I Bought a Tesla and Now What? First Impressions of a New Owner

I care deeply about the environment and try to include eco-friendly practices into every aspect of my life. Recently, I wrote an article titled Sustainable Sewing: Eco-Friendly Techniques For The Modern Sewist. In this post, I share various methods to make sewing projects more sustainable, like using organic fabrics, recycling old clothes, and minimizing waste.

But my commitment to sustainability doesn’t stop at sewing. I believe in making eco-conscious choices in all areas of my life. That’s why my family and I decided to invest in a Tesla Model Y, an electric vehicle that aligns perfectly with our values. By driving an EV, we contribute to a cleaner, greener planet, hopefully.

Combining my passion for sustainable sewing with our decision to drive a Tesla allows me to live more harmoniously with the environment. Whether I’m creating eco-friendly sewing projects or driving my Tesla, I am always trying to make a positive impact on the world around me.

We live in a semi-rural part of the county, about 25 miles from Naples, FL. It is a good place, not very expensive (compared to downtown Naples) with a relatively homogeneous middle class population. Your typical American neighborhood. Part of this typical neighborhood are, of course, cars. Because we live in a rural area, everyone needs a car for everything. Want to buy bread? Drive 8 miles. Want to get a pizza? 10 miles. Closest pub? 15 miles (that is being addressed, a new pub is under construction only 4 miles away!).

About half of the population speaks Spanish so it is an interesting neighborhood and people look out for each other. We also live in peace with the local fauna. We have bears, snakes, alligators, deer and squirrels, at night we can see the Milky Way since light pollution is, well, light. It is a nice place, close enough to the city to be able to go there frequently, but far enough so we don’t really hear the police sirens often. In fact, in Naples you seldom hear any police siren at all.

We are one of the few families who have only two cars, and until recently we only had one for a couple of months. But it is difficult with one car, if someone leaves for the day and takes the car, the person remaining home is somewhat stranded. So we needed a second car. We are actually quite modest, my closest neighbors have 4 cars each. So we decided to get another car.

I have spent some considerable time in Europe during the last couple of years and I was really surprised by the number of electric cars on the road. After I came back, I read that in 2022 in Norway almost 80% of all new cars were fully electric! (details here). Well, I was an European once, and I don’t care less for the environment than others. So I have decided I will do my part in saving the environment and buy an electric car.

I looked at many and then I tested some. The US government gave me a serious incentive ($7500) for buying a US made car, so after testing the Korean made Hyundai Ioniq 5, which I really liked, I decided to select a larger car, the Tesla model Y. I really wanted an SUV-like vehicle, I have two large dogs which enjoy car rides more than I do.

With the government incentives included, my Model Y was about 25% more expensive than the Ioniq 5 but it is also a bigger car and has a bigger advertised range. I leased the car for 3 years, I am sure in 3 years the technology will advance. It is my first electric vehicle, I wanted to see how I liked it first. Besides, we are not rich enough to afford the full price of a new car, leasing it is a little less expensive.

My car is as close to the standard model Y as possible. The only extra option I got was the white color which, to my surprise, was $1000 extra. The default gray is in my opinion entirely impractical and frankly I think it is unsafe. I want my car to be visible on the road from as far as possible, and the camouflage gray (called “Stealth Gray” by the factory) does not cut it. But I digress. 

By the way, I see Tesla no longer offers the standard range version that we got (advertised 260 miles, or about 420km) as of 2024. They only offer the more expensive “long range” model.

Why did I consider a shorter range car? Simple. We have another car for driving long distances and the Tesla was intended exclusively for driving in the city. Since we need to drive about 25 miles to/from the city, most of the trips are 50 – 75 miles, with a rare shopping trip of 150 miles or so. A 260 miles range (or even a 200 miles range, as the Ioniq advertised) would be sufficient for our usual needs.

What you will read here is my experience with the car after 5 months of ownership. Don’t get me wrong: I like the car. I like it very much, it is fun to drive. The acceleration is excellent, the braking is firm and stable, the car feels good both on city streets and on the freeway, both at city and highway speeds. It is not a heavy car, my previous one was much heavier and I can tell the difference especially in windy conditions. But it is still a very good car.

