We'd just finished the school run when the elder boy announced, from the back seat, that the Model 3 should be his once the Model Y arrives. My partner said we'd discuss it when he'd passed his test, then turned to me and asked the more useful question. Are we keeping it, or selling it?
Our Model 3 is a 2019 Long Range All-Wheel Drive, one of the first right-hand-drive cars in the country (UK deliveries started in June 2019). Seven years on, it's exactly the sort of car people find when they search for a second-hand Tesla. So I looked at it the way a buyer would.
If you're weighing one up, a used Model 3 is a good buy as long as the battery health, the warranty dates, the history and the front suspension all check out, and most of those checks cost nothing.
Where a car like ours sits on price
On 7 October 2026 the closest thing to ours in Tesla's used stock was a 2021 Model 3 Long Range All-Wheel Drive with 63,465 miles, at £18,200. A new Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive costs £37,990 (Tesla, as of October 2026). Auto Trader listed 1,049 used Model 3s the same day, starting at £12,990 for an older Standard Range Plus.
Ours is two years older than that £18,200 car and has done a little over 70,000 miles, most of them school runs and a great deal of the M1 on the way to see our friends in Yorkshire. On Tesla's listings, mileage seemed to move the price more than age did. My partner suggested I stop refreshing the page. Our post on Tesla resale values in the UK goes into why they hold up as they do.
The battery, and a warranty that's nearly up
The battery is the expensive part, so start there. Ask the seller to run the quick check in the Tesla app (Service, Request Service, Battery & Charging, Range), which says whether degradation is within Tesla's normal range. For a percentage, the Health Test in the car's Service Mode needs at least 12 hours on a home charger from a nearly empty battery (Not a Tesla App, June 2024), so ask for it a few days before you view. On ours, a full charge shows roughly 10% less range than it did when new, and the app calls that normal.
A Long Range Model 3's battery and drive unit warranty runs for 8 years or 120,000 miles, with at least 70% of the battery's capacity kept over that time. The plain Rear-Wheel Drive cars get 8 years or 100,000 miles, and the cover moves to the new owner when ownership is transferred through Tesla (Tesla, as of October 2026). Ours runs out in the summer of 2027, a few months after the Model Y arrives, so anyone buying it now would get less than a year of battery cover and nothing on the rest of the car. The Tesla app shows the end dates under Specs & Warranty. Read them before you fall for the colour.
Cars built before the 2021 update also have no heat pump (Discover EV). On a January run up the M1, with the boys asking for the heating "on hotter", ours loses range noticeably faster than in summer. We still get there with one stop, but a later car will do better.
What wears on a Model 3
Not much, which is one reason I still like ours. Tyres wear, because the car is heavy, and we're on our fourth set. Check the tread across the full width, since wear on the inner edge points to the alignment.
The front suspension is the one to listen to. In 2021 Tesla told owners of some 2018 to 2020 Model 3s that water could get into the front upper control arm ball joints and cause a creak when steering at low speed, which it called a noise problem rather than a safety one (Drive Tesla Canada, May 2021). Ours started creaking on full lock in the school car park around then. The boys thought it was the best noise the car had ever made. Tesla sorted it. On a test drive, open the window and turn the wheel fully each way at walking pace.
Cars of our age also came with a lead-acid 12V battery, the kind Tesla has said needs changing more often than the lithium-ion ones in later cars (Drive Tesla Canada, July 2021), so ask when it was last replaced. Then sniff the boot. Ours smells faintly of wet dog after seven years of camping, and no valet has shifted it. I'd knock fifty quid off for that myself.
Paperwork, history and the app
Gov.uk's MOT history checker shows every result and the mileage at each test, so you can compare it with the odometer. A private history check costs up to £20 and shows whether a car has been stolen, written off or still has finance owing, and an independent inspection costs around £120 to £250 (Citizens Advice, as of October 2026).
Ours pays the standard £200 a year in car tax, and electric cars registered before 1 April 2025 don't pay the £440 expensive car supplement whatever they cost new (gov.uk, as of October 2026). For anything registered after that, check whether its list price was over £50,000.
The last job is moving the car onto your own Tesla account. You add it in the app under My Products with the VIN and proof of ownership, and Tesla's guide says the previous owner may need to approve it. Sort that out before you drive away, or you'll own a car that still answers to a stranger's phone.
Before I handed over money for a car like ours, I'd want to see:
- the app's battery check, or the Service Mode percentage
- the warranty end dates
- an MOT history with mileage that adds up
- a history check with no finance or write-off
- a quiet front end on full lock
- the seller releasing the car from their Tesla account
Tesla's own used cars, and ex-demo stock
If that sounds like a lot of homework, Tesla will do some of it for you. Its Certified Pre-Owned cars, its version of an approved used scheme, have covered under 90,000 miles, have been inspected and refurbished, and have no record of structural damage or airbag deployment. They add a Used Vehicle Limited Warranty of 1 year or 10,000 miles once the original basic warranty ends (Tesla, as of October 2026). The choice is narrower, with 61 Model 3s and 101 Model Ys listed on 7 October 2026.
Ex-demo cars are Tesla's demonstrators, sold as new stock with a few miles and a discount on them. They come with a new-car warranty and, unlike a used car, count for Tesla's referral benefit. They're rare. On 7 October 2026 Tesla's UK new stock had one, a Model Y Premium Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive with 3 miles on it at £53,575, which was £200 off, and no Model 3s at all. If you were going to stretch towards nearly new anyway, it's worth checking Tesla's new Model 3 and Model Y stock(referral link) now and then, because demonstrators come and go.
Whether ours stays
It stays. The Model Y will take over Yorkshire and the camping, and the Model 3 goes back to what it has done every weekday for seven years, the school run and my partner's commute. The battery is fine, the creak is long gone, and I'd rather run a car I know than sell it to a stranger. The elder boy considers the matter settled in his favour.
If a friend asked me about buying one like it, I'd tell them to buy on battery health and history rather than the year on the logbook, and to read the warranty dates before getting attached. A well-kept 2019 to 2021 Model 3 is a lot of car for the money.
If you'd rather have a new one and it would be your first Tesla, ordering a new Model 3 or Model Y through our referral link(referral link) gets you 650 free Supercharging miles (as of October 2026). Use it before you place the order, because Tesla can't add it afterwards, and it doesn't apply to used cars. Our post on how we're paying for our Model Y covers the money side.
