Here's a nice review of one of the first Model Y's to be delivered.

The seats look funny. They literally took the seats from the Model 3 and put it on stilts.

This is the only Tesla that could potentially work for me (I have a bad back so Model 3 is out and I can't afford the Model X), so I plan to give it a try when available for test drives.

 

It's not a friggin SUV; it's a low-slung fastback. The Ford Mustang is more of an SUV than this thing. But the Mustang knows it's a fastback ( and a really good looking one, even if I'm not a Ford fan ).

The Model Y looks like a wax model of a Mustang that sat out in the sun too long. And some punk with an X-acto knife tried to cut rear doors into it.

OK, I feel better now. Sorta.

 

there there, let the hate out, it's not good holding it inside. Here is a therapeutic video for you.
As with all cars, never buy the first batch unless you are willing to deal with issues.

 

I agree. This will probably be my next ride. This reminds me of what BMW and Mercedes did with X4 and GLE Coupe.

If the engineering holds up from model 3, this could be the safest suv on the road. Folks are so caught up with the EV part, they often forget that model 3 is the safest sedan on the road today.

 

I expect my next car to be electric. Probably a Tesla, but I am 3 or 4 years away, so I will see what shakes out. If I had to guess, right now I would guess model 3 to replace the Accord, though if this RDX pisses me off enough, I would go with the model Y.

 

Thanks for posting this review.

I will probably never buy a Tesla. Why? They try way too hard to simplify everything. Are you kidding me? You have to go into a menu on the center screen to configure the steering wheel controls so you can adjust the side mirror? Or turn on or off the rear seat heaters? And no HUD...

Also, I don't like the pano roof that doesn't open, or have a sunshade (I do live in the hot desert)

And did anyone catch the pricing? It shows a price then next to it it says something like I am paraphrasing here...."this incudes possible tax credits you may be entitled to"

Just few of my off the cuff comments.
Edit: I almost missed the poll. I voted #1..but how far is your "future"?

 

I guess it's not for everyone. I find the software defined control brilliant and with their style of agile development, updates are made easily. Hide away buttons you rarely use and dynamic assignments allows a lot more future possibilities than fix buttons.

 

Yes, I see your point. I have heard that air vent direction is also controlled by the center screen. (could be wrong)
Lack of a HUD is a glaring omission, in my point of view (Puns not intended, but, looking back at what I typed, they are clever, if I do say so myself)

At any rate, I have always admired Tesla from afar, then I visited a friend who bought a Model S a year ago. He let me drive it. The acceleration is absolutely amazing, especially when you consider how eerily quiet it is. Fit and finish was "meh"....

With this said, I am usually a very big fan and early adopter of new tech....I may change my thoughts, but I still doubt I will buy a Tesla in the near term (2-3 years), and yes, pricing and road trip charging are two of many concerns I have. I am anxious to see how the Mustang Mach-e compares and is reviewed.

 

So far, the only company whose over the air updates I would trust is Tesla. The supercharger network is a huge plus. I can see my 1300 mile drive to Florida being easily done, considering the routes I take and the superchargers I have already seen along those routes. I do around 500 miles in a day, so hooking up to a supercharger at a normal rest stop break would be enough.

Considering our uncertain future, I don’t know what my world will look like in three or four months, let alone three or four years.

 