Things I Like About My Tesla

I have driven the car only for a couple of months, and never for a very long drive. In time I will probably find more and more “likes”, the ones below are the items that I think are worth mentioning even after this short time.

The Tesla App

I like a lot the Tesla app. I use it frequently to lock the car (or see if it is locked), to look at its status, its location, when someone else is driving it. I like that the app sends notifications 5 minutes or so before charging is finished, so I can return to the car if I went somewhere while charging. I like the “nearby chargers” function and I especially like the fact that it tells me how many chargers are free out of the total available.

A very, very useful notification is the one telling you that the car is unlocked. I forgot to lock the car after using the card key and I got this notification. I could then lock the car using the app.

I find very useful the “phone key” function, you can use the phone to lock/unlock the car, you do not need the key.

What I find annoying about the app is that it keeps notifying me that “I need to enable Bluetooth to connect to the car”. Thank you, I know, I just don’t want to, when I don’t need to, I need to save the battery life because I frequently end up at the end of the day with my phone at 7% charge.

By the way, I talked about “key”; Tesla no longer has a physical key, it has a card only.

Superior Acceleration

First, the acceleration. The car beats easily all the souped up trucks with high suspensions and huge exhaust pipes I see on the road. In fact Car and Driver: New Car Reviews, Buying Advice and News shows 0 to 60mph times for a Tesla model Y on par (a little better actually) than the latest Ford Mustang!

This is probably not very useful for a driver like me (I am really not a pedal-to-the-metal person) but it is certainly fun. It gives you a feeling of power and inspires trust in the car’s abilities. Who needs a Corvette?

Included Cameras

The car has some other useful features I really like. The dash camera, for example, is one of them. It also has a rear camera and side cameras. I did not have to use any of the recordings (and I pray I never will) but the videos are there, if needed. I don’t need to bother with a separate dash camera installation.

User Notification

Another useful feature is the sound the car makes when the light turns green. While stopped at a light, did you ever happen to look in the glove compartment, under the seat, between the seats, etc. for something you lost? Only to be interrupted by the angry honk from behind, because the light is green? Of course you did. Well, the Tesla sounds a pleasant gong when the light turns green, allowing you to avoid situations of road rage. 

Adaptive Cruise Control

Very useful also is the cruise control. Tesla has an “adaptive cruise control” which I largely like. I especially like that it can brake and stop behind the car in front, then start again without me touching the pedals. What do you want, I am lazy. The cruise control, unlike other cars I had, will not accelerate like crazy if you set the speed at a higher speed while driving at a much lower one.

The car will accelerate smoothly and calmly. The car lacks a “resume” function, and for a while I thought this is a minus, being used with the way others work. But I came later to realize it is not, and in fact I do not need a “resume” function. I can set the desired speed –  I usually have this set at the current speed limit of the road (yes, the Tesla knows the speed limits) – , then adjust it with the on-wheel trimmer to the traffic speed. The car will calmly accelerate, if possible, to the set speed.

Map / Navigation Integrated

I mentioned that the car knows – and seems to be correct most, if not all the time – the speed limits. The navigation / map function is very well connected to all the car functions that might require a map. I had other cars with the map function included (notably a sporty Mercedes) but I like better what Tesla did. The example of the speed limits used by the cruise control function is one case of smart usage.

July 2024: correction. After the last software update my Tesla no longer recognizes the maximum allowed speed changes properly. Prior to the last update, when I entered the freeway, I could set cruise control immediately to the max allowed speed. Now I can’t, because my Tesla does not “see” the change in speed from city (45mph) to freeway (70mph). Can someone tell Elon Musk “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix”?

Charging Station Finder

Another very useful function is the charging station finder. Tesla shows not only the location of the chargers, but also if they are open, how many chargers are free (out of the available inventory) and the cost of charging. I am not going to take the car for long drives, and I know well enough the city to have all this information already. But if you do take the car in an unknown area, this information is very nice.

