The brand is forever damaged. Sell while you can.
I feel bad for Nikola Tesla having his name associated with all this nonsense. Not even death let him escape from rich assholes taking credit for the work of others.
His legacy can live on with Dr Parkinstein. (Parker Edmondson)
If it makes you feel any better his first name has fared just as poorly in terms of automakers lmao
I’m actually a big fan of Edison Motors, who are working to make heavy trucks into hybrids. And they’re Canadian!
I’m excited for their hybrid conversion kits
Me too. I want to get another of the car I drove in high school and slap a hybrid kit in it
The car I had in high school is absurdly rare these days.
I had a 1989 Ford Probe.
Did the probe share parts etc with the eagle talon and the Mitsubishi eclipse or am i thinking of something else?
if Nikola Tesla weren’t a eugenicist i’d agree with you
The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.
Oof, that’s a tough read.
I have read a number of comments from people with illnesses or other issues that are genetic, saying they don’t want to pass their problems onto the next generation.
So, bizarrely enough, there is a certain amount of eugenics happening, it’s just purely voluntary.
Kind of me, I have a genetic heart defect I don’t intent to pass on. Though realistically, it was unlikely to happen in the first place.
Oof.
it was the turn of the 20th century; everybody was a eugenicist. that’s why we say ‘people from the past sucked’.
People say that because they support it and they don’t think it’s a big deal. There were always anti-eugenicist movements (and always people opposed to fucking children, and having slaves, and even eating meat or going to war, and other morally shitty things justified with this excuse). That’s literally how the movements against these things came about - people throughout time have been against them. You just discount them because you align yourself with the other side, for some reason.
Tesla was not mentally well. But he had the power to make weapons, including a so called “Death Beam” https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html
And look, Trump connection:
After a three-day investigation, Trump’s report concluded that there was nothing which would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands, stating:
“His [Tesla’s] thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power; but did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.[233]”
In a box purported to contain a part of Tesla’s “death ray”, Trump found a 45-year-old multidecade resistance box.
https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_mispapers.html
An operation code-named “Project Nick” was heavily funded and placed under the command of Brigadier General L. C. Craigie to test the feasibility of Tesla’s concept. Details of the experiments were never published, and the project was apparently discontinued. But something peculiar happened. The copies of Tesla’s papers disappeared and nobody knows what happened to them.
The morning after the inventor’s death, his nephew Sava Kosanovic´ hurried to his uncle’s room at the Hotel New Yorker. He was an up-and-coming Yugoslav official with suspected connections to the communist party in his country. By the time he arrived, Tesla’s body had already been removed, and Kosanovic´ suspected that someone had already gone through his uncle’s effects. Technical papers were missing as well as a black notebook he knew Tesla kept—a notebook with several hundred pages, some of which were marked “Government.”
P. E. Foxworth, assistant director of the New York FBI office, was called in to investigate. According to Foxworth, the government was “vitally interested” in preserving Tesla’s papers. Two days after Tesla’s death, representatives of the Office of Alien Property went to his room at the New Yorker Hotel and seized all his possessions.
Dr. John G. Trump, an electrical engineer with the National Defense Research Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, was called in to analyze the Tesla papers in OAP custody.
im saying you can’t really judge a non-expert for being the kind of shitty guy that was in vogue to be shitty at the time, especially if it’s not a primary thing. nicola tesla doing a eugenics? yeah whatever. his approximate contemporary, margaret sanger, you can give a lot more shit on the topic, because she was a fucking doctor.
this doesn’t just apply to history! as someone who has generally been on the right side of history, I have lived through this. several times. A current example, aside from the obvious nazi shit and transphobia, would be the whole push to equate large language models with “AI” and orient all of our society’s productive capacity towards making them like we’re a giant god damn paperclip machine. I can’t give any lay person who was into the tech in 2023 too terribly much shit about it-but if you were in any sort of information science, math, IT, or neuro-anything, and you were in favor of how it was being pushed for more than five minutes, I will mock you mercilessly until the day one of us dies, and then if it was you, ill graffiti the mockery on your fucking grave.
how strongly was he in favor of eugenics? did he have any ability to push the needle? did he care emotionally, or was it just a quick glance ‘yeah that sounds close enough and I trust the experts. anyway, back to stuff I actually care about’ kind of opinion?
It’s not about “judging,” it’s about not feeling sorry for Tesla’s name being attached to a shitty eugenicist since he himself was a eugenicist
I think being a shitty eugenicist non-expert in 1900 is a lot less egregious than being a shitty eugenicist who claims to be an expert in everything in 2025.
also, there’s plenty of other stuff for him to be ashamed of with this association.