I am now regretting not waiting for a Model Y. I purchased my A-Spec at the end of November and feel I should have waited (I do love my RDX). First, I do not own any other Tesla Models, I have a ton of friends and colleagues with them, who all love the car. I am a big fan as well. I have been a car enthusiast for almost 50 years with a father who owned a car dealership and grew up eating and breathing cars. (Yes, I know Tesla is not good for the dealer model). What Elon Musk is doing with Tesla is changing the car industry, much like Henry Ford did with the Model T in the early 1900's.
First, ordering cars online is genius. You pay one price based on the car and options and wait for the delivery, much like a laptop. You no longer have to play the games at the "stealerships". As long as the demand for Tesla keeps up, they will be able to keep this model going which no one else in the industry has been able to do. You may remember Saturn. The typical dealer model is not efficient. Dealers spend a fortune in floor planning which is the interest on the inventory and requires tremendous amounts of real estate to inventory vehicles. The advantage to this model is they will get the "impulse" buyer driving a car or truck off the lot that same day. Tesla, for the most part, does not have this luxury. Second, the simplicity of the car is fabulous. Instant torque with an electric motor, somewhat good looking! You no longer have issues with transmissions, exhaust, radiator, fuel injection, water pumps, turbochargers, intercoolers, belts, timing chains, air filters, oil changes, etc like new gasoline engines have. The batteries of a Tesla have a great warranty, this should not be an issue for most Tesla owners. Tesla is the only car available that gets better with age with the over the air updates. In addition, Tesla releases performance updates that you can pay for which unleashes performance and range which is a great source of income for the company. Last, going to the gas station will soon be obsolete. It's much more efficient to charge a car at home. You will save money and time in the long run. You will no longer smell like gas, stepping in puddles from spillage from the idiot before you. (You could have a problem during a Hurricane when poor goes out) The Supercharger model can take you coast to coast when needed. The average family takes 2 road trips per year so stopping for a 1/2 hour to charge is not that big of a deal. I have to refuel my Acura around 275 miles which is the typical range of a Tesla in real world driving conditions. All the major manufacturuers are investing in electric vehicles, following in Tesla's foot steps. They are running scared and cannot compete with their technology and how far they have advanced in the last 8 years. I believe the Model 3 is one of the best selling cars in the last few years. The Model Y will outsell the 3. This is the future of transportation from Cars, SUV, Motorcycles, Buses and Semi's, so you better get use to it! That's my 2 cents!

 

Not only is the Supercharger network is a huge plus, it’s one of the most important factor that separates Tesla apart from others. You can plan your LD trips in car and it will map out when, where and for how long you need to charge to get to your destination. This is a feature unlike others and with dedicated charging stations AND public stations. This is also a feature that you have to pay a monthly subscription in a Mercedes EQS!!

Couple this with it’s OTA ability and in-house software development, Tesla is not only ahead in car engineering, it’s ahead in technologies.

These are things you can’t touch or feel when you are just comparing the spec or looks but it hugely impacts ownership experience for years to follow.

 

Plus, Tesla dealerships all offer lifetime oil changes. :wink:

 

I'm likely a future EV owner. I do mostly short, local trips that make electric a good option. But I'm not really a Tesla fan. I admire what they've accomplished in making electric mainstream, but the cars themselves, as a complete package, just don't do it for me.

 

Longer term future, say in our lifetime, the next 50 years or so.

 

That's good to know!

 

Have you tried driving one? Almost everyone that I know that owns a Tesla swears by it. None of them have any complaints. There must be something endearing about the ownership experience.

 

I have an acquaintance with a P90 (I think, it is a P something). He says the power is incredible, and it is very quiet. He also said he almost ran out of juice coming home from his firm. I know he works only about 40 miles away. How did that happen? He forgets to plug it in and keep it topped off, so when he detoured somewhere coming home, he barely made it. Obviously, one must give more planning thought to keeping it charged.

 

I think it's habitual. It's hard to think to charge cars. Hell I forget to charge my phone overnight sometimes.

Regarding charging, from friends that have them; it certainly changes the driving experience. Instead of going to gas stations, you might hit a mall where Supercharges are around. You end up taking 30 minutes break instead of the 5 minutes you might spend at a gas station. You end up planning around meal times while you charge or take a longer rest stop break during a road trip.

However, none of them thought it was inconvenient, it's just different.

 

I have not driven a Tesla, but I'm sure power and quiet are well beyond what I know. But I also want style, inside and out, and the stark interior and flat bottom jelly bean exterior are not appealing to me.

 

Yep. Develop new habits.

 

 

That's not a Yorkshire...

