people don't deal with Elon when buying a Tesla, but they do have to deal with shitty dealers when buying another brand.
I'm not gonna defend the state of the dealership system, but from what I hear, getting Teslas fixed is awful in unique ways.
Tesla is going to end up the largest car manufacturer in the world.
They're the largest by stock price, but in EVs/year they were surpassed by a chinese company a couple years ago, and both traditional and new companies are closing the gap Tesla got from all the early capital that was dumped into them. They never came close if you include non-electric cars.
Other manufacturers cannot make profitable cars at the price point Tesla is offering.
There's tons of electric cars at the price point Tesla offers, with a fraction of the issues. One thing I did notice is other companies limit what they're willing to import into the US to avoid competing with more expensive models (eg, no company imports cheap electric convertibles or station wagon because they'd compete with higher-end electric cars and SUVs/pickups respectively), but I'm not aware of any market segment that doesn't have a competitive non-tesla equivalent.
Awhile ago, someone counted the number of local news stories of people getting immolated by their Teslas. It was more per car sold than the Ford Pinto.
Between:
spoiler
Locking the person in when power fails
Wompy Wheels
Steering wheel come off while you are driving
Tesla's tendency to drive into the back of stopped emergency vehicles or stop on highways due to changing light conditions
The trunk
$500 door handles with 10 dollars worth of electronics that fail due to moisture and ice (this one was improved. They're still $500 though)
The car lying about its range
Shoddy build quality
A dozen other issues I hear from Tesla owners
The only way I can understand Tesla not being as big of a joke as the Ford Pinto is some combination of outlets that would amplify these stories to become national news also tend to own stock in the largest car company, and Tesla having a team that's 10x better than Ford's at shutting down negative publicity.
I'm not gonna defend the state of the dealership system, but from what I hear, getting Teslas fixed is awful in unique ways.
They're the largest by stock price, but in EVs/year they were surpassed by a chinese company a couple years ago, and both traditional and new companies are closing the gap Tesla got from all the early capital that was dumped into them. They never came close if you include non-electric cars.
There's tons of electric cars at the price point Tesla offers, with a fraction of the issues. One thing I did notice is other companies limit what they're willing to import into the US to avoid competing with more expensive models (eg, no company imports cheap electric convertibles or station wagon because they'd compete with higher-end electric cars and SUVs/pickups respectively), but I'm not aware of any market segment that doesn't have a competitive non-tesla equivalent.
Awhile ago, someone counted the number of local news stories of people getting immolated by their Teslas. It was more per car sold than the Ford Pinto.
Between:
spoiler
Locking the person in when power fails
Wompy Wheels
Steering wheel come off while you are driving
Tesla's tendency to drive into the back of stopped emergency vehicles or stop on highways due to changing light conditions
The trunk
$500 door handles with 10 dollars worth of electronics that fail due to moisture and ice (this one was improved. They're still $500 though)
The car lying about its range
Shoddy build quality
A dozen other issues I hear from Tesla owners
The only way I can understand Tesla not being as big of a joke as the Ford Pinto is some combination of outlets that would amplify these stories to become national news also tend to own stock in the largest car company, and Tesla having a team that's 10x better than Ford's at shutting down negative publicity.