My first EV: 2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range

My first EV: 2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range

Author
Discussion

LowTread

Original Poster:

4,455 posts

231 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Probably going to get flamed for this, but someone suggested posting a "reader's cars" entry for my model 3 as there's some curiosity/interest in these now that they're sub-£20k.

Background


Over the last 25 yrs i've had quite a few caterhams, several MX5s (mostly as trackday cars), a couple of Elises (currently have a 111R in the garage), a couple of Renaultsport Clios, a 986S Boxster, a few 6 cylinder BMWs (M135is, M2, 130i, 325i), mixed in with a few sheds, and some more boring/ordinary stuff.

I've had lots of motorbikes. I like the acceleration of a decently powerful bike. And the intimacy of the handling. And the technology is fascinating. Currently i've got a BMW K1300S, which out of all of the bikes i've had is the best all rounder.

Most of my daily driving is short trips doing school runs, going swimming, trips to the tip or tescos, normally around 20-30 miles per day, but once a week i go down south to my office which is a 160 mile round trip. And on weekends i might do a 100 trip to visit relatives, or take the kids cycling somewhere.

Critical for me is the ability to carry bikes. 3 or possible 4 on/in a car at once. My M2 and M135i used to take 3 or 4 bikes on the roof, so another M2 was a possibility, but i wasn't really after a sports car as such. I wanted a decent, comfortable daily, without the higher running costs. There's a chance i might have to commute down to the office an extra day per week soon, which really ramps up the fuel cost at 30mpg.

My wife had a Yaris Hybrid for a while and i genuinely enjoyed zipping around in it, and i especially liked running around town on the electric motor.

I decided to dip my toe in the water of EVs. My eldest son is a bit of an eco-warrior, so mostly this was his idea.

Why a Model 3?


At first, the main driver was budget. If i was keeping the Elise then my max for a daily was £20k. And i wanted something that could do a genuine 200 miles at motorway speeds in winter.

The a didn't really leave much of a short list. It really just came down to Niro, Kona or Model 3. All 64kWh+ batteries. All do 3.5+ miles per kWh based on youtube comparisons.

First up, i test drove an e-Niro (2021 model). Bit boring looking, but lots of good equipment (4+ spec). The way it pulled away from zero revs really surprised me. It was so easy to drive too. Similar performance to a warm-ish hatch. Obviously it's no sports car, but for a daily it felt ok. Not exciting though. Not enough to part with £20k+. And it turned out that none of the e-Niros are rated for towing, so that put me off.

Next up i tried the Hyundai Kona. 2021+ models can take a towbar. Slightly cheaper than the Niro and a bit less boring looking (IMO). Really good fun. A bit more of a hot hatch than the Niro. Proper angry little thing. Driving it made me feel like i was 21 again (in terms of pace and torque steer), when i took out a huge loan and bought a 6 month old Clio 172. Too small in the back though. The rear leg room is terrible. Shame because i really liked it.

Then my son suggested trying a Model 3. I'm really not a Musk fan. And i'm not keen on the "all on one screen" thing. And i don't think they're that good looking. And they're everywhere. And people that drive them look a bit....well....like Telsa drivers! But he badgered me and wouldn't give in, so off we went to try one out.

We tried a 2019 Long Range model at a local dealer. Holy crap. What an eye-opener. The smoothness, the strength of the acceleration, the lovely chunky steering wheel, the driving position which is very BMW like (low with legs out stretched). The screen was actually really good, and the instrument display being slightly to the left of my eyeline was ok. Performance wise it honestly felt like a motorbike. I was sold immediately.

The only issue, which i didn't realise at the time is that you cannot retro-fit a towbar onto a Model 3. So i was then on the lookout for a Model 3 with a factory towbar, which are like hen's teeth. And there i hit a bit of a brick wall. I rang several specialists to discuss them looking out for a Model 3 with a towbar for me, including the dealer selling the one that i test drove, but none were very helpful.

