I really like the look and quality of the interior of our Model X. It has real wood trim, and fake leather that isn’t so bad. No iPad attached to the dash.
I have heard complaints about the quality of some Model S’s.
But this would be like if you met a bunch of Volvo owners who just loved the quality of the display electronics, and cited that as one of the car’s great features.
The head unit is part of “the interior.” If someone asks me how I like the interior on my Tesla, I’m going to be thinking about the smoothness of the interface and less so about the stitching on the seats. They spent more money on the graphics chip and software development and less so on expensive materials.
The minimalism is related as well. It would be terrible to have the lack of buttons and a janky interface. And maybe some people sit in one, thinking about the terrible interface on their car, and conclude that the lack of buttons is a problem that takes away from the utility. But that’s largely not the case (with, again, some exceptions). People drive the car, get used to how it works, and then rave about it because it makes sense even if it’s different.
Seriously, that is one ridiculous looking truck. It looks like a child drew it at school.
Sure, I believe a percentage of customers have this opinion. But if a higher percentage of customers would a willing to buy again, for whatever reason, they see the benefits as outweighing the problems compared to other manufacturers. These problems are not anecdotal, but there are metrics to assess their relevance.
Tesla hasn’t responded to questions from Consumer Reports since 2018 or so. Though dinged for persistent reliability issues, it leads the cost of ownership category (92% satisfaction) and is high in ownership satisfaction and “would buy again” despite these issues.
I have a lot of friends with Teslas. With one exception, they love their Teslas. Also, I’d hate it.
Yeah, people like different things in cars.
I thought the old melted candy bar Teslas were ugly already before they even proposed this silliness. Like all other Teslas, the only thing that even mildly appeals to me is that they are electric.
Plus, unibody pickup trucks are pretty much disposable, and should be priced accordingly.
I have friends with many different EVs (Leaf, VW, BMW, Tesla, Ford, Hyundai). I can’t think of any that don’t love their car. I think a lot of it is love for EVs more than a particular brand.
The two who have Teslas will NOT get a Tesla for their next car, but that’s due to Musk, not the car.
A couple months ago, the website cleantechnica.com, which covers EV news, had an article speculating on why Tesla’s back order count fell rather precipitously in recent months. Specifically, last November and December, the number of Teslas on back order dropped like a rock, something like a decrease of 75%. It recovered somewhat after some rather significant price cuts early this year.
Anyway, they had all kinds of ideas but totally failed to consider the possibility that it was mainly due to the whole Twitter thing plus Musk becoming well known as an asshole and supporter of the Republican Party (but I repeat myself).
If someone really wants, I can probably find the article. I’m too lazy to do it now.
The data came from Troy Teslike on X:
The trouble with the theory is that the backlog is fairly small compared to their total deliveries per quarter:
Deliveries have increased since Q3 2022, not decreased. And the backlog has been fairly stable since the drop. So while it’s possible that there’s been some reduction in demand, with the growth coming at the expense of backlog, it’s not likely to be a significant factor.
Possibly a greater influence is the upcoming refresh of the Model 3. That tends to depress sales just before the new version comes out.
You’re going to have to let this argument go. People buy trucks for multiple reasons just as car owners do. We could all be driving electric Tuk Tuks charged from pull-behind solar cell trailers. But we don’t.
As to the Cyber Truck, I still think it’s hideously ugly. It makes the Aztek look good. Maybe that’s the attraction. It’s so “out there” that people want something that sticks out. T
The roll top bed cover is a clever idea but the hardened windows make it difficult to extract someone in an accident. The stainless steel body gives it a giant kitchen sink vibe. It might last forever so maybe they’ll retrofit the next generation batteries. The marketing plan would then be battery sales and not vehicle sales.
I’m not sure what your argument is. The data shows that truck users do not typically use them for stuff that requires trucks. Some do, but most don’t.
That said, my position is that if people are going to buy brodozers, they may as well be electric.
The deliveries in 2022Q4 were up about 60k from 2022Q3, while the drop in the backlog between Oct 22 and Dec 22 was about 210k. And it looks like the drop was mostly due to US back orders going to zero by December. I’m not saying it was entirely due to Twitter/Musk’s reputation, but I’d be really surprised if the majority wasn’t.
