A salute for Elon
tl:dr; We sold our Tesla because we can no longer be associated in any way with Elon Musk or his companies.
We got our model 3 in 2018, which meant we were amongst the first in BC. At the time I loved it, the car was absolute night and day from any other car. I said so in an old blog post where I called it “Amazeballs” and also regrettably this about Elon “This is a man on a mission to do good.”
I still have no problem with buying that car - at the time it was the best electric car on the market. It had the best battery and range and great software. It got updated regularly.
Mechanical and design problems abounded in the car that emerged over time:
- The heating broke and we couldn’t defrost.
- Both horns weren’t actually connected in the factory, so the horn was super quiet.
- Moisture built up in the rear light blocks.
- The trunk leaked, when it rained we’d have to sponge out inches of water from the trunk.
- The car would freeze into a lump and you couldn’t get into the car due to the handle and window design.
- Software would update moving or hiding key functionality
At the beginning of 2025 it was clear where Elon was heading and I was starting to look into selling the car. He’d already destroyed Twitter, a place where I had an account for 16 years. He’d repeatedly done so many terrible things in Tesla with the treatment of the workforce, safety rules, and so on. Then the support for Trump came along.
The line was crossed with the Nazi salute. Apologists keep arguing it isn’t, but in the context of how he behaves like supporting Tommy Robinson, the AfD editorial, appearing at an AfD rally and saying that “frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that” it’s clear where his political views lie.
Led by Donkeys sum it up well in this video:
He’s part of an administration that has belittled and attacked Canada. They want to turn Canada into a state through “economic force” and have pushed tariffs onto their biggest ally. He isn’t just donating money and sitting on the sideline, he’s an active participant.
At this point my car is over 6.5 years old, the money already went to Tesla. Tesla’s board is trying to pay Musk $50 billion dollars. But every repair, every time I use a super charger, that money goes to Tesla and a bit to Musk. Just driving around in a Tesla associates me with that person.
So we took a loss, sold the car and bought a Kia EV6. Very happy with it so far. Is Kia perfect? No, no large car company is.
Tesla sent a survey after we sold it, when they asked why I bought a Kia I replied simply “The company isn’t run by a Nazi”.