Tesla Model Y vs Mustang Mach-E (my thoughts)

[DevSecOps]

I have a Model Y and a Mach E, I agree with some of these assessments in original post. Paak does not work flawlessly, has smiliar issues to MME. Wipers are very finicky and don't work in Auto as they should. The rear hatch does have issues opening when approached with PaaK, an lastly the car is definitely louder, particularly at highway speeds. Hwy efficiency is slightly less than MME as well. But overall both good cards

I can almost guarantee you that PaaK doesn't work correctly on the Tesla because of fordpass.. There's an entire thread where I've tested that. For some reason fordpass creates a lock on Bluetooth which causes issues for other devices. Your other issues you should schedule service for because that's not correct behavior.

Sponsored

 

[socalh2oskier]

Just got home from a trip in Colorado, where we rented a Tesla Y for a week. We've been driving our Mach-E for 18 months now, winter and summer, and I wanted to leave my thoughts on the contrasts between the two similar vehicles.

The Tesla sucks. Really.

Yes, it was a rental, and yes there are some quantitative things to prefer about it, but as an actual vehicle to drive around and go places and do things? It's awful.

The key. There is no way to unlock the doors without a) your phone or b) tapping the key (which is a hotel-room style keycard) on a specific spot on the driver's door. That only unlocks the driver's door. To unlock other doors, you have to use the touchscreen. Locking the car is the same way. Tap the key on that same specific spot. The car also doesn't always detect the key inside, so about 50% of the time, I had to tap the same key on a specific spot on the center console while holding the brake pedal to "start." That's a lot of wallet movement in and out of my pocket, something I usually try to minimize.

The wipers. Couldn't figure out how to use them. I could make the window washer go, which would trigger the wipers, but otherwise they were stuck on automatic. I'm sure there's a setting in the touchscreen somewhere. One day we had a healthy layer of frost on the windshield and the wipers went into insanity overdrive mode for about eight minutes.

The headlights (and fog lights). Automatic only. Couldn't turn them on or off.

Turn signals. About 50% of the time, they turned off too soon or stayed on too long. There's no clicking in the stalk, you just kind of wiggle it up or down.

The shifter. Just a stalk on the right side of the wheel. Doesn't really move. Push up for R, push down for D. Click the button on the end in for P. Functional, but seems needlessly different with no obvious upside.

The wheel. To adjust the steering wheel, you need to find the right menu in the touchscreen. It does have a good range of motion when you do find it, but there's nothing obvious or expected about how to do so. Same with the mirrors.

The radio turned on twice, unexpectedly, and very loud. I'm sure I did something to cause this, but no idea what. There are no buttons anywhere, the controls are all on the touchscreen, and neither of us touched it. After the first time, we set the volume to 0, and two days later it reset to quite loud.

The chimes. Oh my god, the chimes. Be driving along normally, slightly approach one edge of the lane, maybe to make sure there's space between you and the truck you're passing, DING and the screen shows "VEHICLE DEPARTING THE LANE TAKE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY" and the wheel shudders. Note, at no point did I use any of the autopilot features, or even attempt to use basic cruise control. But I got this lane departure warning probably 200 times. If you're at a stop light and aren't already creeping when the light turns green, you get another DING. Occasionally, there's this kind of klaxon sound that came without a written indicator.

The speedometer is in the middle of the car. There is nothing in front of the driver gauge-wise.

Charging. First recharge was from 77%-95%. It took an hour. Second was from 45%-100%, which took 40 minutes. Third was from 81%-92%, which took an hour. Fourth was 50%-97%, which took 65 minutes. All at Tesla Superchargers, all after the battery preconditioned, all above 25 degrees, all being the only vehicle in a "block." I have no idea why they vary so much. I did like that you just plug the car in and it takes care of everything else. Range and the "GOM" seem a lot worse than our experience in the Mach E.

Trunk. The trunk opens with the push of a button, like ours. But it doesn't close all the way. Push the button to close and it lowers down, but doesn't latch. You then need to latch it manually, which makes this horrid grinding sound. This might just be an issue with the specific rental car we had, but at only 14,000 miles, seems pretty early for a failure of such a high-use component.

The Y is a lot louder than the Mach E. More road noise, more wind noise, more component noise.

Opening the doors from the outside is a huge pain, as you have to first push a button than manipulate this weird lever that pops out. Opening them from the inside is just a push button, which kind of leads to the nightmare scenario: what happens if you're inside one that suffers a complete power failure?

Horrid visibility out the rearview mirror.

