EV noob considering a tesla for next vehicle, what do I need to know?

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Definitely Model Y. 2025 model saves you money. Last model before refresh juniper. I personally like the old lights and body better so it’s not a big deal. Suspension is fine in my 2025 MY Performance AWD. I’d get AWD, for snow, hills, travel. Etc

2023-2024 Model Y with HW4 is the way I'd go. Having a charger at home is ideal. HW4 is nice if you ever want to use FSD, but also you'll have other goodies like matrix lights etc. etc.

any reasons not to look at the '23/'24 model y?

All good there too.. ‘23-25. Quality, reliable vehicles

Before I bought my MYLR, I watched tons of YT videos. I had a pretty good idea how run a Tesla when I did a few test drives, I rented a Tesla to do do the road trip as well. This way there were no surprises. You can just jump into Tesla and drive, but to learn all the ins and outs takes some time to get the most out of cars capabilities. I would suggest getting all the accessories (including S3XY commander) and wall connector before taking delivery.

I don’t own a tesla, but something keeping me from it is how easy it is to have a 10k plus repair bill. Yes the warranty is great but I have seen some posts across reddit for people hitting road debris and it destroying their high voltage batt. Maybe its anecdotal but on similarly priced ICE vehicles these potential issues just do not cost anywhere close to EV’s. I just don’t like how much it cost for the “shit happens” events

Just make sure it’s HW4 if you get one. I don’t remember what year they changed from HW3

that's what insurance is for, no? assuming normal maintenance/wear and tear is much cheaper than ICE vehicles.

This is the way to go— my family just made this exact purchase (2023, 8k miles) and are waiting on our delivery date.

Late May of 2023 - but be sure to still check the hardware in the software page.

Even some ICE vehicles have crazy expensive repairs for things like bumper/quarter panel replacements. All modern cars have sensors all around so it'll be pricey to repair no matter what brand. I saw a post about a quarter panel being hit and insurance would have written it off as totalled, as the frame was also affected by the hit. Road debris wouldn't instantly destroy your battery any more than your fuel line or drivetrain in an ICE car. Plus a Tesla has even less fluids than other EVs, so you'd save so much time and money on fluid changes.

I get the brochure but that battery is not well protected. Sure you have insurance but thats not a great answer

Watch videos, lots. How are you going to use it. Charger at home a must.

If you don't hate the new styling, the current 0% financing would likely make a new one cheaper than one just a couple years old.

If you don't have a dedicated place to park and charge your vehicle overnight you have lost a huge convenience of owning an EV. You will have to take time out of your life every week or every few days to charge it. It's that worth it? You must decide.

I can charge on a level 2 charger at my apartment but I mostly charge at superchargers cause the level 2 has some crazy standby time like it finishes charging at 2am and I get the car at 6am and it’s $250

How much?

we own a home, would park in our attached garage/have charger access whenever

Good. So if your clothes dryer is in the garage, its plugged into a 220v outlet. It'll be relatively inexpensive to put in a charger...or you just buy a cable and plug into that outlet.

i'd have to run 220 to the garage but i've run new circuits before shouldn't be bad. thanks for the tip!

Insurance should be a last option for large repairs like that. Destroy your rates that way. Me personally the incidental costs on tesla is just intimidating for me to get into one right now. Maybe in the future with some more cash to land on lol. Im happy for people who get into them though no issues

i mean insurance exists for covering accidents, ICE vehicles are going to have the same risks. $10k payout covers many years of increased premiums the tiny tiny edge case of "hit something on the road and catastrophically damages battery" seems too small to really play a factor in a buying decision. i think you're just experiencing the phenomenon of "tiny improbability widely shared on internet by tiny fraction of people it happens to and now i think it's disproportionately more likely"? sorta similar to saying "ICE vehicles transmissions might blow at 50k miles and cost me $6-7k to replace, so i'll not buy an ICE vehicle". like yeah, that *might* happen, it also probably won't

does it matter if i don't care about FSD?

But hitting something in the road isn’t a small possibility? It happens all the time. I agree that seeing things on the internet can inflate the likelihood in people’s minds though

"isn’t a small possibility? It happens all the time" - both can be true when the sample size is large enough. maybe it happens three thousand times a day, but when you have 150 million people driving hundreds of millions of miles a day it's actually a tiny tiny fraction. has it ever happened to you? i've been driving for \~17 years for a few hundred thousand miles and i've never hit something on the road. i've been rear ended fully stopped at a light twice, so if anything i'm more worried about collisions than random debris. i generally trust myself to pay enough attention, it definitely wouldn't be something i'd factor in specifically to a buying decision

Not as much. It’ll make self parking better. The cameras are better. 3-5x faster computer. And way better low light performance

Im happy to hear you’ve had some great luck but I’ve definitely hit stuff, ran over some pretty deep pot holes, and had some basic repairs a long the way. Maybe ill change my mind but that high voltage battery freaks my wallet out lol especially with higher insurance on a tesla in general

The model and color. Thats good

Didn’t read but to address the subject : all you need to know is brace for more fun than you’ve had in a vehicle in a long time.

Used Teslas are a mixed bag because of the previous owner’s use cases: ride share, volume commuter, young adults, list goes on. You’ll struggle to know what’s a problem in a used one if you’ve never sat in a new one. To keep it simple… -battery health, if the dealer is nice they’ll run the check for you, otherwise check the charge and energy history and do math -drivetrain/suspension, should be reasonably quiet (creaking/screaching) on bumps, turns, and hard accel. Try max turning the wheel while stopped. -test the brakes -interior for vegan leather peeling/bubbling/sagging. -older 3s and Ys have more nuanced issues causing wind noise/rattling. Ask google AI for a list. The cars are actually quite bulletproof barring the occasional build quality issue in pre-refresh years. I have a ‘26 MY AWD and a ‘20 MS LR+