Amid its worst ever crisis, Tesla offers discounts on its best-selling car just weeks after new Model Y launch
Amid its worst ever crisis, Tesla offers discounts on its best-selling car just weeks after new Model Y launch
Gone are the days when Tesla had to keep hiking prices to avoid being hopelessly swamped by demand. Now CEO Elon Musk has to fight for every new customer.
Tesla is already offering low 1.99% financing on six-year loans for customers looking to buy the $48,990 long-range, all-wheel-drive Model Y, the series production version of the newer car that debuted in early April. Gone are the days when Tesla had to keep hiking prices to avoid being hopelessly swamped by demand. Now CEO Elon Musk has to fight for every new customer.
Just weeks after the launch of the Model Y refresh, a slightly newer version of the five-year-old crossover, Tesla informed buyers on Sunday they can already have the car at a discounted financing rate. Interested buyers can qualify for a six-year loan at 1.99% if they put down $3,999 for the purchase of a long-range all-wheel-drive version. By contrast, financing rates for some of Tesla’s upscale models top 6%.
It's actually kind of tragic. Tesla would have been, no, should have been a key domestic EV maker. They should have been our global offering in a strategically important industry. But instead, they're rapidly becoming a pariah. And it's all because of one man. One terrible, terrible man.
This is a very, very important lesson that America MUST learn: just because someone is rich, that does not mean they are smart, or good, or trustworthy. Personality matters, a lot. I am certain that if Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning could go back, they would tell Mr. Musk "no thank you, we're not interested in your investment," even though they really needed the money. It wasn't worth it, it came with strings attached. Within just a few years of taking Musk's money, both men were forced out of the company, and Musk was well on his way to convincing millions of Americans that we was a super genius who singlehandedly invented the electric car.
In this country, we have not only tolerated megalomaniacal narcissists like Musk, we've celebrated them. That has to stop. Look at where it has gotten us. One of them is president now! If we don't learn from this, and start to see men like Trump and Musk as the disease that they are, we are doomed. If we don't get these men under control, they will control us.
just because someone is rich, that does not mean they are smart, or good, or trustworthy
The richer someone is seems to correlate with the absence of one or more of those traits.
Don't need to be smart to be born into money, which is where basically all the richest have come from.
Don't need to learn to treat people with compassion if you can afford to entirely opt out of public society
Don't need to be trustworthy if you have enough to pay people to be around you.
Past a certain bank balance, a person loses their humanity.
You have to KEEP TEACHING the lesson. Because when you’re 25 years older, and kids are just coming into the world, they don’t ‘get’ how bad it is. They just hear it. I heard all about how WWII went, who was bad who was good blah blah.
Look now, we have Gaza. Look now, we have Trump. AfD in Germany.
Where do you think we failed (globally)? Like, how have we (seemingly) made a 180 in just under 100 years?
Capitalism
He also forced some dumb features in the electric car...like the stupid door handles, and lack of buttons.
Except Tesla never made good cars. It was always clear that real car manufacturers will learn to make good EVs before Tesla learns to make good cars. For some time Tesla was supported by fans who could ignore major design flaws and investors looking for short term profits. Long term best case scenario for Tesla was always to just become another, normal car maker.
For a brief window Tesla was the only company making a "good" EV in that all their competition was making cars with sub 150 mile range (sometimes significantly so). Teslas have always been bad cars, but they were the best EV. Then all the other manufacturers finally got the memo that they couldn't keep ignoring the EV market and grudgingly made decent EVs which almost by default made Tesla the worst EV on the market.
That's simply not true, the last couple of years quality is up massively. The highland Model 3 is fine really, sure there are some things Tesla could've done better, but that goes for most manufacturers. I drive one and I haven't had any big issues, I do have some annoyances though, but there are also things the car does way better than its competition. People also seem to forget that Tesla was pushing out over the air feature updates while VW was manually updating their ID3 range on the parking lot in the docks.
The Model 3 and Y in its current state, at its prices before these wild discounts and 0% financing, is objectively a very competitive car and would probably made the top 3 list in every country in 2025 and possibly 2026. Let me put it differently, if Ford sold the Model 3 and Y, it would outsell any other vehicle on the planet. The only reason the Model Y will not be the best selling car this year is Musk and by extension the direction the US took with the elections. At least here in Europe, people don't really want to buy a Nazi symbol of a car. And frankly, if I could get rid of mine today, I would, not because the car is bad, but because of the Nazi in charge.
i remember at the time he bought XITTER, some idiot on reddit i believe went ahead and purchased a 140k version of tesla, eventhough many people said it was such poor quality and warned him from buying it, and he later posted a video of how cheap the insides were, you could easily rip the cheap plastic linings of the inside of car.
teslas have always been defective, its only because Elon was able to market it better.
“car company discounts car” is not a news story. “Fucking Nazi car company discounts car” sort of is.
But they didn't discount the car, just the finance rate, so yeah, not a news story.
If they use in-house financing (which most car companies do) they're still losing money overall. And it is indicative that they're feeling the squeeze so that's nice to know.
