NEW Tesla Model Y Review: The Best (And WORST) Tesla? 4K

the tesla model y has finally landed here in the uk and it's the model that might become the company's biggest seller this 54 grand crossover promises all the features of the model 3 but offers more space more versatility and the option to conquer more of what life throws it in [Music] yes come on this is the tesla that can do anything it can conquer the road and it can conquer the dirt look at this will it get stuck no chance it's like a rally car for families [Music] so is the model y the electric crossover we've all been waiting for maybe but it's not alone this car now faces competition from dozens of rivals the mustang mach e bw id4 skoda enyak audi q4 e-tron ionic 5 kia ev6 all of which are of exceptional quality so people's expectations for the y are going to be sky high so obviously the ability to do some mild green laning or messing around on sand is going to be the least of people's concerns what they want from a model y is good looks good range and good practicality all of which we're going to tackle in this review starting with the looks i think it kind of looks like a model 3 that's slightly bloated or a model x that's shrunk in the wash either way i think this is actually better looking than both of those cars proportionally it's just right to me anyway elsewhere i mean it's a lot of model three parts that have been crammed onto the model y except at the sides you've got this black wheel arch cladding down here to give it a more rugged robust look big ride height just to give it that ability to go off-road if you want you get the option of 19s or 20s on the long-range version or 21s on the performance version i wouldn't want to go any smaller than 20s though otherwise the wheels start to look a bit lost elsewhere you got a black finish on the cameras black finish around the windows black finish on the door handles this door handle is quite fascinating to me at least watch this you press it and it pops the door open for you make it easier to get in and out and then this is the big news a hatchback that is what customers want because it gives you loads and loads of practicality also look at the way it slopes down like a coupe and then kicks up at the rear very sporty one thing i don't like is this rear section which looks a bit like a nappy to me i wouldn't go as far as to call it a diffuser more like a nappy but there is a good reason for it it adds a ton of practicality check this out the model wise boot offers around 842 liters from floor to ceiling it's massive and it gets even more massive if you fold the seats down using two buttons at the side tesla will at some stage offer a seven seater version but even this five-seater spec is practical with plenty of storage space in small cubbies on the left and right and a hidden space for charging cables there's even a sizeable underfloor compartment almost big enough for a medium-sized human being if you're interested meanwhile at the front the 114 liter front trunk is also very sizable bigger than the one you get in the model 3 although not quite large enough for a person in the back of the model y it's really really nice really really spacious first thing you notice is there is no transmission tunnel so you can just stretch out back here no issues whatsoever plus you've got these seat pockets in which you can put a mobile phone although they're not quite big enough for a large tablet plus this little section here for hanging a coat on a little light also the size of this sunroof is absolutely ridiculous i think tesla do the best sunroofs in the game and you've actually still got a decent amount of headroom on 511 for reference as well as decent amounts of legroom these rear seats also recline slightly so you can actually chill out back here and you've also got this fold down armrest with a couple of cupholders and again just loads of space to recline you can even have a sleep in here if you want the only downside is that it doesn't have any rear heating controls all of it has to be controlled from the front but at least you get a couple of usbc ports one thing that teslas tend to get criticized for are there panel gaps particularly on the model 3 on the rear boot lid especially on the versions which come with an electrically operated tailgate if you push down on these areas they tend to flex quite a lot but there's none of that happening on the model y and actually the panel gaps are quite uniform and i think are perfectly acceptable there's one area on the model 3 in particular that always annoyed me and that was the panel gaps along this front trunk quite often you'd see one side with a tighter gap than the other and once you see it you can't unsee it but on the y certainly this example all of this is uniform now i wonder if that's down to these wires being built in shanghai and maybe the shanghai plant being superior at building cars but whatever the case tesla they've always been good at designing cars now they're getting better at building them as well [Music] so practicality is good what is it like up front well if you're familiar with the model 3 then you're going to know all about the model y because it's basically identical to the smaller car almost everything is controlled via this huge 15 inch touchscreen in front of you it can be quite tricky to wrap your head around but after a few weeks of using it then it kind of becomes second nature how about the rest of the interior well it's available in either black or white if you go for black you get a wood grain effect on the dashboard whereas if you go for white then you get white seats and a white finish across the dash none of this by the way is leather it's all animal free which means that if you're a vegan or if you just you know want to be kind to the environment then this car should appeal to you in terms of storage up front there's lots of it basically because there's no transmission that means the transmission tunnel can be used for storing stuff so in the middle you've got bags of space you've got a couple of places to wirelessly charge your mobile phone up here just below the main screen and also the door pockets are massive as well one thing that's very different between the y and the three though is the ride height i'm sitting so much higher up and people who value suvs or crossovers because of that enhanced ride height are really really gonna appreciate the extra visibility you get from this car while i'm on the subject of visibility though that rear screen is so small it's almost pointlessly small it's very difficult to see what's going on through the rear view mirror back to the seats quickly they're fairly comfortable but one thing i've noticed is that when you try and raise them up to their highest level they tip forward slightly so it feels like you're on a kids slide if you're vertically challenged and you like to sit as high up as possible then you might feel a bit uncomfortable because you will be on a another thing i've noticed is that the suspension is very very hard this car weighs 2003 kilograms it's around 250 kilos heavier than a model three and because of that tesla have felt that they've needed to stiffen up the suspension in order to increase body control however it just makes the car very very jiggly it's not as comfortable or as smooth as a lot of its rivals and certainly not as comfortable and as smooth as the model three and when you encounter really rough bumps there's another thing that's annoying the rear seats make a weird noise they rattle whenever you go over bumps and that does get on your nerves on closer inspection it turns out that it was the head rests that were vibrating most every lump in the road caused them to vibrate slightly when at their highest setting but when you lower them most of that rattling goes away one other negative consequence of that extra weight is reduced range it uses a 70 kilowatt-hour battery pack which can give a range of 315 miles which is brilliant but it's not quite as brilliant as the model 3 which can do 360 miles so i guess when you're buying the model y you do have to sacrifice range in order to have that extra practicality the range is decent there or thereabouts for the sector but there are some rivals that offer more the equivalent mustang machi for example will go around 15 miles further according to wltp figures [Music] one area where the tesla model y really excels is with its straight line performance it's so rapid so right now there are two versions there's the model y performance which will do naught to 60 in 3.5 seconds which is just well it's just ridiculous really isn't it today i'm in the model y long range which also uses two motors one at the front and one at the rear this one does not to 60 in 4.8 seconds there's just no need whatsoever for a family crossover to be this fast it's scary fast unfortunately you never really get to enjoy the performance because the suspension is just too firm i'm sorry it's too hard i've driven this car on a variety of road surfaces today including motorway around town and out here on these b roads and it's always always very fidgety unnecessarily so the road i'm on right now looks really smooth but the car seems to be picking up every imperfection in the road and you just never really seem to get a chance to react because it just feels so busy all the time i said earlier that i wouldn't want to go for smaller wheels than the 20s fitted here but actually 19 inch wheels would be a better bet and improve the ride the 21 inch wheels on the performance model might be very firm indeed fine for a sports car but perhaps not ideal for families the other thing that you might want to consider before you buy a model y is whether the steering is too responsive to me it's a little bit too fast what that means is that even the smallest of movements on the steering wheel translates to really big movements from the car you move it an inch and the car seems to fly by about six feet in any direction this fast steering makes it feel a bit like a go-kart which isn't so bad around town but it makes the car feel fidgety at motorway speed this sort of steering is fine in the lower more agile model 3 but steering this sharp in conjunction with the firm suspension results in quite a turbulent ride it's just too highly strung and i don't think there's any real excuse for that i mean it's a family crossover people want to drive these cars and relax they don't want to feel on edge all the time as if they're in a sports car another issue i want to mention is with the accelerator you might have noticed on some electric cars you have paddles behind the steering wheel which can increase or decrease the amount of brake regen you get in the model y and in fact all teslas you don't get those tesla set the amount of regen they think you should get and i don't know if that's a bit of a mistake because in a car like this especially what you notice is that your right foot is always hovering over the pedal and making these tiny minute adjustments whenever you want to accelerate or slow down in a petrol car or an electric car where you can adjust the regen you can sometimes just lift off the pedal and the car will coast for quite a long time if you lift off the pedal in the model y it slows down really aggressively rather than coasting which gets annoying thankfully the model y excels in terms of recharging it has access to arguably the widest most reliable charging infrastructure as it can use both the supercharger network from tesla or pretty much any other network it'll charge at a very impressive 250 kilowatts which is fast enough to regain 75 miles of range in five minutes at a rate of a thousand miles of charging per hour and that's quicker than most of its rivals quick word on towing electric cars sometimes aren't very good at that for example the audi each on is rated at zero kilograms it can't tell anything the skoda eniac is a bit better that's rated for a thousand kilograms the model y is pretty good it's rated at 1600 kilograms now i'm not the world's foremost expert on towing but to me that sounds like it could tow a pretty good sized caravan or trailer or i don't know a horse and a half so yeah pretty decent in that regard so what's my summary on the tesla model y on the whole it's a good car but what i think has happened is that tesla have delayed a little bit too long in releasing the model y we've seen countless rivals come on the market and deliver really excellent products and rather than coming along late to the party and then demolishing absolutely everybody it seems like tesla have almost fallen behind in a lot of very important ways for example the ride and handling which are small things but they are very very important particularly to families so should you buy this car well absolutely it's got a lot going for it especially in terms of the range and the infrastructure and the speed of recharging but bear in mind tesla's rivals in many ways are just as good and in a lot of ways are even better [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: AutoTrader