Imagine disregarding the entire domain of Tesla’s work - changing the entire world as we know it with his research and innovations - and the comment they need to make for online points is some virtue-oriented pat-me-on-the-back-im-ethical blorp about random social norms of the time. lol but cry.
yeah, dude was so good at electrical shit I literally cannot comprehend how he got to some of his ideas from where he was.
I think he was just intuitively good at seeing what exactly is the portrayal of electricity and magnetism. A unique genius with a certain insight.
I sometimes feel that there were many businesses concerns that grew around his early research and they were so successful that his newer research must have been a threat to that.
Through all the mystery, half-truths, and frankly magical thinking people have with this man, it’s really hard to know what he was up to in his final days of work, before he became a homeless bag-man. I somehow feel, without making any kind of declarative statement, that he was working on transmission of energy with longitudinal (vs transverse) waves, and discovering methods of conveying and extracting electrical potential from and through Earth.
Inline Edit: To expand on the above paragraph: The Earth doesn’t really “absorb” electrons like a pillow absorbing a ping pong ball. The energy in the negative charges that the Earth grounds must move in waves, therefore they’re grounded but now the waves are bouncing around in the Earth; that energy still exists and may sum with other waves in an additive way. I believe, again without making a declarative statement, that Tesla recognized this and was pioneering research on how to transmit energy via, and gather momentum from those waves. There were successes transmitting energy and encoded information through Earth which can be repeated today with garbage dump salvage electronics. I believe he was discovering a few dangerous things as well: Harmonic discharges of electrical devices to ground could be captured (think telecommunications and military); and he was conducting novel elemental research on tapping Earth to harmonize and extract force(s) - what these things portended led to his complete scientific alienation.
The word “free energy” always obliterates any form of rational discourse. But there was something to it in a way, but to clarify, not in a literal way. Not in the sense of violating fundamental laws of conservation, rather seeing the “other side of the coin” that if the Earth is effectively infinite Ground then it’s also effectively an “infinite” source of power if harvested.
I’ve never really “researched” the man directly but what I do know comes from quite a bit of my casual STEM self-study over decades.
socially free, from a source nobody had ever even thought of, but not literally physically free. that is pretty fucking cool. I’ll have to ask an EE about this sometime, and see how dumb they think I am.
He had really bad autism. He was in love with a pigeon. Brilliant he was, but mad as a hatter.
see, I would argue that the pigeon kind of exhonnerated him for the eugenics. A race of superhuman pigeon-men, ruling over us pitiful full apes? I’d bend the knee, in my primitive forward jointed way.
I’m so glad that I lost my job in 2016 and had to cancel my Tesla Model 3 reservation. When I eventually got a better paying job in 2017 I played it safe -assumed I could lose it at any moment- and bought a Chevrolet Spark which has served me well.
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Who knew that being a publicly facing cunt makes people not want to buy your product. Shocking discovery.
These people literally live in reaffirming social bubbles they have created. On and offline both. They don’t see that they are overplaying their hand.
This article should bring you joy.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/elon-musk-human-meme-stock/682023/
Ublock works just fine on the Atlantic.
Not me me on Firefox (Windows). Something I’m missing?
So, I’m using IronFox on Android with uBlock Origin on medium mode. Not an ad or other problem to be seen on that site. On Windows I use LibreWolf with the same uBlock setup.
These are aggressive setups that can break some sites, but after a while of tweaking it carefully you don’t notice it’s there anymore.
oh yea too many adblocking or cookie blocking can break the site. so i just restrict some adblockers .
Sure, but not everyone is using Ublock? One could argue that they should be, but what’s wrong with offering an alternative?
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What was not nice about imparting information?
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No I’ll just block you instead. Seriously, what is wrong with people?
Coulda fooled me
a cultivated image of Musk as a Thomas Edison or Tony Stark type
LMAO! See Tony Stark blow Musk off like a loser in Iron Man II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxe1HCR7uEk
I’d be humiliated were I him. His head’s so far up his ass he likely sees that cameo as a plus.
thats why hes been called phoney stark, for a while his profile has him wearing the ironman outfit.
For its part, Tesla has been trying to boost its image with the help of President Trump. On Monday, the president took to the South Lawn of the White House to promote Tesla’s cars, apparently buying one despite having campaigned on an explicitly anti-electric vehicle platform.
