The Best Tesla Configuration in 2025? Here’s What I’d Order & Why

Learn how to order a Tesla in 2025 (step-by-step guide & my recommended options).

Ordering a Tesla is pretty easy, but with multiple options to choose from, how do you build the perfect Tesla in 2025? In this video, I walk you through Tesla’s online ordering process, showing you:

* The exact model and configuration I’m choosing in 2025
* The differences between the first-gen and second-gen Model Y
* Which options are worth it—and which ones you should skip
* How Tesla’s financing, leasing, and pricing actually work
* A breakdown of the Launch Series Model Y and why I’m choosing it

Key Takeaways:

* The Launch Series Model Y includes premium upgrades (better seats, improved suspension, enhanced sound system, and more) at no extra cost.
* Wheel choice matters - I explain how it impacts ride comfort and performance.
* Full Self-Driving (FSD) is included, but is it worth using?
* How to avoid pricing tricks on Tesla’s website to get a more realistic estimate.

Thinking about buying a Tesla? Watch this video before placing your order to make sure you get the best value for your money!

Even though Tesla has made it really easy to buy a new car, there are still several options to pick from when you order a new vehicle through the Tesla website. I've been through this process five times before, and I'm here to help you navigate it like a pro. I'll walk you through each of the options that are currently available, and I'll show you the exact configuration that I'll be choosing when I place my order.

Keep in mind that the options can change at any time, but generally speaking, other than the occasional new feature that they may add from time to time, the options are fairly stable and haven't really changed much in years.

I've driven the Model S, Model 3, Model X, and the Model Y, my favorite Tesla so far has been the Model Y.... so that's what I'm planning to order again this year.

So let's take a look at how to order a new Model Y and what options you have to pick from.

Here we are on the Tesla US website, and if you click the vehicles menu near the top of the page, you see all of the vehicles that are currently available for purchase. The model Y is their most popular vehicle though, so it's presented to us right here at the top of the homepage. I'm going to order a Model Y, so I'll click on the 'Order Now' button to start building my new car.

Now, obviously the first thing that we see is pictures of the car that you can scroll through, and as you pick different options for the car over in the right hand column, the pictures change to show what the car would look like with those options. For instance, if I scroll down to where I can pick the color for the car and change the color to red, then the pictures of the car changed to red.

You can also see that as you change the options for the car, the vehicle's performance numbers in the upper right corner sometimes change; the estimated driving range, the vehicle's top speed, and the vehicle's zero to 60 acceleration time. You see these numbers change mainly when you pick different powertrain options just below, and when you pick different wheel options a bit further down the page. For instance, if I change from the 'Long Range Rear Wheel Drive' option to the 'Performance All Wheel Drive' option, you see the performance numbers at the top here -- the range, the top speed and the zero to 60 acceleration time -- all change accordingly.

Before we go any further though, I want to draw your attention to the financing options between the performance numbers and the powertrain options. These options almost disappear on the page, but they're worth taking a moment to look at.

We're presented with three options, The 'Cash' numbers show that if you just walked into Tesla with a briefcase full of money, this is how much money would need to be in that case. You also need to know this number if you're getting a loan from a bank or a credit union to buy the car. The 'Lease' numbers show that if you lease the vehicle through Tesla, this is approximately how much your monthly payments are going to be. I say "approximately" because these numbers will change when you start to add taxes and other fees. The 'Finance' numbers show that if you get a loan through Tesla to buy the car, then this is approximately how much your monthly payments are going to be.

Now, if you're serious about placing an order, then there's also some fine print that you'll want to read down here below the powertrain options.

First of all, if you pick 'Lease' or 'Finance', so those are the cases where you're financing the vehicle through Tesla, it shows some assumptions that they're making about the financing terms that they're using to calculate those monthly payment numbers up here. So if you're going to lease a Long Range All Wheel Drive, for instance, the $299 monthly payment assumes that you're making a $2,999 down payment, you're leasing it over 36 months, and you're getting 10,000 miles of driving each year. If you're financing or getting a loan to purchase the same Long Range All Wheel Drive car, then the $529 monthly payment assumes that you're making a $3,999 down payment. The loan has a 5.99 percent interest rate, and the loan is over 72 months.

If you want to change those assumptions though, because you're planning to give them a bigger down payment, for instance, then just click the 'Edit terms and savings' link and a pop-up box appears where you can fart around with these options and run different financing scenarios. You can pick whichever option works best to help you compare the cost of the car, but I usually pick the 'Cash' option to compare bottom line numbers until I'm actually ready to place the order.