Things I liked:

• the car seems even zippier than our Mach-E Premium. I don't ever leadfoot drive, so it's hard to tell, but it certainly has plenty of oomph. Not a big selling point for me.
• The side mirrors tilt down slightly when you shift into reverse. There's a post somewhere here about using Forscan to make a hack for that and it's a good feature Ford should consider.
• The screen is clearer and seems to have a quicker refresh rate.
• When you signal, the screen shows the corresponding left or right side view camera as well as your mirrors. I know our cars don't have those cameras, unfortunately.
• You can plug an SD card or USB stick in to auto-record all the camera feeds.
• When moving slowly toward an object, once you get within ~3', the screen shows you the distance in inches, which is neat when maneuvering in parking lots. Unfortunately, it seems to do this using cameras rather than a laser or ultrasound, so I don't know how reliable it is.

These are just my wife and my thoughts on a week of driving the Y, but I figured those in the Mach E community might be interested. I'm sure other people have different experiences, better or worse. I know the Mach E isn't perfect by any stretch, but it remains the best car I've ever driven.

Just got home from a trip in Colorado, where we rented a Tesla Y for a week. We've been driving our Mach-E for 18 months now, winter and summer, and I wanted to leave my thoughts on the contrasts between the two similar vehicles.

The Tesla sucks. Really.

Yes, it was a rental, and yes there are some quantitative things to prefer about it, but as an actual vehicle to drive around and go places and do things? It's awful.

The key. There is no way to unlock the doors without a) your phone or b) tapping the key (which is a hotel-room style keycard) on a specific spot on the driver's door. That only unlocks the driver's door. To unlock other doors, you have to use the touchscreen. Locking the car is the same way. Tap the key on that same specific spot. The car also doesn't always detect the key inside, so about 50% of the time, I had to tap the same key on a specific spot on the center console while holding the brake pedal to "start." That's a lot of wallet movement in and out of my pocket, something I usually try to minimize.

The wipers. Couldn't figure out how to use them. I could make the window washer go, which would trigger the wipers, but otherwise they were stuck on automatic. I'm sure there's a setting in the touchscreen somewhere. One day we had a healthy layer of frost on the windshield and the wipers went into insanity overdrive mode for about eight minutes.

The headlights (and fog lights). Automatic only. Couldn't turn them on or off.

Turn signals. About 50% of the time, they turned off too soon or stayed on too long. There's no clicking in the stalk, you just kind of wiggle it up or down.

The shifter. Just a stalk on the right side of the wheel. Doesn't really move. Push up for R, push down for D. Click the button on the end in for P. Functional, but seems needlessly different with no obvious upside.

The wheel. To adjust the steering wheel, you need to find the right menu in the touchscreen. It does have a good range of motion when you do find it, but there's nothing obvious or expected about how to do so. Same with the mirrors.

The radio turned on twice, unexpectedly, and very loud. I'm sure I did something to cause this, but no idea what. There are no buttons anywhere, the controls are all on the touchscreen, and neither of us touched it. After the first time, we set the volume to 0, and two days later it reset to quite loud.

The chimes. Oh my god, the chimes. Be driving along normally, slightly approach one edge of the lane, maybe to make sure there's space between you and the truck you're passing, DING and the screen shows "VEHICLE DEPARTING THE LANE TAKE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY" and the wheel shudders. Note, at no point did I use any of the autopilot features, or even attempt to use basic cruise control. But I got this lane departure warning probably 200 times. If you're at a stop light and aren't already creeping when the light turns green, you get another DING. Occasionally, there's this kind of klaxon sound that came without a written indicator.

The speedometer is in the middle of the car. There is nothing in front of the driver gauge-wise.

Charging. First recharge was from 77%-95%. It took an hour. Second was from 45%-100%, which took 40 minutes. Third was from 81%-92%, which took an hour. Fourth was 50%-97%, which took 65 minutes. All at Tesla Superchargers, all after the battery preconditioned, all above 25 degrees, all being the only vehicle in a "block." I have no idea why they vary so much. I did like that you just plug the car in and it takes care of everything else. Range and the "GOM" seem a lot worse than our experience in the Mach E.

Trunk. The trunk opens with the push of a button, like ours. But it doesn't close all the way. Push the button to close and it lowers down, but doesn't latch. You then need to latch it manually, which makes this horrid grinding sound. This might just be an issue with the specific rental car we had, but at only 14,000 miles, seems pretty early for a failure of such a high-use component.

The Y is a lot louder than the Mach E. More road noise, more wind noise, more component noise.

