So I know there have been a lot of posts about the issues and struggles and frustrations with the AP4 "short" mess and just wanted to share a more in-depth summary of my experience with it now that I've reached a "next milestone." This is basically a diary of events so.... yeah it's LONG but might help some first time and prospective buyers know what to expect? I did not document all the buttons and menu options, just the overview of what I dealt with and how.

TLDR: I am pissed that it happened and that Tesla as a company has not publicly acknowledged it or issued a voluntary recall. I am overall extremely happy with my service experience and am hopeful for the future while still having a harsh reality check on my expectations for the brand. The loaner car has caused me to question longterm durability.

Starting Details:

2024 Model Y AWD Long Range - Fremont Build (In Stock Inventory)

Date of Manufacture: September 14, 2024

Delivery Date: October 30, 2024

Software At Time of Delivery: 2024.32.10

Date of Failure: November 29, 2024

Software at Time of Failure: 2024.33.35 (estimated to have installed on Nov 22 or 23)

Date of Service Dropoff: December 13, 2024

Date of Service Complete: December 20, 2024

Homestate: Indiana

Nov 29, 2024 - Failure Day
Woke up on Black Friday to notifications on my phone saying that Sentry had been disabled due to failure and one other warning that I do not recall. Didn't think anything of it. Went to the gym and on pulling out had no cameras, navigation stuck. Spent a few hours looking around and researching issues. Saw some people saying to let the car just go into deep sleep and let it be. No other reports found of the exact same thing. Tried multiple restarts and full power downs and nothing.

Nov 30 2024 - Service Request - 3/10
Requested service via the app. Scheduled an appointment for first available service area in my metro which was not until December 17th. None of the codes it pulled in and defaulted to really matched so I put in some pretty extensive notes on what I had attempted and was seeing and which functions were not working. Fought through the phone systems and got a live person who did NOT offer to push a software update or anything. She said she saw additional codes and tagged them into the service request and told me that she was seeing a short in it. I am not sure what else she notated but I was pretty pissed off with her lack of willingness to help and her general lack of concern about the loss of features which for a car right at 30 days from delivery is not acceptable.

Dec 2, 2024 - Phone Contact With Local Service Center - 10/10
I called the local service center. It makes you go through the confirmation of your appointment which doesn't even properly "merge code" into the AI that reads off the confirmation... so that's annoying. Then it took me ages to realize that if I actually hit "return to main menu" it will give me the option to talk to that actual business I tried to call. Infuriating. The guy I talked to was fantastic though. He said there were no earlier appointments but his own personal vehicle was impacted and he said he had pushed his own repair out to January to get consumers in general in sooner. Was very candid with the perceived issue and his own theories about it and also shared some updates about what he thought would happen. Assured me that I would get a loaner when I came in for repairs. Nothing scripted or guaranteed but he came across as genuine. He disclaimed himself often and set good expectations.

I was able to keep checking the app over the next several days and got an appointment for Dec 13 which was thankfully 4 days sooner and worked better with my schedule. It was super easy to do this. I did not have any in-app communications on the appointment leading up to this EXCEPT for they sent me an "estimate" to review and approve which was for $0.

December 13, 2024 - Drop Off - 10/10
This was a Friday. Smooth as could be really and on-par with a real dealership service center. Despite the lack of navigation and app functionality for drop-off, the guys knew exactly what to expect. Nobody at the counter when I walked in but someone saw me and HUSTLED (literally ran) over to greet me. They didn't ask "why didn't you use the app to check in" or anything. Just worked with me and totally understood. They shared that they did not have the parts in yet but were going to take my vehicle and give me a loaner. They estimated they would have the part and have it fixed by the following Friday, December 20th. He mentioned that once they had the part it would be a 2-3 hour actual repair job.

THE LOANER - 2021 Model Y AWD LR with 35k miles - 2/10
Same car as mine, right? WRONG. I do not understand how prior model years had/have a fan following and it honestly makes me nervous for the future of my own vehicle. It also confirms my suspicions that Model Y and Model 3 fanboys have never driven a vehicle newer than 10 years old and always had base models prior to their Model Y/3.

