Buyers Are Avoiding Teslas Because Elon Musk Has Become So Toxic

Remember when he removed the Disney+ app from Teslas because he was angry over twitter ads? That kind of unreliable behaviour might have something to do with it.
- I had no idea he did that but I’m also not surprised. That’s so funny.
  
  It is hilarious, but it's also very seriously something that would make most people reconsider their choice of vehicle.
  
  Link for the curious: Tesla removes Disney+ from vehicles amid Elon Musk’s Twitter beef with Bob Iger (Electred.co)
- That was such a dumb move, not just because it was petty in and of itself, but because it means you now can't separate Musk's drama from his products. His antics will demonstrably spill over into fucking with your car, even after you bought it.
  
  Yep. Maybe he'll remove the functioning of the steer by wire in the cubertruck when he's in an argument with waffle house next time.
- Now imagine having all your shit tied up in X, The Everything App!™️* and you make a statement he doesn’t like or agree with one or whatever. Welp, there goes your bank account, social security info, personal medical data, and so on because you are being quarantined for the Woke Mind Virus
- My opinion is that nothing like D+ or Netflix or whatever should be on a central console in the first place. If it is there, there will always be a driver watching it instead of a road and killing someone as a result.
  Until FSD is a thing, entertainment should be reserved for passengers.
  
  As far as I know those systems are intended to be used either by second monitor in the back or only if the car is standing still.
  When you have your lovely family time in the daily traffic jam. Or when you had to sell your TV and now go into your car to watch. /s
  I personally think the idea on itself is stupid. However in China they are a step ahead and have even more of that shit. The point is that in china you won't have much space in your flat in the big cities so you can move into your car because there is more space /s
  The price of those cars with that stuff is starting at about 100k€ and only going up.
  No normal human being is intented to buy these.
  
  Tell me you've never driven one without telling me.

Tesla would do well to distance themselves from Musk, for a lot of reasons. But it may be too late - the damage to their reputation may already be fatal.
- They could definitely bounce back if the board fired him and the new head of the company made changes that actually made the cars better, rather than make the model numbers spell S3XY or have the horn make a fart noise for a premium or make and sell whatever the fuck the ~~Powell Motors Homer~~ Cybertruck is.
  
  The problem is that Elons con man routine is the only reason Tesla is so overvalued. I'm sure they are afraid that if they let him go the stock price would readjust to a reasonable market price.
  No matter what you think of him, he is brilliant at conning a tech enthusiast's money out of their wallets.
  
  They need to first fix the myriad of issues that plague the Cybertruck, from its reduced range from its pre-released advertised figures, to its inability to handle cold weather, to its difficulty in off-road terrain, to its stainless steel panels now rusting only months after its release.
  
  I only have one question about the Cyber truck. Why haven't I ever seen a rusty DeLorean, especially considering I have seen DeLoreans that lived in KY, GA, MS, AL, and LA
  (Louisiana, not the city in California, not to be confused with Canada. Why TF do we reuse so many two-four letter abbreviations?)
  
  Jerry, what’s the sticker on this thing?
  
  Maybe. But they're not the only game in town when it comes to electric cars anymore. There are real auto manufacturers with good reputations making them now.
- the damage to their reputation may already be fatal
  Definitely. Tesla = Musk in my mind and always has been ever since it blew up with promises of a greater tomorrow that never materialized. All it did was up the EV competition, imo.
  
  Yeah there was a time I thought they were enviable. Now it would just be such an embarrassment.
- I'm someone who's buying an EV and due to Elon alone, I won't buy a Tesla. I've wanted one for so long but waited for the data to show how well they hold up after years of use and now that the data is out, I'm buying a non-Tesla. Thanks Elon, you moron.
  
  I have a datapoint of 1, but I've also heard from my wife that when she's traveling outside the US, so many cab companies and rideshare drivers have started using Teslas that the brand prestige is taking a hit, regardless of quality (which is also low).
  
