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Buying a Tesla used to be an effective way of liberal virtue signaling for the much-despised "coastal elites". Now that Elon has gone fully mask-off, it might

Buying a Tesla used to be an effective way of liberal virtue signaling for the much-despised "coastal elites". Now that Elon has gone fully mask-off, it might as well be the Trumpmobile.

CharlesW 4y ago
I also wonder if the price cuts are a reaction to market saturation. They as common as Camrys in mid- and higher-income areas in California.
- decafninja 4y ago
  Aren’t they literally nicknamed the California Camry?
  - CharlesW 4y ago
    I hadn’t heard it before, but it’s perfect and I’ll use it henceforth!
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
Teslas are just fun to drive, I don’t think most people buy them to signal virtue, if they want to do that there is always the much cheaper Prius instead. I don’t think most Tesla buyers also care much about Musk. The more likely answer is that Tesla went through a huge sales boom the last couple of years and that’s sort of done now, anyone who wanted a Tesla over that period has one now, and now people are watching their money more carefully.
- beoberha 4y ago
  I completely agree with you. In Southern California, you see people all across the political spectrum driving Teslas. As more options emerge, I don’t think it’s too crazy to see their market share go down.
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    Ya. I bought a BMW i4 instead due to the better interior. Although I’m missing Tesla’s better software experience.
- thunky 4y ago
  When I see a Prius I think the driver probably has common sense and value's their money over their public image. When I see a Tesla I think the opposite.
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    Are you sure you aren't just imagining things about Tesla vs what is really true? When I see a Tesla, I think techie, likely Indian or Chinese, but thats just my own local profile of Tesla drivers in my region. When I see Prius, I think either ecological grandma or Uber driver. Again, just a sample from my local region, it might not hold for other parts of the country.
    - thunky 4y ago
      Yeah I'm sure I am being unfair to Tesla owners. I see them as "dumb techies". Probably getting a fat paycheck they don't really deserve, thinking they're smarter than everyone else and their choice of car proves it. I know it's wrong.
      - HereBeBeasties 4y ago
        That's quite a lot of projection. I bought a Model 3 because it felt objectively better / better value than everything else on the market at the time, having, you know, actually test driven pretty much everything. (Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia e-Niro, Jaguar I-PACE, Porsche Taycan even). Techies might (gross generalisation warning) tend to: a) Have higher than average disposable income b) Be early adopters of new tech c) Care less what other people think of them than an average person d) Judge things more objectively than an average person. So it's hardly surprising a lot of them end up buying a Tesla Model 3. They are very well-packaged, fast, have good range, the Supercharger network, and are fairly mid-priced as cars these days go (similar to say a slower BMW 3 series diesel, at least in the UK). The BMW i4 launched recently. The Tesla Model 3 is a six year old design. And yet the i4 has much worse range, is either slower or much more expensive, and according to all the critics seems to be less fun to drive. Heaven forfend that anyone buy a car on its merits, as opposed to what other people think of the badge.
iancmceachern 4y ago
It was that way a couple years ago, now most progressives I know wouldn't be caught dead in a Tesla, exactly because of Musks right wing egomaniac behavior. You are a few years late with this comment
- malermeister 4y ago
  I think the Twitter purchase made it impossible to ignore his BS.
Avshalom 4y ago
Probably not, I hate Elon more than most people, but like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Passat#Sales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Passat#Sales (U.S. column) a lot of cars just see demand fall off a cliff when all they see is small refreshes over a decade. There's talk of Tesla being in the process of a full updates to various lines and until that (does|does not) happen it's probably a bit premature to chalk anything up to Tesla's cultural positioning (after all, unless (like me) you're a terminally online twitter user Musk's politics are probably completely unknown to you)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Buying a Tesla used to be an effective way of liberal virtue signaling for the much-despised "coastal elites". Now that Elon has gone fully mask-off, it might as well be the Trumpmobile.

CharlesW 4y ago

I also wonder if the price cuts are a reaction to market saturation. They as common as Camrys in mid- and higher-income areas in California.

decafninja 4y ago
Aren’t they literally nicknamed the California Camry?
- CharlesW 4y ago
  I hadn’t heard it before, but it’s perfect and I’ll use it henceforth!

seanmcdirmid 4y ago

Teslas are just fun to drive, I don’t think most people buy them to signal virtue, if they want to do that there is always the much cheaper Prius instead. I don’t think most Tesla buyers also care much about Musk. The more likely answer is that Tesla went through a huge sales boom the last couple of years and that’s sort of done now, anyone who wanted a Tesla over that period has one now, and now people are watching their money more carefully.

beoberha 4y ago
I completely agree with you. In Southern California, you see people all across the political spectrum driving Teslas. As more options emerge, I don’t think it’s too crazy to see their market share go down.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  Ya. I bought a BMW i4 instead due to the better interior. Although I’m missing Tesla’s better software experience.
thunky 4y ago
When I see a Prius I think the driver probably has common sense and value's their money over their public image. When I see a Tesla I think the opposite.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  Are you sure you aren't just imagining things about Tesla vs what is really true? When I see a Tesla, I think techie, likely Indian or Chinese, but thats just my own local profile of Tesla drivers in my region. When I see Prius, I think either ecological grandma or Uber driver. Again, just a sample from my local region, it might not hold for other parts of the country.
  - thunky 4y ago
    Yeah I'm sure I am being unfair to Tesla owners. I see them as "dumb techies". Probably getting a fat paycheck they don't really deserve, thinking they're smarter than everyone else and their choice of car proves it. I know it's wrong.
    - HereBeBeasties 4y ago
      That's quite a lot of projection. I bought a Model 3 because it felt objectively better / better value than everything else on the market at the time, having, you know, actually test driven pretty much everything. (Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia e-Niro, Jaguar I-PACE, Porsche Taycan even). Techies might (gross generalisation warning) tend to: a) Have higher than average disposable income b) Be early adopters of new tech c) Care less what other people think of them than an average person d) Judge things more objectively than an average person. So it's hardly surprising a lot of them end up buying a Tesla Model 3. They are very well-packaged, fast, have good range, the Supercharger network, and are fairly mid-priced as cars these days go (similar to say a slower BMW 3 series diesel, at least in the UK). The BMW i4 launched recently. The Tesla Model 3 is a six year old design. And yet the i4 has much worse range, is either slower or much more expensive, and according to all the critics seems to be less fun to drive. Heaven forfend that anyone buy a car on its merits, as opposed to what other people think of the badge.

iancmceachern 4y ago

It was that way a couple years ago, now most progressives I know wouldn't be caught dead in a Tesla, exactly because of Musks right wing egomaniac behavior. You are a few years late with this comment

malermeister 4y ago
I think the Twitter purchase made it impossible to ignore his BS.

Avshalom 4y ago

Probably not, I hate Elon more than most people, but like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Passat#Sales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Passat#Sales (U.S. column) a lot of cars just see demand fall off a cliff when all they see is small refreshes over a decade. There's talk of Tesla being in the process of a full updates to various lines and until that (does|does not) happen it's probably a bit premature to chalk anything up to Tesla's cultural positioning (after all, unless (like me) you're a terminally online twitter user Musk's politics are probably completely unknown to you)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]