Storage Space

I don’t know if the model Y is considered to be a crossover or an SUV, and frankly I don’t really care. Yes, the model Y has all the functions I would expect from a small SUV: back row chairs can be laid flat for storage space, and a hatchback with ample space for the trunk. It also looks quite spacious inside, I never had the impression of being squished, But it has something extra: the hood covers what Tesla calls a “frunk” which is in fact a very convenient storage space.

One Pedal Driving

Another thing that I really like in this car is the one pedal driving mode. In short, the car applies the brakes when you take your foot off acceleration. The amount of braking depends on the amount of force you still apply on the acceleration pedal, if you take your foot off completely the car brakes like you would normally do it. This option is configurable and it requires the use of the “regenerative braking”.

What is regenerative braking: the braking is not really the application of the conventional brakes (even if at a point I imagine the real brakes will be applied) but it is an engine brake which recuperates the energy from the car momentum to recharge the battery. The more you use this regenerative braking, the better – you in effect save “fuel” (charge). 

This mode of driving takes some getting used to, but in time I got to the point where I apply the brakes only in an emergency or when I want a swift braking. Normally, taking the foot gently off the acceleration is enough to control the speed of the car. 

Dog Mode

Did I mention I have two dogs? I believe I did 🙂! And sometimes, after a visit to the park, I take them shopping since the supermarket is on our way home. This saves me a trip, if I need to buy milk, bread or dog treats I would have otherwise to make a special trip. In a classic car I would need to leave the engine running and the AC on, it is not possible to keep anything in the car without AC in Florida, I don’t want to leave the engine running when I am not with the car, so I don’t take the dogs shopping when I can’t take them with me. 

Well, my Tesla though has a feature they call “dog mode” where the car is still locked but the AC is on. For short trips to the supermarket (5-10 minutes) I can now safely leave the dogs in the car, and I don‘t need to worry about the engine running.

And there are probably many more things I like about the car, I will discover them in time.

The Negatives: Tesla Has Still Work To Do

Of course there are a number of things I do not like. I can say that none of them is an issue that would prevent me from considering this model again, they are simply annoyances.

Tesla Dealership

I had to wait about two months to get the car, and then I had to drive about 50 miles to the closest dealership to get it. The location in Naples, FL (where I live, and where I signed the initial contract) is a simple showroom, it has no inventory and Tesla was not willing to drop the car off at this location. This is another issue, there is no factory service center either in this area. There are local BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Mercedes, Audi – but not Tesla. Weird.

But let me tell you, I did not appreciate a single bit the fact that Tesla could not be bothered to deliver the car in a place that was convenient to me. They charged a lot of fees (like any other dealer) so they could have added a $50 charge for a drop off. Or, for a car that costs 50k, swallow the delivery fee. They could not be bothered.

Wipers “auto” Mode

The day I took the car from the dealer was also the day I had a nasty surprise. It was a beautiful winter day in SW Florida, not a cloud in the sky, temperature somewhere in the mid 70s (about 24-25 Celsius). It was about 1pm, not a rush hour, and the freeway traffic was light. I took the car to the freeway, took it to 70mph speed limit and engaged cruise control. The wipers went on.

WTF? Wipers? I canceled cruise control, fumbled with the touch screen (yes, I know, not a good thing to do at 70mph with a new car on the freeway) to cancel the wipers only to see they were in “auto” mode. Ok. I took the “auto” mode off, again accelerated and engaged cruise control. Wipers came back on. 

Lucky me I was alone in the car, because the things I said to mr. Musk and Tesla at that point were not suitable for delicate ears. The car had 9 miles on the odometer!!! When I got home I read that cruise control engages auto wipers, which would be fine if the blasted auto mode would work! But it doesn’t.

However, in time the issue seems to have become better, or perhaps one of the later software updates fixed the issue somehow, because I did not see the problem occurring lately. The wipers still come on at random times when outside is sunny and nice.