Somehow, I don’t think MAGA cult will buy electric vehicles in quantities needed to offset even a fraction of people who used to buy Tesla.
They’re trying the “buy EVs to own the libs” angle. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton….
Ah, yes… Let me tell you about a little restaurant called Chick fil a…
Never underestimate hate, stupidity, and laziness.
Imagine the CEO of Browning or American Rifles helping Joe Biden pick out a new gun from a display in the state dining room.
The difference is Biden is a gun owner. So at least it would be buying a product he actually has. There has been incidents referencing him and his wife having at least a shotgun (so 2+ guns)
With Trump hating on electric cars like he had for so long, and not knowing how to drive, it’s a bit different.
Old rich guy like Biden probably has loads of nice, quality, antique guns.
Many families don’t throw away guns, they pass them down. So antiques are a plenty as well. Being that his dad was born in 1915, it’s very likely they have guns from before WW1 around.
You ruined my joke. I was going to say, “Antique guns, bought new.”
everything’s computer
Half of them are broke as fuck and the other half are heavily invested in oil company stocks. Elon made a poor choice of allegiance.
A portion also associate EVs and their ilk with environmentalists, and would probably not buy one even if their very lives depended on it.
Which they might well do.
I’m not sure any of them have strong enough positions on anything other than their next grift. They would become Captain Planet if it kept them on the gravy train.
Well if they make a Cybertruck 2 that’s lifted and looks like the Dildozer, they might have a new market. It’ll get 50 miles per-charge, but it’ll intimidate their neighbor’s kid, so it’s worth the $380,000 price tag (financed, of course).
The GMC Hummer EV Pickup Truck has entered the chat.
205-kWh capacity battery [three times the size in a crossover], still gets only 275 miles [2023 version].
That truck weighs a whopping 10,000 lbs though.
GMC Hummer EV Pickup Truck
…yeah, we are a very dumb species and it’s good that we’re going to go extinct in WW3.
I’m sure he’ll put a turbo diesel in it too
which is great, because it will increase the chance that tesla will go down and with that elon musk.
I don’t think the MAGA Cult can even AFFORD electric vehicles, I mean, shit I know I can’t.
Yeah does Elon not know who his main economic base is? Environmental and techy liberals that love to cancel people, he got into the wrong business for his political leanings I think
Eh…put a lift kit, USA flag wrap, and a smoke machine on the cyber truck and they’d double sales.
I don’t think the Venn diagram of “ev buyer” and “trump voter” is big enough to double sales.
You can blow that exact point up pretty large. The MAGA verse is a parasite on the rest of the US. I would love to see them try to stand on their own as an independent nation. It would be Texas + a bunch of little shithole countries gathered around its skirts. They wouldn’t have the economic wherewithal to GDP their way out of a wet paper bag.
I think that’s what the Cybertruck is for, to appeal to Conservatives. I live on the edge between blue and red counties, and down in red territory the Cybertrucks are everywhere. (Meaning I saw at least four different ones.)
Same people proudly claiming the market is self regulating shocked when the market responds to them being openly fascist cunts.
This is beautiful
If beattheshitoutofmytesla.com was a thing I’d do contract work on my weekends.
Hell, I’ll roll out for free.
With phrasing like that, you should start a gang. Call yourselves the Autobots.
SE Asia, East Africa, and Central and South America
Is this where American monied have compounds?
For its part, Tesla has been trying to boost its image with the help of President Trump.
Yeah, that’s part of the problem, Elon.
Elon out here thinking Twitter bots are real people. Too much ketamine.
I shamefully admit I almost pulled the trigger on a Tesla Model S Plaid back in 2021 or 2022. Flush with a shit ton of cash, but fortunately I was reading reports of production build quality issues, many recalls, and ultimately pulled back my deposit.
Looking back at it. The one decision I have no regrets on.
That’s the part I never understood. Even if you weren’t a Musk fan boy and before Musk showed his true colors, Telsa has always, ALWAYS been shit quality. I remember back in 2015, or so, there was a video of someone finally getting their Telsa and it had a massive crack running the length of the driver side A-pillar, yet they just ignored it.
I’ll have to be honest and admit back when I was in high school or so, I was enthusiastic about electric cars and his seemed like some of the best. He was also opening up the charging standards so that there could be a mixed playing field. Back then, I was likely ready to dismiss small critiques as the retaliation of the fossil fuel industry.
God I hate old me.
All your reasons were valid though. Teslas were the best electric cars for a long time, probably not so anymore. Tesla as a brand has done good things, like you say opening up their charging standard which is superior to all the other competitors.
