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The weird thing I’ve seen is in almost all the online forums I visit, like Reddit, YouTube comment sections, parts of twitter, hacker news, the cybertruck is un

The weird thing I’ve seen is in almost all the online forums I visit, like Reddit, YouTube comment sections, parts of twitter, hacker news, the cybertruck is universally panned. Yet when I drove a cybertruck, the number of onlookers who approached me inquiring about the car with excitement is unmatched with even a Lamborghini that I once rented. Shows how much of a bubble the internet alone is. MKBHD got the ratio’s right in his review, 75% of all approaching population are excited about the car and when asked to guess its price, they all wildly overestimate it, guessing close to a million than a 100k. This car is probably a hit, it would be a bigger hit if it were a gas car, it’s low range and really low range when towing make it impractical for any actual truck work.

Salgat 2y ago
If you drive the weenermobile you'll get a similar reaction, but it doesn't mean people want to buy it. It's an oddity, a curiosity they're excited to see in person.
tennisflyi 2y ago
Social media isn’t reality
ToucanLoucan 2y ago
I feel this is also selection bias. People approaching owners in public are unlikely to be aware of what an engineering disaster the thing is, what with all the issues with quality control, slow delivery, and very slow repairs/maintenance from Tesla, or the funnier stories where owners have had their trucks brick entirely due to getting the thing washed, whereas in the comment sections you're referencing, those topics are usually the topic of conversation. And, I mean, even if the people approaching owners do know about that stuff... I dunno, I find it hard to picture myself walking up to a complete stranger and shit-talking their new toy to their face. And not just because I'm a nice person, but because too many people in this country are emotionally unstable and armed, and as funny as I think Cybertrucks and their owners are, I'm not prepared to get killed for a joke. And to put this even further: most people even in America are not "car people" and therefore don't know shit about cars, where they come from, what goes into them, etc. My parents are great examples of this. They've owned something like 4 of the 10 worst cars of the new millennium list put out by Forbes, but like, an awful car in 2024 is still generally fine for an undemanding casual user. Sure, people buy tons of trucks here, but the vast majority of them aren't used for anything more strenuous than hauling a dozen bags of fertilizer, and my Corvette can handle that. A Cybertruck is a terrible truck, but most people don't do truck shit with the trucks they buy, and it's a perfectly middle-of-the-road SUEV. I think it's a bad option if that's what you're after, chiefly because you're gonna spend a LOT of money on tires you don't really need to, and the panels aren't aligned right, and if anything goes wrong with it you're liable to spend months playing vehicular ping-pong with your Tesla dealership, and it's (IMO) ugly as sin... but you do you. Assuming it doesn't have some kind of catastrophic failure that an unfortunate number do, you'll probably have a fine experience. The videos of it struggling to move in snow and "bravely" fording a creek of 5 inch deep water are funny as hell to see, because it's shocking what Cybertruck owners think "hard going" in a truck is. They'd probably lose their minds seeing some of what I've seen modified trucks crawl up, through, and across in the course of off-road competition if they think driving through a fast stream makes the Cybertruck a feat of engineering, but again, most people who buy these things aren't driving through a blizzard at 90mph to get medicine to the good children of the village so they live to see Santa come Christmas morning. They're going across town to the Good Denny's, or to the local mall for shopping, or to their kids soccer game. And on that journey, a Cybertruck and virtually any vehicle you can buy new right now, will suffice. Just don't get it wet.
- iknowstuff 2y ago
  I hope this is gpt generated and you didnt spend your own time writing that. its fine. a couple early failures get fixed as production ramps, as usual, and itll become a best selling ev, as usual.
BeefWellington 2y ago
For a number of years, a friend of mine has had a '99 Plymouth Prowler. If I were to base car popularity based solely on people coming up to ask about the car, his would win hands down and you'd assume (naturally) that Plymouth just couldn't manufacture enough to keep up with demand. There's a huge difference between attention-grabbing looks to a vehicle that will have people stop you and ask about it and what people will actually buy when it comes time to buy their next car. It's tempting to point to its position as #3 overall as an overwhelming success but the EV market is comparatively small still so I'm not sure it's useful to put much stock in it. In terms of the negativity, I'd say that unlike other cars of similar design (like the Aztek) -- a way higher percentage of the panning I see online is about it not living up to its promised capabilities. There's loads of videos of Cybertrucks needing to be towed out of bad spots by other trucks, problems even when it isn't stuck because of how little its frame flexes, the additional torque wearing away tread on the tires much faster, etc. Some of those things can be engineered around and I'm sure Tesla engineers are working on it. I'd hazard a guess that the market share the Cybertruck is taking isn't any existing trucks but rather more "luxury-class" SUVs like Mercedes, Land Rover, and BMW.
- TMWNN 2y ago
  > For a number of years, a friend of mine has had a '99 Plymouth Prowler. If I were to base car popularity based solely on people coming up to ask about the car, his would win hands down and you'd assume (naturally) that Plymouth just couldn't manufacture enough to keep up with demand. There's a huge difference between attention-grabbing looks to a vehicle that will have people stop you and ask about it and what people will actually buy when it comes time to buy their next car. You should give sashank_1509 enough credit to be able to distinguish between the jokey/mocking questions your friend's Prowler gets, and the enthusiastic ones he reports receiving. >It's tempting to point to its position as #3 overall as an overwhelming success There is no other way to spin a $100K car being the #3 overall EV vehicle of any type other than a success, especially given that a) #1 and #2 are also Tesla vehicles, and b) one of them was the world's best-selling car of any kind, EV or not, in 2023.
  - sabbaticaldev 2y ago
forgetfreeman 2y ago