HW3 and the USS were a joke. Honestly glad they moved away from it. The entire software was crazy. It had lag and delay on loading cameras on any action. It didn't know if I was on or off my driveway when pulling in and out. Could not depict parking spot lines or anything like them. Constantly false-flagged things in blindspot. The ONLY nice things were the actual distance warning in inches. That should come back to the newer versions if possible. The overall Tesla"360 view" concept is a JOKE though. Traditional mid-level trim vehicles from Chevy, Hyundai, Ford and other brands do better with less software and fewer cameras. So again, they hype confuses me when it comes to blind spots, parking visibility, and driver assist.

The car was like driving a tin can full of ball-bearings and loose children's toys. It rattled in a breeze and even the electric motors and climate control were SO loud compared to my 2024. Road noise from every piece of gravel. Wind noise that had me constantly checking if the windows and doors were shut. The seats were literally falling apart and the housing with the seat adjustment switches was separating from the seat pad. I know loaners get ridden hard and put away wet, but that should not happen in 3 years and only 35k miles. Additionally, the hazards and interior lights did not work.

A few positive things to say though - The loaner is in your app and you can control it with widgets and apps just like your own vehicle. Phone key works. Your profile and logins come over except for garage door MYQ integration and stuff like that. Very few settings had to be updated. While overall I am scared how poorly the car felt like it was holding together and what it could imply for my own vehicle's durability, I appreciated that the plastic/vinyl seats, steering wheel, and console cover all held up nicely and even broke in some to feel better with age. When it comes to high touch surfaces, the lower standard of materials compared to real OEMs has been a concern of mine but it seems like they do ok at the 3 year mark.

The Waiting/Fixing - 7/10
The service advisor had told me that they'd contact me every few days to give me updates on the expected status of my car. That didn't happen. I popped into the app several times on Monday and it showed "waiting on parts." Tuesday I dropped in mid-day and it was "preparing." Wednesday also showed "preparing" but towards the end of the day I checked again and I saw that the frunk and trunk of the car were open according to the controls status. I thought this was odd but figured repair was in progress and sure enough when I checked the progress tracker it showed repair in progress. Thursday morning it showed the same at first but then 10am the notifications rolled in that it was completed. I had to add a payment method even though it was $0.00 to fix.

Pickup Experience - 10/10
It gave me instructions for pickup and where to park. I left immediately and while I was en-route, the service advisor called me to tell me it was ready and share some additional options for pickup and handoff. I did have to go inside as I had given them a physical valet key for my car and opted to hand back their physical key in person. There was a service advisor at the desk and he immediately assisted me and chatted with me briefly. Very pleasant and friendly but also super efficient.

The only sign that they had been in the car were some additional fingerprint smudges on the screen. I think at some point they washed the car because it was not perfect but significantly less dirty than when I took it in. I didn't expect that so a huge thanks for it. I have all-weather mats in but there was no noticeable dirt or grime anywhere on the inside. No loose panels. Nothing shaky or out of place. They had warned me on the phone and on the service notes on the summary that profiles had been deleted and that I'd need to reset everything but the ONLY four things that were not still set were the Garage Door MyQ integration, camera calibration, my home wifi connection, and the "name" of the car. All of that was 100% understandable. I drove off immediately with no real setting changes required.

Success of Repair - 10/10
Everything functioned flawlessly and functions flawlessly. When I got home I immediately risked it all and installed the pending holiday update. (I asked them when I picked up and they said it was safe and they had no concerns to do it) Some time between Dec 2nd and Dec 13th the holiday update had attempted to download on my car but had failed repeatedly. Someone had mentioned that Tesla had done this remotely but I don't think so. Think it was just failing because of the computer issue because it couldn't validate or authorize. After the update everything worked great and no issues! Apple Watch Key is amazing and every other feature doing as-promised.

SUMMARY

Overall if I gave each component of this an evenly weighted 10 points, we'd end up with a score of 52/70 which would be a 74%

I don't think this fairly reflects the fact that not only did I GET a loaner car but it was the same model/spec (Model Y AWD LR) that I had in for service. So I will remove that section altogether and re-score as 50/60 total which is 83%

When compared to my last 6 experiences with warranty repair on my GMC truck in 2024, this is leaps and bounds better with the only categories being improved on by GM being appointment scheduling/availability. Ironically my repair issues with that truck were all related to failing infotainment and instrument cluster computers, wifi/cell modems and radio, and camera system. It was a great apples to apples comparison.

Edit: added more details to the top of the post summary for general location, drop off date, pickup date.