The hunt


After quite a few months of watching the market and seeing prices come down, and down, and down, a 2019 Model 3 LR with a factory towbar and 65k miles popped up on Autotrader 100 miles away. A private sale and more miles than i ideally wanted, and annoyingly priced similarly to dealer cars at £21k. My max was £20k and i wanted to be firm on that given prices may keep sliding down. I added it to my AT watch list and waited.

A week later i checked AT again and the price had dropped to £19.5k. It was now the cheapest LR at that mileage in the country. I picked up the phone. After an hour long chat i'd decided to have it. The owner had had it from new and was selling because of the purchase of the new Highland model. Suspension arms replaced under warranty, and looked after annually by a specialist. It sounded ideal.

Deal done at £19k. Deposit sent over. Collection the following weekend.

Insurance was a worry because of rumours of silly prices. My M2 was around £700-£800/year. The quotes on the Model 3 were similar, so that was ok, offset by the free VED somewhat.

Collection


On collection the owner spent a good deal of time with me. Taking ownership isn't as simple as a normal car. The owner warned me that i'd need to have the Tesla app installed before i arrived. After handing over the balance, i gave him the email address that i'd used to register on the app, then we both stood there with our phones waiting for it to transfer over. After a few minutes i had a Tesla! The app showed it and i could then control it.

We then spent a while in the car getting set up with driving position, mirrors, etc. My son was with me so acted as co-pilot.

The drive back was excellent. It was just as punchy as the one i test drove months before. Same sporty driving position that feels like being "in" it rather than "on" it. Short bonnet and front wings make it feel a bit different. The stereo is by far the best of any car i've had too.

On the way home I thought i'd try supercharging, just to see what that was like. I intended to use home charging 99% of the time, but wanted to make sure that the app/payment worked. With Tesla you add your debit/credit card to your account, and your account is linked to your car, so you simply plug in and your card gets charged when you unplug. It's how all public chargers should be!



We stopped at Kings Lynnn where the superchargers are in a hotel carpark. We plugged in then walked over to the hotel for a drink and a break. Note: You have to enter your reg no in a tablet at reception to avoid a parking charge. We arrived at about 35%. By the time we'd been to the toilet and necked an appletise each the car pinged me to let me know it was at my target 80% state of charge. We walked back over, unplugged and within a few secs Barclays pinged me that i'd been charged ~£11. Excellent. How easy was that?!

That was a month ago. Since then i've done 1500 miles. I'll come back and add more thoughts about it soon.

If there's anything anyone wants to know, or wants me to try out please ask and i'll do my best.

I'm off to Scotland at the end of the month. The plan is to take the Model 3. That should be an interesting test!

jonathan_roberts

441 posts

15 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Great buy. It’s probably the best usable car at this price.

DKIE92

75 posts

14 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Nice!

Will be interesting to hear how the driving experience differs to the previous BMW’s you’ve had.

LowTread

Original Poster:

4,455 posts

231 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all

Home charging


I'm with Octopus Energy, so the first thing i did was get onto Octopus Intelligent ASAP. That gives a cheap rate of 7.5p/kWh between 23:30 and 05:30, with only a 1p/kWh higher day/peak rate. The plan was to just set a timer on the car so that it would charge between those hours.

I ordered an Ohme charger through Octopus and they advised a 16 week wait for fitting, so in the meantime i had to make do with charging on a 3 pin plug.

My garage only has one socket, and it's at the back, so that meant using an extension lead. I didn't want to use my crappy homebase extension lead, and wanted the socket to be outside, so had to get a proper weatherproof lead. I went with a 10m cable from an EV cable specialist. £60 delivered. Built in surge protection and a properly waterproof socket so that i could leave the car plugged in when it's raining. The plan is that once the 7kW charger is installed, the extension can go in the "frunk" for emergencies/holidays.

Syncing with my car worked well. It took a while for it to connect, but it's just a click-through process, so "next"...."next"...."next" etc.

What surprised me was that Octopus grant so many extra hours of cheap rate. If i plugged in at 5pm and asked for 80% at 8am the following day Octopus would start charging almost immediately, so during that entire 15 hrs the whole house gets that low rate!

