M3 Pre-facelift vs post refresh. Which is the smart used buy now?

[DtLucerne]

Considering climbing on the Tesla ladder and have been lurking on this forum for a while. Just wondering what the consensus is when buying used now.
Pre-facelift has the advantage of being cheaper with (i think) most of the functionality of the post refresh model and you'd hope any issues would now have been fixed under warranty. Plus USS might be handy based on the complaints around vision park assist.

Though post-refresh, the dechromed look is much nicer and the heat pump/powered boot is there. Does the heat pump make that big a difference day to day? i.e. is it worth an extra £5k or so if you don't regularly do big miles? I guess having some more warranty wouldn't hurt either.

Can't decide which is the best route to go down. Cost-effectiveness is tempting as i'd probably look to buy outright without any HP/PCP etc, though conscious more upfront now might make for a sounder long-term investment. At least until there's a decent 2nd hand market for MYs.

Hoping the wisdom of this learned crowd might help so any thoughts much appreciated.

 

[spdpsba]

Considering climbing on the Tesla ladder and have been lurking on this forum for a while. Just wondering what the consensus is when buying used now.
Pre-facelift has the advantage of being cheaper with (i think) most of the functionality of the post refresh model and you'd hope any issues would now have been fixed under warranty. Plus USS might be handy based on the complaints around vision park assist.

Though post-refresh, the dechromed look is much nicer and the heat pump/powered boot is there. Does the heat pump make that big a difference day to day? i.e. is it worth an extra £5k or so if you don't regularly do big miles? I guess having some more warranty wouldn't hurt either.

Can't decide which is the best route to go down. Cost-effectiveness is tempting as i'd probably look to buy outright without any HP/PCP etc, though conscious more upfront now might make for a sounder long-term investment. At least until there's a decent 2nd hand market for MYs.

Hoping the wisdom of this learned crowd might help so any thoughts much appreciated.

Any day of the week twice on Sunday - Late 2021 to early 2022 (larger battery, 0-60 as the 2021, heat pump etc., and dechromed & parking sensor - if you are very much concerned)

 

[DtLucerne]

Any day of the week twice on Sunday - Late 2021 to early 2022 (larger battery, 0-60 as the 2021, heat pump etc., and dechromed & parking sensor - if you are very much concerned)

D'oh! Forgot to say it was the base M3 I'm looking at You're pretty unequivocal that it's worth the extra money then. Did the refresh increase the 0-60 time?

Mod: added M3 to the title

 

[MrT3]

Plus USS might be handy based on the complaints around vision park assist.

I presume by facelift you mean the cosmetic changes at the end of 2020? Plenty of facelift models from 2021 and 2022 have the head pump and USS - they are probably the sweet spot.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

My rule always used to be go as new as you can as there are constant changes and additions such as the heat pump, but also bigger batteries. That hold true up until around Q3 2022 when they removed parking sensors which was a backwards step.

As for the heat pump, it makes the most dfference in winter where the efficiency doesn't seem to drop as much as it used to on cars I had before the heat pump.

 

[spdpsba]

You're pretty unequivocal that it's worth the extra money then. Did the refresh increase the 0-60 time?

That Q4 2021 to Q1 2022 is the Unicorn model which had larger battery (60kwh) + 0-60 performance in 5.2 sec (similar to earlier models). From Q2 2022 the 0-60 decreased, I think to 5.6sec or 5.8sec with the larger battery. Models before that (until Q3 2021) had 55kwh battery with 0-60 of 5.2seconds.

Refresh decreased the 0-60 as expalined above.

The unicorn is worth the money as it has 306 WLTP miles and heat pump, dechrome, 0-60 5.2 sec, parking sensor and I guess also have the heated steering, rear seat heating etc., as standard. It is the real Unicorn one.

 

[Durzel]

There's quite a few quality of life things that have been added in the 2021 refresh. Obviously you have the dechrome, but there's also the heat pump, auto boot and a few little things here and there that you wouldn't necessarily notice unless you were looking for them (e.g. magnetic closure visors).

As said above I'd say that probably mid/late 2021 is probably the sweet spot. From there Tesla started removing things to squeeze margins - USB data in the centre console, more scratchy plastic door cards, ultrasonics, 13th speaker, etc.

 

[Mrklaw]

D'oh! Forgot to say it was the base M3 I'm looking at You're pretty unequivocal that it's worth the extra money then. Did the refresh increase the 0-60 time?

Mod: added M3 to the title

agree - RWD gets a nice range boost, you get the LFP so can charge to 100%, dechrome just looks nice espeically on a white car (heck I paid BMW to dechrome mine previously..), heat pump, USS etc etc. All good. If you can squeeze the Ryzen processor thats gravy but not a deal breaker I don't think

 

[Lord Farquad]

That Q4 2021 to Q1 2022 is the Unicorn model which had larger battery (60kwh) + 0-60 performance in 5.2 sec (similar to earlier models). From Q2 2022 the 0-60 decreased, I think to 5.6sec or 5.8sec with the larger battery. Models before that (until Q3 2021) had 55kwh battery with 0-60 of 5.2seconds.

