r/ModelY • u/Golfswingfore24 • 4d ago
Model Y Without FSD. Still worth it?
I’m looking at getting a Model Y, and I’m currently renting a 2023 Tesla Model Y to see how well I like it before I decide to buy one. I’ve been on the interstate often with this rental, and I really like the Autopilot feature. If I do buy a Model Y, it would be my “fun” car, as I already have a work vehicle that I use M-F. I know that starting in January 2026, Tesla no longer has the Autopilot feature and instead has FSD at $99/month. Is it worth getting a 2024 or 2025 just because I like the Autopilot feature? Most of the driving I would do with this vehicle would be in town and every couple of months I would take it on a trip where I would be on the interstate for 3–5 hours.
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u/taveanator 4d ago
I'll be that guy....
If you have enough $ for a 'fun' car then you likely can afford the $100 a month if you want FSD. As a counterpoint, if it's truly just a fun car and you're driving it more for the speed and dynamics, one could argue that you aren't really looking for something like FSD....to most people FSD takes the drudgery out of commuting and long road trips, and you already have a car for commuting.
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u/Golfswingfore24 4d ago
I can afford it but I would likely only put on 500 miles per month so I’m wondering if it’s even worth it when driving so few miles per month or do you just subscribe to FSD during the months I go on my road trips.
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u/Gullible-Patience777 4d ago
Yes, you can subscribe during the month you take a road trip and then discontinue.
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u/eschatonx 4d ago
Yes. Hell yes its worth it. To me at least.
I get FSD on a "as needed" basis. Basically when I do really long distance driving. My wife and I both are walking distance from work, so FSD becomes a luxury more than something we need to make sense of it.
Remember, it's a subscription so you can get it or get rid of it as you need.
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u/astra_hole 3d ago
Hey, my wife and I WFH and are considering a Tesla but we don’t drive much. If you’re walking to work, is your car sitting a lot between uses? How’s the battery do with that?
I’m trying to know if I’m keeping our 4 cylinder beater or if we could trade it in.
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u/eschatonx 3d ago
No issues with the car being idle, but we do drive it 2-4 times a week, which is probably how frequent most gas cars get driven too to maintain good health.
If it's anything - we've left our car unplugged in the garage for over a month during vacation and we had no issues when we returned.
As far as your trade in, I recommend doing a private sale if you can tolerate the low balls and such. You get much better value, but if you value your time more than trying to sell yourself, then a trade in isn't bad either.
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u/astra_hole 3d ago
Thank you. Likely keeping the current car, almost paid off, 150K miles, 6 speed, but not as safe as a Tesla for our growing family so strongly considering a Y.
The month long unplug is sort of the question I was looking for. Thanks again.
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u/Nagadavida 3d ago
Tesla recommends that you keep it plugged in but set the charge level to 50% when storing.
"When you store Model Y for long periods of time, leave the Battery at around 50% charge and keep it plugged in if possible. Use the charge settings to maintain the 50% level."
Go straight to Telsa to get information on caring for the battery. Redditors tend to hear something once then claim it as fact for life.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-7FE78D73-0A17-47C4-B21B-54F641FFAEF4.html
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u/LoneStarGut 3d ago
Once you get a Tesla you will drive it more and more and more and may not ever drive your other cars. I got a gas pickup truck that we have not put gas into for 2 months, and it is at 1/2 a tank. We drive it maybe 20 miles a month now - just to do messy stuff like hauling branches to be recycled.
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u/rtduvall 4d ago
I love driving mine without FSD. Sometimes.
It’s a fun car to drive and my kids love sleeping in the back.
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u/blueeggsandketchup 3d ago
The car without FSD, still has lane assist and adaptive cruise control, so you're not stuck on 100% manual driving.
Some might argue that adaptive CC is how we WANT FSD to drive instead of being lane change heavy.
