It was November 2017. Elon Musk walked onto a brightly lit stage in Hawthorne, California. The crowd erupted as a sleek, crimson-red sports car burst into view
That car was the new Tesla Roadster.
“This,” Musk declared with trademark confidence, “will be the fastest production car ever made.”
The numbers were staggering: 0 to 60 mph in under 1.9 seconds. A top speed over 250 mph. A range of nearly 620 miles on a single charge. A design that looked like it had been ripped straight from the future.
Fans around the globe gasped. This wasn’t just a car—it was a revolution on wheels.
And among the first to buy into the dream? Marques Brownlee, better known as MKBHD. The tech YouTuber with millions of followers wasted no time. He didn’t just reserve one Roadster. He reserved two.
One was a “Founder’s Series” edition earned through Tesla’s referral program. The other was a full-price reservation. Brownlee wired $50,000 of his own money to Tesla, convinced he was about to own a piece of automotive history.
He thought he was buying a dream. Instead, he began an eight-year journey into silence, frustration, and one of the strangest tech dramas of the decade.
$50,000 and 8 Years of Waiting
When Brownlee placed that deposit in 2017, Tesla promised the Roadster would begin shipping in 2020. Fans lined up, wallets open, trusting Musk’s vision.
But the years ticked by—and nothing happened.
- 2018: Tesla focused on ramping up Model 3 production. No Roadster updates.
- 2019: Hints that the Roadster might be “delayed slightly.”
- 2020: Instead of Roadster, Musk pivoted attention to the Model Y and Cybertruck.
- 2021 – 2024: Every year, Musk teased that Roadster development was “ongoing,” that it would be “better than before.” Yet, there was no concrete launch date.
For Marques, that meant one thing: Tesla sat on his $50,000 for nearly eight years.
“Tesla has been sitting with my 50 grand for eight years and hasn’t done anything with it,” he revealed on his Waveform Podcast.
Eight years of hype. Eight years of rumors. Eight years of believing he was on the verge of owning “the fastest production car ever made.”
And then, reality hit.
The Awkward Phone Call With Tesla
When Marques finally decided to cancel, he assumed it would be simple. A few clicks. An email confirmation. Done.
But Tesla had other plans.
On Tesla’s website, there was no “cancel” button for Roadster reservations. No online form. No streamlined customer service.
So Marques picked up the phone.
And what happened next only deepened the drama.
“There was this really long pause,” he recalled. “The rep was like, ‘A Roadster?’ Like they almost forgot it even existed.”
The staff had to shuffle him around, unsure how to handle a Roadster cancellation. Two weeks later, Marques had to call again—only to hear the same confusion from the same employee.
Finally, after weeks of runaround, he was promised a refund. But not the full $50,000. He’d get back $45,000. Tesla would keep the $5,000 deposit he had made back in 2017.
“Tesla just had that money the whole time,” Marques said, sounding more bitter than angry. “I could have done so much with it. I’ll do something else with it now.”
The Painful What-If: Tesla Stock
The cruelest twist? A single question from Marques’s podcast co-host, Andrew Manganelli.
“What if you had put that $50,000 into Tesla stock instead?”
The audience didn’t need the math spelled out. Tesla stock soared in the years after 2017, especially during the EV boom of 2020–2021. That same $50,000 could have turned into hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even half a million.
Instead, Marques spent nearly a decade in limbo—waiting for a car that never arrived.
The Internet Explodes
The story spread like wildfire across the tech community.
- Tesla fans felt betrayed. The Roadster, once the jewel of Musk’s empire, now looked like a phantom car dangled as a marketing stunt.
- MKBHD’s fans sympathized. “If Marques can’t get answers, what chance does an average buyer have?” wrote one commenter.
- Skeptics mocked the entire saga. “The Roadster is basically a unicorn,” joked another.
On Reddit, threads about “Tesla Roadster scams” gained thousands of upvotes. On X (Twitter), the hashtags #Roadster and #TeslaDelay trended. Calls grew louder for Tesla to pay interest on deposits it had held for nearly a decade.
Will the Roadster Ever Exist?
Beyond Marques’s personal drama lies a bigger question: will the Roadster ever actually launch?
The signs aren’t promising.
- Tesla’s website quietly removed Roadster from its top navigation.
- In its July 2025 financial report, Tesla listed the car as being in “design development”—the same vague stage it had supposedly been in for years.
- Musk, true to form, has continued to tease the car in interviews, saying it’s “getting even better” but refusing to provide dates.
For some industry insiders, the conclusion is simple: the Roadster may never see the light of day.
Elon Musk and the Art of Delay
This isn’t the first time Musk has stretched patience to the breaking point.
- The Cybertruck was unveiled in 2019, promised in 2021, and only began trickling out in 2023.
- The Tesla Semi truck was also announced in 2017 but has yet to achieve real commercial rollout.
- Musk has promised full self-driving capability since 2019, yet in 2025, FSD remains in controversial beta mode.
But the Roadster stands apart. No Tesla project has lasted this long without real evidence of production. No Tesla promise has been dangled for this many years with so little payoff.
MKBHD as the Whistleblower
This saga might have remained a footnote if not for Marques. But his story has turned into something bigger: a symbol of Tesla’s credibility problem.
Brownlee isn’t just another reservation holder. He’s one of the most respected voices in tech. When he speaks, millions listen.
And his message was clear: Tesla wasted his time, wasted his money, and turned the “fastest car in the world” into the longest-running joke in automotive history.
His cancellation has already emboldened others. Forums are filling with stories of reservation holders reconsidering their commitment. Some say they’re demanding refunds. Others wonder aloud if the Roadster was ever real at all.
The Big Unanswered Questions
Brownlee’s saga leaves behind a trail of questions Tesla doesn’t want to answer:
- Did Tesla deliberately use reservation deposits as a financial cushion?
- Was the Roadster ever a priority—or just a flashy prototype to generate buzz?
- How many deposits are still sitting in Tesla’s accounts, untouched?
- Is the Roadster quietly being killed off while Musk focuses on AI and robotics?
The lack of transparency fuels the drama. And for a company built on hype, mystery can cut both ways.
From Faith to Fracture
What started in 2017 as an inspiring vision has become a cultural cautionary tale.
- On one side: Elon Musk, the genius showman, forever promising the impossible.
- On the other: loyal fans, ready to put down tens of thousands of dollars to believe in the dream.
- And in between: a void filled with broken deadlines, vague updates, and growing frustration.
Marques Brownlee’s canceled order isn’t just a refund story. It’s the moment the dream cracked.
The $50,000 Lesson
In the end, Marques got most of his money back. But he lost $5,000 outright—and, perhaps more painfully, he lost eight years of anticipation.
He’ll still have his free Founder’s Series Roadster reservation, though his confidence in ever receiving it is near zero.
The real takeaway is far bigger:
In a world where hype can outpace reality, even the most loyal believers eventually reach a breaking point.
For Tesla, the Roadster was supposed to be a cherry on top of its electric empire. For Marques, it became a cautionary tale of waiting, doubting, and finally walking away.
Whether the Roadster ever hits the streets or fades into legend, one thing is certain: MKBHD’s story has turned it into one of the most dramatic sagas in tech history.
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