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N5329K

Active Member
Aug 12, 2009
1,863
3,770
California
Thinking about a 2010 Roadster (to replace a just-sold Triumph roadster) to use as a daily driver in a benign, coastal California climate, and wonder what the received wisdom here is on maintainability, battery life, parts, all the usual. The Triumph was a delight as a daily driver: reliable, dead easy to maintain, parts were a snap to find and really, really cheap. No Unobtanium bits to worry about, though it did burn a bit of gasoline.
Could any of that also be true (not the gasoline part) for a low-mileage 2010 Tesla Roadster?
Thanks all,
Robin
 
I did exactly that.


In Canada
Here’s my main thought, and I cut my teeth on TR’s the electronic side of life is what it is, you start the journey with a good battery and your pretty much golden. They have proved to last longer than anticipated. The mechanical side of the car is ridiculously easy. You may need to buy metric tools and Allen keys to replace the imperial stuff. But brakes, suspension and steering is easy and straight forward. The hardest part is getting it up in the air.
Yay a few evenings to read through the forum and you will find most issues are already solved and you have many people who will chime in to keep you mobile
 
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Not sure how I can assess the health of the battery, and as you said, that's got to be good or else nothing else matters. Can a Tesla Service Center still do that, or are they not really interested in first-gen roadsters any more? I did notice on a photo that the estimated range seemed low (90 miles vs 3/4 charge) when compared to the battery's charge state, but that could be just how the car had been recently driven, not a ding on the battery itself.
Robin
 
I would certainly walk away from anything less that 180 miles. The ideal range is a good indication of range because it looks at ideal conditions. Est is indeed as you mentioned based on the previous 30-40 miles. Even then 90 seems low unless he auto crosses it. Also enquire about charging equipment. The roadster (1/2 showbox size metal block) connector is undoubtedly a bonus. The one that looks like a newer Tesla cable is less than desirable. A 110v means a week between grins! No fun. Tires also are going to get expensive, the 2 common alternatives are continentals and michelin’s A quick search will turn up lots of information, some of it way out of date but for a road car you probably don’t want the yoko’s, but rather something that rolls a little better.
Desirable but not essential options are the adjustable suspension (upgraded or original) carbon interior, and HID lights (upgraded or original), double din dash, either or both the Can Sr or Can Jr.

For me the hard top beat out the double din, the Canadian conversion beat out the carbon interior. And the fact the car has been well documented from new on this forum gave me more confidence than I probably should have.
 
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What I would do is to get a copy of the car's logs. This can be done with a simple USB memory stick (4gb or less). Put a directory "VehicleLogs" (case sensitive) in the root of the drive, and stick it in the USB port that's just above the 12v Accessory outlet at the front under the center console. It should start blinking, and give you a 3-beeps warning "memory transfer in progress". Takes about 15 minutes or so. The car can be plugged in during this time, but cannot be actively charging.

There are viewing applications available (search for "VMSParser.exe") that will let you know what the health of the battery is, and as important, any diagnostic alerts the car has coughed up that might indicate troubles that might not be immediately apparent during a test drive. Be on the lookout for 1144 / 1146, for example. The battery's health is measured mostly by its CAC. Brand new is about 160. My 2010's original battery is about 139 now, and I charge to 164-ish miles in standard mode, 214 in Range mode. That's apparently about average for the car these days. I have 49k miles on mine. Note that the Roadster's logs have a lot more information in them, and can be interesting to browse for past, um, indiscretions. My car, apparently, hit over 100mph at one point prior to my ownership... On the track. Of course. :)

Note that the Roadster's terminology for modes and range (ideal vs estimated) are different than what Tesla now uses for the S/X/3. You want to know the Ideal range, which is only based on battery health, in either standard or range mode. The Roadster "hides" the top and bottom 10%-ish of the battery from its display in Standard mode, vs Range mode, so the number displayed has to be taken in that context. You also charge in Standard or Range mode, independently of what you drive in. Very confusing to explain, but you'll understand once you start using it. I agree that 90 miles of Ideal range when the battery shows 3/4 "full" is a concern, but not a showstopper. Get the logs to know the true story.

