What would happen if every spec came from the car itself?

What the VIN says

NHTSA's official decode agrees

The U.S. government's own decoder, NHTSA's vPIC, confirms Make (the carmaker), Model (Model Y), Model Year (2024), Plant (Fremont, California, USA) and drive configuration (Dual Motor): a match on every field it covers, with a passing check digit.

HW3 vs. HW4: which one this car has

Fremont's Model Y line switched from Autopilot HW3 to HW4 hardware around a serial-number window in 2023. This car is a full model year (2024) past that transition and doesn't fall inside the ambiguous window at all: this is HW4, high confidence, no serial-number lookup required.

This car's own screen puts it to rest. Under Software → Additional Vehicle Information, it reads "AI Computer: Full Self-Driving Computer 4." Straight from the car, no VIN math required. Even the car's own nickname in the car's app matches this page's name.

The car's own screen, confirming HW4 directly.

Performance

Range, efficiency & battery

Charging

Weight & dimensions

Seats

This car has seven seats: two up front, a 60/40 second row that slides forward and back and reclines, and a two-seat third row that folds flat. A button on each outer second-row seat tips it forward to reach the third row. The owner uses the third row mostly as room: “I do it more for storage and flexibility.” The measurements say why. The third row has 26.5 inches of leg room, against 41.6 in the second.

Cargo volume, seven seats

Wheels

Long Range AWD offered exactly two wheel choices in 2024, no 18" or 21" option on this trim (21" Überturbine wheels are Performance-only):

The factory tire, not just the size: this car's 19" Gemini wheels ship on the Continental ProContact RX (255/45R19, 104W XL), extra-load-rated with an acoustic foam inner liner (Continental's ContiSilent) specifically to quiet road noise, which carries further in a car with no engine to mask it. The 20" Induction option instead runs 255/40R20 101W/101Y XL, sourced from either Goodyear (Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5) or Michelin (Pilot Sport EV) depending on the production run. The carmaker has used both for the same wheel.

On part numbers: the carmaker doesn't publish a public parts catalog, so the "OEM part numbers" on wheel-reseller and salvage listings are not the carmaker's. For a factory replacement, the VIN plus a Model Y Service Center or the carmaker's own parts desk is the reliable path.

For replacement tires rather than staying OEM, the common cross-shops in this car's size (255/45R19) split into three tiers: all-season grand-touring (Michelin CrossClimate2, Continental SecureContact AW, Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady2, Vredestein Quatrac Pro+), ultra-high-performance all-season (Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4, Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus, Vredestein Hypertrac All Season), and summer-only performance (Michelin Pilot Sport 4, Bridgestone Potenza Sport, Vredestein Ultrac Pro). None of that is a Model Y endorsement, just what fits and gets cross-shopped in this size. The acoustic foam liner on the factory tire is a comfort nice-to-have that most aftermarket choices lose, not a functional requirement.

Colors & interior: the correction

The one that surprises most owners: for essentially all of 2024, Stealth Grey, not black, was the carmaker's free color. Solid Black carried a real paint upcharge.

Interior: All-Black was the standard, no-cost finish; Black & White was an optional upgrade (commonly cited around $1,000, though we couldn't pin an exact 2024 U.S. figure to a dated source; the original build sheet would settle it).

Safety & standard equipment

• NHTSA 5-star overall rating, 5 stars in every sub-category. The carmaker's own announcement specifically named the Long Range AWD configuration (this car's exact trim), with a 7.9% rollover risk it called the lowest of any SUV NHTSA had recorded at the time.
• Standard: automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, pedestrian AEB, and standard Autopilot (Autosteer + Traffic-Aware Cruise Control).
• Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) were separate paid upgrades. More on where this car stands in the Software section below.

What it cost new

The carmaker repriced Model Y several times through 2024. A Long Range AWD like this one landed somewhere in the $47,990–$51,990 range before paint, wheels, interior, or FSD (Supervised). The exact number depends on exactly when in the year it was ordered.

Warranty at a glance

Full detail (including what transfers to a buyer) is in Value and warranty on the Ledger.

Long Range AWD sits almost exactly in the middle on price, and it's the trim Edmunds' own comparison recommends for most buyers: "plenty of range and more than enough performance." What separates the trims beyond the motor count:

• Wheels & suspension: Performance rides on 21" wheels only and gets a lowered suspension tune and bigger brakes; this car uses the standard ride height on 19" or 20" wheels.
• Third row: A 7-seat option was available on Long Range AWD in 2024 (priced at $2,000 as of April 2024) before being dropped entirely at the 2025 refresh.
• Top speed: 135 mph on this car vs. 155 mph on Performance.
• Cosmetic only: Performance adds a rear spoiler and aluminum pedals. Otherwise the trims look nearly identical from the outside.

