A Broad Family EV Journey, Including Tesla FSD 14 for a Member with Parkinson’s

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With the purchase of a 2^nd Tesla Model Y in the last few weeks, my immediate family now has 5 Teslas. My brother and I were early adopters of electric vehicles. My first was a Nissan Leaf lease for $200/month starting February 31, 2014. I followed that with two more Leafs and finally the 2019 Tesla Model 3 that has just passed its 6-year anniversary with over 160,000 miles. My brother was next with a 2015 and a 2016 BMW i3, followed by the first Tesla in the family, a 2017 Model S. He has recently upgraded to the 2025 Tesla Model Y you see below. My daughter was next a short time later with the 2017 Tesla Model X she is still driving that you see below. After ragging on me for 9 years about electric cars, my son followed with a steal on a 2018 Model 3 that he bought last June. He paid only slightly more than $10,000 after the $4,200 government rebate. His car is in the first photo below. The latest Tesla purchased by a family member was a used 2023 Model Y purchased last month. He has advanced Parkinson’s disease and is taking advantage of Full Self Driving Supervised V14. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to drive at all.

This 2018 Model 3 was a steal at $11,000 after a $4,200 government rebate which Trump has since eliminated. The car had 82,000 miles on it, so it still had nearly 40,000 miles and two years on the drivetrain and battery warranty. I helped him do a battery health estimation, which meant that he could do cross-country driving if needed. When we entered the VIN, it turned out to be the Performance model. However, it doesn’t have the red brake calipers and spoilers of most Performance models.

My daughter’s Model X (above) has three rows of two captain’s seats, which was perfect for her family of 5 plus a friend. She’s been driving it for nearly 8 years and it’s still going strong. It does the canyon run from her home in Park City to school for her kids and other errands in Salt Lake City without missing a beat.

My first three EVs were Nissan Leafs that had such short range that cross country driving was out of the question. Even relatively local driving was often a challenge and sometimes required wearing warm weather gear because the heater reduced the range too much. See the 2014 Leaf in the photo above.

My 2019 Model 3 (above) just passed its 6-year and 160,000-mile anniversary and is still going strong. I just had some body work done from a little parking lot bumper car driving, so it looks like new now. My Tesla Model 3 has been on both the East and West Coast has made the 1500-mile trip from Utah to Northern Wisconsin and back 6 times carrying two big ebikes on a rack on the back. It’s a dual-motor vehicle, so it does the canyons to skiing well in the winter. However, don’t try driving in deep snow, the clearance is too low.

My brother had 2015 and 2016 BMW i3s (see above), which were pretty much a joke for cross-country driving because of only 80 miles of electric range and a gas tank of only a little more than 1 gallon. He later did routine cross-country driving for 7 years in his 2017 Model S (also above) with an 80 kWh battery. He recently upgraded to the 2024 Tesla Model Y.

The car represented above is the most fascinating car story in the family. Our son-in-law, now ex-son-in-law, has been hoboing (riding freight trains) and driving trucks for years. He traded in his Toyota 4Runner SUV for a huge Toyota Land Cruiser SUV a few years ago. Unfortunately, he has advanced Parkinson’s disease that often makes driving impossible. He recently had to be rescued from Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan where he was undergoing treatment by one of his children. He then sold his Land Cruiser to my daughter and purchased a 2023 Tesla Model Y. He was knowledgeable enough to buy one that had the Hardware 4 computer and HW4 cameras. This means that he is driving with Full Self Driving V14. It makes driving work for him, which would otherwise be impossible.

EV Penetration in Utah

As I drive around Utah County, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, the roads are swarming with Teslas — mostly Model Ys and 3s, but also frequently Model Ss and Xs and a few Cybertrucks. I also occasionally see a Ford Mustang Mach-E as well as Rivian pickup trucks, SUVs, and Amazon Prime delivery trucks in the neighborhoods. Ford F-150 Lightnings, Hyundai and Kia EVs, as well as EVs from other brands are harder to spot.

New electric car sales in Utah have exceeded 10% in recent months, but that will probably be less in the immediate months going forward since Trump ended the government subsidies on new and used EVs.

EV Advantages

The superiority of the electric drivetrain is born out every day for me as I get jackrabbit silent acceleration from my dual motor Tesla Model 3. It’s also borne out by my occasional gas car rentals as I observe the acceleration lag and motor roaring as the transmission clunks and downshifts when you hit the accelerator.

The superiority of the electric drivetrain has also been shown twice in the last year. First, we had to abandon one used car for my granddaughter because the $2,500 timing chain repair was not worth doing on an older vehicle. Then, recently, we decided to go with the $1,300 timing chain replacement on another car for my granddaughter: a 2008 Mazda with 160,000 miles. EVs do not have timing chains.

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