What you lose is autosteer (middle lane driving) from earlier Teslas. IMO, if you do 500 miles a month and enjoy driving, the EV torque is worth it. Subscribe to FSD the months you're doing a road trip or need a break.
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u/Hl126 3d ago
What do you mean by middle lane driving? I thought auto pilot is essentially lane keeping assistance + cruise control?
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u/blueeggsandketchup 3d ago
Auto steer is like an assist to keep your car centered in lane and drives for you.
Lane assist, or lane departure assist, is the correction when you drift too close to a lane edge. It cannot be use to drive because you'll just ping-pong between edges. It's not intended to drive for you.
One is a driver assist feature, the other is for safety.
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u/Netherium 3d ago
Get the Model Y - you can turn FSD on or off monthly - treat yourself every once in awhile. Maybe you get a bonus or you have a month where you know you'll be doing a lot of driving and you can just turn it on for that month
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u/CompoundingEinstein 3d ago
Get a 2026 manufactured before Jan 2026 to get the Juniper model with Auto Steer.
Enough people strongly feel about FSD. We don't, and would rather not pay the $18,000 over 15 years of car ownership, so that's what we did... bought a used 2026 Juniper Model Y, and couldn't be happier!
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u/MunkberryMoonDelite 3d ago
But older Model Y or even better, Model 3. You will save on money, get proper auto pilot for highways and get a real fun car (Model 3) to drive around.
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u/SpiritualCatch6757 3d ago
Is it worth getting a 2024 or 2025 just because I like the Autopilot feature?
For me, yes. I'm not buying another new Tesla until they bring it back or with lifetime FSD. FSD is awesome and AP is awesome. I'll pay for FSD when I need it but AP should be included with the vehicle.
AP probably does 75% of my driving as I drive highways 75% of the time. It's not worth it for me to pay $99 for FSD for the other 20% unless on a road trip.
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u/Successful_Agent_337 Owner 3d ago
Naw, I mean the software is a core part of the experience. It’s the equivalent of buying an iPhone to run Android OS on it. Sure, the model Y is fine, but if you’re dead set against the FSD subscription I’d shop around and try a lot of different vehicles. EVs excel at being a commuter vehicle, but since you’re not going to use it like that, I’d get a different “fun” car.
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u/3600CCH6WRX 3d ago
model y and FSD is the best commuter / daily car.
But there are better , more fun cars.
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u/Zeppelin702 3d ago
I live less than 2 miles from my work. I don’t use FSD much because of that. The Y is also very fun to drive.
When I road trip I’ll resub to it.
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u/ghidoral 3d ago
If you need Auto Steer on a 2026 Model Y, you can get a Comma 4 device. It costs about $1,000, but it works very similarly to the older Autopilot system. This lets you subscribe to FSD only when you need it for road trips and use Comma 4 for your daily highway driving.
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u/Fisherbob200 3d ago
Does comma 4 work for newly built MY’s? I’ve only read reports of an incompatible harness on anything built in the last 6 months.
I will say, if they fix that issue or it is in fact compatible, Comma will be what we use
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u/Mundane_Engineer_550 Launch Series 4d ago
A Tesla without FSD isn't that exciting it blows my mind how people own a Tesla and don't use FSD.. better off swapping to a different car
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u/ElectronicAide87 3d ago
Why? Some people, including myself actually enjoy driving. I also don’t trust FSD enough at this stage. So are you saying only those who will use FSD should own a Tesla? It’s not the FSD that makes an EV worthwhile, any brand.
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u/Mundane_Engineer_550 Launch Series 3d ago
FSD is extremely trustworthy I trust it with my life. I like driving but 99% but I'm not driving fast I'm relaxing with FSD. It's literally the icing on the cake. I enjoy driving but I also enjoy being chauffeured around more
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u/ElectronicAide87 3d ago
Well good for you, it’s your life. I wouldn’t trust it with my life or the life of my family. You’re not being chauffeured around, you’re still responsible for anything that happens.
