Hello everybody, my name is Richard and my time with the Model 3 Highland is up. It is going, it is sold, so why am I selling this car? What’s the plan? I’ve covered nearly 6,000 miles in under two months in this car, but my time with it is now up and it’s going off to a new home.
Having covered quite a lot of miles in quite a short space of time, I really got to know the things I really like about this car. It’s a fantastic car, and the things I don’t like quite so much or maybe there’s room for improvement. In this video, I’m going to run through those quite briefly. We’ve done quite a lot of other videos on this car, but I’ll just try and summarize it and ultimately explain why it’s now moving on to a new home and what’s next. That’s what this video is about.
My name is Richard, and this is going to be goodbye to the Model 3 Long Range Highland. Well, that’s not called the Highland, or people comment, but we all know it is a Highland, don’t we? So I’m going to call it the M Highland.
Let’s get into it. Let’s cover firstly what’s been great about this car, and there’s lots of great things. It’s probably the ultimate, really the best electric car for sale at the moment if the practicality suits your needs. Other cars obviously may offer more space, more seats, hatchback, and such, but it is a very, very good car. The main things to take away from this over the previous Model 3, which is also good, is that the key improvements have been the ride and refinement. So it rides smoother, it’s quieter in the cabin, and I’ve really appreciated that, you know, when covering quite a high mileage like I do, it does make all the difference in the world. The suspension now is much more comfortable, I would say. It’s still not a wafty car, don’t expect levels of luxury comfort like you still see in some other cars. The ride comfort isn’t wafty, but it’s just not as fidgety as the old car could be, and it is nice and quiet inside. It’s got a good level of refinement that’s really been appreciated.
The second thing is really the key thing with this car, it’s remarkable efficiency. Some other cars are also efficient around town and on country roads and commutes, and I could see 5 miles per kilowatt-hour on such trips. But when you go out on the motorway, a lot of other cars struggle. But with this car’s nice aerodynamic shape, I could still get 4 and a half miles per kilowatt-hour out of this, and that’s in winter. When you just start to see some slightly warmer weather now, so that really good efficiency does give it a real-world range of over 300 miles. You can quite happily get over 300 miles driving it hard, fast, in bad weather. It would be under, but you know, it’s a real-world 300-mile range car, and especially for the mileage I cover, that’s just been fantastic. Add to that, it’s four-wheel drive, it’s fast, it’s nice to drive, but it’s just nice and smooth and refined. That’s the key takeaway from this car compared to the previous Model 3, which is also and still is a fantastic car now available on the used market at really good prices as well. But just that little bit of extra refinement has really brought it in line with some of the competition.
Since I got the car, Matrix headlights are activated, and they’re pretty good. I would, however, say that good though they are, there are other cars that still have better headlights. So it’s good that Tesla has eventually got in line with what we expect of cars like this now and have Matrix headlights to light up the road really well. It’s really important for me on my drive home through the New Forest Park where we’ve got lots of wild animals roaming around. Good Matrix headlights, and we’re now seeing those have rolled out to the 2021 Model 3s and of course all the Model Y’s in the UK as well. So they’ve been coming to those cars as well. An improvement, but ultimately, there are still better headlights out there from a lot of other manufacturers. So I think Tesla still needs to really work on the game and improve that. I’d even go so far as to say my wife’s VW ID3 actually has better headlights.
I found the space inside fine for four adults, even five on occasion for shorter journeys, and the boot is a nice big size as well. And of course, being a Tesla, you’ve got loads of storage under the boot floor and storage in the front space as well. Again, the practicality of a hatch would always have been nice with the Model 3 so it can compete with the likes of Polestar and not just have to go to a Model Y to get the hatchback. But it is big, it’s been practical, the space has been absolutely fine for our needs as a family. I picked up some wireless headphones, and my daughter’s loved having the YouTube and Netflix on here so she can watch it on a longer journey. And although it’s not really an ideal position, I did say this before, she’d be better to have her screen here. She still enjoyed having her, even if she was just selecting through her own selection of music on YouTube and listening to it on the headphones. Now, I did just buy these headphones from a common high street store, it rhymes with Argos, and they’ve just done, they paired up easily, that was a good job. So it’s good to have, but again, I guess ideally with two kids, for example, I’ve got one daughter, so there’s no fight over the screen. But I think if you got two children, there would be arguments over who’s watching what next, and is that just going to become a hindrance? Possibly. Should this possibly just be an option with Tesla? Probably. It’s good that they can control the heated seats themselves in the back and not have to ask in the front. But again, that could have been solved with maybe just a couple of switches rather than having a whole entertainment screen like that. So sort of mixed opinion whether that’s really worth it or should just be an optional extra or something that can be retrofitted afterward.
