Should You Buy A Used Tesla? | How Our 2015 Tesla Model S 85D Is Holding Up

[@M3RBMW]

It is 100% worth upgrading the MCU. I did this some time ago on my P85D and the benefits are huge. Massive improvement in screen response, higher speed internet, lots more games for the kids - just absolutely worth the cost.

[@henrycruz45cal]

I did the MCU2 upgrade as soon. As it dropped down to $1500 from $2500. It a good upgrade even just for the faster refresh rates when using the navigation

[@Wildman2291]

117k is nothing. 2015 Model s 70D. 221k miles. Original battery, drive drain and screens. Battery still charges to 230 miles 100%. Original range was 240.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

My video isn't stating 117k miles is anything of great significance. I make annual videos on the repair costs and current miles each year I've owned the vehicle. Sounds like you drive yours a lot and it's still doing well. We plan to keep ours for many years and 100's of thousands of miles more. It's certainly the best vehicle I've ever purchased.

[@TonyMiguel-ko7cz]

Real world range?

[@rklein]

I upgraded my MCU on my 2015 Model S and it was the best $1500 I've spent. It includes new tablet and new dashboard screen plus everything just works so much better. The 4G is so much faster and the web browser is actually useable. I can plug in an Xbox controller and the grand-kids can play all the cool new games. Disney+ is well, a plus too. I swear using the scroll wheel to open the sunroof works so much smoother too. I hate spending the bucks to upgrade a luxury car, but this was money well spent. Great vids and you have a beautiful family!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I just upgraded to MCU2 3 days ago. I agree it's faster and there's some other improvements. The games and theater features are cool, but limited in usefulness for us. When we are at a supercharger stop we want the kids out of the car running around before spending more hours driving in the car and we can't use them while driving. In our case we replaced the MCU because the old one had multiple issues and most importantly navigation stopped working entirely and Tesla couldn't get it fixed on the old MCU. I submit that for the price it is not worth the upgrade for what we want out of it but it is a necessary component and when it stops working it's more of a repair with bonus features for us. Also The price has gone up $250 unfortunately and including taxes it was $1,876.88.

[@FredontubeFightBack]

Normally I did not comment, but your video was so informative and, I like how you explain. Thanks

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Glad it was helpful!

[@radiodjkevin]

I just purchased a 2015 Model S with 80k. babied , garaged and owned by a Doctor. I have been driving Porsches for the last 20 years. This is a great car and I love it 100%

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks for sharing! After 5.5 years we certainly still love our 2015 S!

[@BFTVCanada]

My 2015 p85d has the free supercharging aswell! Best feature that I hope never gets taken away from us😁 great video!!

[@TheGabagoolGuru]

Could you do ANOTHER update if you still have this vehicle? Would love to see how its holding up in 2024. I am considering a 2016 85D with 45k miles and want to drive it until probably 200k if possible. What do you think?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXeThWWAd8dmoKM this is my latest update from 2024. I've loved our S and I'd certainly purchase it again.

[@aussietaipan8700]

Hi Anthony, my 2015 Model S 85 still has its MCU1 installed, here in Australia the MCU replacement is $3600 (with the radio module). My MCU1 has had the EMMC fix performed (8G to 64G) and the MCU works very well and I will only replace the MCU if it fails. My car has only done 36000Km and still feels and drives like a new car. Love it. Thanks for the vids, its great to see other peoples experiences.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks for the positive feedback, and I would do the same thing you're planning to do. Hopefully the price goes down in the future. MCU2 is better, but not $3,600 (your price) better in my opinion.

[@lbheat02]

Great thorough documentation!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks!

[@rafacq]

Hi Anthony! Thanks for the video. My S85D (a brother to yours) hasn’t seen as much road travel as yours. I’m currently at 43,947 miles. We drove it home after taking delivery in San Diego. Since then we’ve been to Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota in Spring 2021. In the fall we drove to Kentucky and Alabama. Since my car only had 12,004 miles when I took delivery in April 2019, I still have 8 months warranty left. Fortunately the car has not needed any warranty service since November 2020. I had the MCU upgraded on May 10, 2021 and have been very happy with it. I had Discount Tire replace my original set of Michelin MXM4 in June 2021. They were able to get me a thread credit and and $100 off on a set of 4, my total with all the warranties was $1,001. I think we certainly made the right choice buying our 2015 S. Its an amazing car.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks for sharing your experience and data. Yes the Model S is an amazing car for sure! I'm amazed at how few miles you have, at least compared to my 120k that I'm at now. Perhaps I love driving for nearly free a bit too much...