  I literally sold mine because I was embarrassed to drive one after Musk called that cave diver a pedophile.
  
  Sure, be repelled by the dork, but stay away because of the unsafe lack of tactile dashboard controls.
- The damage to their design certainly could be reversed though.

Didn't someone have a picture of a Tesla in the wild with a bumper sticker that read something like: "I bought this before I knew Elon was a complete idiot."
- I've seen that sticker in person, multiple times.
  Also seen a few Teslas that were completely debranded.
  
  Unfortunately, debadging is a pretty common thing in the car community regardless of how well liked the car is
  I see it on a lot of BMWs
  
  Debranded? Nice. I dislike that modern cars are covered in logos and tacky chrome symbols and words. Give me a nice plain car with nothing but paint on the outside.
  
  someone needs to make some car badges that have the same style and size as the T logo to replace them with. maybe a big 'F' for Fucklas or something
- Buying that for my neighbor. We're both Jews. Called him out last year and he acknowledged it but they bought the car a while ago.

No shit. My lease on the Model 3 I got in 2020 is up in a few months and the requirements we had for the replacement was "anything but Tesla".
(which turned out to be a VW ID.7)
- “No shit” we’re the first words in my head too. Will be buying electric in the summer and the list starts with anything-but-Tesla.
  
  I'm hoping my next car (might be a while, my Prius is only 8 years old and I will continue to drive it until it becomes necessary to replace it) will be an EV or a PHEV, but it will not come from Elon's company.
  
  Thirding the no shit
- I feel this. I own a OG body style model S. I still have unlimited supercharging. The battery is starting to show its age and i'm sort of starting to look around. The Rivian R3X is my current front runner.
  
  The RX3 looks fantastic and is the car that got be actually thinking about a full EV, and not a hybrid. If it comes in at 45k or so I think it could be a killer car.
- Buddy of mine was in market for model S price range. Only because of this moron’s fascist shenanigans, my friend ended up getting BMW iX. Much better vehicle sans the fascism.

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 think that Elon being an ass trickles down to the way his company does business.
  
  deleted by creator

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.
- You're gonna wait a long time then
- Too many legacy car manufacturers are pushing back against the future, even after Tesla proved it’s here. I’m afraid your choices will be a long painful drag on the future, with protectionism, until the final collapse, and a wave of Chinese products sweeps away the debris of the last industrial age
  
  Tesla didn't prove shit. Musk was in the right place at the right time. Electric cars were coming regardless. The last thing he deserves credit for is that.

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.
- as a dragon enthusiast AND and EV enthusiast, I am qualified to support your statement that the Model Y may be unsafe for dragons to mount
  I recommend dragons stick with the classics
  
  Dragon? Please explain?
  
  So tell me then, when is that 'fine art' sub coming to Yiffit?
  
  Yeah dragons need that exhaust pipe after all
  
  Dragons need tailpipes in order to be dragons fucking cars.
- 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.
  How the fuck did that pass road safety tests in the US? That's lethal in any event where you need to leave the vehicle in an emergency. It's essentially always-on child safety locks.
  
  Are there mandatory road safety tests in the US ?
- Don't fix the typo, I'm enjoying the mystery.
  
  Oooh, other billionaires, cause that one billionaire lady died.

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.
- My partner reported seeing a similar sticker.
  Related: I saw a cybertruck in the real world over the weekend and laughed heartily. I thought about stopping to take a pic, but fuck it.

