Steve Sheridan's 2026 Model Y Performance Journey

[00:00:21] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving and much, much more. My name is Bodhi and I am your host and on today's episode we have Steve Sheridan and he is going to tell us all about his 2026 Model Y Performance. It's a good chat. Steve and I sat down and we chatted. It's been a while. I think I said this when I had Allison Sheridan on.

[00:00:48] Like I haven't talked to them like in in over in real life, you know, not in person, but in real life since January. So it was time. It was time to get together and chat. And Steve has got this beautiful Model Y Performance. I'll let him tell you what the color is. But yeah, I think you're all going to enjoy this.

[00:01:10] Now I will say next Tuesday we should have a news episode and then we have an interview with David. He's going to talk about his Leap Motor C10. And then we're going to have Ford's earnings call earnings call and GM's earnings call because I need to take a break. I mean, I did it this week. I got it. I had a lot of work stuff. I had a lot of part time work stuff.

[00:01:36] And then just life. My kids graduated eighth grade or promoted from eighth grade. So we've had family over and lots of activities this week. So I just need I need two weeks off to just kind of chill out and relax and recharge, let's say. So that that's the plan for the next two weeks. I do think you're going to enjoy today's episode. I think you're going to enjoy David's episode again.

[00:02:06] We'll have news on Tuesday and then Ford's and GM's earnings call, which I expect will be a little bit shorter than the other earnings calls that we've done this quarter. Just because Ford and GM don't always talk about EVs. So we might be able to just knock those out real quick.

[00:02:25] So, yeah, if you if you've emailed me and I haven't responded back, don't worry about it because I'm that is part of my plan on the recovery. Two weeks is to get back with all the people I need to to respond to. There's people who've requested interviews that I have not been very communicative on, which is my fault.

[00:02:48] But yeah, so the goal is to rest up, respond to emails, catch up with everything else that's going on in life and then come back bright eyed and bushy tailed. So with that, let's go ahead and welcome Steve to the show. Thanks, Bodie. Glad to be back. I'm glad to have you back. Now, Steve, Allison was on earlier this week and we have equal time doctrine here at the Kilowatt podcast.

[00:03:17] So we had to have you on today and we're going to talk about the 2026 Tesla Performance Model Y that you purchased recently. But before we do that, we have also because this this show drips with journalistic integrity. We have a correction from Allison's. Would you mind going over the the correction from Allison's podcast? Yeah, I believe this came out when you interviewed her about what was the topic? The Spruce Goose and the EV1.

[00:03:47] EV1. And then you got off into a tangent or she got off into a tangent with the Spruce Goose, which was this large aircraft built by Hughes aircraft flown by Howard Hughes. But she wanted to correct. She said she correctly said that the only plane with a larger wingspan than the Spruce Goose was the Stratto launch that flew in 2019. This Spruce Goose was huge.

[00:04:12] But she says that it was in quotes, one of those big glider sort of planes made to go around the world without stopping. And she says she confused that with a different flying machine. The Stratto launch is a test bed aircraft made to launch rockets into orbit. She further says she finishes by saying, I apologize for my mistake and thanks Steve for catching this egregious error.

[00:04:38] Most people probably wouldn't know what that aircraft, the Stratto launch was. But since I kind of follow space and rockets, that one caught my ear. And so I thought I'd slip that in. Well, again, dripping with journalistic integrity at the Kettlebot Podcast. So I demand corrections, even though I don't often do them. So Steve, back in late, late December, you were able to get your hands on a 2026 performance model Y.

[00:05:09] So previously to that, you were driving a 2020 or 2021 model Y performance? 2020 performance model Y. So why upgrade? What was the catalyst? Yeah, good question. And not huge driving issues. I was fairly happy with my 2020, but the biggest complaint concern was the ride quality.

[00:05:36] The 2020 performance model Y had a very stiff ride. Now on the good side, that led to pretty good cornering, fairly flat ride. But boy, you felt everything on the road, every bump, both small and large bumps. I recall going, we visit our daughter and son-in-law down towards San Diego often, and they have a very long self-maintained driveway.

[00:06:06] And it's got a few potholes and bumps. And the way I could tell was I could not carry Starbucks cups back up that driveway without spilling them. Even with lids, they would be shaking so much they'd come out of the little hole and I'd have stoppers in them. But my new car passes that test now. It's got a much, much better ride. And there are reasons for that. That's awesome.

[00:06:32] Now, anybody that listens to the NoCillicast knows that there is one big test before you or Allison buys a car. There's one big test that every car has to pass in order for it to wind up in your fleet. What is that test? Yeah, the biggest constraint we have is our garage. We, unlike most people that I've observed, park both of our cars in our two-car garage.

[00:06:58] So we don't have a lot of room because we have other things in the garage, which have to be tightly packed around the periphery. And so we don't have both front and back and side to side. It's very, very constrained. But she has the Model 3. I had the Model Y. And they both just fit just about perfectly in the space we had. So that eliminated, you know, you're asking why the Performance Model Y?

[00:07:26] Well, staying with the Model Y, we knew it would fit in the garage. And measuring the other options, the other EVs, many of them were just too long. They wouldn't fit in our allowable space. And I know that Allison was working with and helping out Pat Dangler and Lynn. But, and Lynn has a short garage, right? Shorter than yours, even? Yes. Because of some work benches.

[00:07:55] Yeah, she has some benches there, work benches. Yeah. So it's not like you guys don't know what the approximate size of any EV is at this point, because there has been so many that have kind of gone through the test. And one of the tests is, will it fit in the garage? Yeah, Allison came up with a spreadsheet with many parameters, including length of the car. And as you go down, and then she would grade, you know, red, yellow, green, whether that met our criteria.

[00:08:25] And most of them are red too long in that category. So I think the EV6, the KEV6 was one of the few that fit in our garage as well. But that car just wasn't quite up to par for us. You mentioned here in our document that I did, had nothing to do with other than the fact that I opened it. But you mentioned in the document that it had, the camera views were round.

