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Comment by runeblaze | Hacker News Reader

I think radioactive is a strong word here… I have talked to a lot of people in tech

I don't. YouGov's data suggests 77% of the UK populace has a negative view of the brand. Musk has destroyed its credibility.

Obviously we're just dueling anecdotes here, but FWIW, I'm a US tech worker who bought a Tesla in 2022 and certainly never will again. I have four friends with Teslas in tech and all of them say the same thing: never again. Replacement cycles for cars are so long that this will take a while to fully show up in the data, but I don't see growth anywhere in their future, especially when BYD is eating their lunch in seemingly every non-US market.

Sure never again is totally fair and I am sure a lot of people hate it. I was mostly objecting to the radioactivity of it. Your friends will be more like “I am looking to sell my Tesla in 3 months” if it is truly radioactive.

Let’s be realistic in our portrayal here.

Unfortunately, Tesla resale values have also plummeted, so even if people wanted to sell them desperately it may not be a financially sensible decision.

Personally, as a Tesla owner I'm concerned that if my car gets totalled I'll get pretty lowballed on the insurance settlement.

> Personally, as a Tesla owner I'm concerned that if my car gets totalled I'll get pretty lowballed on the insurance settlement.

The kinda obvious answer there is to use your insurance settlement to buy another highly-depreciated Tesla. Insurance settlements are intended to let you get a comparable replacement as determined by market value. (The alternative is that if your Tesla gets totalled, it's a get-out-of-jail-free card to get a non-Tesla.)

Tech workers weren't their core market, upper-middle to upper class liberals in major metro areas were.

Sales to that demographic are approximately zero and will remain there until every shred of Elon is removed from the company's fabric.

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