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?
- Said it many times but I still think musk's tesla had a negative impact on EV cars overall.
  When the cars were first hitting mainstream markets (rather than being the car your weird uncle buys), automakers were already selling hybrids. I forget if they were plug-ins or not, but stuff like the Prius were ubiquitous to the point it was a joke on The Office.
  Then the story became you need a full pure electric vehicle. And the way they marketed the distinction was that the most important thing in the world was a long battery range because coverage of charging grids was shit.
  Which gets us to, funny enough, the cybertruck where the range is "okay" without hauling anything, dogshit if you actually USE your truck, and being marketed with a really expensive add-on to get an even bigger battery (and even less cargo space) because RANGE IS GOD!!!
  And... that is the problem we see facing all EVs (moreso in the US, but also in Europe and Asia). The idea that you need an EV that will last you all day for a long roadtrip just to buy some groceries. Rather than a focus on improving charging grid infrastructure (which, we are actually seeing even in the land of the free ar-15 with a 12 piece mcnuggets) and fast charging of smaller batteries.
  If we had stuck to the hybrid model we would have a lot less emissions over the years AND people would be more understanding of what they actually need to go "full electric". I am a generally strong supporter of electric vehicles (who lives in the ass end of nowhere...) and even I was amazed at the mileage I was getting with some toyota hybrid rental a few months back.
  Just because it deeply bothers me. If you think an EV can't be used for a roadtrip, go watch the Technology Connections video where he talks about doing exactly that. The short and skinny of it is that you DO need to put a bit more effort into route planning (and there are great sites for that), but it mostly boils down to stopping for 20-40 minutes to charge up most of the way once or twice a day.
  Which sounds bad until you remember you aren't in your early 20s anymore and that sitting in a car for a 36 hour drive is a miserable experience. Stop at a rest stop for some food or a target/walmart for some snacks and a piss break. When you get done, your car is mostly charged up.
  And if you ARE in your early 20s and considering an EV: Kid, go spend more money on avocado toast.
  
  Plugins weren't a thing yet iirc, at least not from the large mainstream brands. Prius was just normal hybrid without charging.
  Imo it's impossible to say what would have been, in a what if scenario like this. Without Tesla, large battery tech would probably/maybe/possibly be a lot less developed than it is now and we might not have seen plugin hybrids become mainstream just yet. Personally, I do think that Tesla deserves credit for accelerating the development of these technologies, and I drive a hybrid and generally loath Elon Musk :)
  
  I take a lot of motorcycle trips. I have a 4.5 gallon tank and get around 40-50 MPG depending on how I'm driving. I'm stopping every 3 hours whether I like it or not anyway.
  I think that's totally reasonable. I'm just ready for the infrastructure to be there in the places I want to go.
- After those safety issues around 2019, I was getting really uncomfortable and lost interest in buying a Tesla. When he went pro-covid, I watched friends getting nervous. When he went anti-union, I watched my tech-bro friends sell their Teslas.
- I think if you slap a Trump sticker on there, you're likely to get a pass from the sorts of people who key cars. All it costs is integrity and self-respect.

Anecdotally I agree. Back when all I knew about Tesla was that they made fancy electric cars, I dreamed of the day I'd be able to afford one. Now I'm looking to buy a new car this year and I won't even take a Tesla on a test drive.
- My situation was similar a couple of weeks ago. I had to either buy a new car or dump a couple of thousands on my then car (which is still good for at least a decade).
  I did test drive a Tesla though as to have a ‘baseline’ for the other contenders. I did buy a different electric car just as planned but I’m glad I did the baseline.
  BTW - just a heads up: make sure you check the headroom on the back seats of any EV you fancy. I might have bought a Kia EV6 if I didn’t bump my head in the ceiling in the back - and I’m of average height.

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.
- A lot of the conservative world seems to be conditioned to be anti-EV.
  
  That conditioning cost a lot of money
  
  Because oil money
- What he's got are NFT tech bros who don't actually know anything about the technology they buy.

I bought my first EV last month. I've been looking forward to making the switch for 10 years. I would have been happy to buy a Tesla back then (not that there were many options). I didn't even consider it as an option now because of Musk.
- Same.
  We just bought the ev Blazer this weekend. Fuck Tesla.
- Same here. Every company sucks in some way but Musk is just the worst. We went with the Mach E and it's been great so far. Not perfect but a huge improvement for us over ICE.

