The disapproval of Elon Musk is the top reason Tesla Model 3 owners are selling their electric vehicles and going for another brand, according to a new survey of 5,000 Model 3 owners.
Tesla spent years building a brand identity that is intimately woven together with Musk. It’s damaged goods now as far as I’m concerned. Every time I encounter one of its products I think about it. It wasn’t too long ago when I was eagerly following product updates in the hopes of eventually buying a car power wall or that solar roof system. I was enthusiastic about rationalizing away the poor build quality and terrible customer support. Now, I would never buy a thing from them and I’m happy to pass judgement on anyone who does. $tslaq
Even beyond Musk the quality of Tesla’s for the price is absolute shit. His presence just makes it even worse. The main selling point for them was the higher range but seems like that may have been a lie the whole time.
that may have been a lie the whole time.
Musk’s taint on the brand is I think majorly based on this type of thing. His twitter purchase has revealed that he’s a serial liar, and now people are seeing all of the ways that it is happening with Tesla. People tolerate assholes all of the time. What they don’t want to tolerate is snake oil salesmen, and I’m not sure there has ever been a bigger one than Musk.
Fun fact: teslas are the most recalled car brand in the country.
I don’t discredit the work done by the engineers there, I’d argue they laid the groundwork to usher in the future of electric cars in this country. But of course all the credit goes to musk. Just another situation like Steve Jobs. See Bill Burrs bit on Jobs and replace him with Musk, same exact story.
How many of those are real serious recalls that they didn’t just fix with easy tweaks over the air? I hate Musk as much of the next guy but I follow a lot of EV YT channels and even the ones that don’t like Tesla acknowledge that the media overhyped the recalls given how many of them have been easy OTA fixes. Plus since they iterate very fast and don’t just update the car once every four years often it only affects a small subset. Like 1-4k cars in some cases rather than the typical 100k recall that Toyota would have.
As referenced.
Here ya go: https://insideevs.com/news/549130/consumerreports-tesla-reliability-poor-2021/
Start here and I’m sure you’ll be able to guide yourself in this journey from there.
Tesla is the most recalled vehicle brand. That’s impressive. Looking at you Kia/hyundai and Nissan.
Musk himself admits Tesla has build quality issues
Search “Tesla panel gap issues”. Tons of people complaining and many say that trying to fix the issue causes other, bigger gaps, or just gets worse. I’ve heard rumor that if you try to fix them, you’ll void some kind of Tesla support.
Oh, and one of the most damning ones in my book. During a car fire, which Tesla has had PLENTY of, some genius decided that the door locks should default to LOCKED. Who the actual fuck thought this was acceptable? How did they ever make it into production.
There’s a video floating around of a guy kicking his windows out to escape his burning Tesla.
Dumb dumb musk decided he was smarter than everyone else, (spoiler he’s not) and overrode his own engineers. He decided there were no physical sensors required for auto driving, only cameras. Every other manufacturer knows that not possible yet, but musk knew better
Yes, a lot of car fires are difficult to extinguish, and yes, electric/hybrids more so, but teslas are exceptional. Can’t out out the many teslas that catch fire When the local fire dept came by to inspect our business we got to chatting and they said that they had a Tesla catch fire. They used everything in their arsenal, and a LOT of water. Like more than you could imagine. Then it got towed to a holding yard. Someone parked it up against a building, and next to quite a few other vehicles waiting for legal things/inspections. Tesla reignited in the tow yard and took out everything near it too. The yard is in BIG trouble for damaging a whole lot of evidence/vehicles being held for court cases, etc.
I could go on, but those are the biggest ones.
Probably stuff like this:
https://www.carscoops.com/2023/04/tesla-model-s-plaid-buyer-rants-about-poor-build-quality/
A lot of cheap surface level stuff. For example, my dad has a model 3, and the back of the passenger chair just falls off. And by the back I mean the hard plastic shell that holds the seat pocket for the passengers in the second row to use.
There have also been reports of things like mismatched tail lights, cars leaking when it rains, and bumpers just falling off. But I haven’t seen those in person.
Stuff like that.
In addition, almost all big car manufacturers now have far better EVs in terms of quality, features, and looks. Tesla no longer has the monopoly they enjoyed for almost a decade. If you’re selling me an EV with this shit stain on it, I’d just go the shop next door.
Let his fascist followers buy his EVs….oh wait, they hate them. Remember all the rage against EVs in Texas that led to “rolling coal” in Teslas, purposely parking F250s to take up all the Tesla charging stations, vandalism at charging stations, keying Teslas parked at malls? Yeah, those are the people he is fighting for.
I wanted a Tesla for years. I even had stock which helped me buy my house.
I no longer want a Tesla and it 100% has to do with musk. And I decided that before I realized I’m trans.
I wanted a Tesla. I was ready to get a model 3. Then he went full blown ass clown and at first I thought it was a joke, like he was just messing around being funny. Then I realized how big of a dbag he really is and yeah, no thanks. I bought a CTS-V instead and although it’s the opposite of fuel efficient, it’s the most fun vehicle I’ve ever driven.
