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I rented a Tesla in a recent trip to California because I wanted to see what it’d be like to depend on one for a week. It was a Model Y, and driving it complet

by hacym 4y ago

I rented a Tesla in a recent trip to California because I wanted to see what it’d be like to depend on one for a week. It was a Model Y, and driving it completely dissuaded me from ever wanting a Tesla. At least in the copy I was driving, everything felt cheap. Rattles everywhere, piece of plastic had to be snapped back into place, it was lacking features I’d expect in an $60k vehicle, etc. I realize that it’s a rental car and might be seeing more use or misuse than normal, but doesn’t bode well for long term ownership. Past that, though, Tesla made a horrendous design decision to hide everything in the menus of the screen. The most basic tasks that every car built in the last 80 years would have at your fingertips required me to hunt around. It’s a big distraction to hit two or three buttons on screen just to fiddle with an annoying digital slider to adjust the airflow. It might fit their definition of “futuristic” but it’s a case study in very bad UX. Driving the damn thing was obviously fun, but I don’t think it’s fair to not include Tesla as still in beta mode. Based on my anecdotal experience they still have a long way to go to perfecting the car part of their car. Time will tell how well all of the 3s and Ys rolling off the assembly line will actually hold up.

canadianfella 4y ago
dangus 4y ago
The model year of a Model Y makes a huge difference since it’s their most recent design. If it was ~2020 it’s not going to be built anywhere near as well as a current model. More recent examples added dual pane windows and have had a number of changes to the suspension. The earliest ones off the line did not ride well. It’s unfortunate that Tesla is willing to ship cars that don’t meet a decent build standard, but if you do wait a few years into their production you will get a better vehicle. Also keep in mind: with all that touch screen stuff, when you actually own the car all those settings are part of your driver profile. You don’t have to hunt down the whole menu of every setting you want to change because you’ve already changed them and saved them to your profile. The voice controls cover a large part of the car’s functionality as well. Finally, it’s important to realize that any electric car will feel $10-15k “cheaper” than an equivalent ICE car. That’s how much the giant battery costs extra over the cost of an engine and gas tank. This phenomenon isn’t unique to Tesla. The Bolt EUV doesn’t feel like a $40k vehicle, an equivalent gas version would probably go for $25k. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks like an Elantra inside. IMO, people see Tesla as a “luxury car” and start comparing it to e-trons and Taycans that cost tens of thousands of dollars more and get worse driving range. People used to extremely well-built luxury cars don’t realize that GM, Ford, and Hyundai are no strangers to squeaks, rattles, and assembly issues (e.g., the new Ford Bronco roof). New model releases from other brands also have early assembly issues, they just don’t get the press and attention that Tesla does due to its novelty.
- reducesuffering 4y ago
  > The Bolt EUV doesn’t feel like a $40k vehicle I guess that's why the 2023 MSRP is $27k?
  - dangus 4y ago
    Hm I was thinking it was closer to the Mach-E in positioning, but I guess I made a quick assumption. You can still modify my sentence to say that the Bolt EUV is a $30k car that feels like a $20k car. I’d say the Bolt EUV is most similar to the Chevy Trax in general size class (starts at $21k MSRP). The Bolt EUV averages $1-2k over MSRP on the street (TrueCar). The Trax sells for $500 under MSRP. So you’re looking at close to a $10k price premium to go electric in this case. Base trim MSRP is often a price anchor, anyway. OEMs don’t produce a lot of base trim levels, they want to sell options packages. “As shown” on the Bolt EUV marketing page is $35k. I don’t think a lot of Bolt EUV owners are going to be paying $27,200, I think they’re going to be paying $35-40k considering the street markups.

by hacym 4y ago

canadianfella 4y ago

dangus 4y ago

The model year of a Model Y makes a huge difference since it’s their most recent design. If it was ~2020 it’s not going to be built anywhere near as well as a current model. More recent examples added dual pane windows and have had a number of changes to the suspension. The earliest ones off the line did not ride well. It’s unfortunate that Tesla is willing to ship cars that don’t meet a decent build standard, but if you do wait a few years into their production you will get a better vehicle. Also keep in mind: with all that touch screen stuff, when you actually own the car all those settings are part of your driver profile. You don’t have to hunt down the whole menu of every setting you want to change because you’ve already changed them and saved them to your profile. The voice controls cover a large part of the car’s functionality as well. Finally, it’s important to realize that any electric car will feel $10-15k “cheaper” than an equivalent ICE car. That’s how much the giant battery costs extra over the cost of an engine and gas tank. This phenomenon isn’t unique to Tesla. The Bolt EUV doesn’t feel like a $40k vehicle, an equivalent gas version would probably go for $25k. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks like an Elantra inside. IMO, people see Tesla as a “luxury car” and start comparing it to e-trons and Taycans that cost tens of thousands of dollars more and get worse driving range. People used to extremely well-built luxury cars don’t realize that GM, Ford, and Hyundai are no strangers to squeaks, rattles, and assembly issues (e.g., the new Ford Bronco roof). New model releases from other brands also have early assembly issues, they just don’t get the press and attention that Tesla does due to its novelty.

reducesuffering 4y ago
> The Bolt EUV doesn’t feel like a $40k vehicle I guess that's why the 2023 MSRP is $27k?
- dangus 4y ago
  Hm I was thinking it was closer to the Mach-E in positioning, but I guess I made a quick assumption. You can still modify my sentence to say that the Bolt EUV is a $30k car that feels like a $20k car. I’d say the Bolt EUV is most similar to the Chevy Trax in general size class (starts at $21k MSRP). The Bolt EUV averages $1-2k over MSRP on the street (TrueCar). The Trax sells for $500 under MSRP. So you’re looking at close to a $10k price premium to go electric in this case. Base trim MSRP is often a price anchor, anyway. OEMs don’t produce a lot of base trim levels, they want to sell options packages. “As shown” on the Bolt EUV marketing page is $35k. I don’t think a lot of Bolt EUV owners are going to be paying $27,200, I think they’re going to be paying $35-40k considering the street markups.