Need advice on used M3LR PCP deal

[Joshb123]

I’ve been eyeing up getting a Tesla for a while especially with the cost of diesel prices at the moment.

I found a used model 3 from Tesla direct 2019 long range 30K approx miles on it
Firstly I’m new to possible Tesla ownership, is there anything I need to be looking out for on the basis it’s a used vehicle?

Secondly regarding the PCP deal, am I right in thinking that with a down payment of £7K for deposit and the monthly payments being £525 with 10K miles per year is a good deal? Or is it one to keep away from? Thoughts appreciated.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

If you are looking at new cars in the showroom and reviews and thinking the one you're looking to buy would be the same, then there will be a few differences. If you're aware of the spec differences then thats fine,

If not, there's no heat pump, the battery is slightly smaller and the motors are less efficient, overall range is therefore lower, both on the spec sheet and in practice. The earlier cars are built in the US and the build quality was a little lacking in the early days, although much of that should have been put right by now.

Warranty will be a year (maybe 2, I've seen Tesla say they're extending the existing warranty by a year, and in other places just providing 1 year, be worth checking the wording), and the battery and motor will have another 5 years on them. The battery and motor is probably the bit you need to worry least about.

It looks like Tesla have included EAP on all their inventory cars (if not FSD). You're paying a bit for an option that may not bother you, but the prices look kind of ok against the market. Buying away from Tesla there's a fair bit of choice and you might be able to get a 2020 car for similar money away from Tesla (which would effectively have the same warranty as a Tesla bought car and be that bit newer). The easy way to compare the market is going here as they list pretty much all cars for sale.

UK Tesla All cars for sale

We list All cars for sale in UK We provide a number of filters including seller type, new, demo, CPO and used, model, price, year plus you can add filters for color, wheels, autopilot etc. Each car is shown in more detail with a number of market charts and a detailed price history. We believe...

tesla-info.com

Tesla rarely let you look at cars before you buy, that said I was in Chester service centre the other day and they had a number lined up, so maybe thats changing. I wouldn't assume that because it says "Chester" as the location the car would actually be there if you were thinking of making a special trip to see it

2021 cars start from about 3k more (I think the cheapest LR at Tesla is about 45.5k) and while thats more, getting the extras development, a china built car and it being 2 years newer might be the way I'd go if you can make funds stretch.

 

[WannabeOwner]

the monthly payments being £525 with 10K miles per year

In case helpful:

Assuming you have off-street parking, and will install a home charger, then if you have / change-to a cheap Off Peak tariff you would expect to save £100 a month (compared to Fuel for ICE) for every 10K miles you drive a year. So basically you could put £100 more on the Finance (than ICE) and break even.

If you have a very good overnight rate and maximise everything that can creep up to about £150 a month per 10K miles p.a. If you need to do some charging away-from-home (e.g. days when you travel over 250 miles) then that number will go down

If you do 20K miles a year that's £200 more a month on finance so works better for higher mileage drivers.

Check out insurance? Tesla cars are quick, so insurance tends to be the top Group

Installing a home charger will be towards £1,000 provided that the cable route is straightforward. Charging port is passenger side, rear - so consider how you enter your drive / park and where charger port might be (and if that makes the cable-run complicated / "more expensive"). Car will use WiFi when parked (to download updates etc.) so having good WiFi coverage on your drive would be worthwhile - budget for a "WiFi extender" if you need one.

Charging with the UMC (should come with the car) is about 7 MPH, and the cheapest Off Peak rate is 4 hours - so 28 miles per night. A Wall Charger is around 25-27 MPH, so about 100 miles per night. If you will routinely have days when you need to top-up more than that then that will be at Peak Rate (or you could get Ecconomy-7 instead, which is 7 hours Off Peak, but the price is not as good as the 4-hour tariffs)

You'll need a smart meter for that, so if you haven't got one there may be a delay before you can switch to that tariff.

Tesla have included EAP on all their inventory cars (if not FSD). You're paying a bit for an option that may not bother you, but the prices look kind of ok against the market

Buying from Tesla, and getting EAP bundled, will increase the purchase price (relative to a 3rd party sale that doesn't have EAP/FSD) but will probably add a bit to the residual value on sale - so might be justifiable on that basis

 

[DrJFoster]

If you're doing it yourself as you own the company then hopefully this won't apply, but one thing I noticed with the schemes we have available is the gross cost in the scheme is a fair bit more than what you can do privately. I think its been discussed before but I get the feeling lease companies like to load companies a bit because they know its still worth doing and they want a slide of the benefit. Sorry if that adds an extra complication.