But this is all speculation, as was the article I mentioned. No one will know unless they take a poll of people who cancelled their orders during those two months.
I think that’s a slightly misleading way of putting it.
The data quoted in the article you linked, for example, stated that 65% of truck owners use the flat bed at least twice a year.
Now, I think we can generally make the argument that people should be moving towards smaller, more economical cars, for the sake of the environment.
But, meanwhile, the “not using the functions of a truck” argument is not a good one.
As mentioned, I own a sedan (we call them saloons in the UK, but I’m bilingual 
). I’ve never used the back seats of my car to carry passengers, but I have needed to hire a van a couple of times to move bulky things like beds. So owning a truck and “only” using the flat bed once or twice a year, would have made more sense, functionality-wise, than owning the vehicle I have.
I agree. I own an SUV, because twice a year i go on vacation and want to carry 3-4 people and a lot of stuff, and time is tight and it would be a nuisance to have to rent a car. But the rest of the year I’d get by fine with a smaller hatchback, because the rest of the year i might haul people or stuff, but not both at the same time.
We used to have the smaller hatchback and a minivan, but when we got rid of the van (replaced with the safest, easiest to drive car we could get, because that’s mostly driven by our adult daughter, who lives with us and is a poor driver) we replaced the little hatchback with this behemoth. And it’s been a good choice.
If our daughter moves out the “main” car will be a small electric thing, and we’ll use the SUV only when we both need to drive, and those two weekends.
A secondary issue for the Truck / SUV crowd (not all by any means, but…) is that until relatively recently, if you wanted AWD/4WD that outside of some comparatively expensive models, a truck or SUV were your main options in the US. Sure, granted, plenty of those who buy 4WD and AWD options are aspirational as well, but those whose climates make those extremely helpful for a few months out of year (myself included) put that value much higher than towing / carrying capacity.
Thus my recent thread about shopping for EV/PHEV specifically with AWD.
As a serial car club member, I see this as normal. There are cars that have enthusiastic happy owners that many people see as a nightmare to own out of warranty. It’s not that the problems don’t exist, but that the owners have decided other aspects of the car make them worth the hassle. This makes the vibe from Tesla owners very familiar to me, and it’s not a vibe consistent with huge market growth. It’s basically what allowed Lexus to become a serious rival to BMW and Mercedes - giving frustrated buyers in a segment a reliable, quality alternative.
That’s sort of the trajectory I see for Tesla - they aren’t just a gazelle with a limp; they’re stumbling around in the bush and saying “I meant to do that!”
As the market fills up with more options, Tesla provides buyers with more and more reason to choose something else.
Much like the bagpipes. The further away they are, the better they sound.
Well, I thought I used enough qualifiers.
Everyone sets some threshold across the spectrum of usability. I could drive a huge box truck around, because I might need to move in the next 5 years–but that would be dumb, and I choose to drive a car instead and rent a truck if needed. And most people make the same choice there.
But it does matter if you’re targeting the 90% mark, or 99%, or 99.9%, etc. And I suspect most target too high of a “I might need this” figure. It doesn’t make sense for most to drive a large truck if they’re hauling stuff from the hardware store four times a year. The savings from fuel alone will pay for rentals or delivery. And there are all the other inconveniences of having a truck, like parking.
But a truck’s truckness puts a thumb on the scale. Lots of people just like trucks, or at least want to be seen driving one. So people buy them even when they don’t make economic sense.
My dad had an “encyclopedia of cars”, and one of my favorite parts was the US/UK translation glossary in the back. Bonnets and boots and saloons and tyres and more.
How large a truck are we talking here? Because renting is a hassle, and doing it 4 times a year is worth a certain degree of effort to avoid.
That being said, i bought my overly large SUV to haul stuff twice a year, but i also shopped for one that wasn’t too long and has a good turning radius, so i can park it in the city. That’s actually one of the reasons i ended up with a midsized SUV and not a large sedan: shorter wheel base and easier parking.