The carmaker's refreshed "Juniper" Model Y arrived for the 2025 model year, unveiled January 2025, U.S. deliveries starting March 8, 2025. This car is a pre-refresh 2024, and the differences are concrete, not just cosmetic buzzwords:

What Juniper changed

• Full-width LED light bars front and rear, replacing this car's separate headlight/taillight units.
• New rear-seat touchscreen (8") for climate/media. This car has no second screen for rear passengers.
• Removed the gear-selector stalk: Park/Drive/Reverse moved to the touchscreen, similar to the carmaker's Model 3 redesign.
• Kept the physical turn-signal stalk, unlike the Model 3 redesign that eliminated it entirely. This car and Juniper both still use a real stalk for turn signals.
• Acoustic glass front and rear for lower wind noise; retuned suspension bushings reviewers describe as noticeably more settled over expansion joints.
• EPA range rose to roughly 340+ miles, mostly from aerodynamics and efficiency work rather than a bigger battery.

Charging hardware, NACS port, and Supercharger network access are unchanged between the two generations. Nothing about how this car charges is "outdated."

What this car has, confirmed

• Autopilot (Autosteer + Traffic-Aware Cruise Control) is standard equipment on every Model Y, including this one, at no extra cost.
• This car runs FSD (Supervised) on the $99/month subscription. "Supervised" is the carmaker's own term: the system drives and the driver stays attentive and ready to take over. It is not an unsupervised system.
• The car is also subscribed to Premium Connectivity ($9.99/month, or $99/year): the subscription tier above Standard Connectivity's free-for-8-years baseline. It adds satellite-view maps, live traffic visualization, in-car video and music streaming (Netflix, Disney+, Spotify and the like, each still needs its own separate app subscription), an in-car web browser, weather radar, and live Sentry Mode camera viewing from the app when away from the car. It renews monthly.
• Phone Key is set up: the owner's phone unlocks and starts the car over Bluetooth automatically on approach, no card tap needed. Worth keeping a physical Key Card in the glovebox or a wallet anyway, as backup for the rare time a phone's dead or Bluetooth misbehaves.
• Software updates arrive over the air automatically, so this car stays current without a dealer visit.
• It is on for 95.3% of this car's miles.

Still active, as of 2026

Gone from this car specifically

Also worth correcting: light-up, auto-presenting door handles are a popular aftermarket accessory, not something the carmaker actually ships from the factory. Where one shows up on a car, it is not stock software.

Things experienced owners find embarrassingly late

• Trip Planner auto-preconditioning: navigating to a Supercharger automatically warms the battery pack so it hits peak charge speed the moment it plugs in, estimated to save up to 10 minutes per stop. A December 2025 update added live stall occupancy to the map.
• In-car theater streaming (Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Hulu, Twitch): requires the car fully parked with the parking brake set: it does not work while driving, and doesn't turn on just because Autopilot or FSD (Supervised) is engaged, despite that being a common assumption.
• In-car web browser: a real browser in the app dock, useful at a Supercharger stop. A 2026 update added full-screen support and even browser-based video calling.
• Naming the car in the app isn't just cosmetic: certain names (Monty Python and Hitchhiker's Guide references among them) trigger their own hidden responses.

Where to start looking

Tesery (tesery.com) is a dedicated accessories store for these cars that's been running since 2021, with a Model Y catalog split by generation, so it's easy to find parts sized for a legacy car instead of a Juniper one. The carmaker's own shop sells OEM parts with guaranteed fit. Neither is an endorsement.

What owners buy first

Roughly in the order most owners buy them, based on what comes up most in owner forums and shows up as bestsellers at the stores above:

• All-weather floor liners: the single most common first purchase. The factory carpet has no protection at all, and liners trimmed to the Model Y footwell keep road salt and mud off it.
• Frunk and trunk organizers: the car ships with no cargo organization anywhere, front or back. Fitted bins stop groceries and gear from sliding around both trunks.
• Center console tray: the console's open storage tunnel is deep but unshaped, so small items slide around and disappear into it. A fitted insert fixes that.
• Windshield and rear sunshades: closer to necessary than optional on a car with this much glass overhead. Interior temperatures climb fast without one.
• Center screen protector: the 15.4" display handles nearly every control in the car, so it takes constant touch contact. A matte or glass protector is cheap insurance against scratches.