Man who bought a high-mileage Tesla Model S for ‘cheap motoring forever’ breaks down exactly how the car is coping 1 year in
- After owning a Tesla Model S for a year, this owner shared his experience
- When he bought it, the car was already 10 years old
- It comes with 250,000+ miles on the clock
Published on Feb 07, 2025 at 1:26 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Feb 07, 2025 at 4:12 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
This UK YouTuber bought a high-mileage Tesla Model S after his other Tesla broke down.
He’s had it for a year now, and the experience gave hit-or-miss results.
The car is fast, but there are a couple of things he just can’t get over.
There’s one inherent flaw in particular that’s driving him mad.
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The main problem with his Tesla
Scott Chivers, who goes by Ratarossa on YouTube, has built his channel about his Ferrari ownership experience, and he’s owned more than one Ferrari, so the bar was set quite high.
Interestingly, Chivers decided to buy this Tesla Model S, with over 250,000 miles on the clock, even though he’d already had a pretty sub-optimal experience with another Tesla Model S – also a high-mileage model – which broke down.
The car’s battery pack died, and Tesla UK quoted $18,000 for a new one, which is why he decided to simply get another one.
The one is better, it hasn’t broken down after a year yet, but Ratarossa revealed one problem that’s making it very difficult to live with the car.
“One of the worst things about it is the build quality. We’ve got squeaks, bumps, rattles, knocks. It’s atrocious,” Chivers said.
On top of that, those squeaks and rattles are made worse by suspension issues and also brake-related problems.
But, as somebody correctly pointed out in the comments: “It’s normal for a 10-year-old car with 250,000 miles”.
That’s a fair point.
High-mileage Teslas are in demand
There’s now a relatively decent track record of high-mileage EVs, which might explain why they’re still in demand.
We’ve seen Model 3s with 420,000 miles on the clock, Model Xs with over 300,000 miles that still look new, and then of course there’s the record-breaking Model S with over 1.2 million miles.
All in all, it seems that running an EV for 200,000 miles or more is perfectly doable as long as you stay on top of maintenance.
The fact that EVs have fewer components – and therefore fewer things that can break down – helps.