We've shifted our dishwasher, dryer and washing machine all to the early hours of the morning. So far our monthly bill is looking like being about £30 higher than before, but included in that is about 1500 miles of driving, offset slightly by having more domestic usage shifted to those cheap hours.

It sometimes doesn't work quite right though. Sometimes it fails to start the car charging, probably due to poor 4G and WiFi reception on my driveway. On one occasion the car charged to 80% outside the smart charging hours. I didn't start it, and apparently neither did Octopus!

My 160 weekly trip uses about 62%, so i normally charge it to 82% and end up coming home with roughly 20%. If it all gets charged at the cheap rate then the commute now costs £3.50 (the M2 used to cost £30 per commute).

So far home charging is proving to be a massive gain. Being able to start each day with 200+miles in the "tank" is something i'm finding a surprising bonus. I didn't think about that much before purchasing the car. The M2 used to need a stop to refill on every other commute, sometimes every commute if i'd used it inbetween them!

LowTread

Original Poster:

4,455 posts

231 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
I plan to use this as a daily, so that means commuting, taking the kids to school, going for walks with muddy wellies, etc.

With that in mind i decided to buy some decent rubber mats. Tesla's own are very expensive.

I bought a set of these. At ~£80 for a full set of mats and a boot liner i thought that was good value.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134808930970

They're very heavy/chunky. They have a slightly rubbery smell, but that'll fade after a while.

So far they're keeping the worst off the carpets and mean i'm not so precious about the kids getting in and out.

Notsofastfrank

216 posts

202 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Thanks for taking the time to post your review and updates. Really good to hear from a “normal” driver, rather than a Tesla evangelist. I’ve been looking at model 3s for some time as the prices have come down to reasonable levels.Look forward to any more updates.

mikeiow

6,249 posts

137 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Great ongoing review!
Did you try the latest Kona, out of interest?
We have a 2019 model - rear space is indeed far too tight, but suits us….but we saw a 2024 model at our last service & it looked fine - I’m 6’ & could sit behind myself okay. I’m not a big fan of the ‘no buttons all screen’ Tesla style, but I imagine you get used to it.

Sounds like your experience has been super positive. Slightly worrying when it has weird glitches on charging when it shouldn’t….did Octopus refund the excess, or is that just a ‘sorry, you’ll just have to pay it when that happens’ thing?


LowTread

Original Poster:

4,455 posts

231 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
mikeiow said:
Great ongoing review!
Did you try the latest Kona, out of interest?
We have a 2019 model - rear space is indeed far too tight, but suits us….but we saw a 2024 model at our last service & it looked fine - I’m 6’ & could sit behind myself okay. I’m not a big fan of the ‘no buttons all screen’ Tesla style, but I imagine you get used to it.

Sounds like your experience has been super positive. Slightly worrying when it has weird glitches on charging when it shouldn’t….did Octopus refund the excess, or is that just a ‘sorry, you’ll just have to pay it when that happens’ thing?
I only went as far as looking at and sitting in the new Kona and Niro. They're both excellent, but the Niro would be my first choice out of the two. Interestingly they both take towbars, so i did give them some thought.

Sadly the RRP put me off them.

Regarding the phantom charging, i'll keep an eye out for the next bill. Octopus clearly show when you're on the cheap vs peak rates, so it should be obvious where there's an error.

I did ring them and they sounded open to there being some wiggle room if it charges at peak rate

Edited by LowTread on Friday 1st March 20:11

Marquezs Stabilisers

1,578 posts

68 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Be interested to follow this, I think our next car will be electric but I doubt we'll be able to get a new one. And as this is pistonheads, I want a fast one

Anastie

193 posts

165 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
Thanks for posting this information. I’m in the process of considering changing my RAV4 hybrid for an EV . I don’t do that many miles since I retired. However, once a month I drive to my caravan based in York car needs space for all the stuff I take and a reasonable range.

Your write up helps a lot.

