2021 Tesla Model Y Full Review After 9 Months

Special thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Tesla. You've probably heard about them by now, partly thanks to the fact that they are the most valuable car company by a long shot, even though they've only produced 4 cars, and technically 5 if you count the original Roadster, which is no longer produced. Today I'm going to review their latest car, the Model Y, going over the good and the bad of my experience with the car for the last 9 months. On top of that, they've already changed a few things on the car, so I'll detail those changes, as well as what we could expect to come in the future, and why, if you're the patient type, it may be worth waiting just a bit to get one yourself. Let's get into it. As I mentioned, I've had my Model Y for 9 months, and I've driven over 14,000 miles in the car, so I've definitely had a wide range of experiences in it, and we'll cover all of that in this video. The Model Y is heavily based on the Model 3, which was Tesla's first affordable electric car, even though it still starts at $37,990 today. Tesla has plans for a cheaper car in the future, and I've talked about that in other videos, but for right now, these cars live in the premium vehicle price point. The Model Y starts at $49,990 for the AWD dual motor version. It seats 5 adults comfortably, gets 326 miles of range on a charge, has a 0-60 of 4.8 seconds, and a top speed of 135 mph. For $10,000 more, at $59,990, you can get the performance version of the Model Y, with a reduced range of 303 miles, an increased 0-60 of 3.5 seconds, and an increased top speed of 155 mph for all of those times you need to go 155 instead of 135. You also get performance brakes, a lowered suspension, a performance spoiler, performance pedals, and their 21-inch uber turbine wheels, which have a pretty awesome look. The base color is white, but they do sell 4 other colors for an upgrade, as well as 2 wheel options for the AWD, and an optional tow hitch. You have the option of a black or white interior, and supposedly there is a 7-seater option that will be available in 2021. We've heard rumors that it is coming soon, and even gotten tweets from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk saying it will start deliveries in December of 2020, but that has yet to be seen. I'll keep you posted on this though, so make sure you hit that subscribe button for updates. The Model Y comes standard with Tesla's Autopilot features, but you can optionally upgrade to their Full Self-Driving package for an extra $10,000. Now my Model Y is the AWD version, with red paint, the black induction wheels, the black 5-seat interior, and the Full Self-Driving upgrade, which we'll talk about more in a minute. Now I actually purchased the Full Self-Driving upgrade after the fact, since it's a software upgrade, so my total cost at delivery was $56,700 before tax and registration. If we add in the cost of Full Self-Driving, again, before tax, that brings my full Tesla experience to a cost of $63,700, and that's because I got Full Self-Driving when it was still $7,000. I did however get a couple EV rebates, one from the state of California for $2,000, and one from my power company for $1,000, so that technically brought my full experience down to just under $61,000. So, is it worth it? Well, the Model Y is one of the most advanced cars you can buy, even though when you look on the inside, it may not seem like it at first glance since there are so few buttons. There's the drive stock, the blinker stock, two versatile steering wheel scroll buttons, a horn, flashers, window controls, and then one big screen to control literally everything else. The screen controls the things you would expect, like music, navigation, various settings, and more, but it also controls things you wouldn't expect, like windshield wipers, climate control, and lights. On top of that, it's your speedometer and instrument cluster, since there is nothing directly in front of you when driving the car. At first glance, that freaks people out, and immediately turns them off of this car, since literally every other car besides the Model 3 has an instrument cluster, and there's no way that having it off to the right side is anything but distracting, right? Well, in practice, I've completely forgotten this. In fact, when I drive a normal car now, I glance slightly to the right, and then remember, I'm looking in the wrong spot, and the difference in the distance that my eyes look to the right versus down is negligible, or even non-existent. Over the last 9 months, I have driven 14,000 miles in my car, and I've charged at home and used Tesla superchargers, so my cost has been negligible. My home charging rate is $0.15 per kWh, so if I charge at home and use up my entire battery, which is somewhere around 75 kWh, that comes in around $11.25 for that 326 mile range. Now, my mileage has been less efficient than what Tesla quotes, but still, close to 300 miles for $11. Supercharger rates are more expensive, but on a typical road trip, like the one I did a couple months ago all the way from Los Angeles to Seattle, each