I actually saw one in person for the first time a couple days ago. I had a great laugh at the owner's expense. He could better serve his desperate need for attention at a fraction of the price by hosting a block party or driving a 70s F150 or similar (aka an actual truck). Unlike many folks who think these things are trash I'm delighted they're on the market. Characterless voids trying to trowel over their emptiness with expensive consumer goods should absolutely be able to advertise loudly as a warning to the rest of us. Imagine what would have been possible if they'd spent that money on a combination of therapy and developing actual interests.
- mensetmanusman 2y ago
  A hinged take.
- DAGdug 2y ago
  Your comment perhaps says more about your own mental state than of those you’re collectively chiding.
  - forgetfreeman 2y ago
    I'm quite certain there's a contingent that are salving their egos with some flavor of narrative around that idea. Thing is I'm reminded of a particular gaping chasm of a human being that used to work for Epic Games. Around the time Gears of War bonus checks started dropping he flipped out and bought a Lamborghini. Shortly after taking delivery he was overheard complaining loudly about not being able to "pull" at the local club and expressing frustration that the car wasn't getting him enough attention. He decided having the car painted radium green would fix everything. We can, of course, pretend folks like him aren't common as grass but then you're stuck having to explain away things like the Hummer H2, or the rando on here that was bragging about dropping five figures on overpriced kitchen appliances until someone pointed out he could have gotten an actual restaurant walk-in for an order of magnitude less...
    - kylebenzle 2y ago
      I agree with you.
bryanlarsen 2y ago
> impractical any actual truck work. Some pickup truck work is high mileage, but a surprising amount of it is low mileage. It varies a lot, there are lots of trucks that do less than 100 miles a day. Work trucks are also usually much more predictable than consumer vehicles. Most of them do the same thing every day. The predictability should make buying an EV easier.
- entropicdrifter 2y ago
  That's true of the range, but the Cybertruck is also terrible in terms of torque, horsepower, and suspension compared to the Rivian truck or the F150 Lightning. Those EV trucks are very practical. The Cybertruck, not so much. As others in this comment section have pointed out, it's more of a luxury SUV than anything else.
  - enslavedrobot 2y ago
    That doesn't explain this tractor pull result where the tri-motor cybertruck outperforms both those EVs and an F350. https://youtu.be/Pj2jMhwKuv4?si=rJ8B1NnzBvR6usqa https://youtu.be/Pj2jMhwKuv4?si=rJ8B1NnzBvR6usqa
    - FireBeyond 2y ago
      Oh, just like the video Tesla released of the CT towing a 911 faster than the 911? Entirely objective, not misleading? I'm sure there won't be multiple publications completely debunking this video too like they did the 911 video.
      - aeonik 2y ago
        Are you talking about the debunking videos that highlight that the Cybertruck only beat the Porsche in the 1/8 mile and not the whole quarter mile? And that Cybertruck is still basically a 10 second truck? It's honestly a absurd and funny to me how fast the truck is. It's like seeing an elephant fly. It's even funnier to see people get angry at it. I definitely don't like marketing and ads, but that's literally how all ads work. It doesn't debunk some of the insane performance characteristics.
mikestew 2y ago
People used to do the same thing to me after we bought one of the first Nissan Leafs. So much that a friend expressed displeasure with going with me to pick up food because he knew we would very likely be delayed by someone asking about the car. So I don’t think it’s much of a measuring stick.
- NetToolKit 2y ago
  But the LEAF is a great car :)
  - seanp2k2 2y ago
    They’re especially great at depreciating: https://insideevs.com/news/715992/save-used-evs-price-differential/ https://insideevs.com/news/715992/save-used-evs-price-differ... Second only to the MB EQS. Down almost half in 12 months. This is why EVs are lease-only vehicles right now IMO.
    - NetToolKit 2y ago
      I agree... I also think that for people with specific use cases, the rapid depreciation means that there are great deals available for used LEAFs. I wouldn't buy one new now.
    - floxy 2y ago
      Back when the Leaf was eligible for the $7,500 federal rebate, that accounted for a pretty big chunk of the depreciation for the lower trims. MSRP was in the $28,500 neighborhood. Minus $7,500, leaves you at $21,000. Or 26% hit the day you drive it off the lot.
- seanp2k2 2y ago
  PT Cruiser and New Beetle were also incredible attention-getters when new and eventual unexciting flops. The new VW ID Buzz van will be the same due to the subpar mileage. What good is a road trip car that you must stop to charge every 200 miles?
hindsightbias 2y ago
Years ago I got a rental that was some new hideous looking 4-door Fiat model. Maybe a 500L or something. They were taking off the plastic wrap when I got it. It was a week of beating off people approaching me and asking about it. It looked weird, I thought people wanted to beat me up but they were genuinely curious about it. That some weird truck with a formerly 3 year waiting list is at the top of the charts a couple months into shipping should be surprising? Wait a year. Nobody is looking at the 500L now.
- matthewdgreen 2y ago
  I went through this with my Model 3 back in 2018, when they were still rare in my area. Random people would approach me in super market parking lots, everyone at my gym wanted a ride in it. Now it's like driving a Toyota or a BMW, there are tons on the road and nobody bats an eyelid.
m463 2y ago
I think the truck is like dating an exciting but shallow person who doesn't care about you. The truck is extremely fast, with excellent steering, suspension and lots of other groundbreaking technology. But it is basically user-hostile. No dashboard, no stalks for turn signals or gear selection, and everything is on the central touchscreen. And that is super cluttered and impossible to do important things without looking away from your driving and jabbing at a moving touch point. It makes you a worse driver, and you're spending 100k. Honestly, give it a dashboard. Add stalks for turn signals, wiper, headlight, gear selection. Give it a few dedicated buttons for things you need to reach by touch (defrost, mute/volume, internal/external lights) and lots of animosity would go away. Make it an option for $5k! people will pay. EDIT: they are learning. The wrapped black ones don't look terrible.
- seanp2k2 2y ago
  Oooooh, is this why I see so many Teslas not using their turn signals? How did that even get regulatory approval (though I guess not in the EU)?
  - Symbiote 2y ago
    Tesla has approval for no turn signal stalks on their other model in the EU. I don't know why. It's the reason they don't indicate when leaving a roundabout.
- CrimsonRain 2y ago
  No dashboard, no stalks, no extra buttons are needed. The voice control works just fine.
  - m463 2y ago
    "siri, extend the door handles so the person can enter the car!"
