Buyers Are Avoiding Teslas Because Elon Musk Has Become So Toxic
Buyers Are Avoiding Teslas Because Elon Musk Has Become So Toxic
According to a recent survey, Tesla's reputation is plunging, which could be due to Musk's off-putting and problematic behavior.
Indeed
i am not spending a fucking dime on anything that Elon Musk earns money on
i even deleted my twitter account when he bought it
But, even though Elon is an ass, the way tesla handles repairs on their cars, makes me not want to own one anyway. I wanna just use my local mechanic. Not exclusively teslas own
I wanted a Tesla and couldn't afford it. Now I can afford it and I would buy one right now if it weren't for Musk turning into a complete shit bag. (I realize he always was, but he hid it well and I thought he was an awesome dude) Fuck that guy, and fuck every company he's a part of. I'll just wait until conversion parts become cheap enough it's worth playing with.
His vehicles aren't even safe for other Dragons to ride on. Why would I buy from a company who unironically had the below answer for me when I googled from the back seat of one of their cars while Ubering and thought of that news:
Opening a Rear Door with No Power
Not all Model Y vehicles are equipped with a manual release for the rear doors. Remove the mat from the bottom of the rear door pocket. Press the red tab to remove the access door. Pull the mechanical release cable forward.
Emphasis mine. Still don't know which kind I was on, but an emergency would have not been the ideal 'find out' time. I'll avoid that by not fucking around with purchasing their cars.
A while ago, someone posted a photo (I think on Reddit before I left) of a Tesla with a bumper sticker that said something like, "I bought it before we all found out Elon was crazy."
I think that should be encouraged for all people who bought a Tesla before the 'pedo guy' incident. After that, you have no excuse.
I appreciate that Teslas helped normalize electric cars, but yeah, I don't trust him enough to drop that kind of money on a product from one of his companies.
What's to say he wouldn't do something recklessly impulsive the moment I buy one that makes it harder to get parts, removes software features, or gets my car keyed by someone who hates his guts?
To this day, you can still find conservative media that shits on anyone with electric vehicles, for some reason.
Now Musk opened his mouth and said stupid shit, and the other side doesn't want his cars either. All he's got left are the people who don't care, already bought one, or fall over themselves to kiss his feet.
I am avoiding Tesla because their design philosophy and decisions are gimmicky and don’t not prioritize functionality.
If I am going to spend big money on a car I am going with quality. Not some gimmicky pos where you can’t even open the doors if the battery cuts out. I’ll pass on the touchscreen with wheels.
As someone who owns one, i bought it before i knew how truly awful he was. As a car it's actully been really great, it's s done just over 100,000k with zero issues no rattles, still feels new and I'd be lying if i didn't admit it's the best car I've ever owned. The only maintenance is tyre changes from wear.
What sucks is i hate being seen in it because it makes me look like a Musk fan boy, and I'm understating is when i say i dislike him intensely.
The reality is I probably won't buy another Tesla when i eventually drive this to its grave, purely because of the association with possibly the world's biggest douche.
I live in hope Tesla will jettison him from their company and refocus on just making eclectic cars without him, then i might consider staying with the brand. But if he's there I won't be, and clearly im not alone.
Maybe lefties boycotting Tesla will cause MAGAs to go electric... Silver lining?
He's damaging the company's finances in other ways now too.
He sold a bunch of Tesla stock (admittedly his right to do so) to buy Twitter. However, now he's demanding the board give him more stock so he'll have more control back. Uh, Mr. Musk, you HAD the stock and control, but you traded it away to buy a social media platform. No one made you do that. Further, why should the company give you more stock when another social media platform may catch your eye and you sell all your stock again. You just can't be trusted with it after your past behavior with it.
No thank you. No more Tesla control for you Mr. Musk.
I admit that I have a Tesla. Overall I’ve been happy with it, but there are things that I definitely don’t like either. Unless there are major changes in the next 5-10 years, which I don’t anticipate as long as Musk is running things, then I definitely will not be buying another one.
Some recent developments have also made me wonder how Tesla’s finances are holding up. There was an article recently stating that Elon had issued an edict that new owners could not get their cars unless an employee gave them a test drive to demonstrate the Full Self Driving system. Clearly it’s an attempt by Musk to try to convince new owners to shell out an additional $12k for the feature (or a monthly subscription).
Just the other day I received an unsolicited email from Tesla that I’ve been given a free Full Self Driving trial for the entire month of April, clearly with the same intention in mind.