 

Strange that most car companies are going back to dedicated hard buttons for common functions, after torturing their buyers with nested menus on touchscreens for a few years. Acura has been going back and forth on this for 15 years or so.

Of course, Tesla has no expectation that drivers should be paying any attention to the road or their surroundings, which frees them up to entertain themselves with all kinds of cool gadgets in the car. What was that thud? Oh, just a little kid on a bike. No worries.

BTW, I'm a big kid on a bike much of the time. Starting to understand the "hate"? Musk is an irresponsible a$$. And it's all about the money.

 

 

Not so sure if that's true for all car companies.... ie, Audi, the latest A6 is more touch screen than ever (pretty decent too). Volvo has pretty did away with most of the buttons. Acura? 15 years ago? Are we talking about like Palm pilot vs iPhone here? You can't possibly implement a usable touch screen 15 years ago in an automobile.

Reality is that none of the car companies are really software shop so their implementation is simply just that, for sake of having a "touch screen," a touchscreen with lags, horrible non-intuitive UI and weak compute power.

 

And yet they tried. Our 2005 MDX is proof. 2nd-generation MDX console was a sea of buttons after the pendulum swung the other way. 3rd-generation MDX has an eclectic mix of interface elements, to put it kindly.

But back to Tesla, touchscreens aren't an ideal interface in a moving vehicle, especially on roads that aren't perfectly smooth. And just because the "luxury" brands are doing it doesn't really make it superior. Rocket fins, anyone? Faux exhaust ports on the side of the fenders? Rubber band tires on ginormous wheels?

 

I've been following Tesla for some time. It is hard to cut through all the 'fan-boy' stuff sometimes. I think from a technology standpoint they are 5-7 years ahead of most of their competition. Not only that I think their development cycle is faster than traditional car companies so this does not bode well for traditional car companies to catch up to Tesla. I've been very disappointed in Honda/Acura's lack of plug-in hybrid or EV development. Even Hybrid has been on and off for Honda. Acura had some great technology in the SH RLX which seems to have not gone anywhere. What a waste of development money. The NSX has some similar maybe later SH development, but where is that going? Will there be a plug-in hybrid model of the RDX or TLX in the future? You'd think if this were the case Acura would have stated they are working towards this but I've not read it.

What I don't like about Tesla is that their cars feel really cheap yet they like to advertise themselves as a luxury brand. I think this is to justify the high price, but I've sat in Teslas (never drove one) and for the price they are cheap. Cheap feeling plastics, no ventilated seats, few traditional luxury features common is cars lower in price. Heck, what about a HUD or a dashboard? I don't like everything being on that one panel off to my right. Very unnatural to me. A HUD is cheap. Their fit and finish is not great but seems to be improving. Their repair costs are high due to lack of parts and some really expensive parts like giant glass panels that are very expensive to replace and can take weeks for parts to arrive. I hate the idea of AutoPilot and would never buy it on a Tesla. I'm fine with drivers aids like anti-collision, but drivers that let the car drive itself scares me since I just don't trust the technology to make up for their lack of attention.

On the positive side a Tesla would fit my driving needs. I make short trips during the week and some longer but local trips around town on the weekends. We can put well over 100 miles in one day just doing local driving in Houston. And the heat means the AC will be on constantly and if I had a Tesla I'd be even more of a lead foot so I'd get much less than the rated range. But not much of a problem. I could charge at home 99% of the time and there is a Supercharging station about 1 mile from my house. I'm sure I'd like the driving experience if/when I test drive one. I think they need another year or two before I'd consider buying one, but I'd say a Model 3 or Y is on my list for my next car.

The Mach-e seems like a nice potential alternative. But Ford is probably 7 years behind Tesla in terms of technology and Ford is a Car/Truck company and not an EV company. Dealerships make their money selling cars and truck and most importantly servicing them and I'm guessing the dealerships may not be embracing this EV that they don't understand and will not make as much money in servicing them. Tesla's direct sales model works better for EVs, traditional dealerships are going to struggle as EV sales grow over time and they have large overheads to support.

