Well it's been two years since we took delivery of our Tesla Model 3 and now
that more people than ever are looking at getting a Tesla and especially the
Tesla Model 3, I think it's important to actually take a look at some of the
long-term experiences of owning a Tesla Model 3. Now here at 6 Months Later
Reviews, long-term reviews are our specialty. So in this review we're going
to go over the maintenance and service experiences that we've had with the
Tesla Model 3 as well as the costs the insurance cost we've had with the car,
our top features that we've enjoyed using with the Tesla Model 3 over the
past two years, some charging tips, and update on battery degradation, and then
finally if we still recommend getting a Tesla Model 3. Let's dive in. Service can
make or break an experience with a car brand and while I've had my share of
mixed experiences with Tesla Service, keep in mind too that my car has had
more atypical maintenance than your average Tesla Model 3 and that's simply
because my car was one of the first 9000 ever built. We had the front hood
realigned when we first got it because the hood wasn't flush with one side of
the front part of the car. Tesla Service accidentally nicked the paint when doing
the realignment so a good chunk of the front of the car had to be repainted.
Also when we first got the car the windshield wipers weren't screwed on
tight, causing one arm to raise up off of the glass too high so when you opened
the front trunk to get to the front the arm scraped against the metal in the
hood and part of it fell off. So that had to be replaced as well also the original
charge port door needed to be replaced because it kept opening and closing at
random when the car was in park. All of these repairs were covered under
warranty. Now those were pretty atypical maintenance needs and they happened
right after I got the car and once those were repaired, I didn't have any major
issues come back up with the car so now let's talk about some of the more
typical maintenance needs with the car. Now keep in mind I've had my Tesla Model
3 for two years and have put 21,000 miles on it, so the first typical
maintenance thing I'll talk about is tire rotations, which cost me about 40
bucks at Tesla Service originally, but Tesla recently
increase the price for tire rotations to around $90 and I think the reason they
did that was to incentivize people not to go to the service centers for tire
rotations because a lot of other third-party shops can actually do tire
rotations as well, if they have the right type of jack to jack the model 3 and
other Tesla's other than tire rotations. Though if you have any other maintenance
needs pretty much they're going to have to be addressed by Tesla Service unless
you want to void your warranty. Alright moving on, let's talk about some other
things that I've had to replace with this car. I've replaced the windshield
wiper blades right around the two-year mark and they cost me about $45 for the
two blades. I also replaced the cabin air filters in the Model 3 at the 18-month
mark because I noticed this funky kind of musty smell coming through the a/c
during the summer time. This was due to water not evaporating completely from
the evaporator so Tesla replaced the filter and vacuumed out and cleaned the
drainage area of the evaporator as well that cost me around $70. The last piece
of maintenance I've recently had to do was a collision repair because somebody
ran into my car and did about $2,800 dollars worth of damage to it.
Luckily Tesla just recently rolled out and they actually sent an email out the
day of my collision for their collision repair service and they were able to
work on my car rather quickly, completing the repair in just four days. They
replaced the trunk lid, bumper, and other parts that needed to be replaced and
repainted parts of the car so the new parts matched the existing body. Now
everything together, my total out-of-pocket expenses for the
Tesla Model 3 over the past two years has been around $260 dollars pre-tax and
do keep in mind this is not including the two-year checkup that Tesla does
recommend for some things on the car like brake fluid etc. Alright so
overall my experience with Tesla Service has been pretty positive but there have
been some downsides and let's go ahead and get into those. First, my local
service center here in Raleigh, North Carolina,
it hasn't really grown in its physical size to be able to match the growth of
the owners around the area. Now that's not all Tesla's fault. For years,
especially here in North Carolina, as as other states in the United States,
there have been local laws pushed by car dealerships to try to limit Tesla's
direct sales model. So here in North Carolina we had a law for years that
prevented Tesla from opening up additional sales and service centers but
regardless of all that, it still does have an impact on the ownership
experience. It's pretty small in there, there's not a ton of waiting room space
in the service center here in Raleigh, the last two times I've been there I've
actually had to park in front of other businesses just to park my car somewhere
so I could go run in and hand them the keys. Now again, my experience here in
Raleigh, North Carolina is likely not going to be the same for you if you get
a Tesla Model 3 or any Tesla. Tesla does operate much larger sales and service
