Thanks for the help, I think I’m going to have to go test drive one and see for my self this week. Realistically what difference is the ryzen chip going to make apart from maybe a touch of speed?
As for lease deals, it’s not a bad shout but the idea of paying large chunks of cash out a month again worry’s me when the price of 3 year old Teslas have more than halved. I guess we don’t have a crystal ball, but in my mind the depreciation should start to steady from this point on and be potentially more normal like ICE vehicles.
If anyone knows a better car for upto £23k than a Model 3 long range either EV or petrol I’m all ears genuinely (family of 4, 1 baby)
The Model 3 is a good car, is very reliable and is one of the better EVs on the market at that price point.
The Ryzen chip is faster and means some of the software like the browser better but the core experience is similar.
Tesla have historically fed in updates to the car frequently and not at fixed points or model year refreshes.
There are a few notable changes:
2021, they added a heat pump and updated the interior which is much better than the original cars.
Tesla Model 3 history of changes by year, we list all the hardware changes and major updates
tesla-info.com
The cars from China are also batter than those made in the US. They cars have come with a number of different battery configurations, long range started at 75kwh, then 82kwh and then 79kwh. There were also efficiency improvements so the 82kwh didn’t necessarily have more range.
Do you actually need the long range?
I had a ‘2022’ standard range car with the 60kwh battery and it gave more than enough range. It was rated for 306 miles which gives 200-250 miles in the real world across winter/summer.
This is the smaller battery Ioniq 5 but still good for 238 miles. These are highly rated plus you get the Hyundai warranty which is 5 years so 3 remaining.
Ioniq 5
238 miles on a WLTP rating is only really 150-170 miles in the real world though. The long range model only really goes as far as the standard range model 3 I had.
Well decided to go and test drive a Tesla albeit it was only the SR+ not the LR. Pretty surprising to drive, probably better than I expected, silly fast acceleration, strange feeling braking when just taking the foot off the gas but easy to get used to and feels really spacious.
Couple of negatives for me personally, no speedo where I’m used to seeing it, seats were really comfy but didn’t hug me round corners and the steering felt a little unresponsive compared to my previous BMW.
Not sure how much of a difference the LR is to the SR mind you.
you quickly get used to the power and the braking, the speedo too.
The Model 3 is known for having a fast steering rack but there isn’t much road feedback (like most cars), is that what you meant by un-responsive? There are 3 settings for the weight of the steering, I always had it in ‘sport’ or whatever the heaviest setting was.
In terms of differences between the LR and SR, the LR has:
Bigger battery / more range and it charges at up to 250kw (the SR maxes out at 170kw)
Front motor which knocks ~1.5 seconds off the 0-60
More speakers and a sub in the boot, the sound system in the SR is good but the LR is better.
There are some small interior differences but it depends on the model year to what they were. Older SR cars didn’t have heated rear seats as standard and lights in the footwells.
Newer cars all have heated seats all round and heated steering wheel.
Otherwise the two cars basically drive the same. While the LR can charge faster, it’s not that much faster as the SR is more efficient so it mitigates the slower charging speed a bit.