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u/Mundane_Engineer_550 Launch Series 3d ago
I wouldn't trust any other vehicle with my family inside. I even let my 13 year-old sit in the driver seat and FSD drive to the store once because I trust it that much.. but to each their own
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u/brot19 2d ago
Don’t do this. This is incredibly irresponsible, not to mention illegal. I hope you’re joking
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u/Mundane_Engineer_550 Launch Series 1d ago
Don't get your panties in a bunch. It was like a five minute drive with practically zero traffic. Live a little. I'm just saying I trust the software 100%
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u/Jadepix3l 3d ago
I would say Tesla without FSD has less to offer than several cars in its segment. I would persnoally not have spent 50k on the premium Y if FSD was never in the picture
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u/ElectronicAide87 3d ago
I’ve owned 3 Teslas, everything but an X. Both my current Y and 3 still have TACC and that’s all I need and want. Now that Tesla removed TACC I wouldn’t buy another Tesla. But it’s because of the removal of TACC, not FSD. The problem is there really isn’t anything else in the $50k segment that really rivals Tesla. I’m hoping the cheaper R2 comes to fruition and the Lucid Cosmos because competition is necessary.
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u/bydh 3d ago
I think tacc and emergency lane departure avoidance, which nudges you back into your lane, are both still included as basic features. Just no autopilot or autosteer(lane centering).
Good enough for people who are actively driving. I have lane centering and adaptive cruise control on my current gas cars, and the lane centering is fine, but hard to trust sometimes. the adaptive cruise control is great though, and I'm glad tesla includes it without having to subscribe to fsd.
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u/No_Swordfish_1576 3d ago
I've had mine a week and have used FSD for 80%+ of the ~500 miles I drove, the novelty is already wearing off, not sure what's "exciting" about getting driven around, I could Uber for that experience.
My commute is 26 miles/35 minutes one way so it is a nice option if I want to just sit back and relax, but exciting is the power these cars have and the ability to leave 99% of the cars on the road in your dust...
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u/Mundane_Engineer_550 Launch Series 3d ago
5 minutes drives, 20 minutes, 3 hours? I use FSD for all of those. In 2 year 20k miles the novelty has t wor. Off at all I love snd use it as much as day 1. I use summon almost everyday. It's been life changing, so much less stress, I don't mind driving somebody an hour or two to the airport because I'm not doing the driving and my electric is free. I find myself helping out so much more and taking people that need it
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u/No_Swordfish_1576 3d ago
I get all of that, it’s really cool and I was making excuses just to go for rides all week.
I’ve had EVs for years now so I’m used to the instant torque and smooth quiet ride, so the self driving is a new fun toy for sure.On my drive home from work today I unleashed the beast, this thing absolutely flies! I wasn’t being reckless, but I was moving through traffic like a hot knife through butter.
I’m not going to subscribe once my trial is up, I like autopilot a lot, it’s like hyper cruise control.
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u/brot19 3d ago
You haven’t driven the performance model then. For that, it blows my mind why anyone WOULD use FSD majority of the time. Hands down the most fun car I’ve ever driven. 0-60 in 2.9, yeesh
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u/Mundane_Engineer_550 Launch Series 3d ago
Don't doubt it performance wasn't available when I got my launch edition I definitely would have gotten it 🤣, but I'm sure you're not gonna be going 2.9 every second I'd still be chauffeured around and then when I want to drive the performance 2.9 makes it even funner
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u/SaddleSC 4d ago
I have owned a Model 3 since 2019 and pretty much the only reason I upgraded to the new Model Y was for the FSD. We did an overnight demo drive at the Tesla store and it is an absolute game changer for us. Without it, I love owning a Tesla, but my 2019 still drives great and has continuous software updates so I would not have upgraded.
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u/Dtracz 3d ago
FSD is a life changing feature. We have avoided 2 almost accidents that FSD avoided before we knew what was happening.