Personally I won’t try FSD at all and have zero desire to be in a car that uses it. I’ve had enough issues with Autopilot (their terribly named adaptive cruise control) and other things that rely on the cars camera system that I just don’t trust FSD to operate properly. I’ll often get alerts that a camera is blocked/blinded by bright sun, road grime, etc. And the cameras have a hard enough time operating things like the automatic windshield wipers (they can turn on in bright sun on a clear day) and automatic high beams (nothing like blinding oncoming cars at night) that I find it hard to trust them. If the car can’t handle those simple tasks then how can I trust it with more complex ones like FSD?
My next car will probably still be an EV. It just likely won’t be a Tesla. By the time I’m in the market for a new one there should be a lot more good options available.
A friend bought a Tesla that came with a defective rear window from the factory, they found out when opening the door at home. A tech came out and sealed the door shut so the car could be used. It took 10 months before the car was repaired and the door was usable.
Their next purchase was not a Tesla, future purchases will not be a Tesla ever again. Just by the quality of their product.
Regardless, Musk is a douche nozzle.
We're making our last payment on our EV this month, and a few weeks ago I brought up the idea of maybe trading it in for a newer EV, since our current one was starting to show signs of possible battery degradation and it's a Leaf that's stuck with CHAdeMO charging instead of CCS/NACS charging. My husband asked me what car we'd consider replacing it with, and the instant I floated maybe looking at a used Tesla, my husband barked back "Absolutely NOT!" And the thing was, I couldn't find myself disagreeing, either.
I know that my husband and I are far from the only ones who think the same way.
I feel so smug in the fact that I never liked the guy, never bought into the hype...
I don't know what's going to save the human race folks, but it's not going to be a billionaire in a cock measure contest.
I’m another one in this camp. Had a Model 3 for five years and loved the car, but moved internationally and had to sell it. Looking at EVs again of course but uninterested in Tesla because of this guy - that and his staunch refusal to add CarPlay. What kind of a moron refuses to add phone support to a $60,000 car?
I make enough to buy any of his cars.
I just bought an EV and his cars were not considered because he’s a piece of shit.
I guess this is true for me in the sense that his toxic business culture makes me confident that his companies are rushing products and cutting corners wherever they can to that end. Not a quality I like in a vehicle....
Good.
I’m one of those. Tesla already had a dubious reputation for quality but I was all-in on the incomparable hideousness of the Cyber Truck (because I’m weird)… but then he turned out to be a bigoted right-wing authoritarian chud and now I won’t touch anything he’s attached to.
Here’s hoping Aptera makes it to market. Honestly, their product will be infinitely more practical than a Cyber Truck, anyway.
A year ago it was a joke at my (IS) office how much I dislike Musk. Now his dickery is part of the zeitgeist and it is such a weight off my shoulders that I can stop being the only local champion of this cause.
I never liked Tesla.
The cars never were meant to be for "Joe Average" and "Daily Family Business" but "Toys for Wanna-Be-Social-Warriors".
Too expensive, too little practical use. I would take a Mitsubishi Space Star all day over a Tesla. Even the gasoline version is more ecological friendly in the long run. They go for €7000 in the smallest version and run for DECADES with little repairs and only use 2.5 to 3.5 L/100km and have like five times more storage room than even the largest Tesla.
Tesla? No thanks.
And yes, the Space Star literally has NO computer capabilities at all. It is barely above a 1970th VW beetle. But I tell you something: I fucking don't care. It is a car, it does car things like driving and hauling, it is not an entertainment device. It is cheap, fucking robust, easy to repair, uses little fuel and lives for decades (my aunt drove her Space Star for 35 years and 250000km and it was only scrapped after my aunt died of old age). For computer stuff, navigation, entertainment I have my smart phone which I clip into a holder and have 10 times more usability than any other car computer system I have ever seen.
I see no point in paying ten times more for little gain at all.
Also pretty much any computer integration in cars I have seen are massively overpriced and often abnormal bad. The only one doing the IT stuff right are the French producers like Peugeot and Renault, they include the biggest package in all cars without additional fees and it works pretty well. All cars having the same system is a great bone because you immediately feel at home everywhere. Also they are fair priced, in comparison to a lot of American and German cars.
Btw, I have been working for BMW a lot. Even drove several prototypes for several months as a payment bone. But even when they offered me car for half the price: No thanks. I'd rather invest my money in something lasting like real estate, stocks and such.
Same goes for my family, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles. I asked them what their expensive cars could to better and it was usually "well, it is a VW, it is a Ford, it is a whatever... and that is great" but when asked what it does BETTER... silence. Some decided to go cheap on cars after thinking about it, others decided they needed a bigger car to compensate something. Well, everyone is his lucks smith.
