this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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Plenty of Teslas were bought before most people had any idea that Elon was a fascist sociopathic asshole. Not everyone who bought one can afford to just dump a functioning vehicle with shitty resale value. Anyways, we don't really want to see every Tesla on the road retired at the same time, so somebody will be driving them.
Cybertrucks are a bit different in my estimation. Anyone who bought a Cybertruck should have known who they were buying it from. Those owners bought that car to signal something, and I think it's fair to let them know that the signal was received.
Good points, but for most Tesla models at least I would argue that the people that can afford those can afford a lower than desirable resale value in order to not feel shitty about their daily drive. From what I can tell, it doesn't really look like the used market for these has taken that hard of a hit either. Also, due the natural rapid depreciation of cars, it's not something that waiting for bad press to blow over and having a slight increase on the demand side would be worth waiting for either. Would be interested in an anecdote if someone has one, but I'm not convinced right now it would be all that hard or financially damaging to sell your Tesla. At the very least debadge that heap, when I see that I like to think the owner is trying at least.
You sound unfamiliar with the average American consumer. Americans tend to buy the most car they think they can afford. They also might have been counting on the fact that electric vehicles cost more up front, but return that value and then some the longer you drive it.
If it does, I might go out and buy myself one. As I said before, we don't want these vehicles to be retired before their time.
I would definitely suggest that people do this, but I wouldn't call it "the least", at least in regards to owning a Tesla. Removing the badge is probably the most effective thing they can do. That stuff gets noticed and has an impact. If they sell the car, it will just be bought by someone else and continue to be a billboard for Elon. I see a lot of Teslas in my area and have been looking for badge removals or "Elon bad" bumper stickers, and so far have just seen one without badges.
Hell, Americans buy the most car they can finagle a loan for, independent of if they can or can't actually afford it.
It wouldn't be surprising to find that a good portion of Tesla buyers are stuck in the trap where they owe so much on it that there's no way they could afford the hit to replace it, because they can barely make their payments now.