Opening the doors from the outside is a huge pain, as you have to first push a button than manipulate this weird lever that pops out. Opening them from the inside is just a push button, which kind of leads to the nightmare scenario: what happens if you're inside one that suffers a complete power failure?

Horrid visibility out the rearview mirror.

Things I liked:

• the car seems even zippier than our Mach-E Premium. I don't ever leadfoot drive, so it's hard to tell, but it certainly has plenty of oomph. Not a big selling point for me.
• The side mirrors tilt down slightly when you shift into reverse. There's a post somewhere here about using Forscan to make a hack for that and it's a good feature Ford should consider.
• The screen is clearer and seems to have a quicker refresh rate.
• When you signal, the screen shows the corresponding left or right side view camera as well as your mirrors. I know our cars don't have those cameras, unfortunately.
• You can plug an SD card or USB stick in to auto-record all the camera feeds.
• When moving slowly toward an object, once you get within ~3', the screen shows you the distance in inches, which is neat when maneuvering in parking lots. Unfortunately, it seems to do this using cameras rather than a laser or ultrasound, so I don't know how reliable it is.

These are just my wife and my thoughts on a week of driving the Y, but I figured those in the Mach E community might be interested. I'm sure other people have different experiences, better or worse. I know the Mach E isn't perfect by any stretch, but it remains the best car I've ever driven.

 

[DevSecOps]

If you love Tesla so much, why do you have a MME? And why are you on this forum?

Every day I make a conscientious effort to help people with vehicles that I'm familiar with. Whether that be a MachE, Rivian or Tesla. In the post you quoted I actually agreed with the OP on a few issues. For the other items the OP now knows if he rents another Tesla what to do. That's called helping. I don't love Tesla at all. I do love my Rivian, probably the best vehicle I've ever owned, but that shouldn't matter to you.

Many people on this forum own Teslas and other vehicles including the MME, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's our freedom of choice.

 

[Vnorvi]

Just got home from a trip in Colorado, where we rented a Tesla Y for a week. We've been driving our Mach-E for 18 months now, winter and summer, and I wanted to leave my thoughts on the contrasts between the two similar vehicles.

The Tesla sucks. Really.

Yes, it was a rental, and yes there are some quantitative things to prefer about it, but as an actual vehicle to drive around and go places and do things? It's awful.

The key. There is no way to unlock the doors without a) your phone or b) tapping the key (which is a hotel-room style keycard) on a specific spot on the driver's door. That only unlocks the driver's door. To unlock other doors, you have to use the touchscreen. Locking the car is the same way. Tap the key on that same specific spot. The car also doesn't always detect the key inside, so about 50% of the time, I had to tap the same key on a specific spot on the center console while holding the brake pedal to "start." That's a lot of wallet movement in and out of my pocket, something I usually try to minimize.

The wipers. Couldn't figure out how to use them. I could make the window washer go, which would trigger the wipers, but otherwise they were stuck on automatic. I'm sure there's a setting in the touchscreen somewhere. One day we had a healthy layer of frost on the windshield and the wipers went into insanity overdrive mode for about eight minutes.

The headlights (and fog lights). Automatic only. Couldn't turn them on or off.

Turn signals. About 50% of the time, they turned off too soon or stayed on too long. There's no clicking in the stalk, you just kind of wiggle it up or down.

The shifter. Just a stalk on the right side of the wheel. Doesn't really move. Push up for R, push down for D. Click the button on the end in for P. Functional, but seems needlessly different with no obvious upside.

The wheel. To adjust the steering wheel, you need to find the right menu in the touchscreen. It does have a good range of motion when you do find it, but there's nothing obvious or expected about how to do so. Same with the mirrors.

The radio turned on twice, unexpectedly, and very loud. I'm sure I did something to cause this, but no idea what. There are no buttons anywhere, the controls are all on the touchscreen, and neither of us touched it. After the first time, we set the volume to 0, and two days later it reset to quite loud.

The chimes. Oh my god, the chimes. Be driving along normally, slightly approach one edge of the lane, maybe to make sure there's space between you and the truck you're passing, DING and the screen shows "VEHICLE DEPARTING THE LANE TAKE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY" and the wheel shudders. Note, at no point did I use any of the autopilot features, or even attempt to use basic cruise control. But I got this lane departure warning probably 200 times. If you're at a stop light and aren't already creeping when the light turns green, you get another DING. Occasionally, there's this kind of klaxon sound that came without a written indicator.

The speedometer is in the middle of the car. There is nothing in front of the driver gauge-wise.

