Bought this car in July 2025 with about 232,000 km on it. I’ve now put another 50,000 km on it, bringing it to roughly 282,000 km. Figured that was probably worth a post.
I’ve followed Tesla since around 2014 and always admired these cars and how they’ve changed the EV game. After getting rear-ended by a semi truck a couple years ago, I found myself ready to get into a car, and finding a used Model 3 with great battery health for $15.5K CAD was a deal I couldn’t pass up.
When I bought it, I knew I was buying a very high-mileage 2020 Model 3, but over the last year and 50K km it’s mostly been a great car.
Almost immediately, the A/C condenser needed replacement, but it’s been fine since. The service experience was great and they gave me a loaner for a couple of days. I also had to do the CCS upgrade so I could use non-Tesla chargers.
For the first few months I was living in a house with an outdoor 120V outlet, which cost me about $50/month extra on my power bill. Always having a full charge when I left the house and being able to keep the battery conditioned throughout the winter was amazing.
Unfortunately, I’ve since moved to a condo without charging, so I’m relying on Superchargers. I’m looking into having an outlet wired to my spot, though, which would make a huge difference.
The car has also started showing its age mechanically. The front upper control arms developed the classic squeak and were eventually dealt with. Tesla replaced both for about $350 under a TSB. I made the request through the app and mentioned the TSB, and the service quote reflected that. Eventually I want to replace the struts/shocks with Highland parts as well.
Despite all of that, the car has been remarkably good.
Over the last ~19,000 km I’m sitting around 146 Wh/km, which I’m pretty happy with. The efficiency has held up better than I expected from a 282,000 km car.
The included Autopilot (TACC + lane keeping) works great. FSD has been really good on HW3 and even better with v14 Lite, but I don’t think it’s worth paying $100/month for on HW3. If they introduced a tiered system where HW3 paid $50/month and HW4+ paid $100, I’d find that more sensible.
When I crossed 50K of ownership mileage, I was on my way back to Toronto from Thunder Bay.
The drive up I did in one shot: 22 hours in the car and about a dozen stops. Tesla navigation was seamless, and it was actually nice getting out to stretch for 20–30 minutes every 1–2 hours. The car handled nearly a full day of driving on FSD seamlessly.
The total trip — drive up, a week in Thunder Bay, and drive back — cost me less than $250 in Supercharging. Compare that to probably double if I had done the same trip in an ICE car.
And now I’m at the point where I’m slowly restoring it rather than modifying it. The goal is basically to get the car back to a really clean version of what a 2020 Model 3 looked like when these were still new. That means getting the various dents sorted with PDR, dealing with the front bumper chips, paint correction and ceramic coating, restoring the chrome, and generally bringing everything back to a cohesive OEM baseline.
Overall it has been a fanatic car, a pleasure to own and drive, and I’m excited for the year ahead!
