What Happened To Tesla’s First Car - The Roadster? 

Massive props to the Medlock crew for keeping these Roadsters alive!

Even thought Tesla doesn't service the Roadster with the expertise that Medlock and Sons do, it's not all bad. Medlock does an incredible job. Think it would be smart if Tesla partnered with Medlock to keep service on these beauties going into the future.

Thank you to the Medlock family for providing outstanding service and for making the world a better place! Thank you to everyone who shared their Roadster story. I found a lot of beauty in this video.

I still remember wanting one so bad in 2007 and 2008, but it being completely out of reach for me. I talked to a guy who owned one in Venice CA near Lincoln and Rose in late 2009 and he was very friendly and open to my questions. He seemed to be thrilled to own one. I wonder if he still has his. 🤔

Kind of surprised that Tesla forgot about the early roadsters. I thought they were really cool. It's awesome that there is a dedicated group of individuals that keep them on the road.

Big, big thank you to both Medlock and Gruber for keeping our electric land rockets maintained and on the roads :-)

The water pump car has finally been repaired.

I have a Tesla Roadster and crashed it some years ago. The Tesla people were awesome and the repairs done super well. It is good to hear there are after market companies as well now to keep these beauties on the road!

The Roadster looks amazing. I would love to drive a car like that.

How to own a roadster. Step 1: Work at Microsoft

love these cnbc short videos...keep making these...

i remember my first ride in a roadster, the buyer was the father of a friend in munich, an information trader for reuters (=very wealthy man). he openly told me he was sold on this car for the acceleration. i had specifically asked for a ride and some autobahn action and i was not disappointed. i was driving a mini cooper at the time, 125hp, and was absolutely stumped.

Seen a few of these in LA, I always stop and admire because I know I won’t see one for a while. I have seen people stop because I stopped and snaps pictures and start asking me questions. I educate them and they leave thinking it’s a pretty cool car. I Love Cars and knowing about weird cars it’s always better than knowing about the Hellcat everyone knows about.

I remember seeing these being built on the Lotus production line that was used for the VX220 and now the Evija

Ten years later this is going to be one of highest valued collectors item. Period.

Damn after watching this video IF I owned one of these original Tesla’s I would be scared to death of driving it anywhere. I would feel like I had an crucially endangered animal that I would be acting unreasonable with having on the road. It’s sad it’s that difficult to get parts for the cars.

I remember when I first heard of these, it was in a Rob Reports magazine I got for Christmas 08. Great documentary

The thing missing from that shop is a portrait of Nikola Tesla, the briliant mind that invented the motor that is powering all of the tesla cars and many more things in the world. Keep up the good work.

I love Tesla so much, I'm a Tesla nerd. I love this guy, watching this is emotional. I want to hug this guy Thank U

Thanks a lot for this video! I was a Roadster passanger on an exhibition event for a few minutes and bought Tesla shares. One year later a colleague (15 years working in car industry) told me BMW i3 & i8 are the first competitors and the others are ready with better cars, the next few years THEY will have the maket and Tesla would be history. I was STUPID enough to think he knows what he tells and I sold my shares... Years have gone by and the "competitors" are still no competitors and the shares I sold these days have had such a high value... THE CORE OF THIS: NEVER TRUST IN "EXPERTS" !!!

great niche, and good work. With the legacy and low number produced, those car will become collectible worth 1M$ each soon enough, then when you start to think that way, one shop that have the talent and knowledge to do maintenance and repair as close to original condition is incredibly valuable.

Someone in my old apartment building had one, beautiful car. Didn’t realize they were that rare.

Bring back the roadster😍

this is soo nice. good for the environment and the owners and the passion is real

14-15yrs later and still looks Amazing !!

I owned a 2010 Tesla Roadster and sold it just before getting my first Model S. To see that they are now selling for well over twice what I sold it for is unsurprising. Luckily, I had put that money and a lot more into TSLA shares pre-split and it has grown by multiples more than that car's market value has grown. You don't seem to hear much about about owners who don't like that car. But I did not enjoy it, despite its Lotus beauty and Tesla acceleration. It was uncomfortably tight and took a contortionist's efforts to get in and out, particularly with the hardtop installed. In fact, after the first day, I never drove it again with the top on until the day I delivered it to the buyer's representative.

The Roadster was basically just a Lotus Elise with an electric motor added. So when it's no longer possible to repair the battery drivetrain, switch to the internal combustion drivetrain, and you pretty much have a forever car.

I remember this and I remember how excited me and my friend were that there is an EV sportcar. This was back when Nolan's Batman was released and Iron Man 1. God bless.

I want to have one of these babies as soon as I can afford one. My dream car. A car that has soul, history and culture. A true collector's item.