I was moments away from a down payment on pre order on the new 3 series. I forget the exact details of why I didn't. I am grateful that I bailed out on that plan.
I was looking at a Tesla in 2019, test drove one and was immediately put off by the faux-luxury presentation of everything and how the infotainment screen was the gateway to controlling literally everything on the car. I later found out about some of the other negatives that were not readily apparent when driving the showroom model like the excessive gaps in the body panels and FSD being essentially a scam that will never be fully realized. Musk went completely off the rails politically not too long after that and I couldn't bring myself to ever even consider a Tesla now as long as he heads the company. Maybe someday they'll repair their image when they shed Musk and get QC under control, but I'd sooner buy another PHEV or a competitor's EV than a Tesla of any make or model.
might have a little bit to do with quality of teslas (which mostly seems related to musk pushing self driving and the production floor)
It sounds a lot like a case of "Live by the sword, die by the sword":
- He has made lots of money by being a tecno-salesman who overhypes like crazy every venture he does, something which would only worked as long as people trusted him, and then he destroyed that trust by showing his true self, very publicly and very loudly, leading people to conclude he's an arsehole (and if he is an arsehole in things like how he treated the guy saving the kids in Tailand or it politics, it makes sense to expect he's an arsehole when it comes to over-proming and even lying to get others to give him their money) so all those hype trains he had going (and for example Tesla stock had about 10x P/E of Auto Companies in general, which very much a la-la-land valuation that implies it would take over the majority of the World's Auto Market - not just EVs but of all Auto sales) are now derrailing.
In this situation it doesn't really mater what he says about what he's trying to sell (such as the "good car" statement about Teslas) because he will simply not be believed.
My GF had a Tesla tow years ago, and she was undecided about renewing her lease. But then Elon took over Twitter and she began to feel embarrassed being seen in it.
Who would have known, alienating your biggest customer base (West Coast Liberals) with crazier and crazier right-wing nonsense would be a bad business decision. You'll have to pry Billybob's cold, dead hands off of his F-150.
This article just feels like rage bait to me
I'm not sceptical of the premise, because clearly the strong feelings people have towards Elon will turn some people off, but that kind of effect is hard to quantity
As the article, and others, note Tesla sales are down. That could be for any number of reasons and it doesn't make a convincing case that it's because of Elon
Tesla sales have been strong for so long despite Elon's continued crazy behavior that I find it hard to attribute the cause to the effect. Why now? Why not any of the other crazy stuff he's done?
Even from a purely financial perspective people are starting to realize that Teslas are a bad purchase. They are notoriously expensive to repair with little to no spare parts support. Even fender benders that would have been considered minor on other vehicles result in totalling the car. Because of this insurance premiums for Teslas are going through the roof. The battery pack also has a limited lifespan and replacements are prohibitively expensive.
Teslas used to keep their value because rarity, demand and Elon's teademark overhype. But their depreciation curve has begun to catch up with reality. As more and more Teslas end up prematurely in the landfill depreciation and insurance costs are going to overshadow fuel savings.
Had Elon Musk ever really cared about saving the planet he would have used his company's resources and energy in reducing the cost of ownership of his vehicles by creating an affordable repair parts supply. But instead he decided to waste it all on the moronic waste that is the cybertruck.
I wouldn't buy a new tesla even if it was the only option. I would just go and buy used, not like the market isn't flooded with the. .. at least he doesn't see a penny of it.
teslas aren’t cool anymore going by what my middle school aged kids are saying. they used to point out every Tesla they would see with excitement, now they do with laughter.
Yep, and the quality of quite suspect
I didn’t care one way or the other about the Boer except that he was talking about developing a sub-3 model, which piqued my interest. Then in 2018 he pulled the main character syndrome bullshit with his cobbled-together rescue sub and the “pedo guy” crap, and decided that maybe I’m not that interested, especially as at that time, he was also making a bunch of promises that he clearly had no intention of keeping (aforementioned entry level model, FSD, and so on). Now that I am in a position that I can buy one of his cars, it’s not even on my list, for so many reasons.
His “heel turn” on Twitter was telegraphed a light year away, and while I’m disappointed it’s taken this long, I’m glad he’s finally going to start reaping his blight.
I just hope that Rivian can stay afloat and that their CEO Steve-O is a relatively okay person because that R3 is looking good.
Yep, was interested back in 2018/2019. Have zero interest in buying one now.
Always loved and wanted to support electric cars. But my first will never be a Tesla.
That is the right thing to do
In 2022(?) when he was up to his shit trying not to buy twitter, despite having agreed to buy, space-x employees signed a petition to have him step down for his negative influence. I believe he retaliated by firing people and they filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, but I leave it to someone else to correct me if I’m wrong.