[00:08:51] And my wife's EV, or Carnival, has round, it's where the speed, the speedometer goes or where the tachometer, depending if you're turning left or right when you turn your blinker on. And it is maddening because you can't really, you don't get a really good view, because you're looking through the steering wheel to see where the cars are in your blind spot. Now, it's better than nothing, but it's not as good as what the Tesla has, which is in the middle screen.

[00:09:19] And then you can move it, you know, depending on where your eye hits that infotainment screen. Yes. And more traditional rectangular views. Very few cars, I think, have the rounded camera view. I mean, it is a stylistic choice, but I don't think it's a great choice. I agree. And the other thing that was important was, you know, true one-pedal driving, which, you know, lots of cars say they have,

[00:09:46] but rarely do they come straight out the box with one-pedal driving. Exactly. Yeah. A lot of them, you know, almost all of the EVs have regenerative braking of some sort, but how that's implemented is the key. And we, I don't know if we've just gotten used to it, but we very much prefer Tesla's style of regen braking, which basically is always on. I don't think you can disable it.

[00:10:14] And it's in its full regen braking, which is great because then you don't have to rely on your brakes. There are many times I will drive, you know, someplace and never apply my brakes because I, it will come to a complete stop if you just learn how to feather properly. That is led off the accelerator. So, one issue is the brakes, well, not issue. One, one bonus is the brakes will last forever on a Tesla because you rarely use them. The brake pads.

[00:10:45] Yeah. Yeah. It's only in an emergency stop is pretty much when I use them. Yes. Um, okay. So we know, we know the, the stiff ride and the bumpiness, which I have a problem with in, in my car as well. Like I don't, I'm not driving my car down any dirt road or unmaintained road. Uh, even, even occasionally, even, even rarely. I don't know that I've ever done that in the three years that I've had it, but I do, uh, appreciate, you know, kind of what you're saying.

[00:11:14] Cause every pebble, it seems like that car hits, you know, you just hit a pebble on the left side, rear tire versus the right side, rear tire. It's still a very nice car and I'm not complaining about it, but it is, it is a little bit more uncomfortable ride than say, um, I mean, a Cadillac is, forget about it, but say, uh, uh, a, a, a similar car in a, in the same space, in the same category. Yeah.

[00:11:42] It, it, it's, it's probably a little bit more uncomfortable, uh, out of every car in that Model Y's category. Yeah. Remind me what year your Model Y is? 23. So they may have improved the, the ride from the 2020 to the 2023. I can't recall. Yeah. I think that 2020s were even stiffer. Wow. Because they got a lot of complaints. Yeah. And again, mine's not bad. Totally not bad. I'm not, I'm, I'm very happy with my car.

[00:12:09] I will say that they did, uh, in my neighborhood, cause we don't have an HOA in my neighborhood. So the city of Tempe takes care of all of our streets and they resurfaced our streets. And they, when they did that, they removed the lines on the, so they put this black, nice, beautiful black slurry down.

[00:12:28] But we also have speed bumps in my neighborhood and you can't tell that brand new black slurry on top of the pavement that where the speed bumps are. So occasionally, um, I would be driving around, not paying attention. And the next thing you know, I'd be bouncing my car because of that, those speed bumps. That didn't happen very often, but I couldn't wait for them to put the speed bumps back. It happened once, at least once coming into my neighborhood and once going out.

[00:12:57] Then I was like, oh yeah, yeah. And you'd pay a little bit more attention. Yeah. You'll feel that in a Model Y. Yeah. 100%. So what are some other things that, uh, kind of ticked your boxes when it comes to upgrading your Model Y? Um, well, I guess some of the question might be, why did I stay with Model Y? The main reason for upgrading was, was the ride.

[00:13:23] But the reason I didn't look around too much for other EVs to replace the Model Y was, I'm just happy with it other than that. Um, it's got great acceleration. Uh, I like, and I'm used to the minimalistic look in the controls. Um, it took a little getting used to, to have just one screen control with a few buttons on the steering wheel, but it's fine now for me. Um, I love the over-the-air updates and the improvements that come with it.

[00:13:53] Um, it's, it's just, uh, all around it, it's the package that suits me pretty well, suits me best. Do you, do you know what the, what, what exactly did they do to the suspension that was better in the 2026 versus the 2020?

[00:14:10] So this is, um, I'm a little bit vague on whether, well, in the normal 2026, let's say the non-performance, they, they put in what they call adaptive suspension, which, which uses electronics to do something to adapt. I don't know what they've done, but in the performance model, they have control over that adaptive suspension. So you can set the stiffness level of the ride.

[00:14:39] And I think the way they do that, this is not air suspension adjustment. This is, this is adjusting, I believe the, uh, opening in the shocks, the damp, the dampers, so that they are more or less responsive to, to shock. So it's, it's a simpler way to implement, uh, ride quality changes in ride quality. And they basically have two selections, you know, more sporty and, and more smooth.

[00:15:09] Gotcha. Do you ever find yourself just putting it on the sporties? Occasionally I do. Uh, it is a little more fun for cornering and off the line, but I generally keep it in the more comfort mode. Mainly because Allison much prefers that. In, in, in the previous car, she couldn't even cross stitch. You know, this is where you have to use needles and, and fine little holes in cloth. Was she in the driver's seat?

[00:15:37] She had trouble nailing those holes with the needle because of the ride. Now it's, it's no problem, but I keep it in that smooth mode for her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder, my wife gets very car sick and for whatever reason, the way that the Model Y sits for her and her eyeline, that does sometimes, she will sometimes get, uh, car sick just by driving on the freeway, just the way things are moving for her. As a passenger or a driver? Passenger.

[00:16:06] Um, she does not like to drive my car, but, um, the, I wonder if that would having the dampeners make it a little bit more of a smooth ride would make that better or worse for her. Uh, I found, you know, I talked about this role with my 2020 Model Y, it would tend, the body would tend to roll with bumps. Uh-huh. I don't find that as much with this adaptive suspension in the, in the 2026.