charging stop came in around $12 to $15, so that whole journey of 1200 miles and 7 charging stops only cost around $100. In a gas car, getting a generous 30 miles per gallon at current gas prices in California, that would have been closer to $150, but Tesla also has a referral program where if you were going to buy a Model Y, and you use my link in the description below, you get 1,000 free supercharger miles. In return, I also get 1,000 free supercharger miles, so I actually had enough referrals to the point where this entire trip was free. While a $50 savings there might not seem like a lot, that's because supercharger prices, while definitely cheaper than gas prices, aren't as extreme of a difference as home charging is. If I had driven that whole 1200 miles with home charging exclusively, I would have been looking closer to $44 or $50, just to be conservative. So for your daily driving routine and daily driving needs, you'll save a lot on gas, bringing your overall cost of is also brought down a lot by the fact that you don't need most of the repairs you're used to getting in a gas car like oil changes. But back to that road trip. When you're road tripping for 1200 miles all day for two days, Autopilot is a godsend. Overall, it performs incredibly well and makes the drive much more relaxing. I know that I would be much more fatigued at the end of an entire day of driving if I was the one driving the entire time. Autopilot just takes the stress off and makes it much more enjoyable. Also, just as a quick aside, nobody likes driving in gridlocked stop-and-go LA traffic, and Autopilot is amazing in those situations. Overall, it handles incredibly well and takes some stress off of you, and if you decide to take over, you also have one-pedal driving. On that road trip I've been mentioning, while I did have to stop and charge more frequently and for longer than I would have had to stop for gas, one, it was cheaper as we saw, but two, if you plan ahead and build in your bathroom breaks, food stops, and stretch breaks to coincide with your charging, you hardly notice a difference. Most of the time it doesn't bother me at all, and even if charging is taking longer than I wish, I can watch something on the screen. I will say though that especially at the end of a day of road tripping, when you are charging and it's taking closer to 30 minutes or so, that can be a little frustrating. But it's a worthwhile trade-off since road trips are an anomaly, and typically I just charge at home overnight without even thinking about it, and it actually saves me time compared to filling up with gas. We'll get more into the features of this car in a second, but first I want to go over the bad parts of the car. It's pretty well known that Tesla struggles with quality control. While it has improved a lot over the years, it still exists, and I had quite a few issues that needed fixing right away when I got my Model Y. Some of them I noticed at delivery, and others popped up periodically through my first couple months of ownership. If you want to see my videos detailing those issues, you can click the link up here or check them out in the description below, but I'm not going to talk about them here because I actually haven't seen many of these same issues persisting for the latest Model Y's being delivered. My Model Y was in the first 3,000 delivered, and currently Tesla is delivering Model Y's with VINs close to 90,000. They are continuously improving, and from everything I've seen, the overall build quality has improved. Still though, the main things to look out for for quality control are panel gaps, paint imperfections, and scratches or scuffs in the interior, and we still see Model Y's delivered with these issues. Thankfully, these have all been fit and finish issues, and there have been no real safety issues with the Model Y besides the recent recall that was a small issue and only affected less than 500 Model Y's delivered. So while I wish the car didn't have those issues, problems, or annoyances, the good far outweighs the bad on this car, and Tesla is constantly improving. In fact, a number of my issues have been fixed via software updates or fixed on the production line for future vehicles. For instance, one of my big complaints about this car was cabin noise and wind noise when driving on the freeway, which Tesla has made steps to improve by already upgrading the Model Y to double paned windows instead of single. They don't do yearly car upgrades, so if you buy one today, and the VIN is somewhere over 75,000 or so, you'll get the updated double paned windows, and there should be less wind noise. Another complaint I had was that the Model Y did not include auto-dimming side mirrors, which was a feature they used to have on the Model 3. Well, they brought it back, so the new Model Y, as well as Model 3, includes auto-dimming side mirrors. Tesla also changed a few other things in the Model Y recently that is now in production. For Sentry Mode, the security system that records the cameras around the car in the event of a vandalism or break-in, you used to need to get your own USB drive and plug