Friend got new 24 MY, few winter related flaws are there known fixes? I find it hard to believe
So a friend of mine got a 24 MY RWD Long Range in Nova Scotia, Canada (so all kind of maritime weather, from wet, dry snow to ice rains..)
Now as winter and snow set, he has discovered 3 issues, which I would have expected Tesla to have resolved by now:
Headlights get covered by snow - you cant see nothing, once he was driving out of the street illumination, suddenly it got really dark and he went out to check why and realized the snow blocks them.
Horn - if the snow accumulates at the right location, apparently it blocks out the horn and acts as an insulation - pedestrians cant hear it.. unless he cleans the car entirely.
Handles - had to use significant force to open the handles, after a snow storm.
He says from his experience, Tesla is not well designed for winters yet.. which I find hard to believe, tell me there are solutions to these issues, after years of selling in snow regions?
From riding with him, I can say those handles are inconvenient when carrying two 2 Liters growlers of beers in your hands, and only having 1-2 fingers available to pull on the door handle - I can do that on regular car handles, but not the Tesla handles.. is there a solution?
I also saw those videos of the CT (I am still a reservation holder, but waiting for the cheaper, bug-free versions) - I already saw videos complaining about the headlight snow issue, similar to his complaint #1 above.. is that true as well?
What does Tesla say about all those issues? Moving to SoCal isn't a solution for everyone unfortunately :)
I can't speak to all your questions, but I can discuss the door handles. There's a button on the phone app that will unlatch the door. That allows you to get in off the handle is frozen.
Edit: as far as headlights getting covered in snow, in not sure how this is different from most other vehicles. The last two trucks I had required me to clear snow from the headlights asking with the windshield and from the top of the passenger compartment.
Thank you! we'll test it out next snow storm or freezing rain :)
Looking forward to see responses to the other pain points brought out...
I think it’s the expectation that you are supposed to clear the snow off your car. All of it. Look at the winter safety videos. I grew up in Halifax - and even there, like Toronto, there are loads of dickwads driving all sorts of vehicles that don’t clean their car if snow before driving. Your friend needs to learn winter safety. And, yes, cleaning all the snow off includes cleaning snow off the ROOF of the vehicle. I think the solution is user error.
ETA: lots of other cars have issues with snow blocking the headlights and sensors. Eg the 2025 Camry will constantly annoy the bejeezus out of you that the sensor package is blocked by snow. Which is a certainty when driving on a highway in a snow storm.
No one would buy a rwd car in Canada.
Lots of people I know daily drive their mustang in winter. Just toss a couple bags of sand - or those concrete squares for cheap patios - in the trunk. Use proper winter tires and you’re golden.
Canadian here.. tons of us bought the Y RWD.. mine has been pretty good. AWD would definitely be better but plenty of people bought the RWD..
That’s crazy. I’m in Colorado and I’ve never seen a rwd one here.
Ask your friend to run Defrost Mode 10-15 mins before driving and see if that helps with melting snow. Wont work while driving, though.
I drive a model 3 in the snow quite a bit so I can answer some of these. The handles someone already answered about using the app, but you can also just give them a good whack and it usually unsticks them. This is something that would similarly happen to my rav4, except the door would ice over and the shitty tab that connected the handle to the door seemed like it couldn’t handle the force of me actually breaking the door open with the handle. So I count that as an eh concern due to the app and having dealt with similar with other cars.
With the headlights, again this is moreso a criticism of led lights than teslas. I’ve had this happen in my rav before, but usually it never happens to either car. Not sure if they’ve just never owned a car with led headlights since halogens wouldn’t have that issue.
The horn is a weird one. It can also happen during certain rainfall where it gets kind of muffled. I’ve never had it muffled enough to be a concern, but I’m definitely able to tell the difference between full volume and heavy rain or snow volume.
EDIT: also to answer your other points, the cybertrucks issue is more unique because it actually has a shelf in front of the headlight which can collect snow easier than most other cars. As for opening the door handles with one finger, just press in to the big part, then the door will stay unlatched and you can grab the top of the door next to the glass to open it.
Just adding my two cents, but don’t all new cars have LED headlights? They do not produce any heat so won’t melt the snow and ice on the headlights. Back in the day incandescent light bulbs would give off heat.
Hello, long-time Model S owner here...
As others have said, door handles can be defrosted with a generous application of pre-heat. How much depends on how angry your weather has been. Never had much over 20 mins but I live nowhere near the frozen north that you do!
Headlights frosting or snowing over for me has been a problem with any car that doesn't have perfectly vertical headlights (and even one that did!). The bigger issue with LED headlights is that they tend to not generate enough heat to self-defrost and I occasionally have to stop mid-trip in heavy snow. Only happened a couple of times but that's still non-zero. Don't be tempted to use rain-x or similar - solvents are not good for plastic lenses.
My S uses an old-school electromechanical horn, so not really an issue there...
Preheating fixes most winter issues with my car to the extent I'd rather have it than any of the gas-powered vehicles I've owned previously, but obviously YMMV. Good luck OP!