Teen who purchased totaled Tesla for $13,000 breaks down how much it cost to restore
You may have never heard of Winston Pemberton, but moms and dads around the world will surely be envious of his parents.
He could even just be in the running for 'Child of the Year' after restoring two totaled Tesla's for his parents - saving them thousands of dollars in the process.
According to reports, the Washington teen splashed out $15,000 of his parent's money at an auction for the original 2018 Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD (all-wheel drive) in red, which he gave to his mom.
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But the 18-year-old explained in a video that the car's figure was actual $13,000, and while rebuilding it, he uncovered the shock accident that took place.
His story was shared on YouTube channel Wham Baam Teslacam, with the channel's host saying: "Winston purchased this totaled Model 3 from a wrecking yard and rebuilt it himself in his garage.
"Once the car was completely rebuilt he plugged in his USB drive and retrieved the footage stored locally on the Tesla's computer finally revealing how the car had been totaled.
"The footage shows the former owner driving along when another car suddenly appeared from the right with no opportunity to stop."
He added: "The Tesla driver T-boned the other driver on the driver's side, the Tesla was a total loss and was sold to Winston by Geico Insurance - Winston won the auction for $15,000 before setting out to build the cheapest Tesla in the US."
But as mentioned earlier, that price was actually $2,000 more than what he himself had stated.
So how much did he spend on it?
Pemberton spent a whopping $10,000 on car parts - $1,000 of that went to the taxman, so realistically it was $9,000, but the US is not a tax haven.
It meant that he'd spent $25,000 on the entire project in total - having actually bought the car for $13,000, with the extra $2,000 being spent on fees since he didn't have a dealers license.
The teen shared his progress on his YouTube channel, WinstonsGarage.
His bio reads: "I rebuilt a Tesla Model 3 for my parents and we have been driving it for a couple months now! I hope to one day bring another Tesla onto the channel and rebuild it but we will see."
Possessing the ability to restore a smashed up Tesla is an incredible feat and one that must surely put him on Elon Musk's radar?
According to his latest update video, he'd already applied for a job at Tesla, however, they decided to 'go with someone else', however, he took it in his stride and isn't deterred from applying again in the future.
UNILAD has previously contacted Tesla for comment.
Joe Yates