Charging. First recharge was from 77%-95%. It took an hour. Second was from 45%-100%, which took 40 minutes. Third was from 81%-92%, which took an hour. Fourth was 50%-97%, which took 65 minutes. All at Tesla Superchargers, all after the battery preconditioned, all above 25 degrees, all being the only vehicle in a "block." I have no idea why they vary so much. I did like that you just plug the car in and it takes care of everything else. Range and the "GOM" seem a lot worse than our experience in the Mach E.

Trunk. The trunk opens with the push of a button, like ours. But it doesn't close all the way. Push the button to close and it lowers down, but doesn't latch. You then need to latch it manually, which makes this horrid grinding sound. This might just be an issue with the specific rental car we had, but at only 14,000 miles, seems pretty early for a failure of such a high-use component.

The Y is a lot louder than the Mach E. More road noise, more wind noise, more component noise.

Opening the doors from the outside is a huge pain, as you have to first push a button than manipulate this weird lever that pops out. Opening them from the inside is just a push button, which kind of leads to the nightmare scenario: what happens if you're inside one that suffers a complete power failure?

Horrid visibility out the rearview mirror.

Things I liked:

• the car seems even zippier than our Mach-E Premium. I don't ever leadfoot drive, so it's hard to tell, but it certainly has plenty of oomph. Not a big selling point for me.
• The side mirrors tilt down slightly when you shift into reverse. There's a post somewhere here about using Forscan to make a hack for that and it's a good feature Ford should consider.
• The screen is clearer and seems to have a quicker refresh rate.
• When you signal, the screen shows the corresponding left or right side view camera as well as your mirrors. I know our cars don't have those cameras, unfortunately.
• You can plug an SD card or USB stick in to auto-record all the camera feeds.
• When moving slowly toward an object, once you get within ~3', the screen shows you the distance in inches, which is neat when maneuvering in parking lots. Unfortunately, it seems to do this using cameras rather than a laser or ultrasound, so I don't know how reliable it is.

These are just my wife and my thoughts on a week of driving the Y, but I figured those in the Mach E community might be interested. I'm sure other people have different experiences, better or worse. I know the Mach E isn't perfect by any stretch, but it remains the best car I've ever driven.

My step son has an Tesla also. I’m 66 and have a bad back. There is an issue you did not mention that is a complete deal breaker for me and any Tesla. The ride is sooo rough my back starts to hurt after a short time. The mustang is, however, awesome. I would never consider a Tesla.

 

[Jimrpa]

If you love Tesla so much, why do you have a MME? And why are you on this forum?

@DevSecOps owns (has owned) a mustang Mach-E since its introduction. He’s spent a lot of time learning all the technical details of the vehicle (probably to the level of the engineers who designed it), has been very helpful in identifying issues with the vehicle, and has been very generous with his time and knowledge, helping people here troubleshoot their issues. I certainly don’t want to speak for him, but I suspect his disappointment with the Mustang Mach-E is analogous to the “Gartner Hype Curve”. Prior to the car’s release and in the early days, we were all enthusiastic and and very high expectations for the vehicle and Ford. After real-world experience, those expectations proved to be … optimistic.

 

[ShaggySS]

Just got home from a trip in Colorado, where we rented a Tesla Y for a week. We've been driving our Mach-E for 18 months now, winter and summer, and I wanted to leave my thoughts on the contrasts between the two similar vehicles.

The Tesla sucks. Really.

Yes, it was a rental, and yes there are some quantitative things to prefer about it, but as an actual vehicle to drive around and go places and do things? It's awful.

The key. There is no way to unlock the doors without a) your phone or b) tapping the key (which is a hotel-room style keycard) on a specific spot on the driver's door. That only unlocks the driver's door. To unlock other doors, you have to use the touchscreen. Locking the car is the same way. Tap the key on that same specific spot. The car also doesn't always detect the key inside, so about 50% of the time, I had to tap the same key on a specific spot on the center console while holding the brake pedal to "start." That's a lot of wallet movement in and out of my pocket, something I usually try to minimize.

The wipers. Couldn't figure out how to use them. I could make the window washer go, which would trigger the wipers, but otherwise they were stuck on automatic. I'm sure there's a setting in the touchscreen somewhere. One day we had a healthy layer of frost on the windshield and the wipers went into insanity overdrive mode for about eight minutes.

The headlights (and fog lights). Automatic only. Couldn't turn them on or off.

Turn signals. About 50% of the time, they turned off too soon or stayed on too long. There's no clicking in the stalk, you just kind of wiggle it up or down.

