things were last minute, and they could improve some of that communication to warn consumers of what is coming when, but overall, this is better than any other dealer. I assume as they stabilize manufacturing, their other IT systems will get better. Their car software certainly has.

No regrets so far. I’ll do a combined post on the first drive and charging next week.

There is a video version of this post on My Colorado Tesla Experience Channel. You can see all of these posts by following the Tesla tag.

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y.

Last week I wrote about the date slippage in the delivery timeframe for my Tesla. The original date window that had actual dates was Aug 14-Sep 3. That’s slipped, but not as much as I noted last week. As I returned from vacation, I got a notice that the window was set for Sep 7-9. What’s more, I had a VIN assigned, so I’m guessing the car is in, or near production. My guess it got built sometime this week (Aug 30-Sep3) and then dropped on a truck to arrive in Denver.

That means from the earliest date, I’m slipped about three weeks and from the last date of that window, I’ve slipped a week. Not bad, and I’m definitely excited. The only downside is that I may be out of town on the 8th/9th, so I may have to schedule the pickup for Sep 13/14.

A couple days later, I saw the date move again: Sep 2-Sep 8, so the car was definitely built and scheduled in some way to make it’s way from CA to CO.

Then on Sept 1, I got an email saying that I could schedule the pickup. This was an automated tool, which only allowed me to schedule the 10th or 11th. Not the 9th, and not even the 13th.

Strange.

I reached out to the local Tesla store and told them I had a trip scheduled for those days. They ended up saying they do think the car will be there the 7th, and we scheduled a late afternoon pickup for that day.

Less than a week now.

The other item that changed was a notice when I signed in to check the date at the end of August. I got the statement that radar was being removed from this evolution of the car, which I’d see in the news. All of the Model 3/Ys built in late Q2 or Q3 (or most of them) would not have radar. A little disconcerting, but what do I know about the science of a self-driving, or assisted driving car.

I had to agree this was OK, which I’m assuming means that my car got dropped into the official build queue when I clicked that.

So far, I don’t know that I think about this, but I’ll see how the car drives and reacts in my care. To me, I’m mostly worried about tracking cars around me and deer/wildlife out in the country. I’m not expecting or looking for full self driving, nor do I plan on adding that for the time being. If I take road trips, I might try out the monthly subscription and see, but for now, I’m really looking to just enjoy the acceleration when I need it and the cool features of driving a big computer around.

This is part of a series that covers my experience with a Tesla Model Y. If you are thinking of ordering one, I’ve got a referral code. You get 1,000 free Supercharger miles and so do I. Use: http://ts.la/john92950

I ordered a Tesla Model Y in May 2021. I wrote about the decision a bit, and as of this date, I haven’t gotten the car yet. When I took the test drive, the salesman noted that cars would likely be delivered in August then. Maybe July, but likely August to September. I ordered that night, May 21.

I didn’t track this explicitly, but the first time I checked on Jun 1, I had a month range. Here is the summary of what I’d seen as the possible delivery dates. The first date is the day I checked.

• May 22 – July-Sept
• Jun 1 – Aug-Sept
• Jul 6 – Aug 14-Sep 3
• Jul 18 – Aug 15 – Sep 4
• Jul 23 – Aug 18 – Sep 10
• Jul 30- Aug 21 – Sep 10
• Aug 4 – Aug 26 – Sep 15
• Aug 10 – Aug 27 – Sep 16
• Aug 16 – Aug 26 – Sep 15
• Aug 18 – Aug 27- Sep 15
• Aug 19 – Aug 28 – Sep 16

Mostly things have slipped, but last week things improved by a day. I can’t imagine how hard it is to predict these days, given a large manufacturing environment. I do like seeing the updates, and I don’t think they need to keep emailing me. It’s a few minutes to check if I want to know.

As I get closer, I keep checking daily. I’m out of town this week, so having it slip to Aug 30 at the earliest is fine.

When I checked on Jun 1, this was when I saw a story that the third quarter was sold out. When I looked at the ordering process, the estimate in the tool was October, so I was glad we’d ordered that day. Not to mention May 22 had a $500 price increase, and a few more since.

When I started this process, delivery was November, and when I checked the date for my last post, things were delivering in December. This week I saw a note that you can’t get a Model Y in the US before 2022 right now, in mid August.

Priorities and Changes

One thing I’ve seen a few people note is that the higher priced models, the performance ones, sometimes will jump in line ahead of the cheaper ones. I have the lower Model Y version, the longer range one. There is no standard range one right now.

I understand Tesla might want to get those cars out quicker, as they add more to the bottom line, but I don’t know how many they’d have to prioritize to make a material difference. I certainly do think that the Plaid Model S and Model X might get re-prioritized slightly by cost rather than order date, but I don’t really know.

Just as likely, in my mind, is a glitch in their process and their picking the dates they send to customers.

I don’t feel too upset that a couple week slippage has appeared from the first date. It gives me a little more time to get prepared and get money ready, as quite a bit is due at delivery. Plus I am doing some work getting my old car ready to sell.

Other Possibilities

I saw a Ford Mach-E recently at the gym. At first I thought it was a Model Y with a Mustang badge on the front. I walked around, and realized it was a Ford. It’s nice looking.

If you order this, with the standard range version (230mi range), it’s 16+ weeks on the Ford site. If you want extended range, 302 miles, it’s 24+ weeks. That’s longer than Tesla.

I got a mailer about the BMW Electric cars, and that caught my eye. They don’t deliver until next summer.

I considered a Polestar 2, but I was a bit concerned that it’s another 1.0 car, and not a lot of charging infrastructure, plus lower range. Those say delivery in September, which is good.

Ultimately, no one has a track record here, and as I’ve watched the Bolt, the Leaf, Tesla, and other cars, it takes time to work out bugs. I think especially with the software, which is what I’m most concerned about.

Summary

I’m camping this week, so even if the car were available Aug 26, I couldn’t get it until next week. I’m hoping I get an update sometime while I’m in South Dakota that gives me a specific date when I can go pick it up. Hopefully this is the week of Aug 30 or Sep 6.

I’m certainly excited and ready.

Video versions of these posts on My Colorado Tesla Experience Channel. You can see all of these posts by following the Tesla tag.