Elon Musk: Force for anthropic advancement or self-serving con-artist?

[Ordnael]

Elon Musk the A-Hole:

This YouTuber’s Tesla Model S Plaid Lost Him $100,000​

https://insideevs.com/news/739013/tesla-model-s-plaid-depreciation/

The tale is as old as time: buy a Tesla, get a free side of massive depreciation in just a few years. As a Tesla owner, I, too, have succumbed to this fate, as have the owners of many luxury marques that face the same heavy value loss once they drive off the lot. But after seeing this latest tale of a six-figure depreciation on a Tesla Model S Plaid, I'm questioning everything I thought I knew about how much cars were worth.

If you're visiting InsideEVs, you probably know friend of the site Kyle Conner. If not, he's best known for being the host of the YouTube channel Out Of Spec Reviews. Kyle dropped a cool $140,940 on a new 2022 Tesla Model S Plaid—the fastest production Tesla ever made—just two years ago. And, as Jalopnik points out, while it has the power to rearrange your guts at the press of a pedal, it isn't able to outrun the cruel feeling of emptying your wallet with every revolution of its wheels.
Kyle recently had his Model S Plaid's trade-in price assessed by Tesla and things aren't exactly looking up for what Tesla CEO Elon Musk once called an "appreciating asset." After driving the car just 37,191 miles over the last two years, the Model S Plaid went from being valued by Tesla at $140,940 to just $46,600—a loss of $94,340, or 67% of its original value, or an astonishing $2.54 per mile. Ouch.

Now, I want to point out that Tesla is notorious for giving awful trade-in values. We also check Kyle's VIN against some other popular trade-in values. Edmunds estimates the car's value to be $55,527 in excellent condition and Consumer Reports at $59,180. KBB was not able to provide an estimate at the time of writing. While both numbers hurt a lot less than Tesla's trade-in value, it still stings significantly to see your ride's value more than halve in two short years.

So what exactly happened here that caused such a dramatic drop in value?

For starters, the Model S Plaid now costs less. A lot less. Buying one of these puppies today will set you back $89,990, or about $50,000 less than it did just two years ago. That's almost enough to buy a matching Model 3 Performance. Tesla has been relentless at the cost-cutting war on EVs in order to maintain market share and still somehow continues to remain profitable and lower its cost per vehicle at the same time.
EVs also depreciate disproportionately to their gas-powered cousins. Teslas in particular are noteworthy for tanking, some seeing as high as a 25% year-over-year devaluation. We're not just talking about the more luxury badges like the Model S or Model X—the Model 3 and Model Y are also suffering from Tesla's debilitating devaluation disease. The reason? Well, iSeeCars executive analyst told InsideEVs that one of the biggest driving factors behind the market for used Teslas falling apart just as bad as Kyle's Model S Plaid is none other than Elon Musk himself.

The CEO reportedly ordered the slashing of new vehicle prices as a response to the company failing to revamp its lineup as competitors brought new offerings to market. This dropped the prices of every Tesla on the used market virtually overnight and didn't exactly do wonders to keep customers happy (or particularly interested in buying another car that loses value so sharply.) Couple all of that with the introduction of the $7,500 tax credit—which admittedly is not applicable in Kyle's case due to the Model S Plaid's price tag—and you've got a recipe for depreciation.
Here's the thing—if you want to be immune to depreciation, don't buy a car. The original owners of a new car will typically eat the vast majority of the depreciation during the first few years of ownership (with the first year being the worst, typically). This is why buying second-hand can be such an attractive offering, especially when you factor in the used EV tax credit that shaves even more off the cost of a used electric car.

That being said Kyle's lesson is expensive, one I'm thankful that I didn't have to learn (at least as harshly). It may also serve as a brand deterrent to Tesla in coming years, especially as folks aren't exactly lining up to buy the Cybertruck and are instead waiting for the inevitable price drop to happen before even considering shelling out major cash on a stainless steel doorstop. But, hey, if money isn't an object, go nuts.

 

[Samson]

Elon Musk the A-Hole:

This YouTuber’s Tesla Model S Plaid Lost Him $100,000​

Kyle recently had his Model S Plaid's trade-in price assessed by Tesla and things aren't exactly looking up for what Tesla CEO Elon Musk once called an "appreciating asset." After driving the car just 37,191 miles over the last two years, the Model S Plaid went from being valued by Tesla at $140,940 to just $46,600—a loss of $94,340, or 67% of its original value, or an astonishing $2.54 per mile. Ouch.