  - nolok 2y ago
    Ah yes voice control, the one thing we have found to be worse than touchscreen to control a car's interface and serve no practical purpose over physical button beside looking pseudo better and saving you time on paper but not really.
FireBeyond 2y ago
> MKBHD got the ratio’s right in his review, 75% of all approaching population are excited about the car and when asked to guess its price, they all wildly overestimate it, guessing close to a million than a 100k This has to be hyperbole. There are many in the middle class areas I spend a lot of time in, and even $100K cars are a rarity here. No-one is thinking "oh, wow, sure are a lot of people who just bought million dollar cars, here where the median home price is $500-600K!"
Spooky23 2y ago
Idk. I’d imagine it has more to do with the preorders and how they can stuff shipments. I got to drive one… it’s an objectively terrible car. I would imagine that as the look gets let’s novel that attention will wane quickly. When they get the inevitable prominent pedestrian collision on video, it has Pinto potential. It’s weird because the last “new” Tesla was the Model Y I think, and that is an incredibly well thought out car — probably the 2020s equivalent of the 1980s Taurus or Camry.
- mensetmanusman 2y ago
  It only feels like a car because of the amazing steer by wire. It’s actually a truck though.
  - asadotzler 2y ago
    It's not a truck though. It's a unibody car with a bed and big wheels. Trucks are body on frame and can do real work without the back falling off.
    - blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
      Unibody car is misleading because the materials are very different. I don’t think it is comparable to either a body on frame construction or the type of unibody a typical sedan or crossover has.
      - serf 2y ago
        similar things were said about the Honda Ridgeline and the Chevrolet Avalanche; they ended up having the same long-tern issues that they were predicted to have; torn mounting points and reduced repair-ability when the inevitable occurs.
        potato3732842 2y ago
        >similar things were said about the Honda Ridgeline and the Chevrolet Avalanche; they ended up having the same long-tern issues that they were predicted to have; torn mounting points and reduced repair-ability when the inevitable occurs. The fact that you think the Chevy Avalanche[1] has unibody problems says everything I need to know about your opinion There's nothing fundamentally wrong with unibody construction for a vehicle like this some work vans have been that way basically forever (though it makes me want to go postal when the OEMs graft a really shitty frame onto the back of a unibody van and call it a "cab and chassis"). [1]https://www.gmwholesaledirect.com/v-2009-chevrolet-avalanche--lt--5-3l-v8-gas/body--frame-and-components https://www.gmwholesaledirect.com/v-2009-chevrolet-avalanche...
lm28469 2y ago
Yeah because street folks impressed by a hunk of steel and thinking it cost a million dollars aren't in a bubble aha There are a lot of terrible cars that impress non car people
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  The DeLorean DMC-12 is the car guy version of "never meet your heroes." So fucking cool, absolutely iconic design, and genuinely one of the worst cars ever manufactured. Criminally under-powered, no power steering, the only part of the window that would open was the part inside the plastic frame of it, issues with overheating, 0-60 in about 2 years, and the transmission was an utterly garbage Lotus one that was chosen because it was the only one that would fit in the frame. Honestly one of my lottery dreams would be buying a DMC-12 and converting it to electric.
  - oniony 2y ago
    Yeah, but how many other cars can you revisit the 80s in?
    - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
      Mine of choice would be the Lamborghini Countach, as long as I don't have to back it up. I'm too old for the Lambo Lean.
      - gremlinsinc 2y ago
        But can it also take you back to 1955 or 1855? or 2020...wait... wtf wants to go back to that year...lol
  - toast0 2y ago
    I've not driven a DMC-12, but lack of power steering doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me? All the vehicles I've driven without power steering have been ok; usually the steering wheel is much larger to give you the leverage you need; it's not as bad as you'd think if you've used a car with inoperative power steering. But yeah, I had a nice conversation with a guy who kitted his out as a movie replica at a outdoor showing of the film. He said it was fun to go to events, but it's terrible as a car. And some of the parts are unobtanium, like the flux capacitor. Not that that's unique for cars in that era, try finding a federal EGR filter for an early Vanagon; just gotta hack around it.
Tanoc 2y ago
The thing is, the people most likely to complain that the Cybertruck is a bad vehicle are the people who are informed about it. The wider public doesn't know about things like the tonneau cover leaking, wheel bearings failing, the suspension being stuck down and causing tire rub, the aerodynamic wheel covers that were causing tire failures because they were puncturing the sidewalls, the upper control arms that bend like an empty aluminum can, the door edges that will cut your finger off, the tailgate that will also cut your finger off, the fact that it's got even worse sight lines than the Hummer H1, or that the bed effectively loses twenty percent of it's space because of the backwards angled bulkhead where the bed and the cab meet. Someone who is an enthusiast will most likely know about those things because they were widely reported in the automotive news sphere, and thus they will have a much higher chance of being against the Cybertruck. The wider public doesn't know, and so the novelty factor draws them in.
- qwerpy 2y ago
  I drive a Cybertruck as my daily driver and I don't even know about most of these.
  - llamaimperative 2y ago
    I smoke a pack a day and I haven't heard of lung cancer. I play the lottery every day and I haven't won a dollar. Etc etc
    - kaliqt 2y ago
      That's not equivalent. You are describing likelihoods in time series, we are discussing the likelihoods of exceptional defects, period. Which is actually low.
      - llamaimperative 2y ago
        I ate Boar's Head meat and I didn't get listeria Etc etc The temporal component doesn't matter at all, the point is that an individual's experience is pretty meaningless when trying to understand statistical phenomena. Which is why we invented statistics and do things like "collect data"
chairmansteve 2y ago
"Yet when I drove a cybertruck, the number of onlookers who approached me inquiring about the car with excitement is unmatched with even a Lamborghini that I once rented". Your sampling method is flawed. Only Cybertruck fans are approaching you. Most people aren't going to come up and tell you they think your car is ugly.