[@rafacq]

@@ElectricTechAdventures I don’t have solar panels but here in the mid cities near DFW airport I have a free nights electricity plan from 8pm to 6am. In 3 1/2 years I’ve paid $0 to drive since I also have free supercharging for the life of the car. During day hours our rate is 18 cents/kWh but with the free nights we average about 6-7 cents per kWh, not a bad deal.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@rafacq wow, free for any time period is surprising to me.

[@henrycruz45cal]

It cost about $268 for Tesla to replace the battery. As much as I like to do car work myself, that price is hard to beat especially since after they install the battery, they also hook up their laptop and sync the battery. This makes the battery more efficient with the car. No brai er to have them do it. Everytime they install a battery the technology is newer. Also they do it at your house

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I've had them replace my 12 volt battery before, shortly after we first purchased the car. I agree with most of what you said. The newer technology comment I'm not so sure of because both batteries were lead acid deep cycle batteries. The one I replaced mine with this year is lithium which will hopefully last many times longer than the old fashioned lead acid types. I got about 2 years out of my last lead acid, and I'm expecting at least 4 years if not 8 years out of my lithium battery. Only time will prove the truth.

[@henrycruz45cal]

@@ElectricTechAdventures ok, ill be waiting for that update. Hopefully it doesn't come for atleat 4 years and hopefully you still have the MS ;) Since we get free charging it will be hard to let it go. I plan to hold it for as long as possible.

[@henrycruz45cal]

@@ElectricTechAdventures btw, the price I quoted is based on what the service guy said while I was having it replaced for free.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@henrycruz45cal I made a video about my lithium battery replacement here kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYquood_n7OriM0 and Tesla quoted me $231.13 to do it for me or $160 for just the battery. I debated about just having them to it, but ultimately decided to try the Ohmmu lithium battery to hopefully avoid the hassle of more often 12 volt battery replacement over the next few years. I intend to keep my Model S for a long time too. The supercharging on our car is getting rather slow though, so it's becoming less ideal for road trips. Just a couple minutes ago my wife needed to supercharge to get home and it took 31 minutes to charge from 22-65% (43% increase). People with newer Model 3 & Ys would be whining soooo loud about that speed.

[@henrycruz45cal]

@@ElectricTechAdventures yea, it increases my trip time to fla. Eventually the free charging will not out weight the increased time.

[@simontruong5324]

Thank you for your video, I am looking for used Tesla model S but I can't find one like yet

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Hang in there and keep looking, it's worth the wait! I searched and saved since early 2017 for mine. I thought the earliest I'd be able to get one would be in early 2020 and I ended up finding mine a year early.

[@benkanobe7500]

Congratulations on the berth of your Son James! My son just turned 22 and my daughter is 27. Both are mechanical engineers. Nothing is better than family!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks! I agree family is the most important thing. I do the best that I can to incorporate my family into my videos so that I can spend more time with them and my kids get to learn things as they help me with making the videos too.

[@TonyMiguel-ko7cz]

Depends on the family 😂

[@booger65man]

Was looking at a 2015 P85 with 60K miles. Full charge is down to 237 miles. Not liking that much battery charge loss.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

I would recommend doing a battery capacity test in the service menu to see what the actual battery capacity is. Rated miles isn't a very accurate metric to go off of. Alternatively there is a tool call "scan my Tesla" that can be very helpful to determine health of the battery.

[@colemeeker908]

Wow. Excellent and thorough!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks! My newest annual maintenance costs video for our 5th year of ownership will publish this Sunday!

[@romanp887]

Hello there, I'm also very happy with my S85D. I've bought it almost 2 years ago from a private party with 200kkm and it has 245kkm now as I didn't make long road trips so far but I plan to. Quite surprised you still have free SuC even it was a CPO, thought Tesla is stripping this feature off those cars. I must say, this is by far the best car I've ever had. With 100kWh upgrade I did last year it has plenty of range, could fast charge (still over 100kW on 50% SOC) and all for free for sure. I also still keep the MCU1 as it serves well so far (just did the 64GB eMMC upgrade) and it's also possible to run the old diagnostic tool Tesla Toolbox 2.1 on it. That's a big advantage for me as I love to tinker with the car and want to DYI maintain it as much as possible. Still hoping to drive much more when my kids get a bit older, have done not so many road trips so far. Also wish to all of you guys reading this many many happy EV miles without any problems ;)

