The New 2026 Tesla Model Y Is Boring and Good Enough

This is the new 2026 Tesla Model Y and it's the small crossover. It's not a particularly exciting small crossover. It's not rare or off-road capable or even all that fast, but it is really good at commuting with ease.

Normal point A to point B driving. That's its specialty. And today, I'm going to review the updated Model Y and show you what makes it so great, and I'll show you all of its quirks and features.

A quick message from our partner, Ty Rack. Here's the thing about tire shopping. It can be miserable.

You walk into a shop, somebody points at four options, and you just nod. Well, Tire Rack is the opposite of that. You punch in your year, make, and model, like I do for my cars, and you get every tire that actually fits side by side.

And this is the part I really like. You can filter by what matters to you. Wet traction, tread life, comfort, noise, price.

There are real customer reviews, real specs, and Tyrack's own test results, not some random listicle from 2014. For the Tesla Model Y I'm reviewing today, I'd pick the Verdiststein Quattrack Pro Plus because it scored 9. 2 in tire racks wet traction category.

A few things worth knowing. Every tire purchase comes with 2 years of free road hazard protection. Nails, potholes, the chunk of muffler in lane two, it's covered.

Shipping is free and most of the country gets it next day. And you've got options on install. Ship free to your recommended installer, ship free to your house, or in some areas, they'll come to you with mobile installation.

It's the way tire buying should be. Go to tyrack. com to shop tires.

Link is pinned in the comments and down in the description. All right, back to the car. All right, time for the quirks and features of the updated Tesla Model Y.

Starting with a little overview. So, the smaller Tesla Model 3 sedan that was updated a couple years ago for 24 and I did a full review of that. Now Tesla has updated the Model Y for the 26 model year.

I got to say the changes are not particularly significant. The Tesla people online are freaking out about how different it is, but most people probably won't notice the difference. The biggest change is around back where the tail lights have been completely redesigned and there is now a light bar going across the entire rear end of the Model Y.

However, this particular Model Y doesn't have a light bar. That's just a fixed panel. It doesn't light up.

And that's because this is the brand new Model Y standard, which is sort of the entrylevel new model in the lineup. I'll cover the changes to the lineup in a second. But first, let's discuss the other big exterior change, which is the headlights are a little different.

Specifically, they've gotten narrower, kind of squintier. And on the vast majority of Model Y's, there will be a full light bar across the entire front end. Although, again, that's not on this car because the Model Y standard doesn't include the front or rear light bars.

And since I've already brought it up a couple times, let's discuss the Model range. There are three versions of the Model Y that you can get. There's the standard, the premium, which was formerly called the long range, and the performance, which is the sporty model at the top of the Model Y lineup.

The standard, that's this car again, is new for this updated 26 model year and the new Model Y. And I got to say, it's a pretty impressive vehicle when you consider the price point. Around $41,500 starting price for the Model Y standard.

It doesn't get all the cool stuff that the other Model Y's do like those light bars and some equipment inside, but 415 for a brand new Tesla is pretty impressive. It has about 300 horsepower. You can get it in rear wheel drive or all-wheel drive.

The range is about 320 mi. and 0 to 60 is in the 5 to 5 1/2 second range. Now, I suspect most people will end up going for the premium, which is actually a pretty decent value, too.

It starts around $46,500, about 5 grand more than the base car, and it bumps horsepower to around $375, which means 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds. That's pretty quick. But most importantly, the premium model, which is also rear or all-wheel drive, it gets around 360 mi of range on a full charge, which is a really impressive figure for any new electric car, but especially one at the 46 to $51,000 price point.

It is pretty nice. Now, if you're the enthusiast looking for a Model Y, you end up with the performance model, all-wheel drive only and serious power. 500 horsepower and 0 to 60 in the low 3 second range.