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.
- Not some gimmicky pos where you can’t even open the doors if the battery cuts out.
  There is a mechanical lever that you can use if the power is out. Probably it was required by regulators, but it's there.
  I'm sure that wasn't the deciding factor anyway.
  
  Like I'm going to find that lever when I'm drunk and sinking into a pond
  
  Some of the cars do. Others don't. And those that do have them, like model S, it's hidden and only exists for front doors. Good luck getting out if you ever need to in case of emergency.
- If I am going to spend big money on a car I am going with quality. Not some gimmicky pos
  I'm not sure any manufacturer is producing that car today EV or ICE.
  
  Even the expensive European brands have gone completely to shit. BMW and Mercedes have given in to it over the last decade. Audi has been a shitshow for years (ask an Audi mechanic if he'd buy an Audi, I dare you).
  
  Car is a gimmick. Big ugly heavy gimmick.
  
  Considering my current car isn’t a poorly designed gimmick I’m going to have to hardcore disagree with you dawg.
- I agree with you 100%, but your example doesn’t work. There IS a mechanical way to open the door. There’s a concealed handle near the window controls.
  Still won’t buy one because the quality is shit and Muskrat is a shitbag, but if you’re gonna hate, hate for the right reasons :)
  
  No my example is perfect. And you used the right word to describe it.
  CONCEALED.
  Ok so maybe the owner knows about it. Not every body who rides or even drives the car is going to be the owner. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances.
  You shouldn’t need to be instructed on how to open the fucking door when there is a power failure. It should be intuitive. It’s intuitive in literally #every single car on the road today except for teslas. Oh no. If you are driving in a Tesla you better be briefed ahead of time where the concealed door handle is incase of an emergency and if you don’t happen to know where it is then I guess you’re fucked.
  No thanks. I’d rather just buy a car that isn’t designed by brain dead idiots trying to make a buck off a stupid gimmick.
  
  In an emergency when you are panicking and haven't practiced opening it tho? If you even know where it is?
  I would be surprised if even half of tesla owners know where the handle is
  
  FRONT DOOR ONLY!
- I'm curious as to what you consider "quality". Legitimate question, not being facetious.
- I am going with quality
  I don’t think quality and longevity really exist for EVs yet. The technology is still too new, constantly changing, and the vehicles may disappear as quickly as they appeared. Legacy manufacturers are still mostly talk. If that’s your criteria, I think we’re still in the stage where leasing is better, only keeping vehicles a few years
  
  This is an odd take. There is more to quality than whether or not it’s an EV.
  Listen I get it. EV technology is new. But just because EV tech is new doesn’t mean you have to design your doors like an idiot.
  I am not bashing Tesla quality because it’s an EV. I’m not criticizing their batteries or EV technology.
  I am criticizing their basic quality characteristics and basic design quality.
  For example they don’t put the speedometer on the center dash like literally all other cars do. No instead they put it on the ridiculous touchscreen that is mounted off to your right. So if you want to see your speed you have to glance to the right looking away from the road.
  These are design gimmicks from Tesla. It has nothing to do with EV.

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.
- You are not alone. I'm a well paid engineering manager in silicon valley and I'm target demo for Teslas. I'm 90% sure I'll buy an electric car for our family's next car, however I absolutely won't buy a Tesla as long as he's running the company. And I like Teslas. I just dislike Musk more.
- The only maintenance is tyre changes from wear.
  And brakes, you gotta change the pads.
  
  Regenerative braking reduces this need pretty significantly though
- 100 megameters with no issues? How could Tesla not be #1 in car reliability rankings with that kind of performance? The rankings make it seem pretty average in terms of reliability.
  https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars-a7824554938/
  
  That distance corresponds to about 4-8 years of regular driving. It's really not unusual for any model of car to go that long without a major repair. When someone is claiming this is surprisingly good, it makes me think their bar is really low.
  And for what they cost, that bar should be REALLY high.
  
