stealthytolkien
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I spent almost half a day at a Tesla dealership accompanying a friend to the service canter. Because I was going to be there, I booked three test drives (30 mins each but it was a weekday so there was hardly anybody there so they were okay with me taking my time).
I am writing this post to be informational and perhaps even a bit judgmental.
I own a 2021 GT Performance for reference. We are a tall household (6’4” and 5’8”) with a toddler who’s showing all signs of passing me in height eventually. Point being, we dislike low small sedans. That is the only “bias” I have, admittedly.
I drove 3 Teslas in total. Two Ys and the Model X. All with the full self driving package.
Let us get the Ys out of the way.
My impressions of the 2024 Model Y (long range AND performance):
1. Build quality: simply put, substantially better than what it used to be in 2019-2020 era. That’s it.
2. Feel of luxury: Model Y remains spartan. Aesthetically pleasing and highly functional, just not very luxurious. What can we define luxury as? Well, choice of materials is first. The wooden trim simply needs to go. The white interior looks much better, but even with the white interior, the two tones just don’t go well with each other. The center console, post refresh, is much better looking. But the dash and the door trims, seat materials appear to be done with cost savings in mind over luxurious feeling. It makes sense given the price of this car now a days. But if you’re LOOKING for luxury, you may not find a lot of it is my point. Let’s move on.
3. Infotainment: Functional. Maps are very responsive. But the split screen takes away too much space with the albeit useful car graphics (in other words, the screen needs to be a couple of inches wider) after their V11 release. Screen doesn’t have a lot of customizations. My right hand (I am in USA) blocks part of the screen which is very bothersome to me. Vertical orientation naturally solves this problem. It would be nice to be able to rotate the screen like phones. Tilting in X is nice but barely useful. A gimmick. Again, remember that I’m tall, which means everything seats wheels are tilted stretched and pulled out to its max. I get the benefits of a horizontal screen but I found it awkward.
4. Explicitly available safety features: Vision system is alright but I found it hard to trust. I was parking into a spot and the system showed me the lines and everything but the lack of 360 camera OR even a camera that I could quickly enable to see the front of the car makes it unnecessarily hard in tight spots especially for new drivers. The 360 camera would solve almost ALL problems that their complex vision system still leaves in the blind spot. No pun intended. Other than the vision system, the absence of rear cross traffic alert and blind spot mirrors are notable examples of wayward thinking by Tesla. Addition of a 360 camera, sensors to enable RCTA, and simply adding light to the mirror (model 3 has it now) would make the system truly complete, given just how many cameras are already in place watching the car like a hawk from all angles. I just cannot understand the reason behind removing the very useful sensors and radar. Visibility wise, the car is fine. Rear mirror visibility is a bit weird but surprisingly useful. Overall, this section ismy biggest gripe with the Teslas. Also, it blew my mind when I came to know that they don’t have a front bumper camera yet. There’s a huge blind spot right under the nose of the car. Essentially you cannot just see the front of the car and I use it so many times in my Mach E that I was just baffled to know that Teslas don’t have it yet. They are starting to add it finally to their late 2024 builds of S and X. Not for 3 and Y.
5. Drive: Fantastic. Y performance is a bit tight on the suspension and with big tires. But Y long range with smallest tires is far superior to what it used to be 4 years ago. Almost neck to neck with GT performance (if GTPE is 10/10, Y LR AWD can creep up to almost 8/10 without adaptive suspension, which is impressive). One thing I noticed is how smoothly the car stops and starts off 0. Mach E has this weird little jerk when it comes to a full stop. And a very little judder when it starts off the line. In both instances, Tesla proved to be better. Incredibly smooth start and stop. I was quite impressed.
6. FSD: I drove 11 miles through highway and then through the city with 1 disengagement. It promptly slowed down for speed bumps. It promptly guessed the stop sign sequence of who needs to go etc. correctly every single time. It guessed pedestrians waiting to cross. There were 0 phantom braking instances. It drove assertively when I asked it to through settings. The disengagement that happened was that it appeared to go into a left turning lane when it needed to go straight on a tiny narrow road. It could have corrected itself but I took over. In my 2019, FSD and auto pilot were EXTREMELY anxiety inducing. This was about 100% better. And I know I’m going to sound a bit harsh here, but FSD in its latest state beats BlueCruise IMHO. Ford needs to do better and release faster.
Spaciousness: Y is very spacious, in fact, it was a tiny bit more spacious in the second row even more than X just with the seating angle etc. I found that quite surprising.
My impressions of Model X:
1. Build: Great. Falcon doors are a godsend for tall people. Yes they’re a bit complex but I loved them.
2. Feel of luxury: Way more than Y. It’s $40k more so not surprised. I still didn’t like the wooden trim it just needs to go in my opinion. Maybe carbon fiber there would look better. Not sure. But overall it was a very good interior.
3. Infotainment: Much better than Y but the horizontal screen presented similar issues to me. My hand blocking a large part of the screen. But I have drivers cluster in X so it was overall not a problem. I kind of wish it had head up display though.
