I have driven both the Model 3 and the Model Y Teslas. While the Model 3 is commonly available for short-term lease to qualified rideshare drivers through Avis or Hertz, the Model Y is a much more suitable vehicle for rideshare. It is sufficiently superior to the Model 3 that I thought it would be worth it to buy—even at the $70,000 price point that it was in December of 2022 (before the price dropped into the $50ks). And while the Model Y served my purpose very well for a year, I had sufficient difficulties that I will not deal with the Tesla companies again.
Teslas are smooth and fun to drive. They are quiet and the power is truly exhilarating (though as a rideshare driver, one soon learns not to indulge in using the power unnecessarily because foolish use of the acceleration does drain the battery faster than necessary). The models with extended range give a driving range of more than 300 miles, which is adequate for a rideshare driver because it means that it usually needs only one charge per day. The charge can be completed at your home while you sleep or it can be performed (relatively) quickly at one of the excellent Supercharge stations.
While on the topic of the Tesla Supercharge stations, I must give Elon Musk credit for identifying and addressing the biggest resistance to buying into electric vehicles: Range Anxiety. First, he decided upon a battery with adequate range: 300+ miles gives a good full day of driving on one charge. Next, he developed and financed the construction of a superb fast-charge network. The later chargers have been improving in charge time over the earlier ones, so some stations charge faster than others. The fastest ones can put on 100 miles in 15 minutes when your battery is low. But common to all stations is the plethora of charge units, so there is rarely a time why a driver must wait for an available charge unit. Almost every charge station has a minimum of half a dozen charge units, and most have one, two, three, or even four dozen charge units at a single location, and some locations provide exclusive amenities like limited access rest rooms. Because the charge point on Tesla cars is standardized, the charge units can be easily arranged for handy access without wasting real estate or employing over-long, bulky cables.
On top of all this, the coup-de-grace of the Supercharge station network design is the software integration with the vehicles, which is superb. The GPS map in each vehicle can quickly display nearby charge stations. Complete information about the units at each station is easily available. You can immediately know the relative speed of the charge units, how many units are at the location, and how many are in use. It will even tell you which units, if any, are out of service (a rare, but occasional occurrence). If you are on a long trip guided through the navigation system, the system will map out your entire route taking precise consideration of the battery’s charge limitations. It will select your charge stops and indicate exactly how long you must charge to make it to the next charge station. So you know just how long you have to drink coffee at a nearby eatery or how long to walk the dog.
On the down side, the over-dependence on software implementation means that even the most basic activities, like adjusting the side mirrors or the inside temperature, must be performed by a series of idiotic punches on the touch-screen. This is foolish, and most other manufacturers of EV cars have by now achieved a much better balance of software and physical control implementations.
Comparing Model 3 and Model Y:
Tesla Model | Model 3 | Model Y |
Body | Sedan | SUV hatchback |
Passenger Entry | Cramped Entry in back | Easy Access through all doors |
Luggage | Trunk (lift luggage over and in) | Level-load hatchback space |
Hidden Storage | Frunk, Concealed in Trunk | Larger spaces than Model 3 |
Storage space in both models is good, but all the Model Y spaces are a little bigger. In addition to the obvious space in the trunk (3) or back (Y), where passengers can place their travel luggage, the hidden space in both vehicles is precious for a rideshare driver. The space under the hood—as Elon calls it: the frunk—and under the floor panel in the rear are wonderful places where the driver can store personal items and goody supplies completely out of sight of the passengers. While many other electric vehicles have emulated these features, many do not include a frunk and I have not found a single one that has hidden spaces as roomy as the Teslas.
While both the Model 3 and Model Y comfortably carry 4 passengers with ample leg-room in both the back seat and front passenger seat, the Model 3 is much harder to enter and exit the back seat. The Model Y provides sufficient room for even big men to swing their legs through every doorway.
The fixed glass roof gives passengers the delightful feeling of flying through space because they can gaze at the moon and stars or at the sky-scrapers as the car glides along the roadways.
The famous one-pedal operation astonishes passengers when they learn that the driver did not once apply the brakes through the entire trip. When turned on, the regenerative braking feature begins, from the instant the foot is released from the accelerator, to recharge the battery from the forward motion of the car. For the unaccustomed driver, this can result in a go/slow, go/slow alternating experience of acceleration and deceleration that quickly produces car-sickness in the passengers. With a little attention, a very smooth ride can be achieved instinctively. One might think that this would very soon tire out the right foot, but I never experienced that.
Actually, sometimes driving a Tesla feels more like placing the vehicle on the road precisely where you want it—as if the car were stationary in the lane that itself moves like a belt at its own speed—than like driving a gas-car along and from lane to lane on a strip of pavement. When changing from a slower-moving lane to a faster-moving lane in a gas-powered car, the driver must ensure that there is enough room in the other lane to quickly over-accelerate to get into the new lane and then, as quickly as possible, to slow to match the speed of the other cars in the lane. In a Tesla, the speed can be precisely and instantaneously adjusted to match, so if there is enough space for the car in the next lane, then you can place it there. It is rather like standing on a moving belt and then stepping from a slower-moving belt to a faster-moving belt. It can feel the same way when moving from a faster to a slower lane.
Never Again
I drove the Tesla Model Y—mostly happily (except for the stupid touch-screen controls)—for a year. My wife and I between us put on 87,000 miles in those 12 months. So, with all these rave descriptions, why won’t I ever again buy a Tesla?
For starters, I haven’t yet mentioned the flat tires.
