Tesla Model Y

Stick or twist? 

For anyone who has something better to do, you can skip this post. It’s basically just inane ramblings from this morning’s hooning around the M50.

I had to collect some stuff from Screwfix for work this morning and decided that while I was in the area I might as well take another test drive. Sure what the hell, I thought, let’s take two test drives. We’ve got both a RWD and LR ordered. But had only test driven the RWD before. I was on my own this morning so I knew I’d be able to drive in a style that would normally elicit roller-coaster screaming from the other cabin occupants.

I had the obligatory chat with the Tesla guys before taking the car. They said there will definitely be a second ship in Q2 due to the volume of orders and that unlike last year there are sufficient Irish orders to justify a Q2 delivery this year. They also said that there are no LRs on the first ship (HOEGH CHIBA) that qualify for the grant. Any LRs on that ship are specced above the threshold. That is our stick or twist decision. We have a hidden VIN for the RWD and not surprisingly nothing for the LR. Both RWD and LR are within our budget for the new car, so the cost differential doesn’t really come into it. It’s which one suits our needs best.

I was given the LR for the first test. I would have preferred it 2nd, but it was available early, so off I went. I had some apps installed to record acceleration times, started them off and off I went. Getting out of Sandyford was nervy, the Tesla compound is very tight and lots of people like myself I felt who had never driven a Tesla or were used to smaller cars than the MY. Got to the lights at the Beacon, blinking orange, glance right, all good, straighten it up, floor it. Oh dear God. In the next 6 seconds I realized we were definitely getting an LR. I pictured myself as Roger Moore undergoing the G forces in Moonraker. I swear I felt my cheeks being pushed back along my jaws. My immediate thought was wtf is Ludicrous Mode in the S like? So for the next 20 minutes I drove it as hard as I could around the Carrickmines-Foxrock-Leopardstown roundabouts. Came on the power as early as I felt comfortable to do so, before straightening up and felt like I was getting everything available. I’d read some people saying they felt that full power wasn’t available until fully straight. Asked myself if I’d ever drive the car like this with the family. That would be no. Asked myself if I’d ever drive like this on a normal trip by myself. Very unlikely. Took it into Carrickmines and did a few starts from standing beside the Dell car park. 120 in very little time. Drove back to Sandyford feeling ever so slightly nauseous. Reasoned that there’s a much higher chance of being divorced if we ever got this car. Wondered just how necessary all that lovely, beautiful acceleration was in the real world. Approaching the Sandyford exit off the M50 there were a few cars and van exiting in front of me, doing around 100. So I nipped around them and exited further up the exit lane. I’ve never nipped anything in the 100-160 region before. 50-80 yes. But above 100? No. In the LR, all the other M50 traffic seemed to slow down and gaps got bigger and appeared everywhere. Necessary? No. Fun? yes. Fun for passengers? No.

Got back to Sandyford, parked up and headed out in the RWD. Within 2 minutes knew I was wrong about the LR. Oh, this was so much smoother to drive than the LR. I’d found the LR difficult to drive smoothly. Admittedly that was 100% my fault on the way up, but I’d found the regen very sharp and hard coming back down. I’d assumed at the time it was just me and that I’d be able to improve with experience. But there were no such issues in the RWD. From the off, it was just like driving a faster version of our own car. This was a family car.  But with enough performance to be enjoyable, if not quite a hoot. I found myself coming on the power earlier, knowing I wouldn’t need to brace my head in advance. Coming off the power was gentler and so much smoother. Couldn’t understand why there should be such a difference. Wondered if there was something different in the car setting that caused it, not being familiar with Teslas. Tried hooning it around the same roundabouts as before, but I felt the car’s heart wasn’t in it and tbh neither was mine. Stayed respectfully behind a Range Rover Sport (there’s an oxymoron if ever there was one) who was plodding along in the outer lane across the junction bridge. ‘Nipped’ past him on the roundabout. But it wasn’t really a nipping, more of a powerful glide, before smoothly asymtoting the next roundabout. This was the right car for us. Even the Tesla blue no longer seemed so dead when I got back to Sandyford, it had a bit of life to it.