  That is also striking to me. Not the 100k example above, there always are outliers, but the situation overall.
  It seems electric cars in general and Teslas in particular (given their headstart), having way less physical components that could break, must be considerably more reliable.
  But no.

I was talking to a fervent Musk fan. He was explaining how much he loved how much Musk was pissing off liberals and how he was such a good businessman. I asked him if would ever buy a Tesla and he said no. I told him that Musk doesn't sound like a very good businessman.
- Did... You just sell a tesla?
  
  No, there's no way this guy would ever buy an electric. I just navigated an NPC into a dead end dialogue branch.

Maybe lefties boycotting Tesla will cause MAGAs to go electric... Silver lining?

I bought my first electric car in December 2023. I ruled Tesla out because of Elon Musk.
- I was also considering buying an electric car and immediately ruled it out because of him. Why should I line his pockets? Also I read a lot of bad coverage on their cars in general. I think people are starting to see through the fog that they are not good cars.
  
  There are plenty of non-Tesla electrics on the market now. And they're much better cars to boot. You might look into one of those.
- Bought mine back in October. Tesla was permanently off the table, first because of Elon, then second from all of the QA issues, shoddy quality, and months long waits to fix anything needing parts.
  I went for a Hyundai Ioniq 6 instead. Absolutely love it.
  
  Hey that's our train of thought! Shopping now and it seems like a great contender.
- Same. I'm looking at everything but Tesla. I just couldn't live with myself...
- Nice. What'd'ya get?
  
  Went with the Ioniq 5. 5k miles in and I love it.

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.
- How does the board "give" him stock? Isn't all of the stock owned by individuals? The board are a bunch of high-tier investors right?
  
  Isn’t all of the stock owned by individuals?
  Not usually. A company can issue stock, but never sell it. This is called "Treasury Stock". Further if the company doesn't have any Treasury Stock, they can choose to issue new rounds of stock diluting the per share value of existing shares. The good reasons to do this is to raise capital needed for new investments by the company. Alternatively the company could issue a "stock split" which creates double amount of shares as a way to intentionally cut the value per share in half (doubling the amount of share in the company).
  However, none of these are a good thing to do for an employee (Musk) because they sold too much of their own pile of stock to buy a failing social media company.
- To be fair, while they didn't "make" him buy Twitter, they did twist his arm pretty good when presenting his options. Either it was a major federal financial crime, or he actually meant it and he was totally gonna follow through with it.
  
  To be fair, while they didn’t “make” him buy Twitter,
  The "they" in your sentence was the SEC, not Tesla Inc.
  Why should Tesla Inc be forced to part with more stock given to Mr. Musk to compensate for consequences of Mr. Musk's own actions wholly separate from his duties and responsibilities at Tesla Inc?
  
  You mean he said a bunch of stupid shit that got him an a legal bind? Yeah still his fault.
  He thought he could pull a fast one, fucked around and found out.
  Then made it Tesla shareholders problem by cashing out tens of billions of Tesla stock.
  
  He wasn't forced to go down the waterslide until he tried to stop halfway down.
  
  He twisted his own arm. I didn't really read the specifics but given the securities fraud he committed that the SEC did not prosecute, this one must have been pretty serious.

I just bought my first EV and he's precisely why I didn't even consider a Tesla when it came down to it. Also it helps that I want buttons on my dash and not all screen. Ended up with a Hyundai Ioniq5, it's boss.
- Leaf owner here. Same story, but I went further down market. Charging options aren't super great, but I'm getting good value out of this and a far less smug emissions than the Tesla folks. Zero regrets.
  
  Good for you! 😃👍
- completely the same here, loving the i5!
- That's a good car. Saw it on a car show and it's a proper good looking and feeling car. Half the price of Tesla as well.