- mdhb 2y ago
  Right, it’s kind of known as the incel mobile I think by most people. In the same way when you see a MAGA hat on the street, you already know a lot about the person before they a a single word and you do your best to avoid them but other people with MAGA hats will give each other the wink and nod. In my experience that’s the closest thing I could describe to the cyber truck experience and how most people look at it.
  - seanp2k2 2y ago
    The Jeep wave, but less bend in the elbow
    - muixoozie 2y ago
      Wow had no idea there was a name for this. I rented a jeep in Colorado once and noticed other people driving jeeps waving (peace sign) at me while driving to Alma from Denver. First time I've experienced anything like that. Think I've motorcyclist slightly wave at each other before. To be honest I'd probably wave too if I saw another miata driver in Texas, but that's about as rare as seeing a lifted Japanese compact truck.
  - MagicMoonlight 2y ago
    Nobody knows what an incel is, other than the terminally online.
    - mdhb 2y ago
      They know exactly what it is when they see it even if they don’t have a word for it. We could call it the loser mobile if it makes things clearer I guess. But honestly, I don’t know what point you’re trying to make here but I’m not talking about language, I’m talking about the reaction people have when they see people in cyber trucks.
bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
> it’s low range and really low range when towing make it impractical for any actual truck work. So it's a bit crap then?
UltraSane 2y ago
The only good thing about the CyberTruck is the steer-by-wire system. It makes steering suck in all other cars. But every other aspect of the thing is a complete failure. Selling a car with such terrible terrible visibility should not be legal.
csomar 2y ago
There is an anti-musk campaign on-going and anything Musk does is being criticized. That being said, from my Youtube observations it seems that the biggest issue is the build quality. They clearly rushed this through. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see this thing in small alleys and especially with the crazy speeds you can accelerate with. But it's definitively an interesting model.
maeil 2y ago
Nothing weird about it. It's panned as a vehicle to drive. Not panned as a way to attract attention, haven't seen anyone claiming it's bad at that.
MrSkelter 2y ago
People are much more likely to approach you to say something positive than to say something negative. There’s almost no precedent for a “hit” vehicle at that price point. Toyota stopped selling real Landcruisers in the US because Americans won’t pay that much for something with a Toyota Badge (hence the current real Landcruiser is sold as a Lexus in very low volume). Tesla are claiming a hit after making people wait 5 years for a vehicle they couldn’t see and then shipping preorders. The preorders have been massively less than they claimed and now the vehicle is with people it is being shown to be of low quality and low capability. Unable to manage tasks Subarus and much cheaper vehicles can. The proof of its success will be in the coming year. Now buyers are walking in to buy a real vehicle at a real price. The current owners bought a paper spec sheet at a fantasy price and are a self selecting group happy to pay 2-3x over what they were promised.
- Der_Einzige 2y ago
  For the longest time, the Lx variant of the Land Cruiser was cheaper than the Land Cruiser in used markets because average car buyers don’t know that the LX is a Land Cruiser with leather. There are tons of deals like this in the car world. While peons paid insane markups on the RAV4 prime, intelligent people were getting the Lexus variant for MSRP and they had an actually good interior on top of it!!!
TiredOfLife 2y ago
James May (of Top Gear fame) recently tried the Cybertruck and didn't immediately hate it.
hcarvalhoalves 2y ago
I feel Tesla is a US bubble. Despite all the disproportionate media this brand and it’s CEO gets, in my country I haven’t even seen one in the street yet, but I see EV Volvo, Renault, Fiat, BYD, GWM and others daily.
- brokenmachine 2y ago
  I'm in Australia and I see zillions of Teslas. Thankfully our road laws won't allow the hideous monstrosity that is the Cybertruck though.
- purplethinking 2y ago
  Tesla Model Y is the most sold car in Europe right now. Not most sold EV, most sold CAR.
  - nolok 2y ago
    No, not right now. It was in 2023, by a thin margin,and that's soon 2 years ago. In 2024, it's not even passing the top 5 https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2024-half-year-europe-top-25-best-selling-car-models/ https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2024-half-year-euro...
ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago
I also fell for this online bashing of the cybertruck. And since I had a model S but skipped the model 3 for a taycan and was aware of the poor quality of the model 3, I thought it made sense. However if people are buying the cybertruck despite all its faults, then I'm glad to be proven wrong.
throwaway81523 2y ago
I can understand being curious about it since it is one of the most unusual looking vehicles. But, I mean, I saw one on Main Street recently and it was ugly as heck. I'd be curious about it too, without ever having any wish to buy one.
mistrial9 2y ago
novelty != taste; that vehicle sets new records for ugly..
neilk 2y ago
(Caveat: I am not a car guy at all, never owned one) In the US, most trucks sold do very little hauling, towing, or off-reading or anything else that might justify the giant form factor. https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-siz... And yet, trucks and SUVs are the best-selling cars in the US, and have been for a long time. There is a weird loophole for fuel efficiency in mileage standards for large vehicles, but obviously that doesn’t apply to the Cybertruck. There is definitely some psychological appeal to having a very dominant-looking vehicle. So just as a business move, the Cybertruck makes sense. But there’s more overlap with Musk’s politics than you might think. I read a book a long time ago by this very weird product marketer Clotaire Rapaille, who, several decades ago, was trying to convince executives to put a gun mount on an SUV. His argument was his research showed that the people who loved big cars saw the world as dangerous, and had fantasies of cutting through the hordes with a powerful vehicle. Rapaille’s methods are somewhere between the usual consumer panel interviews and guided meditation, so it’s hardly scientific, maybe more like poetry, but I found it compelling. Musk actually tried to demonstrate the Cybertruck’s resistance to guns and sledgehammers. Its actual durability is, I gather, more debatable, but he was definitely trying to reach people’s darkest fears and impulses.
oglop 2y ago
lol. Judging a vehicle because people talked to you. Sad. You look like a chode driving that thing.

