Why I traded a Lincoln Navigator for a Tesla Model Y

Let me get something out of the way.

I did not buy a Tesla because I suddenly became worried about my carbon footprint or decided I needed to do my part to save the planet.

If anything, the sanctimonious political culture around electric vehicles was a modest reason for me not to buy one.

Who wants to spend that much money only to have people think you are making a statement about climate change?

Nor did I buy it because Elon Musk has become one of the progressive left’s favorite villains.

I appreciate much of what Musk has done. And I admit there is something pretty amusing about liberals selling their Teslas just as conservatives are starting to buy them.

But I did not spend tens of thousands of dollars to cast a political vote for Elon Musk.

I bought a Tesla because the technology was better. It doesn’t hurt that I’m still driving an American-made car.

Better enough, apparently, for me to trade in a six-figure Lincoln Navigator Black Label Edition for a Model Y.

And I loved my Navigator.

It was enormous, powerful and incredibly comfortable, with beautiful leather, huge seats and just about every luxury imaginable. It was pretty much everything Americans have traditionally thought of as a luxury automobile.

At the end of June, I traded it for a considerably smaller Tesla with an interior that can initially feel almost austere.

Few buttons. No conventional instrument cluster. Almost none of what you would expect in an expensive luxury vehicle.

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You could easily climb inside and wonder what I was thinking.

But that depends on how you define luxury.

The biggest reason I bought the Tesla was Full Self-Driving, supervised. Nothing else was close.

Plenty of manufacturers offer adaptive cruise control, lane centering or limited hands-free driving on selected freeways. Tesla’s system operates on highways, city streets and residential roads.

The car follows the navigation route, changes lanes, makes turns and responds to traffic.

It is not autonomous. I still have to pay attention and be ready to take over.

But if you spend much time driving in Southern California traffic, it changes the experience dramatically.

The Navigator made driving exceptionally comfortable.

The Tesla makes driving dramatically easier.

Then there are all the little things.

My phone is my key. The car unlocks when I approach and locks when I walk away.

I even have the lock sound set to Jarvis — Tony Stark’s AI assistant in the Marvel “Iron Man” films — saying, “Defense protocol activated, Sir!”

I can cool the interior from my phone before leaving a restaurant. I park at home, plug it in and wake up ready to go.

A full charge gives me more than 350 miles of estimated range, plenty for almost anything I am likely to do in a normal day.

The cameras double as a dashcam and security system. Software updates can actually improve the car after I have bought it.

I already had Tesla solar and Powerwalls at home, so adding the car made the whole setup even more useful.

None of this is an environmental statement.

It is a convenience statement.

At some point, I realized that buying a car had started to resemble buying a smartphone.

We once compared phones by call quality, battery life and durability. Then the operating system became the product.

Tesla has done something similar with the automobile.

It isn’t just selling transportation. It is selling a technology platform that happens to get you from one place to another.

And that, I think, explains Tesla’s success better than all the talk about saving the planet.

Musk figured out what a lot of consumers wanted and gave it to them.

Most of us buy things because they make our lives better, easier or more enjoyable.

Tesla got me to leave a six-figure luxury SUV for a smaller and considerably more modest Model Y because the technology was more valuable to me than the size, materials and traditional comforts I was giving up.

I don’t miss my Navigator. Not even a little.

There is only one potential problem.

I replace my iPhone every couple of years to keep up with the latest technology.

I’m beginning to wonder what that means for my Tesla.

Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com