[00:16:33] So it might help, but, um, I mean, I would test drive it, see if it makes a difference if, if you're really interested. I don't think I can convince her to let me upgrade. So I don't know right now. Yeah. You have a 2023, it may be a little harder to justify. Yeah. And I also really want the Scout. So I got, I got several more years typically. So, uh, before I buy a new car anyway. So I'm, I'm thinking the Scout's the next car. We'll see what comes.

[00:17:03] The seven years is a long time. Yep. I've heard you talking about the Scout. I know that's on your list. Man. Sounds like a great car. In 2025, did, did you and Allison get over to see the Scout booth at CES? We did not. Yeah. Uh, I was on the fence cause I thought it was going to be more of like a Rivian replica than, than it is. But man, nope. I was all jazzed up. As soon as I saw it, I was like, Oh, I love this truck.

[00:17:35] All right. Um, okay. So we talked a little bit about why you decided to, to upgrade your model. Why, what was the buying experience like? Cause you know, you've, you went through it in 2020, which is pandemic buying. And what about, what about, uh, 2026 or 2025? How did that go? It went pretty well, kind of as I expected it would. Um, the, the delivery got bounced around a little bit, you know, Tesla has many, I think,

[00:18:03] uh, car manufacturers are now is, is almost, uh, it's, it's dealerless and it's almost touchless in that you don't really, um, you don't have to go in and, and make place the order with a dealer. Everything's online. Um, so when I ordered the car online, the, the delivery date was projected to be the last couple weeks in December of 2025. And this is for the 2026 model. It had just come out. Um, it was just being produced for the first time.

[00:18:33] I think in, I think October was when the first ones were released, but I didn't get on there on day one cause I was still deciding. So a couple, last couple of weeks in December that got pushed out as time went on to January, February 26. And this was probably in late November when I found that out. That no big deal. I wasn't, there was no financial reason for me to receive it in 2025 versus 26.

[00:19:00] And then very late, uh, I think December 29th, I got a notice from Tesla that they pulled it back, the delivery date back to December 30th or 31st, just, you know, a day or two later than that notice. I was expecting a month or two and sure enough, it, um, it became available on the 31st, uh, New Year's Eve day. And, uh, we picked it up on that day. And that was, uh, it was a pretty good experience.

[00:19:29] Uh, there were some issues with the car. Um, with Tesla, I got this long list to, uh, review and check out the car using that list. Um, went over the car pretty thoroughly. Now it was raining that day, which makes it harder to, to check things like the paint quality and any imperfections exterior. But, um, we, we went through most of the list and there were a few items that, that were problems.

[00:19:56] Probably the biggest was the right rear seat would not fully, it would decline, but it wouldn't, or it would recline, but it wouldn't come back up, which is a problem. We have a dog. We like, we use that, uh, hatch area. Um, I'm sure, but we were sure that was fixable and we didn't want to, you know, not receive the car because of that. So no problem. We just make a note. Um, and, uh, they tried to fix it a couple of times right there in, in the, uh, in the lot.

[00:20:26] And then they even took it inside, but they were not able to. So, um, we went ahead and just, uh, there were a couple of other things that needed to be done anyway. I wanted home link installed in the car, which it doesn't come stock with anymore. We heard a little noise in the, in the wheel, the front right wheel at, uh, lower speeds. Uh, there was a slight imbalance in the front wheels that needed some balancing.

[00:20:53] Um, and we got an error on the front camera that said it needed to be cleaned. This is the camera behind the windshield in front of the rear view mirror. And that's not something the user can do easily. So took all those in for a service appointment with, and, uh, all of them were fixed fine. So happy overall with the buying experience. Yeah. I think having a list is a really good idea. And obviously you can go to any AI chat bot and come ask it to come up with a list and things like that.

[00:21:22] But when Kerry Murphy was on a couple of weeks ago, he, he was like, no, he said, he was like, no worry. The Tesla overflow lots are. And then, you know, if the, the likelihood is wherever that overflow lot is, if it's close to where you're going to pick up your car, that's, that's where your car is going to be. Go through a couple of days before and just kind of look at things that need to be checked. Now, obviously you're not going to know about the noise with the wheels and the imbalancing and the camera issue or the seat issue.

[00:21:52] But if there's scratches or just, you know, little scuffs on the wheel or whatever, you, that is something that you can kind of, uh, shorten the, the, the inspection that you have to do while you're at the, this, the, the pickup. Yep. That's a, that's a great idea. Um, unfortunately the place I went to didn't have an overflow lot and they, they're, it's behind basically a protected fence. Mm-hmm.

[00:22:17] But for, um, other, other dealers or other, uh, delivery locations that might work. Yeah. That was one. Uh, what color did you get? So I, you know, all of my previous Teslas and previous cars have been black except maybe a couple of early ones. Uh, I just like black for some reason, since we keep our car in the garage, um, they don't get that dirty. Uh, although when it rains, of course they do, but I'm in Southern California, it doesn't

[00:22:47] rain too much. So we liked the look of black, but I was getting tired of it and I've been seeing a lot of black cars on the road. So I went with a, a less common color, silver. Technically not, it's probably not less common, but Tesla had like three shades of gray slash silver. And the one that I got was called quick silver, which I really took a liking to it.

[00:23:14] Probably the closest color that I could compare it to is the color of mercury. It's kind of a deeper silver, um, with a nice sheen to it. Um, and I like the look, that look highlighted with the, the black trim around the car. So no black, went silver. Yeah. I think in our group chat, when somebody, somebody posted the, the silver car, I immediately said, I do not like this. And you followed it up with, no, I, I like it.

