Technically, a company can support a fascist regime and still be a success.

Perhaps what some are missing is that the outliers of the market are the harbingers of what is to come. That really expensive exotic dropping in value like a stone when the first wave of a tanking economy hit? It foretells of the more plebian luxury models also losing a shit-ton of value when there are fewer and fewer…

Funny, but the update to ALL the Tesla models is what will make - or break - the company. What other brand is selling 10 year old platforms other than Dodge/Chrysler? And even they have a new platform in development. At some point, Tesla will have to bring out a 2.0 version of their current models, and not just a…

The issue is that in a company like Tesla or SpaceX that was established by Musk and those who went to work there likely wanted to work expressly for him. Twitter was not started by, or early run by Musk, so those established employees were hired under a different management team and with different values than what…

While GVR is a good point, the problem also needs to tackle miles driven to ensure fairness. If someone like me drives 15K miles or more annually in a light vehicle, should I not pay more than someone who only drives 5K miles per year but in a heavier vehicle? That would need to be in the equation, but then, how do…

This, a thousand times over. People are making the potentially second (or even first) largest purchase of their lives and doing it mostly based on emotions, not logic. You don’t buy a new car because you need one, you buy it because you want one. If you need transportation, you only need something that starts, stops,…

Most reputable new car dealerships have a very secure lock box, usually electronic, that stores the keys to the vehicles. The one where I worked had to have you enter a code, then enter your sales rep number, the stock number of the car, and then it would open and allow you to take the keys. The keys were on an…

Imagine 2032... but instead, the Chinese OEMs, or maybe someone out of India or a developing market, brings over a really basic and cheap car. Something along the lines of a Mirage, only not as well equipped. Barely passes crash testing, barely meets emissions, not to the standards we are used to now, but a basic car,…

If you believe that “never pay over MSRP’ means that you will pay sticker price or less, maybe read the actual sticker. I can all but guarantee there will be ‘dealer added options”, mop and glow packages (paint and interior protectants added prior to sale, can’t be taken off), market adjustment charges, and a host of…

Isn’t the name of Elon’s dog - Chunks?

...it would look goofy and wouldn’t sell.

The “end of an era”?

There isn’t really an “American” car that works well anywhere else. We are either too big, too wide, to inefficient, or too expensive in other markets. Our gas is cheap, our roads are made for long trips, and we have ample parking and a shitty public transportation that works in favor of our cars for use here.

I would posit that you are partially correct.

What a lot of people are missing with Florida’s turning red is that we picked up a shit ton of people who left other states and moved here specifically because they wanted to move to a place catering to their MAGA type tendencies but not quite so obvious. Yeah, DeSantis is now Trump’s biggest enemy, but Rhonda would…

No, quit BUYING crappy Chinese shit from their store. Problem solved.

Neutral: Car Prices

Let’s perhaps try a compromise - use glass and metal where it is feasible and better ecologically, and stop using plastic just to save a few bucks and possibly help the planet.

Yeah, the options were worth $0 at time of issue. But nobody would accept options unless they knew they could make those options worth money. So was there manipulation of either the options or the stock price itself during the 4 year runup, or was Musk such a great part-time CEO that the company shares went up that…

The weight of glass over plastics is not so drastic as to cause a huge increase in shipping costs, and with the glass being recycled, the need for new glass silica is not as big as it is for oil for new plastic. Cans are about the same weight as plastic, and aluminum and steel recycle quite well also. We just got fed…