Roadster 501 was traded in last night (12/19/2019) for a 2020 Model 3 Performance.
I’ve been considering selling for a couple years but could never actually bring myself to post a for sale ad (although I had a few discussions with several folks via private messages), so when the Roadster service email and trade in offer email came out, I asked for a quote out of curiosity. For reference to the community, they offered $50,300 for my 2010 base Roadster with original battery and 18,659 miles. M3P with FSD was about $65,000 (+TTL) and with the additional tax savings from the trade in, I pulled the trigger. (I actually wanted to get a MS Long Range P Raven, but my wife wisely did not approve of the extra expense and we don’t need 3 Model S’s).
I want to thank this Roadster community for being an amazing group. The camaraderie, civility, enthusiasm, and amazing knowledge and expertise shared among owners has made this forum one of my favorite places on the Internet. I lack the technical knowledge and mechanical skill many here have, but I’ve learned so much from you. It feels like Tesla forgot about the Roadster for a while, but I also think all of you here have kept the Roadster alive and cherished. Although I’ve only met a handful of you in person, it seems many of you here are friends.
To expand on my personal reasons for selling, it came down to location and support. While I’m lucky to be near Gruber (I’m going to keep plugging them. They are just fantastic, passionate, hard working, professional, and incredibly smart and talented), my battery was not holding up well in the Phoenix summer heat. My CAC (136-ish IIRC and about 160 miles on a Standard Charge) seemed to be dropping quickly despite low mileage. CAC was 140-141 a year ago and I think 145-ish two years ago. The Roadster belongs in a cooler climate. I would honestly stress at night in the summers here checking OVMS for battery temps and trying to run cooling cycles before going to bed. Driving the car in July in Phoenix is also not fun. The AC goes warm to cool the battery and then you still get a lot of reduced power scenarios because everything is just too hot and I find that mode dangerous because acceleration is so slow.
I had then decided to move the Roadster to a vacation home my wife and I bought in Kona earlier this year, but the SC damaged my PEM at annual service and I lost faith in Tesla’s ability to service it - especially in a remote location of the Big Island of Hawaii. I considered flying Javier, Carl, or one of Pete Gruber’s crew to service the Roadster if it got to Kona, but logistics (how would they get their tools there) and extra cost of paying for the flights just made that impractical. I was not going to trust a mobile Tesla tech from Oahu to work on the car either. Hence, my difficult decision to sell what at one point I thought was going to be my forever car to be passed down to a lucky relative.
Whatever happens to 501, I hope Tesla appreciates it for its history as the first 2.0.
Side note - I met a former Tesla tech a couple weeks ago and 501 was apparently famous at the local SC’s here in AZ. They called it “Franken-Roadster” because, despite being the first 2.0, many components were 1.5. In all honesty, I had a lot of things that needed repair on this car, but most was covered under CPO warranty, and I was proud to care for and maintain the car. Heck, it has a newly refurbished Gruber PEM I hope someone can now enjoy.
It has been great to have been part of this special community. Thank you all. I’ll continue to contribute and support Roadster owners in any way I can.
501 will be missed.
I’ve been considering selling for a couple years but could never actually bring myself to post a for sale ad (although I had a few discussions with several folks via private messages), so when the Roadster service email and trade in offer email came out, I asked for a quote out of curiosity. For reference to the community, they offered $50,300 for my 2010 base Roadster with original battery and 18,659 miles. M3P with FSD was about $65,000 (+TTL) and with the additional tax savings from the trade in, I pulled the trigger. (I actually wanted to get a MS Long Range P Raven, but my wife wisely did not approve of the extra expense and we don’t need 3 Model S’s).
I want to thank this Roadster community for being an amazing group. The camaraderie, civility, enthusiasm, and amazing knowledge and expertise shared among owners has made this forum one of my favorite places on the Internet. I lack the technical knowledge and mechanical skill many here have, but I’ve learned so much from you. It feels like Tesla forgot about the Roadster for a while, but I also think all of you here have kept the Roadster alive and cherished. Although I’ve only met a handful of you in person, it seems many of you here are friends.
To expand on my personal reasons for selling, it came down to location and support. While I’m lucky to be near Gruber (I’m going to keep plugging them. They are just fantastic, passionate, hard working, professional, and incredibly smart and talented), my battery was not holding up well in the Phoenix summer heat. My CAC (136-ish IIRC and about 160 miles on a Standard Charge) seemed to be dropping quickly despite low mileage. CAC was 140-141 a year ago and I think 145-ish two years ago. The Roadster belongs in a cooler climate. I would honestly stress at night in the summers here checking OVMS for battery temps and trying to run cooling cycles before going to bed. Driving the car in July in Phoenix is also not fun. The AC goes warm to cool the battery and then you still get a lot of reduced power scenarios because everything is just too hot and I find that mode dangerous because acceleration is so slow.
I had then decided to move the Roadster to a vacation home my wife and I bought in Kona earlier this year, but the SC damaged my PEM at annual service and I lost faith in Tesla’s ability to service it - especially in a remote location of the Big Island of Hawaii. I considered flying Javier, Carl, or one of Pete Gruber’s crew to service the Roadster if it got to Kona, but logistics (how would they get their tools there) and extra cost of paying for the flights just made that impractical. I was not going to trust a mobile Tesla tech from Oahu to work on the car either. Hence, my difficult decision to sell what at one point I thought was going to be my forever car to be passed down to a lucky relative.
Whatever happens to 501, I hope Tesla appreciates it for its history as the first 2.0.
Side note - I met a former Tesla tech a couple weeks ago and 501 was apparently famous at the local SC’s here in AZ. They called it “Franken-Roadster” because, despite being the first 2.0, many components were 1.5. In all honesty, I had a lot of things that needed repair on this car, but most was covered under CPO warranty, and I was proud to care for and maintain the car. Heck, it has a newly refurbished Gruber PEM I hope someone can now enjoy.
It has been great to have been part of this special community. Thank you all. I’ll continue to contribute and support Roadster owners in any way I can.
501 will be missed.
