I have seen a lot of tesla vandalism online the last few days and I’m kind of on the fence about it.
I’ve seen several examples locally here in BC, Canada.
I think totally warranted at newly purchased teslas going forward. Also it serves as a deterrent for potential future buyers.
But vandalizing a car that is a few years old I think is lame. Those driversare already being punished enough by driving something around that’s worth less than scrap.
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No but that isn’t vandalism.
I’d argue how much smearing the dust on a car counts as vandalism. Sure it’s something my mom would be mad at me for doing but she’s mad at me in general.
Teslas in general I’m on the fence about, though people should be discouraged from purchasing new ones.
The Wankpanzer? Piss on it for all I care. Damn thing is a hazard to every pedestrian, every car, to the fucking driver themselves. That shitbox’s a mistake, and it isn’t even a cheap one. Draw on dust (“vandalize” lol), glue stickers, spray paint, what’s the harm? Gonna make a musk fan sad? He’s trying to ruin a nation. Anyone that’s still his fan needs to wake the fuck up.
Cybertruck pre-orders started in 2019, well before Musk’s bigotry was widely known. It was to be the first ev truck on the market, and the pre-order price was tempting. Folks paid for these things and are now stuck with them. You literally are not allowed to sell them. What should those people do?
Well. I bought mine 2 years ago, and am currently trying to get something else in its place. But I need to take my kids to daycare and myself to work every day so I cannot just like dump it. So you might be vandalizing somebody who thought it was a good idea to replace a petrol car with an EV and Tesla was simply the best quality/cost solution at the time and the amount of politics involved were pretty minimal.
You might turn somebody who was mildly sympathetic to your ideas farther away from you. Definitely not going to make new allies in that way.
Cybertrucks however, fuck those things and everybody who bought them. Molotov cocktail them for all I care.
No, that’s just rationalizing fucking with somebody’s stuff. Your personal anger is not a moral principle.
No but it is moral to smear nasty things on the vehicle.
It would be highly immoral to do any actual vandalism because that would give them sympathy and therefore would further the goals of Elon and others who want their bootlickers to be seen as some sort of rebels against wokeness.
But mocking them by writing dust or adding your own bumper stickers without doing any serious permanent damage is at least defensible.
It’s really about (a) sending a message that we don’t support Musk or other fascists and (b) discouraging other people from buying them.
It’s true that some people might have Teslas without having monetarily support Tesla somehow, but not very many, and if they got their Tesla for free then they aren’t really losing anything.
To that end, vandalizing Cybertrucks would send the clearest message, they’re the most obviously Musk thing. If enough Cybertrucks are vandalized, the media will report on it, and people will get the point. It would hurt Tesla’s sales, Tesla’s stock, and Musk’s image.
This is just theoretical mind you. I’m not advising you to vandalize anything, since that would be illegal.
Honestly the cyber truck vandalizes itself, why even risk the legal consequences.
Its valid. Especially if something easily removed like bumper sticker.
I own a Tesla. I bought it in 2018. I fucking hate Elon Musk but I do not feel like I need to get rid of my car. Me selling would not hurt Elon. It just hurts me because I rely on that car for my wife to get to work.
It’s paid off and it works just fine. Why should I have to sell my car for a huge loss and get something new just because you want to make a political statement.
My wife is a life long democrat. I have never had a party affiliation. I do not understand how damaging my car is supposed to help your cause.
In my mind, I put “driving a Tesla” as different than “driving a cybertruck.” Two different demographics. I wouldn’t laugh at the car, but I would definitely laugh at the truck.
Agreed. Regular Teslas were the first readily commercially available electric car and are reasonable to own. I’ve also seen funny bumper stickers for sale for Tesla owners that say “This car was bought before Elon sucked”etc.
A cybertruck was always his impractical vanity project and sold for an obscene amount of money. They don’t function as promised and even if they were sold by Ford or Toyota I would still think they were stupid cars. I would never vandalize one to be undrivable but I’ll laugh my butt off if I ever see one with vandalized rear or side panels.
We saw a cybertruck with a swastika wiped in a few months ago. It was before he went full salute.
In 2018 he called that driver a pedo.
Neuralink was founded in 2016.
You need to have a pretty old Tesla in order to have bought it before Elon made it clear he’s a moron.
Well it was never as clear as now
Eh, people like me are going to judge you unless you have a bumper sticker. We call all Tesla’s “swasticars” in my family. The CEO did two Nazi salutes, and yes… Selling does harm the company.
I do not understand how damaging my car is supposed to help your cause.
The fear you have for your car purchase is the point.
It’s not about changing ideologies or convincing people to change their politics or protecting owners who feel they are on the right side and should be spared.