Salgat 2y ago

If you drive the weenermobile you'll get a similar reaction, but it doesn't mean people want to buy it. It's an oddity, a curiosity they're excited to see in person.

tennisflyi 2y ago

Social media isn’t reality

ToucanLoucan 2y ago

I feel this is also selection bias. People approaching owners in public are unlikely to be aware of what an engineering disaster the thing is, what with all the issues with quality control, slow delivery, and very slow repairs/maintenance from Tesla, or the funnier stories where owners have had their trucks brick entirely due to getting the thing washed, whereas in the comment sections you're referencing, those topics are usually the topic of conversation. And, I mean, even if the people approaching owners do know about that stuff... I dunno, I find it hard to picture myself walking up to a complete stranger and shit-talking their new toy to their face. And not just because I'm a nice person, but because too many people in this country are emotionally unstable and armed, and as funny as I think Cybertrucks and their owners are, I'm not prepared to get killed for a joke. And to put this even further: most people even in America are not "car people" and therefore don't know shit about cars, where they come from, what goes into them, etc. My parents are great examples of this. They've owned something like 4 of the 10 worst cars of the new millennium list put out by Forbes, but like, an awful car in 2024 is still generally fine for an undemanding casual user. Sure, people buy tons of trucks here, but the vast majority of them aren't used for anything more strenuous than hauling a dozen bags of fertilizer, and my Corvette can handle that. A Cybertruck is a terrible truck, but most people don't do truck shit with the trucks they buy, and it's a perfectly middle-of-the-road SUEV. I think it's a bad option if that's what you're after, chiefly because you're gonna spend a LOT of money on tires you don't really need to, and the panels aren't aligned right, and if anything goes wrong with it you're liable to spend months playing vehicular ping-pong with your Tesla dealership, and it's (IMO) ugly as sin... but you do you. Assuming it doesn't have some kind of catastrophic failure that an unfortunate number do, you'll probably have a fine experience. The videos of it struggling to move in snow and "bravely" fording a creek of 5 inch deep water are funny as hell to see, because it's shocking what Cybertruck owners think "hard going" in a truck is. They'd probably lose their minds seeing some of what I've seen modified trucks crawl up, through, and across in the course of off-road competition if they think driving through a fast stream makes the Cybertruck a feat of engineering, but again, most people who buy these things aren't driving through a blizzard at 90mph to get medicine to the good children of the village so they live to see Santa come Christmas morning. They're going across town to the Good Denny's, or to the local mall for shopping, or to their kids soccer game. And on that journey, a Cybertruck and virtually any vehicle you can buy new right now, will suffice. Just don't get it wet.

iknowstuff 2y ago
I hope this is gpt generated and you didnt spend your own time writing that. its fine. a couple early failures get fixed as production ramps, as usual, and itll become a best selling ev, as usual.

BeefWellington 2y ago

For a number of years, a friend of mine has had a '99 Plymouth Prowler. If I were to base car popularity based solely on people coming up to ask about the car, his would win hands down and you'd assume (naturally) that Plymouth just couldn't manufacture enough to keep up with demand. There's a huge difference between attention-grabbing looks to a vehicle that will have people stop you and ask about it and what people will actually buy when it comes time to buy their next car. It's tempting to point to its position as #3 overall as an overwhelming success but the EV market is comparatively small still so I'm not sure it's useful to put much stock in it. In terms of the negativity, I'd say that unlike other cars of similar design (like the Aztek) -- a way higher percentage of the panning I see online is about it not living up to its promised capabilities. There's loads of videos of Cybertrucks needing to be towed out of bad spots by other trucks, problems even when it isn't stuck because of how little its frame flexes, the additional torque wearing away tread on the tires much faster, etc. Some of those things can be engineered around and I'm sure Tesla engineers are working on it. I'd hazard a guess that the market share the Cybertruck is taking isn't any existing trucks but rather more "luxury-class" SUVs like Mercedes, Land Rover, and BMW.

TMWNN 2y ago
> For a number of years, a friend of mine has had a '99 Plymouth Prowler. If I were to base car popularity based solely on people coming up to ask about the car, his would win hands down and you'd assume (naturally) that Plymouth just couldn't manufacture enough to keep up with demand. There's a huge difference between attention-grabbing looks to a vehicle that will have people stop you and ask about it and what people will actually buy when it comes time to buy their next car. You should give sashank_1509 enough credit to be able to distinguish between the jokey/mocking questions your friend's Prowler gets, and the enthusiastic ones he reports receiving. >It's tempting to point to its position as #3 overall as an overwhelming success There is no other way to spin a $100K car being the #3 overall EV vehicle of any type other than a success, especially given that a) #1 and #2 are also Tesla vehicles, and b) one of them was the world's best-selling car of any kind, EV or not, in 2023.
- sabbaticaldev 2y ago

forgetfreeman 2y ago

I actually saw one in person for the first time a couple days ago. I had a great laugh at the owner's expense. He could better serve his desperate need for attention at a fraction of the price by hosting a block party or driving a 70s F150 or similar (aka an actual truck). Unlike many folks who think these things are trash I'm delighted they're on the market. Characterless voids trying to trowel over their emptiness with expensive consumer goods should absolutely be able to advertise loudly as a warning to the rest of us. Imagine what would have been possible if they'd spent that money on a combination of therapy and developing actual interests.