Views: 427,711

Keywords: tesla model y, tesla model y review, model y review, model y, new tesla model y, new tesla model y review, tesla model y acceleration, tesla model y 0-60, tesla model y interior, tesla review, ev review, electric car review, new tesla review, model y handling, model y vs, tesla model y vs, autotrader, elon musk, rory reid, autotrader rory reid, model y offroad, model y comfort, 4k review, car review

Id: NDjS2ayi9Tg

Length: 15min 3sec (903 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 15 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Sp1keSp1egel]

The rearview visibility is a joke and definitely an underthought.

Model Y rearview visibility

Prius Prime rearview visibility

[u/dcmix5]

New? Is it new? Where is this guy at? I can't watch it.

[u/mammaliancochlea]

TL;DW: He's right that the ride quality is much worse than expected. I am disappointed he didn't touch the non-working (or barely working) blind spot warning system. Otherwise, it's an excellent car (as he highlights).

[u/orangpelupa]

thanks for sharing this video. it seems tesla did not adjust the suspension to be more "soft" for markets outside of the U.S.

Bjorn Nyland (sp?) says in one of his old videos about xpeng car, that manufacturers usually customise the suspension to the market. EU more soft, while US more hard.

[u/RushDom]

It’s a Model 3 with anaphylactic shock!