By the way, in the morning when there is condensation on the windshield,the wipers do not come on. Neither when the morning fog condenses on the windshield, which is a normal occurrence at dawn in SW Florida. You leave home at 6am in May/June , you need to drive with wipers on or intermittent for the first 10 minutes. The auto function would be useful if it worked properly; unfortunately, it doesn’t. Which is surprising, 20 years ago I had a Buick LeSabre which had a perfect “auto” mode for the wipers.

No “Wipers On” switch

I live in SW Florida, and in the summer it rains here. Every day. Sometimes a number of times per day. Sometimes the rain starts suddenly. If you are in the car, what do you do? Start the wipers, of course.

Well, not in the Tesla model Y. Why? Because there is no way to do it without accessing the touchscreen. And when you drive, and it starts to rain, believe me: accessing the touchscreen is the absolute last thing you have time for. There is a button that allows to start the windshield washing, and that starts the wipers for a couple of seconds. The same button can start the wipers for a single swipe. So I use the washing function and single action function until I have the time to look at the screen.

This is a major issue and a safety issue.

What does Tesla say in the manual:

The button at the end of turn signal stalk has two levels.

• Press partially to wipe the windshield. If the wiper is already operating at a wiper setting and is not set to Auto, pressing the button cycles through speeds. Wiper speeds cycle as follows: I > II > III > IIII > III > II > I.
• Press fully to spray washer fluid onto the windshield. After releasing the button, the wipers perform two additional wipes then, depending on vehicle and environmental conditions, a third wipe a few seconds later. You can also press and hold the wiper button for a continuous spray of washer fluid—the wipers perform the wipes after you release.

The bold in the above is my highlight. The problem is that when the wipers are off, it stands to reason that the wipers are not operating at a wiper setting so the function is NOT available! Probably the same person who designed the transparent roof designed this function too. Another Darwin award needed here.

Cruise Control

I already mentioned what I like about it. What I don’t like about the cruise control are two things:

• It brakes sometimes without any reason whatsoever. There may be a car making left somewhere 300 yards in front, but oftentimes there is nothing in front. It just brakes. I learned to counter such actions by pressing immediately the acceleration, that will convince the car to continue. I can duplicate this: there is a stretch of road with a 35mph limit where I always engage cruise control because there is often police in waiting, and I am tempted otherwise to go faster (straight and always free). There is a place where the car slows down to 20mph, with nothing on display, nothing in front and speed limit being still 35. The video below shows the issue.

The car was set to a 35mph speed, the speed limit on that stretch of the road and it was almost there. The road is level, straight and there are seldom any cars from either direction when I travel it, it is a side road going to a park.

Sorry for the poor quality, the video was taken by my wife (I was driving) and she could not focus properly on both the road (far) and the screen (close). But I think it illustrates the issue.

This is not the only place where the car does this, but here it does it without fail. In the beginning I thought there might be a cable overhead or under the road, something that the car can “feel” that is hidden to me. But coming back the car does not feel anything and keeps the speed nicely. Weird.

• Sometimes it hesitates a fraction of a second. I would have imagined that a computer controlled car would have a faster reaction time than a human controlled one. Well, that is not the case. I observed before that the car sometimes brakes when on cruise control; sometimes that is necessary. However the car brakes also with a slight delay when some obstacle suddenly comes in front of it.

The slight delay in braking doesn’t really bother me, but it does puzzle me. My other car ( a Hyundai SUV) also has this option and the reaction is instantaneous. Not so with the Tesla.

Sun Roof

My car (well, my bank’s car 🙂) has a transparent roof. Smart, right? NOT. Whoever invented this deserves a Darwin award. Useful feature when you drive, to be able to look straight up at the moon. Right? 

What this is good for is to make the car act like a greenhouse in the Florida sun. And of course to promote sales of roof sunshades like this one: Tesla Model Y Sunroof Sunshade (this is an affiliate link, if you purchase something from Amazon after clicking on this link I will receive a small commission). Because of course the first thing I did was order one! It is impossible to drive with the sun coming down on your head, and it is equally impossible to leave the car in the parking lot without one.