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.
- We’re in exactly the same place. My M3 at least has radar, but I have had an incident with autopilot when it slammed on the breaks thinking a merging truck was coming into my lane (it wasn’t) and I mean it really braked hard. Thankfully it was midday, not rush hour, and no one was behind me for a bit. I didn’t like relinquishing control in the first place, but now I’ve sworn it off and I only use the cruise control without the lane assist, when I use it at all.
- Full Self Driving system
  How are they allowed to call it that? It's even more egregious than Autopilot. Wherein neither are actually self-driving, just driving assists. That's clearly fraud. Insurance carriers should be denying Teslas coverage as that's a pretty good case to suggest the driver of a Tesla wasn't at fault, or not 100% at fault if the FSD was engaged.
- then I definitely will not be buying another one.
  i wish i could buy byd's ev since it's 1/4 the price of a tesla and can do 90% of a tesla; but they're banned in the united states.
- If you want FSD check out Comma3
  It's copilot not FSD but it's getting better every year.
  
  I love this idea but I'm certain if an insurer ever found out I was using it I would be completely fucked financially.
- On the issue of high beams. Where I live there are now quite a few teslas, and they are the culprit in like 90% of cases when i get blinded at night. Is that due to the particularly irritating colour temp of their headlights, or the automatic high beam is the reason?
  
  Hard to say for sure but my guess would be the high beams.

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.
- Ya, this is the sort of thing which would keep me from buying Tesla. While Musk's antics certainly don't help, everything I hear about Tesla tends to revolve around poor quality control, terrible customer support and long delays in getting problems fixed. Even without Musk, I wouldn't want any part of that.

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'm on vacation right now and renting a Mustang Mach-E. I never drove an EV before, but I gotta say I like it. Especially one pedal driving. I don't think I can go back to regular driving now.
- My brother has a Tesla, and also a dislike of Elon. I think the important thing to remember is that Tesla is a company of many people, and they even have a specific department to wrangle the Elon and his antics. He's the "evil" attached to the capital they required to accelerate a much needed paradigm shift in American car culture. I don't think I would get a Tesla personally, not because of shit that Elon is doing, but because I have concerns about production quality, repairability, and owners rights.
  
  My BIL got a new Tesla a few weeks ago, my dad has an older one (4 years iirc). I've driven my dad's one and I must say, I don't like it as a car and the build quality is not great. Too much fiddling with the touchscreen to get basic things done. Then I looked at my BIL's Tesla and it's a hard no now. You can't remove the stick for the indicators. It's moronic.
  It's not just Elon that makes me not even consider a Tesla. He's just an extra reason to not consider the brand.
- Does saying this make you feel like a good person? Because it doesn't make you sound like one.
  
  Have you considered that not everyone's transportation needs, financial situation, and living arraignment are the same?aybe people live different lives with different needs because they need to. Some might live different lives because they want to.
  I think it is great that this person is in a position in their life that when they needed a car, most likely 5 years ago, they were able to buy an ev, and pay it off. Good for them on the small victories in life.
- Wow oil companies are trying everything to retain their relevance
  
  Mate what? They're saying They're gonna get an EV since their current one is degrading. Just because someone isn't getting Tesla doesn't mean They're getting an ICE. The fact is that there are other EVs now that offer better value propositions without all the baggage that comes with Tesla

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?
- Considering that Apple in the future is going to require even tighter integration with CarPlay (including handing over control to all screens and sensors to CarPlay), which Tesla may not like.
  Prosecutors described [the next generation of CarPlay] insidiously as taking “over all of the screens, sensors, and gauges in a car, forcing users to experience driving as an iPhone-centric experience if they want to use any of the features provided by CarPlay.”
  https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/21/24107976/apple-carplay-doj-lawsuit-anticompetitive-digital-key
  
  And yet, hearing a legacy manufacturers version of this story from a family member who works there, my impression is Apple is taking a stand on both usability and privacy. Their stance is mostly on the data collection they will be unable to do.
  I understand Lemmy has a thing against Apple, and doesn’t like some of their customer protection choices, but many of them really would be in our best interest
  Tesla is actually the only car company I give a pass on this, because their software is good. Companies like GM, on the other hand, with a history of horrible software and excessive secret data collection, ditching CarPlay and claiming they can offer something better is total BS. Yeah, your “better” is h why CarPlay exists in the first place
- phone manufacturers who refuse to use a standard communication system.
  Believe me, if i was a vehicle manufacturer, i would be equally as pissed about there being two different standards, that work completely differently.