The shifter. Just a stalk on the right side of the wheel. Doesn't really move. Push up for R, push down for D. Click the button on the end in for P. Functional, but seems needlessly different with no obvious upside.

The wheel. To adjust the steering wheel, you need to find the right menu in the touchscreen. It does have a good range of motion when you do find it, but there's nothing obvious or expected about how to do so. Same with the mirrors.

The radio turned on twice, unexpectedly, and very loud. I'm sure I did something to cause this, but no idea what. There are no buttons anywhere, the controls are all on the touchscreen, and neither of us touched it. After the first time, we set the volume to 0, and two days later it reset to quite loud.

The chimes. Oh my god, the chimes. Be driving along normally, slightly approach one edge of the lane, maybe to make sure there's space between you and the truck you're passing, DING and the screen shows "VEHICLE DEPARTING THE LANE TAKE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY" and the wheel shudders. Note, at no point did I use any of the autopilot features, or even attempt to use basic cruise control. But I got this lane departure warning probably 200 times. If you're at a stop light and aren't already creeping when the light turns green, you get another DING. Occasionally, there's this kind of klaxon sound that came without a written indicator.

The speedometer is in the middle of the car. There is nothing in front of the driver gauge-wise.

Charging. First recharge was from 77%-95%. It took an hour. Second was from 45%-100%, which took 40 minutes. Third was from 81%-92%, which took an hour. Fourth was 50%-97%, which took 65 minutes. All at Tesla Superchargers, all after the battery preconditioned, all above 25 degrees, all being the only vehicle in a "block." I have no idea why they vary so much. I did like that you just plug the car in and it takes care of everything else. Range and the "GOM" seem a lot worse than our experience in the Mach E.

Trunk. The trunk opens with the push of a button, like ours. But it doesn't close all the way. Push the button to close and it lowers down, but doesn't latch. You then need to latch it manually, which makes this horrid grinding sound. This might just be an issue with the specific rental car we had, but at only 14,000 miles, seems pretty early for a failure of such a high-use component.

The Y is a lot louder than the Mach E. More road noise, more wind noise, more component noise.

Opening the doors from the outside is a huge pain, as you have to first push a button than manipulate this weird lever that pops out. Opening them from the inside is just a push button, which kind of leads to the nightmare scenario: what happens if you're inside one that suffers a complete power failure?

Horrid visibility out the rearview mirror.

Things I liked:

• the car seems even zippier than our Mach-E Premium. I don't ever leadfoot drive, so it's hard to tell, but it certainly has plenty of oomph. Not a big selling point for me.
• The side mirrors tilt down slightly when you shift into reverse. There's a post somewhere here about using Forscan to make a hack for that and it's a good feature Ford should consider.
• The screen is clearer and seems to have a quicker refresh rate.
• When you signal, the screen shows the corresponding left or right side view camera as well as your mirrors. I know our cars don't have those cameras, unfortunately.
• You can plug an SD card or USB stick in to auto-record all the camera feeds.
• When moving slowly toward an object, once you get within ~3', the screen shows you the distance in inches, which is neat when maneuvering in parking lots. Unfortunately, it seems to do this using cameras rather than a laser or ultrasound, so I don't know how reliable it is.

These are just my wife and my thoughts on a week of driving the Y, but I figured those in the Mach E community might be interested. I'm sure other people have different experiences, better or worse. I know the Mach E isn't perfect by any stretch, but it remains the best car I've ever driven.

I read this and had the same view as Todd. Renting a car for a week vs owning one is vastly different. The Mach-E took time to learn. My wife purchased a Model Y and I have been learning it and impressed by some things and annoyed by others.

PAAK is amazingly perfect. After having the Mach-E I assumed getting PAAK to work with various phone times was an impossible task but Tesla has figured this out. A Tesla driver would laugh at the ginormous ford key.

Wipers - I will agree with you on the wipers, I like the stalk you can use but the button on the end of the stalk will activate them once. My wife has no problem with it after she figured it out. I don't like wipers so I just push the button when needed.

Headlights - The headlights are like the mach-e. Automatic, just touching the icon on the screen turns them on or off manually.

Turn Signal - Yes it was a bit strange at first but then I enabled the auto off. Tesla is very good about knowing you changed lanes so that awkwardness of turning them off is gone when you enable that.

Shifter, its a tesla thing. It's different which explains why you don't like it. Once you get use to it, its pretty simple.