mensetmanusman 2y ago
A hinged take.
DAGdug 2y ago
Your comment perhaps says more about your own mental state than of those you’re collectively chiding.
- forgetfreeman 2y ago
  I'm quite certain there's a contingent that are salving their egos with some flavor of narrative around that idea. Thing is I'm reminded of a particular gaping chasm of a human being that used to work for Epic Games. Around the time Gears of War bonus checks started dropping he flipped out and bought a Lamborghini. Shortly after taking delivery he was overheard complaining loudly about not being able to "pull" at the local club and expressing frustration that the car wasn't getting him enough attention. He decided having the car painted radium green would fix everything. We can, of course, pretend folks like him aren't common as grass but then you're stuck having to explain away things like the Hummer H2, or the rando on here that was bragging about dropping five figures on overpriced kitchen appliances until someone pointed out he could have gotten an actual restaurant walk-in for an order of magnitude less...
  - kylebenzle 2y ago
    I agree with you.

bryanlarsen 2y ago

> impractical any actual truck work. Some pickup truck work is high mileage, but a surprising amount of it is low mileage. It varies a lot, there are lots of trucks that do less than 100 miles a day. Work trucks are also usually much more predictable than consumer vehicles. Most of them do the same thing every day. The predictability should make buying an EV easier.

entropicdrifter 2y ago
That's true of the range, but the Cybertruck is also terrible in terms of torque, horsepower, and suspension compared to the Rivian truck or the F150 Lightning. Those EV trucks are very practical. The Cybertruck, not so much. As others in this comment section have pointed out, it's more of a luxury SUV than anything else.
- enslavedrobot 2y ago
  That doesn't explain this tractor pull result where the tri-motor cybertruck outperforms both those EVs and an F350. https://youtu.be/Pj2jMhwKuv4?si=rJ8B1NnzBvR6usqa https://youtu.be/Pj2jMhwKuv4?si=rJ8B1NnzBvR6usqa
  - FireBeyond 2y ago
    Oh, just like the video Tesla released of the CT towing a 911 faster than the 911? Entirely objective, not misleading? I'm sure there won't be multiple publications completely debunking this video too like they did the 911 video.
    - aeonik 2y ago
      Are you talking about the debunking videos that highlight that the Cybertruck only beat the Porsche in the 1/8 mile and not the whole quarter mile? And that Cybertruck is still basically a 10 second truck? It's honestly a absurd and funny to me how fast the truck is. It's like seeing an elephant fly. It's even funnier to see people get angry at it. I definitely don't like marketing and ads, but that's literally how all ads work. It doesn't debunk some of the insane performance characteristics.

mikestew 2y ago

People used to do the same thing to me after we bought one of the first Nissan Leafs. So much that a friend expressed displeasure with going with me to pick up food because he knew we would very likely be delayed by someone asking about the car. So I don’t think it’s much of a measuring stick.

NetToolKit 2y ago
But the LEAF is a great car :)
- seanp2k2 2y ago
  They’re especially great at depreciating: https://insideevs.com/news/715992/save-used-evs-price-differential/ https://insideevs.com/news/715992/save-used-evs-price-differ... Second only to the MB EQS. Down almost half in 12 months. This is why EVs are lease-only vehicles right now IMO.
  - NetToolKit 2y ago
    I agree... I also think that for people with specific use cases, the rapid depreciation means that there are great deals available for used LEAFs. I wouldn't buy one new now.
  - floxy 2y ago
    Back when the Leaf was eligible for the $7,500 federal rebate, that accounted for a pretty big chunk of the depreciation for the lower trims. MSRP was in the $28,500 neighborhood. Minus $7,500, leaves you at $21,000. Or 26% hit the day you drive it off the lot.
seanp2k2 2y ago
PT Cruiser and New Beetle were also incredible attention-getters when new and eventual unexciting flops. The new VW ID Buzz van will be the same due to the subpar mileage. What good is a road trip car that you must stop to charge every 200 miles?

hindsightbias 2y ago

Years ago I got a rental that was some new hideous looking 4-door Fiat model. Maybe a 500L or something. They were taking off the plastic wrap when I got it. It was a week of beating off people approaching me and asking about it. It looked weird, I thought people wanted to beat me up but they were genuinely curious about it. That some weird truck with a formerly 3 year waiting list is at the top of the charts a couple months into shipping should be surprising? Wait a year. Nobody is looking at the 500L now.

matthewdgreen 2y ago
I went through this with my Model 3 back in 2018, when they were still rare in my area. Random people would approach me in super market parking lots, everyone at my gym wanted a ride in it. Now it's like driving a Toyota or a BMW, there are tons on the road and nobody bats an eyelid.

m463 2y ago

I think the truck is like dating an exciting but shallow person who doesn't care about you. The truck is extremely fast, with excellent steering, suspension and lots of other groundbreaking technology. But it is basically user-hostile. No dashboard, no stalks for turn signals or gear selection, and everything is on the central touchscreen. And that is super cluttered and impossible to do important things without looking away from your driving and jabbing at a moving touch point. It makes you a worse driver, and you're spending 100k. Honestly, give it a dashboard. Add stalks for turn signals, wiper, headlight, gear selection. Give it a few dedicated buttons for things you need to reach by touch (defrost, mute/volume, internal/external lights) and lots of animosity would go away. Make it an option for $5k! people will pay. EDIT: they are learning. The wrapped black ones don't look terrible.

seanp2k2 2y ago
Oooooh, is this why I see so many Teslas not using their turn signals? How did that even get regulatory approval (though I guess not in the EU)?
- Symbiote 2y ago
  Tesla has approval for no turn signal stalks on their other model in the EU. I don't know why. It's the reason they don't indicate when leaving a roundabout.
CrimsonRain 2y ago
No dashboard, no stalks, no extra buttons are needed. The voice control works just fine.
- m463 2y ago
  "siri, extend the door handles so the person can enter the car!"
- nolok 2y ago
  Ah yes voice control, the one thing we have found to be worse than touchscreen to control a car's interface and serve no practical purpose over physical button beside looking pseudo better and saving you time on paper but not really.