[00:23:44] I like it quite a bit. So yeah. Not your favorite color. No, you know what? I have seen it in real life though. A couple of times, there's a couple of running around the neighborhood here and it is, it's, it's nice. It, especially on, I think it looks better on the Y than it does the three, but, or if it even is the same color as the one that's on the three, I don't know. But I, I, whenever I see the Y, I always have, I think back to that conversation of, I don't really like this. Oh, I quite like it. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:12] And on the performance, I think it looks even better because the performance has additional black highlights that are not in the standard model Y, both in the bumper, the front and rear bumpers. Um, you, you get a little more black sheen and the, and the side view mirrors. I did not know that or even realize that, I guess. It's a subtlety. Oh, crazy. Uh, what did you do to protect the paint?

[00:24:40] Yeah, my, my, uh, Tesla is not known for the highest of paint quality. Um, and, and even so, you know, even though we park it in, indoors, um, I decided to go with a paint protection film on the front facing surfaces of the car for those road trips to, to Vegas, for instance, or up North when we go to Fresno. Uh, this basically just the, you know, the front bumper, the side view mirrors.

[00:25:07] And there's this one area on model Y is just ahead of the rear wheels that flares out. And I don't know about your car, but on my 2020 model Y, um, due to dirt and rocks getting kicked up from the front wheels backwards, that flare would get nicked up with marks and, and little, uh, you know, abrasions. And so it got, I got that. I couldn't take it out with anything and it was permanent.

[00:25:34] So I put, um, uh, an area of, I had them put an area of, uh, wrap in front of that flare or on that flare to keep the, the rock chips down. I could have, you know, coated the entire car, wrapped it, but I decided just, just to save some cost not to do that. Yeah. So you had the, the ceramic coat done and then you had the PPF film. Was that expensive? I think it's PPF first and then ceramic. Oh, okay. Was that expensive?

[00:26:05] What was it? It was not cheap. Uh, all combined, it was on the order of a couple thousand dollars. Okay. Uh, that's a lot cheaper than doing the entire car, wrapping the entire car. Yeah. Especially now. Yeah. Especially now. Cause I looked, um, no, I didn't look recently. I was on social media and somebody was showing off their car and they said how much it cost.

[00:26:31] But, uh, when I got, when I got my car, I went through and a lot of people asked me, was I going to, you know, put the, the film on and get the ceramic coat? And I was like, you know what? I mean, I live in Arizona. There's like, it's inevitable. I'm going to be careful that things are going to get damaged just because of where we're at. And I was like, if, if I want to do this, then later on, I will just wrap it the color that I want to, want it to be, which would be like an orange or something like that.

[00:26:57] But as it is now, I'm like, eh, it is what it is. Right. And I'm happy with the result. It's got a nice, nice shine to it. And the guy did a really good job. Yeah. Yeah. So you picked it up on New Year's Eve and then, and then you drove it to Vegas on, uh, January 3rd. So, I mean, whoever did the wrap really worked hard to get it done before your trip. Worked over the holidays. Yeah.

[00:27:26] Worked over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. And we picked it up on the, on January 3rd and then drove it to Vegas. I don't think we knew this right away. Right. I think you'd already ordered your car before you found out that you get vehicle to load. Right. Yeah. And that was a nice little bonus, kind of an unexpected bonus. You know, we don't use it that much. I've only tested it just to make sure it works. But it's nice to know it's there and it's, it could be handy.

[00:27:53] I mean, basically this is where Tesla for, for the performance now, I don't think it's standard on the others. And, and also the, um, the Cybertruck has it in a more, even more advanced version of this. But this allows you to plug an adapter in the charge port and provide power from the Tesla's battery out to some load, 120 volt AC power up to 20 amps. So you could operate most appliances, uh, not high power appliances, but you know, a

[00:28:23] fridge or a washing machine. No, not that you would be doing that. I don't know what you want to operate, uh, at a, at a campsite that might come in handy. Um, a few things. The funny one that always amuses me in the commercials is when they're making their margaritas at the campsite. With a blender? Blender. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can, I don't know if a lot of people know this in marketing, but you can just put the, the mix in with, with ice.

[00:28:52] You don't have to blend it. It's not necessary. Exactly. I'm sure all the other people at the campsite would enjoy the sound of that blender. Well, that's true too. They're there for peace and quiet and they're, they've got a blender going on next door. Yeah. Yeah. And it calls in the, the beavers and as everybody knows, beavers are, uh, constant margarita hounds. Like they are. Oh yeah. With salt. With salt around the rim. Yep. Yeah. They like to chew it off. Wood cup.

[00:29:22] Wood cup. Wood cup. Uh, okay. What about, what about the, so it's got a, it's got a bigger screen than mine. It's got a 16 inch screen. Yeah. It's not. How do you like that? I like it. You know, I think this, the previous screen size is 15.2 or four. So it's not that much bigger, but it has a lot more pixels. So I think it's also higher density more than the ratio of those two areas would imply.

[00:29:49] Uh, and so it's a real crisp, uh, map. Um, a lot. It seems that there's more information. The, uh, rear view camera is just incredible. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's really good. Uh, I, I don't even look backwards anymore with that. I mean, I don't look behind my shoulder. I just look at the rear view mirror. That with the side view mirror cameras, looking rear into the side as you back, those, those three together just provide you all the visibility you need.

[00:30:20] That's interesting. You know, uh, Sierra was up here this week and she has a model three. She has 29 or 2021 model three, I think. And, uh, she uses full self-driving almost exclusively. She, she's one of those folks. And, uh, we were driving and she's like, why aren't you using? Cause I still use my mirrors. Um, and I don't know if it's because I'm obligated to use my mirrors when I'm driving a

[00:30:48] fire truck, otherwise, you know, bad things happen. Or if it's just, that's just how I learned and that's how I'm more comfortable. But I do still look at this. The last thing I look at, the first thing I look at is my mirrors. And the last thing I look at is the screen just to make sure to confirm that everything is in fact clear. But yeah, she's like, why, why do you use this? This is a better view. You know, for lane. Yeah. For lane changes, I do the same. I don't rely on the cameras.

