Today I’m going to give you an insight into everything you need to know before you buy a Tesla.
This might show you things you didn’t even consider, and might answer some questions I get regularly, which could either encourage or put you off getting one.
So owning a Tesla is like no other car I’ve had, from the ordering process to collecting, driving, charging and maintaining it. I hope this is useful to you, so let’s jump straight in.
Referral
The first thing to remember when ordering a Tesla, whether you’re buying new, from inventory or leasing, is you should use a referral link.
Here’s my referral code: https://ts.la/chris67110
If you’re buying from Tesla, you just click the referral link you’ve been provided and order your car through their website. You can still go to your local Tesla service centre and order it, but there’s no real benefit to it as the online ordering is easy. If you’re leasing a Tesla through a third party, just give the code to your broker and they’ll order one using it.
By using a referral code you, and the person’s code you’ve used, will both get 1,000 free SuperCharger miles to use on your new car.
Ordering
If you are ordering from Tesla’s website, the whole process is really easy. You can buy from inventory which means the cars are built and usually ready for collection in a couple of weeks. These cars can be used, ex-demo cars with a few thousand miles on them or brand new. Just use the filters on the side.
Or you can spec your car to your own requirements through the Design page. This means you’ll get exactly what you want and it’ll give you an estimated delivery date at the end too.
But I’d definitely check out the inventory page first if you can.
Waiting
Once you’ve ordered, it’s just a case of waiting for delivery day. Whatever your estimated delivery date is, be prepared that it could be sooner or a lot later. Communication will be unpredictable and borderline frustrating at times, but be patient, it will eventually come.
I found emailing them regularly was the best thing to do, but this was back when the waiting time was 2-3 months.
Accessories
While waiting for delivery day, which for me in 2019 was 3 months, I’d use this time to order any accessories you want to pick up. I’ve actually created an entire video on the best Tesla accessories to buy. Things like screen protectors, jack pads and vinyl plates.
Best Accessories to buy list: https://kit.co/spawnpoiint/best-tesla-model-3-y-accessories
Full Video: https://youtu.be/xXavdYoqUko
Insurance
You’ll also want to ensure you can get insurance sorted for your Tesla. While most insurers out there do cover Tesla and electric cars in general, it’s best to shop around as your current insurer might not be best fit. I used CompareTheMarket and Churchill were by far the cheapest, paying £450 year one and £378 year two.
Automatic license
Another thing I wanted to mention was, what license you need to drive a Tesla, something I’m not sure many have brought up before. Now in the UK you can either take a manual gears or automatic driving test. Most people take the manual or stick shift driving test, as it’s more common to drive manual cars here. But with a future of driving automatic or electric cars, there could almost be no need to take a manual test anymore. If you’ve got a license already it obviously doesn’t matter, but just a thought for anyone looking to learn to drive, assuming they are already looking at Teslas or EVs. Maybe just take the automatic test.
Collection Day / Service centers
So it’s now collection day. You’ll have received a text, phone call and any final invoices or balances to pay off. You’ll also have your registration documents to finalize your insurance.
Now unlike other manufactures, Tesla doesn’t have one or two dealerships in every City and town around the country. They are pretty spaced out, my local is over 50 miles away.
Depending on where you live they might offer you a home delivery service, otherwise you’ll need to get to the service center to collect it. On the day you’ll likely be shown a short presentation about the basics of the car, such as how to open the doors and plug the charger in. You’ve probably already watched a dozen videos on YouTube so there’s a good chance you know more than what you’re being shown anyway.
The most important part of the collection though, you need to check the car over, which sounds ridiculous when you consider what you’re buying. As much as I love the car, the same as most Tesla owners, the whole quality control and pre-delivery inspection is almost non-existent. This sounds terrible I know, but you’re better off taking a checklist with you, to make sure you check everything is in order before you leave.
It could be something small like a misaligned door that can be sorted there and then, or something more serious that needs a ranger visit at a later date. People have rejected cars on delivery day, so if you’re not happy, just walk away and ask to be matched to another car.
My Collection Day: https://youtu.be/lZfhLlJTzh4
Warranty
Teslas come with up to 8 years warranty. You get a 4 years or 50,000 miles limited warranty, that covers most repairs or replacement to defect parts on the car, as you’d expect.
Then you get 8 years or 100 – 150 thousand miles battery and drive unit warranty. As the same suggests, the battery is covered for the 8 years with a minimum retention capacity of 70%.
I’ve had 3 warranty repairs done over the last year, none were charged for. But I understand some have been charged a diagnostic fee for Tesla taking a look. This is refunded or not charged if the fault is a warranty issue, but I think this is a tactic to stop people raising non-warranty claims. Just something to note.