Those are pretty legit numbers, but the drawback is it's expensive at just under $60,000. And you get a range penalty with all that power. Only about 300 miles of range.

pretty good enough for most people, but not quite at the level of the other versions of the Y. Now, speaking of options, equipment, and pricing, worth pointing out that the Model Y for the 26 model year now adds an available third row seat. Once again, it's a $2500 option, and it used to be available on the Model Y, but so few people got it that they actually took it away.

Well, now it has returned, I suspect, because Tesla has cancelled the Model X, their larger SUV, and so they want to give people some sort of option for a three row vehicle. Even though this would be relatively tight with three row seating, at least it's a possibility and it's available. As for other interesting exterior quirks, there's really not all that much.

This is the same familiar design we've seen in the Model Y for years now. They've sold zillions of these all across the world and it's all pretty well known by now except now with a slightly different front and rear end design. There are a few items at least worth mentioning.

Probably the most notable is the hub caps. You can see they are not particularly attractive, are they? I think I think they have two purposes.

One is for aerodynamics. With this flat shape, it means the air won't quite get as messed up driving around next to the wheels. And that probably adds a mile or two of range having these flat hubcaps.

The other reason for the hubcaps though is honestly I suspect they're there to try to convince people to spend more money and get a higher tier Model Y that doesn't have these ugly hub caps, but that's what you get in the base model. Couple other things on the outside. I love this camera on the side of the car.

It's a really brilliant piece of design because it kind of looks like a fender vent, like it's there for style, and it does add a little bit of style and character to this part of the car, but it's actually a functional piece. They needed a spot for a camera there, and instead of just sticking one on, and it's ugly, they made it look like something that's cool, even though it's functional. That's pretty nice.

I also love how Tesla has expertly integrated the chargeport door into the rear fender of the car. You can see it pops open, reveals where the charge port is, but when it's closed, you would never know it's there. It just looks like a portion of the tail light assembly with the reflector on the side.

You don't have some giant ugly panel cut out of the side of the car. The charge port is located like so many cars do with their fuel doors and their charge port doors. Not here.

It's a nice idea. Also worth mentioning, the door handles, like on previous Tesla models, they still function the same. You push them at the back end where they're larger.

They pop out in the front and then you pull and open up the door. Pretty standard stuff, although it can be a little confusing for people who aren't really used to these Tesla models. Now, in next we move inside the updated Model Y where the interior has changed.

Although you really have to know a lot about these cars, spend a lot of time with them to even spot the changes to the interior. Nonetheless, they're there. For one, the dashboard has been redesigned.

Again, looks a lot like what you'd get in the old car, but it is in fact different compared to what's in the old Model Y. You also have a newly redesigned steering wheel. Again, not a significant change, but it is indeed a new steering wheel for 26.

You also have updated seats, which reportedly have been redesigned to increase comfort. That one I can notice and maybe feel. I feel like it's probably more noticeable over long trips unless you have updated seats.

Now, the Model Y also adds a few other new features for 26, like available ventilated seats and an available rear screen for rear passengers to use. This particular Model Y doesn't have either of those features since it's sort of the base level standard model, but nonetheless, they are newly available. Now, what this Model Y and all the others, what it does have is a very minimalist interior.

That's clearly the goal with this car. Minimalist, basic, simple. They're trying to keep it clean.

It saves cost, but it also looks cool. Kind of a decluttered sort of calm space, this interior. Tesla has done a fantastic job with that exact thing for years now, and that is still absolutely the theme of the interior for this car and other Tesla vehicles.

With that said, there are a few notable quirks to point out in here. Let's start on the driver's door panel where you have a little button that you push in order to electronically pop the door open and then you push it open the rest of the way. In case your electronic door popper fails, you actually do have a manual release.

You can see right here next to the window switches. You pull on that and you can open up the door and climb out with a mechanical door release. Now, in the center, I like the fact that you have two separate wireless phone chargers here.

You can see left and right. Most cars only have one. Having two is nice, obviously, for driver and passenger.