Mad Maximus

473 posts

10 months

Friday 1st March
quotequote all
It’s great these cars are getting into the reasonable price second hand market. I personally can’t wait for bargain price ev’s. Looking forward to your updates!

LowTread

Original Poster:

4,455 posts

231 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all

Build quality


The very first thing i noticed was that the driver's door makes a slight cracking noise when opening and closing. Googling suggests this is acommon issue, most likely due to the hinges. If it was under warranty i'd have it fixed, but it's not, so i'll just live with it. The door opens/closes just fine.

On the whole the interior feels well made. Obviously the lack of dashboard buttons helps there! There aren't that many touch points!

The main screen is really, really good. It takes some getting used to but my 13 yr old knew every detail before we collected thanks to youtube, so i had an "instruction manual" with me on the first few trips hehe

The seats (elec adjustable) are incredibly comfortable. Probably the most comfy of any car i've had. Maybe they're engineered for american sized arses, which is good from my point of view!

The steering wheel feels nice. It's a v thick rim, which won't be to everyone's taste, but i like it. Buttons feel solid.

The stalks feel very solid too. Both requiring a fairly firm hand, though the indicator stalk has a soft touch (like most cars) which gives something like 3-wink-and-then-off, only it's more complicated than that and i think it's more like "auto" where it judges when to stop winking by itself.

The bit that feels the worst is the central section. The panels that cover a cubby hole and phone charging area are not badly made, but the way they stay closed with quite weak magnets doesn't feel that well executed. They revised this on the 2021 facelift, with good reason!

Moving to outside, the (dreaded) panel gaps...

First thing is that every model 3 i looked at had at least one panel gap/alignment that looked a bit off to me. On mine it's the point where the boot lid meets the sides of the roof. On one side it's not aligned that well.

The frunk is another one, but i keep changing my mind on that. I don't know whether it's the fact that aligning curved panels is always going to create uneven gaps, or make the gaps look uneven from certain angles, but now and then i've walked up to it and thought "that's had a tap on the front at some point", only to then change my mind 2 mins later!

My biggest gripe, and the only bit i really care about is probably how the doors and windows feel. I think Tesla handed the engineering of these over to Lotus, because they really have that "that'll do" feel about them. I say Lotus because from experience they concentrate on dynamics, handling, drivetrain, etc but trim, doors, windows, cup holders always feel like an annoying after thought that they had to do, rather than wanted to do.

Each door is frameless, so the glass drops 10mm or so on opening and then rises up again when closing. Only they squeak, which is a bit annoying. I'm going to go around the car with some rubber treatment to see if i can cure it.

The door handles are a stupid design. Everyone i've taken out in it has struggled to figure them out. What's worse is that the mechanism that they're attached to feels a bit flimsy. Hard to explain, but when using them rather than thinking "this opens the door" i'm thinking "this is pulling on a cable that should open the door". It's a shame but i can live with it.

The boot lid is similar. Opening and closing that just doesn't feel like it should on what was a £50k car. It shuts with a CLANG too. In fact nothing on the car goes "thunk" so audi/bmw drivers may feel short changed. If you've come from a 2001 ford fiesta then you'll feel right at home!

TBH though, the lack of perfection is adding some character. I'm still in the honeymoon period so that may change!

The windows feel so similar to my boxster's, and the frunk reminds me of that too. Given i keep regretting selling that car, it's a welcome feeling.

On the whole it feels well engineered in all the places to do with the drivetrain, steering and driving controls, but not so much when it comes to trim, doors and windows. None of it feels like it will break anytime soon, just that they clearly had other priorities, so once they got them working they moved onto something they were more interested in. My Elise is like that though, so i'm ok with it.

Edited by LowTread on Sunday 3rd March 07:59

JAMSXR

1,682 posts

54 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all
Good write up. When we replace the family hack a used Tesla is top of the list. No doubt they are pretty dull things, but it’s a nice place to sit and the range, efficiency, and supercharger network make them hard to ignore. As a keen cyclist it’s good to know about the towbar, I assumed they could be retrofitted.