Refresh decreased the 0-60 as expalined above.

The unicorn is worth the money as it has 306 WLTP miles and heat pump, dechrome, 0-60 5.2 sec, parking sensor and I guess also have the heated steering, rear seat heating etc., as standard. It is the real Unicorn one.

If you’re after a RWD then these Q4 2021’s are the best to try and locate. All the good stuff and still the quicker motor.

How you identify one, well that’s the real question. Whilst registration date will help, some cars (lease etc) will be older models registered late.

I’m not sure if anyone with one on here can give you an insight into the VIN they have, to help find one close?

Good luck, I hope you can find one, because they’re a brilliant first Tesla

 

[Mrklaw]

Unicorns are nice but if you're looking for value for money then having a larger pool of cars to aim at is perhaps more practical. If you can snag one great, but any of that range of cars with the specs being talked about are good options.

 

[spdpsba]

Unicorns are nice but if you're looking for value for money then having a larger pool of cars to aim at is perhaps more practical. If you can snag one great, but any of that range of cars with the specs being talked about are good options.

Agree, probably the OP can have a bit of a tiered approach.

Unicorn at the top - highly unlikely to get it because of the rarity - Q4 2021 - Q1 2022 - not many cars

Q2 2021 & Q3 2021 - 262 miles (what OP prefers - less), less in price b’cos of the year model, but will have heated steering, heat pump, dechrome, heated rear seats etc., - few of them around

Q1 2021 & Q4 & Q3 2020 - 262 miles, less in price, but no heated steering or heated rear seats, but heat pump +, dechrome + - many available

Q2 2022 & Q3 2022 and some Q4s - slightly bigger battery (305 miles), slightly higher price, will have all of the above plus Ryzen processor - many available

Before Q3 2020 - much less in terms of price, but Chrome +, no heat pump and slightly lesser miles - many cars available


Probably this might help the OP.

 

[AndyFov]

It's a tough call to me, as 2021 cars are few and far between sub £30k, then you'll likely be able to get a brand new one for ~£38k or so at the end of the quarter push with 0% interest.

Obvs no USS, but more warranty and possibly looking at a lower total overall cost of ownership in 3 yrs time?

 

[WannabeOwner]

Does the heat pump make that big a difference day to day?

You get more range (lower fuel consumption) in Winter. If you charge at home, and rarely go out of range, then you might have to buy a bit more electricity in Winter, but if you have a cheap overnight tariff I doubt it will amount to much.

But if you are frequently on longer journeys then ANY increase in range makes a difference. Further before you have to charge, obviously, which means more trips that can be made without needing charge - and on ones that do need a charge you go further, and need a smaller top up, than a lower range car.

Range in this context is "going a long way", so most likely you will be at motorway speed most of the journey, and the published range figures are useless for that situation (i.e. the only one where range actually matters, you aren't going to run out of juice nipping to the shops).

Worth trying ABetterRoutePlanner for any long trips you are likely to make, to see how long / often you would have to charge, and where. A similar question came up recently and ABRP gave same results for different models, despite them being obviously different efficiencies, so whilst I think ABRP is generally useful for Brand comparison (and also Winter / Summer) I would not recommend relying on it for more subtle differences between models.

 

[DtLucerne]

Agree, probably the OP can have a bit of a tiered approach.

Unicorn at the top - highly unlikely to get it because of the rarity - Q4 2021 - Q1 2022 - not many cars

Q2 2021 & Q3 2021 - 262 miles (what OP prefers - less), less in price b’cos of the year model, but will have heated steering, heat pump, dechrome, heated rear seats etc., - few of them around

Q1 2021 & Q4 & Q3 2020 - 262 miles, less in price, but no heated steering or heated rear seats, but heat pump +, dechrome + - many available

Q2 2022 & Q3 2022 and some Q4s - slightly bigger battery (305 miles), slightly higher price, will have all of the above plus Ryzen processor - many available

Before Q3 2020 - much less in terms of price, but Chrome +, no heat pump and slightly lesser miles - many cars available


Probably this might help the OP.

This is really helpful, thank you. I've learnt a lot from you all. Didn't realise there was quite so much variation over a relatively short space of time. One other thing I have wondered about going used is how important mileage on the vehicle is (or isn't). I know the drivetrain warranty goes up to about 80k miles but beyond that is there much useful information on reliability or is it less of an issue on EVs? For ICE vehicles I generally assume that once you're up to 90-100k miles on it you're more likely to start needing repairs here and there.

