How to bag a Tesla Model 3 for less than £12,000
Anyone prospective owner concerned about the lifespan of the Model 3 can take some comfort from the fact that there are plenty of examples in the classifieds that have covered more than 100,000 miles.
Battery: Degradation is unavoidable, but Tesla claims that after 200,000 miles, the battery in a Long Range car will have lost only 15% of its capacity.
Specialist EV dealers like RSEV can carry out checks on the battery to ensure that it's in good order. Stop charging at 80% to boost longevity. Avoid cars that have been left standing, as long idle periods can damage the cells.
Software: Over-the-air software updates can bring glitches at first. These knock out the touchscreen or stop certain functions from working properly.
Make sure the car is fully up to date, and if any problems occur, try rebooting the system by holding the steering wheel buttons until the screen restarts.
Charging: Make sure the charging port door opens properly via the touchscreen or app. Software glitches can stop it from opening, but there is a manual override.
Charging cables can get locked in, so check that you can free it without difficulty. Again, there's a manual release in the boot.
Body: Build quality on some earlier cars isn't great, so check the paintwork, panel gaps and exterior trim for any signs of wear or damage. Misaligned panels can be fixed by Tesla at an annual service.
Wind noise is a bugbear, due to poor seals. An aftermarket soundproofing kit is claimed to lessen noise inside the cabin.
Interior: Listen out for any squeaks or rattles from interior trim and wear on key touchpoints like the door cappings and steering wheel.
Faux leather can also experience discoloration, so be sure to give potential purchases a thorough going over.
An owner's view
Ollie Froud: 'I've had my 2021 Long Range for six months now, and I love it! I bought it directly from Tesla, which was a great experience, and it has been faultless. I charge it mostly at home overnight, so it's about 2p a mile to run, which is nearly 10 times less than my previous car. Longer journeys are very easy and we've never had to queue for a Supercharger. It's a great all-round family car.'
Also worth knowing
All cars got a basic warranty of four years or 50,000 miles for manufacturing issues and cosmetic defects. Then there's a separate battery and drive unit warranty, which covers those items for eight years or 100,000 miles on the Standard Range and eight years or 120,000 miles on the Long Range and Performance.
Build quality plagued early cars, so be wary of thick panel gaps and misaligned panels. It did improve over time, though.
Post-2021 cars were made in China. You can tell the difference to an American-made one by the wood veneer interior trim, which runs across the dashboard and into the doors.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
2 minutes ago
- Reuters
US and EU strike deal with 15% tariff to avert trade war
TURNBERRY, Scotland, July 27 (Reuters) - The United States struck a framework trade agreement with the European Union on Sunday, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods, half the threatened rate, and averting a bigger trade war between two allies that account for almost a third of global trade. U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the deal at Trump's luxury golf course in western Scotland after an hour-long meeting that pushed the hard-fought deal over the line. "I think this is the biggest deal ever made," Trump told reporters, lauding EU plans to invest some $600 billion in the United States and dramatically increase its purchases of U.S. energy and military equipment. Trump said the deal, which tops a $550 billion deal signed with Japan last week, would expand ties between the trans-Atlantic powers after years of what he called unfair treatment of U.S. exporters. Von der Leyen, describing Trump as a tough negotiator, said the 15% tariff applied "across the board", later telling reporters it was "the best we could get." "We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability," she said. The deal, which Trump said calls for $750 billion of EU purchases of U.S. energy in coming years and "hundreds of billions of dollars" of arms purchases, likely spells good news for a host of EU companies, including Airbus, Mercedes-Benz and Novo Nordisk, if all the details hold. The baseline 15% tariff will still be seen by many in Europe as too high, compared with Europe's initial hopes to secure a zero-for-zero tariff deal, though it is better than the threatened 30% rate. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal, saying it averted a trade conflict that would have hit Germany's export-driven economy and its large auto sector hard. German carmakers, VW, Mercedes and BMW were some of the hardest hit by the 27.5% U.S. tariff on car and parts imports now in place. But Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who heads the European Parliament's trade committee, said the tariffs were imbalanced and the hefty EU investment earmarked for the U.S. would likely come at the bloc's own expense. The euro rose around 0.2% against the dollar, sterling and yen within an hour of the deal's being announced. The deal mirrors key parts of the framework accord reached by the U.S. with Japan last week, but like that deal, it leaves many questions open, including tariff rates on spirits, a highly charged topic for many on both sides of the Atlantic. Carsten Nickel, deputy director of research at Teneo, said it was "merely a high-level, political agreement" that could not replace a carefully hammered out trade deal: "This, in turn, creates the risk of different interpretations along the way, as seen immediately after the conclusion of the U.S.