In the center console, you got cup holders, as you can see, and a storage compartment. You lift this lid, sort of an armrest. You lift it up and there's storage in there.

You don't have really any other storage. Some cars have like drawers and Kleenex box holders and all sorts of other stuff. Not this one.

Again, it's minimalist. It's all very basic. You do, however, have one other compartment, and that would be, of course, the glove box.

Although, you can't just open it with a latch. Instead, you got to go into the infotainment screen. You can see right here it says glove box.

You tap on that and then it opens. And indeed, the infotainment screen controls are allencompassing in this car. If you want to adjust the mirrors, you got to go into the infotainment screen, select the mirror setting, and then you use the dials on the steering wheel to change the position of the mirrors.

And check this out. If you want to adjust the seats, you don't have seat controls on the side of the seat like every other car. Instead, you go to the seat menu in the infotainment screen.

And from there, you can move the seats forward, backward, up, down, all the normal stuff, just instead of buttons and switches on the side of the seat. It's all done through the screen, which is pretty crazy. And so, since I'm talking about the screen anyway, cuz you can't avoid it, let's talk about the screen.

It does basically everything like I've already started to show you, but it really does have some pretty impressive capabilities. One thing, it's also the gauge cluster because you can see there is no actual gauge cluster instrument panel display ahead of the steering wheel like in every other car. Instead, if you want to see your speed, etc.

, all of that is displayed in the upper left corner of the central screen. And I must say, I still don't like it. Tesla's been doing this now for almost a decade starting with the Model 3.

And I still just wish I had a gauge [clears throat] cluster, at least for the basic simple stuff like whether the turn signals are on, the headlights, the gear you're in, all of those things, the speed, it's all displayed in a corner of the screen rather than a cluster right in front of you. Now, beyond that, this screen is also your main control panel for vehicle functions, and that even includes getting it going. To go forward, you swipe your finger on this little top- down display of a car on the left side of the screen.

You swipe your finger forward and then you're in drive and you can go forward. If you want to go backward, you swipe your finger the other direction in reverse and then you're going backwards. That's how it works.

Beyond that, you want to turn on the headlights, well, guess what? They're in the screen. You can see the headlight controls are here.

And same deal with the wipers. Again, you go into the screen and you can adjust your windshield wiper settings. auto or select exactly how quickly you want them to be wiping your windshield.

You also have adjustments for stuff like the acceleration level here. You can choose between standard and chill. You can adjust your autopilot controls and how the vehicle intervenes.

All of your controls are integrated into this screen. Basically, nothing else is left anywhere else. And of course, because this is Tesla, there's also a lot of fun and quirky things you can do with the screen.

Like, for example, you can play games. You pop into the screen into the game area. There's all sorts of games you can play.

I always love playing this beach buggy racing game. And I especially love that in a Tesla, you control the game using the actual controls for your car. So, the steering wheel and the pedals are actually the controls for your beach buggy, which I think is way cooler than in other cars where you're typically using the touchcreen.

It's not as good. Love how Tesla integrates the actual vehicle controls here. You also have the ability to customize the look of your car as it appears on screen.

You can see it defaults to white because this is a white car, but you can change the color to whatever you want. And you can even choose a custom wrap for the car. And you can even design your own custom wrap for the car if you so choose.

There's also a fireplace mode. They call it romance where you can just have a fireplace going while you sit in the car, which actually could be nice. You're waiting to pick your kids up from school.

You're sitting there reading with the fire going. That sounds nice. There's even a sketch pad where you can draw.

All sorts of cool stuff integrated into this infotainment screen. And beyond that, you have messaging, a browser, car karaoke. You can do a lot with the Tesla center screen.

Now, beyond the fun stuff and some of the controls, there's other important things to discuss here. One is the blind spot camera system, which is pretty cool. You put on the turn signal and you can see a camera shows up in the screen showing what's in your blind spot on whichever side you're signaling, which is obviously really useful.