Here's another option that I also recommend; deselect the option that includes tax incentives and gas savings. This is a technique that Tesla has used on their website for as long as I can remember to make their vehicles appear less expensive by factoring in a $7,500 federal tax credit and factoring in how much money you're likely to save by not needing to buy gasoline anymore.

If you're getting a loan to buy this car from a third party bank or credit union, though, then they don't care about the $7,500 tax credit that you may get. For that matter, depending on how much money you make, you may or may not even get that tax credit. Plus Tesla has no idea how much gas you might normally burn in a month, so I recommend turning off that option to get a more realistic set of cost numbers to look at. If you do get the tax credit, then great. If you do save that much money each month on gas, Then great. Those are bonuses though, and not things that you need to rely on to determine whether or not you can afford to buy this car.

So back up to the powertrain options. As of today, there are currently four packages to pick from: 'Long Range Rear Wheel Drive', 'Long Range All Wheel Drive', 'Performance All Wheel Drive', and the new Model Y 'Long Range All Wheel Drive LAUNCH Series' vehicle. That's a mouthful.

Tesla just started selling their new refreshed second generation Model Y vehicle, and if you pick the new LAUNCH Series option, then you'll get one of those new second generation Model Y cars with a bunch of new features and improvements. If you pick one of the first three options, 'Long Range Rear Wheel Drive', 'Long Range All Wheel Drive', 'Performance All Wheel Drive', then you'll be getting one of their last first generation Model Ys. They're still great cars, but I'm going with the new second generation Model Y.

So what do you get with the new launch series Model Y? First of all, it's a fully loaded, all wheel drive, long range Model Y with every available option built in, as well as a few added bonuses like nicer seats, power folding rear seats, second row touch screen for passengers in the back seat, a smoother, quieter suspension, which means a smoother, quieter ride, a new front facing camera built into the nose of the car, a better sound system, better wireless connectivity, laminated window glass all the way around the car for a quieter ride, and a really cool-looking front light bar and rear light bar.

You can see more information about the new features by clicking the 'Learn More' link here. It opens up a pop up window with two tabs... 'What's new' and 'Launch Series'. 'New' shows you everything that's new in the new second generation Model Y vehicles, and the 'Launch Series' tab shows you all the bonuses that you get if you, Purchase one of these limited edition Launch Series cars. There is not -- at least not yet -- a Performance version available for the new second generation model Y like you could purchase for the first generation car.

If you look at the first generation model Y Performance version, the main bonuses are a rear spoiler, red brake calipers, aluminum accelerator and brake pedals, a slightly lowered suspension, which also is a stiffer suspension by the way, which means rougher ride, larger 21-inch wheels, which look really nice, but they also give you a rougher ride, your rear wheels are wider than the front wheels, which means that you can't rotate them properly to maximize the life of the tires, a faster 0-to-60 acceleration time of 3.5 seconds versus 4.8 for the Long Range, faster top speed of 155 miles an hour versus 135 for the Long Range, and a shorter estimated driving range of 277 miles versus 311 for the Long Range All Wheel Drive.

We don't yet know whether Tesla plans to sell a Performance version for the new second generation Model Y, even if they did, I'd still go with the Long Range All Wheel Drive version this time around. I've now owned two Model Y Performance cars, and although they're really nice, and they're fast, and they look cool, the differences between the Performance version and the non-Performance versions are so minor that most people can't tell the difference. And sure, the Performance version is a little bit faster, but the non-Performance version is still pretty fast. And for a limited time, Launch Series includes the acceleration boost feature that Tesla sometimes offers separately as an add-on to some of their cars. With the acceleration boost included with the Launch package, you get a Model Y that accelerates almost as quickly as the Performance version.

So I'll click the launch version and move on.

The next choice that we need to make is the color. There aren't quite as many colors available right now as with the first generation Model Y. We have Stealth Gray, Pearl White Multicoat, Ultra Red, and Quicksilver. Unlike when you order a first generation Model Y, though, or any other Tesla model, all four of these colors are included with the price of the car, which is nice. Normally, depending on the color, you could end up paying $1,000 or $2,000 extra just to get the color you want, but not here. I'm going with the Quicksilver cause I think it's badass.

Moving down to the wheels. You've got two wheel options to pick from: the 19-inch Crossflow wheel a 20-inch silver Helix 2.0 wheel. Something to keep in mind here is that the larger 20-inch wheels will have a slightly rougher ride because you don't have as much tire on the wheel to act as a cushion when you're driving. Larger wheels typically have shorter tires to keep the overall height of the wheel and tire consistent. So if you want a smoother ride, then I would pick the 19-inch Crossflow wheels, which is what I'm getting.

