I see, so owning a Cybertruck is a way to clearly project that one isn’t a sissy. The sexual politics of car buying is confusing.
How about the Ford F-150 Lightning, the Chevy Silverado EV, Cadillac Escalade IQ, GMC Hummer EV pickup or the GMC Hummer EV SUV? Are those sufficiently not sissymobiles for the insecure?
What he means is that there’s a massive population of fragile men who insist on buying rugged, manly vehicles that don’t make actual sense. Can’t buy a minivan because that’s for pussies. Can’t buy a Malibu or even a mid-size crossover for the same reason. That’s why in Texas, and most of rural America, a 4 door short bed pickup truck is now the de facto family sedan for this class of fragile man.
And now the Cybertruck is filling that market gap for posers who wouldn’t be caught dead in a Model Y because they’re afraid their bros would question their manhood.
I dunno. Maybe. My point isn’t really about the Cybertruck vs. its EV truck competition, but vs. compact sedans and crossovers. And especially micro-cars like the Fiat.
It’s possible that people look at the F-150 Lightning vs. ICE and are heavily biased against the EV for emotional reasons. They’re otherwise the same truck, and so the decision comes down to the drivetrain, and that means sticking with ICE.
But the Cybertruck is so over-the-top aggressive that it overcomes some of this bias and wins people over. It can’t just match a normal pickup since in any normal comparison it would lose. It needs something to cancel out the negative effect of its EVness.
Pure speculation, of course. And I think once most people drive an EV, they quickly learn that it’s a massive advantage in almost every way, so you really only need to get people’s foot in the door.
Indeed so. But the fact is, cars are a major part of American identity. Even among those of us that try to pretend otherwise. Except for maybe clothing, there aren’t too many physical artifacts that say more about the type of person we are.
Campaign buttons? Bumper stickers?
I guess I meant things that weren’t so explicit. And some of these things are subconscious on the part of the person broadcasting the identity. Truck bros or anyone else aren’t thinking “yes, I must purchase this item in order to broadcast my group membership, else I will be an outcast”. It’s that they live in a culture where that’s natural and doing otherwise just seems kinda alien.
I don’t wear tweed jackets, for instance. I don’t have anything against them. It would just be kinda weird for me to do so. I’d feel odd walking around the office in one. In a different environment it might be weird for me to not wear a tweed jacket. It’s kinda stupid but even those of us that don’t care much about what other people think are still influenced by the environment.
I’ve now seen an additional twenty or so. I drove down to Boca Chica, where Starbase is actually located, and I counted 16 passing in the opposite direction, with another half-dozen or so arriving after I did.
Maybe some of them were employees but I checked out the employee lot and there weren’t any. I don’t think they get paid enough to afford a Cybertruck.
The Texas+Tesla+SpaceX combo is potent.
My brother bought a model S back in 2015 and had a lot of incidents over the years of rolling coal aimed at him. My contempt of those jaspers was greatly increased when I found out the smoke isn’t just the result of a lagging turbocharger but a kit applied at a minimum cost of $200 so they’re not only paying extra fuel costs to – I dunno – make a statement.
The incidents have dropped off in the past few years so, like spinning hubcaps, it might have been a passing fad or it got through their thick skulls how much it was costing them.
I bought a Bolt in March when it came down to either $20,000 for that or $4,000 for a rebuilt transmission in the 2001 Accord it replaced. Honestly it’s kind of fun to drive around town and cheaper per mile, even with gas at $3.20 a gallon. I’m betting gasoline will rise way above that in the next few years.
Coal rolling reached its peak in the Trump Administration. After Trump lost, it slowly died away, although it’s not completely gone. Whether it’s going to come back in the second T admin is a good question.
However, note that most coal rollers don’t have that kit installed. They just downshift unnecessarily and blow excessive exhaust at their target. They may not do this for EVs, but they certainly do it for bicyclists.
That’s what I thought too, until I read about the kits. Just downshifting doesn’t generate black enough smoke.
Most don’t generate lots of smoke, just excess exhaust. This has happened to me lots of times, especially during the Trump years, so I’m not making it up. Still happens occasionally. Perhaps calling them coal rollers is not quite right, but I don’t know what else to call them.
I favor “asshole bullies”, but I’m prone to choice language.
Well, yes, when it happens, I think “another fucking asshole” or similar. But that’s not something that I can use to communicate what they did to someone else.
You can’t begin to drop the amount of smoke from downshifting as from a kit. And the kits are illegal so the rise and fall of coal rolling is linked to them.
I am very glad to see the feds are cracking down on the companies that sell these kits!
Yes, but it’s the thought that counts. If these guys did have the kit installed, they’d be giving me a black cloud of smoke. Since they don’t, they do the best they can with ordinary exhaust.
So they’re cheapskate assholes?
The best kind!
I’ve had them ride real close to my bike in the past.