There are many more options for EV in Europe where driving needs are different than the US. Those are mostly city cars, but there are growing options in the US. Tesla is ahead of all of them in terms of tech. But Audi, MB and to some extent BMW, Volvo are going to have or already have more traditional luxury EV on the market. Tesla may start losing sales to them. This may drive Tesla to better compete on features and on price. It is an interesting time in the car industry for sure. Dry anode tech and solid state batteries, if achievable, could be a game changer for EV range anxiety and drive costs even lower. Maybe a few years away, but traditional car companies better wake up.

 

There is supposed to be a big battery announcement next month for Tesla. It might be very interesting.

Tesla making its own batteries is huge, IMO. If they hit their million mile target for batteries, watch out. You could buy a Tesla and keep it for 20+ years, and it could still be fairly current at that time.

As far as self-driving, I think our RDX gets me about halfway there. The adaptive cruise control is a big help in many situations, and that with acceptable lane keeping just makes highway driving that much easier. I doubt that I could start reading a book while driving, but getting on the highway and then letting the car navigate to the next planned stop while I watch and supervise is something I can see myself doing.

 

I'm probably 15 years, or 2 more cars, away from electric. I was pretty serious about getting the model 3 or Y but after I drove the Tesla (model 3), I did not like it and it went way down the list. Kinda soured me toward Tesla overall so I did not wait for the Y. It is the right for some people but it's not for me. It had a lot of things that would not be able to get beyond. If you are considering it then make sure you look beyond the intoxicating acceleration and consider what it would be like day to day and what you value.

 

For years I had a dream of buying my first Luxury vehicle, and it was always the Lexus RX. Hybrd preferred. Then when all the stars aligned, and I had the ability to buy that luxury vehicle, i test drove a few RXs and I did not like them...making this post shorter, I bought the RDX and have never thought abut that Lexus dream again.

I think this is the case for a lot of Telsa buyers, except many will buy that Tesla, (perhaps falsely thinking they are "saving the planet" by driving an electric vehicle) then be sorry about their purchase for many reasons presented above, yet continue to talk it up to everyone because they need to justify the high cost, they incurred in attaining their dream

 

I wonder how the current economic recession will hit luxury items like a Tesla. I've posted about my opinion on EVs but essentially the entire industry is still in the infancy phase (I think they've just came out of beta-testing phase just a couple years ago) and so in the next 5-10 years I actually believe we may get past the infancy phase in to actual early viability and so it will likely be at least 10 years before I consider any EVs.

But luxury items like Teslas may be hit by the current economic recession, though their sales model are a bit more suited to this situation than traditional dealership models.

 

Well the luxury ride would be the model S and that has a dash, not just the screen to the right. However, the fit and finish is certainly not luxury by any means.

I think you misunderstood how autopilot works. It does everything you listed, lane keep, adaptive cruise and etc. It just does it so well that you can literally trust it to steer on high way within the lines. The minute you make a correction on the steering wheel or brake, autopilot disengaged. It’s everything you asked for and then some. You don’t have to take your eyes or hands off the steering wheel (and you are not suppose to)

If none of the tech fancies you, then you might as well get a Nissan Leaf......

 

Apple made Newton in 1993, same idea as iPad, but it failed because the hardware/tech is simply not there. I don't see it going away like Rocket fins or white wall tires. It may be replaced by a better interface (voice or gesture?) but certainly not back to full set of buttons for everything.

Remember those number pads on Benz? There is no going back to that....

 

But people DO take their eyes off the road and their hands off the wheel. And they call it "Autopilot". WTH does that mean to you?

As to control interfaces, LOL. Yeah, that numeric pad is quaint. But it probably dials a phone just fine.

And I'll take that sumptuous leather covered shift lever with the nice, positive parking position engagement and manual "side-to-side" shift mode. That is ergonomic perfection.