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Wow 245k km is impressive. Mine is at 209k km which is rather high compared to most Teslas around. Tesla started stripping free supercharging from CPO vehicles a couple months after we got ours. I'm real glad we got ours when we did! Our Model S is most certainly and easily the best vehicle we've ever owned. We also spent the most money on it of any prior vehicle by double, so there's that too. For what it's worth we saved about $70k from it's new price though. You upgraded the battery pack in your S80D to a 100 kWh battery? How much did that cost? I haven't purchased the dongle to be able to connected to my Model S computer, but one of these days I'll do that, as I'd love to see all that sweet data. :) I try to DIY maintain mine as much as possible too. We haven't taken ours on many road trips this year because the type of trips we've done this year so far have been camping so we've taken our truck and trailer which I'll be publishing videos about in the future. Supercharging has slowed down enough in our S that it's starting to tip over into the annoying side of waiting compared to when we first purchased the car, but we'll continue to road trip in it until we get our Cybertruck.

[@romanp887]

​@@ElectricTechAdventures Yep, I have also seen the US cars to be much less mile-aged compared to EU cars... which seems to me kind of weird as you have those famous long and straight routes there which we could just dream about :D But anyway, it's good for you as you have so many low-mile cars on your used cars market. Thanks for the interesting CPO info, didn't know that. Yes, regarding maintenance I have also spent into this vehicle much more than into my fosils. But I have to also consider this car is 40k worth, those fosils were +-4k worth. And for it's mileage it's perfectly normal. And even this investment I think the car is reliable as by far the most of the parts are still original and working well. I have swapped the battery for sure because I like to travel far distances (added range is about +50% - 90kWh usable instead of 60), also because my battery was not only chargerate capped, but also top voltage (cappacity capped by about -10% (4,1V instead of previous 4,2V). Then the supercharging speeds are like doubled compared to the speed it used to be. Also mi biggest concern was about the durability of the 85kWh (already reman) pack in the terms of water ingress propensity. I believe the 100kWh packs are far more better build, so that was the third reason for me to go into it. Regarding price, it was 12kEur, but really, worth every cent. In the US you have for example WK057 company (057tech.com) which also offers such upgrades for approx 22kUSD, sometimes cheaper. For me it's a real no-brainer as I want to keep the car as long as possible, I don't like that much the newer tech (+ with many cons ie absent 22kW AC charging, etc) tech and don't care about FSD. This MS is just a perfect car for me :) Cybertruck seems interesting, but I don't like it's design :D Wish you to see it soon on your driveway anyway! Enjoy!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Yes we have long distances we can easily drive here. So far I've spent less maintaining my Model S than prior vehicles I've owned. I'll continue to document the costs in my annual ownership videos and we'll see where it stands in the future. The upgraded battery sounds nice. I'm going to continue with the original battery and see how many miles we get out of it. Once we get the Cybertruck it'll become our primary road trip vehicle. It'll have better cargo capacity and faster charging speeds (by a lot), but we'll be giving up the advantage that is free supercharging that we have on our Model S.

[@romanp887]

@@ElectricTechAdventures Yep, ok, will also be interesting to see how it holds... Do you plan to keep it when you will get the Cybertruck? For me the free SuC is one of the biggest advantages so I'm definitely not giving it up ;) But got your point, it's always about personal preferences..

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@romanp887 we will keep our Model S when we get the Cybertruck, so depending on the trip we will potentially still take the Model S on road trips. Years down the road potentially we'll get the battery replaced to increase range and get the faster charging speeds but maintain free supercharging. If battery replacements were cheaper than obviously would be more likely to do that. But also I am curious how many miles we can get out of the original battery. If we end up never taking the Model S on road trips and it's just and around town car then supercharging speeds are irrelevant. If the range on it diminishes significantly over the years but it still has enough range for our around town driving then that also doesn't matter. Only time will tell.

[@ssoffshore5111]

I've looked into these as well. Reliability looks a like spotty from what I've seen. In today's market I almost wonder if buying a new Model 3 might not be the better option (if interior space is not a concern) given the relatively small cost difference, the newer battery, and resetting the warranty. If you didn't have to worry about the kids, what are your thoughts?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

If I could trade straight to a Model Y long range 7 seater I'd be tempted. I do like my unlimited free supercharging though. If I didn't have kids I'd still probably want the same thing, but I'd give more thought to a Model 3. Ultimately I want a Cybertruck either with or without a family. In theory it's the most capable all around vehicle with the main limitations being it's size and thus how much energy it will consume. There's a lot we don't know about it yet though.

[@Keeping-It-Real-55]

Thanks for the video. I really wanted a used model s. I didn't realize the cut off was 2017 fire the free lifetime unlimited charging. I was looking at some 2018s. I keep getting stuck on the basic autopilot, autopilot, enhanced autopilot and FSD. I love the model s interior and size. The dash looks much better. But I want something that's future-proof with FSD capabilities. So I'm kind of torn. This video is quite helpful though thanks for sharing.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Glad I could help. Good luck on your search! It's hard to go wrong with any Tesla, but there are certainly nuances and differences to consider.

