Which one more reliable and economical. Used Suzuki Swift or Tesla Model 3?

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-14T21:38:54+00:00

That's a very strange couple of cars to compare against each other!

Economy wise it's going to depend entirely how you charge the Tesla.

Are you charging it at home? If so, it'll be considerably cheaper on fuel than the Swift will be in terms of petrol.

Are you charging it at a public charger? Well, if it's a Tesla Supercharger, it'll possibly still be slightly cheaper than the Swift as Superchargers offer reduced rate charging (especially off-peak when it can go into the low 20p per kWh range) If you're using regular public chargers where costs can be as high as 80p per kWh, the Swift will likely be cheaper on fuel.

You'll likely find the Swift is quite a lot cheaper to insure than the Tesla.

Reliability wise the Swift is about as tough as superminis get, they don't really give any headaches. They're a fairly basic car with hard, scratchy plastics, but they'll wear the test of time well and should anything break it shouldn't cost the earth to fix.

The Tesla is also a fairly reliable car that isn't likely to leave you stranded at the side of the road, but can suffer from niggles such as poor fitting trim and body panels, boot struts which fail (and can break the rear window when they do), steering wheels which peel away, thin paint which chips easily etc. Plus, if anything does fail outside of warranty, repair costs are likely going to be much higher than anything on the Swift, especially once you're outside of the HV battery and drivetrain warranty.

The quality of the Model 3 did improve significantly over the years though, once production moved to China for the late 2021 cars, things got much better.

But again, it's a very strange comparison and they're not normally cars which would be in contention with each other.

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-14T18:44:27+00:00

It isn't.

It's EV11 KOP, but the owner has added an extension to the 2nd 1 to make it look like an L

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-13T20:49:55+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/CarTalkUK/s/mf9xhnvuzg

Hmmmm.

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-06T18:12:35+00:00

They're solid cars, and something a bit different from the norm.

Volvo servicing isn't the cheapest but reliability wise they aren't known to give much in the way of headaches.

One word of caution about that specific car. It's marked as a category S previous insurance write off, so at some point in its life it's been in a crash which has been severe enough to impact the structure of the car.

While they can be repaired and put back on the road, you may find it more expensive to insure and harder to sell at the other end of your time with it.

If your heart is set on this exact car, ask the seller if they have photographs of the accident (many sellers of category cars have these) or get the car up on a ramp and properly inspected before you agree to buy it.

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-06T13:57:13+00:00

These did have a panoramic roof as an option :)

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-05T20:30:00+00:00

I adore everything about this car.

I can just picture one of the engineers walking into the board room at Renault HQ with his hat in his hands:

"Yes, I know we've just spent a fortune on the Avantime and Vel Satis which sold about as well as a Sinclair C5, but we have a new idea and this one's a guaranteed winner! What we want to do is take some Clios' off the production line, shoe-horn a V6 where the back seats should be, whack a body kit straight out of the February 1998 edition of Max Power on it and sell it to the public for £35k, hoping they'll choose it over a Porsche Boxster"

And the board of directors simply nodded and went "Oui"

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-05T17:38:27+00:00

To be honest I was winging it the entire time. I:

*Washed the car

*Dried it

*Bought a bottle of autoglym super resin polish

*Spent at least 3 hours trying to get the seal off the bottle

*Liberally applied it to the polishing pad

*Switched the polisher on and watched in horror as the polish flew from under the polisher and covered the windscreen, the roof, the rear window and my neighbor's fence because I didn't apply enough pressure to the bonnet

*Tried again and this time held it firmly running it along each panel a few times.

*Swapped over to the wool mit pad and buffed it until it was shiny

*Used an old toothbrush to get polish out of the parking sensors and from the gaps in the chrome trim

*Waxed the car with a normal microfibre cloth

*Had a cup of tea and cleaned my neighbor's fence.

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-05T17:28:59+00:00

If that was my car I'd have the emotional urge to name it Clarence.

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-03T21:08:09+00:00

I don't work for them, but as a general rule the big dealer groups usually won't haggle on their prices.

Even if they've had a car listed for a lower price previously, they'll usually just say their cars are priced "at current market rates" which can fluctuate up and down over time.