-Japan deal." "We are agreeing that the tariff ... for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%," Trump said, but he quickly added that a 50% U.S. tariff on steel and aluminum will remain in place. Von der Leyen said that tariff would be cut and replaced with a quota system. Von der Leyen said the rate also applied to semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, and there would be no tariffs from either side on aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. Trump appeared to suggest pharmaceuticals would not be covered, leaving some question about that aspect of the deal. No fact sheet was immediately issued by the White House. "We will keep working to add more products to this list," von der Leyen said, adding that spirits were still under discussion. Eric Winograd, chief economist at AllianceBernstein in New York, noted the similarity with Japan's U.S. deal. "We will need to see how long the sides stick to the deal. From a market perspective, it is reassuring in the sense that having a deal is better than not having a deal," he said. The deal will be sold as a triumph for Trump, who is seeking to reorder the global economy and reduce decades-old U.S. trade deficits, and has already reached similar framework accords with Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, although his administration has not hit its goal of "90 deals in 90 days." He has periodically railed against the European Union, saying it was "formed to screw the United States" on trade. Arriving in Scotland, Trump said the EU wanted "to make a deal very badly" and said, as he met von der Leyen, that Europe had been "very unfair to the United States". Trump has fumed for years about the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 reached $235 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The EU points to the U.S. surplus in services, which it says partially redresses the balance. Now he argues, his tariffs are bringing in "hundreds of billions of dollars" of revenues for the U.S., while dismissing warnings from economists about the risk of inflation. On July 12, Trump threatened to apply a 30% tariff on imports from the EU starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the major U.S. trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal. The EU had prepared countertariffs on 93 billion euros ($109 billion) of U.S. goods in the event there was no deal, and Trump made good his 30% tariff threat. Some member states had also pushed for the bloc to use its most powerful trade weapon, the anti-coercion instrument, to target U.S. services in the event of a no-deal.
Daily Mail
32 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The ugly monoliths quietly desecrating America's most sacred sites… and driving locals to the brink
They were once hallowed grounds where cannon smoke filled the skies and musket balls tore through blue and gray uniforms - sites of blood, brotherhood and the brutal birth of a nation. Today, America's most sacred battlefield sites face a different kind of invasion - one of cold, hulking mega-structures filled not with soldiers, but with servers.
The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Max Verstappen condemns delayed Belgian Grand Prix start amid wet weather
Max Verstappen condemned as unnecessary the FIA decision to delay the start of the Belgian Grand Prix because of adverse weather conditions, but his view was countered by George Russell, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, who insisted any other call from the governing body would have been 'stupidity' given the conditions and the dangerous nature of the Spa‑Francorchamps circuit. The start was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes after rain swept into Spa just before the race. The FIA opted not to proceed after one formation lap because the visibility given the spray from the cars was so poor. The circuit is enormously fast and challenging and can be dangerous even in good conditions. There have been two fatalities in recent years, Anthoine Hubert in 2019 and Dilano van 't Hoff in 2023. Verstappen, whose Red Bull car had been readied to make the most of a wet race, was insistent that the drivers could have coped and that as they began racing they would have been able to clear the standing water. When asked when he believed the race should have begun, he said: 'Three o'clock, straight away. It was not even raining. Between turn one and five there was quite a bit of water but if you do two or three laps behind the safety car, then it would have been a lot more clear, and the rest of the track was ready to go.' The Dutchman, who finished fourth in the race won by McLaren's Oscar Piastri, concluded with a swipe at the FIA. 'Of course at the end of the day they do what they want, right? I mean, they decide. I just find it is a bit of a shame for everyone, you will never see these classic kind of wet races any more.' Russell, however, was among other drivers – including Piastri and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc – who felt the decision had been correct. 'As a racer, you always want to get going, you love driving in the rain,' he said. 'But the fact is, when you're doing over 200 miles an hour out of Eau Rouge, you literally cannot see anything, you may as well have a blindfold on. [That] isn't racing; it's just stupidity. Considering it was clearly going to be dry from 4pm onwards, they made the right call.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Verstappen's view, though, was echoed by Lewis Hamilton, who started 18th but finished seventh after he called the moment to change over to slick tyres perfectly, given the track had dried very quickly. 'I would agree [with Verstappen],' he said. 'My car was set up for that [wet conditions], and they waited for it to dry. Especially at the end, it was a dry line with hardly any spray.'