it into the front console and use the last remaining USB port for your footage. Well now, Tesla not only includes a 64GB flash drive with the Model Y, but also added an additional USB port in the glove box for this purpose. This allows your drive to be hidden away safer in the event of a break-in, and not taking up one of your two USB ports in the front console. Tesla also changed one more thing on the Model Y, making the steering wheel scroll wheels metal instead of rubber. I'm not entirely sure the reasoning for this, but I imagine the rubber scroll wheels would wear down over time, and the metal ones hold up better. So while I am a little sad that I don't have these new features, and they changed them less than a year after the car was released, and I got mine, I'm also happy to see them fix these things and improve the car for all future customers. Additionally, I've received a bunch of upgrades via software. Tesla is one of the only car companies that includes over-the-air software updates, and actually delivers them regularly. They work just like an update for your phone, and periodically bring great new features to your car, as well as fixing certain bugs. Since taking delivery of my Model Y 9 months ago, here is a quick overview of all the features I've gotten via software updates. Tesla improved the rear camera, adding the option to open it up and see the two side cameras while backing up, which greatly improves visibility. I use it every day. Number 2, Tesla fixed issues with Spotify integration, making the Tesla integration nearly as good as using the Spotify app on your computer. Number 3, they added an on-board viewer for sentry mode and dash cam clips. Before, if you had a drive connected to film a sentry mode event, it would let you know that it had happened, but you had no way to actually watch the clips. You had to take the drive out and plug it into a computer or whatever other device you use. So they went ahead and added an on-board dash cam viewer, so that when you get in your car and see that an event had happened, you can watch the footage immediately to know if there's something you need to take care of before you leave. Now, the app isn't perfect, and I think it needs improvement, but having it is a big improvement over it not being there at all. Tesla also added various adjustments and settings, such as pin to drive, pin for the glove box, autopilot speed adjustments, and lastly, fallout shelter for anyone who wants to play that game in their car while charging, or just while sitting in the car. Oh, and I also received an efficiency update, which added 10 miles of range to the car. So all of those software updates have been given to all Model Ys, even though mine is 9 months old at this point, and they've already updated certain things on the car itself. But there are still things that aren't great about this car, and things that tend to bug me. Before we go any further, I'd like to give a special thanks to today's sponsor, Skillshare. Skillshare offers thousands of great and inspiring classes for creative and curious people on many different topics. There's so much to explore on Skillshare that will enable you to create real projects, grow your skills, and receive the support of fellow creatives. With Skillshare, you join a huge community of creators participating in classes designed for real life, and everything that comes with it, helping you to stay inspired. They have thousands of classes focused on topics like photography, stock trading, investing, graphic design, productivity, and more, and one class I've been enjoying is Fundamentals of Photo Editing with Justin Bridges. Skillshare is curated for learning, so there are no ads, and they are constantly launching new premium classes so you can stay focused, but also follow wherever your creativity leads. It's also very affordable, coming in at less than $10 a month with an annual subscription. Now, the first 1,000 people to use the link in the description of this video will get a free trial of a Skillshare Premium Membership, so check it out and explore what new things you can learn today. Even though this car is covered in glass, the visibility out the rear is not great, with only a tiny sliver out the back window. Additionally, the side mirrors feel pretty shallow, and I wish they were wider. Number two, while it is the driver's fault for getting curb rash on their wheels, Tesla wheels stick out further than many other cars, and they are very easy to curb rash. I was super careful, and I still curb rashed my $2,000 induction wheels, so be careful if you're going to get one. Number three, while this car is very cool and has options to watch Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube on the built-in screen, all those apps run incredibly slowly, to the point where browsing just makes you want to pull out your phone. Number four, Autopilot is fantastic, and I love using it, but sometimes going around curves, it tends to ride the outside of the lane, and I don't really know why it does this. It knows it's far to the outside and getting uncomfortably close to the cars next to you, but it hangs