centers than we have here in Raleigh. One thing that has helped alleviate the wait
times and space constraints at Tesla service centers is the ramp up of the
Tesla mobile service fleet, where Tesla will come out to your office or home
location to service your vehicle and that service in my experience has been
really great. Now the second downside of the Tesla
service experience overall in my opinion is just inconsistency throughout
the experience. For example, loaners: that's been pretty inconsistent. When I
first got my Model 3 serviced it was pretty much certain even if they were
only servicing it for a day or two you were likely going to get a loaner. As
Tesla has sold more and more cars that likelihood of getting a loaner has just
plummeted. You're pretty much guaranteed to get Uber credits and Uber credits
like especially because they're Unlimited, I mean that's fine but still
not as nice as actually having a Tesla loaner to drive around while your car is
being serviced. The other inconsistency I've noticed has been the check-in
experience. When I first got my car and had it taken to a Tesla service center,
the technician would actually come out walk around my car notice if there were
dings or anything to make sure that Tesla wouldn't be faulted for them and
things like that. They would also go through and look at all of the issues
that I had written up in the Tesla application for service it was that kind
of one-on-one experience and I actually personally kind of liked that. Now
they've gone to you walk in, you check-in on an iPad, which
it's fine, and you talk to the people up front but you never actually talked to
the people who actually work on the car. I found that this can actually lead to
some miscommunication between the people you talk to at the front of the Tesla
Service Center and then the people who actually work on your car in the back,
and I've had this miscommunication result in either work not getting done,
or worse the wrong work getting done. Now all in all, even when Tesla royally
screws up, in my experience I found that they do go out of their way to try to
make things right in the end for their customers. Alright, well that's been my
experience with Tesla Service. Now let's move on and look at another long-term
cost associated with car ownership and that is insurance cost. Do keep in mind,
depending on what state you're in if you're here in the United States or if
you're in another country, your costs and system they're going to just look wildly
different than what I have been through, so just keep that in mind. But okay, first
year and also keep in mind age has a factor in how much you pay for insurance,
so if you're under 25 you're typically going to be paying more. I turned 25 just
before I got my Model 3 delivered which was lucky, so my first year it was a
$120 per month, second year was $115
dollars per month and now I'm starting off on the third year of my policy and
it is $98. All three years I was going through the same insurance
company which was Amica insurance. Now let's talk about some of the most
impactful features of the Tesla Model 3 that we found over the last two years of
owning it, the first one is the software updates that the car gets which I
consider to be a feature itself. The car I'm driving today is completely
different than the one I picked up two years ago. It has sentry mode which turns
on the cameras when someone approaches your car when parked, it has a dash cam
which comes in handy for all sorts of situations like recording near misses on
the road or when you unfortunately get into an accident. I can precondition my
car in the morning before I go to work which is great in the winter and you can
send directions to your Tesla by sharing them from apps like Apple or Google maps
and the car can now even drive itself to your location in a parking lot with
Advanced Summon. One of my favorite features of the Model 3 has been the
premium interior package sound system. This sound system just sounds great. The
navigation system is also the best I've ever used on a car, it takes full
advantage of that screen and the shortcuts for your home and work
locations are really convenient and thanks to a software update, the car now
automatically guesses where you're going to go based on your schedule. So when I
get into my car on the way to work in the morning, as soon as I sit down it's
automatically turned on the navigation and is navigating to my work location
without me having to do anything at all, which is great and I know that when I
use navigation with the Tesla, it's taking live traffic into account and
putting me on the most efficient route possible so I avoid any slowdowns. The
interior of the car is something I've really loved over the past two years of
ownership I personally like the minimalist look of the Model 3. It looks
like no other car out there and not having a screen right behind the
steering wheel has helped visibility when driving. The seats are also really
comfortable, making long drives much easier on my back and behind than many
other vehicles I've had to do a road trip in. Another major feature that has
made a difference with this car over the long term is Autopilot. Autopilot allows
the Tesla to maintain speed keep the car in its lane and automatically change
lanes all under your supervision while driving on a highway.