Now, Hyundai and Kia also do this. It's integrated a little bit better because the blind spot camera appears in the gauge cluster directly in your line of sight. But nonetheless, nice to have it at all.

Pretty cool. You also can see all of the stuff around you. All the vehicles that you're passing, the speed limit signs, stop signs, traffic lights, etc.

All of them as you're driving along. Of course, this is what Tesla's autopilot and full self-driving features use to actually drive steer the car. Their ability to kind of detect and recognize what's going on around you, which is displayed on the screen as you're driving along is kind of cool.

And another useful feature of the screen is climate control. If you tap on the temperature in the car, you can see a full climate control screen appears, which lets you turn on windshield defroster, change the fan speed, all the usual climate control stuff. It even lets you adjust the position of the climate vents, which is a big deal because, well, you'll notice there are no visible climate vents in this car.

They don't exist, or at least that's what it seems like. Of course, they are in here, but they are hidden. There's no giant ugly vents with switches you can use to adjust them.

It's all done through the screen. Yet another thing included through here. Now, in case you don't want to be adjusting your climate control in a menu in the screen, there is a shortcut with quick controls.

First off, you can adjust the temperature with these little arrows next to the temperature readout. But beyond that, if you tap on these arrows, it pulls up like the heated seats and a couple of other kind of mostus climate control features that are in this kind of quick pop-up tab. You also have the ability to change your stereo volume with this like easy little stereo volume slider mounted at the bottom corner of the screen.

So for that, you don't have to go like into a media section of the screen in order to see that stuff. Now, one other thing that I really like in this screen, you can see there is a little camera icon here. You tap on this camera icon and of course it pulls up the cameras.

I love how easy it is to pull up the cameras in this car. Although in the Model Y it's even easier than you think and it's easier than in other cars because you can do it on the steering wheel. This little button that's a circle with a couple of dots supposed to look like a camera.

Regardless, you press it and it pulls up your cameras. And I think that is fantastic. A lot of cars now have a camera button somewhere in the center.

You tap it pulls up your camera system. But having on the steering wheel adds even more ease of use when you're trying to pull up your camera system. You also have the steering wheel, by the way, a button to flash your high beams, as you can see, and a button to wash your windshield, windshield washers.

So, even though the wipers themselves are buried in the screen, if you want a quick wash, that's a quick tap on the steering wheel, which is a pretty good idea not to put that in the screen in case you're driving along and you quickly need to wipe off your windshield. It's nice to have easy access to that. One other important control not on the screen.

You can see there is a turn signal stalk. You press it and it operates just like a turn signal stalk instead of like buttons mounted on the steering wheel like you've seen in some other Tesla models. My hand.

Next up, we move on to the back seat in the Model Y, which is actually surprisingly pretty great. For one thing, it's pretty big. Given the Model Y sizing as sort of a compact to midsize kind of right on the line, you're not expecting a large back seat, but you get one.

I got a lot of space back here for knees and legs. And I have good headroom, which isn't necessarily a given considering the teardrop shape. That usually robs headroom in back, but not in this case.

I sit up all the way and my head still has a little bit of space before it hits the ceiling. And I'm pretty tall. This is a pretty impressive backseat space and you have everything back here that you might need.

There's a couple of USBC charge ports in back as you can see. You also have rear climate vents that can be adjusted using switches on the vents themselves. So that adds to your comfort and convenience.

Now, interestingly, in the back of the Model Y, you also have a little button that you can press to electronically pop the doors open so you can climb out. And there is now a manual door release as well. You can see in the bottom of this door storage compartment, there's a little release.

You pull on it and that will mechanically release the rear doors just like the mechanical release I showed you up front. Tesla models before only had those mechanical releases in the front, but now it's in the back as well. Now, one other notable item in the back seat, there are cup holders in this center armrest compartment, but when I pull on the compartment, the entire seat comes forward, folds down, revealing access to the cargo area.