All that wonderful concealed space is available because there is no spare tire. But—no matter—Tesla will provide excellent roadside service if you get a flat tire on the highway. They will fairly promptly (in SoCal) send a flat-bed truck to your location. They will load up your car for free and take you and it to the nearest Tesla service station. There, they say that, if they can repair the tire, it will only cost you $150, but if they can’t (in my experience, they never can repair it), they will replace if for only $450.
WHAT!!?? $150 for repair!? $450 to replace!?
They also say that tires are not a Tesla product and are not warranted by Tesla. You are free (they say) to buy your tires somewhere else without affecting any of the Tesla warranties. (However, they will use the fact that you bought your tires somewhere else (and any other excuse they concoct) to excuse their refusal to fix a broken car.) I was beginning to feel comfortable buying tires at America’s Tire. Each tire cost less than $400 even with the $40 warranty that would have guaranteed repair or replacement from road damage.
Beginning? Yes, it took me a while to get around to them. The first two flat tires came within three weeks of the purchase. On New Year’s eve, both driver-side tires went flat. On that drizzly big-dollar night, I was able to stop and inflate them several times to keep them safe for working, but it was very unpleasant and took off a lot of time I could have been making money. To their credit, Tesla Service did replace those tires gratis, but the struggle to keep healthy tires didn’t end. In the first five months, I had 8 flat tires.
My real beef with the company was earned after a hit-and-run driver T-boned my wife as she proceeded cautiously straight through an intersection under a steady green light (all witnesses agreed). The culprit paused for a moment and then took off. Bless them, two different parties of very neighborly witnesses chased down the perpetrator and reported (with photos) the offending vehicle. Alas, the famous Tesla videos that are so highly hyped provided zero photographic evidence—the latest stored video was from the morning when the car failed to recognize my cell phone in my back pocket as I tried to open the driver-side door. It recorded me trying the handle and then turning a 360 to swipe the phone past the car before opening the door. Unfortunately, there was no effort to track down the criminal who left the scene of the accident and no way to definitively identify the driver for prosecution.
Long story short: the Tesla body shop deprived us of the use of the vehicle for a full four months, not counting a week where they gave the unsafe car back to me. Through a conspiracy of negligence or incompetence, the Tesla body shop and Tesla Insurance failed even in that long time to return the car to a safe driving condition.
I believe that Elon Musk hates people, so he thinks that customers can be given adequate service without using human beings. It is impossible to get any real, live people on the telephone to discuss anything (unless you are buying a new car)—either at Tesla Insurance, Tesla Finance, or at the Tesla body shop. Computerized telephone decision trees never get me to help that is any use whatsoever (same is true, by the way, with my ridershare company). It was a full month before I could speak to an insurance adjuster to discuss the situation, and that was long after the body shop had insisted that I make a decision whether or not to proceed.
The Tesla body shop told me that total repairs would cost only $14,000. Without being able to discuss with the insurance adjuster, the body shop assured me that the car was valued at $50,000, so the damage didn’t come anywhere near being considered a total loss. I had no one with whom I could dispute either point, so I will do it here.
First, the damage: if it costs $1,000 to repair a scratch on the car, how can it be only 14 times that to repair the whole side being smashed in!!?? Then, their estimate did not include repairs to the front suspension, which I reported was damaged in some unknown way. Eventually, I did get a second opinion, and I was shown that the front wheels were vibrating independently of each other (repairs would cost an additional $6,000—or $20,000 total). The Tesla body shop had dismissed my complaint about the front wheels as being caused, first: by the fact that they had replaced the right front tire without replacing the left front—the treads were not equal (first point here: I told them about the problem BEFORE they replaced that tire, so BULLS**T; second point here: so if it is not safe to drive with unmatched treads, why did they return to me the car after replacing only one front tire??). When I sent it back to fix other stuff that they had failed to do AND to fix the front wheel problem (after I spent money to match the new tire and rotated the new one to the back to match left-right treads in front and back), they then claimed that the steering problem was due to “an un-balanced, third-party tire” (so much for “feel free to buy your tires from anywhere), which again was BULLS**T because, again, I had reported the problem before any of that was done.
Next, about the valuation. I had paid about $70k for the Model Y Tesla in December 2022. The price dropped to a far more affordable $50 something thousand in January 2023. At the time that the car was at the Tesla body shop, I was being offered the opportunity to buy the exact same 2023 Model Y with a trailer tow package for $47,000, and this car had 87,000 miles on it. There is NO WAY it was worth $50,000. If it had a value of $47k, then the actual repairs of $20,000 would have been 42.5% of the value. But with 87,000 miles, I would be lucky to sell it for $25,000, which would put the damage at 80% of car value—a total loss.
On top of all this, I was in communication with Tesla Finance to discuss the fact that its subsidiaries were depriving me of the use of the car for an unreasonably long period of time, and that I was unable and unwilling to make payments under these conditions. I appealed to Tesla Finance to 1) assist in putting pressure on its sister companies to facilitate communication to come to a satisfactory resolution, and 2) to re-negotiate to make allowance for the months for which I did not have access to the car. It was just as impossible to communicate with a human being at Tesla Finance as at the other companies, so they repossessed the car a week after I submitted the additional claims to Tesla Insurance (without hearing anything back). I heard that it took the guy one and a half hours to shimmy the car out of its parking place in the middle of the night.
Haha. I could have made it available to him if he had made an appointment. Tesla Finance took back a car that STILL WAS NOT SAFE TO DRIVE.