To the question of unobtanium parts, that is definitely something to be concerned about long term. Many of the mechanical parts - brakes, tires, etc., especially the wear items - are easy to obtain, and if not the originals, equivalent or even improved substitutes can be had. The electronic parts, however, can be difficult and/or expensive to replace. There are weak spots in the car's design (as in any car), notably the connector that drives the PEM / Motor fan assembly (failure of which relate to the 1144 and 1146 errors I mentioned above), and for some, the eventual breakdown of the insulators under the IGBTs that drive the motor. Depending on your skills, these can be repaired, but the default Tesla repair is in the $10k range. The good news is that Tesla does still service the car, even out of warranty. It just might take a while, or be expensive. Being in California probably helps.

Not trying to scare you, by the way, but just to be aware. This is a hand-crafted, limited-production prototype vehicle. It's an incredible car to drive, and an historic piece of modern automotive history that is an honor to own. Mine is my daily driver, and I wouldn't have it any other way. But every car has its faults. I used to own a 1972 Datsun 240Z, and it had me swearing in Japanese on more than one occasion due to its electrical system problems. There are fewer things to go wrong on the Roadster, but they tend to be bigger deals when they do.
 
649 is a nice Roadster. It was in great condition last time I saw it when it was previously for sale in Dallas. I believe the CAC was 150 out of 160 at the time, so I'd imagine by now it's around 145-148. It would be helpful to find out for certain.

If you PM me, I can assist you in doing so, should you decide to take a look at the car in person.
 
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649 is a nice Roadster. It was in great condition last time I saw it when it was previously for sale in Dallas. I believe the CAC was 150 out of 160 at the time, so I'd imagine by now it's around 145-148. It would be helpful to find out for certain.

If you PM me, I can assist you in doing so, should you decide to take a look at the car in person.
PM sent. Thanks,
Robin
 

It has been around... Was in Hawaii, Texas, California, Washington State...

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649-monroney.png


649-starwood.png
 
As others have said, the best way to evaluate the battery is the CAC. Follow the instructions to pull the logs, and then the parser app will show it to you. Estimated (as opposed to ideal) range is entirely useless, because it depends on how the car was recently driven; you can safely ignore it.

The original batteries (as opposed to the upgraded 3.0 batteries) seem to last forever with pretty minimal loss of capacity. Unless the car was abused, you probably won't have an issue there. The 3.0 upgrade gives you much more range, but it degrades a lot faster, at least for the first 10-12%; the jury is still out on the rest of the time. It also increases performance noticeably, which is nice. There's a big lead time between ordering and getting it delivered, though, and it's $30K.

The biggest thing to worry about is the PEM. The insulation on the IBGTs has been failing on many cars. The result of this is a dead car with 0 prior warning, followed by months of downtime and a $10K bill from Tesla. I've been there, and it sucks. Carl Medlock in Seattle (who was Tesla's regional service manager back in the Roadster era, and now is independent) will do a fix on it before it fails, and he thinks that with the fix it will never be a problem again, it's not just a reset of the clock. I wish I had done that (but my car was one of the earlier ones to fail, so we didn't know about it then).

If you're going to transport the car up here, I'd also have him do his custom LED headlight upgrade. $3K, and worth every penny. The base headlights don't seem to emit any light at all (ok, that's an exaggeration, but only slightly). The upgraded HIDs are better, but not wonderful. Carl's lights rock. As far as I know, I have the only installed set so far, which puts me ahead of everyone else. :)

Another great upgrade is the custom rotors that you can find in another thread on this forum. The stock brakes are from the Elise, which is much lighter than the Roadster. As a result, they're very weak, and if you have to stop suddenly you'll be nervous. Figure out when the next run of rotors will be, and order a set. You won't regret it.

These cars also have tons of little things that are flaky. The TPMS is crap. The trunk sometimes won't open. The fans fail. Etc, etc. I use mine as my daily (145K miles in 9+ years), but I'm happy that Tesla gives me service loaners when it's broken. :)

If I had to do it over again, I'd buy the car. It's been very fun.