out there anyway. Also, with Autopilot, you will experience phantom braking from time to time. Even though it is rare, when it does happen, it makes you mistrust the Autopilot system for a while, since it suddenly braked for no reason. I've had it brake for no reason quite a few times, and I have to immediately slam the accelerator to avoid getting rear-ended. Again, it's actually very rare, but it does exist enough to the point where I'm confident in saying you will experience it, at least once. But Tesla should be improving this soon via software update, and again, we'll talk about that in a second. Number five is an issue that happens in the Model 3 as well, and it's the smell of the air conditioning. For some reason, due to the design of the AC system, it's rather easy for it to get a buildup of mildew, and every once in a while, you get a really solid whiff of that smell right when the AC turns on, and you're kind of stuck with it unless you do a complicated cleaning process. Number six is that the Model Y, and the way it is built, tends to have various rattles pop up. I had a number of rattles fixed at the service center, but my rear seats still rattled, the brake pedal rattles, and various other things in the car rattle from time to time. You do notice it more than the average car because there is no engine noise, but it's still something that shouldn't be there on a car that starts at $50,000 before tax. And lastly, number seven is the suspension. The Model Y has a coil suspension, and it's pretty stiff and bumpy compared to other cars its size. The larger your wheels, the more you'll feel it, which is why I tend to recommend sticking with the standard included 19-inch wheels, even if you dislike the look, but no matter what wheels you have, the ride is still going to be stiffer than it should be. Again, for a $50,000 car, the ride should be smoother than what the Model Y has, which is what led me to upgrading my suspension with the Unplugged Performance Suspension, which I talked about in the video linked above or in the description below. When driving, this is your view. You have nothing directly in front of you, and just off to the right is the screen with your speed, gear selector, and autopilot visualizations showing you everything that the car recognizes is going on around you. Your view is incredibly simple, but driving the car is also simplified by the fact that the Model Y has one pedal driving. This is a very underrated feature, and it's something electric cars and some hybrids have because instead of standard braking, the car is taking the energy from that, and putting it back into the battery with regenerative braking. This is something you can customize in settings, but the standard option gets you the best battery efficiency, and makes the car the easiest to drive. When you let off the gas or accelerator pedal, it starts braking instead of coasting. It takes maybe a couple days to fully get used to, and then you realize your foot is much less fatigued because it's only one pedal, and in rare scenarios do you actually need to use the brake pedal itself. For me, carving through mountain roads has gotten way more fun, because slowing for a curb just means slightly letting off the accelerator, and I can get completely up and down a mountain without touching the brake once. The turning radius is a little shallow in the Model Y, making certain turns feel wider than I would prefer, and that is one common complaint with driving dynamics on the Model Y, but overall it drives incredibly well. It's fully electric, so you get instant torque and that very fast 0-60 that is 4.8 seconds in my car and 3.5 seconds in the performance version, and you have no true gears shifting along the way, so it feels like a roller coaster when you accelerate, just suddenly gaining speed, while remaining nearly silent. While this is very fun, it's also very useful while merging quickly or changing lanes on freeways. So driving the Model Y is super fun, and I love driving it, but it also drives itself incredibly well with Tesla's state-of-the-art autopilot technology that is constantly improving. The included basic autopilot feature uses all 8 cameras around the car to perform a number of advanced features. First are safety features that keep you safe, avoid accidents, and avoid lane departure. Second are the self-driving features I mentioned, with basic autopilot including traffic-aware, adaptive cruise control, and auto-steer. Cruise control by itself will automatically slow and speed up for other cars while you steer, and auto-steer will add to that cruise control to steer for you and keep you centered in a clearly marked lane. If you decide to change lanes, it does require you to disengage auto-steer, change lanes, and then re-engage, but it's far easier than it sounds. However, it's definitely better and more seamless to have auto-lane change, which is included in the full self-driving package. But one aspect I wasn't ready for with this car is how quickly Tesla updates their cars in production. They don't do yearly updates, so it's entirely possible that you can buy a Model Y today, and