Tesla again threatens to sue Cybertruck buyers who try to resell the cars | Hacker News Reader

Tesla again threatens to sue Cybertruck buyers who try to resell the cars

arstechnica.com

21 pointsAlexandrB19 comments

the Ford F-150 Lightning has the same 1-year restriction. GM restricts Corvette C8 resale within 6 months. The Ford GT had a 2 year restriction. It's not uncommon for low volume production, highly sought after cars, not that I think this is fair, but it's hardly unique to this vehicle.

Interesting. That was in 2022 for the Lightning. Now it was just announced the production was cut in half, so I doubt it still holds

Ford cuts planned 2024 production of electric F-150 Lightning in half

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/11/f-150-lightning-ford-cuts-20...

Ferrari has terms that you can't modify the car for a period of time or else they can reclaim it. One of the more famous cases of this was when Deadmau5 wrapped his with the Nyan Cat (he then bought a Lambo and did the same thing). Another situation I saw involved a TikToker who did an EV conversion.

Just another step along the march to the 'you don't own your property's mindset.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/109

states you own the property when you acquire ownership of it. if the contract is written in a way that says you are renting, leasing, or loaning the car for a period of time then the sale has ultimately not completed. whether you decide to agree to the terms of the contract or not is entirely up to you. it is also entirely up to tesla to not offer the contract or sell a car to you if you disagree.

this likely only works because of tesla's network effect. honda, for example, would be hard-pressed to do this with their civics or accords today. tomorrow is a different story entirely

Ars Technica is usually pretty good, but this article fails to explain the logic or motivation behind Tesla's restriction. I've never heard of any such thing attached to a purchase of a consumer good and I'm at a loss to understand why.

Tesla thinks it's "preventing scalping."

I think it's "preventing people stuck with it from dumping it and depressing the cost of new"

My neighbor bought a Rivian truck cash when it came out. Sat on it for 4 months then turned around and sold it for twice his buying price while it was difficult to acquire. Sat on his hands for 6-8 months then bought another one, which he kept for himself, with the profits. He said he would do the same thing with the Cybertruck in a heartbeat

Normalization of contract based elision of Right of First Sale. Since the tech has evolved to basically allow for doing things like keeping one's finger on what happens to something after it changes hands, of course businesses are engaging in lawfare to normalize it's use and snuff out any memory that things were ever different.

Common with Ferrari's: Can't sell in the first year, can't sell without notice.

Anti-scalping was the (speculated?) reason the first time around.

Silly pleb! You didn't think you owned that thing you paid for, did you?

Ford does this with the GT. John Cena sold his a few months after buying and they sued him.

Good thing Tesla doesn't have a marketing team lest one might think this is a marketing stunt

I have a signed order agreement from 2021 for a RWD but haven’t heard anything from them.

Anyone else?

Probably won't until they have any ready for delivery (around 2025 or later)

With a price locked in?

I don't think any of their preorders have locked-in prices.

No I haven’t heard anything else is the point

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