I’m too old to have a mid-life crisis. So I’m calling my just-leased Tesla Model Y my end-of-life crisis car.
While it isn’t a red convertible with a beautiful blonde sitting in the passenger seat, I can check two of those three boxes: the Tesla is red and my beautiful wife of 36 years , Laurel, is blonde. (Note: 36 years is how long we’ve been married, not her age.) Here I am with the car in our driveway.
We picked up the 2026 Model Y Premium from the Salem dealership two days ago, May 27. The car arrived more quickly than expected. So I had to complete the leasing process on my iPhone under more time pressure than I’d expected.
Buying a Tesla is decidedly non-traditional. There’s no bargaining over price; everything is done through the Tesla app; it just took a few minutes to sign a couple of pages at the dealership before we were sent out to the car on our own to watch a video on the screen that got us clued in to some Tesla basics, like how to adjust the mirrors, seat, and steering wheel and save those settings in a driver profile.
My first ride in a Tesla ever was on May 14, just two weeks ago, when I wrote “Driving a Tesla around Salem with Full Self-Driving, I was super impressed.” My wife then took a demo ride and was similarly enthralled. Not so enthralled were some commenters on Facebook after I’d shared that blog post. I was accused of selling out to Elon Musk by getting a Tesla.
That led me to write a May 16 rejoinder, “Loving Tesla doesn’t mean I love Elon Musk. Loving Amazon doesn’t mean I love Jeff Bezos.” Laurel and I are both proud progressives, but we saw nothing wrong in buying the Model Y. Which is a terrific car. Some people told me, there’s plenty of electric cars to choose from.
Yeah, true, but Consumer Reports says the Model Y is the best electric vehicle sold in the United States. This is from the Top Ten listing in the 2026 annual car issue.
So after we ordered the Model Y, I cancelled the reservation deposit I’d made on a BMW iX3, writing “Goodbye BMW iX3. Hello Tesla Model Y. I’ve decided who I love the most.”
The Model Y, like all Teslas, is so packed with technology and so centered on a large touchscreen rather than physical controls, it takes a while to learn all of the Model Y’s capabilities.
Still, I’ve made good progress over the past few days.
My car tells me that I’ve been using Full Self-Driving 94% of the time. Basically I only drive the Tesla manually when entering our rural driveway and the Chemeketa Parkade in downtown Salem, where I go three days a week for Tai Chi classes. FSD was what sold me on leasing a Model Y. No other car sold in this country has anything close to it. FSD isn’t perfect, but it steadily improves, and is a better driver than most people are.
The Model Y is a considerably larger SUV than my Subaru Crosstrek, which I’ll be bequeathing to my granddaughter, who will be a sophomore at the University of Oregon next fall and needs a safe, reliable car. The dog bed that used to sit on the folded rear seats of my Crosstrek now only takes up less than half of the Model Y’s rear compartment. I’m going to put grocery bags on the rear seats now when Mooka comes along for a ride.
Mooka will get to enjoy Tesla’s Dog Mode, which keeps the temperature of a Tesla at a dog-friendly level no matter how hot it is out, alerting concerned passers-by with a large message on the touchscreen saying that Dog Mode is activated and Mooka is just fine.
The interior of the 2026 Model Y Premium, also known as the Juniper refresh, has a pleasing high-quality Zen sensibility. I like the LED lighting along the dash and sides of the front seats. The color can be changed, naturally. The seats are sporty and comfortable. The full glass roof is a joy, though I’m going to get a motorized sunshade to use on very hot summer days.
The front lighting makes the Tesla look like it could blast off into space. Which is fitting, since Tesla has merged with one of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX, I believe.
Lighting on the rear of the car has sort of an afterburner effect, especially at night.
The Model Y is one of the safest cars in the United States. Maybe the #1 safest. This is from the window sticker.
I feel really good about driving an electric car. Zero carbon emissions, aside from what is used to generate the electricity that will power the Model Y. The 327 miles of range is very good, especially since Consumer Reports found that the Model Y has about that range even when driven at 70 mph. Likely this is due in large part to the low air resistance of the Model Y, which rivals that of sports cars.
Lastly, I found this to be a great video about why the Model Y is such a pleasant car for everyday driving. Well worth a look.
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