I don’t know if you’re going to do it, maybe just do it properly and have something up here. The Tesla Model 3 center console is great with loads of practical storage, but you can just close the cubby holes, nice deep storage there too, a couple of cup holders which now compared to the previous ones got little ridges to hold your cups in place. That’s good, and just having the two phone holders there, wireless charging is great as well. Again, it’s just something I always miss when I drive something else that you might have one wireless phone charger but not two, so you might need to bring another cable with you and plug it in separately. You know, this bit is really, really good. The seats have been improved for the Model 3 Highland, and as I said before, I think they’re actually good. It’s nice to have ventilated seats for the summer, and of course, they’re heated as well. They’re comfortable; however, we should really see I still find the seat base too short, which I’ve mentioned before, and there’s just no adjustable thigh support. Again, you see adjustable thigh support in lots of cars at much lower prices than this. So if you’re going to have shorter seat bases, at least make the thigh support adjustable, Tesla, please. It should just be a thing. I like the ambient lighting across the dashboard; it looks smart. I think Tesla could use this a bit more. So again, comparing to VW ID4, ID3, they actually use this light strip as an R goes red if there’s a warning, like you know, the car’s getting nervous of a potential collision, and it also strobes when you’ve got to turn left or turn right in cars like the VW group cars. And I don’t see why Tesla probably couldn’t bring that into this. I think it would be good. The reason I like the strobing is that you just have the nav on mute, and it doesn’t need to interrupt what you listen to as a podcast or radio station or something like that. So you know, the fact that you can have the radio on mute, but you know, be reminded when you do have to turn off, for example, I think that’s how that light strip could be used better. So maybe we’ll see that in a future Tesla update. Of course, the Tesla supercharging network is brilliant. It’s easy to use; you know there’s going to be plenty there and working and available. There’s only a few sites now which tend to get a little bit busier, or they’re the older V2 sites, but it’s moving forward so quickly. The reality is with a Tesla, and especially a car long range like this, I would jump in this car now and I just drive all the way down to Barcelona or Rome without thinking about it, and that says a lot. Just knowing that the Tesla supercharger network is there is a key strength. But what I also like about the Tesla mapping is just the ease of use. So for example, when we’re touring a new area or a holiday or in an area we don’t know so much and we just want to move around the map and look around for places to go or which road to take, you can see this is just so nice and easy to use and scroll around. It’s easy to take that for granted, but I’ve been using another car recently, and although that other car has things like Apple CarPlay when using things like Google apps on Apple CarPlay, you actually can’t tend to pinch and zoom around. You’ve got to push a button, then zoom out, and then move it with a toggle one way left or right. So I really miss the use of that. And in fact, even in the Tesla, you can just say, “Well, look, find me something to do,” or “I’m hungry,” and it will go and find local places to eat with a link to their website, and you can just call them up. And that is really good. I just always miss that when I’m not in one of these. So not really specific to the Highland, that’s a Tesla thing in general. But as of now, not been using this car for a week or two, so I miss that. I really do. Tesla software, really, no matter where you look at it, is just nice, easy to use. The app is really good and integrates well. It knows it’s connected to your home battery system and your charger, and integration there is great. Dog mode is fantastic. We have a small dog, so again, when we’re away or even just out for the day and we want to pop into somewhere for lunch or going to a shop where the dog can’t go, then you pop dog mode on. It keeps the air conditioning running, which you can do in a lot of cars, but this leaves a message on the screen to say, “Don’t worry, the dog’s fine.” And other cars just don’t do that. It could be done, but they just don’t. And of course, that’s, you know, if you don’t have a dog, it’s probably not that useful. But if you’ve got a dog, it’s just a really useful thing that only Tesla has. The same really with Sentry mode and the dash cams. The cameras record onto a little USB stick in the glove box that comes with the car, and it works brilliantly, either Sentry when the car’s parked up or as a dash cam when you’re driving and close call or even an accident or you need to report somebody doing something silly. It’s just good that it’s there. And other cars, they’re starting to come out with sort of like live view camera systems, for example, in the BMWs and Mercedes, but it’s not as good, doesn’t work as well. The way you view live cameras live on the Tesla app is great as well. So again, I’ve probably covered before lots of aspects of Tesla software, but that’s always one of the key things I miss not using this car. And phone as a key again, something I take for granted when I’m using a Tesla, that you just have your phone in your pocket, and the car will unlock when you come up to it, and it will lock when you walk away from it. You don’t need to have keys on you, and I find that very useful. Something you always have to remember, grab car keys, and again have an hour collection of keys again. So phone as a key again, I don’t know why all manufacturers don’t just have that.