I can't actually get just this compartment open. And that kind of speaks to one of the issues that I've noticed with this car. It's not exactly the highest quality.

You got this, but you also have other stuff. Like for example, the doors when they close, listen to the sound. It's just not good.

I'm also surprised in the front trunk you don't have a full trunk liner. Instead, there's more exposed kind of sheet metal than I would expect. The steering wheel makes a little bit of a noise as you turn it, as you can hear.

To be honest, none of this stuff is disqualifying or even really that big of a deal at the price point of this standard level Model Y. 415 for this car, even with all this stuff, seems totally reasonable to me. And I'd be curious if some of these issues replicate in the higherend Model Y trims.

But I will say the point I'm trying to make here is that a lot of people consider Tesla to be sort of a luxury premium brand. That's definitely not the case with this car. It kind of has some mainstream car quality and fit and finish rather than any sort of luxury premium tier car brand as you can see.

And then there's the cargo areas. We start with the cargo area in back. your typical cargo area, which actually is pretty wellsized.

Despite the teardrop shape, which does kind of steal some space for larger, taller items compared to a more boxy look like the Rivians, you do still get a lot of space back here. Pretty impressive cargo space. And you can lift up the floor for considerably more cargo space.

As you can see, there's like a whole cargo area and then like a whole trunk below that in case you have kind of more fragile items that you don't want rolling around. You also have extra cargo storage pockets on the side of the cargo area, which again contribute to practicality and give you kind of space for smaller or more fragile stuff. Couple things I don't love about the cargo area.

Number one, there is no mechanism back here to drop down the rear seats. So, if you want to drop those down, you do have to individually go around to the seats and actually drop them down manually rather than some latch in back like most cars at this price point in this segment have. You also don't have any charge ports back here.

So devices, if you're tailgating, hanging out at the beach, whatever, you can't charge. And that actually brings me to another criticism of this car. There is no household charge port anywhere in this car.

Virtually every brand new car, especially high tech ones like this, they now have household charge ports, but that's not the case here. A lot of USBC, still very useful, but you don't have household, which is a disappointment. Now, there is also a cargo compartment in front.

Of course, the frunk, the front trunk. And you can see it's reasonably wellsized. Not huge, but bigger than what you get in most rivals.

And you can add more cargo up there in case you fill up what you have in back. It's actually all pretty practical. And you might be wondering, how does it drive?

Well, I've showed you all of the quirks and features, so now it's time to get behind the wheel. Let's find out. All right, driving the new Model Y.

Okay, couple of things driving this car that instantly hit me. Number one, this car still after I've driven every other brand new car on the market, this car still feels futuristic. It still feels like like it's something that is sort of alien to what we are used to in the car world.

And honestly, I think that's one of the big reasons why despite the fact that these are literally everywhere, that they are truly in ubiquity, people who buy them still think they have like a luxury car because it is special. Like even though it is one of the most popular cars on the planet, it is actually a pretty special experience because it is just so damn different than basically anything else on the on the from a driving perspective. the you just the the lack of screens, the lack of stuff.

It feels minimalist. It feels futuristic. And these days minimalist is luxurious and that thus it feels like advanced and different and interesting and weird and cool and and I really think that that's what contributes to to this car having such a luxury car feel.

The other thing that I'm struck by driving this car is that it's um it's pretty dull. It's like the experience is just there's nothing really here for enthusiasts. Now Tesla people get really mad when I say but the they always say, "Oh, it's fast.

" Well, everything's fast now. I mean, you know, any electric car is 0 to 60 and 3 point something. You know, that doesn't really do it.

Aside from that, there's really not that much to this driving experience, right? And actually, I think that's one of the selling points of the car. If Tesla enthusiasts were honest with themselves about it, I think they would agree like, "Hey, this thing is ultimately an appliance car that people use to get from point A to point B, it's not the kind of thing you want to take out on the weekends and have fun with.