Sure, the shift lever is attached to a physical linkage unlike the "shift-by-wire" transmissions we have now, but the control interface didn't have to be changed "just cuz".

And WTH is wrong with physical buttons for the seat warmers? I don't feel like sorting through menus if my butt is toasting.

And the perfectly intuitive knob for audio volume control and power on/off. Heck, they even incorporated FF and RW for the CD player. Nice. Seems like that would work for e-tunes as well.

It's almost like German car companies are run by people who know something about engineering.

The fact of the matter is those big touchscreens are probably LESS EXPENSIVE than physical buttons. And the car companies can CHARGE MORE for them, cuz they are oh-so-modern and high tech.

<end rant> < else I change my mind>

 

The RX hybrid was first on my list as well - before driving, I had the Lexus and Tesla 1-2. The RDX was not in my top 5 before test driving. I had the BMW, Audi, Lincoln, and the Caddy above it. The RX was the first one I drove and within 1min I knew it was not for me. Not kidding, took 1 turn and I was done. I'm sure the people who picked the RX would say the same about the RDX for the same reason. I drove the Tesla about 5min before I decided it was not for me. As other have mentioned above, I did not think that it lived up to the hype. The acceleration did live up to the hype certainly, but not the rest of the car - the material quality, paint, seats, etc. were not as good as any of the others. If I had to pick between the Tesla and the RX, I would have taken the RX without question.

Anyway, as far at the RX, I did not like the suspension, the steering, the weird top heavy feeling, lack of options, etc. I tried the F sport just in case and it was worse. IMO the F-sport had the worst seats in any luxury car. The panel gaps, paint, material quality, and fit/finish were very nice though. As with most cars, it's right for somebody. For me, the Buick Enclave Avenir of one of the new Lincolns were simply better IF I was going to go the cruiser route (reliability and dealer experience aside).

 

I agree with everything you posted so feel free to keep ranting. Different does not always equal better.

 

Do you mean like the RDX shift buttons? :-)

And no, touch screen is not cheaper than mechanic buttons. If so, all of the low end cars would have nothing but that.

 

My friend with a model 3 said he just got an update and that a lot of things (not sure what all) can be controlled by voice.

I have always hated touch screens my self. However many things I don't ever even mess with anymore. I set my A/C at a temp and leave it. My audio I change with the steering wheel. Nav can mostly be controlled by voice. Phone calls mostly voice.

What else am I missing that I need to control with the touch screen?

 

Love my Volvo T8....battery range is around 25 miles in optimum conditions..around 20 in Winter (Maryland, doesn't get that cold) Plugging in @ home becomes second nature....and its nice not to be wasting time at a gast stn. 1 may think a 25 mile range is useless and for many it may be, but for me, I make it to work..20 miles.....charge there for free....and back home on battery.....Most of my weekly errands are within the battery range.....I can go a long time before I am visiting a gas stn. I would love t osee a battery range of say 300 miles AND a gas tank that can go 300 miles or so.....that way on long trips if the charging stations are busy at a pit stop, can carry on. I have noticed on a few trips from MD to RI that the charging stns are full.
On the volvo forums,, one either loves the touch screen or hates it....I quite like it....very easy to find what your looking for and easy to clean..I clean my car weekly, but I dont really notice finger prints.,...the all in 1 screen, makes for a very un-cluttered cock pit, which I prefer. And yes, many items can be controlled by voice..no where as 1 can on a Tesla..... Fellow on Swedespeed just bought a T8 and on post #29 of his he gives some info on what he likes/dislikes about the Tesla.,...a very lengthy/detailed post....https://forums.swedespeed.com/showth...T8-Inscription

 

Everyone has their own preference at the end of the day, you can't win them all.

I recall the conversation when iPhone first came out and the comparison between physical keyboard (like Blackberry) and touchscreen.
There is no doubt that a physical keyboard is much more accurate, comfortable and fast. However, the other benefits trumps all of that, we all know the rest of the story.