I know that I considered his brand when buying a car after ten years of living a car-free lifestyle. The pan made it impossible to rely upon Uber and I would have bought a Tesla if they weren’t massively backordered. I settled on a hybrid because I could get one much sooner. I’d light myself on fire rather than pay for one of this shitbag’s car today, however.
🎵 Lonnie is a shitbag! 🎶
People are realizing how shitty Tesla is because of Musk's shitty behavior
Not unlike a certain kind of hurensohn...
I own a Model 3 which I took delivery of back in 2020. As a car it's actually been fine - no major issues, aside from a fault with the AC which was sorted under warranty. It's been cheap to run, cheap to service (basically just tyres and other consumables like wiper blades), build quality seems perfectly fine and overall it's generally pleasant to drive.
The charging network is also fantastic and by far the most reliable one, at least here in the UK. It's now opening up to other makes of vehicles and I regularly see non-Teslas charging there.
Would I buy another one? With their current lineup, probably not. Nothing to do with Elon, douche nozzle though he certainly is. I mean, people still buy VWs (also great cars, used to own one too) and look who founded that company.
No, my issue is with the stupid cost cutting measures with removing critical physical controls from their latest cars. Moving the gear selector to the screen is absurd but at least you are (or should be) stationary when you are swiping the screen to change direction. Removing the indicator stalk however and replacing with buttons on a movable surface seems downright dangerous, especially in EU & UK where there are roundabouts everywhere and you need to be able to indicate while at half lock.
My Tesla is old enough to still have physical controls for all of those things and unless that changes I will not be getting another. I also just don't do enough miles these days to justify a new car, I'll just run this one into the ground.
People are waking up to the obvious fact that what they thought were Tesla-specific features (like the powerful torque and acceleration) are actually features of a battery powered electric motor per se. Saying that to a Tesla-Fan will still get you a “why are you hating” reply. Musk and Trump truly have figured out how to brainwash the dumbest.
get rid of that cunt, improve the quality of your cars and maybe I consider to buy a tesla...
In my case, it was more of a powerwall (the cars had too many issues already), but yep; not touching anything to do with this reprehensible shitstain. I avoid giving money to such people/companies whenever it's possible.
Or the vast majority of people can not afford Teslas. The die hards have bought them already or have died in them already.
I had half a mind to buy one after I graduate college. But I don't know if I can right now given the fact it directly benefits Elon.
The heavy irony here is the only people who defend Elon cannot afford a Tesla. The people who think he represents them aren’t even his target audience.
I'd say this is anecdotally false. I live in a rural area in the US and I just keep seeing more and more teslas popping up on the road. I wonder if they are showing up at more dealerships now where more consumers have the opportunity the make an uninformed purchase? Not sure.
I feel like anyone who has done surface level research on a tesla would avoid then. I haven't even done that and I know just from seeing articles that I didn't even seek out that they are pretty shitty cars, even if you ignore Elon's existence.
It would be a good time for another brand to take advantage of this. I get why people don't want to support this racist weirdo.
Ha, I really like that 😊
Yep. Our household owns both a Leaf and a Bolt. Can't stand musk and his cars that don't have an instrument cluster.
Tesla's biggest market is China. Expect Tesla to tank if the US bans Tiktok. China will retalliate against Tesla and Apple.
Permanently Deleted
I'd rather buy a BYD on the low end or a Lucid on the high end, with many of far more interesting EVs all across the range. Not to even get to him as a person which is unappealing.
FAFO
Yes that, but also the increasing Tesla QA issues over the recent years inspire little confidence
Really? I know a couple of people that had one, and the main reason for not buying another is they're the 90s Alfa Romeo of electric cars.
Looks nice but always at the garage.
But then there are others who love all his companies and think he is just an amazing dude smh. Any post on Reddit about something SpaceX did will have at least one comment saying "I love Musk" or some shit.
I live in the most Tesla filled city in the world. I'm a fucking dick to them. I'm sorry, but if you're buying into that Nazi's cult and I have the choice of being my usual kind self, or taking the opportunity to go ahead of you, cut you off, etc., I'm going to do the latter.
tesla makes interesting cars, but i wait for the day they stop producing drive units, and start producing wheel drives. Hub motors are definitely the objectively correct solution when it comes to EVs IMO. There are so many more things you can do, and so many more options you're opened up to.
oh and they stop being proprietary garbage, perhaps one day we will get opentesla firmware, as a hack.
The charging infrastructure isn't where it should be if people were really serious about EV.
People are avoiding Tesla's?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/502208/tesla-quarterly-vehicle-deliveries/