When we got on the wait-list for Starlink I thought he was a cool innovator type.
Luckily we’ve had the Starlink for a couple years now and I typically forget that his embarrassing ass has anything to do with it!
Glad we got it back then, I’d probably write it off now and not trust it/him enough to spend the money (it was a decent investment for equipment).
Lol so are the CEOs of all the other manufacturers people to look up to and admire? Would you buy a Volkswagen or did you own one when Martin Winterkorn was running it?
Elon is a man child, I don’t look to him for any insights or knowledge, would I buy a Tesla? Ya if the car itself is good, if it’s not good then I wouldn’t buy it. It wouldn’t have anything to do with Musk however
Who do you bank with? Do you hold those CEOs to the same standards and not use their products?
Good luck buying anything where there isn’t some ethical issues surrounding the people who are the the top of those corporations
Most other ceos shut their mouth and let the product speak. Tesla/Elon’s mo has been to have the product in the background with him at the forefront, that worked well until it didn’t
Not sure where we disagree here? You are right the jackass just can’t keep his mouth shut I don’t care what his beliefs are though, I don’t go to corporations for my ethics, I go to them because I want to buy a product
Most other ceos shut their mouth and let the product speak
I prefer my evil rulers behind the curtain, thank you very much!
*this is in no way a defence of Musk it’s a pointing out how ridiculous it is to see a problem with him but not care about the other obscenely wealthy capitalists who not only exploit labour and hoard resources, but also basically own government via either corruption (aka “lobbying”) or direct representation (ie all the rich fucks in government making rules for themsleves and their friends), just like Musk, simply because they’re “polite” enough to do it behind closed doors.
That’s not to say don’t buy the things you need, it’s to say don’t be deluded in to thinking that it matters. As long as capitalism exists, governance by and for the rich isn’t going anywhere, and your money will always be going to one of maybe a couple dozen people.
Tesla spent years building a brand identity that is intimately woven together with Musk.
It worked well for a long time but it makes sense if people lose faith in Musk they lose faith in Tesla. Because he is synonymous with the brand.
Lol so are the CEOs of all the other manufacturers people to look up to and admire?
They haven’t built their brands around the reputation of their ceo.
Would I buy a Tesla? Ya if the car itself is good.
How can you evaluate if a car is good? It has recently been revealed that Tesla/Musk was exaggerating their range so severely that Tesla owners thought their cars were defective. Tesla has been trading on a reputation of ‘goodness’ that it didn’t deserve.
Tesla is seeing repercussions from risks they took tying their brand so tightly with Musk.
If anyone bought a Tesla because of Musk they were idiots, so same logic applies the other way
You could argue Apple built its brand around Jobs (who died because of his moronic beliefs about natural cures) and now Cook… pretty sure Apple kowtows to Chinese censorship and also does shitty things (I’m typing this on an iPhone right now) so I’m no fan of Jobs or Cook I just don’t give a fuck about them, I bought it because it’s the best phone for me
The range issues are pretty funny, people thinking they were defective is comical, I will however point out that is nothing new all auto manufacturers have done this for the decades with fuel economy numbers, I can’t tell you how many people we would have come through the dealership complaining about fuel economy after buying a new car
As far as evaluating if a car is good or not of course you can do that, do research on reliability issues, check recalls, ask friends and family who have actually owned them if they are any good, if you have a mechanic that you know ask them
I object to giving my hard earned money to evil people. I recommend the same.
Nothing wrong with that but… again do you do that across the board all the time because if you do congrats it’s not an easy thing to accomplish
And I’m not dumb I know it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing, doing it when you can is great I just can’t stand people who pontificate about shitheads like Musk but buy all their shit from Amazon
In that case you must then remove yourself from society, since not only does at least 90% of the money you spend end up in the pockets of evil people, but evil people are also keeping much if not most of your hard earned money for themselves before you ever know it existed by paying you less than your labour is worth (what you earned them).
This is a feature, not a bug.
Ah the ole “you’re a hypocrite because your life contains contradictions”… Elon musk shoved his way into my life but according to you my buying decisions are wrong if I don’t actively ignore that douche
It’s less about hypocrisy and more about what’s wrong with just buying something and not having it also have to be an existential moral crisis, don’t buy a Tesla because you think Musk is a genius but if you already own one and are gonna sell it because of Musk then that’s also ridiculous, if you are looking for an electric car and strictly won’t buy it even if it’s the best option based on the money then that just seems over the top to me is all
I have a bank account yet I’m no fan of banks, I’m typing on an iPhone, apple does shitty things, I buy shit from Amazon when I have to… I despise billionaires
Biggest issue is social. Buying a Tesla associates you positively with musk (by design), and from my experience most Tesla owners are incredibly annoying about it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to avoid the stigma. Same reason people buy Harleys - the brand name and cultural associations on a vehicle matter a lot, sometimes even more than the car itself.