The ioniq 5 is also on our list. Still need to drive one.



Edited by JAMSXR on Saturday 2nd March 06:03

LowTread

Original Poster:

4,455 posts

231 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all
JAMSXR said:
Good write up. When we replace the family hack and a used Tesla is top of the list. No doubt they are pretty dull things, but it’s a nice place to sit and the range, efficiency, and supercharger network make them hard to ignore. As a keen cyclist it’s good to know about the towbar, I assumed they could be retrofitted.
Cheers.

I wouldn't say "dull", but i know what you mean. It lacks something that i can't quite put my finger on. I'll have a think and write something up later.

Driving it definitely isn't dull. The way it leaps from 30-60 is incredible. And being down the road away from the lights before the other cars have even started moving hasn't got old yet hehe

JAMSXR

1,682 posts

54 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all
Don’t get me wrong, driving the 3 and Y was a nice experience, but I’m the kind of luddite who was happy to get back into a nice 6 or 8 cylinder ICE, but I don’t have the luxury of a weekend fun thing, my superbikes have been replaced with nappies frown

wobert

5,239 posts

229 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all
I have a 2023 M3LR as a company car.

I’m upto 12k miles without any issues.

Like you I have a home charger and do the majority of my charging at home.

With Tesla, public charging is a cinch, plug-in, charge, unplug. No faffing around with payment cards, apps etc.

I did 1k miles trip to Brussels and back and charging in Europe is the same as the UK and even cheaper.

I concur regarding the door handles and auto-wipers.

Other than that I’m a happy chappy!

ETA, strangely I too have an Elise 111S flavour. rofl

Edited by wobert on Saturday 2nd March 09:02

Marquezs Stabilisers

1,578 posts

68 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all
My Impreza also has frameless doors. I pop a smear of red rubber grease on the seals when I'm hoovering the car. This seems to help for a bit.

RayDonovan

4,966 posts

222 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all
Nice writeup
I'll be in the market for one soon - keen to know how you get on with it and any advice / tips once you've had it a few months or so..

DaveyBoyWonder

2,743 posts

181 months

Saturday 2nd March
quotequote all
Really interested in this. I too have noticed how far they're dropping in price - the few I've been in have felt really nice and the owners have had nothing but great things to say about them so they're interesting propositions.

LowTread

Original Poster:

4,455 posts

231 months

Sunday 3rd March
quotequote all

Ride



One of the criticisms of the Model 3 when i was researching them was that the ride was described as "hard" or "harsh".

I guess it's subjective, so in order to describe it i need to also describe how i feel about other cars.

- FN2 Civic Type R. I found this intolerably hard and crashy. Completely over the top for our roads.

- Clio 200. I found mine to be firm, but not hard like the FN2. And the damping works well. I wouldn't want to go on a long trip in it though, and passengers aren't keen on even short trips!

- M2. Firm but with a depth of quality to it. Like some time has been spent on it. Tricky to explain but the damping feels well matched to how firm it is. A passenger would think it a bit hard, but from the driver's seat it felt good.

- M135i (2014). Not particularly firm but quite crashy over bumps. Doesn't soak up imperfections in the road too well. Feels pretty much like cheap/standard suspension that's been made slightly "sporty". Perfectly tolerable but nothing special.

Road noise is a factor too. It does transmit some of the sound of the road surface through to the cabin so you're definitely aware of changes in it. It's far from loud though. I guess being aware of the road surface might be feeding into the reviews that describe the ride as harsh.

I wish it was more M2-like in its quality, but it feels closest to the M135i to me. It's like every other semi-sporty car i've driven where they've taken cheap/stock suspension and made it "sporty", leaving you with a slightly firmer ride without the decent damping to match it. However the chassis/handling doesn't suffer the same issues that the M135i did when pushing on (more on that later).

On the whole i don't find the ride to be much to think about. It's pretty "meh". It's perfectly fine for me, but if you've come from something like an E class mercedes then you'll probably not like it.

Edited by LowTread on Sunday 3rd March 06:24