Thinking about buying a Model 3 with ~100k miles. Bad idea or smart move?

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If you worry about these things you need to check first the insurance. Very possible you will get $300+ per month quote due to age. At 100k it will be pure luck. As for battery - 20-25% degradation is very probable (unless LFP battery).

Bad idea. Warranty is almost up and you only have 120,000 total miles Battery warranty. I heard the price to replace battery is over $10k-$15k. Bad deal.

Isn’t insurance supposed to decrease as vehicle ages?

Not really. You are high risk (statistically) , not just for your car but other cars as well.

Personally it wouldn't bother me, buy it and drive it until the wheels fall off.

So newer cars are having cheaper insurance? I just had my first car so not sure how all these insurance thing works. I though the reason I am paying almost $300 on insurance is because my car is new.

What's your annual mileage and how many years you've been licensed? Most expensive is liability: Age under 23 is the biggest risk factor. Annual mileage is the risk exposure. Cost of replacement of your car is lesser compared to the first two on case of new to the road driver.

As long as you treat the battery right and keep it between 25and 80 pct charge most of the time using Level 1 or 2 charging, should be ok? Degradation plateaus at 15 pct or so in my experience w a 2018 80K miles, AWD still have 270 range.

You pay more because of your age. Obviously if you insure Bentley you will pay more than Honda. But the worst parameter for regular cars is age. And location. Call few insurance companies and check. You can get VIN from the seller (or just get similar car vin on any site). Who knows, maybe I will be totally wrong ... It is all statistics - driving Tesla at age 50 and age 20 have a different statistical probability of incident.

With all the squeaks and rattles, you might not even notice.

The chances of the battery breaking is less than 5%. A lot of these vehicles get well past 200,000 miles. I think you'll be absolutely fine. Most cars of that mileage have a chance of mechanically totaling the vehicle, but Tesla's actually less than most.

For sure you'll have decent degradation. You get 10% in the first year almost no matter what. After that it slowly trickles down. So 20 to 25% is possible at that age. That said, if you can charge at home it's totally fine.

I have a model 3 with 105k miles. 14% degradation. Checked it 4 days ago.

If it’s an old enough Model 3 (2021/2022 or older), the battery warranty might only be 100,000 miles

Mine has almost 135,000 miles. No repairs. Here is the battery failure rate by manufacture year. https://www.battermachine.com/post/tesla-battery-pack-failure-rates-by-production-year Tires are about $1,200 and Tesla's go through them in less than 50,000 miles typically. At your age insurance is also expensive as others have mentioned.

This should be higher. Batteries are highly resilient these days, and the drive motor is likely to give out well before the battery. And the drive motors have also become incredibly resilient.

Check the monthly insurance for a Tesla first.

Get insurance quotes by using actual VIN numbers. Do you have access to level 2 charging? How many miles a day are you driving it?

300 ouch, Im paying 171/month for a 2026 Model Y Juniper

Make sure you can insure it. I traded in my 3 as opposed to give to my kid because the insurance would be insane for a 19 year old. That said it was in great shape at 155k

100% need to have a solid, everyday charging situation. I would never recommend an electric car to anyone that can’t consistently charge at their residence overnight

50000? I'm on like my eighth set of tires at an average of like 15k

Slow it down speed racer.

I highly recommend you get one that is rwd with the LFP battery. The LFP battery lasts longer and can handle higher heat, making it a durable battery for long term ownership. It can charge to 100% regularly too. Try and find one that is 2021+, 2022+ preferably due to the improvement in tech and heating

It’ll be okay for a college student. They don’t travel far and have plenty of time to supercharge with their downtime. I see a lot of college students in my city supercharging all the time

Just bought some tires last year around this time and they have 40% life left 😭😭

Currently closing in on 75k miles on a set of Michelins CC2s with plenty of tread left. Getting noisy though. Do you have a performance model?

I do, with pilot 4s. But I haven't been driving aggressively for years.

I think the Model 3 will ultimately prove to be a great car that lots of people rack up super high mileage on. Suspension parts. That's the most likely thing that will need repaired. Any competent mechanic can do that on a Tesla. However, if I could only have one car, and an expensive repair bill would be disastrous to me... the safe bet is a 4 cylinder Toyota Camry or Corolla (adjust year/mileage to get to your budget).

That's similar to what you see with BMWs and the like with aggressive camber. Nature of the beast. I bet you can align the car such that tire wear is better, adding adjustable suspension pieces as needed.

What battery chemistry? What year / model ? You need to compare apples to apples.

2018.

Which city?

I like my Tesla a lot but if I was going for an EV in the $15K or less price range I'd look for a Bolt. Near me there are several Bolt EUVs in that price range. The Bolt EUV is a little more spacious compared to the non-EUV Bolt. Yes they'll have a bunch of miles as well but it's a simpler vehicle that more shops will be willing to work on.

Means nothing. What model, what battery is used? 2018 had different batteries from different suppliers. Was it midrange ? Long range ? Performance ? Anyway, how did you calculate the degradation? Battery health test?

Houston

My experience matches yours. 105k 2018 LR RWD

Solid advice. Passed down Civics got my kids through college.

Do you live somewhere with convenient EV charging? If not, don’t get an EV yet. Currently at 100k miles with about 13% degradation. My AC / heat pump / defroster failed around 75k miles ($3k). A wiper arm broke around 75k miles (just a week after the heat pump but it needed a whole separate 50-mile trip each way trip to get the replacement part). My trunk started rusting in one spot around 90k miles. Insurance and tires are expensive too.