It’s about having future buyers have to weigh whether the risk of vandalism, negative affiliations assumed of them, and insurance increases is worth buying the brand.
Unfortunate, but actions that result in indiscriminate collateral damage is what tends to actually have the intended impact. Which in this case seems to be to taint the Tesla brand as a risky one.
There are people who have literal swastica t shirts. The proud boys and oath keepers and 3%ers are not hard to find. Go punch a Nazi and leave my car alone. Find a pickup with a Trump number sticker and gift them a brick through their side window and some ventilation in two tires. Let’s leave the single mom who got a great deal on a used car alone.
I understand your point I just hate that people seem to think vandalism is going to make the world better in any way.
I don’t plan to vandalize private property. Pointing out what is the intended effect.
And regardless of political ideology what is happening to Tesla or any other brand receiving the same vitrol deters me from plans to buy them. Basically it’s radioactive to “we don’t like to talk about politics” crowd. Which is the average buyer.
This… is fair.
Me selling would not hurt Elon.
This is not true.
Think bigger: if everybody sells their Teslas their sales would drop dramatically.
Think bigger. Instead of bullying customers, vandalizing property of people like you, discourage future sales. Tank the stock. His ridiculous wealth is mostly stock, mostly Tesla. If you vandalize a car, you’re mostly hurting another person. If the market can no longer expect rapid growth, that overpriced bubble stock pops.
He lost like $30B in value destroying Twitter, but one of the reasons he didn’t care is Tesla stock more than made up for it. But imagine suddenly losing $100B or $200B. Even Msk will notice that. Even his hand picked board of directors would have to recognize his extremism is destroying Tesla and have to do something about it
Gonna hurt OP more though. I say do it if you can afford it but it’s not worth it to shoot yourself in a foot just to make a statement.
It’s still money going to them every time you need parts though
Funny thing about that. We had so many problems early on that in exchange for not lemon lawung the car they gave us an extra 5 year warranty. All the parts and labor for warranty repairs COSTS them money. So hopefully something expensive breaks before the warranty ends.
Unless you junk it, the next person will still need that part.
I bought mine in 2018 as well. What’s more is I got a used one that still had lifetime free supercharging. I’m actively hurting Tesla every time I supercharge. If my car gets vandalized that would help Tesla.
Translation: I don’t care about having a good car or having a strong moral framework or ethical stance.
moral? hell ya.
smart? no. cameras. odds of a tesla owner, especially of the ‘truck’, reacting in a calm and rational manner is not low.
People hate Musk so Tesla’s are damaged. Then insurance pays or the perpetrator pays if caught. Tesla is repaired in an authorized workshop and Musk’s cash register rings.
That’s how you ruin billionaires! /s
people stop buying them as they are more trouble than they are worth.
Yes, people who believe in electric vehicles but not in the company or the person. Tesla was the first to establish itself and was permanently in the media in the West. Many people didn’t find out what the market looked like but went by what they already knew.
So all the Musk fanatics are sticking with Tesla.
( you make more money with the dumb folk… so in long term the musk fanatics)
You’ve seen the headlines about telsa sales tanking right? In some markets by 50% or 60%. That’s a big deal.
First movers do enjoy a special privilege but I’m not sure how sticky that will be in this case. Musk’s political views are at odds with people that are environmentally conscious.
Those views are now indefeasible from the brand and this kind of “vandalism” (provided it doesn’t significantly damage the vehicle) is a great way to reinforce that connection.
Now it would be interesting to know what the market looks like in the east. Despite sanctions etc., the parts have also ended up in Russia and it only became known because of these TikTok warlord wannabes… But what about those that are not known? Musk certainly doesn’t give the impression that he’s worried.
I mean, 2 years ago you could have bet that the vehicle that can’t stand the rain and has to stay off the road won’t be spotted on a war zone and tjoa the world goes crazy. Welcome to the Matrix. /s (? im not sure if sarcasm or the sad attempt to explain the decline of humanity since maybecorona. )
Maybe we will read in 1 week/month that Musk is suing the population because they use the products of the competition and thus commit treason to ruin the country’s own production. Anything is possible with megalomania.
People in the areas where vandalism happens stop buying them. There are significant and rich places where people don’t give a flying fuck about US politics, like China: https://carnewschina.com/2025/01/13/new-tesla-model-y-juniper-received-50000-orders-on-launch-day-source-says/
You forgot the part where the insurance cost goes up for all insured people even if they don’t own a Tesla.
No, don’t forget. As a German, I just wasn’t sure how things worked in America. It could have been different. Hospital bills only drive one person/family into the abyss. Anyway, thanks for the reply.
I will not lose sleep over a vandalised cybertruck