 

[spdpsba]

I know the drivetrain warranty goes up to about 80k miles but beyond that is there much useful information on reliability or is it less of an issue on EVs?

It is 100,000 miles or 8 years for Rear wheel drive model 3 and 120,000 miles or 8 years for LR model 3.

Not sure what happens after this as Model 3 is been in UK only since 2019 so none of them would have touched the cut off of 8 years. But there may be few who have done 100,000 miles - not sure anyone their in the forum!

People with Model X or S may have reached the 8 year or 150,000 miles cut off point. In general they last beyond that point - but with retention of 70% of battery capacity is something I’ll use as the indicator if I am buying something around that period.

 

[Mrklaw]

Agree, probably the OP can have a bit of a tiered approach.

Unicorn at the top - highly unlikely to get it because of the rarity - Q4 2021 - Q1 2022 - not many cars

Q2 2021 & Q3 2021 - 262 miles (what OP prefers - less), less in price b’cos of the year model, but will have heated steering, heat pump, dechrome, heated rear seats etc., - few of them around

Q1 2021 & Q4 & Q3 2020 - 262 miles, less in price, but no heated steering or heated rear seats, but heat pump +, dechrome + - many available

Q2 2022 & Q3 2022 and some Q4s - slightly bigger battery (305 miles), slightly higher price, will have all of the above plus Ryzen processor - many available

Before Q3 2020 - much less in terms of price, but Chrome +, no heat pump and slightly lesser miles - many cars available


Probably this might help the OP.

its not my budget but my shorlist would start with the Q1 2021- cars. Heat pump and dechrome so more efficient and more ‘refreshed’ look, and they’ll be coming off business/personal lease now so should be good volumes and prices.

I’d expect prices to ramp pretty quickly after that and honestly if it starts to get to £30k I’d consider options around maybe financing a new one with 0% and/or a discount if you can wait until a bit closer to end of Q3.

 

[spdpsba]

its not my budget but my shorlist would start with the Q1 2021- cars. Heat pump and dechrome so more efficient and more ‘refreshed’ look, and they’ll be coming off business/personal lease now so should be good volumes and prices.

I’d expect prices to ramp pretty quickly after that and honestly if it starts to get to £30k I’d consider options around maybe financing a new one with 0% and/or a discount if you can wait until a bit closer to end of Q3.

Yes, very pragmatic choice. I have one of those Q1 2021 cars - around 5 months a year here in Britain I miss that heated steering wheel and my passengers, heated rear seats! Also twice a year I miss that slightly bigger battery of 60Kwh whenever we do the cornwall trips - with that larger battery I could do the trip with one stop! But I know these are not deal breakers but very specific to my requirements which I don’t have :-(

 

[Mrklaw]

Yes, very pragmatic choice. I have one of those Q1 2021 cars - around 5 months a year here in Britain I miss that heated steering wheel and my passengers, heated rear seats! Also twice a year I miss that slightly bigger battery of 60Kwh whenever we do the cornwall trips - with that larger battery I could do the trip with one stop! But I know these are not deal breakers but very specific to my requirements which I don’t have :-(

yep if I had the money I'd go 60kwh in a flash but the lower capacity is more than capable and easy to live with.

I don't think I've ever done cornwall in one go even when I had the LR I stopped twice for myself and passenger comfort breaks. That reassured me when buying my current YRWD. Especially now there is a supercharger every 40 miles from exeter onwarsd down the A30..

 

[WannabeOwner]

the lower capacity is more than capable and easy to live with

I think it depends on how often you are out of range.

Family member had a M3 SR (mainly because they didn't feel comfortable owning / driving a car with value of a M3 LR). They always took regular breaks on long journeys (with ICE), so the stopping wasn't a problem, but when it came time to replace the car, and having had the SR experience, they decided that the LR would be a better option

Contingency is probably the same for any vehicle, so if that is, say, 50 miles then a 240 mile range car would be looking to top up 190 miles out, and then if going further and only charging to 80% each stop that's only 140 miles for each subsequent leg (with 50 mile contingency). That's still a good 2 hours driving ... but .. .depends where the Superchargers are on the motorway / autoroute, and IME that means you are likely to wind up with 1h30m legs where there isn't a Supercharger at the 2h mark.

With 300 mile range, 50 mile contingency, that's 250 mile first leg (well past the comfort break point and then subsequent legs on 80% charge are 190 miles, that's 3 hours so more choice of which Superchargers to choose to stop at

 

[Mrklaw]

normally superchargers (or others) are close enough (and reliable enough) that you should be able to do the 2h stops or nibble into your 50m contingency. Certainly if most of your travel is in the UK. I still think the pragmatic case for SR vs LR is 'driving to granny and back in one go don't want to stop and she won't let me charge at her house'. Ie one way trip doable in all weather with 50% of battery plus contingency.