A test drive made a heck of a lot of difference. On May 6 I wrote “I’m one step closer to having a 2027 BMW iX3. Sadly, it’s a small step.” That was when I put down $1,000 on a reservation deposit for BMW’s new electric vehicle with 434 miles of range and fast charging. I wasn’t wild about the styling or color choices, but was fine with silver.
After paying the $1,000, I figured it made sense to check out the main competition to the iX3 in my mind, Tesla’s Model Y. I’d never even sat in one, much less driven one. That led me to write a May 14 blog post, “Driving a Tesla around Salem with Full Self-Driving, I was super impressed.”
My wife, Laurel, then went with me to the Tesla dealership on Mission Street to pick up a demo Model Y that we could take home overnight. Before we did that, a Tesla sales guy put Laurel in the driver’s seat, pressed the Self-Driving button on the touch screen, and off we went to Costco, which had been selected as the navigation destination.
Laurel was much impressed, as was I again, from the back seat. Full Self-Driving, FSD, is a marvel. After flawlessly driving us to Costco, with zero touches of the steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal by Laurel, the Model Y carefully dealt with people/shopping carts crossing in front of us, then parked itself all on its own.
After dropping the sales guy off at the dealership, where I’d left my Subaru Crosstrek, the Model Y drove us flawlessly back to our home in rural south Salem, handling the curvy, hilly two lane roads absolutely fine.
I took the car out at night to see how the headlights worked. Which was great. The 2026 Model Y doesn’t have the usual lowering of the beam when a car approaches. Instead, certain pixels in the LED headlights are turned off. I wanted to confirm that oncoming cars weren’t bothered by this. Apparently they weren’t, since nobody flashed their high beams at me.
While there’s a lot to like about the Model Y, it was Full Self-Driving that was the game changer for me. Secondarily, better access to Tesla Superchargers for owners of Teslas, compared to owners of other electric vehicles who can use the Supercharger network.
FSD simply made driving a whole different experience for me. Way more relaxing and interesting as I watched the Model Y do its thing while I rest my hands on my knees and make sure FSD isn’t doing anything seriously wrong. Some checking with Claude and other AI models revealed that I was mistaken about the iX3 when I said in my first post about the new BMW car:
True, Tesla is ahead in terms of driver assistance features, including its Self-Driving Supervised feature, which is way cool. However, it appears that the BMW iX3, having been designed as an electric car from the ground up, will share Tesla’s commitment to regular software updates to the car’s hardware. So while Tesla leads now in driver assistance features, likely BMW will be rapidly catching up.
Actually, I learned that BMW had cancelled development of the self-driving software that was being tested on the 7 series cars, apparently because there was no way BMW could catch up to Tesla. So the iX3 would continue to be limited to partial self-driving on freeways for the foreseeable future, something that didn’t appeal to me after experiencing FSD in the Model Y that can handle any sort of driving situation, and get regular improvement updates.
We decided to buy, or rather lease, a Model Y. Laurel really liked it in red, and I agreed that’s a gorgeous color. A red Model Y Premium will be delivered to us next week.
Today I emailed the folks at BMW of Salem, asking them to refund my $1,000 deposit on the iX3. I wanted to explain why.
While the iX3 has longer range and faster charging than the Model Y, I was blown away by how cool and addictive Full Self-Driving is with the Tesla. BMW has given up on trying to match Tesla in this area, a big mistake in my opinion. China is pressing ahead with autonomous driving in its electric cars, and I just saw that Teslas sold in China now can activate FSD Supervised.I wasn’t aware how great a feature this is until I went on a couple of lengthy test drives, including being able to take a Model Y home overnight. So FSD, plus the greater convenience and access Teslas have to the Supercharger network (the Superchargers at the Tesla dealership on Mission Street don’t allow non-Tesla vehicles such as the iX3) tilted me toward the Model Y. Oh, and also the $20,000 or so higher price for the iX3.Am sure the iX3 will be a great success. It’s just not for me. I appreciate the responsiveness of you and your staff. The Tesla folks have been equally communicative and competent. But buying a Tesla is done via a smartphone, a whole other sort of experience.One comparison video I saw of the Model Y and iX3 concluded with a statement that if you want comfort and a fairly traditional car, get the iX3. If you’re into geeky technology, get the Model Y. I’m confident I’ll like it a lot, but leasing made sense for me given the ups and downs of the demand for electric cars, including Teslas, and likely advances in batteries, etc.
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