Tesla Model 3 and Model Y: what to check before you buy

Updated August 2026

One screen answers three questions

Inspecting a Tesla starts in one place, and it is not under the bonnet. On the car’s screen open Controls, then Software, then Additional Vehicle Information. Three lines in that list move the price: CCS adapter support, Autopilot Computer, and the infotainment processor.

The car knows this about itself. It beats the seller’s word and the year in the advert, because Tesla changed things mid year on the line and two cars from the same calendar year can be built differently. Before you look at anything else, photograph that screen.

Will this car charge in Georgia

An American Tesla arrives with a NACS inlet, while Georgia’s fast chargers are CCS2: 384 stations at the moment. The two connectors do not fit each other, so an adapter goes in between. The adapter only works if CCS support is switched on in the car itself, which depends on the charge port controller and not on the adapter. An expensive adapter cannot rescue a car that lacks it.

The rule of thumb runs like this. A Model 3 built before October 2020, the one with chrome window trim, does not have the support and needs a new charge port controller. Cars built from 2022 onwards almost all have it enabled. In between there are exceptions: a batch built between June and September 2021 left the factory without the CCS chip, so on a 2021 car the year alone tells you nothing.

If the screen reads Not installed, the fix is a new charge port controller, the ECU. The part itself is not expensive, and an older Model 3 needs a small wiring kit as well. In America Tesla Service does this. In Georgia there is no Tesla service centre, so importing the part and finding someone to fit it is your problem. That is exactly why support already switched on is worth real money and should show in the price.

Rear wheel drive versions have a 32 amp onboard charger, Long Range and dual motor versions 48 amps. An American Tesla takes single phase power only, so a three phase charger adds nothing.

If you plan to drive to Turkey, the same CCS2 adapter also gets you onto Tesla’s own Superchargers there, which run CCS2 cables. With one condition covered further down: Tesla disables Supercharging permanently on a salvage titled car. The connector logic is set out in the connector guide.

The Model 3 year by year

2017 to 2020: the first face

This is the Model 3 with chrome window trim. Build quality in the first two years is the weakest of the run: uneven panel gaps, paint, interior rattles. From April 2019 cars left the line with the HW3 Autopilot computer; before that it was HW2.5, which stopped receiving new features long ago. There is no heat pump, so in winter a plain resistive heater warms the cabin and eats straight out of the pack.

October 2020: the update that changes the most

Several things changed on one date: black trim instead of chrome, a heat pump, a powered boot, double glazed front windows, a new centre console and a larger battery on the Long Range. CCS support starts here too. If the same budget buys either an early 2020 car or a 2021 one, this line matters more than the difference in mileage.

2022 to 2023: less visible, still worth having

The rear wheel drive version moved to an LFP battery, which is charged to a full 100 percent every day. The screen moved to an AMD Ryzen processor and got noticeably quicker, and the 12 volt battery went from lead acid to lithium. There are losses too: radar was dropped in the spring of 2021 and the ultrasonic parking sensors in October 2022, after which cameras alone watch the parking.

2024 onwards: Highland

The updated Model 3 went on sale in America in January 2024. New lights front and rear outside; inside a steering wheel with no stalks, a rear screen, better sound insulation and a softer ride. It is still expensive used, but the charging question does not arise on it at all.

Range is the American EPA figure, which sits closer to reality than the European WLTP one. You will not see it in the mountains in winter; the detail is in the winter guide.

The Model Y year by year

2020 to 2021: the first years of a new model

The Model Y was born with a heat pump, and that is its large advantage over a Model 3 of the same years. Against that, the early build was rushed: the 2020 and 2021 cars carry most of the suspension and seat belt fastener recalls. This is also where water ingress through the tail lights and the liftgate begins, never a recall but a subject Tesla’s service bulletins returned to for years.

2022 to 2023: two different cars under one name

From April 2022 the Texas factory built its own version of the Model Y with 4680 cells and a structural pack, meaning the battery is part of the body. Its EPA range is 449 km and charging slows markedly after about 30 percent. The real question on such a car is repair: a structural pack effectively cannot be opened up module by module, so on a damaged car this version is a risk of its own. A Texas built car is identified by the start of the VIN: 7SA is Texas, 5YJ is California.

2025 onwards: Juniper

The updated Model Y arrived in 2025 with a new front and rear, a larger screen and better sound insulation. It is still rare on the used market.

RWD or AWD

This question does not settle the same way here as it does in a flat country. What actually separates the two:

• Winter and gradients. A rear wheel drive Tesla on winter tyres will climb to Gudauri or Bakuriani, but on a snowed in mountain road the dual motor car is far calmer. If you go up often, that is worth the difference in price.
• Tyres matter more than drive. A rear wheel drive car on winter tyres beats a dual motor car on summer tyres in snow. That is not an opinion, it is what happens on the Gudauri road every winter.
• Range. On the same pack a dual motor car uses slightly more, but every Long Range version is dual motor and carries the bigger battery, so in practice those are the cars that go far.
• Battery chemistry. Rear wheel drive versions from 2022 use LFP, which lasts better and is charged full every day. Dual motor cars use nickel chemistry: more capacity, but 80 percent is the daily ceiling.
• Repairs. A dual motor car has one more motor and one more inverter. With no Tesla service centre in Georgia, that is simple arithmetic.

The battery: which chemistry, and what it means daily

Tesla has never published exact pack capacities, so every figure in the tables above comes from independent measurement and is approximate. What matters more than a kilowatt hour either way is the chemistry.