Chimes - Yes I got nothing here. It can be very annoying at random times. My wife has them all turned on and it's a bit much. I disabled many so my drive is much more peaceful.

Speed - The first time I drove her car was at night and just having darkness where I am used to looking was strange. I like it much better now that 6.8 is out and my speed is hidden by my hands\steering wheel. Once you get used to the change its not bad.

Charging - You might have picked up a base model that does not charge as fast, actually, they charge ridiculously slow. This is my favorite part of the MY. Charging is amazing simple and super fast. Took a trip from Norcal to LA and it was so painless and surprisingly cheap compared to other DC charging. Charged many times for under 30 cents even found one 18 cents during off-peak. The best part is you don't need to be strong to lug that cord and plug it in. My kids can do it. I am an IT guy so a whimp by design.

Trunk - You obviously got a bad one. You can open and close without touching it from the push of a button and you can do it without being in Bluetooth range. Seems like a strange request to open your trunk when you aren't near it but my buddy has done it many times when I borrowed something from him at work, comes in useful.

Door Handles - Yes they are different, yes you need to learn them. How many people have rode in your Mach-E and couldn't figure out how to get in or out. Learning curve. The plus side is in a Tesla with PAAK you never are awkwardly standing there pushing the button over and over again waiting for the car to unlock and let you in.

I am not a Tesla Fanboy, I do have a Mach-E and purchased it because I didn't want a Tesla but even I have to admit they did some things very well. Their minimalistic approach leaves out some basic functionality that the average driver will be confused by. I have two friends with Tesla's so that first week I texted them a LOT to learn how to things or turn things off. I found myself on the internet many times doing the same with my Mach-E. Overall I love my Mach-E, but I will consider a Tesla for my next car. I could be saying that because I spent this past weekend buying a car for my daughter to drive and dealing with a dealership grinds my gears.

 

[PA Bob]

I think you’re overall point about the model Y being overly complicated is a good one. I was about to buy the model Y when the Mach E came out. Elon seemed to make a lot of things different on the model Y just to be different. I think Ford did a good job of making the MME more use, user-friendly, given the more complicated nature of the vehicle.
One interesting note. When I went to get Paint Protection Film put on my car, they told me how bad the paint was on the model Y panels. He actually took pictures of a really poorly painted panel and sent them to the car owner because he was afraid he would get blamed for it. I assume they’ve since fixed that issue, but it was a dealbreaker for me.
Oh, my friends that have electric cars have Teslas, but the MME was the perfect car for me.

 

[dgilles428]

Just got home from a trip in Colorado, where we rented a Tesla Y for a week. We've been driving our Mach-E for 18 months now, winter and summer, and I wanted to leave my thoughts on the contrasts between the two similar vehicles.

The Tesla sucks. Really.

Yes, it was a rental, and yes there are some quantitative things to prefer about it, but as an actual vehicle to drive around and go places and do things? It's awful.

The key. There is no way to unlock the doors without a) your phone or b) tapping the key (which is a hotel-room style keycard) on a specific spot on the driver's door. That only unlocks the driver's door. To unlock other doors, you have to use the touchscreen. Locking the car is the same way. Tap the key on that same specific spot. The car also doesn't always detect the key inside, so about 50% of the time, I had to tap the same key on a specific spot on the center console while holding the brake pedal to "start." That's a lot of wallet movement in and out of my pocket, something I usually try to minimize.

The wipers. Couldn't figure out how to use them. I could make the window washer go, which would trigger the wipers, but otherwise they were stuck on automatic. I'm sure there's a setting in the touchscreen somewhere. One day we had a healthy layer of frost on the windshield and the wipers went into insanity overdrive mode for about eight minutes.

The headlights (and fog lights). Automatic only. Couldn't turn them on or off.

Turn signals. About 50% of the time, they turned off too soon or stayed on too long. There's no clicking in the stalk, you just kind of wiggle it up or down.

The shifter. Just a stalk on the right side of the wheel. Doesn't really move. Push up for R, push down for D. Click the button on the end in for P. Functional, but seems needlessly different with no obvious upside.

The wheel. To adjust the steering wheel, you need to find the right menu in the touchscreen. It does have a good range of motion when you do find it, but there's nothing obvious or expected about how to do so. Same with the mirrors.

The radio turned on twice, unexpectedly, and very loud. I'm sure I did something to cause this, but no idea what. There are no buttons anywhere, the controls are all on the touchscreen, and neither of us touched it. After the first time, we set the volume to 0, and two days later it reset to quite loud.