tomorrow it'll have a couple updated features. For the average person, you're fine to buy whenever, but for those picky and patient individuals who want to buy at the perfect time, here is why you might want to wait a little bit to pick up your Model Y. There are a number of updates on the horizon, with some people expecting them very soon. The first is the 7-seater Model Y, which has been promised from the beginning. These seats would take up some trunk space, and honestly, I think they will only fit the smallest children. Tesla is also supposed to be adding their own HEPA filter with bio-weapon defense mode, which vastly improves the included filters in the Model Y, making it safer to drive in areas dealing with fires or terrible air quality. Tesla just changed the center console on the Model 3. It got rid of this glossy piano black finish, and some people prefer the design. This is expected to make its way to the Model Y any day now. In Europe, Tesla is adding updated EMEA headlights, and it's very possible that Tesla will also add an air suspension to the Model Y to reduce the stiff coil suspension I mentioned earlier. Additionally, there are rumors that Tesla is already producing the Model 3 and Y with a heated steering wheel, since it looks a bit different, and software shows that it's possible that they could enable this feature with a software update. So the Model Y could already have this feature, just not enabled yet, or it could be coming to future Model Ys. The Model 3 recently got an upgrade to its range, which boosted the range over 30 miles. The battery pack is now 82 kWh, which results in a higher range, but it's due to higher density cells which take up the same amount of space. If this is already on the Model 3 for 2021, we can expect that they'll bring that to the Model Y as well, and it could bring the range closer to 350 miles or so. Tesla is building a new Model Y production line at their Texas factory, which should use their new unibody design to help make production simpler and better. So in theory, this could improve quality control, although it may not even be possible to decide whether your Model Y comes from their current Fremont, California factory, or their new Texas factory at the end of next year. And lastly, when Tesla originally announced the Model Y, they talked about a rear wheel drive version that Elon has talked about recently in tweets. It should come in a good amount cheaper than the all wheel drive version, and get an even higher range, and it should be a great option for customers. Now, Tesla is incredibly secretive about this stuff, to the point where customers discover an update on their recently delivered car, posted on Reddit, and that's the first anyone has heard of it. So unfortunately, there are no details on when these updates will come, but if they are very very important to you, and your patient, they might be worth the wait. Any day now, we're expecting Tesla's version 11, which should bring a lot of amazing features, but we're also waiting on Tesla to expand their full self-driving beta. Currently, Tesla sells their full self-driving package at $10,000. It includes Navigate on Autopilot, which navigates a route, chooses lanes, and drives for you completely on the freeway, as well as Auto Lane Change, Auto Park, Summon, and Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control. These current features enable your car to drive for you quite a bit, but for $10,000, it is massively overpriced, and that is because this package comes with the future updates, and the main update is Autosteer on city streets. While this may sound like a small feature, it is what Tesla values for that price. Now, if you buy it for $10,000, I don't think it's worth it, but including that future software update, it could. Tesla has been beta testing this feature with a limited number of Tesla owners, and what we're seeing is pretty insane. It's Tesla getting closer and closer to their goal of full self-driving, at level 5, where the car can drive for you 100% and do it safer than you can. Tesla's long term goal, and somewhat promise, is that the Model Y's currently being produced get software updates, and ultimately will drive themselves in nearly every situation, if you purchase this package. The entire system is based on software updates, and a neural network that is constantly learning from the entire fleet of Tesla's cars using Autopilot. So even though we're seeing videos of the beta, and we can see it fail in certain scenarios we think it should easily succeed in, it is constantly learning, and we can see massive improvements from beta testers trying certain intersections one week, having it fail, and then having it succeed the next week. We'll see what happens there, and what the beta is like when everyone gets it, and how it improves over time. But we do know that Tesla is planning to bring out a full self-driving subscription, and that Elon notifies customers each time they increase the price. So if you buy the car today, and don't get the full self-driving package, you'll have a warning and enough time to purchase the update, if you