Personally, I wouldn’t get a Tesla because they are sort of like the apple of car companies, e.g. anti-consumer and anti-repair. Plus, Musk owning it is another big negative.
Just like model ts were the best for a long time because they were the only ones.
tesla just had good marketing, while thier TESLAS have been lacking QC for quite a while.
You’re always supposed to hate or be embarrassed by the old you; that means you learned. It means growth. It’s a good thing.
Take it from an old man, at a certain point you will grow beyond having to feel “embarassed” by your former self, because your ego won’t be tied to it.
Tesla was a long way ahead of the competition for a very long time, to the point where they were the only option for a vehicle that was genuinely a replacement for a combustion vehicle.
Without them, I very much doubt EV market share would be anywhere near what it is today.
Don’t know about that. Leaf has been pretty important as well.
It has been, but the leaf was very much a “second car” for a very long time. They had relatively short range, an air cooled battery, and as a result couldn’t be charged particularly fast. The battery would also overheat if you tried to charge it multiple times.
Tesla, on the water, had a water cooled battery pack, and could be fast charged multiple times per day, and much faster than other vehicles, meaning a road trip was actually possible.
I’m not sure how it even managed to get so big when the EV1 was so beloved but supposedly killed by the automotive industry.
The EV1 was too far ahead of its time. The tech wasn’t there and to even accomplish what they did cost far more than they could hope to sell it for. An estimate that each EV1 cost GM around $100k to make in the early 90’s (so around $200k in today’s dollars).
Battery tech has progressed massively since then and makes all of this possible now (even if it’s still expensive).
Tesla is basically a case study in top down engineering. Radical ideas promised by marketing, sometimes good and sometimes bad, executed in a massive fucking rush which results in tons of build quality and general delivering on promises issues.
Which only worked at first because they were a start up. At that point many people will accept the early adopter woes, but Tesla never quite matured out of it.
yep. They rested on their laurels, thinking their success of being first would always be success.
and now the big automakers have their own electric cars, that are properly built, and damn cheap compared to tesla prices.
and the first tesla musk had any design input on was the cybertruck, which is nothing more than the fever dream of an edgy emotionally stunted 13 year old, and built to about the same quality as you would expect from one
The customer service part… 😂
Our team will handle all the paperwork and finer details of filing insurance claims and police reports to provide you a smooth transition of ownership and plausible deniability.
That should be higher up on the page, since that’d be the primary value of that service.
It’s also the point where it’s blindingly obvious the site is a joke, so I do think it’s best saved for last.
Excellent work by someone there. I love the customer service agent with the ski mask (who can barely keep a straight face) lol
Nice idea, but what if I want my tesla set on fire instead?
Well then you’re in luck because that might already be a feature of the model you have!
Pour a bucket of water on it
Please be real.
It really is a website that can be linked to!
So is The Onion.
Sure am glad I couldn’t afford one of those things back when I wanted one.
Right? Who knew that making a product that half of the population wants to buy and then making your brand based around the exact half of the population that lives in contempt of this product instead was a bad idea?
1/3. These cretins are a loud, fascist minority.
Carvana bought mine at a decent price. I imagine the coming glut will have them refusing to buy Teslas outright. Other enraged Tesla owners should unload theirs asap.
Good on you for having principles. Unfortunately a lot of Tesla owners are limp dicked piss baby champagne socialists who’d rather just put a 5 dollar sticker on their bumper instead of selling it.
Not everyone is the position to sell their car, especially at huge finacial loss. So they buy the stupid sticker to make them selves feel a little better.
Many bought the thing 5+ years ago when Tesla was basically the only electric with a real charging network and in a time before Musk went from eccentric billionaire to an out-of-the-closet Nazi.
Now anyone buying one new today, that’s a different story (Which makes it harder to sell the damn thing).
Why the fuck are you defending this shit?
Also I am tired of hearing about how Musk only recently went insane, dude has been off the rails for as long as I can remember.
Eccentric billionaire? My ass dude, he was an asshole and insane always for anyone paying at least a little bit of attention.
It just finally caught up to him and now everyone wants to cry wolf that has been supporting him? Fuck off.
What are you talking about? Most Tesla owners are progressives. This whole thing is a gut punch to Tesla owners.
Lol, a lot of rich people are rich assholes, that’s nothing new. Think Bezos is saint, how about that one CEO who made people go to work during a flood, did you like Brain Thompson, Ulf Mark Schneider - do you even know who that is?or back in the day when they used to lock workers in the factory or shove children in the mines.
