Man found rare Tesla Roadster abandoned on a San Francisco street

  • This Tesla Roadster has been parked for years
  • The car has been left to rot on a San Francisco street
  • It has clearly seen better days

Published on Nov 04, 2024 at 2:00 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid

Last updated on Oct 31, 2024 at 8:42 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Tom Wood

A man discovered a rare first-generation Tesla Roadster parked up and abandoned on a San Francisco street.

The Twilight Blue EV has been left on the roadside since at least 2019 – long enough for weeds to have started growing through it.

The car was spotted by a bemused Reddit user who was surprised to see the Tesla dumped as it was.

While dumped vehicles are certainly nothing new, it is unusual to see a car left on a residential street such as this.

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The Tesla Roadster has been parked on a San Francisco street for years

Much like the ‘mystery Mercedes’ that’s been sitting in the same spot in the UK for the last 12 years, this Tesla has been parked on the same road since at least 2019.

Sadly, the poor old Tesla had clearly seen better days, judging by the photos shared to Reddit.

The Twilight Blue paintwork has spent years exposed to the elements and there are numerous scratches dotted about.

The lights appear to have gone foggy over the years, but perhaps the most striking sign of its neglect is the weeds and branches that are now growing through the front passenger side wheel from underneath the car. 

From the images available online, it’s impossible to see the state of the interior of the Roadster, but I don’t think anyone would be surprised if it was less than perfect.

Someone did a deep dive into the vehicle’s background

According to Auto Evolution, because the Roadster is parked on a private residential street, authorities aren’t able to tow it away – so the Tesla remains.

The publication also managed to track down some images of the car in situ on a Google Maps snap taken in April 2022.

Someone did a bit of digging on the Tesla Roadster and discovered it had originally been registered back in 2009 in Colorado and then re-registered in California in 2014.

It was last given a service in April 2019 and had its tires replaced at the same time.

Since then, it seems the car hasn’t moved as there are no more recent reports about changes, repairs or service.

Back when it was given its last service, the Roadster had 22,000 miles on the clock – and that’s unlikely to have increased very much in the intervening years.

With a background in both local and national press in the UK, Claire moved to New Zealand before joining the editorial team at Supercar Blondie in May 2024. As a Senior Content Writer working on New Zealand Standard Time (NZST), Claire was the first writer on the team to make the site’s output a slick 24/7 operation covering the latest in automotive news.