- So you decided to buy a Tesla,
and the first one you got is the latest and greatest,
the Model Y, their crossover SUV which is minimalistic,
affordable, and serves your family great.
Well, congratulations first off,
but there's a few things you should know
before taking delivery, and there's a few few things
that I think are worth thinking about
for after you take delivery.
Let's free the data.
(upbeat music)
So let's talk about what you need
to think about before you take delivery of your first Tesla.
Most importantly is how are you going to charge it.
If you live in a house and you have a garage,
it's really simple.
There are a couple options here that you should think about.
One is installing an actual outlet that you can plug in
to your car, and it'll be a higher amperage
and it'll serve you well in terms
of charging it up relatively quickly.
But if you already have a dryer outlet,
you can purchase an adapter for that from Tesla.
So when you get the car they'll give you
what's called a UMC, a universal mobile connector.
So you can take this with you, and it'll come with a plug
for a normal 120 volt outlet here in the US.
That works, and it's not the greatest
but depending on how much you drive
that could actually serve you well.
But the other option is to buy an adaptor for this thing
which you can get from the Tesla website
for relatively cheap,
and plug that directly into a dryer outlet.
Now a dryer outlet has usually 20 amps
and 220 volt, 20 amps here in the United States,
and what that means is that it's gonna get you
about double what you would get
from that regular wall outlet, maybe more.
But it's not as much as that high powered one,
so in any event you're gonna typically come home
from your day, plug your car in, wake up the next day,
and it's good to go.
Depending how far you drive and had the time
between you coming home and getting ready
for work the next day, that is where one
of these is gonna serve you better.
So talk to an electrician if you want
to consider the higher amperage outlet.
That's definitely an option, but if you aren't sure
about that, maybe you're just renting the house,
I would highly consider or recommend getting the adaptor
from the Tesla website itself.
Now of course, if you have a nicer garage
and maybe you just want this to be a bit cleaner and nicer
and you don't have to worry about pulling out the UMC
and all that, then you can install a Tesla wall charger,
and these cost about 500 bucks from Tesla.
And then you have to have it installed.
This is where there's a lot of variability
because installing that depending on where your panel is
could bee very expensive.
This is high gauge wire.
It's not something that is really, really cheap
just from a material standpoint.
So for example I paid $1,800 to get
just that outlet installed in my house,
not including a $500 that I would have
to spend on the charger itself.
But if you have a higher end thing,
if money's not an issue here,
I would recommend that for sure.
It's gonna look beautiful.
It's gonna serve you well.
Also, it's gonna free up that mobile connector
so if you ever do go on a road trip and you wanna bring
that with you, you don't have to pull it from your garage.
Some other ideas on that are potentially public networks
or if there is a Tesla supercharger near
where you live or work or even a Tesla destination charger
that you could maybe use depending on what the purpose
of the business is.
So all these things can be found on an app
that I highly recommend called PlugShare.
The PlugShare app shows you all kinds of different networks
and basically every EV charger that's out there.
Now built into your Tesla it also has all the Tesla ones,
but this one shows you everything else.
So a network I've used outside of just the Tesla one
that has served me well is ChargePoint,
and depending on where you live,
the cost of that it may or may not be worth it.
But if you go to PlugShare get that app,
this will show you where everything is.
That way outside of just charging at home overnight,
let's say you don't have a garage and that doesn't apply
to you, then this is gonna be how you charge.
So hopefully there's one at your work,
maybe near your work,
and if not maybe a supercharger you could hit
every couple days depending on how far you drive.
So that's something else to think about.
It's not a requirement each day,
something you're gonna be worried about,
but you do wanna have a plan in terms of
where you know you can charge, where it's gonna be reliable,
it's gonna be affordable, all those kinda things.
The other thing I'll mention quickly that you
may wanna consider prior to taking delivery of your Tesla
is your own roadside assistance service.
So I've had AAA as an example here in the US for years now,
and it's really nice
because sometimes the Tesla roadside assistance is slow
to respond and maybe they're gonna start charging
for that service.
Who knows where that's gonna go in the future,
but your car does not have a spare tire in it.
So if you get a flat tire, which happens,
happens to me just a few weeks ago,
then you would be nice to have your own option here.
So something to consider,
not to say that the Tesla roadside service isn't great,
but I have had mixed results in the past.
And so if that's something that just affordable for you
and gives you a little bit of extra sense of security,
then yeah, keep getting it.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so you've taken delivery, now what?
Well, there are some things
that I think are worth considering buying or adding
to the vehicle depending on your use case.
