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#340 Red Santa Barbara

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TEG

Teslafanatic
Moderator
Aug 20, 2006
22,101
9,490
Used Tesla Roadster 08'
5W45P55R13nc3pa3labcda26066155fa91141.jpg

Convertible Tesla Roadster 2008
Fusion Red, Tan Interior.
I have the hard top and soft top, the home power connector, and mobile charger too.
The car is in Santa Barbara.
delivery May 2009. VIN #340, 12.5K miles
Excellent condition
 
It seems that the letter and the blog didn't mention that it was/had-been for sale...

021_roadster_tow.jpg
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17ebzjp6slc1rjpg/original.jpg

...too bad it didn't sell before it went into storage... :crying:


By the way, huge thread covering the controversy over what happened to the car:
Do you know that you must keep your battery charged?

Edit: somewhat of a response from Tesla about this situation:
Plug It In | Blog | Tesla Motors

Edit2: Related info::
Twitter
@degusta said:
...Re "6 weeks" vs "2 months" - Tesla was the one who stated that the SOC hit 0% 6 weeks after it was parked...

So, I gather the car was left off charge (starting with a low SOC) then found wouldn't start 2 months later, but perhaps logs said it had already been unwilling to start for 2 week already by that time.

Twitter
@degusta said:
...I have in writing, from Tesla, that the vehicle can't take a charge and the estimate is $40,000...
(Not sure why that blogger has the repair estimate, if he doesn't own the car...)

Alleged comment from the reported actual owner:
Tesla Dismisses Report of Roadsters | Autopia | Wired.com
...Drucker, first identified by Green Car Reports, took delivery of Roadster No. 340 in May 2009, more than a year after placing a $50,000 deposit for the vehicle. He said he has driven the car 13,000 miles and followed Tesla’s service guidelines. He moved into a rental house while his home was being renovated and parked his Roadster in the garage, leaving it with a 25 percent state of charge. He didn’t touch it for six weeks and found it dead when he attempted to start it earlier this month...
 
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So this is the Roadster with the "bricked" battery. Any idea of the timeline here? On sale last December, mentioned dead battery to Elon on Feb 9, at LA store now?

Nov 22, 2011: Date on the Flickr photos for the Craigslist advert.
Dec 15, 2011: Noticed the Craigslist listing which reported 12.5K miles on the car.
Feb 9, 2012: Said to be "unrecoverable" after being unplugged "for just over 2 months". Reported 13K miles.
 
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I made him an offer, he refused and said he had another offer for more.

I was thinking of making an offer and trying to stuff 3.4mah cells into it. I won't now because it sounds like he is a really shady individual, and would screw someone over in a heartbeat. He probably wants way more than it's worth anyway.
 
Stupid question, but are all Roadster battery packs the same from V1 to V2.5? there have been a few totaled Roadsters out there like the one Elon mentioned on the Q3 investor call. The battery in totaled car, if undamaged, could potentially be used for situations like this, correct? If so, it would be nice if someone salvaged them (perhaps Tesla itself) so replacements could be made available at a cheaper price. Any salvage yard is not going to have the equipment to keep the battery charged correctly and it will quickly become useless--but there is a period of time where they could be removed and made available for others, sort of like a heart transplant list. You don't want anyone else to die, but if they do, hey, maybe it saves you.
 
stephenpace: Great idea. Tesla should buy packs from totaled cars and store them plugged in, ready for Roadsters in need of a new heart. If Tesla doesn't do it, then there is an opportunity to make some easy money for somebody else.

In Norway there is a cottage industry salvaging and rebuilding NiCd battery packs, new NiCd packs are also prohibitively expensive.