Note: if you wonder what a Darwin award is, here is the explanation: Darwin Awards – Wikipedia.

Self Driving Option

For one full month Tesla gave me the full self driving option. This is normally a paid function, it was enabled only for one month. I tried it a couple of times. My opinion: drivers, you have absolutely nothing to fear about your jobs. Self driving in my Tesla was a joke. In fact, what Tesla said was not “self driving” but “assisted self driving”, where the driver needs to override the car decisions if necessary. I found it annoying, to just sit there and see the car hesitating to do that which even a novice driver would have no problem doing.

Where I could see self driving useful would be on a freeway where the car has to drive hundreds of miles without making turns or solving complex intersections. But I don’t think self-driving cars, at least the version I tested, are ready for prime time yet. My advice is, if you have a Tesla, save your money and do not enable this function.

Key card behavior different than phone key behavior

When you use the phone as a key and you leave the car vicinity (about 20 yards, give or take) the car locks all doors automatically. It closes all windows too, if any is left open. I find this feature very useful, you don’t need to bother to lock the car, just open the door and leave. But I would like for the function to be configurable because when the car is in my driveway (my yard is fully fenced, and I have a gate that is closed) I would like to be able to leave the windows open for the air to circulate through and reduce the temperature inside. Or perhaps I did not yet find the function in the many menus Tesla has.

But what I do not like at all is that the behavior of the phone key is different than the card key. If you somehow use the card to open the door, the car does not autolock, and I had the

Mirror Detachment

Imagine my surprise when, after a walk in the park with the dogs, I came to the car only to find the driver’s side mirror (on the visor) hanging in parts. Apparently that panel is held together by some adhesive band which failed. It is still failing, I have to be careful not to let that side down or it will fall. The car was a week old at this point.

I was planning to go to the local dealership to – at least – make a note of this, unfortunately that is not possible. Did I tell you there is no local dealership, therefore no local service? I will have to drive 100 miles to report this? I will not. But somehow I will need to resolve this, even if I place a request online. I have read other reviews they say the interior on the Tesla vehicles is cheap and low quality. After this, I would have to agree.

Lane assist

The car has a feature which in other cars is called “lane assist” but Tesla calls it “Autopilot”. Basically, if the car drifts outside the lane, the car will make a sound and / or will take limited corrective action, assuming you do not override it with the steering wheel. 

I found out this function does not always work on a two lane street, the car happily allows the drift to the opposing lane of traffic. The function does work correctly for the right side of the lane, but not the left. I have absolutely no explanation here, the car does see the lane separation (it shows the line on the monitor) but does not always take action, nor does it sound the chime notification. I could not make this work consistently, nor was I able to find out in what circumstances it does not work. But in some instances it does not work.

A function that works some of the time is in my opinion worse than useless because in case someone uses it,in time the someone will rely on it, and if it does not work it can be dangerous.

Also on a previous version of the software (the car got a number of updates in the 5 months I had it) the function was threatening me that it will disable itself if it is activated 5 times. Because after I noticed that it only works sometimes I tried to test it and see in what conditions it works and when it doesn’t, so I have allowed the car to drift outside of the lane on purpose. I did not wait to see what happens after the 5th time the lane assist came on, I don’t want a crippled car in my hands. I am not sure if this is still the case for the current version because I did not see the warning in a long time.

User Interface

I had a big surprise. Sometimes in early June the car installed an update; it does that from time to time. But after the update the bar that shows the energy consumed from the battery or stored back (regenerative braking) is no longer there! Obviously this is visible only when the car is driving, and I could not really search for it while driving.

So while my wife was driving the car I looked closely. The bar did not disappear; it is still there. Only it has been moved from the upper side of the display to the left side, it is perhaps one pixel this and pretty much invisible to the driver, hidden by the display edge.

I think the same guy who designed the transparent roof has also designed this change. Can you spot the bar on the left side of the screen? Believe me, from the driver’s perspective, the line is almost invisible.

