I recently traded in my MYP after two years and roughly 24,000 miles and wanted to share my ownership thoughts and some of the highlights and lowlights of the car. This assessment is coming from a long-time car enthusiast and not an EV evangelist or EV hater.

I’ve done my best to leave out commentary on the community and the management of the company–while both of those factored into my personal decision to get rid of the car I wanted to focus on the merits of the car itself.

Tl;dr: EVs do performance, packaging, and livability really well. And they are going to be the future. But my next EV is going to be from somebody other than Tesla.

The good:

• Storage and interior space:

  • Between the massive under-trunk bin, the funk, and the flat rear passenger floor there is just an obscene amount of space for cargo. I don’t think anything else can touch the MY for the sheer amount of discrete storage spaces. Interior passenger space is also very open and roomy.

• Acceleration:

  • Far quicker than any car its size has a right to be and the #1 reason I bought the car in the first place. Power is accessible instantaneously and without drama–no launch control cheating, just stomp the long pedal and go.

  • It’s the first car I’ve owned where I didn’t get used to/bored with the acceleration over time–it’s quick enough off the line that it just hits at a visceral level. While acceleration falls off quickly over 60-70mph, there is more than enough for effortless passing at highway speeds.

• One-pedal driving:

  • Love it. In my daily commuting I would almost never touch the brake pedal. The OPD is super dialed-in and very easy to modulate. And it was downright fun to get the “perfect stop” where you rely only on regen and stop the car right on the mark.

• Running costs:

  • While it liked burning through expensive tires, in two years the only consumables I had to buy were tires, windshield washer fluid, and cabin filters. I’d expect the brakes will last for the life of the vehicle, and Tesla is very reasonable about not forcing “just because” annual maintenance (looking at you, VW).

  • Insurance can be quite expensive through traditional carriers.

• Phone app and key setup:

  • It’s taken some time to get there but the app finally has everything I’d reasonably want. Easily preconditioning the HVAC, checking lock status and vehicle location, setting charging parameters, etc. is terrific.

  • Phone-as-key generally worked smoothly with maybe a 1 in 50 error rate.

  • Combined with phone-as-key, the keycards are brilliant. Keep one in the wallet for valets or friends. And an extra keycard is something like $10 and DIY setup compared to $500+ for other OEM’s keyfobs.

The mixed:

• Charging network:

  • Obviously the biggest network in the world, and the seamlessness and integration with the car UI is very well done. But where I live, there are so many Teslas that chargers (particularly chargers at “pinch points” for long distance travel) are overwhelmed. As one example, I recently took a ~300 mile road trip on a weekend, and roughly every 15 minutes the Nav would re-route me because the stations on my set route were too busy. That’s annoying.

  • Even with preconditioning the battery I’ve never had a supercharger deliver the stated charging rate, and it gets worse the busier the station gets. Charging stops generally took at least twice as long as I’d expected.

  • Many stations now are filthy—urine stink and trash all over. Too many chargers are inop (though the Nav will now warn you of that in advance).

  • For road trips I’ve found myself relying heavily on destination charging and having to plan my routes around the charging infrastructure. And supercharging costs combined with range (below) made it surprisingly not very cost effective for long distance driving. Some of that is an EV problem generally but I didn’t like it.

• Music integration:

  • Having full-screen Spotify with good voice commands in theory is great. But I found the app is bugged about 1/4 of the time and sometimes requires reset of the car’s full systems to get working again. And the speakers are great but are hampered by the low bitrate for streaming.

• Performance:

  • Steering wheel is sporty—small diameter and thick. Steering ratio is quite quick and the weight is fairly heavy. Steering feel is like a video game controller: precise but zero feel.

  • Handling is good for the class thanks to low COG. The corner exit behavior feels very programmed–step on the throttle and the back end will step out a degree or two before the (undefeatable) stability control pulls power. Would benefit from Track Mode but Tesla failed on that despite saying years ago that they’d make it available.

  • The very stiff suspension means aggressive driving needs to be kept to only roads in the best condition or the car just gets knocked all over the place.

The bad:

• Basic safety features:

  • Lacks very basic safety features that you can find standard on entry level cars. No cross-traffic alert in reverse (and no side firing sensors or cameras to alert you). No blind spot indicator in mirrors, although the newest UI has a workable side camera view.

  • Side mirrors are small with odd adjustment limits; they’re the only mirrors I’ve been unable to adjust to eliminate blind spots. Mailslot-sized view out the rear window.

  • Auto wipers and auto brights simply don’t work.

• ACC and Autopilot:

  • Non-FSD Autopilot is worse now than when I bought the car. It loves rushing up behind a car but then speeds back up at a glacial pace. I had to intervene most of the time to keep from being cut off. I didn’t get phantom brake problems as severe as some people, but it was very jarring when it happened.

  • Autopilot steering was generally good but it gets spooked or confused too often for my comfort.

• User interface:

  • Better than some competitors but the insistence on dedicating 1/3 of the display to a useless visualization is holding it back. Too many features tucked into the menu system in places that don’t make sense. Apps are pretty buggy.

• Range:

  • Advertised range is too optimistic. Highway speeds and hilly terrain make for a huge hit. Carrying bikes on the hitch also seems to disrupt the aero and results in an unexpectedly big range hit.

• Software downgrades:

  • I had one of the last radar-equipped MYs, and was upset when it was downgraded to vision-only autopilot. Upset again to learn that Tesla will soon be disabling ultrasonic park distance sensors in favor of vision. Those would have been dealbreaker issues if I’d known before I purchased, but they’re just going to be pushed to everybody.

The ugly:

• Turning radius:

  • The MYP has an astonishingly bad turning circle. It is worse than a 4Runner. It is worse than an Escalade. This makes the car feel like a real pig in parking lots and other tight spaces, and downright impossible to make some u-turns.

• Build quality and service:

  • Beating a dead horse here, but it really is bad. Bad paint, bad assembly quality, bad materials quality. Worst I’ve seen in any modern car. My car spent about 3 weeks in the shop when brand new, fixing things that were broken or damaged from the factory.

  • There were a lot of little issues (failing soft-touch material on a driver door, misaligned door, fogging taillight, buggy charge port door) I wound up letting slide because I didn’t trust service to not make things worse. Service loaners are basically non-existent now and IIRC there are no longer even rideshare credits.

• Ride quality and NVH:

  • Harsh harsh harsh. Big rims and an extremely stiff suspension. It struggles in particular with impacts on only one side of the car—almost like driving a car with oversized aftermarket sway bars.

  • When I got the car I told myself it wasn’t worse than some performance sedans I’d owned and I could live with it. I was lying to myself. It’s been the top frustration and the main reason I got rid of the car. I literally couldn't make it through my office parking lot without spilling coffee in the cup holders because the suspension just can’t handle the small speed bumps.

  • Dead quiet at low speeds (duh) but very loud on the highway, especially on concrete. Not wind noise for the most part, but just poorly insulated from tire roar and other traffic noise.