this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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I know a lot of people who bought teslas before musk became a full blown oligarch and feel uncomfortable about it
I'd sell that shit at a loss.
Any car is sold at a loss. As someone who recently paid one of these off, I can’t stomach a new car payment in the face of our melting economy because six years ago I didn’t foresee the head of a car company turning out to be a freaking nazi.
Considering my Tesla replaced a VW TDI, I’m feeling particularly salty and completely disillusioned about ethical consumption under capitalism, etc. etc. I wish people on Lemmy could have some empathy and not just assume that everyone driving a Tesla is sanctioning anything that Elon Musk does.
He was a boldfaced liar six years ago, too. You fell for the "full self driving by 2016" scam and the other false claims and fabrications.
That's assuming a lot. I wanted a car that was fast, electric, had easy charging, good range, and didn't cost $100,000. 5 years ago, that was a Model 3.
Didn't give a shit about Musk's lies, always knew he was full of it and was a typical scumbag CEO; I did not peg him as someone to go full on Nazi mode.
If you knew then that he was a liar, then I really don't see how you can complain about it now. You evidently knew which business you were getting into.
You can say that about literally any company that exists under capitalism.
That's an odd position to take. Fraud is okay since others commit fraud as well? Not many companies have a Wikipedia entry documenting their ongoing deception and fraud since 2017.
My position on Elon Musk and Tesla by extension is clear. If you are supportive of them, that's completely up to you.
Considering said Wikipedia entry did not exist 5 years ago, when I mentioned the prior requirements of mine that were met at the time, that wouldn't have helped me much at the time. Seems pretty convenient for current prospective buyers as of the article's publishing, 3 years ago.
Regardless, to reiterate, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but I'm sure you've never consumed a product from a company that's committed any form of fraud or other unethical act.
Having said all of this, please do not take what I'm saying here as support for Tesla, Elon, or unethical corporate practices in general. There is no way in hell I would buy a Tesla as of now, and I do indeed try to limit my consumption from companies I disagree with on moral and ethical grounds.
Call me ignorant at the time of purchase, if you want, I suppose.
I certainly have; I bought a VW four years after the TDI emissions scandal. I'm by no means immune to this.
As an aside, the fact that the Wikipedia article didn't exist doesn't mean the issues cited in it weren't already widely reported in the media. Some infamous court cases go back to 2017, including SEC fraud and union busting. False claims have been Elmo's standard operating procedure with promises such as full self driving and range first becoming broken beginning 2016, and speed of supercharging and battery swapping in 2013.
This is of course to say nothing of the outright taxpayer fraud of Hyperloop and the Boring Company, but that's a story for another day.
If you're curious, here's a nifty website that's been tracking his truthiness: https://elonmusk.today/
We did not purchase full self driving. My husband rightfully thought that it was a bit of a pipe dream. I’m too much of a control freak to allow a car to drive for me. Also six years ago was 2019 so if you think I fell for “full self driving by 2016” then I think you can’t do math.
Are you suggesting that full self driving was fully implemented by 2019? Because it's 2025 and it's still not ready. How have I failed at math?
But if the scam was already running for three years, then it seems all the more sensible not to trust this person, no? How is it better that people are still falling for his lies after a decade?
I guess I see what you’re saying about not trusting Elon Musk because he had promised something that thus far had not been delivered. And you’re right, we didn’t trust him and didn’t purchase the option. But we thought the car was still okay. I still like the car, for the most part. Does that make sense? The car and the full self driving option were two separate purchases, one of which we did not make.
I understand your rationale, that makes sense.
Perhaps my priority is different, as I don't make a habit of making investments with companies that have well documented track records of misleading and lying to customers. I didn't buy a Tesla then, and I wouldn't now, and the only thing that has changed is the public perception. That, for me, is secondary to the trustworthiness of the company.
I get that. I had already been burned by VW with the TDI scandal, so I was pretty frustrated with car companies in general. Are any of them truly ethical or consumer-focused? We saw that Tesla was at least trying to make the electric car thing work and we wanted to support that movement—not because we think electric cars are the endgame solution, but because we think they’re a step in the right direction and we wanted to encourage the market to follow their lead.
And buying a car is not an investment. It’s not like we own Tesla stock.
One thing I did really, really like about buying a car from Tesla is that they don’t use a dealership model. What a breath of fresh air! I never want to buy from a dealer ever again if I can help it. But I think the next time we’re in the market, we’ll buy used anyway.
That's completely relatable. I was in the market for a new car in 2019 and ironically chose for VW despite the emissions scandal.
For me, buying a car remains a multi-year investment, because I bought it to serve a purpose over an extended period of time. I ran the numbers for 10 years between different manufacturers, each with different base prices, but also prices for subscriptions, service and repairs, and contrasted against long term costs of alternatives like public transportation. What exactly defines an investment is somewhat of a grey area and I guess the same logic would disqualify a home as an investment. The only real difference is that a car is always a bad investment (unless you take Elmo at his word).
It's unfortunate that the dealership situation has weighed in to your decision, as Tesla abused their position as a new entry into the market to be exempt from state franchise laws. Most other car manufacturers have been selling cars longer through the conventional dealership model and are literally forbidden from adapting. Some states have maximum market share requirements which were put into place after the popularity of Tesla took off, effectively squeezing new entrants like Rivian out of state markets like Washington. This issue is more about state regulations and how Tesla uses and abuses its power to increase their profit margin.
I'm not at all arguing in favor of dealerships—don't get me wrong. But the fact that Tesla doesn't have them is not because of any innovation, but an unfair competitive advantage.