[@JesseWinchesterCET]

How long does Supercharging generally take you? do you top around 20% and charge to 80%?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

The morning of the start of a trip we typically depart at 100% then drive for about 3 hours, but that of course depends on where the supercharger is on our route. At that first charging session of the day we only charge enough to get to the next supercharger with 10% remaining. If there's a headwind then we'll sometimes charge with an estimated arrival charge of 15-20% depending on how windy it is. If we happen to be in a region of the US with lots of superchargers then we might charge enough to skip one or two superchargers, and I imagine the skipping will only increase over time as more are built. We then unplug and drive regardless of the current state of charge of the car. We focus only on the estimated arrival percentage. If you'd like to see what charging and driving looks like during a 4,452 mile road trip in just a couple minutes check out this video I made which shows that dynamic through a time lapse. You can pause it or slow it down at certain points of the video to get more detail where you're interested. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4Tcan-CfN6InJo

[@DC-si8xw]

wow, that car goes through tires quickly. I got 65k from my last set of tacoma tires

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Most if not all electric vehicles go through tires faster than gas cars due to more weight and much higher torque. I've found that they're not all that expensive though because of the mileage warranty. My last set of tires I got about 66% of the price back.

[@DC-si8xw]

@@ElectricTechAdventures oh man, I can see tire manufacturers rolling back the mileage for tire wear guarantee for everyon soon

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@DC-si8xw I'm surprised that they haven't already created separate rules for electric cars.

[@stanhalverson1840]

Can’t find anything on gravel road ? We drive 30 miles a day on gravel we have a h3 hummer it was cheep but gets 12 mph

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Are you asking a question here? We drive our Tesla on gravel roads often.

[@goducgo]

Do you still have it.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Yes, still our primary daily driver.

[@TheCreaTaur]

How do you deal with the lack of interior storage in the model S? I would've sealed the deal on one if not for that.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

We overcame the lack of center console by putting this camera bag there amzn.to/3Jp13Hi with partitions set up in a thirds configuration where we keep our water bottles in the middle, sunglasses in another, random junk in the other. In the side pocket near the 12 volt socket we put this inverter amzn.to/407r6IO which works great for keeping our electronics charged up. The other side pockets we keep random things like national or state park passes, coupons etc... There is a cubby in the trunk area on the left side that we keep a blanket and medical kit, and we keep a bunch of other random odds and ends for the car in the frunk like charging adapters, tire plug kit and pump, etc... The cup holders in the front are poorly designed and we just keep random small things in there like head phones, SD cards etc. The kids car seats have cup holders on them. The rear facing seats have one slightly usable cup holder and we've tried various solutions back there but we don't have a great solution there yet. Typically on a road trip there's enough stuff in the back with those kids that their water bottles don't fall on the floor out of their reach though so it hasn't been a big deal.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

If we're going on a car tent camping trip (which necessitates additional gear like tent, sleeping bags etc.) , now that we have 4 kids we don't have enough interior storage space so I picked up some roof rails and a Thule roof box that expands our cargo capacity significantly at the expense of wind resistance and thus range, but not too bad. These days most camping trips we're taking our gas truck and travel trailer, but as soon as Tesla will sell us a Cybertruck we'll switch to that.

[@TheCreaTaur]

Thanks! That's more info than I expected, I appreciate it

[@adrianpbaxter4071]

Outstanding!

[@pablofernandez2894]

How much range do you have when pulling that long RV?

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

The Model S cannot tow our RV. Far too much tongue weight and overall weight. The motors have enough power they could pull the RV I am sure it's the suspension and chassis that would be the limitation and of course the range would be abysmal. I do see people towing RVs with the Model X and their ranges typically around 100 miles.

[@yardisyard]

would u suggest a model 3 or model y since getting the y

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Personally I prefer the Model Y. I like the taller stance on the road and the hatchback instead of trunk. The taller stance gives better visibility on the road as the driver and also has more ground clearance which I like. Even if I didn't need seven seats I would still prefer the model Y. To be fair I don't have a ton of experience with the Model 3, having only test driven it once. Now clearly since the Model 3 has undergone a significant refresh there is more to consider there that is now different between them that wasn't different before.