truly want it, before the price increases. The Model Y seats 5, 2 in the front, as you'd expect, and 3 in the back, and all 5 seats are heated, but not cooled. The front seats are fairly adjustable with lumbar adjustments and profile memory on the screen, so different drivers can recall their seat and steering wheel settings at the touch of a button, or the touch of a screen. The front dash is clear of anything, as I mentioned, the glovebox is hidden away and rather small, and the center console has a decent amount of space inside it. It comes with a USB-A and USB-C port in the front console, and includes a wireless charger for two smartphones. There are plenty of accessories I recommend to improve your experience in the car, and you can check them out, linked in the description below, but we won't get into that here. The rear window, back window, and glass roof all come factory tinted, but the front windows and windshield do not. The climate controls have a really cool interface that lets you customize them to exactly what you need on screen, including separate climate controls for each passenger in the front, and allowing you to aim the vents in specific ways with a cool visualization. Overall, I just tend to keep my vents where I like them and adjust the auto temperature at the bottom, but every once in a while I do wish the interface wasn't on the screen and that I could just reach over and adjust a vent. In the rear, you have vents along with two USB-C ports, seats that recline a few inches, and an incredible view above you through the all glass roof. This roof is one of my favorite parts about this car, and it really makes for beautiful drives through nature, since you can look up and get a view that you just can't have in most other cars. Sometimes the roof can be a bit hot if you live in extremely hot areas, but it does include a pretty heavy tint, so it's usually not an issue. In addition to the fact that you sit higher in the Model Y, the storage space is one of the main reasons people like the Model Y over the Model 3. You have small storage space in the glove box and under the front seats, as well as side cubbies in the rear, but the real storage is the large trunk space with a flat bed that makes loading incredibly easy. Additionally, underneath the flat bed are two under-storage compartments. The first is the furthest forward, and has a small amount of space that I like to use for things like charging cables and accessories I don't need to access as often. The second is a very large compartment that fits three full paper grocery bags no problem, and allows you a lot more versatility when loading things into the trunk. Lastly, since there isn't a standard engine in the car, there is a rather large front trunk, and I like to use this for anything, but especially a cooler, hot food, or anything that I want to stay sealed off from the cabin of the car. The Model Y comes with two key cards that you tap to the side pillar, but the main key is your smartphone, unless you want to buy their separate key fob. With the smartphone key, your car automatically detects your phone as you walk up to the car, and unlocks the doors for you. Within the app, you can also check your car's location, change the climate settings to preheat or cool your car, open the frunk or trunk, honk the horn, and much more. After I got through the initial experience of service appointments to fix issues in my car, which as we discussed seem to be a lot less common on current Model Y builds, I've had a fantastic time owning this car. My day-to-day experience with it is just driving to the store and coming home, but I love to take it on the occasional mountain drive, and it is incredibly fun to drive. I love getting periodic software updates with new features, and listening to music in the car, because the sound system is second to none. It's hard to explain or demonstrate in a video, but I'm a musician, I'm very picky, and I listen to a lot of music, and I promise you, this sound system is the best I've heard in a car. I also love the fact that it is fully electric. I can use the car while stationary, listen to music, and adjust the climate control, all while sitting in my garage, since there is nothing polluting the air around me. Also, the car is a gigantic battery, so it's not going to die on me like a standard 12-volt battery will. I love the benefits you get to performance and noise thanks to the fact that it's electric, but I also love the fact that I'm not directly polluting the environment with emissions, and I'm saving a lot of money charging instead of filling up with gas. I've had some issues with my Model Y, and still have a few things that bug me, but I love the car, and highly recommend it to anyone interested. Again, you can use my referral link for 1,000 free Supercharger miles if you plan to get a Model Y, and feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram, at RyanShawTech, if you have any questions. In the meantime, make sure to subscribe to this channel, make sure to like this video if you appreciated it, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you on the next one.