One of the things you'll notice that's missing
from your Model Y like the Model 3 is any sort
of dash board behind the steering wheel.
This is known as a binnacle dashboard.
So if you're like me and you like to have a bit
of information back there, a simple fix is
to buy a cell phone holder
and put it right behind your steering wheel,
and then you can mount your phone there.
You can also run a power cord and make it magnetic
to where it's really easy and seamless.
You hop in, you pop it on there, and you're good to go.
I prefer to use ways where I can see navigation.
I can get warnings about things,
look at my speed, et cetera.
I find it to be really useful,
but if you wanna keep it cleaner and more minimalistic,
totally you can do without this.
Another thing to think about is
how to care for your vehicle.
Well, depending on how long you're gonna keep it
and how much you drive,
something I highly recommend is paint protection film.
This is also known as Clear Bra,
and basically it's like a clear wrap
that they put over either the entire car
or just kinda the high impact zones,
so like the side skirts and the front of the car there.
This is gonna help with any kinda rock chips
or just dirt or just any other build up
or things that might damage the paint of the vehicle,
and so this is gonna keep a kind of the looking nice
and kinda keep it protected over time here.
But it doesn't change the look really at all.
So that if you're gonna keep the car for a long time,
and you drive a lot, definitely recommended.
Another thing to consider in that realm is tint.
Where I live it's sunny.
It gets warm, so highly recommended
for those kind of environments, but to each their own.
Some people don't like it.
It makes it harder to see and all that.
Now that big glass panel roof that you're gonna get
in the Model Y could be a challenge
for a lot of regular tint places, so if you're
in San Diego I highly recommend Elite Finish.
They're the ones that I take all my cars to.
They do literally all of this kinda finishing stuff,
even chrome deletes and things like that.
So those are the guys that I recommend.
In L.A. there's Unplugged Performance
who also does body modification kits and things like that.
They also have an auto spa so you can reach out
to them and do all the same kinda stuff.
So depending on what region you're in
I would contact either of those two,
but definitely choose a higher end company and shop
that is used to dealing with these
because that big giant window's gonna be difficult
if they wanna add tint to that or the back or whatever.
So pick someone that you know maybe costs a little bit more
but is gonna do more quality work.
Along those lines too you could add
ceramic coating to your car.
This is something that really brings out
kinda the shine, the brilliance of it.
It does also help with things like rain
where the water just kinda washes right off.
It really just keeps your car looking really
just top notch every time you wash it.
I got it on my Model 3, and I was really blown away
at how it improved the look of what otherwise would
be kind of a substandard or subpar paint job from Tesla
with the solid paint on the Model 3.
So ceramic coating, it's gonna probably
be a little bit pricey on top of all
these other things you're gonna consider,
but it is gonna make the car just look amazing all the time.
Another thing in kinda the aesthetic of it is rims.
Now you can spend a ton of money on rims and tires,
but there is a company out there that I worked with
in the past called EV Wheel Direct
which makes some really cool looking ones.
In fact they make this turbine style rim
which as far as I know Tesla doesn't make
for the Model 3 or Model Y, but it is a classic
kind of traditional one that was popular
with the Model S and Model X.
So if you like that look, you can put that on here
by going to EV Wheels Direct and checking out
what they have to offer.
In addition they have this Roadster wheel
that they copied off of the brand new Roadster coming out.
So there's really kind of cool options out there
that aren't super expensive.
If you do wanna go super expensive and buy
what is known as a forged rim versus a cast rim,
yeah you can spend upwards of $10,000
just on the rims themselves.
So I'm not even gonna talk about that because to me
that's just kinda crazy,
and a Model Y I think is a very practical vehicle.
I know some people will go that route, and hey,
cheers to you, but I think most people
I'm not gonna recommend you spend $10,000
on rims for this car.
But EV Wheel Direct does have some really economical options
that I think are worth checking out
so I'll put a link to that in the description below.
So if you're like me you'll wanna take care of your Tesla,
and the first way to start doing
that is to wash it properly.
The way I recommend doing that
is using something called WashMist.
WashMist is from the guys at Elite Finish,
and what it is is a waterless wash system.
So you get about 15 ounces of water and one ounce
of their concentrate, and that will last you
for maybe two to three washes.
So you're using less than a glass of water
to wash your entire vehicle
which is really great from a sustainability standpoint,
but the concentrate and the liquid itself is
also really good in terms of keeping the shine
and the paint and everything just really, really preserved.
So all in you can buy a kit starting at $75,
and that'll last you about a year.