[@yardisyard]

@@ElectricTechAdventures i meant s lol i don’t know i typed 3. sorry

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@yardisyard Personally I prefer driving our 2023 Model Y over our 2015 Model S. I like the stronger regen braking in the Y and it's a more nimble vehicle than our S. They're both far superior of a driving experience compared to any ICE vehicle I've ever driven though. Your question is more of what do I suggest more so than what I prefer driving though, so in brief I suggest the Y over the S due to value, meaning if you're comparing a 2024 model Y to a 2024 Model S there's a significant price difference and assuming you have normal budget constraints I think the Y is better value. That being said there are advantages the S has which is reflected in the price. There's a lot of nuance that's going to be influenced by your own values and needs so not knowing anything about you I can only speak to what I like for us and I prefer the Y. I am super glad we got the S when we did because the Y wasn't available then, and we were able to get the S much cheaper used back in 2019. If you ignore the price difference and just talk features then an important consideration is the S currently comes as a 5 seater. While the Y does have a 7 seat option, it's not a very spacious 7 seater. If you have young kids like we do then it's fine, and I think it'll serve it's purpose fine for us for many years yet. I'm kind of rambling so I'll leave it there, but let me know if you have any specific questions.

[@yardisyard]

@@ElectricTechAdventures thank u so much and yeah. i’ve been in a 3 & a Y but i was in an S today and it was kinda a different experience. i’m in between a 3 and an s and i don’t know what is the better bang for buck and more reliable

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@yardisyard Are you talking a 3 or S of roughly the same year? I still think the 3 is better bang for the buck, and likely more reliable as there's less in it to go wrong. Think door handles for instance. But it's less luxury as well, so depends on how much money you want for the additional display and other features that make the S a more premium vehicle.

[@wallyrose1956]

Where do you charge in Nauvoo

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

We stayed at an Airbnb (as was the plan) and charged from a standard household outlet at 12 amps 120 volts for around 36 hours which got us enough charge to get to the supercharger north in Iowa. I intend to make a video about that trip someday.

[@TraderJono]

Hi mate did you get the mcu2 upgrade in the end? Great ownership review btw 😊👍

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Thanks! Yes I did end up grading to MCU2 and this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/op_Zk5aEqaqBgJo is all about that.

[@TraderJono]

@@ElectricTechAdventures OMG I'm such a dunce I've seen your mcu2 upgrade video before. I watched it again anyway 🤣🤦 My used 2015 MS came with it. I don't game much either but when I do I enjoy using my spare PS5 controller on it 🤓🎮 I like how there's the odd useful update even after all these years!

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@TraderJono The random updates that we get usually don't have anything in the release notes other than bug fixes. Better than nothing I guess.

[@TraderJono]

@@ElectricTechAdventures true I think only the PS5/Bluetooth controller update was significant in the last few updates otherwise seems to be mainly FSD stuff

[@bluetocop]

Did you figure out the life expectancy of your cars battery.

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Back when I was considering purchasing a Tesla in 2017 and researching this question I came across this video which is a bit old now, but still applicable to my older Model S. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIeyc4mDpa5jjqs and in that video the conclusion is that the battery will likely still have 80% of it's battery capacity remaining when the vehicle gets to 400,000 miles on the odometer. Most of the degradation is early on in the life of the battery, then it mostly levels out and just slowly degrades thereafter. There are of course variations, we're talking about the averages. Right now my odometer is at 129, 288 miles on my Model S and the battery degradation is sitting at 8%. Only time will tell how long my battery lasts based on the way I drive and charge the battery. As long as there isn't a catastrophic problem with the battery where it doesn't work at all, the degradation will simply limit the usability of the vehicle over time to be more of an around the town car, but it's still perfectly usable with lower capacity. My old Nissan LEAF only had about 45 miles of useful range and I used it daily for years to commute to work just fine. We plan to continue using our Model S for many more years to come and I'll continue making these annual updates on the maintenance and condition of the vehicle.

[@Cutitoutbruh]

do you still have it

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

Yes. It's now at 139k miles. I'll be making another annual maintenance video this month.

[@angelisraels7465]

@@ElectricTechAdventuresguudsheeit

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXeThWWAd8dmoKM

[@silencelamb1734]

wow such good tesla vids - but low view # - need catchy title to grab attn

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

What title do you suggest?

[@silencelamb1734]

@@ElectricTechAdventures should you buy a used tesla

[@ElectricTechAdventures]

@@silencelamb1734 That's a good generic title that could catch the eye of a person wondering that very question. My conundrum is I do these maintenance costs videos every year of ownership so how does such a generic title scale to multiple videos. I think what I'll try is putting "Should you buy a used Tesla" at the beginning of each video with the "subtitle" being what I have after the | character which in the case of this video is "How Our 2015 Tesla Model S 85D is Holding Up". Thanks for your contribution!