Range and Energy Consumption

My Tesla is the Standard Range version, the manufacturer gives an estimated range of 260 miles for a full charge. The range depends of course on the style of driving, the accessories used, the ambient temperature and probably on the position of the Moon. Let’s see if we can confirm this (or not).

Did you know that the Tesla consumes substantial energy when parked? I did not know either. I had the impression it is only residual energy for the car computer; it is not so.

In SW Florida it is sunny (no surprise here) and starting sometimes late April we started to have temperatures above 86 Fahrenheit during the day (that is 30 Celsius). Again, nothing unusual about this. But the car, if left in the sun, will start cooling itself when the inside temperature reaches 100 Fahrenheit (~38 Celsius). Seems unimportant? Well, it’s not. Unimportant, that is. I left the car in the sun for 5 hours one day in May while I was at the gym and the AC system consumed a whopping 3% of the battery charge! The car was parked and shut down during this time, of course. I expect this to increase as the summer progresses.

First, the recommended charge limit for the car is 80% to extend the battery life. Because my car is a lease, I intend to stick to the recommendations, I do not want to be told at the end of the lease that I need to pay for a new battery because I did not follow the book. So we have to shave 20% from the estimate to begin with. Ok, 260 minus 20% is 208 miles, still a reasonable limit for daily driving in the city.

I charged the car (to 80% capacity) and I drove about 20 miles to home where I left the car under a canopy (in the shade) for about 5 hours. That was happening at about 1:30pm. Of course I used AC while driving, it is hot in the middle of the day. The temperature in the shade in Florida on that day was about 90 Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), normal for Florida. At 7pm the sun was still up but the temperature dropped to 89 or so and the car was already fully in shade. About 7pm I took the below images.

The total energy consumed was 19.3% of the battery capacity. For 20 miles. 1.5% while parked, 16.8% while driving. Hm. If I get 20 miles for almost 20% of the charge, does that mean that if I charge the car to 80% (as recommended) and I drive in this manner my range is in reality about 80 miles (4×20)? It seems so. And indeed I have to charge the car every third trip I take to the city, one of my trips is 45-50 miles.

You will notice that the actual driving used 13.1% of the charge (uphill is still driving) while the rest of the functions used 6.2%. In other words, 30% of the battery charge consumed is used on other functions.

Needless to say, this got me worried. The car uses a lot of energy even if not driven, and I understood better now why the manufacturer says “plug in the car at home always”.

Another computation, a little more encouraging: the actual driving. I drove 3500 miles (about) for a total of 1000kWh charged. That gives me about 3.5 miles per kWh which is about on par with what other car sites mention and would bring the car range to about where the manufacturer says it should be.

But I did this during the Florida winter, late December – May, when the temperature outside was optimal, one did not need AC nor heating, and there was no climate needed to keep the car interior from overheating. Indeed most of the time I cracked the window a little and that was enough. During the summer this is obviously not going to be true.

I did not keep an exact tally of miles driven every month, but I drove pretty much the same every month. My Tesla app tells me the history of charging, for the year, and here it is (in December I only had the car for 3 days):

Do you notice something special about May? As soon as the temperatures started to go up, it seemed I had to charge twice as much as before! Indeed, out of the 1000 kWh charged, ⅓ were in the first 25 days in May! Again, my driving habits did not change, I drive about the same as before. And as I write this, it is only May 25, still 6 days left …

My advice: do not count on the “estimated range” if you are living in a sunny climate like I do. It is not realistic.

Second advice: plug the car in at home. It will at least keep the charge you have, even if you use a 110V outlet.

So: what is the “estimated range” in Florida during the summer? From my experience, about 40% less than what the manufacturer says it is. Therefore if I charge the car to 80% as recommended I can probably count on a range of 120 miles during the summer.

Cost of Charging

We come now to the very important issue of charging and the cost of this operation. This is going to be quite long so it will be described in a separate post. For now, suffice to say that I was a little disappointed by the numbers! I promise to write in detail about it in a future article.

And if you want a lighter reading, something that will put a smile on your face and – hopefully – will help you forget for a moment the difficulties of the day, check this out: When You Need A Break … Jokes!