FireBeyond 2y ago

> MKBHD got the ratio’s right in his review, 75% of all approaching population are excited about the car and when asked to guess its price, they all wildly overestimate it, guessing close to a million than a 100k This has to be hyperbole. There are many in the middle class areas I spend a lot of time in, and even $100K cars are a rarity here. No-one is thinking "oh, wow, sure are a lot of people who just bought million dollar cars, here where the median home price is $500-600K!"

Spooky23 2y ago

Idk. I’d imagine it has more to do with the preorders and how they can stuff shipments. I got to drive one… it’s an objectively terrible car. I would imagine that as the look gets let’s novel that attention will wane quickly. When they get the inevitable prominent pedestrian collision on video, it has Pinto potential. It’s weird because the last “new” Tesla was the Model Y I think, and that is an incredibly well thought out car — probably the 2020s equivalent of the 1980s Taurus or Camry.

mensetmanusman 2y ago
It only feels like a car because of the amazing steer by wire. It’s actually a truck though.
- asadotzler 2y ago
  It's not a truck though. It's a unibody car with a bed and big wheels. Trucks are body on frame and can do real work without the back falling off.
  - blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
    Unibody car is misleading because the materials are very different. I don’t think it is comparable to either a body on frame construction or the type of unibody a typical sedan or crossover has.
    - serf 2y ago
      similar things were said about the Honda Ridgeline and the Chevrolet Avalanche; they ended up having the same long-tern issues that they were predicted to have; torn mounting points and reduced repair-ability when the inevitable occurs.
      - potato3732842 2y ago
        >similar things were said about the Honda Ridgeline and the Chevrolet Avalanche; they ended up having the same long-tern issues that they were predicted to have; torn mounting points and reduced repair-ability when the inevitable occurs. The fact that you think the Chevy Avalanche[1] has unibody problems says everything I need to know about your opinion There's nothing fundamentally wrong with unibody construction for a vehicle like this some work vans have been that way basically forever (though it makes me want to go postal when the OEMs graft a really shitty frame onto the back of a unibody van and call it a "cab and chassis"). [1]https://www.gmwholesaledirect.com/v-2009-chevrolet-avalanche--lt--5-3l-v8-gas/body--frame-and-components https://www.gmwholesaledirect.com/v-2009-chevrolet-avalanche...

lm28469 2y ago

Yeah because street folks impressed by a hunk of steel and thinking it cost a million dollars aren't in a bubble aha There are a lot of terrible cars that impress non car people

ToucanLoucan 2y ago
The DeLorean DMC-12 is the car guy version of "never meet your heroes." So fucking cool, absolutely iconic design, and genuinely one of the worst cars ever manufactured. Criminally under-powered, no power steering, the only part of the window that would open was the part inside the plastic frame of it, issues with overheating, 0-60 in about 2 years, and the transmission was an utterly garbage Lotus one that was chosen because it was the only one that would fit in the frame. Honestly one of my lottery dreams would be buying a DMC-12 and converting it to electric.
- oniony 2y ago
  Yeah, but how many other cars can you revisit the 80s in?
  - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
    Mine of choice would be the Lamborghini Countach, as long as I don't have to back it up. I'm too old for the Lambo Lean.
    - gremlinsinc 2y ago
      But can it also take you back to 1955 or 1855? or 2020...wait... wtf wants to go back to that year...lol
- toast0 2y ago
  I've not driven a DMC-12, but lack of power steering doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me? All the vehicles I've driven without power steering have been ok; usually the steering wheel is much larger to give you the leverage you need; it's not as bad as you'd think if you've used a car with inoperative power steering. But yeah, I had a nice conversation with a guy who kitted his out as a movie replica at a outdoor showing of the film. He said it was fun to go to events, but it's terrible as a car. And some of the parts are unobtanium, like the flux capacitor. Not that that's unique for cars in that era, try finding a federal EGR filter for an early Vanagon; just gotta hack around it.

Tanoc 2y ago

The thing is, the people most likely to complain that the Cybertruck is a bad vehicle are the people who are informed about it. The wider public doesn't know about things like the tonneau cover leaking, wheel bearings failing, the suspension being stuck down and causing tire rub, the aerodynamic wheel covers that were causing tire failures because they were puncturing the sidewalls, the upper control arms that bend like an empty aluminum can, the door edges that will cut your finger off, the tailgate that will also cut your finger off, the fact that it's got even worse sight lines than the Hummer H1, or that the bed effectively loses twenty percent of it's space because of the backwards angled bulkhead where the bed and the cab meet. Someone who is an enthusiast will most likely know about those things because they were widely reported in the automotive news sphere, and thus they will have a much higher chance of being against the Cybertruck. The wider public doesn't know, and so the novelty factor draws them in.

qwerpy 2y ago
I drive a Cybertruck as my daily driver and I don't even know about most of these.
- llamaimperative 2y ago
  I smoke a pack a day and I haven't heard of lung cancer. I play the lottery every day and I haven't won a dollar. Etc etc
  - kaliqt 2y ago
    That's not equivalent. You are describing likelihoods in time series, we are discussing the likelihoods of exceptional defects, period. Which is actually low.
    - llamaimperative 2y ago
      I ate Boar's Head meat and I didn't get listeria Etc etc The temporal component doesn't matter at all, the point is that an individual's experience is pretty meaningless when trying to understand statistical phenomena. Which is why we invented statistics and do things like "collect data"

chairmansteve 2y ago

"Yet when I drove a cybertruck, the number of onlookers who approached me inquiring about the car with excitement is unmatched with even a Lamborghini that I once rented". Your sampling method is flawed. Only Cybertruck fans are approaching you. Most people aren't going to come up and tell you they think your car is ugly.