[00:31:16] One of the reasons is the camera has a slight delay before it comes up. So I do what you do. I first look at the mirror and then I'll look at the camera, like double check. Um, that one I have not learned to wean myself off of. Yeah. I don't know that I ever will, but who knows? Um, I do find, and this is, this is a uniquely, I think Arizona problem, but we have along the freeways, we have frontage roads.

[00:31:43] So you could, you could travel along, let's say the 202 for instance, or the 101. We'll use that as an example. You can travel along the 101 without ever having to get on the 101. You could just take the frontage roads. You're just going to hit stop signs or stop lights when you get to every major road. But, uh, in those, you will have people coming off the freeway. And if you're on the frontage road and the people coming off the freeway, you have to yield to them.

[00:32:11] And it is, it is sketchy with Tesla's little teeny tiny mirrors to be able to see like the full view. So what I do is I'll hit the camera, um, so I can see everything on the screen when it comes time to yield, because I have had times where people rightfully so have yelled at me and honked at me, when I really yelled, honked at me in a very aggressive manner because

[00:32:37] I didn't see them because I was, I was using my mirrors and I wasn't, I didn't think I, I didn't think they were there. And it turns out. Tesla's mirrors are a little on the small side and, and, and also the rear field of view out of the, the view out of the rear window. Yeah. A little constrained. Yeah. So I just bring, I just hit the button, bring them all up and I still do the same thing. I check my mirrors and then I look there because there's just a lot going on in those, uh,

[00:33:07] situations. So just a tip if you're ever in Arizona on the one-on-one for some reason. I've seen the same thing in Texas. They have a lot of frontage roads. Yeah. I love them. Like there's no need for me. Like my kid's, uh, dentist is like one road South of where I live. One major road South of where I live. And I don't want to get on the, I don't want to get on the freeway for one exit. It's just, it's just easier. Uh, let's see here. Okay.

[00:33:36] So you have, you have lots of little ambient light in the car. Do you notice that that's a, an added bonus? It's a nice to have. It's something I do notice. It's, you know, did it, is it the reason I'd buy the car? No, but I'd certainly like it, uh, better than not having it. And, and the fact that you can control the color makes it even a little better. Yeah. Do the grandkids like that feature? Oh boy. They love the feature and, and they have to pick the color of course, when they get in.

[00:34:05] Uh, there's even a rainbow color scheme you can, you know, that changes with, uh, as it wraps around the car. This is interior now. Right, right, right. Uh, they love that. That's a good point. What about, so there's no more stock for you. Um, how do you feel about changing the, the drive in reverse and park using the screen? So let me just be clear. There is a stock on the left for turn signal. Right.

[00:34:32] Which I would really have a problem with if they did away with that, which they did in some models. Uh, I think they brought it back because there was so much user complaint. But on the right, no stock. Uh, instead to get into gear, you use, uh, the screen with a little slide menu. And at first a little awkward. Um, I've gotten used to it. It's not a big problem. And if you think about it, you're not changing gears unless you are stopped. It's not like you're going from first to second to third.

[00:35:01] This is, you know, reverse, park, forward, neutral. And so you're stopped and therefore it's okay to look at the screen to, to make that maneuver. It, it's other things that you might be where you might be driving and they force you to use the screen that bother me more. This does not bother me. In fact, I've gotten quite used to it. It's more, it's almost natural now. That's interesting. So it, it, it turned out okay. I always think of the Steve Jobs quote of when somebody asked when they're going to get a touchscreen Mac.

[00:35:31] He's like, you really want to hover your finger over? I don't know if it was exactly his quote, but that's kind of what he said, right? Uh, I always think of that when I, when I think of changing, but it's just, it's two seconds. And like you said, you're always stopped. You shouldn't be moving when you're doing the, making the change. And it would be nice. It is easy enough to get into neutral, but it would be nice when I go to the car wash. Yes. I take my car to the car wash. I live in Arizona.

[00:35:59] Uh, I park underneath covered parking at work. And by the time I get done, the bird with 48 hour shift, the birds have done damage to my car. Oh no. It's got to go. The first, this, the first stop I make on my way home is the car wash. But, um, yes, it would be nice when I'm in the car wash and you know, the, the, the rollers are coming up to take my car away, not to be in panic to get that into neutral. Cause the very first time I picked, so I went to pick up my car in, uh, 2023.

[00:36:29] It had a high voltage problem. So they wouldn't let me take it. Thankfully, cause it would have been terrible if something happened, but it had a high voltage problem. So they had to fix it. So they gave me a loaner and the loaner they gave me was filthy. I do have to say, I have not yet got a clean loaner from Tesla. I haven't had to have a car from them very many times, but I'm like, these should be cleaner. Yeah. But everybody's very nice at Tesla, at the service center.

[00:36:56] And they, I tend to, I've experienced that they go above and beyond. Like I'm okay with having a little bit dirtier of a car and a better customer experience on the, on the side of things when I'm actually getting serviced under my car. So it's fine. Yeah. But, uh, I didn't know how to put it in too neutral. Like when I got, took it to the car wash to get clean. Is it because it didn't have the stock? No, because I didn't know that it was just half. You had to hold it up.

[00:37:26] I just thought I was just pushing it up to that, that neutral zone and it wasn't engaging. And I was starting to panic. And then the roller started coming and kicking the car forward, but the car was in drive. And the people were like, put your car in neutral. I was like, I don't know how. So they had to stop the whole thing. And there was a whole production. And the manager had to come out and show me how to put the car in neutral. And I felt like a dummy, like a big old dummy. But you learned. Yeah, I did. I did.

[00:37:54] I would just much rather have that neutral, uh, just push the button and that, then we're done. Also, I would also like it to go in car wash mode anytime I put it in neutral. Oh. Because that's the only time I ever put it in neutral. I want it to go straight to car wash mode. Feature request. Yes. One thing that people might wonder, um, yeah, they may not unless they own a Tesla. Occasionally, Tesla's screen will go blank. Yeah.