67% drop in 2 years and 37,191 is not newsworthy. The only reason that some comparable prestige sports cars do better is artificial scarity.

Here are some cars for sale in 12 - 14 hours. This price will go up, but not by enough to make something newsworthy. I think a lot of these have lost more than 67%. Note the top 2 Fiskers are new, were £60k a few weeks ago and the IP has been bought by an owner owned company so they are not certain to be bricked.

2024 FISKER OCEAN EXTREME Estate REG: LB24OBX, 0cc Elec £10,150.00
2024 FISKER OCEAN ULTRA Estate REG: LB24OCA, 0cc Electr £10,050.00
2023 FISKER OCEAN OCEAN (1) 5 Door Hatchback REG: LJ73E £9,383.00
2021 TESLA MODEL 3 STANDARD RANGE + 4 Door Saloon REG: LD71 £8,550.00
2021 VAUXHALL CROSSLAND ELITE NAV TURBO 5 Door Hatchback £5,000.00
2022 DACIA SANDERO STEPWAY COMFORT T 5 Door Hatchback REG: £4,100.00

Spoiler These are the cars I would be looking at buying if I could justify it :

What I actually want
2005 PORSCHE BOXSTER S 3179cc £2,560.00
2007 BMW Z4 1995cc £125.00
Sensible cars
2012 ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA VELOCE JTDM-2 1956cc Diesel £1,000.00
2016 SMART FORTWO PRIME PREMIUM 999CC £1,220.00

 

[Arakhor]

What sort of fool pays 100 grand for a car anyway? Clearly one with more money than sense.

 

[Samson]

What sort of fool pays 100 grand for a car anyway? Clearly one with more money than sense.

It is actually much easier for a £100k car to appreciate than a £10k car. It is those decisions I really question, or perhaps the 20 - 50k ones.

 

[Ajidica]

2022 DACIA SANDERO STEPWAY COMFORT T 5 Door Hatchback REG: £4,100.00

Good News! Mentioning the Dacia Sandero made James May happy!

 

[Zardnaar]

Good News! Mentioning the Dacia Sandero made James May happy!

And it's now one of the biggest selling cars in Eurore.

Anyway

 

[Hygro]

What sort of fool pays 100 grand for a car anyway? Clearly one with more money than sense.

If you spend 10% of your life in a car and you can pay for it, what are you getting out of saving that money?

 

[Narz]

If you spend 10% of your life in a car

Damn that would be depressing!

 

[Arakhor]

If you spend 10% of your life in a car and you can pay for it, what are you getting out of saving that money?

Anyone who can afford to drop 100 grand on a car is probably extremely comfortable, so normal financial considerations are somewhat in doubt.

 

[Samson]

Anyone who can afford to drop 100 grand on a car is probably extremely comfortable, so normal financial considerations are somewhat in doubt.

I think this is at the core of the problem with the car industry. They have convinced so many people to buy cars for most of $100k that they can make good money that way. The AVERAGE new car in the US costs $48,401, so somewhere close top half the cars cost "most of" $100k. This drives global vehicle production towards these luxury vehicles that are too big, too fuel hungry and too expensive too keep on the road for decades. I think these people are more motivated by having a status symbol than having an cost efficient means of transport.

Any "normal" person that just needs something to get them from home to work every day is left with the only option of buying second hand, which means they effectively get no economic input into what sort of cars get built.

This means that all cars built are built as status symbols, not cost efficient means of transport.

Spoiler Prices of cars by continent/manufacturer :

 

[Ordnael]

Any "normal" person that just needs something to get them from home to work every day is left with the only option of buying second hand, which means they effectively get no economic input into what sort of cars get built.

Thankfully in Europe we can choose to have a Dacia for that routine travel.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

If you spend 10% of your life in a car and you can pay for it, what are you getting out of saving that money?

An equally good driving experience for much less money?

 

[Hygro]

How many $100k sedans have the range, comfort, electric smoothness, quickness and speed, features etc as a Model S? There's quite recent ones like the Lucid Air and some BMWs and Mercedes that cost even more.

I don't think you will find an equally good driving experience for much less money.