The rich have always been assholes, Musk is just more public about it. 5 years ago, he was just another rich owner of a company. The company made something good, so people bought it in support of the product not specifically the owner and his values, just like every time someone buys a nestle product.
Your argument that 5 years ago he was just another rich person is utter bullshit. I remember him a decade ago being legit insane.
Again, everyone just wants to cry wolf now that has been supporting him
That’s nice not everyone payed that close attention, they got sold a car and are now stuck with a shitty reputation by association. Some people are afraid to drive their car because they’ll get harassed by people who can only see telsa driver = musk supporter.
You could blame the buyers for their ignorance, but its pretty normal to have no clue who the CEO/owner is of whatever car brand you buy. How many can name 1 beside Musk or Henry Ford?
Henry Ford was a huge nazi as well.
You’re out of touch, my man. 90% of the population aren’t paying attention to what rich people are saying and doing. Pretending that everyone that bought a Tesla 5+ years ago knew that he was an insane asshole all along and are now feigning ignorance of that fact to save face doesn’t make it reality. But whatever, keep getting worked up over something that doesn’t really matter at present.
I can guarantee you that 95% of car owners don’t know the name of the CEO of their car company. Most people who bought Teslas years ago didn’t know or care who Elon Musk is.
I didn’t think they were defending it. The reality is some people live in a bubble and don’t pay close attention to the media, and switching cars is not exactly an easy thing to do without getting fucked over.
Many people are upside down on their car note, and when you trade in with negative equity on a car loan, that negative equity gets added to the new loan balance. It’s kind of a big deal for the average person.
Switching cars isnt easy but buying an expensive one made by a madman is?
I had Tesla sales reps at my WeWork office one week back in like 2019 iirc. They had a very aggressive sales campaign for a while at least. One even offered to have me test drive a Model 3 right their in the parking garage, which I declined.
So yes, they were making it very easy. Have you ever had car salesman show up at your office?
Many bought the thing 5+ years ago when Tesla was basically the only electric with a real charging network…
Until relatively recently, if you were an American who wanted to buy an electric car and wanted to guarantee you wouldn’t be stranded somewhere with a dead battery, Tesla was literally the only option.
I had all of those things and didnt buy one as many others. Crazy that when you buy a car from a nazi lunatic things dont work out
You mean the car they have been paying down on? That’s less expensive
Buying a Tesla made by a Nazi is one of the most expensive and dumbest things you could ever do.
What do you want to have happen? The car exists and is in an owner’s hands already. Elon doesn’t make any more money no matter if they sell it or not. It’s environmental waste to simply scrap it. What are the options, here?
I dont give af what happens. Defending people buying a car made by a Nazi madman is simply pathetic.
Glances nervously at Ford, Mitsubishi, VW, BMW…
Shh if the guy you’re replying to could read history theyd be very upset
Elon doesn’t make any more money no matter if they sell it or not.
Elon has the large part of his fortune tied to the future of Telsa, which is 90% selling cars. If no-one buys those cars, and if the second hand market is seen to be almost worthless, then the fortune and Elon’s power disappears.
If they use the Supercharger network, or get the vehicle serviced by Tesla, then they’re making money still.
But, the right thing to do is to keep running the vehicle, you’re right about that.
At least some Teslas use the Supercharger network for free, so they’re a drain on the company at this point. But I think they canned that program a while back for new sales.
Personally, if I picked one up (and I probably wouldn’t unless it was even cheaper than they are now), I’d spray paint it in gaudy pansexual pride flag colors.
With as strong and emotional you seem to feel about this topic, I sincerely hope you have never used an iPhone, used Facebook, bought a product off Amazon, taken an Uber ride, or consumed any Nestle products.
If you’ve eaten a single hot pocket, you have no ground to stand on here.
I love that comic, but it’s unfortunately not applicable to this conversation. If anything, it’s more applicable in response to @MellowYellow13.
This person is clearly being overly reactive to the situation and isn’t listening to reason. By all means, don’t buy a Tesla in the year of our lord 2025, but if you bought one in like 2019, that’s kind of irrelevant. Those people shouldn’t be punished for what they saw as an innocuous purchase at the time. To tell people they just straight up need to sell their car is asinine.
I’m not saying “omg you participate in society, you’re just as bad”, moreso pointing out how absolutely ridiculous @MellowYellow13 's platform here is. Things that have already been done are irrelevant, let’s look to the future to improve things, no? If you’ve bought a Tesla in the past, it does not matter, just as if you’ve bought an iPhone, used Facebook, etc.