4. Explicitly available safety features: Same as Y.
5. Drive: Fantastic. GT performance is still a bit better, suspension wise, but it’s hard to tell the difference here but X is not nearly as nimble as GT performance but that’s not a fair comparison given GT performance is just built differently shape wise. All in all with the shape and suspension, GTPE drives great. Visibility was great. But I liked the rear view mirror and overall visibility in Model Y better for some reason. The mirror thing is easily fixable with a different mirror overlay.
6. FSD: Same as Y but I felt like X drove more confidently. Maybe it was in my head.
Conclusion: if I were presented Y LR, Y P, X LR, and MME Prem, GT, GTPE, and money was no issue, despite my gripes about the absence of RCTA (BSM is present but just not in the mirrors), I’d choose a 2024 Tesla Model X Long Range with FSD today. It’s got the most range on paper and super charging network makes the range “go longer”. It’s great for tall households. And plenty of cargo space. And the comfort is outstanding.
BUT if I were to choose a car with most VALUE for money, I’d choose a new Mach E premium if range matters to you or a year old GT Performance with low miles if performance matters to you more than range. For a lot less money you get a lot of car with 360 camera, RCTA, BSM, ability to use tesla chargers, driver cluster, and a functional blue cruise that’s much cheaper to buy and does quite well on highways. And CarPlay. And drives amazing.
The only issue is that your car is worth nothing the moment you buy it. Possibly subpar service based on where you are, and the car not having the perfect thermal management (HVBJB issues) among a few other absent things such as a heat pump for winter range conservation. None of these are particularly MAJOR dealbreakers, but potential “pitfalls”.
Oh and take this with a few grains (not relevant to my main topic) but I personally wouldn’t go near other brands like Hyundai, Kia, GMC, Nissan (except leaf - Ariya is trash), Subaru, Toyota / Lexus etc. for their EVs TODAY. These brands may be far from being real serious about their EV offerings YET in my opinion. They are NOT EV companies to begin with, and their offering seems like just to please their shareholders. I find them mediocre. Ford is “slightly” different in my book as they actively funded Rivian, showing some serious interest at least in the beginning and what they have made with Mach E is nothing short of amazing IMHO. They are a solid exception to the ICE maker making bad EV rule. Now whether they’ll keep this up or not remains to be seen. Writing isn’t quite yet on the wall lol. This is not to say that these other brands aren’t improving. Don’t get me wrong. I have test driven them all in the last one year and they all failed to impress me like Mach E did. Tesla is its own league anyway.
Hopefully this was somewhat helpful to someone in this forum lurking / or just wanted something to read!
I am writing this post to be informational and perhaps even a bit judgmental.
I own a 2021 GT Performance for reference. We are a tall household (6’4” and 5’8”) with a toddler who’s showing all signs of passing me in height eventually. Point being, we dislike low small sedans. That is the only “bias” I have, admittedly.
I drove 3 Teslas in total. Two Ys and the Model X. All with the full self driving package.
Let us get the Ys out of the way.
My impressions of the 2024 Model Y (long range AND performance):
1. Build quality: simply put, substantially better than what it used to be in 2019-2020 era. That’s it.
2. Feel of luxury: Model Y remains spartan. Aesthetically pleasing and highly functional, just not very luxurious. What can we define luxury as? Well, choice of materials is first. The wooden trim simply needs to go. The white interior looks much better, but even with the white interior, the two tones just don’t go well with each other. The center console, post refresh, is much better looking. But the dash and the door trims, seat materials appear to be done with cost savings in mind over luxurious feeling. It makes sense given the price of this car now a days. But if you’re LOOKING for luxury, you may not find a lot of it is my point. Let’s move on.
3. Infotainment: Functional. Maps are very responsive. But the split screen takes away too much space with the albeit useful car graphics (in other words, the screen needs to be a couple of inches wider) after their V11 release. Screen doesn’t have a lot of customizations. My right hand (I am in USA) blocks part of the screen which is very bothersome to me. Vertical orientation naturally solves this problem. It would be nice to be able to rotate the screen like phones. Tilting in X is nice but barely useful. A gimmick. Again, remember that I’m tall, which means everything seats wheels are tilted stretched and pulled out to its max. I get the benefits of a horizontal screen but I found it awkward.
4. Explicitly available safety features: Vision system is alright but I found it hard to trust. I was parking into a spot and the system showed me the lines and everything but the lack of 360 camera OR even a camera that I could quickly enable to see the front of the car makes it unnecessarily hard in tight spots especially for new drivers. The 360 camera would solve almost ALL problems that their complex vision system still leaves in the blind spot. No pun intended. Other than the vision system, the absence of rear cross traffic alert and blind spot mirrors are notable examples of wayward thinking by Tesla. Addition of a 360 camera, sensors to enable RCTA, and simply adding light to the mirror (model 3 has it now) would make the system truly complete, given just how many cameras are already in place watching the car like a hawk from all angles. I just cannot understand the reason behind removing the very useful sensors and radar. Visibility wise, the car is fine. Rear mirror visibility is a bit weird but surprisingly useful. Overall, this section ismy biggest gripe with the Teslas. Also, it blew my mind when I came to know that they don’t have a front bumper camera yet. There’s a huge blind spot right under the nose of the car. Essentially you cannot just see the front of the car and I use it so many times in my Mach E that I was just baffled to know that Teslas don’t have it yet. They are starting to add it finally to their late 2024 builds of S and X. Not for 3 and Y.
