The younger boy found the rear touchscreen about thirty seconds into the test drive, and by the end of the lane he'd worked out how to turn up the heating in the front. The elder boy pushed his knees towards the seat in front, found they didn't reach, and announced that this was the car. The dog had come along as a fair test. It climbed into the boot, turned round twice and lay down looking more settled than it has since the Discovery Sport went.
We ordered a Model Y Premium Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive a few weeks later, for delivery in February. It wasn't the only car we looked at, and on paper it didn't win every round. A new Model 3 goes further for less money, and a Skoda Enyaq matches the Model Y's range for about £8,000 less. This is how three cars became one, with prices as of October 2026, in case you're weighing up the same thing.
The gap the Discovery Sport left
Our 2019 Model 3 Long Range has done a little over 70,000 miles and it's staying. It does the school run and my partner's commute, and the elder boy has already claimed it, apparently for life.
What it can't do is replace the Land Rover. We camp a few times a year in Wales, Devon and Cornwall, and we take two cars, because the tent, the camping kitchen, four people and a dog won't fit in one. For seven years the Discovery Sport carried the tent. We sold it this summer, so that job goes to whatever comes next.
That made the list short. The new car had to take the tent and the dog, carry four bikes on a tow bar, do the run to our friends in Yorkshire, a little over 200 miles each way, and cost less than £50,000, so that it doesn't pay the extra car tax on expensive cars.
A second Model 3 made the best case on paper
The obvious answer was another Model 3. We know the car, the app and the charging, and ours has been the best car we've owned. The Model 3 Premium Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive costs £44,990 and has a WLTP range of 466 miles on 18-inch wheels. The Model Y Premium Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive we ordered costs £49,990, and Tesla estimates its range at 378 miles (from Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y pages, as of October 2026). That's £5,000 more for nearly 90 fewer miles. I read the figures out to my partner, who asked which car I was arguing for.
The Model Y wins where it counts on a campsite. Tesla quotes 2,138 litres of luggage space with the rear seats folded and the frunk counted. It's also about 18 cm taller than the Model 3, and the boot is a hatchback that opens up to the roof, where the Model 3 has a saloon lid and a letterbox of an opening. We've never got the tent into the Model 3, which is why the Land Rover carried it. And when I slept in the Model 3 on Camp Mode in Pembrokeshire, I lay at an angle with my feet in the boot. In the Model Y I'll be able to sit up.
The range gap is smaller than it looks. By my reckoning Tesla's 378 miles is something like 300 on the M1 in January, which still gets us to Yorkshire with the one stop at Woodall we've always made.
The Skoda in the school car park
Half the families at school seem to drive a Skoda Enyaq, and two of them told me to try one before I signed anything. They had a point, and the Enyaq shows how far Tesla's competitors have come. The SE L 85 starts at £42,060 with a WLTP range of 378 miles, the same as Tesla's estimate for our Model Y and about £8,000 cheaper (Skoda UK, as of October 2026). Skoda quotes 585 litres of boot with the seats up and 1,710 litres with them folded, and offers an electrically retractable tow bar. Skoda and Tesla measure luggage space differently, so the fairest test was our camping crate, and it went into both.
For us, Tesla's biggest advantage over other EVs is still the Supercharger network. A Tesla pays 48p/kWh in the daytime at Woodall (Tesla, as of October 2026), and none of the Superchargers on our M1 route were open to other makes when I checked this month. Where Tesla does open a site to everyone, other cars pay more, 75p to 77p/kWh at Gloucester services against 48p for a Tesla, unless they buy a Supercharging membership in the Tesla app. The detail is in the Superchargers we use between the Cotswolds and Yorkshire. An Enyaq would charge at other networks on the way to Yorkshire, and it would probably be fine. I didn't fancy finding out with the boys in the back.
Then there's the car we already have. In seven years our Model 3 has lost about 10% of its range, needed a new 12V battery and had a creaking front control arm fixed. Apart from tyres, that's everything. The software has kept improving since 2019, and one app runs both cars, so my partner only has to learn one. I chose Tesla in 2019 for the tech, the build quality and the range, and I still think it leads on all three, though by less than it did. If we didn't drive to Yorkshire so often, the Enyaq would have been the sensible buy, and I'd tell you so.
Premium, not the cheaper Model Y
For years someone in the pub has told me a £25,000 Tesla was on its way. What arrived was a simpler Model Y. Tesla launched the Model Y Standard in the UK in December 2025 at £41,990 (The Driven). It's now listed as the Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive at £44,990, with a WLTP range of 309 miles on 19-inch wheels, textile seats, no rear screen, and Supercharging at up to 175 kW against 250 kW on the Premium (Tesla, as of October 2026).
I looked hard at the £5,000 saving. The Premium won on range, about 70 miles more by Tesla's figures, and on charging speed, which matters at Woodall when the boys' patience runs out before the battery fills. The rear screen settled it as far as the back seat was concerned.
We stopped short of all-wheel drive. The Premium Long Range All-Wheel Drive costs £54,290, and it's the only Model Y offered with seven seats, but it's over £50,000 before you add anything. That means an extra £440 a year in car tax for five years (gov.uk, as of October 2026). Our Model 3 has all-wheel drive, and in seven Cotswold winters I can count on one hand the mornings it made a difference. How we're paying for the car, and why the tow bar goes on after registration, is in how we're paying for our Model Y.
If you're comparing trims, build a Model Y in Tesla's design studio(referral link) through our referral link and switch between them. The price and range change as you go, and you'll see how quickly the options take you towards £50,000. Pearl White paint alone adds £1,300 on the Premium.
What I'd tell a friend
For long trips with a family, kit and a dog, the Model Y is the one I'd buy, and we have. If your driving is mostly local and you don't use Superchargers much, the Enyaq is the better deal, and I wouldn't argue with anyone who bought one. If you don't need the space, a new Model 3 goes further for less, and I've never regretted ours.
The dog has been told about February. It now sits by the front door whenever the boys mention the new car.
If this would be your first Tesla, ordering a new Model Y or Model 3 through our referral link(referral link) gets you 650 free Supercharging miles (as of October 2026), about one and a half return trips to Yorkshire for us. Use it before you place the order, because Tesla can't add it afterwards. As existing owners we get Tesla's loyalty benefit on our order instead.