[00:38:31] Rear selection is on the screen. Oh. It turns out there are selections on the roof right above the rear, uh, rear view mirror. There are four buttons, illuminated buttons that are recessed. You don't even really even notice them. And I, they may not even come on unless you're parked. I think that's the case. And for park, reverse, drive, neutral, right up there. And, and emergency flashers. Oh. So there's a backup, a manual backup. Smart.

[00:39:01] Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that either. Um, so we've talked a little bit about the suspension. One of the other issues is it's a little noisy, the car. You get a little bit more of the road noise and the traffic beside you than I would care for. How's the Model Y handle that? Yeah, this is, um, you know, something I did not research or wasn't the reason I bought the car.

[00:39:28] But when I got the new Model Y, I realized it was much quieter and it was kind of a relief. Um, they, they have added quite a bit of, uh, noise isolation to the later Model Ys. And I think it was after 2024 or late 2024 that they put in things like, uh, acoustic glass. It might be a double pane glass with a layer between, uh, they, they put in more sound insulation.

[00:39:53] I can even notice when I close the door now, the front, close the car door, it, it lands with a much more satisfying thunk. You know, that good sounding thunk. And I think that's because the seals are better. Um, it's just a better insulated car. And so as a result, noise is, is much reduced. Now I've read reports that the performance Model Y noise is a little bit higher than the standard 2026 Model Ys.

[00:40:21] Standard and I think they call it premium and long range. The other Model Ys, um, mainly because the performance has smaller sidewalls and you get a little more tire noise as a result and larger, larger wheels. And it just a bit more noise there, but I much, much better than the 2020 Model Y performance. That's good to know. I'm going to ask you about full self-driving, but I want to save that for last. Okay.

[00:40:49] What do you, what are your thoughts on the overall just kind of look of the car? Compared to when you're comparing it to what we'll just call what, what I drive like a vintage Model Y, not, not this fancy one with the bar across the front and the left, bend the back. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Tesla has not changed the look of the Model Y for many years since the introduction. And I think the latest one is called Juniper.

[00:41:17] And that came out what in 2025 was the Juniper design. Must have been May of 2025. Yeah. I know it came out, uh, in different parts of the world first. I think it's China first. But in the U.S., I think it was mid-25. And so the Juniper, I like the look. Uh, it's, the lights are different in, it has a light bar in the front instead of segment, separated left, right headlights.

[00:41:46] Um, and the light bar then has the headlights. It's, actually, it has the running lights integrated on the edges. And when the, um, when the running lights are on, the, the light bar is on, uh, I think at nighttime. Uh, the headlights are under that and they're very small. It, you almost can't, they almost look like it's a place where you should see fog lights, but those are the headlights, the full headlights. And I like that. It's a very clean look.

[00:42:13] Um, the rear is, is quite different. It's, uh, the, there's now a light bar in the rear, um, which only, again, illuminates at night. And then the, the tail lights are a complete redesign. Um, which I like the look of that. Uh, overall, it's a, it's a pretty clean look. On the rear, the one thing I didn't like was there's a rather large area from the bottom of the, where the window meets the hatch, the top of the hatch.

[00:42:44] Uh, I, well, the rear end of the hatch, the top of the rear end to where the lip is at the bottom is a pretty broad area. And it looks a little empty to me. That's where the license plate went in your model and my model Y, previous model Ys. It's now below that in the, embedded in the bumper, the license plate. But I've gotten used to that big area. It's not, not as bad as I thought it might be. You know what? That's interesting.

[00:43:14] You said that because I've noticed that too, but I was never able to put my finger on why it looked weird. Mm-hmm. There's license plates out there. I think they've extended the, uh, the bumper out a bit from the hatch, probably for, um, uh, to reduce damage for small speed rear end collisions. You get a little more absorption before it gets into the hatch area. It takes the bumper out, but the hatch is not as damaged.

[00:43:43] That's just speculation on my part. Um, but going on with the looks, uh, the wheels, wheels are very important to me and performance model wise have, uh, 21 inch wheels. Um, they call these arachnids five spoke design.

[00:43:58] Um, they come with, uh, what do you call those arrow covers, individual inserts, not a full single arrow cover, but individual inserts around these 10 different little V shapes. I did not like that look. It looked like, you know, plastic. So I pulled all those out and it's a decent looking five spoke design without those.

[00:44:23] And yeah, I didn't feel the need to swap out the wheels like I did with my 2020 because I couldn't stand the Uber turbine wheels of the 2020s. My understanding is those individual, I mean, I don't know about Tesla. I'm, I'm talking about third party now is the, some of those individual, um, the wheel covers, they cover the, um, some of the road rash that maybe you might scrape up against something with your tire.

[00:44:52] And then the plastic goes over the top of that. So it covers, and I don't know, again, I don't know what, what, why Tesla does it, but I do know that there's, there's an aftermarket for hiding your shame that you rubbed up against a curb. Yeah. These arrow covers do not protect the wheel at all. These are just inserts in between the spokes. Oh, I see. I see. Now I think other model Teslas do have arrow covers that protect the wheels, but these, these don't. Uh, you do sacrifice a little bit on mileage as a result.

[00:45:22] Because you're removing the arrow covers. Uh, but it's, you know, probably on the order of one or one or two or three miles. No, let me say that different. One or 2% of range is my, you know, no one has done a real precise measurement of that, but that's what I read online. One to 2%, which I can live with. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:45:45] I mean, I, I have, uh, all sorts of people modify their car and to our vehicles to get worse fuel economy. Yeah. Um. But to make it look better. Lifting it, but bigger tires on, you name it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So it's very few mods. I really know mods, uh, to this car. I'm pretty, other than removing the arrow covers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:12] I, I'm less, I know, I, I know that like golden Tesla, if you follow him on, on, uh, social media on like Instagram, he has this beautiful wrapped. Well, now it's one. He used to have two. And I think the other one got in an accident, but he has this beautiful gold and black wrapped Tesla. And it's, I, model three is, was one of them. And, uh, you know, I enjoy his content.