It's not something that that is, you know, going to be ever thought of as like really special or exciting, despite the fact that the interior does give you that feeling. Um, it's just not. and and however it is a great appliance car and it's not something that is that is you know I'm sitting in here and I'm I'm it's boring and it's basic but I'm like you know what this what I paid for like that's what I want out of this car something that sort of drives itself in a simple way to work to make commuting less painful and that's what this car is so good at and that's what it's still good at.

Now I do have to say one thing. Every time I get in a Tesla, a newer and newer Tesla, I'm struck by the fact the quality just doesn't feel quite like it was on the level before. Now, this is the base model, and people are Tesla people in the comments, you reviewed the base model.

Of course, it doesn't feel as nice. It's true. That's totally true.

But it's also an important car for Tesla. Like, this is probably going to be a volume car globally. And I get in here and it's just there there's more This car only has 4,000 mi.

There's more rattling. The the door closing feel just isn't that nice. The ride is a little harsher, a little rougher.

You feel the road a little bit more. It it feels less nice than I feel like it did back when I reviewed early Teslas, the early Model 3 and the Model 3 Performance, you know, 5, seven years ago. You know, there's a little bit of wind rush coming through what's obviously like not perfectly applied seal in the windshield.

There's a little bit more tire noise than there used to be. The ride quality again is certainly a little bit rougher. Like there's all these like little things that just feel make the car not it's not it isn't a luxury experience.

Let's put it that way. Like this is a mainstream car. It's an appliance vehicle.

Uh it is not something that that really feels like a really hardcore premium product. And again, that might be different at the at the higher levels of this vehicle, but this this is an important vehicle that they're offering and and it certainly doesn't feel, you know, luxurious. Again, I don't think that's a drawback.

Like, I think it fits with the price point of this car. It fits with the traditional use case that most people have for this car, which is they're commuting with it. They're an Uber driver.

They're bringing, you know, people to the airport. Like, that's what this car is for, and that's what it's really good at. And I don't think that decontenting it and making it feel a little bit less nice is really a mistake in that sense because honestly I think that that for those purposes this car is perfectly fine.

It just strikes me again and again that despite some of this reputation oh Tesla still has it like reputation. This car is just not a high quality thing. It's just not a luxurious car.

But it is still incredibly competent and I think an incredibly fantastic vehicle for what its purpose primarily is and it is still an excellent vehicle that is near or at the very top of the class in terms of a lot of really important metrics to car shoppers. And so that's the new 2026 Tesla Model Y. Like I said, this vehicle isn't really great at anything that would excite a car enthusiast.

It's not rare or crazy looking or off-road capable or even particularly fast or adept at cornering, but it is a great appliance car. It's a great daily driver for basic point A to point B commuting and drives. That's what it's good at.

That's the Model Y. And now there's this new one. And now it's time to give this Model Y a Doug score.

And the Doug score is here. 55 out of 100, which puts the Model Y here against similar cars. It's basically dead last, beating out only the Fisker Ocean, which is an unsupported orphan weirdo car that's no longer in production.

But before the crazy Tesla people pile on the hate, take a second to recognize some nuance. In the daily categories, the Model Y actually scores second overall, and the only car that beats it is Tesla's own Model 3. It's the weekend scores where the Model Y loses ground to rivals.

And that's because I mainly tested top level trims of other cars, but I reviewed the lowest level Model Y. Now, in theory, the value proposition of the lowest level Model Y should outshine the loss in driving enjoyment performance that you get in the higher trims, but it just doesn't. The base Model Y is a cynical car that really feels cheap inside and just a few miles as a driver or passenger, gives up any ground the Tesla name has earned as a premium brand.

This is the Uber driver spec car, and while it's cheap to buy, it also feels cheap to buy. I'm eager to test a nicer model in the future, as I hope the experience is more like the wonderful Model Y performance I tested years ago when it first came out.