• LFP, lithium iron phosphate. On rear wheel drive cars from 2022. Charged to 100 percent daily, wears more slowly, but charges more slowly in the cold and needs an occasional full charge to keep the state of charge reading honest.
• Nickel chemistry. On Long Range and Performance cars. More capacity and more power, but the daily ceiling is 80 percent and a full charge is for long trips only.

How fast a pack wears and what figure to expect from a car of a given age is covered in the battery degradation guide. A Tesla shows no health percentage in the menus, so the practical route is comparing the range shown at a full charge against the factory figure, or using a specialised app. Everything else worth checking is in the used EV inspection list.

Known faults by year

What follows are the recalls that concern metal rather than a software detail. The table also gives how many cars each one covered, which is what separates a mass problem from a single bad batch.

One detail matters here. Recall work is free at Tesla Service, and there is no Tesla Service in Georgia. If the job was never done in America, it becomes your bill. Checking the VIN is free on the NHTSA site and takes two minutes.

Beyond the recalls there are a few chronic complaints that never made an official list:

• Water in the boot. Between 2020 and 2023 the Model Y’s tail light and liftgate sealing often let water through. Tesla revised the repair instruction more than once. A wet boot liner and rust in the spare wheel well show up on the viewing.
• The 12 volt battery. On cars built up to the end of 2021 it is lead acid and dies at around three years. A flat one stops the whole car, however full the main pack is.
• Yellow screen border. A common cosmetic defect on older cars. Tesla cured it with an ultraviolet lamp; almost nobody in Georgia has that machine.
• Rusty discs. Regenerative braking means the friction brakes are rarely used and the discs corrode. Rust is a more common problem here than wear.
• Build quality. The 2017 to 2019 Model 3 and the 2020 Model Y are the weakest of the run: gaps, paint, cabin noise.

Import risks the advert does not mention

The battery is the floor of the car

A Tesla’s battery is not a box sitting off to one side. It occupies the entire floor and is part of the structure. Ground clearance is about 14 cm on a Model 3 and 17 on a Model Y. So anything that touches the car from below touches the battery.

At the port cars are shifted around with forklifts, and the tines go in at exactly the height of a Tesla’s pack housing. Tesla is strict that the car may only be lifted at four designated points. Lifting or shoving it on tines crushes the housing, shears fasteners and can breach the cooling circuit. The worst of it is that this kind of damage often throws no error at the time and shows up months later as corrosion or lost capacity.

What that means in practice: look at the car from below, ideally on a lift. You are looking for dents in the pack housing, deep scrapes, bent or missing plastic underbody panels, a disturbed sealant seam and wet or white dried residue along the edge of the pack, which is coolant. If you are collecting the car from the port or a warehouse, photograph the underside there, before the money moves, and establish who carries the risk for damage done during unloading.

A salvage title means more than it looks

A large share of the Teslas coming from American auctions carry a salvage title. To Tesla that is not just a note on a document:

• Supercharging is disabled permanently on such a car. There are no Superchargers in Georgia, but Turkey has roughly thirty stations and there it starts to matter.
• The factory warranty is void. Normally the battery and drive unit warranty runs eight years and passes to the next owner; a salvage title erases it.
• Tesla will only take on high voltage work after a separate safety inspection, at your expense.

None of that means such a car is not worth buying. It means the price should already reflect it. What to check on an auction car is in the guide to American imports, and the customs figures are on the import duty page.

The car sits on somebody’s Tesla account

Tesla keeps one VIN on one account. If the previous owner never removed the car from theirs, you cannot add it and you have no app: no remote unlock, no preheating the cabin, no control over software updates. It can be sorted out, but it takes correspondence with Tesla and proof of ownership. Ask the seller before you buy whether the car is still on anyone’s account.

Water, airbags, bodywork

Water damage is worse on an electric car than on a petrol one, because salt water does not have to reach the pack to corrode connectors. Read the water line in the auction photographs and the stated reason for the salvage title separately. On a car rebuilt after the airbags went off, check that the airbags themselves and their control module are genuine parts.

Twenty minutes at the viewing

• The screen. Controls, Software, Additional Vehicle Information. CCS adapter support, Autopilot Computer, processor. Photograph all three.
• Range at a full charge. Charge it, or ask what it shows at 100 percent, and hold that against the factory figure in the tables above.
• A fast charging test. Bring the car to a DC charger at around 30 percent with the adapter and watch what power it takes. That single test checks the adapter, the port and the pack at once.
• Underneath. Pack housing, underbody panels, sealant seam, coolant traces.
• The boot. Lift the liner, check the spare wheel well, look for damp around the tail lights.
• Recalls by VIN. Free on the NHTSA site.
• The account. Whether the car has been removed from the previous owner’s Tesla account.

What charging will cost you on your own tariff is in the calculator, and the nearest fast chargers are in the charger list. One more thing if you do buy a Tesla: its built in navigation cannot plan charging in Georgia. For that, open tesla.geocharge.ge in the car’s browser, where the live map and a route planner are laid out for the Tesla screen.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. NHTSA: the official recall database and VIN lookup
2. EPA fueleconomy.gov: official Tesla range figures by year
3. Tesla: battery and drive unit warranty terms
4. Tesla: onboard charger ratings
5. Tesla’s policy on salvage titled vehicles
6. Enabling CCS support and replacing the charge port controller on older Model 3 and Model Y
7. Wikipedia: Tesla Model 3 production history and updates
8. Wikipedia: Tesla Model Y production history and updates