[00:46:38] He lives in, in the area that I live in, cause I'll see him driving around every now and again. Um, he's got two, uh, wrapped. Um, so yeah, I mean, there's all sorts of things that you could probably do to mod, but I think these cars are cool enough on their own. You know? Yeah. How much more do you need to customize? But you do see a lot of them on the road.

[00:47:04] I will admit that it's, I mean, being the one of the, if not the highest selling car in the U S anyway, for, I don't know if it was this year, but prior years, it has been, uh, you, you'll see, you see a lot. Um, and that's one of the reasons I also didn't mind moving on to a slightly different style, body style with the Juniper design features. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:47:29] I think, I don't know if we had this conversation, but when I picked my color for my model Y, I decided to spend an extra thousand dollars for gray because I didn't want to, I didn't think $2,000 for red was worth the money. But I didn't want it to look like every model Y that came with free white, you know? Mm-hmm. And out of the colors, every other color was a thousand dollars. Out of the colors that I liked, it was the gray one. Great. Um, and then like a month after that, Tesla made gray the standard color.

[00:47:59] Oh, thank you very much. Yeah. No, it was good. Uh, I was like, oh, all right. Could have had that free. Yeah. I could have gone for white and just left it alone. Uh, okay. So now, now comes to full self-driving because you have hardware four, you know, you're getting the newest updates. Uh, you know, Alison, uh, bless her. She's on hardware three. She doesn't have the newest updates. Yeah.

[00:48:24] Um, although she did have the, she was able to test full self-driving before you were. So, you know, it's a back and forth, I guess. Yeah. Um, what are your thoughts of full self-driving? First of all, uh, did you get full self-driving when you bought the car for free? Cause you already paid for it. Yes.

[00:48:43] And I didn't say that back as to why I picked the performance model Y, but, um, at, when I bought the, the new model Y, um, Tesla was having the deal where you could transfer your full self-driving to another purchase of a model of a, of a Tesla. So I didn't lose that in, um, investments. I didn't lose that, uh, feature and have to pay for it all over again. Back when I got it in 2020, it was 6,000 bucks.

[00:49:13] It's, that sounds like a deal now. If they even sell it, do they even sell it? Um, or do you have to buy it month to month these days? It's month to month. And there was, um, in Europe for a little bit, you could buy it still outright. And they recently, this week or last week, they decided they're not going to do that anymore. So it's still subscription even now in Europe. How about the U S? Subscription. You can't buy it anymore. Cannot buy it. Okay.

[00:49:41] But I think before they canceled that, it was $8,000. Yep. Yeah. So anyway, when I paid it, it was 6,000. Um, as you mentioned, so I got that transferred over. The transfer was, I mean, there were restrictions, uh, as to how that would work. But as long as you, and that just meant that you had to have the car and not transfer it until you bought the new car, which was kind of strange.

[00:50:09] Um, they wanted to make sure, you know, you didn't, I guess, sell it to someone else and try to renew it then or apply it to your new car. So, um, I sold the car and transferred the, uh, FSD over. It's, as you said, I have hardware four. So I now have the latest version of full self-driving, uh, today it's 14.3.2. I believe there may be a slightly later version coming out. Yeah.

[00:50:38] I think 0.3 is either rolling out to people or, um, just about to roll out. Okay. So, um, I do find it's much better. It's, um, not 50% better, but I, some of the things I noticed are solved. Um, for instance, once in a while when making a turn, you'd, you'd feel the car hesitate. Let's say you're at a stop light or a stop sign and you're going to take a right turn and Tesla has to look for oncoming or perpendicular traffic.

[00:51:07] And you'd feel this kind of, uh, kind of a, uh, hesitation as to when to go. That's gone. Um, it, uh, it, uh, makes the decisions more like how I would make the decisions. Uh, so I, I'm more comfortable with it. Um, it does have a different type of, um, modes for driving, um, in terms of speed or acceleration.

[00:51:34] And now the, the five modes that Tesla offers for full self-driving are sloth, chill, standard, hurry, and Mad Max. Mad Max, they always have these creative names for, uh, driving modes. I tend to drive in the hurry mode. Uh, Mad Max is just a bit much for me. Um, that's, that is when I'm in FSD.

[00:51:58] Um, but even so there are times I'm not comfortable with it and I don't always drive in FSD, using FSD. There are, um, I still am a little uncomfortable when quarters are very tight and speeds are high. And I, I just, I don't trust it that much yet. I mean, I'm always driving with my hands ready.

[00:52:21] If not touching the wheel in FSD, that's very few people I find do that as I look around. Now that we have hands off mode. Yeah. I, my hands are pretty close if not slightly touching the wheel, but, uh, but still an improvement and I can see it getting to the point where I will be more, much more comfortable with it. What about, do you think her, do you think you prefer, well, let me start over here.

[00:52:50] Do you think hurry is more your personal style or works better for driving in LA? I think it's my, well, most of my driving is in LA, but I think it's my personal style because I tend not to drive at the speed limit wherever I am LA or not. I tend to drive a little bit faster, maybe five miles an hour. Let's say on the freeway, at least five miles an hour faster.

[00:53:19] Um, the thing that it does that I don't like is lane changing. It tends to want to change lanes more often on the freeway than I would like. I'm one of those types, kind of a control freak where I've, I'm in the lane I want to be in and I want to keep that lane for the most part. Uh, the exception might be if, uh, you know, if I'm, if the car's navigating and needs to get over, you know, to get off on an exit, well, I'm fine with the car doing that automatically.

[00:53:48] But when I'm just driving straight for miles, um, I would like to pick the lane and you cannot do that with full self-driving any longer. You used to be able to do that, but I haven't found a way. If anyone out there knows a way, let me know. Now, if you go to these lower modes, the sloth of the chill lane changes will occur less often. So I have kind of a dichotomy between how often I want to change lanes and how fast I want to go. They're not quite compatible. Oh, that's interesting.