You have to bring up the fact that Elon Musk was not CEO when the first Roadster came out. At the time, he saw no vision for the first Roadster and moved on with the model S.

Guesstimate of 1,500 left, they've depreciated very little in 10yrs. Add another 10yrs and even less on the streets than today by half or more, staggering to think what they'd be worth.

the last line was insanely awesome

They made a limited amount to raise initial funding. They started with expensive versions first then went onto mass production. Roadster to Model S to Model 3 to Model Y etc. This was explained from the very beginning and these owners act absolutely shocked?

I’m surprised Lotus isn’t able to help these guys out with sourcing parts?? To think this has appreciated twice it’s original value. Unbelievable. If we only knew then… Kudos to keeping them on the road!! 👏🏻

I live in San Francisco,CA and there were Tesla Roadster in 2005. I remember seeing several parked while I lived in the Haight. I know it was 2005 because I moved to Chicago in 2008.

Legend has it, that water pump is still going

To me, this seems to have similarities to DeLorean Houston where they want to bring out a new car vs. remanufacture parts to keep the old ones going. So other 'DeLorean' vendors have to step up and fill the gaps.

5:52 278'000 KM is mid-mileage for a Volvo. But really cool video from CNBC

Still remember when first tesla tested in top gear and clarkson make fun of it

Enjoyed the perfect review on a hot hatch that would probably last a long time 😃👍

It's like a old relic but precious

I love CNBC documentaries .... Can you make a new one on American EV start ups (Rivian & Lucid) Post-Ukraine war and how their production has been affected by cost of materials?

The one with the water pump problem.. disconnect it from all electrical sources and insulate it from anything metal. Then run custom wires as a bypass.

These are probably gonna be worth a lot of money in the future

Sounds alot like what happened with the demise of the Delorean. Sadly it's not from a company that's gone bust, just one that abandoned it's ewaste

Being of age and how to manage the sequence of returns in those early periods is what seems quite scary in the current market. The market is never a loser in the twenty year cycle, but the 2000s decade scenario scares me and could really disrupt my retirement. When you're no longer accumulating but withdrawing, it's hard to be anything but cautious.

I love the sigh after saying they do electrical work 8:34

“What was the First car in space? - the roadster!” moon buggy; “he said what!? hold my beer”…

I have the Elise, the Alfa 4C and this Tesla sitting my my garage. Good job Lotus.

Wow! You guys did it up righteous. The first time I saw one of these first, "model Tesla Roadster's," was at Manheim Auto auction, and it looked like "Crap.". But, it's nice to know that there is someone out there that Care's about these cars, and can restore them to their original beauty. "Thumbs up on this video."

I've wondered about the "Original Tesla" car. Coo-do's to Medlock for keeping them alive.

What I got from this is that when Tesla makes something else and stops making a car, you’re screwed if you own one.

I wish I would have Tesla stock from $22/share!

SOOO SAD that Elon is making these car die, Show these cars the respect they deserve. Create a new battery pack and new charging ports so that it can charge from a supercharger. These cars are classics :(

Love seeing my old forklift at medlock and sons

He better start training a few apprentices before he retires because these are the niche skills that can’t be learned from a mechanics manual.

I've seen a few roadsters in Winnipeg Manitoba

I saw what I think I saw what I thing was the first public demo of the car that became the roadster in Santa Monica, Ca. Allan Coconni , who designed the EV-1 drive train for GM, was at this private home to demonstrate his new product a Toyota/ Scion car converted to his EV drive train. After the introduction of the new car in the back yard we went to the street to see his Lotus conversion. He stepped on the pedal hard and sound the car was fine! About 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. Allan invented the roadster and came up with the crazy concept of using thousands of laptop 18650 lithium cells instead of what all the other EV-s used in the past. The reason was the owner of the NiMh patent did not sell the batteries used in the GM EV-1 or the improved Panasonic version used in the Toyota RAV-4 EV. Texaco bought the battery patent from GM when they stopped making the EV-1 then merged with Chevron . I Personally talked to the Fake company the oil company set up and asked to buy batteries for testing in our Phoenix Motor cars prototype. They would only sell in quantities of many thousands, and No demo cells were available. They did try to sell a UPS with there cells and we considered buying them just to get the batteries and leaving the inverter part but they wanted too much. Allan went through the same thing and decided he would skip the proven NiMh batteries and go to lithium even though it meant Thousands if small batteries , and points of solder connection failure points, to get around this. Look at the movie “who killed the electric car” to see Alan. He is not a musk like extrovert but deserves the credit for the roadster. The Tesla founders bought the rights from Allan’s company and turned the prototype into a real car. So the founders deserve credit just not invention credit and Elon was not involved in any of this! Hope this helps any EV historians…

There’s a place in Arizona Gruber motors Inc. they rebuild Tesla vehicles as well as the roadster they rebuild the batteries and electronics completely. They also can bring an original tesla roadster back to life when the battery is completely dead and won’t take a charge.