You completely missed my message.
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“huge financial loss”
So why do these people buy these expensive cars they can’t afford in the first place?
Surely they would’ve made a good financial decision and bought a used Toyota at a fraction of the price if their finances weren’t in order?
In 2012 a Ford Focus full Electric was almost $40,000 MSRP with a probable markup at just about any dealer in the country. The only thing that makes that kind of investment affordable is the tax break. The Tesla model 3 (in comparison) was around $25,000 MSRP in 2019. With a 3 year auto loan at 5-6% interest that cost is $31,760.50. The electric focus would have cost $49,305.44 for the same loan term and interest rate.
And they can’t even sell these vehicles for bluebook value (assuming that the vehicle is paid off and they aren’t upside down on the loan for say a loan term of 5 or 7 years).
A Mach e? Almost $39,000 MSRP. Chevy Bolt? $27,500 MSRP. Hyundai Ioniq? Almost $40,000 MSRP. Nissan Leaf is just over $29,000.
There aren’t that many cars that are good financial decisions to be made in a market with so few options where range and ability to charge are majorly important to what you buy.
Toyota’s Mirai isn’t even top rated and it starts at $52,000. So yes. Huge financial loss, and Tesla’s aren’t that expensive when compared to other brands (the cybercuck not included).
Well, being financially stupid doesn’t mean you’re also a “limp dicked piss baby champagne socialist.”
It don’t matter how they got the car. They could have saved up for years, have been cutting costs elsewhere in life, or just have a well paying job; buying a car at 40k+ and selling it for 20k, especially if they still have 30k left on the loan is a dumb move even for the financially illiterate.
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Some people reallying don’t understand arp. Also staus symbol and they could have brought it realozed they are underwater on the loan and are stuck with it.
Yup, They are also rich privileged extremists that were fine supporting a madman until shit hit the fan
Honestly? Might not be a bad idea to consider buying a used Tesla after they tank in value.
-
No money goes to Elon in that exchange, so you’re not supporting the fascist prick. They made their money off the first buyer.
-
It’s environmentally friendly to buy a used vehicle, rather than a new one, as you extend it’s life and reduce it’s carbon footprint
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Since everybody is abandoning them, they’re cheaper than other options.
My only reservation is that I’d be driving around a Tesla still, so if I did something like this I’d have to de-brand the hell out of it somehow to make it appear as a generic “an car”.
Your heart’s in the right place but this is bad advice.
Teslas are still wickedly expensive to repair and there’s only the dealership who can do those repairs.
And the parts break way too often, even parts that shouldn’t break ever, like the door handles that only Tesla can replace. The cost of that can apparently be over $1k. For a door handle.
It’d be a money pit after the warranty period runs out. You’re still going to be better off with a run of the mill beater car
Until Tesla allows other shops to do repairs, those swastikars will never be economical even if you ignore the Nazi part
Your point about buying used being better for the environment also applies to older gas powered cars too, which will be easier and cheaper to repair
Until Tesla allows other shops to do repairs, those swastikars will never be economical even if you ignore the Nazi part
Everything on them can be fixed by a regular mechanic, and Tesla isn’t stopping it (at least not in Europe). People are getting 3rd party special shops to fix HV batteries and motors on old model S without any issues. Brakes, suspension, steering, LV electrical (windows, lights, handles etc.), AC can be fixed by anyone without issues. And aside from body parts and a few specialty components (their “octovalve” comes to mind), it’s mostly standard auto components that can be bought from 3rd party manufacturers without giving Tesla any money.
Edit: a model 3/Y door handle is around $100, of course still expensive but also far below your $1000 example, and on par with an original handle for my old ass Peugeot 308.
Teslas are still wickedly expensive to repair and there’s only the dealership who can do those repairs.
Where are you getting that from? There are plenty of 3rd party shops that can and do service Teslas. They even made their repair manuals public and sell the OEM components online.
The cost of that can apparently be over $1k. For a door handle.
That’s a door handle on a $100k+ car.
Obligatory fuck elon before I write the rest of the comment.
I have had a Tesla for 4 years now and as a car they are quite good (newer models got worse).
Super cheap to run, no oil, no filters other than cabin air, no yearly dealership maintenance to keep the warranty. And you charge it at home, super cheap and convenient. (yeah, same applies for any other electric car).
