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YouTuber buys ‘banned’ Chinese car from rental company for $2,000 and makes surprising discovery
A YouTuber uncovered a particularly surprising thing after purchasing a damaged electric car at a salvage auction for just a few thousand dollars, discovering that the vehicle was far more impressive than he initially expected.
The 2023 Polestar 2 was bought from a Hertz salvage auction after being written off over alleged damage to its undercarriage, and while it wasn’t road-safe when purchased, the electric vehicle promised nearly 500 horsepower and the ability to accelerate from 0 to 60mph in under four seconds once repaired.
The content creator's purchase required substantial repair
The YouTuber, who goes by the name Rich Rebuilds, paid around $2,900 for the car, which had previously served as a rental vehicle, and set about finding out whether it could be brought back to life.
The content creator, who has amassed almost 2 million subscribers, examined the vehicle's exterior, interior, brakes and various features, finding the overall build quality surprisingly impressive.
They also discovered that the Polestar and many of its components had been manufactured or assembled in China, challenging some of their initial assumptions about Chinese-built cars.
However, the first diagnostic checks revealed that getting the vehicle running again would not be straightforward, and despite charging the dead 12-volt battery and topping up the coolant, the car powered on but refused to move.
Diagnostic scans revealed persistent cooling-system faults, raising concerns that the expensive high-voltage battery could have sustained substantial damage.
After further investigation uncovered a more immediate problem, an inspection underneath the vehicle revealed no obvious damage to the battery pack, but a cracked coolant hose near a pump appeared to be leaking.
The pair repaired the damaged hose and tested the system, hoping the fix would eliminate the cooling faults and allow the vehicle to operate normally, but unfortunately, the Polestar still refused to enter drive mode.
A particularly surprising finding
When their resilience finally paid off, the Polestar began demonstrating what it could do, with the electric car managing to fast-charge at more than 100kW without any visible signs of further coolant leaks, and its handling also impressed the hosts.
Acceleration tests produced times of 4.1 seconds and then 3.9 seconds for the 0–60mph sprint, with the car still offering quality despite having covered around 80,000 miles as a rental, proving it was most definitely worth the total purchase price of approximately $3,125 that was initially reported.