Summary
A survey in the Netherlands revealed that 31% of Tesla owners are considering selling their cars due to Elon Musk’s controversial actions, including his involvement in politics and handling of misinformation on X (formerly Twitter).
About 40% feel embarrassed to own a Tesla, though 51% say Musk’s behavior doesn’t affect their view of the car.
Musk’s leadership of X has also driven users away, with 46% leaving or considering leaving the platform.
Parallel criticism of Mark Zuckerberg for removing fact-checking has fueled similar debates over tech leadership and misinformation.
I would sell my car the moment I get a proper offer. But no one wants to buy a Tesla here anymore.
So, keep driving the Model Y. But there is zero chance that we will ever buy a Tesla again. At least as long as Musk is able to profit from it.
My wife and I were planning on buying a Tesla some day. She has wanted one since before we knew the name musk. But when we had to replace her Toyota Highlander after someone hit our daughter in it, we passed over all of the teslas and went with another Highlander.
Good call going with another Highlander. Musk’s stupid, shitty antics have resulted in your getting a superior car.
Highlanders are awesome! It’s basically a rav4 with a camry drivetrain. I want one!
Is that… a good thing?
Driving German cars has lead me to expect better fuel economy and more power out of an engine. I’m in my first ever Japanese car (Subaru Outback) and man is it horrible, I’m spending twice as much on fuel if not more. The difference in fuel costs per month is roughly what my lease payment was on my Mercedes since I live in a country where we have to pay actual money for fuel lol
Depends on your needs and typical traffic you have to deal with. In Texas, I have to deal with an endless horde of bullies in duallies and SUV Karen’s. It’s nice to have some passing power in certain situations… If I lived somewhere more rural, or with generally more kind people in traffic, I’d be fine with less.
Oh right y’all get Toyotas with turbos. Those still use way too much fuel, but at least they have decent power compared to anything Japanese that I see.
I’m firmly in the “300ish horses should still net me 50 mpg” camp lol
Oh, for sure! In modern cars, absolutely! Wish I could afford something with that kind of power and mpg’s… lol
If we did not have 3 dogs over 65lbs we probably would have done a RAV4. But having the 3rd row seating is nice. Gas mileage could be better.
I’m there with you. We bought the first Model S Refresh. We knew he was a piece of shit then, but the same could be said of any automotive CEO. Then he rapidly got worse and now it’s my shame mobile. I actually love the car, but I feel so fucking gross driving it.
The EV conversion guys like me are all rubbing our hands together to get our hands on cheap donor teslas to stick in much cooler old cars.
I mentioned this to someone else but think about that and let it sink in. Your car makes you feel gross and yet you aren’t able to get rid of it.
Sounds like cancer
You aren’t willing to sacrifice enough to get rid of something you hate. Let that sink in and then ask yourself why. Might reveal something to you
(I just think it’s interesting, I’m not leading you to something specific)
I’m in a similar position, having a 2019 M3 bought back in the days of blissful ignorance of who Musk even was pretty much.
I’m not wealthy in any way, I spent very hard earned cash for a green(er) car due to extensive travel requirements at work. I can not just sell the car for pennies and get a new electric car.
So for me, I have pretty much no reasonable alternative other than to ride it out, use non-tesla-chargers, and get a new non-tesla car in a couple of years when hopefully the price of electric cars have declined.
So please don’t judge those of us who are in this shitty position too hard. I’m not in any way looking for some kind of pity (god knows even affording the car in the first place makes me very privileged), but for some understanding and to make it known that plenty of us “old Tesla car”- drivers do not affiliate in any way with Musk’s views and opinions.
You misunderstand me if it seemed like i was judging.
Is a shitty situation, like cancer is. You just can’t rid of a cancer sometimes even if it’s the only thing you want to be able to do
Ah, then I seen, thanks for the clarification! (I blame not being a native English speaker)
Yeah it’s a crappy situation where keeping the damn thing actually seems like the least shitty thing to do for now. At least I’ve managed to convince others to buy alternatives like the Hyundai Ioniq series instead when they’ve asked me for my opinion!
Take comfort if as i assume you didn’t get the car to support mush but because on paper it accomplished a goal and that’s why you bought the thing. It’s still doing exactly what you bought it for. The only thing that is changed is a persononality that’s isn’t actually connected(I’m assuming) to your reasons.
Toyota has bloodcon it’s hands, as does most of them. VW is a company that literally supported hitler and contributed the horror of people being put into nazi death camps.
Musk is a fuckwad, but hes not worse than some others that came before him.
I bought a VW almost 20 years ago, it was cheap and for my needs at the time it was what made sense.
Your choice still is making the world better than it otherwise would have been. You won’t ever buy another one(so many assumptions in making lol )
Its not your fault. Talk to any engineer about the need to make tradeoffs, you didnt know and made the best decision you could. I hate that it affects you like this, is just the sad state of 2025
If i could i would buy your car. I need a new one but life went sideways on me personally and the world went sideways on everyone so I’m in a bad position. I’m fortunate to be able to just stick with my shit car still