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 know I have... I'd probably have one right now if it weren't for him.
- Out of curiosity- did you end up buying a different brand of EV and if so, what do you think of it?
  
  Not yet, no. Still in the market. Looking at hybrids too. I have transportation for my job taken care of, and I've gotten comfortable not having a car so I haven't been in a rush.
  
  I put a deposit down on a Polestar 3 Performance Launch Edition. Years ago I wanted a Tesla and now you can't pay me to take one.
- In 2021, I was very close to buying one. I probably would’ve if not for the fact that I needed a car ASAP and they had a several month wait.
  Now, I would not even consider a Tesla and the only reason is Elon Musk.

I was pretty down with Tesla until i listened to the Behind the Bastards episodes on Elon. Now I want nothing to do with him or any of his businesses.
- His Twitter is enough for a lot of people. Dude is a middle aged white supremacist. A character that would easily be on the show "the boys". That's how comical it is.
- Pedogate is what did it for me. Also, the Te$la schills really turn need me off with their constant BS hype to pump the stock.

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....

I also don't want a dashboard that only has a touchscreen for vital functions and a bunch of Internet bullshit
- Or emergency door releases in the damn speakers
  
  Imagine a world where doors have mechanical handles...

I wanted a Tesla until the pedo guy incident.
- perhaps I have been living under a rock... what's the story?
  
  When someone else managed to rescue trapped young cave divers without using Elons terrible idea that wouldn't have worked. Elon called him a pedo guy. For context, it was in Thailand, so maybe that's just the first thing that comes to mind for Elon if someone visits Thailand.

Saw my first cyber truck today. Looked like a Roblox car. I pointed and laughed, I don’t think the driver was happy.
When can we get a Xiaomi SU7?
- That looks like a Porsche Taycan with an Hyundai Ioniq 6 grafted onto its ass. Despite that it looks pretty good.
- I deeply want a compilation video of cybertruck owners being shamed in public like that. It would be incredibly satisfying.
  
  I’m sure you also make personal choices not everyone agrees with. Why all this spite?
  Plus, there still really isn’t a compelling EV choice for pickups. Is this unconventional styling really worse than an F-150 $20k+ over the marketed price and where the base version never actually appeared? Is it really worse that the GMC “Ultium is so much better” truck that no one ever sees and they stopped making? Is it worse than the RAM truck “we’re all in in EVs, except for making them”? We need something, anything, to push the truck market, so even if Cybertruck’s style doesn’t succeed, we need them to push other manufacturers
  Maybe Rivian is the future, but they're still too expensive and the company too small. They’re definitely the one to watch
  
  For every person laughing there are 4 people finding it cool, at least that's what I saw in the MKBHD review.
  Makes sense to me - most people in the real world aren't terminally online, don't know the Cybertruck exists, and have no idea it has anything to do with Elon Musk. So when seeing one they just have a "wow what an unusual car, that's interesting" reaction.

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.
- Plus 1 on the Aptera! Electric is the future of personal transport, but not in the way it's being implemented. Changing our current ICE cars to electric isn't enough. They are too heavy. The massive batteries require special dedicated charging to charge in a reasonable amount of time. The Aptera is light and doesn't need a huge battery, and doesn't need massive charging current to charge in a reasonable amount of time.
- Same I'm a fan of the look of the cyber truck but fuck Elon. It's the car of the future we were promised by all those old movies.