[00:54:17] I wish those two were independent and I could control them independently. There should be, maybe it's not in the, maybe wouldn't, you wouldn't want to do it in like the Tesla interface on the car, but in the, in the app, maybe there's like a, a way to like fine tune this kind of stuff. Not, not, maybe there could be, not that there is, but maybe there could be a way to fine tune this stuff. Almost like you're adjusting the, like the EQ of a song, right?

[00:54:46] You're adjusting the EQ of your, of your full self-driving experience. Yeah, I'd like that. Now I will say, even with my complaints of lane changes, the lane changes themselves are better. They're better executed. Tesla would be kind of a, a jerk sometimes when it would pull out in front of an oncoming car on your left. Let's say you want to pass a car that's too slow, but you pull out in front of a car that's coming up on you. I don't like doing that. No. It's a good way to piss off a driver. And, um, it does, it does that less now.

[00:55:16] It used to do it more. Now I think it better considers the speed of the upcoming car before it makes that decision to change a lane. That's good. What about, uh, I mean, with 14.3.2, you should be able to go off, you know, uh, navigate to a, a supercharger and then have it do everything back into the stall.

[00:55:41] The only thing it doesn't do is, is grab the, the cable to plug into your car. Yeah, it's, it's great. I mean, I, I tested that out and sure enough, it worked much to my surprise. Um, and it now full self-driving will, you have options to pull into a slot or into a driveway, not just to the side of the road where the address is. But now I don't have it pull into my, my, uh, garage.

[00:56:10] I don't trust it that much, but I do trust it to pull into my driveway. Now there's no stock. So the, how do we start FSD? If you're driving along, is it just an easy thing to, to start on the screen? It, yes. On it's, um, they used to be on, I think it used to be a button on the steering wheel for my 2020, or maybe the earlier version of FSD.

[00:56:39] I can't remember which, which was which, but now the only way to do it that I've seen is, um, with a button on the, on the display and it's very prominent. It's easy to get to, um, no problem in activating it. Now deactivating, I wish there was a cleaner way of deactivating. Um, like if you touch the brakes or you steer hard, you can pop it out of FSD. But there are times I don't want to do that.

[00:57:07] I just want to turn it off without annoying the guy behind me that I'm hitting my brakes or jerking and annoying the guy to my left or right that I'm making some weird maneuver. The pulling of the steering wheel seems like a, I mean, it, it seems like a great way to get rid of, to turn it off if you're in an emergency. Yes. Not so great if you're not. Yeah. That's another one I would like to see as a way to disable FSD without doing one of those two things, brakes or hard, hard jerk to the wheel. Yeah.

[00:57:36] There may be, and I haven't found it. That's cool. Overall though, you're, you're happy with your new purchase. Very happy. Yeah. No complaints. Um, in fact, it's interesting. I ran into a guy at, uh, in the parking lot the other day, didn't physically run into him, but, uh, got out of my car and he had a 2023 silver model Y. And he said, he came over and wanted to ask me about my car. Cause he's thinking of, of upgrading of getting the 2026 performance.

[00:58:06] So I spent about a half hour talking to him. Like I've been talking to you about all the features and he was, he thinks he's going to get one, but, uh, I, I didn't have very many bad things to say about it. And he was most interested in noise first and ride quality second. So I said, you'll be happy with it. Interesting. Well, Steve, how would people like find out what you're doing? Where would they go to find that out?

[00:58:32] Well, if they want to see, um, some of the videos I put together, you can find me at YouTube at SP Sheridan. Um, I'm occasionally on Twitter, but mostly just tweeting articles of interviews that Alison and I, well, Alison has done at, uh, CES and other trade shows, uh, where I'm doing the filming and the editing and posting the videos.

[00:58:56] I'm also on Mastodon at SP Sheridan and threads and all the other, uh, blue sky. And that's about it at SP Sheridan. Right on SP Sheridan everywhere. You got it. Everything good starts with SP Sheridan. Don't tell her I said that. Uh, she'll find out. Yeah. Um, oh, maybe she won't, maybe she won't listen. She may not listen to this at all.

[00:59:25] Well, Steve, thank you so much for coming on and sharing with us. Uh, just, you know, so people know, like we, we talked about this way back in, at least into January, if not earlier than that. So it was nice to finally get you on and, and chat about, you know, what you thought of your new car. Yeah. It was good talking with you again, buddy. It's always a pleasure. All right. So I'm going to hit stop right quick. Good, good job. All right, everybody.

[00:59:50] I want to thank Steve Sheridan for coming on the show and being so just genuinely nice and, and patient. And listen, Allison and Steve both wrote up show notes before we ever sat down to record. I didn't have, I literally had to do nothing except for just get on the call and have a conversation. It was some of the easiest shows I've done in the 10 years, almost 10 years that I've been doing this podcast.

[01:00:19] So yeah, that is, that's a nice, that's a nice thing. Um, uh, what else? What else? What else? Oh, so I would highly suggest that you go check out Steve's YouTube channel and it's at S P Sheridan.

[01:00:35] I'll put links in the show notes because Steve, I mean, they travel Allison and Steve do some cool trips and he's got, if you haven't seen it yet, he's got some cool videos from when they were in Africa on safari, photo safari, not, not killing animals safari. So I'll put links to all the Steve stuff in the show notes. If you want to go and follow him, I would highly encourage it. All right. Well, that is it for me today.

[01:01:06] This is amazing. We got an episode out on Wednesday, which the goal is always Tuesday. We've got an episode on Wednesday. We've got an episode out on Friday. How nutty is that? And it's an all Sheridan week. Um, it's nice to have those. We should have all Sheridan weeks, uh, on the podcast. Um, talk to Steve and Allison and see if maybe we can make that work once a week. It's just them. Um, all right. I, I'm, I'm fading here. It's eight 17 and I'm tired.

[01:01:35] So I'm going to go ahead and call it good. If you want to support the show, support kilowatt.com. And, uh, yeah. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode and I will talk to y'all soon. Bye.