5. Drive: Fantastic. Y performance is a bit tight on the suspension and with big tires. But Y long range with smallest tires is far superior to what it used to be 4 years ago. Almost neck to neck with GT performance (if GTPE is 10/10, Y LR AWD can creep up to almost 8/10 without adaptive suspension, which is impressive). One thing I noticed is how smoothly the car stops and starts off 0. Mach E has this weird little jerk when it comes to a full stop. And a very little judder when it starts off the line. In both instances, Tesla proved to be better. Incredibly smooth start and stop. I was quite impressed.
6. FSD: I drove 11 miles through highway and then through the city with 1 disengagement. It promptly slowed down for speed bumps. It promptly guessed the stop sign sequence of who needs to go etc. correctly every single time. It guessed pedestrians waiting to cross. There were 0 phantom braking instances. It drove assertively when I asked it to through settings. The disengagement that happened was that it appeared to go into a left turning lane when it needed to go straight on a tiny narrow road. It could have corrected itself but I took over. In my 2019, FSD and auto pilot were EXTREMELY anxiety inducing. This was about 100% better. And I know I’m going to sound a bit harsh here, but FSD in its latest state beats BlueCruise IMHO. Ford needs to do better and release faster.
Spaciousness: Y is very spacious, in fact, it was a tiny bit more spacious in the second row even more than X just with the seating angle etc. I found that quite surprising.
My impressions of Model X:
1. Build: Great. Falcon doors are a godsend for tall people. Yes they’re a bit complex but I loved them.
2. Feel of luxury: Way more than Y. It’s $40k more so not surprised. I still didn’t like the wooden trim it just needs to go in my opinion. Maybe carbon fiber there would look better. Not sure. But overall it was a very good interior.
3. Infotainment: Much better than Y but the horizontal screen presented similar issues to me. My hand blocking a large part of the screen. But I have drivers cluster in X so it was overall not a problem. I kind of wish it had head up display though.
4. Explicitly available safety features: Same as Y.
5. Drive: Fantastic. GT performance is still a bit better, suspension wise, but it’s hard to tell the difference here but X is not nearly as nimble as GT performance but that’s not a fair comparison given GT performance is just built differently shape wise. All in all with the shape and suspension, GTPE drives great. Visibility was great. But I liked the rear view mirror and overall visibility in Model Y better for some reason. The mirror thing is easily fixable with a different mirror overlay.
6. FSD: Same as Y but I felt like X drove more confidently. Maybe it was in my head.
Conclusion: if I were presented Y LR, Y P, X LR, and MME Prem, GT, GTPE, and money was no issue, despite my gripes about the absence of RCTA (BSM is present but just not in the mirrors), I’d choose a 2024 Tesla Model X Long Range with FSD today. It’s got the most range on paper and super charging network makes the range “go longer”. It’s great for tall households. And plenty of cargo space. And the comfort is outstanding.
BUT if I were to choose a car with most VALUE for money, I’d choose a new Mach E premium if range matters to you or a year old GT Performance with low miles if performance matters to you more than range. For a lot less money you get a lot of car with 360 camera, RCTA, BSM, ability to use tesla chargers, driver cluster, and a functional blue cruise that’s much cheaper to buy and does quite well on highways. And CarPlay. And drives amazing.
The only issue is that your car is worth nothing the moment you buy it. Possibly subpar service based on where you are, and the car not having the perfect thermal management (HVBJB issues) among a few other absent things such as a heat pump for winter range conservation. None of these are particularly MAJOR dealbreakers, but potential “pitfalls”.
Oh and take this with a few grains (not relevant to my main topic) but I personally wouldn’t go near other brands like Hyundai, Kia, GMC, Nissan (except leaf - Ariya is trash), Subaru, Toyota / Lexus etc. for their EVs TODAY. These brands may be far from being real serious about their EV offerings YET in my opinion. They are NOT EV companies to begin with, and their offering seems like just to please their shareholders. I find them mediocre. Ford is “slightly” different in my book as they actively funded Rivian, showing some serious interest at least in the beginning and what they have made with Mach E is nothing short of amazing IMHO. They are a solid exception to the ICE maker making bad EV rule. Now whether they’ll keep this up or not remains to be seen. Writing isn’t quite yet on the wall lol. This is not to say that these other brands aren’t improving. Don’t get me wrong. I have test driven them all in the last one year and they all failed to impress me like Mach E did. Tesla is its own league anyway.
Hopefully this was somewhat helpful to someone in this forum lurking / or just wanted something to read!
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