As I've covered previously, Tesla's sentry mode is a fantastic feature which I've relied on since owning the vehicle as parking away from home is a risky game, even on a quiet no-through road my car was hit by a third party who did not stop or leave any information. So whilst relatively annoyed at their crime, I had no trouble recovering the video evidence which clearly showed the number plate, even in low light at 10 pm, and handed it over to my insurance company to take care of business.

This was the first time I ever needed to claim on my insurance in over 15 years on the road, I'm relieved it went as smoothly as it did and had no repercussions to my premium, thanks to Sentry Mode. Without that it surely would have cost several thousand to fix myself, or a hefty excess payment.

The repairs were booked in relatively soon and I'm totally satisfied with the result, the garage provided a very competent and professional experience. Having said that, upon return to me I found that there was a rivet in the tyre, but oh well these things can happen, right? Naturally they put it right the next day and I was a happy customer. I can easily recommend Tesla's official UK insurance partner Direct Line and Veetec Motor Group as a repairs specialist. The staff at AMT Autos are fun, friendly people, they provided me with a lease during this time and I was gladly surprised to get a Model 3 Long Range, so whilst it was definitely fun to have a bit more punch from the dual motors and feel the bass from the amped-up sound system, the experience was almost completely unaltered.

Despite the inconvenience of it all, I have to say it was barely any more trouble than a few phone calls and I'm grateful that it could have been so much worse, as I now know...

When it happened again a few months later I almost laughed at the irony of having to go through the process twice in the first year of ownership, until I realised I’d left insufficient battery to keep sentry mode on that day (<20%), and it was not active at the time of the collision. Having parked outside a shop not 5 minutes from my house to have easy access to the car, since I was taking daily trips to visit family in hospital, in clear daylight a van had side swiped my vehicle by turning too sharply leaving their parking spot.

Did my luck run out? I wondered. Am I going to have to pay up and lose my no-claims bonus this time??

No, thankfully the driver had left some details, although not much clear information written on the back of a receipt and I had to chase around calling multiple companies several times to finally speak to the right person, but I was eventually able to track down their insurance provider and report it. They offered to take care of everything and for simplicity I agreed - perhaps the first mistake, as I’m sure using my own cover would have been an almost identical experience to the last time.

However, initially they referred a budget body-shop who work with Peugeot, Citroen, Seat etc. and I was adamant it should only go to a Tesla approved centre to ensure the warranty was respected, so they quickly set me up an appropriate specialist shop. Something I never thought of before is that you have the right to choose the repairer so don't feel like you have to accept their first offer, they're in the business of making money by minimising costs and our cars should not suffer due to that.

After several months the repair day comes and we drive Tesluta down to the garage only to find that there’s no hire available and it needs to be rebooked several weeks later. Alright, no big deal, just a wasted couple of hours travel which I kind of enjoyed anyway! The next time all goes to plan, they sent a driver to collect and I'm provided with a hire in the meantime from the same company, this time it's a Mercedes EQA. I'm grateful to have the ability to test this vehicle and be able to compare first-hand experience, so here are my thoughts and impressions of this compact SUV.

Pros

• Comfortable suspension and easy to drive

• Good acceleration and power

• Cruise Control & Automatic Lane Keeping alert

• Automatic Emergency Braking

• RGB interior ambient lighting (lights up like a Christmas tree!)

• Heated seats

• Good navigation system with some knowledge of nearby chargers

• Performance modes (sport, eco, comfort)

• Customisable driver’s binnacle display

Cons

• Overly complicated, many physical buttons spread around the cabin

• Uncomfortably firm seats

• Insufficient public fast charging infrastructure (none from Mercedes)

• Not as much cargo space as would be expected

• No sub-boot & no font-boot (only service professionals can even open it)

• Infotainment outdated and lacking modern features like streaming

• Clunky UI with too many menus, takes a lot of practice

• No App

• Relatively slow fast charging capability

Neutral

• OK range (~200 miles)

• Average sound system

Three weeks with it gave me a pretty good impression of life for non-Tesla EV owners and I can honestly say I felt the difference, heavily!

The biggest problem was simply a lack of public charging, whilst there are many 7kW plugs dotted around (such as at most Tesco’s), it’s not going to get you very far in the limited parking time and if you don’t have a home charger it can be a bit of a nightmare. One of the best local options was the single 50kW connector that Lidl provide in partnership with Pod Point, but that was full constantly and I mean I had to wait until 2 am to be able to get a go, queueing with 1% charge remaining!

Overall there’s pretty poor fast charging availability even in greater London, I can only imagine how bad it is in more rural parts of the country.

Luckily I was able to pull a reasonable 100+ kW charging rate using a local Tesla Supercharger from those which have been opened to all EVs and it was interesting to see how that works, as you might expect it's incredibly quick and straightforward taking just a few clicks in the same Tesla app - I really think that all but the most basic electric vehicles should be app-connected in this day and age, even just to keep an eye on charging.

I happened to be moving house during this time and it was actually fortuitously helpful to have a larger car for a bit, since the storage is fairly accommodating (certainly larger than a Model 3) it reduced our dependency on a van especially thanks to the hatchback door. The range was average with optimistically ~200 miles, but still plenty for the regular, shorter trips whilst shuttling furniture.

Mostly though, there's something undeniably unified about the Tesla ecosystem that makes it all so easy, and very familiar to Apple (sadly along with artificially limiting features, but that's prevalent across the industry).

Overall it's a very capable, although quite expensive, option starting from at least £52,000, but any owner should be happy with it's performance, features and design, especially if converting from ICE. Although not to my taste, it's certainly more in keeping with tradition. I remember a time when I felt that more buttons were better, but after trying both I've completely reversed my position. Sure it's nice to have some tactile feedback for the screen de-mist to help keep your eyes on the road, but for the sake of clean design I believe it's unnecessary.

So, for that price is the EQA a possible Model Y contender? Are they making waves in the market and pushing innovation? Sadly not at all, there are just so many signs they've taken an ICE car, ripped out the engine and thrown in a battery and motor, even the fuelling station icon on the navigation looks exactly like a petrol pump (albeit with a plug). It goes to show how difficult it is to transition manufacturing of one to the other - in the end it's easier for the company and better for the customer to start from scratch (Ford Model e, anyone?).

A few weeks roll by and I'm set to receive return delivery and have the hire collected. This is where the story kicks up a notch since half of that went perfectly, the rest unfolded into much more than I could ever anticipate, resulting in many more repairs and a different rental, the Seat Mii, but I'll save the details for later. Suffice to say that was the end of my time with the EQA and whilst it had served me well, I was overjoyed to be returning to a Tesla, especially now with access to a home charger for the full experience!