Happened to my brother. Back in the days he kept talking about Tesla cars, how amazing they were. But when he finally was able to buy a new car he decided against Tesla, mainly because he disliked Musk.
- Are you my brother? I did exactly that!
  
  We can be brothers

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.

Solar as well… I soooooo wanted their solar tiles, not now though. I don’t want any of my money going to that man.
- It sucks when you want a technology to succeed, but despise the person behind it. (or at least collecting the profits)
- I think GAF is making solar shingles now.

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 had an order for a Tesla solar roof ($50,000ish/and also owned a few grand of TSLA stock. Cancelled the order and sold the stock after he refused to close his factory for Covid and turned all anti-mask. Fuck Elon.
- You probably dodged a bullet on the solar roof:
  https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-solar-roof-panels-cost-energy-nightmare-customer-service-2021-5?op=1

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.
- 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.
  Exactly. I won’t even consider a Tesla until those criteria are met, and even then, it’d be years before I can decide whether they’ve proven they’d changed for the better. As it is, they’re GM to me.

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.
- See, this is what I thought his scam was too. Everybody rich enough or hippy enough was already trying to buy his cars. So in order to grow, he needed the conservatives. So his starts acting like them and he gets a new market.
  
  The whole accusing the guy in Tailand of being a pedophile doesn't seem to fit that theory.
  Your theory does explain some of his being an arsehole, just not all of it, maybe not even most of it.

Seems like he is smelling his own fart and really enjoying it in the photo
"Ahhhhh, this is what god must be smelling like"
- It would also make a good “brb using imagination since no pics”

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.

- You were downvoted by the Tesla fanboys.
  I already knew I wasn't going to get a Tesla because I refuse to drive anything with a gigantic iPad instead of a proper dashboard with physical controls. The Musk bullshit just cemented that decision.

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.

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?
- Yeah, every time a stock is down a 100 "analysts" come pouring out of the woodworks and gives a 100 different reasons for why. I find it more likely that the reason Tesla is doing worse is that the EV market is just way more competitive than before (but I don't know, that is my point). Like you say, Elon has been saying polarizing shit the entire time. I don't think common consumers care about that. Something else must have changed.
  
  I don't think the common consumers care about that
  I bet most don't even know! The average American is probably only dimly aware of the Elon Discourse, if they're aware at all
  My parents and Aunt and Uncle aren't super online. I bet they don't know anything about what he posts on Twitter
  I've also strongly considered not Tesla cars because of Elon's antics but this article just confirms my biases which is why I have to look harder at it
- I don't know if people like me are why the sales are down, but I am absolutely 100% in the camp of never buying a Tesla purely because of Musk. I think the "why now" is because his antics have gone from, "whoa, this guy is nuts!" to "this guy sounds like he is actually a Nazi."
- I only have anecdotal evidence but we were super close to buying one in 2020. Test drove and everything. I will never by a tesla and everyone in my circles have the same sentiment. I think the craziest part of the story is that Musk managed to win over an entirely different demographic. Otherwise, it'd be a bloodbath
- I was getting an EV for my next car, the model 3 was what i was going to get but after i he did things like taking disney off the car because of his beef, i couldn't trust the company as a whole. I know an car maker was going to be ruled with a republican fist but now he could have a personal beef with and break the cars remotely. I bought a EV6.

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.

I miss when Elon was just a Xoomer dad that would post shit like this:
- Yeah but it was that same shit that made everyone think he was a cool guy. People saw him as a down to earth dude.
  And then he shoved both feet in his mouth and his head up his ass
  
  So now both his feet are up his ass too 🤔

Or hear me out.
Its a car company with poor track record and little IP.
The big car companies produce better more reliable vehicles with even the little things like physical controls being preferred.

Yep, and the quality of quite suspect

Yep, was interested back in 2018/2019. Have zero interest in buying one now.