Repair costs (had a few fender benders) are comparable to my old BMW, maybe a bit lower. A door handle never broke on mine, but I just looked and found one on ebay for 15 EUR in case it breaks in the future. Can’t say it’s unreasonable. There’s simply less mechanical things to go wrong with the car, and over time the 3rd party shops can do almost everything, for a similar price to any other car. And if/when the battery ages (8 years warranty), you can still use it at home.
Fun to drive, too, and quite efficient, more than most electric cars.
Nowadays I would never buy one new, and even used it somewhat does rise the price of other Teslas, but I’m not planning to sell mine, I would lose quite a lot of money to end up with a similar car. I am in the market for a second car and it’s definitely going to be electric, but no chance for a Tesla.
There’s a lot of hyperbole out there about quality and repair costs. I know people want to devalue the brand any way they can, I don’t fault that. But, my first-release Model 3 was a really great car. I’m really going to miss it.
As I was walking away after selling it, I couldn’t help but say “it’s not your fault, buddy. You didn’t deserve this and I will always have a place in my heart for you. You were merely a victim of evil beyond our control. Good night, sweet prince.”
I can understand why your next one will be electric as pretty much all the benefits you describe are benefits of an EV not a Tesla.
I drive an old beater of a leaf and have the same list
Benefits of specifically Tesla is that they’re dirt cheap comparatively, especially if you actually want a car and not some giant honking SUV or pickup truck. You can get a car with a 360+ mile range (3rd parties tested and got slightly more) for ~$35k after federal rebate. No one can compete with that and it’s not even close.
I can’t argue with that, at least in the US that’s always been a strength of their’s.
I initially held the view that range was irrelevant if it’s a massive battery but even on that score Tesla seemed to be ahead of the game for a long time on the efficiency (miles per kw). Not sure if the market has caught up as I’m not at that end of the food chain so speak.
Tesla seemed to be ahead of the game for a long time on the efficiency
Yes, the Model 3 is pretty much the most efficient vehicle you can buy (next to a Lucid)
I initially held the view that range was irrelevant if it’s a massive battery
The efficiency is actually WHY it’s so inexpensive (less money spent on batteries, which comprise a huge portion of their cost) and WHY it drives me absolutely bonkers that the only EVs anyone wants to make anymore are fucking Tonka trucks.
They’re also ahead of just about everyone in terms of their charging network.
It’s one of the most expensive in Canada. 60K for a RWD base Model 3. You can get an AWD Ioniq for that, and should, since Hyundai can actually build a car.
That’s crazy, I wonder why that is?
Does the Hyundai have 350+ miles of range at that price?
Also I did say I was specifically speaking about cars, not SUVs.
Range on both is over 500km. They’re pretty much the only EVs that have that much range. But the fit and finish on the Ioniq makes it a luxury car by comparison. And they don’t have that Musky smell about them.
I’ve owned a Tesla and I’d say your wrong about pretty much everything here.
The whole point of buying an EV is that it stops polluting after it’s been manufactured (ignoring tires) and specifically that you stop polluting your local environment, making it out like used gas powered cars are just as good as used EVs is disingenuous at best.
there’s only the dealership who can do those repairs.
That’s illegal AF in the EU, or at least Germany. They already got into very hot water for trying to price independent repairs out by making their diagnostic software ludicrously expensive.
Must be nice not having business owners literally hanging out in the executive office all the time.
Oh they certainly do but the SME lobby tends to have more influence. Repair shops are businesses, too.
And it’s not always a good thing, e.g. when it comes to the Supply Chain Act the fat cat lobby was way more sane than the SME one: Nestle doesn’t mind monitoring its supply chain for human rights abuses it’s quite vertically integrated and the practice is a great defence against lawsuits and also getting fucked over / internal corruption while the SMEs are fearing bureaucracy and costs. It’s not like slave farm owners would share their ill-gotten profits with Nestle, they pocket the difference to standard market prices.
It’s actually illegal in some US states, too. Right to repair at the federal level is still being fought, iirc. There was a lot of progress being made around 2023, but got stalled. Hopefully the current oligarchy administration doesn’t end up butchering that movement, but I’m not very optimistic.
Part of the win is electric vs gas too though. Use the electric until it’s gone and toasted then get a beater.
But if you do you’ll be able to experience the Passenger Kebab Mode™ firat hand when the battery ignites!
No money goes to Elon directly, but it still increases the market price of Teslas. So someone else deciding between used and new might just buy new because it doesn’t cost much extra.
No money goes to Elon in that exchange, so you’re not supporting the fascist prick.
One could say the same about not selling your Tesla in the first place.