The chimes. Oh my god, the chimes. Be driving along normally, slightly approach one edge of the lane, maybe to make sure there's space between you and the truck you're passing, DING and the screen shows "VEHICLE DEPARTING THE LANE TAKE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY" and the wheel shudders. Note, at no point did I use any of the autopilot features, or even attempt to use basic cruise control. But I got this lane departure warning probably 200 times. If you're at a stop light and aren't already creeping when the light turns green, you get another DING. Occasionally, there's this kind of klaxon sound that came without a written indicator.

The speedometer is in the middle of the car. There is nothing in front of the driver gauge-wise.

Charging. First recharge was from 77%-95%. It took an hour. Second was from 45%-100%, which took 40 minutes. Third was from 81%-92%, which took an hour. Fourth was 50%-97%, which took 65 minutes. All at Tesla Superchargers, all after the battery preconditioned, all above 25 degrees, all being the only vehicle in a "block." I have no idea why they vary so much. I did like that you just plug the car in and it takes care of everything else. Range and the "GOM" seem a lot worse than our experience in the Mach E.

Trunk. The trunk opens with the push of a button, like ours. But it doesn't close all the way. Push the button to close and it lowers down, but doesn't latch. You then need to latch it manually, which makes this horrid grinding sound. This might just be an issue with the specific rental car we had, but at only 14,000 miles, seems pretty early for a failure of such a high-use component.

The Y is a lot louder than the Mach E. More road noise, more wind noise, more component noise.

Opening the doors from the outside is a huge pain, as you have to first push a button than manipulate this weird lever that pops out. Opening them from the inside is just a push button, which kind of leads to the nightmare scenario: what happens if you're inside one that suffers a complete power failure?

Horrid visibility out the rearview mirror.

Things I liked:

• the car seems even zippier than our Mach-E Premium. I don't ever leadfoot drive, so it's hard to tell, but it certainly has plenty of oomph. Not a big selling point for me.
• The side mirrors tilt down slightly when you shift into reverse. There's a post somewhere here about using Forscan to make a hack for that and it's a good feature Ford should consider.
• The screen is clearer and seems to have a quicker refresh rate.
• When you signal, the screen shows the corresponding left or right side view camera as well as your mirrors. I know our cars don't have those cameras, unfortunately.
• You can plug an SD card or USB stick in to auto-record all the camera feeds.
• When moving slowly toward an object, once you get within ~3', the screen shows you the distance in inches, which is neat when maneuvering in parking lots. Unfortunately, it seems to do this using cameras rather than a laser or ultrasound, so I don't know how reliable it is.

These are just my wife and my thoughts on a week of driving the Y, but I figured those in the Mach E community might be interested. I'm sure other people have different experiences, better or worse. I know the Mach E isn't perfect by any stretch, but it remains the best car I've ever driven.

I love my 21 GTpe and recently drove a Model Y Perf on a trip, after 80 miles I had enough and was glad to take the passenger seat. I hated the controls, and could not find any way to allow a coast mode .. I dislike 1PD with a passion. I always forget using voice commands can get rid of some of the screen searching. I also missed Android Auto (Waze), Siriusxm, BLIS, an overhead 360 view of the car, and many other features that Tesla doesn't offer (hands free liftgate, Homelink). I like my Mach-e because it drives similar to an ICE vehicle, most people like other EV's because they don't. If I had to drive an EV on trips, a Tesla would be my only consideration .. their mapping and charging network works great and easy to use, plus on trips, using cruise control eliminates the 1PD feel.

 

[DevSecOps]

I respect your opinion, but I just wanted to clarify a couple things for your info:

could not find any way to allow a coast mode

That's because 2PD is not available on Tesla's. I understand you don't like 1PD, so yes I would recommend that you stay away from vehicles that don't have 2PD such as Tesla, Rivian, and there might be others.

hands free liftgate, Homelink

Tesla does have both of those, they are both optional however. Homelink is actually amazing on Tesla because it uses GPS to automatically open/close your garage/gate as you approach/leave. I wish all vehicles did that!

 

[superdave80]

That's because 2PD is not available on Tesla's. I understand you don't like 1PD, so yes I would recommend that you stay away from vehicles that don't have 2PD such as Tesla, Rivian, and there might be others.

This decision just boggles my mind. This is just a software thing that would cost roughly zero dollars in the grand scheme of things. Both pedals are THERE already. Why would these EV makers intentionally pass up sales because of this?

I might not mind switching to 1pd driving (but I haven't on my Mach-E because I see no benefit to switching, I like coasting, and I still have an ICE that I drive), but no way in hell am I plopping down $40k+ to then see whether I like it or not, with no option to switch back to 2pd.