The Model 3 Highland really is just a superb car all the way around. I will absolutely emphasize that. It’s been great to have, it’s been great to own it, it’s been great to cover the high mileage I do in just a couple of months now. Before I get into why I’m selling the car, let me just cover off some of the slightly negative aspects of things where I think there could be room for improvement or where I find things in other cars slightly better.
I’ve got to be realistic about it. It’s got to be a balanced review. So there are a few things where I think Tesla could maybe listen, learn, improve, change as they continue to evolve over time. Now, none of these reasons I will highlight why I’m selling the car. Let’s just put that out there. I will tell you why I’m selling the car in a moment. Firstly, the door handles. I always say this. It’s petty, I know, in a way, but one, no lighting in the door handle, especially on a black car like this. In the dark, you can’t see it. You walk up to this car in the dark, you can’t see where the doors are, and there’s fingerprints all around the door here. Even then, you know, this action is okay. I’ve got used to it, but again, some people who haven’t been in a Tesla before kind of like, what do I do? And kids find it a little bit more awkward to push this. So in reality, I would just like, and I have this on again, most other cars, you walk up to the car, and it will know you’re getting close and light up the door handles for you and unlock the car. So you know exactly where to go, what to do without kind of having to think about it. Not that once you got used to it, you have to, but just have a puddle light here to light up the area, have a light in the door handle here. It’s all easy to do, and that’s why I just don’t understand why it’s not there yet. So I’d love to see that.
So we’ve said this before as well, but the Tesla rain sensor is a bit rubbish. That’s probably the best way to put it. However, I think recently it’s slightly improved, and there are talks of an update coming through which will see improvements to the rain sensor function. I guess it’s just been a bit of a frustrating experience if you’ve owned any Tesla Model 3, Model Y over the last couple of years. It’s been a pretty poor show when it comes to rain sensors when every other car can do it fine. I can drive a much older, much cheaper car, and the rain sensor just works every time. I don’t even think about it. Then you’re in a Tesla, it’s frustrating, and then you have to find on the screen or push the button and scroll the other thing left or right. It should just work. It’s one of those things. So you know, that is a really important update that needs to come through. It is a safety aspect at the end of the day, Tesla, so just get the rain sensors working. It’s frustrating.
Now, the lack of stalks is the biggest concern for a lot of people, and I can understand that. Again, I’ve said this before, I’m actually okay with it. I’ve actually got quite used to indicating off the steering wheel and activating the wipers from here. That’s fine, and for the drive and reverse, it does normally guess quite well which direction you’re going to go. However, when you’re sort of shuffling around the maneuver, the only bit I will complain about is, let’s say I’m going forwards here now, and I’m just going to do a couple of quick shuffles, and you want to go backwards. That works, right? But what you can quite easily get is you pull that back, but just not far enough, and it doesn’t always engage it. But now I’m trying to demo it, it works perfectly. Maybe they’ve improved that, because sometimes if you didn’t pull it quite all the way back, it wouldn’t engage yet. But that is now solved. Okay, well, that’s not a thing anymore because that seems to work perfectly. It was just kind of if you didn’t drag it right to the bottom, it wouldn’t engage yet. But that’s been changed, that’s been improved. Look, whilst We’re Here, let me show you, we don’t have any parking sensors on this car, but we use this Tesla vision, and actually, I think this has been absolutely fine. No problem at all. Tesla Vision park assist has been no problem. I’ve had no issues with that at all. So I wouldn’t put the lack of parking sensors as a concern either.
No stalks for me, no problem. But I do understand for some people, it’s going to take either a bit of getting used to, or it just isn’t as easy. No parking sensors again for me, that hasn’t actually been an issue at all. Tesla Vision got it good. Well, I’m glad they sorted this out. That works, that works every time now. Look, just a little flick, they changed have there. That was different, wasn’t it? Yeah, okay, job done. Well, on Tesla, smug bastards.
Let me mention autopilot. So this car has just a standard autopilot. I still don’t think it’s worth, at the moment, spending the extra 3 and a half thousand for enhanced, or the extra 6,800 for FSD. And those prices are probably going up as well. The standard autopilot you get, look, radar cruise, all good, that works fine. It does keep it in its lane. You can tell it’s going to be very, very capable. But again, it’s just a bit frustrating how slow the progress is getting with this. In reality, I find other cars I prefer using now. There’s different opinions, and behind the camera here, swear by autopilot. I actually prefer using the system in some of the VWs, Audis, Porsches at the moment because it just works a bit more seamlessly with you still actually driving. Because, for example, you’re driving along, there’s a bit of a pothole in a road, common at the moment, everywhere, and you just want to swerve around that. You know, it could be even on
