In Athens, Texas, while my husband was attending classes to become an NRVTA-Certified RV Tech this past August, reality hit us square in the face: We needed a second vehicle once he was working or the kids and I would be stranded while he was out on calls. Prior to this, I had steadfastly refused a second vehicle. After all, I had come to terms with selling my beloved Mustang Ruby by the end of 2021…the precious “babe you need something that’s just for you” gift from my husband. Beauty, our 2021 Ram 3500 Megacab HO dually, was enough for us. Between his stage 4 kidney cancer and my disability and other health issues, only needing one of us to be healthy enough to drive was a strong argument for being a 1 car family. But here we were: I needed a car and Ruby could not be it.
(This series of posts is written after the fact thanks to some technical issues I had with getting all of this set up. I am posting because I think this information can be helpful for a wide audience.)
I wanted something fun to drive, big enough for the 5 of us plus the 3 dogs, and fuel efficient. Beyond that I didn’t care. Fuel prices were already spiking. Beauty drinks diesel like an alcoholic on a 3-day bender. The last thing we needed was another fuel-hungry vehicle. As I was looking through cars, Facebook kept showing me electric cars. I laughed. It couldn’t be feasible to have an electric car and live the life I live…could it? Still, I put it out of my mind and looked through ICE vehicles and didn’t find much I liked. All were missing something. So I rather reluctantly started looking into electric vehicles. My husband indulged my speculation as he, too, doubted that EVs were a viable choice for us.
I quickly realized the non-Tesla EVs were out. They were either out of my price range or didn’t have the range I needed to make travel days work, and the charger networks seemed painfully slow and not very thoughtfully placed. So reluctantly I started researching Teslas, and that’s when I saw the Model Y. It seemed too good to be true: room for 5 or 7, more than adequate performance numbers, AWD, and of course the Tesla Supercharger network was supposed to be the best charging network in existence. I could make the numbers work, but it was really more than I wanted to spend.
Through some initial research, I found out that Teslas can charge adequately on a NEMA 14-50 outlet, which is the basic 50-amp service found in many newer and/or updated RV parks. An aftermarket shop also sold an adapter to make the Tesla Mobile Charger compatible with the TT-30 outlets also commonly found in RV parks and almost always available. Either option would be adequate for our needs for all but travel days.
The next day I had a key realization: Thanks to the solar and battery bank the RV has, we could just unplug and live off of the solar for a few hours and let the car charge from the RV park power pedestal. The only day we’d have a fuel bill would be travel days when I needed to visit the Supercharger network. Oh, wow. Talk about a game changer.
This also made me think that perhaps this was all too good to be true. I tried to book a test drive at a Dallas/Fort Worth Tesla showroom, but the available appointments did not work for me. I ended up at a dealer with a used 2021 Tesla Model Y and test drove the Performance model. I was instantly impressed. The interior was comfortable and much roomier than seems possible from the outside. My Exosym fit with no compromises, which after being behind the wheel of many different cars is something I’d never experienced before. And boy, the Model Y Performance was no golf cart. It outperformed Ruby on the test drive. I left the dealership knowing a Model Y was the car for us.
Still, I wanted to do more research (and my husband was still wary), so I started joining Tesla-specific groups and researching charge locations to see if they existed in a way compatible with our traveling lifestyle. That’s when the Tesla Supercharger network really sealed the deal. I didn’t realize before just how well-planned the Supercharger locations were or how many exist. I’ve been in shopping centers with Tesla chargers in multiple locations and just plain didn’t notice. If you’d like to check out the network here in the United States, you can find Tesla’s trip planner here.
On September 12, I placed my order: A metallic blue Model Y Performance without Full Self Driving. The delivery estimate bounced around but always got pushed out 2-3 days before the delivery date. I’ll admit I’m impatient, and I really didn’t like the way the dates would bounce forward and back. I was trying to get the car in time for us to leave Texas at the beginning of November. The blue Model Y Performance was not to be. It was pushed out too many times.
A friend hooked me up with the Tesla Inventory Tracker group on Facebook. Basically, they post the existing inventory cars as they hit the site and then it’s a rush to snag one. A few weeks went by and I couldn’t snag the ones that interested me. Then someone wanted to transfer their existing reservation to me that was everything I thought I wanted, but my husband didn’t want me to go pick it up in California as the delivery date for mine was less than a week away. The next day, we were hit with a 4-week delay on our order.
A few days later, on October 24th, something hit the Tesla Inventory Tracker group that caught my eye: a red Model Y Long Range 7 seater. I had only wanted a Performance because Tesla was delivering those quickly. The downsides for someone who drives as much as I do were significant:
- Performance 21″ tires would not be a comfortable ride
- You cannot rotate the tires as the front and rear are staggered (i.e., different sizes)
- Tires wear out much more quickly due to the amount of torque the car is capable of
I shrugged at the 7 seat configuration and figured that the 3rd row would simply stay folded. The only downside was it was in Lynwood, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. This time my husband didn’t hesitate: Grab it if you’re sure you’ll be happy with the configuration. This time, perhaps as an apology for the loss of the blue Performance Y, he encouraged me to keep the Full Self Driving on the car. I quickly clicked order and a few seconds later had a confirmation. I’d landed it.
It didn’t occur to me just what I had signed up for until the latest proposed delivery date was in 5 days on October 29th. I had to arrange flights, financing, and walk the Lynwood Tesla office through “not selling a car in Texas” as Tesla can’t sell me a car in my home state because Texas requires cars to be sold through dealerships (otherwise known as stealerships), and Tesla does not have dealerships. From this moment until I arrived back in Austin my life became abject chaos.
Up next: The Journey Begins