Lotus has designed a great car! Remember that this is not an original Tesla design. Tesla's new stuff is damn good though.

Zero behaved the same with all their early products. I inquired about service assistance on my 07 X, and 09 DS. All they said is "just buy one of our newer better ones". I was on my own. The X got a new pack and the DS didn't survive.

Greetings from Costa Rica 🇨🇷. Minute 9:00: I thought: “If I owned a Tesla Roadster, would I ship the car to Medlock in Seattle or would it be possible to fly the specialists to Costa Rica for diagnostics and repairs.” Minute 9:06: Randy Medlock: “I even travelled to a car in Costa Rica…” Uncanny!

Have a picture of one with Plate Amp 1 Up from Napa Valley in March 2012

Tesla Roadster is a legend and should appreciate to become quite a collectable for sure.

I love these cars it kind of sucks that they got pushed to the wayside, my neighbor actually had one when they first came out but later got rid of it because of the service issues he was actually upset to get rid of it because he enjoyed it. He has a model S now and the students probably been driving electric cars only for 10 years.

Hell yeah! 🤟🤙👌 I dream to get a 1,000-mile EV one day ~ Aptera or otherwise. #RightToRepair

Literally cheaper to buy a Lotus and electrify it now!

Great video! But I wanna make one small clarification. The Tesla roadster 1.0 does not share any of the same components as the rest of the Tesla fleet. The new cars are like are like Lego sets plug and play. The roadster 1.0 is a super complex taped together sports car think old Porsche level of wiring and stuff. Currently there are more Tesla service centers that are now servicing the roadster. Keep an eye out for the growing number.

Didn't Tesla release an extended range/battery refresh kit for the original roadster?

I don’t see how EV’s will solve environmental problems without right to repair

After watching this documentary, I’ve concluded that I need to buy a Roadster. My only problem is coming up with the $100 grand. Ha!

Man this reminds me of what GM did to Pontiac and the Trans Am. The feels are strong here…. 😢

This is a great channel. Always high production values. Always worth watching.

Wasn’t “based” on a Lotus, it IS a Lotus with an electric drivetrain.

This dude is awesome

I remember looking at one of these cars when they came out I couldn't even fit in it 🤣.

Still a beautiful car. There’s one in my area still bumping around.

For lots of old cars the brand stops manufacturing parts and then they cant service it. In Europe, most older cars go to repair shops other than the dealer because parts can only be found in scrap yards and dealers don't source parts from there. For Tesla, being a fast moving company, the roadster is VERY old. Its more than normal that service has to be sourced from outside the brand.

Was that Doug DeMuro's Ford GT shown during the party?

I really want to hear this about the Tesla Roadster. Please reduce the background music volume behind the commentators voices it is needlessly difficult to maintain attention.

I wonder if a flood damage one would be worth fixing if not possible or even a front end damage one

There was one on bat for sale a few weeks ago.

This car reminded me of the opel

I want one of these! The first Tesla Roadster! 😍

Amazing tesla content we love tesla make more tesla content 🔥

Love the fact that number 687's sister car 686 is still spinning in the orbit.

The fact that Tesla doesn't service these cars is what makes them so valuable. Owners have very little to complain, they have a constantly appreciating asset in their garages, the dumbest thing they can do is keeping driving them.

great car that most never heard of ))

So glad Carl was big enough to keep the roadster from failure … Elon owes him for what he did … just hoping that he is well rewarded for his efforts. He’s a Tesla Legend !

Quicker, not faster. They're good fun, yes I've driven one; way back when it was introduced.

Can't wait to see Tesla do this to the 'current present models' in the next 10-15 years

These guys are sitting on a future gold mine. 20 years from now these will be worth their weight in Unobtanion!

I saw a roadster at a Harbor Freight around 2011. The photos is hot are on my Flickr page. I think it was orange.

That’s crazy cool :)

Classic creation connection

Damn that last line gave me goosebumps

Seems really ominous: if this is how Tesla treat their older model, how will they treat their current models when they grow old? Cars are far more expensive than phones, and most people can’t replace phones regularly.

Honestly they lool better than most offerings

I wonder how many cycles these batteries are rated for. People paying more and more for a car with very limited range and serviceability, that sounds smart.

I don’t understand the body parts issue, surely your shopping is done in the UK for Lotus parts?