“I owe you a 10-second car.” In 2001, Brian O’Connor’s debt to Dominic Toretto was somewhat of a tall order. The only street car that could match that without gratuitous modifications was the then-seven-figure McLaren F1, and building up the mythological Mk4 Toyota Supra to such levels was said to take at least fifteen grand and possibly overnighting parts from Japan. These days, things are different. Cars have grown hilariously, stomach-churningly quick out of the box, and when you combine that with depreciation, it means you can buy a used Tesla Model S P100D—a bonafide ten-second car—for less than $25,000. How about them apples?
Granted, the P100D wasn’t the first variant of Model S electric sedan to slip beneath the 11-second barrier. That would be the P90D with the optional Ludicrous Mode equipment, but finding one of those slightly earlier cars with the right mix of equipment is a little bit of a crapshoot. Sure, it did click off the quarter-mile in 10.9 seconds at 122.7 MPH in Motor Trend testing, but for a while, ticking the box for Ludicrous Mode included physical equipment not found on all P90D models.
We’re talking Inconel battery contacts and a special high-voltage pyro breaker, not exactly the easiest of driveway DIYs. Add in the fact that well-used vehicles may suffer from slight performance degradation, and even if you find a cheap Model S P90D with Ludicrous Mode equipped, it might not click off a ten-second pass at your local drag strip.
In contrast, the Model S P100D is a slightly different beast. Not only did it come with an upgraded battery pack and a meaningful bump in torque over the P90D, every single 2016 through 2018 Model S P100D came standard with Ludicrous Mode, which plunged the quarter-mile time deep into ten-second territory. When Motor Trend tested one, it ran the quarter-mile in 10.5 seconds at 125 MPH. Bonkers stuff, made even crazier by just how cheap these cars are today.
Take a look at this 2017 Model S P100D up for sale in Virginia. While the blacked-out trim isn’t hugely confidence inspiring, 99,808 miles on the clock isn’t bad, and $21,499 is an outrageously low price for something this quick. That’s less expensive than the cheapest new car in America, a Hyundai Venue that takes nearly nine seconds to reach 60 MPH.
If you’re willing to spend a bit more money, you’ll likely find something like this 2018 Model S P100D up for sale in Washington. With a reasonable 88,400 miles on the clock, it’s listed for $24,999. Admittedly, that’s only a dollar less than $25,000, but this one looks like it hasn’t been messed with beyond a set of surprisingly expensive forged aftermarket Ferrada F8 wheels.
Splitting the difference, here’s a 2016 Model S P100D up for sale in Oregon. It’s bone-stock and has 89,949 miles on the clock, and it’s listed for $23,990. Yep, 24 grand for a bone-stock ten-second car. We truly live in absolutely crazy times.
You’re probably wondering what the catch is beyond any unfortunate image-related connotations. Well, no decade-old high-performance luxury sedan is going to be completely trouble-free, and the Model S P100D has been around for long enough that we’ve seen common failure patterns develop. Understandably, a car of this size and weight is going to be hard on suspension components, so don’t be surprised if you have to replace some control arm bushings on models pushing nigh-on 100,000 miles. Granted, that applies to everything of this genre, but do you know what doesn’t? Sealing problems that are generally considered fixed with a coolant delete. Yep, a coolant delete.
See, Tesla’s large drive unit used in many pre-2021 Model S sedans features internal cooling paths that can leak over time. Once that happens, the result is a properly expensive bill, something to the tune of $6,500 to $8,500. The fix is to stop coolant from flowing to the rotor, and while Tesla has its own “Revision U” drive unit that debuted in 2023 to permanently eliminate this issue, EV West sells a far less expensive solution for existing drive units. It’s a $40 cap that’s a little labor-intensive to install but can prevent an enormous problem down the road.
On the body side, there are a few annoying issues that pertain to many Model S variants, starting with the silly electric door handles resigning from their duties. The cost to fix this can vary widely due to how the handle has failed. Some just need a $50 rebuild kit you can buy off Amazon, some require full replacement that can cost up to $1,000 per door handle. It’s also worth noting that earlier P100Ds with the Intel Atom-based media control unit can conk out, and an updated media control unit runs about $2,000.
Still, in the grand scheme of things, it’s now possible to own a somewhat reliable 10-second car for the price of a new economy car. One that’s perfectly streetable, loaded with creature comforts, and mostly just works as a car. Considering the fifteen grand baseline Jesse gave in “The Fast And The Furious” works out to $27,984 after inflation, if you owe anyone a ten-second car, maybe just pick up a used Model S P100D. It may not be as cool as building a wrecked Toyota Supra into a quarter-mile hero, but it sure is cheaper and easier.
Top graphic image: Tesla/Universal
Model 3 performance is maybe .5 sec slower in the quarter. You can get a 2019 or 2020 with about 80k mi for around $15k. With the amount of model 3 out there parts are cheaper and more available.
Even crazier–you can buy a 10-second giant-ass luxury SUV for 55,000 GBP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5n4t1IsHew
With better tires and track surface you may even nudge it into the 9-second range.
I too watched Camisa’s video about the Model S. While I do find Tesla’s approach of continuous improvement and the elimination of siloed departments to be interesting, and legitimately forward thinking. Tesla’s inability to get basic quality right, the difficulty of sourcing and installing repair parts, and the consistent ‘we know best’ attitude makes them completely unappealing as a used vehicle proposition. The thought of $1,000 door handle replacements wouldn’t make me touch this thing with a pole.
Are we about to see that SDVs age like cell phones and simply become e waste once the manufacturer has determined that a product is end of life?
Wow I remember thinking about one of these before I bought my Hellcat. Somehow the Dodge product isn’t the worst at depreciation.
Not a bad deal. Teslas are generally easy to work on for common stuff, with a few glaring exceptions. Looking at you, 3/Y cabin air filter. Check if the car in question has lifetime connectivity or if premium connectivity will be needed at $100 a year.
A stupidly cheap performance bargain, except it comes with all of the unwanted Tesla spyware. It just sucks that all of the available EVs had to be ruined with tech bloat straight from the manufacturer. Slate would be a nice exception, but it appears they won’t be out before federally-mandated spyware and tech bloat becomes the default for all new cars.
Now, that said, I’d like to someday put the smaller motor with a carbon-wrapped rotor making 300-ish horsepower from a PLAID into my electric Triumph GT6 conversion. 20,000 RPM would be properly nuts in that thing, and with a battery upgrade, I could have a 30-40 kWh battery in it with the car weighing hundreds of lbs less than it did as a stock ICE.
Seems like every Telsa owner in CA is testing to see if their car is a 10sec car every chance they get.
If they aren’t, then you know they’re using FSD.