I work in auto insurance and saw this coming. It’s definitely an unfortunate situation but why would an entity take a risk on insuring a vehicle that has such a disproportionately high chance of being stolen?

A big part of the problem here is that everything in a Tesla is proprietary, and they don’t release full repair manuals to 3rd party shops or owners. They also have very limited parts suppliers and don’t allow 3rd parties to make any critical components.

There are a lot of ICE cars going the same way, so it’s not just…

A Cimmaron Plaid.

Most cars are unibody and the EVs are not much different even with the castings growing in size. The issue is that most are using aluminum panels and parts and that’s not as easily repaired as a steel structure is. If your rear or body in white is aluminum and it gets crumpled it harder if not impossible to straighten…

Here is a car and driver article with some info along with links to the data they seemed to use. The nerd wallet link is more detailed. Just looking at my state, a Model 3 is on average $700 more per year to insure than my current two cars, but that is not a fair comparison as my two cars together are only worth maybe…

That is pretty much a leaf or bolt. But those aren’t sexy and profitable. Tons of unnecessary tech is sexy and profitable.

Down here in the South, whenever a funeral procession goes by, everyone just... stops. Cars going in the opposite direction will simply stop in the lane they’re in. I’ve never seen anything like it. Nearly rear-ended somebody once not expecting that.

In Phoenix, wrong-way drivers on the highways have become such a huge problem that there are sensors and warning systems for it now.

We have those silly “One Vehicle Per Green” stop lights on most entrance ramps which definitely don’t actually help, but if you ever see those lamps flashing red, it means a wrong-way…

Us Northwesterners (Idaho, Oregon, Washington, & Alaska) join your Michigan in allowing LEFT turns on red, as long as you are turning onto a one-way street. Not sure about Michigan, but you can be on a one or two way street, you just have to be turning onto a one-way street.

Honestly, the biggest problem I’ve had with all of them is social media exhaustion. I look at them, start accounts, get enthused for a day, and then...meh. The idea of cobbling together yet another “community” from scratch knowing it could disappear tomorrow at someone’s whim feels like so much more than I’m willing…

We have random Amish traveling on 55 mph roads who refuse to put a flashing yellow light on their buggies per the law of Ohio because a flashing yellow LED is too worldly and they are morally opposed to it.

You mean someone with the title ‘healthcare executive’ is out of touch with the average American? I’m shocked.

Tesla seems to not care too much about customer relations. Given that they used to be purely supply constrained with no credible competition but are now looking at a changing market place, that might be something they’ll want to rethink.

“You don’t take out a loan for an iPhone,”

What happens when it goes the other way and demand and supply has normalized? Then you get a better deal than MSRP pretty much all the time outside of new or limited edition vehicle launches? Buying online isn’t all it is cracked up to be, just look at Tesla, they moved prices 20% overnight on some models. During…

Current market is not the norm and will not stay this way too much longer. It may linger in certain segments or trims, but there is already inventory building for some OEM’s and some trim/models. Some of this also depends regionally too. But by end of this year dealer lots should have actual vehicles on them and…

GM delivered fewer than 900 Hummer EVs in 2022. Admittedly they could have delivered more if they’d produced more, because they have a big backlog of orders. But those orders are underpinned by a $100 refundable deposit, so who knows how many people could actually ever have afforded one, and will go ahead with the…

The validity of the waitlist is pretty questionable - the deposit was something like $50-100 and seemed to be more of a way for Tesla to fluff their numbers than anything else. I would imagine many of the serious buyers from that list have moved on and bought something else, and they either forgot to remove their…

I wouldn’t buy one, but as always, the Supercharger network is the killer app...  I think it’s the primary reason Tesla stays on top of the EV game and why they’re so reluctant to open it up to everyone even if it would net them a ton of money.

Just wait until Elon gives Ye the first one.