I can see what you are saying but that’s not a universal thing, like when it comes to Tesla I never associated that with Musk he’s just the shithead that owns it, to me it’s more about the most widely available semi affordable electric car you could buy since the legacy manufacturers dragged their asses wasting time with hydrogen and hybrids
I guess the difference I have here with people is exactly that, I don’t attach him as being Tesla
That was a good way of putting it describing it like a Harley, makes sense. I ride motorbikes and I dgaf about what brand I own, I’d ride anything including a Harley
You can’t have a rational discussion about Tesla on lemmy. So many people are so sick of hearing about Musk that only those who REALLY hate him will click on an article about him. Those people can not separate the product from the vocal dirtbag that is its CEO.
It’s not worth even trying here.
I personally think Musk is a massive pile of garbage but that wouldn’t make me not buy a Tesla, I’ll buy it if it’s a decent car, if I had the money right now it would be between a Tesla and an Ionic
People trying to tie their purchases to the ethics of the people who run the companies are divorced from reality imo
If I already had a Tesla I don’t know that I’d sell it because of him, but he was one of the major factors in me not even considering them when I was shopping for my EV. The other reasons being shoddy quality control, shitty practices, and dumb design decisions. All of which probably stem from him anyway.
I’d be looking to sell it, specifically because of him.
The willingness for him to make executive decisions to fuck people using his platforms is what frightens me. He’ll cut starlink for people he doesn’t like. He’ll snipe twitter accounts of people he doesn’t like.
Since Teslas can be remotely force fed new updates, I genuinely believe it’s just a matter of time before he starts fucking with peoples cars. I expect as a way to use Tesla owners as pawns to apply political pressure in areas w/ high ownership that enact tax policy he doesn’t like.
I wouldn’t doubt he’d try that, but if he did he’d be in for a world of hurt since people need their cars to get to work. I imagine the government wouldn’t take kindly to people’s 5 digit dollar purchased not working on the whims of a crazy billionaire.
It doesn’t have to be as blatant as turning them off. Just garnishing features. Nerfing sentinel, range, top speed, etc.
I can almost hear the bullshit. “X state’s lithium recycling tax policy means we have to limit discharge to 80% to avoid premature battery degredation. Drivers may notice a range reduction but it is required to operate within this new regulatory environment”
Yeah, if my car was beyond repair tomorrow and I needed a new one, I’d be getting either a Hyundai Ioniq 6 or a Silverado EV. A few years ago, I would’ve been leaning toward the Model 3.
I really want a bolt euv but I’m put off by them cancelling and then uncancelling it. I’m worried what will happen when they stop making the car (and therefore parts for it) a year or two after I bought it…
Hyundai Ioniq 6
Please don’t buy that one due to significant safety concerns with the i-pedal driving mode feature https://youtu.be/U0YW7x9U5TQ
First, that’s the Ioniq 5.
Second, they’ve updated it.
Same. I had to get a new car recently. Prices were crazy and I wish I had gone with a new instead of a used. But Tesla was off the list from the beginning. I figured I’d wait one more car to get electric. Should be in a new place by then where I can install a home charger too, and the prices will probably be drastically lower by the time my current car dies again.
its funny how selling a car brand as “eco” friendly backfires when you’re a fascist cunt
It blows my mind that Elon would still be well-regarded as a visionary entrepreneur, accurately or not, if he had just kept his stupid fucking mouth shut.
Your generalizations about US consumers has no basis in reality. You really think people would buy these mass-market products if they weren’t good? Just look at the consumer satisfaction surveys. I’m far from a Tesla fan, but for a long time, there weren’t truly good competitors to Tesla EVs. iphones have always and continue to be some of the most highly rated phones on the market.
And what is wrong with voting with your wallet and choosing not to support the business of a terrible person? That’s about the only power you have as a consumer, so people should exercise that power if they see fit.
I will probably buy an EV in the next year but I have zero interest in a Tesla. Musk is the reason.
Yeah I think this is a bigger risk for Tesla than current owners selling.
I’m not in the market for a car right now but there’s a decent chance that the next one I buy will be an EV. Up until maybe 2 years ago I’d have said a Tesla would have been top of the list for options. I don’t really feel that way anymore, and Musks instability is the primary reason.
I think his antics will have a snowball effect on future sales.
Teslas just don’t drive better than any other EV. Yes, the first time i got in a tesla i was floored, but it was also the first time i ever sat in any EV. After seeing a handful of other EVs, i now realize tesla isn’t anything special at all, all the EVs have that smooth electric motor feel.
They’re going to be a medium sized car maker, like mercedes or bmw. They have no chance at selling more cars than toyota or gm to justify the insane market cap.
I’m going to wait and see if Toyota’s alleged 1450km/900mi solid state battery is real. It is rare for Toyota to tell the public what they’re working on until it’s ready to roll. This could be a ploy to lower sales of competitors, but if Toyota isn’t telling the truth, it will bite them. I’d love a small EV with that kind of insane range and the ability to use autonomous driving on interstates
The only car that has kind of real automation for interstates is the Mercedes EQS/S Class, as far as i know. I would think it will take some years until the tech gets into smaller vehicles. And it also seems very expensive to get this certification for Level 3, so i would assume it will be 5-8 years before we get this in smaller vehicles.
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make the whole brand about me as a person
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act like an insufferable prick
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???
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profit!