Mused with the Tesla guy when I got back about why the RWD would have been that much smoother than the LR. He suggested that since the regen is not configurable or affected by any of the settings, it could have been due to the relative SOC of each car. I hadn’t spent any time playing with the Tesla console while I was there, I’d only wanted to drive. But I do remember while driving seeing the ranges at various stages on the 2 cars. The LR was at 252 whereas the RWD was at 411. So I think the Tesla guy called it correctly. Interestingly, whereas the test RWD was limited to 140 a month ago neither car today was limited. When entering M50 the LR got to 185 before I noticed and the RWD was north of 160 at another stage.

Never has our german tractor felt so, well ‘tractory’, as it did coming home. I’ve never noticed the noise before and always considered it a very quiet 2.0 TDi. Was thinking of picking up a set of ear protectors in Screwfix it was so bad. On the drive back I thought a good bit about the RWD smoothness compared to the LR. Realised that on lower SOC the RWD might be less smooth. And on higher SOC, the LR would also be smooth on the way back down. As smooth as the RWD even. And on the way up, one could always set Chill mode to smooth things out there. Set it occasionally like. Yes, the LR could be as smooth a car as the RWD. And the MY also looks good in black. Maybe even better than blue 😊

Regarding the second owner issue ...

1. Can you not just name the new owner prior to delivery so it goes straight into their name?
2. When I got a Model 3 in September the VRC wasn't issued until I taxed it some time later. At that point I had the option to enter new owner details and i think if these had been different to the original the VRC might have been issued with the newer one?

As I said in my post, not yet but it is likely given the growth we will have in Tesla ownership. ESB chargers as they currently stand won't prevent it from becoming a problem. If we have a small or incremental increase in Teslas then I wouldn't see it being an issue at all. However, with the very significant (and broadly welcome) increase we will not have the superchargers to support it unless more chargers/locations follow.

The big problem is for people who visit West but don't have a guaranteed charging spot at the destination while touring possibly long distances there.

Single points of failure are everywhere and you absolutely cannot rely on the network at all. In case of Tesla you know that you can get charged on both legs of the journey on a network that properly punishes overstaying your welcome and that have a layout that guarantees one parking spot per outlet. A charging queue of 5 high capacity cars queueing over a single 50 kW unit is not fun and can lead to a multiple hour delay in your journey.

Also it is in Tesla's commercial interest to provide enough SuC sites for the number of cars on the road to keep their customers happy. Therefore I expect the network to continue to grow in tune with the increased demand. So go on, order as many Model Y as you can. It will allow Tesla to expand the network further North and West.

And South, Southwest and even East 😉. In agreement with you, will be up to Tesla to expand the network and will have incentive to do it but will need to follow through on that. The argument that the exisiting set up will be sufficient in 12/24 months time or that other providers limited offerings will solve any issues as put forward by others isn't plausible.

The one I have ordered in November will be plenty for us! There is plenty of demand already.

I've just ordered a set of these on Aliexpress about 5 mins ago.

I've ordered these in AliExpress. 130 incl post and they seem a good mix between aero and looks...

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005004432483154.html?spm=a2g0n.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.1d90f19cmD8Aa1

Yeah strange. It’s a sign of the lack of interest in LR pre price reduction in the general scheme of things. If they thought they would sell some they would have surely had a few onboard 🤷‍♂️

Just a question with some of the inventory stock: https://www.tesla.com/en_IE/inventory/new/my#overview

In the case of the LR in MSM for €60230, is there any reason they could not drop the price by €250 to bring it in under 60k and avail of the grant?

I know they may not want to do this but in theory could they?

I must be missing something. Its 21.47/lot? Shipping 17,47?

tesla logo caps?

Those you ordered I was very close to getting also. They look just as good. Yea loads of options for caps there also. I got a set of real caps while I was at it in case I go naked with the alloys at some stage 😇