YouTuber MKBHD Tries Getting $50,000 Tesla Roadster Reservation Refunded After 8 Years And It's A Pain In The Ass
Way back in 2017, just months into the first Trump administration, Tesla announced it would be building a second-generation Roadster. The company promised 0-60 in under two seconds, over 600 miles of range, and a price of $250,000 — with $50,000 of that paid up front as a reservation. Now, months into the second Trump administration, it seems some prospective buyers are finally noticing that there's not going to be a new Tesla Roadster. Even YouTuber MKBHD tried giving up on (one of) his Roadster reservation(s), only to find that the 50 grand wasn't quite as easily refundable as he'd been led to believe.
MKBHD, real name Marques Brownlee, is no stranger to the hallowed halls of this site. He's a longtime Tesla owner, one who's not always had great luck with the company's cars, but who nonetheless had reservations on not just one but two second-generations Roadsters. One was a "referral reward," a Founder's Series car that Brownlee seems to have gotten completely free through Tesla's referral program, but the other one cost him 50,000 of his own hard-earned dollars. That's the one he canceled, only to initially be told that he could only get $45,000 of the reservation back.
Brownlee still has a Roadster on order
Brownlee revealed this on the Waveform podcast, on which he's a host, in an episode that aired on YouTube on September 26. In his own words,"I'll get 45 grand back, the first 5K I don't get back." It's not clear when the podcast was recorded (though it appears to be not long before that air date), but Brownlee fully believed that $5,000 was gone. It took until yesterday, September 29, for him to post an update: He did, eventually, receive a check in the mail for the remainder. Splitting the $50,000 between wire transfers and checks is an odd way for a company to pay back its interest-free eight-year loan, but at least it paid up.
Of course, there's no way to know whether Brownlee got his last $5,000 because that's Tesla's process, or whether he got it because he's a big-name YouTuber who's covered Tesla for years and who could make life annoying for Elon Musk on Twitter. It's an unfortunate truth that folks with platforms often get better treatment from customers, and Tesla's initial hesitance to refund Brownlee the first piece of his deposit doesn't speak wonders for the company's standard operating procedure. One thing's clear, though: Even for the folks who get special treatment, getting your money back from Tesla — after years of broken promises — is an uphill battle.