One downside is that Teslas are uncomfortable. I liked them a lot circa 2016, the Model S used to be my favorite vehicle. They simply haven’t held a competitive advantage, or in the case of the 3/Y, are genuinely quite bad. I’d rather pay more for something better, and that was before the CEO became this.
I’ve had my model 3 for 4 years and it’s more comfortable than any previous car I’ve driven. What is bad about them (other than the fuckwit CEO)?
I guess I wanna clarify that it’s bad in my opinion, not objectively. I’ll return to this later. I just don’t wanna seem like I’m shitting on your car or the reasons you got it.
Cars are typically comfortable when they have good ride quality and interior. The Model 3 has the absolute worst in both regards of any EV I’ve tried. The suspension is legendarily poor and is my primary complaint— it truly feels like punishment. As if every road imperfection was multiplied, not dampened. They could’ve given it the interior of an S class and I’d still find it uncomfortable. Yet the interior is sterile and features low quality materials. I tried my best to recall any one comfort besides heated seats, but I truly believe it is bereft of them.
So, back to how this is my personal opinion. I am a traditional comfort guy: good ride quality, creature comforts, high quality materials. For those who don’t care about that, the Model 3 is a great “get me there” vehicle. The software is good and it has ample driving assistance. The supercharger network is unrivaled if you don’t mind funding Musk (I do, so even though mine can now access the network I won’t use it). It’s very functional. Just not physically comfortable.
I’ll admit that most of the EVs I’ve tried are Model S competitors, not 3, but I’d still take either Ioniqs or the Mach-E over the 3. Also the latest Model 3 improved the suspension, but I’ve yet to try it
Fair enough.
I have always had rather sporty vehicles so the suspension of mine (2021 3 competition) feels just fine. Sporty, rather hard, but not uncomfortable. Not floaty of course. Some people put a kw suspension for about 3k, which apparently makes it much better than comparable cars. I test drove one and didn’t notice that much of a difference, so passed on the upgrade.
As for the materials, they are average or above in its price class. New VWs are notably worse. BMW are notably better but also 30% more expensive. Haven’t been in an ioniq but non-electric Hyundai and kias are worse IMHO. The interior design is clearly very subjective, but the materials are just fine. Not a lot of hard plastics or anything like that, everything you touch is… fine.
Yeah that tracks. I’ve always been comfort minded so the Model 3 feels really bad to me.
For materials, they’re like one step above hard plastic. They don’t feel like high quality versions of whatever material they are, if that makes sense. “Just… fine” is a good descriptor. Unfortunately I don’t spend a ton of time in its competitors so I may have been unfair to the materials by comparing it to more expensive options. And yeah, in my case the barebones interior feels less comfortable.
I do hope you keep liking the car! None of us ex Tesla supporters could have seen this coming, so it shouldn’t hinder your enjoyment.
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Ill give you $200 for the battery, the motor, and some chonky relays if you scrape the branding off.
I saw pics of someone that rebadged their model 3 I think it was with an Audi badge, and if you knew nothing about cars it looked believable.
I saw one with the Mazda logo that looks pretty good
I reckon the Mazda badge is a good call as the tesla 3 has the vibe of a Mazda I think.
I rmemeber rocking up to guys place to buy a sofa and his mum was there, I said I really liked her Hyundai Coupe and she said it wasn’t one as she’d got different badges on it. Found it so funny that it was a nice looking car at the time but she clearly couldn’t cope with the idea of owning a Hyundai
There’s a lot of cars where even a car nut wouldn’t pick they’d been badge swapped.
Most hatchbacks you can only tell apart by the shape of the lights.
It’s hilarious
I was joking with some friends about doing exactly this. Schuck it down to just the battery and minimal drivetrain, and make a very heavy go-kart.
There are people who use tesla parts to make electric car conversions
I just looked up the motor, that’s a bit bigger than a living room coffee table project. I may regret my offer.
RichRebuilds.
I know at least one YouTuber cutdown a salvage Plaid and put a Honda Odyssey minivan shell on it for drag racing.
What are you gonna make?
Hopefully a better car.
I’ll be 100% honest, I don’t know but I like to think I would at least get the motor going for a little bit before it melts and stinks up the house. Just like most things i play around with.
Elon is getting slapped by the invisible hand.
fun fact: the people who originally coined the phrase ‘invisible hand of the market’ called it ‘the invisible hand of providence’ which basically means ‘gods inscrutable will’. capitalism-at least market capitalism-is literally a religion.
and its god is smiting his favorite special boy. so sad.
I think this hand ain’t invisible. Well at least one finger isn’t.