 

[DevSecOps]

This decision just boggles my mind. This is just a software thing that would cost roughly zero dollars in the grand scheme of things. Both pedals are THERE already. Why would these EV makers intentionally pass up sales because of this?

I might not mind switching to 1pd driving (but I haven't on my Mach-E because I see no benefit to switching, I like coasting, and I still have an ICE that I drive), but no way in hell am I plopping down $40k+ to then see whether I like it or not, with no option to switch back to 2pd.

It's obviously a polarizing subject. We've seen the battles on this forum about it. I personally love 1PD. I think it has safety benefits because in emergent situations the car is slowing before you can react fast enough to move your foot to the brake. I also think it's much more relaxing to drive in 1PD.

To each their own. I feel that if you aren't willing to adapt to 1PD, then those mfgs that only have 1PD probably assume you're not going to adapt to all the other "unconventional" or "modern ways" of driving a vehicle. This thread is evident that many people don't think there's a logical reason to change a vehicle form the way it's been since they were 16. They are entitled to think that way. I said previously that I wish more companies would try different things and push the envelope.

 

[curtisfinney]

I'm not trying to attack your opinion. I was attempting to educate by explaining how to do things.

The blinker has two settings, it's part way up or all the way up. You likely did a part way up at times while a full push others. Again these are all things that you just get used to when driving a Tesla. Rivian is the same way and my dad has also said that he disliks the blinker behavior when he drives my truck.

There's a lot of people who dislike the lack of buttons on the MME as well. It's a personal preference thing. Once you learn the voice commands with Tesla, it's really far easier and safer than looking even at a physical button because you just tell it what you want it to do while maintaining your vision forward.

As for the steering column. The reason they don't have the old school lever is because it's motorized so it can moved out of your way for easier entry and exit.

As for the stalks for headlights and wipers. I think the idea is that most people just leave them on auto all the time. But again they are easy to control via voice.

Change is something a lot of people have issue with. I for one, love it, it's well within your right to not like the changes they made. Other companies are adopting these changes too so don't be surprised if they show up in a future vehicle. For example Tesla removed the turn stalk completely on their newest vehicles and VW has said they are likely going to do the same. Rivian has copied a large portion of what Tesla does as well.

Some your points about change are valid, but don’t play the argument that someone’s an old dog who can’t learn new tricks. Change needs to make sense and it needs to improve something other than only cost while making the user experience for most worse and I am not advocating for making everyone happy. You never will

I will never embrace having no display behind the steering wheel like Tesla does for the Y and 3. This is 100% cost savings and not a change for a better user experience.

I love my Mach E and the touchscreen, but you will never get me to agree that not having physical HVAC controls is better. It’s not as you can learn to adjust them without looking. For example, Ford should allow us to change the default control of the big stupid knob to be the HVAC fan. I adjust that way more than volume and I already have that on the steering wheel.

 

[curtisfinney]

This decision just boggles my mind. This is just a software thing that would cost roughly zero dollars in the grand scheme of things. Both pedals are THERE already. Why would these EV makers intentionally pass up sales because of this?

I might not mind switching to 1pd driving (but I haven't on my Mach-E because I see no benefit to switching, I like coasting, and I still have an ICE that I drive), but no way in hell am I plopping down $40k+ to then see whether I like it or not, with no option to switch back to 2pd.

I switched to one pedal on day one and I’ll never go back. Curious to understand how many people hold your view here

 

[curtisfinney]

I'm going to disagree with both of those respectfully.

A 14" monitor is not cheaper than a bunch of plastic buttons.
Most of the negative feedback about buttons is coming from a generation that won't be driving much longer. Car companies won't be rolling anything back for those people.

Please share where you learned this. I would love to review that study.

 

[DevSecOps]

Please share where you learned this. I would love to review that study.

It's personal observation. If it was a study I would have cited it. I don't know any 20-30yo that wants old school buttons to come back. Likewise I don't know anyone from a younger generation that wants to give up their cell phone for a land line or flip phone. When I was a kid I remember people saying computers wouldn't be commonplace except in business. I feel you're just denying the inevitable, but I could be wrong.

As for cost, I don't think you need a study to examine the price of a screen vs a plastic button. Not to mention all the developers that you have to employ to maintain the software. Old cars with buttons never got updates or UI changes. Going digital has nothing to do with saving money, not even close.

Just like you have your opinion, I'm entitled to mine. Come back in 10 years and let me know how it played out.

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