It's unlike anything else you can get from another vehicle on the road today
and has made highway driving especially on road trips much less taxing. Now if
you want to learn more about Autopilot we actually did an in-depth 6 Months
Later review of Tesla Autopilot so make sure you check that video out I'll leave
a link to it in the video description below as well as you can click on this
card here in the video to get to it. OK, so road trips with the Model 3, yes they
do take longer than if you were using a gas car. Though if you plan your trip
right and eat during your charging stops, it's not that much longer. Tesla has come
out with a version 3 of their Superchargers which are much faster and
even on the version two superchargers, my Model 3
can now precondition its battery on the way to the supercharger automatically
which means that ultimately I'm spending less time charging than I was before.
Typically I spent around fifteen to twenty minutes on average per
supercharging stop and that's because you only need to charge up to the point
where you can make it to either another super charging stop or to your end
destination, though in the winter I will get myself around a 50-mile buffer or so
to get to the next supercharging stop, just to be overly cautious. Now if you
want to learn more about what it's like taking a Tesla Model 3 on a roadtrip
we've actually done two videos on that subject one was just a road trip video
and the other one was a road trip video with Autopilot. So if you're interested
in those, make sure you check those out I'll leave the links to those videos in
the video description below or you can click on the cards that appear in this
video. The Model 3 is a unique car in a lot of ways but for a lot of owners one
way it's unique is it's their first electric car which means you're going to
have to charge it. Now over the past two years the main way that I charge my
Tesla Model 3 is the 120 volt outlet in my garage. Now yes that is a pretty slow
way to charge a Tesla, but I'm only going maybe 25 30 maybe 40 miles a day on
weekends, so for my needs it actually is quite suitable. If you drive a lot more
than I do you'll likely need to install a 240 volt outlet or a Tesla wall
charger or both. With these outlets you can get the car from almost empty to a
full charge overnight with a charge rate of about 34 miles of charge per hour. Now
another thing that people always ask me about with my Tesla Model 3 is around
the battery and battery degradation. So when I first got my car I noticed that I
could basically charge it up full, a full charge would be about 315 miles. Now a
full charge is around at 311 miles, so I lost about 4 miles of range which gives
me about a 1.3% battery degradation on the vehicle's battery. Now one other thing
that had an impact on the range I got over the two years of ownership is
colder temperatures. You will see a pretty significant reduction in range
of your vehicle in colder climates mainly because of the cabin heater. In my
day-to-day driving during the winter I'll typically notice around 10 to 15
miles of range being depleted more than normally during warmer months and that's
why during road trips in the winter I will have that 50 mile range buffer in
between stops just to be overly cautious, because in colder temperatures you are
going to see more range loss than you have in warmer temperatures.
Now the Model Y and future Tesla's that have heat pumps should perform a bit
better in these conditions because of the extra efficiency the heat pumps
gives the vehicles. Alright, so after two years of ownership, do I still love
owning a Tesla Model 3? Yes. Do I still wish that I had purchased the
vehicle? Yes. Would I consider switching to another car brand? Hell no. This car is
blazing fast, the tech is better than anything I've experienced in any other
car, the service is relatively easy, you never have to go to a gas station again,
and you're not using gas and helping lower the emissions in the place you
live, making your local environment a bit better, and these vehicles hold their
value. The Model 3 has pretty much held its value after two years of ownership
and according to iseecars.com, it's the top vehicle out there right now for
retaining its value and I can attest to that because the property taxes I've paid
on my Model 3 have not changed that much from year 1 to year 2. Alright, last thing
before we wrap up this video, if you're interested in learning more about Tesla
and the Model 3 specifically, we've actually done a lot more in-depth videos
on the Model 3 and Tesla on this channel and we've put them all in a Tesla
playlist. So if you're interested in learning more about Tesla and the Model
3, definitely check out that playlist. I'll
link it below in the video description as well as try to link it here in a card
in this video. If you're in the market and looking at a Tesla Model Y, 3, S or X,
make sure you use a referral code. Referral codes will get you free super
charging credits when you order your Tesla you can use ours, your friends',
neighbors', whomever, just make sure you use one when ordering
Tesla vehicle or solar product, and you can find our referral code in the video
description below. Well that's it for our review of the Tesla Model 3 after 2
years. If you liked this video and found it helpful,
hit that thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more
tech product reviews and Tesla-related videos like this one. For 6 Months
Later I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.