Something else to be aware of is that just like the first generation Model Y, the 19-inch wheels have a cosmetic plastic snap-on wheel cover. It's attached with spring clips to a painted aluminum wheel underneath. This allows you to remove the black plastic wheel cover if you want. Maybe you prefer the look of the painted aluminum wheel underneath, or maybe you'd like to replace the stock Tesla wheel cover with a different aftermarket wheel cover to change the look of the car. Whether you want the 19-inch Crossflow wheels or the 20-inch Helix 2.0 wheels, they're both included with the price of the Launch package, which is also unusual. Tesla normally charges a couple thousand dollars extra if you want the larger wheels. Again, I'm going with the 19-inch Crossflow wheels. So let's move on.

The Launch Series includes a tow package, which includes a hitch receiver and a wiring harness for towing, which is nice, since Tesla has traditionally charged extra for this too. I suspect that after they've stop selling the Launch Series Model Ys, they'll start charging extra for things like nicer paint colors, bigger wheels, and the tow package. But for now, I'm just taking this deal and I'm running with it.

You then get to pick the interior color... black or white. Again, white normally costs extra, but for now it's included in the price of the Launch Series. The white interior looks sharp, but I'm going with the black. I've seen a lot of people on the online Tesla forums complaining about stains on their beautiful Tesla seats, and although you can clean them, I'm just not interested in dealing with that, so I'm picking the black and I'm moving on. Either way, it's still a really nice interior.

Now we're at the Full Self Driving portion of the page. Full Self Driving, or FSD, is normally an expensive $8,000 add-on for your Tesla, but it's included in the Launch Series. I'm normally not a huge fan of FSD, but it's included, so I'll take it.

Tesla's basic Autopilot features that come with all Tesla cars, and their Enhanced Autopilot features that they sometimes sell as an optional add-on, are really nice for highway driving in my opinion, In my experience though, self driving on city streets is just not reliable enough for me. I'm a better driver than FSD in unpredictable situations where you could encounter bikers, runners, animals, potholes, road construction, other bad human drivers, and any number of other crazy things. And there are other situations where it just doesn't work either, like in bad weather, like heavy rain, snow, or fog, or any time the cameras are blocked or dirty. In that case, you need to take over and drive manually anyway. So it's far from perfect... despite what some people say. So, paying $8,000 for Full Self Driving isn't something that I would normally agree to, but again, if it's included, then I'll take it and I'll just use it on the highways.

We're almost at the end here, folks. We're offered a few accessories for our new Model Y like charging cables and a few other add-ons for the car. I'll pick the $275 mobile charger as I normally do, because you can not only use it at home, but you can also unplug it and take it with you when you travel, which is nice. The $420 home charger charges your car a little bit faster, but it needs to be permanently mounted on a wall or a post. If you're always charging at home at night when you're sleeping, then the extra charging speed shouldn't matter at all. I like the portability of the mobile charger, so I'm going to pick that one. If you already have a way to charge your car and don't need it, then don't buy it. But when I sell my current model, I'll throw in my current mobile charger, so I'll need a new one.

And now we've got one last set of accessories to pick from. The center console trays, which are really nice for organizing the stuff in your center console, so I'll pick those. The all weather floor mats, and the roof rack. I always get all-weather floor mats for my Teslas, but I'm not crazy about the ones that Tesla sells, and there are a lot of good aftermarket options out there, so that's what I'll do instead. I also don't need to carry mattresses or lumber or kayaks on the roof of my Tesla... so I'll pass on the roof rack, but you can make that choice for yourself.

So that's it folks... all the options that you have to pick from when you order your new Model Y. It tells you the final price down here at the bottom of the page, as well as how much you need to pay right now to place your order.

There's one last point that I'd like to make here about the pricing difference between the first generation and the second generation Model Y. At first glance, the second generation Model Y may look more expensive to you, but when you consider all the free upgrades that are included, it's actually cheaper than a comparably equipped first generation Model Y. If you were to order a first generation Model Y and pick all the options that are included for free in the second generation Launch edition, you'll see that the first generation Model Y actually costs a few thousand dollars more... especially if you consider that the acceleration boost, which is included in the Launch Series, is worth a couple thousand dollars all by itself.

So get out there and place your order for the Launch Series Model Y before it disappears from the Tesla website.

Take care, folks!