So if you think about the cost of going to a car wash
and the damage that those brushes and things may do
to your car, this is actually a great investment for you.
And it's something that I started doing a while ago,
and all around it'll take you maybe 15 minutes
to wash the car.
And in the end you have a great result.
You didn't use a lot of water.
You didn't have heavy brushes scraping against the paint
which Tesla's been notorious
for not having the best paint job.
So you do a better thing for your car
and for the environment and it's really affordable.
So WashMist is always one of the top things
that I recommend for everyone
in terms of how to care for your Tesla
'cause of all the things I just mentioned there.
I really can't recommend it enough.
(upbeat music)
Now of course these cars are more advanced technologically
and have more stuff going on, so it's gonna make a lot
of sense I think to really get some data
and some information and see how your car
and your battery are performing.
This is where I recommend Tezlab.
Tezlab is a monitoring app that is basically
like Fitbit for your Tesla.
It looks at all your trips.
It looks at all your charging.
It pays attention to how the battery's doing,
your efficiency on your driving,
how things like Sentry Mode and climate controls
and those kind of things are affecting your phantom drain.
And it really just helps you understand what's going on.
In addition, there's a community side of this
where you can become the mayor or a supercharger.
You can find which superchargers have the best bathrooms
and all kinds of other things there
that we're gonna be developing.
And I say we because yes I am a part of that company
so full disclosure I'm obviously biased in that.
But you can check it out for free.
There is a pro version which gives you more data
so it's kind of how Nest, you know you can use a Nest camera
but then if you want 30 days of history you pay
for that additional cloud storage.
So we'll always have a free version with all these features,
and I did a whole video on it recently.
I'll put a link to it.
You can go check it out if you wanna dive deeper
before you go sign up for a free trial.
It's kind of a cool thing especially if you do it
when you first get your Tesla because you'll have
all the data on every trip you've ever taken
and things like that.
So check it out if you're curious and wanna go deeper
into the data there.
Now on the technical side there's a couple more things
that I think are pretty cool that you can do here.
So whether or not you know it now
these cars all have something called Sentry Mode
and a dash cam.
So this isn't something that's just built in.
You have to actually add pieces to the car
to enable these features, but Sentry Mode is
where if you've seen any of the videos,
maybe you've been following this for a long time
before you got your Tesla,
it's where they have all the cameras
of the car recording as a security system.
So if anyone comes up, scratches your car,
bumps your car, whatever, it will save that
to a USB drive that you can put in your car.
Well, there's two bits of technology here
that are gonna make that a bit easier for you.
One is a USB hub, and you can get really any little USB hub
for you know 10 bucks, and you can mount that
with a piece of Velcro underneath
in kind of the center console area there,
and then put that USB drive in there.
Now a regular USB drive has a challenge of
if you wanna look at this footage,
if you wanna see if something happened,
you have to pull that out,
and then you can buy an adaptor for your phone
which is actually not a bad choice
or you have to bring it in to your computer.
And because it records so many cameras
and it can have all these events trigger it
off of seemingly just people walking by
or cars driving by, it can take you a long time
to really sift through that footage.
So there's a guy out there
that made a product called a Roadie
which is I think is really cool,
and it allows you to do this all
from your phone all wirelessly.
So the workflow is like this.
The way I like to do it is to turn on my mobile hotspot
on my phone, which I've configured the Roadie to connect to,
wait a few seconds for it to connect,
then I open the Roadie app and I can scrub through
that footage in a really nice display, really quickly.
So both of those things, the USB hub and the Roadie
are just really cool things that are in addition
to the technology that is built in to the car.
Now who knows, maybe down the road Tesla will build
this kind of software in to where you can view those clips
on the screen which would be fantastic,
but as of right now this is
kinda the most seamless way to do it.
I will have one caveat there that in my experience
on an Android device it was kind of buggy.
I know that they're working on it,
and it's getting better so if you buy it,
don't expect it to be a super polished, finished
you know Apple product, something like that.
It may be something that you have to tinker
with a little bit, but from my own experience
it's not been that bad.
It's actually been super useful.
So gonna recommend both of those things,
a USB hub and a Roadie.
So that's it for this one, and I hope you enjoyed that.
I hope these recommendations help you
in terms of before you get your Model Y,
after you get your Model Y.
If there's anything I missed, any other questions you have,
please leave them in the comment section down below
and share this video with anyone out there
that's curious about it.
I really just wanna make this as a resource for you guys.
As this changes over time I may do an update to this video
so subscribe if you haven't already unless you don't forget.
When you free the data, your mind will follow.
I'll see guys back here in the next one.