mdhb 2y ago
Right, it’s kind of known as the incel mobile I think by most people. In the same way when you see a MAGA hat on the street, you already know a lot about the person before they a a single word and you do your best to avoid them but other people with MAGA hats will give each other the wink and nod. In my experience that’s the closest thing I could describe to the cyber truck experience and how most people look at it.
- seanp2k2 2y ago
  The Jeep wave, but less bend in the elbow
  - muixoozie 2y ago
    Wow had no idea there was a name for this. I rented a jeep in Colorado once and noticed other people driving jeeps waving (peace sign) at me while driving to Alma from Denver. First time I've experienced anything like that. Think I've motorcyclist slightly wave at each other before. To be honest I'd probably wave too if I saw another miata driver in Texas, but that's about as rare as seeing a lifted Japanese compact truck.
- MagicMoonlight 2y ago
  Nobody knows what an incel is, other than the terminally online.
  - mdhb 2y ago
    They know exactly what it is when they see it even if they don’t have a word for it. We could call it the loser mobile if it makes things clearer I guess. But honestly, I don’t know what point you’re trying to make here but I’m not talking about language, I’m talking about the reaction people have when they see people in cyber trucks.

bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago

> it’s low range and really low range when towing make it impractical for any actual truck work. So it's a bit crap then?

UltraSane 2y ago

The only good thing about the CyberTruck is the steer-by-wire system. It makes steering suck in all other cars. But every other aspect of the thing is a complete failure. Selling a car with such terrible terrible visibility should not be legal.

csomar 2y ago

There is an anti-musk campaign on-going and anything Musk does is being criticized. That being said, from my Youtube observations it seems that the biggest issue is the build quality. They clearly rushed this through. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see this thing in small alleys and especially with the crazy speeds you can accelerate with. But it's definitively an interesting model.

maeil 2y ago

Nothing weird about it. It's panned as a vehicle to drive. Not panned as a way to attract attention, haven't seen anyone claiming it's bad at that.

MrSkelter 2y ago

People are much more likely to approach you to say something positive than to say something negative. There’s almost no precedent for a “hit” vehicle at that price point. Toyota stopped selling real Landcruisers in the US because Americans won’t pay that much for something with a Toyota Badge (hence the current real Landcruiser is sold as a Lexus in very low volume). Tesla are claiming a hit after making people wait 5 years for a vehicle they couldn’t see and then shipping preorders. The preorders have been massively less than they claimed and now the vehicle is with people it is being shown to be of low quality and low capability. Unable to manage tasks Subarus and much cheaper vehicles can. The proof of its success will be in the coming year. Now buyers are walking in to buy a real vehicle at a real price. The current owners bought a paper spec sheet at a fantasy price and are a self selecting group happy to pay 2-3x over what they were promised.

Der_Einzige 2y ago
For the longest time, the Lx variant of the Land Cruiser was cheaper than the Land Cruiser in used markets because average car buyers don’t know that the LX is a Land Cruiser with leather. There are tons of deals like this in the car world. While peons paid insane markups on the RAV4 prime, intelligent people were getting the Lexus variant for MSRP and they had an actually good interior on top of it!!!

TiredOfLife 2y ago

James May (of Top Gear fame) recently tried the Cybertruck and didn't immediately hate it.

hcarvalhoalves 2y ago

I feel Tesla is a US bubble. Despite all the disproportionate media this brand and it’s CEO gets, in my country I haven’t even seen one in the street yet, but I see EV Volvo, Renault, Fiat, BYD, GWM and others daily.

brokenmachine 2y ago
I'm in Australia and I see zillions of Teslas. Thankfully our road laws won't allow the hideous monstrosity that is the Cybertruck though.
purplethinking 2y ago
Tesla Model Y is the most sold car in Europe right now. Not most sold EV, most sold CAR.
- nolok 2y ago
  No, not right now. It was in 2023, by a thin margin,and that's soon 2 years ago. In 2024, it's not even passing the top 5 https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2024-half-year-europe-top-25-best-selling-car-models/ https://www.best-selling-cars.com/europe/2024-half-year-euro...

ilrwbwrkhv 2y ago

I also fell for this online bashing of the cybertruck. And since I had a model S but skipped the model 3 for a taycan and was aware of the poor quality of the model 3, I thought it made sense. However if people are buying the cybertruck despite all its faults, then I'm glad to be proven wrong.

throwaway81523 2y ago

I can understand being curious about it since it is one of the most unusual looking vehicles. But, I mean, I saw one on Main Street recently and it was ugly as heck. I'd be curious about it too, without ever having any wish to buy one.

mistrial9 2y ago

novelty != taste; that vehicle sets new records for ugly..

neilk 2y ago

(Caveat: I am not a car guy at all, never owned one) In the US, most trucks sold do very little hauling, towing, or off-reading or anything else that might justify the giant form factor. https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-siz... And yet, trucks and SUVs are the best-selling cars in the US, and have been for a long time. There is a weird loophole for fuel efficiency in mileage standards for large vehicles, but obviously that doesn’t apply to the Cybertruck. There is definitely some psychological appeal to having a very dominant-looking vehicle. So just as a business move, the Cybertruck makes sense. But there’s more overlap with Musk’s politics than you might think. I read a book a long time ago by this very weird product marketer Clotaire Rapaille, who, several decades ago, was trying to convince executives to put a gun mount on an SUV. His argument was his research showed that the people who loved big cars saw the world as dangerous, and had fantasies of cutting through the hordes with a powerful vehicle. Rapaille’s methods are somewhere between the usual consumer panel interviews and guided meditation, so it’s hardly scientific, maybe more like poetry, but I found it compelling. Musk actually tried to demonstrate the Cybertruck’s resistance to guns and sledgehammers. Its actual durability is, I gather, more debatable, but he was definitely trying to reach people’s darkest fears and impulses.

oglop 2y ago

lol. Judging a vehicle because people talked to you. Sad. You look like a chode driving that thing.