MotorTrend's Brutal Verdict: Tesla Model Y Long-Term Test Review
by AutoExpert | 11 December, 2025
MotorTrend isn’t exactly known for hot takes or politics — if anything, the magazine has historically given Tesla plenty of praise. So when its editors wrapped up a two-year test of a long-term Model Y, nobody expected the verdict to be… brutal. But it was.
They opened the review with the only nice things they could say: the audio system was decent, the storage space was handy, the frunk was useful, Chill mode felt smooth, and the app worked well. That was the entire compliment list. After that, it all fell apart.
According to the team, the Model Y was simply miserable to drive over time. The ride never settled down unless the pavement was perfect. The chassis felt sloppy, the handling was twitchy, the pedal response was jerky, and the whole experience pushed them to drive faster just to get the trip over with. One editor said he would’ve kicked the car if it were a person — and not jokingly.
And then there were the everyday annoyances: the fussy door handles, the phone-as-key that only worked when it felt like it, random self-unlocking, the glass roof turning the cabin into a toaster, and the giant center screen that forces every single function through one display. MotorTrend summed that up simply: this is why people want real buttons back.
Build quality didn’t win them over either. The materials looked fine at first, but by year two the car creaked like it had lived a much harder life. Highway drone, interior vibration, unpredictable wipers — all part of the package.
And then there was “Full Self-Driving.” MotorTrend called it “a dangerous farce” after the system steered the car across double yellow lines into oncoming traffic. They stopped using it on the spot.
Sure, Tesla still has the Supercharger network — but now that most U.S. automakers are converting to the same charging standard, that advantage is rapidly disappearing.
MotorTrend’s takeaway was simple: once the sparkle wears off, the Model Y just isn’t a pleasant car to live with. And coming from a publication that once championed Tesla’s early models, that says a lot.