Service / maintenance / app
When you’re ready to book a service or repair, the easiest and only way to do this is through the app. So there’s no need to call your local service centre, trying to explain what the issue is, you just choose it from a list, write a description, add photos and select a date and time.
If it’s something that can be fixed or diagnosed remotely, Tesla will do this and contact you. Otherwise they’ll reach out to you a day or two before your service visit and confirm you’re still attending.
I’ve covered an entire video on my service experience I had last year, if you want to check that out too. It shows everything from booking through to fixing an issue I raised, in fact they didn’t actually fix my issue on first attempt.
UK Service Experience: https://youtu.be/dn3F-M3IA6E
Charging
One of the biggest changes and challenges you’ll face owning a Tesla, is charging it. It doesn’t matter how prepared you are, or how many videos you watch, you’re still going to have to make adjustments to your day to day habits of driving and essentially fueling it.
So obviously with a petrol car you could run it to the red line, drive to any petrol station and fill up within 5 minutes. Then you don’t even think about refueling for hundreds of miles. Whereas with an electric car you need a little more planning.
Now the easiest way to do this is at home. You can install a charger on the side of your house for about £600, which means you can plug it in each night or a few times a week. This takes a few seconds of your time each night, and then you’ll wake up to a fully charged car the next day.
But you can live without a dedicated charger, as you can use the 3-pin plug that a Tesla comes with and plug it into any socket. But bear in mind that it’ll only charge at 10 miles an hour instead of 30 miles.
So I’d always recommend having a charger installed at home, as it’s so easy and convenient. But if you don’t have the option to charge at home at all, like you live in rented accommodation, a flat or no off street parking, you could run the car without this.
You’d need to use public, work or superchargers instead. This will take some more planning, as you’ll need to factor in driving to these chargers and waiting for it to charge. Not ideal, but certainly not impossible. Especially if your place of work has chargers installed.
Charging and Supercharging: https://youtu.be/5GLOr0X17cY
Range
If you’re looking at getting a Tesla, one of the biggest and most frequent words you’ll hear thrown around, second to panel gaps, will be range anxiety. Which to begin with you’ll be obsessed with checking the state of charge, watching the graph, checking the remaining percentage. But as time goes on, you’ll understand the limits of the car, and know how far you’ll get. Plan ahead, use the sat nav for your trips and you’ll be fine.
You can use the sat nav to find nearby chargers, or you can use phone apps like Zap Map to find them if you’re away from your car.
One thing to note is realistic range will be lower than predicted, don’t expect the range to be exact or above what’s listed. And summer will always be better than winter, during winter expect a lower efficiency. I’ve covered two videos on my channel for both summer and winter road trips, comparing a 1000 mile road trip to a 400 mile road trip.
My 1,000 mile road trip: https://youtu.be/SAoFCW2INHQ
Updates
So unlike other cars, when there’s a software or firmware update on a Tesla, you don’t need to visit a service center. You’ll get a notification on your phone and you can update it from the comfort of your home.
These updates are over the air, and can include minor bug fixes, games, apps and new features. The most recent update for example included a new game and the new UI. So a bit like your mobile phone, it means the car and the software is always improving and always evolving. It usually only takes 25 minutes, and you’ll get a message once it’s finished installing.
New versions
So like with any car, as soon as you buy it you’re at risk of it being outdated or improved with a newer version or a face-lift. Tesla is no different, in fact it’s probably a little worse. Tesla’s are always being tweaked, it could be slight changes like wireless charging or a magnetic sun visor. Or it could be bigger changes like a heat pump and electric boots or trunks.
These aren’t face-lift changes like we’re used to seeing with other cars, they are tweaks, but enough that the version you buy today could be old in a few months. I guess owning a Tesla is like beta testing, as all feedback is implemented into the next update.
Grants / incentives
Depending on the country you live in, there may be grants or incentives available for purchasing a Tesla, so it’s definitely worth checking this out before buying. This could include interest free loans, reduced purchase prices or even grants towards installing a home charger.
Storage
With a Tesla you get some extra storage space up front in the frunk. This is really useful for somewhere to store your charging cables and anything you don’t necessarily need or use on a daily basis.
Glovebox
The glovebox in a Tesla has to be opened using either the touch screen or voice commands. This might seem like a nuisance, but it’s actually a great security feature as you can enable a pin so no one can get into it, and you don’t need a physical key to lock it.
Summary
So that’s my top tips, advice and insight into ordering, owning and driving a Tesla.
I hope that if you’re looking to buy a Tesla for yourself that this was useful to you. If it was, don’t forget I do have a referral you can use, here: https://ts.la/chris67110