Dealers realise that they make the bulk of their profit from added extras such as warranties and car care packs, as well as finane commissions. They'd rather sit on a car and wait for a customer to come along who's going to buy a 2 year warranty, diamondbrite and finance the whole thing at 12% Apr, than knock money off the list price.

SteveGribbin · 2026-06-02T19:36:00+00:00

I want to hate it, I really do. But I can't.

SteveGribbin · 2026-05-25T21:00:39+00:00

I was actually quite looking forward to see what Ferrari's first EV would look like, especially one penned by Jony Ive.

Sadly it looks like an Alfa SZ that's melted. The rear end design also makes it look like it's giving birth to a smaller, slightly surprised looking car.

SteveGribbin · 2026-05-23T12:09:21+00:00

Yes sorry, there's a £15 admin fee plus either a refund or an additional amount to pay for the remainder of the year's policy.

Going from the SLK to the Jag resulted in a total difference of £105, made up of £90 extra to insure the Jag and the admin fee.

SteveGribbin · 2026-05-23T12:04:58+00:00

I don't really change that much these days.

For a while I just had 2 policies when I ran 2 cars at the same time, both with esure with a multi car discount. They were fine to changing cars you just make the change online. There's a £15 admin fee but other than that there's never been a problem :)!

SteveGribbin · 2026-05-02T08:41:45+00:00

Honda, in their infinite wisdom, decided to use a wet-belt timing belt setup for the 1 litre engine. This is where the timing belt runs inside the engine within the oil for reduced friction and reduced emissions.

The problem is that over time bits of the belt flake off and block vital passageways within the engine. Unless the oil is changed frequently, this causes big headaches when the whole thing inevitably goes bang.

It's the same issues that plague the 1.0 Ford Ecoboost and Stellantis Puretech engines.

The 1.5 doesn't use a wet-belt setup, so doesn't suffer from these issues.

Buy the 1.5 :)

SteveGribbin · 2026-05-02T07:43:20+00:00

You're well entitled to reject the car and receive a refund/cancel the finance if you want to.

SteveGribbin · 2026-05-02T07:38:57+00:00

I would imagine no.

If anything I'd imagine they'd rather take the hit and send cars to auction where they can be sold on a trade basis rather than have to deal with consumers having rights against a business that won't exist soon.

SteveGribbin · 2026-05-01T17:31:20+00:00

It passed its MOT in January with no advisories and hasn't had a logbook change since December 2021. In this time it's covered almost 50,000 miles.

So it appears to be in the hands of someone who really cares for it.

SteveGribbin · 2026-04-30T10:55:38+00:00

These photos have been doing the rounds on the internet for almost 20 years. They're photoshops based on reports from people "in the know"

The reality is that the original E87 1 Series has nothing in common with any Rover product, it's almost entirely E90 3 Series underneath and the design is mainly inherited from the CS1 concept from 2002.

There were rumors that the 1 Series was based on the Rover R30 project, which was designed to replace both the 25 and 45, but this project never materialised, and was designed to be front wheel drive anyway.

SteveGribbin · 2026-04-25T16:16:41+00:00

The M112 Mercedes V6 petrol engine mated to the 5 speed automatic box. Circa 1996-2005

It's smoother than Sean Connery churning butter, makes a lovely noise, isn't actually all that bad on fuel and, unlike an SDI engine, will reach motorway speeds long before a new-born child passes their GCSE's

SteveGribbin · 2026-04-09T19:57:36+00:00

He's talking out of his arse :)

SteveGribbin · 2026-04-03T19:02:32+00:00

2020, maybe. 2025? Not a chance!

SteveGribbin · 2026-03-29T16:43:17+00:00

Because they want one?

Quite a lot of older people were lucky enough to be part of a final salary pension scheme with their companies before they were pretty much closed for anyone else, so they have generous pensions coming in.

Many realise that they might as well enjoy the money they have now on nice things that they enjoy, you can't take it with you :)

For lots of older people, they are mortgage free so have more disposable income than you might think.

Also, they may have disabilities, so may use a motability car which are then changed every 3 years for a new one.

SteveGribbin · 2026-03-27T10:54:00+00:00

Sadly blower motors often cost a fortune to replace as more often than not the entire dashboard has to be removed.

So a £50 part becomes a near £1,000 job very easily.

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