People that finance literally will pay less each month for the car. I don't understand the semantics game here to avoid calling this a "discount". If you pay less each month it's ok to call it a discount. I'd argue neither scenario justifies a news story, but the Tesla demand cliff is trendy (justifiably so of course, fuck Nazis) so here we are.
new headline:
“proven nazi, elon musk, discounts overpriced cars to make people forget he’s a nazi”
Yeah bruh, I am in the market for an EV to replace my old Camry. Zero chance I’d ever look at Tesla. Zero.
Toyota makes excellent EVS. Also the Hyundai Ioniq 6 looks pretty hot.
people liked the ioniq 5, my parent is driving a leased ioniq 5. the only thing is the flimsy looking door handles, why cant they just make a normal handle.
Not a new Tesla. But a used Tesla, if the car is good, why not. The nutsack won't be getting anything out of it
We just got a good deal on a used Kia Niro EV. Pretty happy with it so far.
The fact he dismantled all the agencies overlooking tesla safety weighs in to his overtime fascism.
Even if replaced as CEO and fully diverted from Tesla, I don't think I could trust their safety going forward.
Just seeing a Tesla reminds me of the arrogance of musk saying he "deleted" jobs. The choice of words tells you what he thinks of us.
Eff him. Never again.
Yep, he killed the brand. He probably doesn't care in the end. But everyone working for Telsa will.
If Musk really cared about Telsa he would have never sided with a Republican lol.
i think he only released the truck because he needed to show the board/shareholders hes worth that 56billion package hes been eyeing since '18
Same. I look at all them in disgust.
I wouldn’t buy a Tesla if it cost $1. That company can shove Elon’s big Nazi dildo up their ass
I would because the company would loose the money they needed to make the car
What i would do with it afterwards?
i dont know, maybe send a strong message, maybe notTesla should pay you to take the inventory and dispose of it - straight to the car crusher and the junkyard. And they'd better pay you a lot - I bet there are lots of complications and expenses that go with disposing of all those batteries, though maybe they can be re-sold for use in non-NAZI vehicles/devices?
"But the low sales numbers were just potential buyers delaying their purchase, because the new Model Y will release soon."
Safe to say that we finally have evidence that people weren't delaying. It's also not the car either, the car is fine and very competitive. I drive a Model 3 and I drove a couple competitor cars, therefore I know Tesla is up there with the competition. That is Volkswagen, Toyota and the large volume brands, I don't view Tesla as a luxury brand like BMW and Mercedes though.
So what else is there? I'd wager having a Nazi as CEO doesn't help sales at all. I'm in a mid class bubble in The Netherlands where many in my bubble can afford or even actively looked at purchasing a Tesla, all of them say the same thing: I do not support Nazi's and by extension try to buy as little US made products as I can. This is the same customer base that 5 years ago would definitely have bought a Tesla in a heartbeat. Tesla will continue to lose with Musk at the helm.
Wow.. it's crazy. I was just thinking about it and honestly I don't think I'd drive a Tesla if it was given to me with a bow on the roof. That's some serious brand implosion right there.
Also, I know of at least one company in my area (where a friend of mine works) who used to have a Tesla fleet for their employees and who have all been switched to Polestars now.
I might take it apart and put the innards in my 85 Bluebird for fun. But it's probably DRM'd so who knows when it'll kill itself. It'd be like driving an HP printer - get in one day and the bastard will say PC LOAD LETTER, or more contemporary, "Problem with the ink system."
haha, they know better than to drive around tesslars, that could get vandalized.
The Tesla brand is dead to me. In 2018 I wanted a Tesla EV but when in came time to buy a new car (2024), I got a BMW instead. In 2018 I wanted a Tesla Powerwall but I just bought a Jackery system instead. Between the two, that's well over $100k lost to Tesla from that purchase. Countless more given that I will never buy anything Tesla ever. I won't even ride an Uber/Lyft if the driver is on a Tesla.
i think it was dead since fall of 22-23.
A swastikar will park in front of my house when I get groceries on Sunday and I HATE IT. I don't want anyone thinking that's our dumpster or going to vandalize it and accidentally hit my sweet cute lil car. 🤬
I'm constantly floored that institutional investors are keeping the TSLA stock price from cratering. They dont think of the pressures on the brand like we do. I think they are pricing in future patronage by trump.
i suspect PUTIN/msb/qataris are sitll keeping the stocks afloat too.
The only reason I'd be caught driving a tesla is if it had a completely true bumper sticker that said "I bought it after he blew his brains out."
I'm not sure why anyone expected a new facelift would improve sales. It's clear the overall decline is associated with Musk going full mask-off fascist, given this, driving around in a car that looks unlike any previous Model Y just makes it completely obvious that you knew this and decided to buy one anyway. If they want to bolster sales, maybe they should have kept producing the pre-facelifted versions for a while.
Full disclosure, I used to own a Model 3. I had it for 5 years and was generally very happy with it - it was a great daily driver, cost very little to run and maintain, and (aside from a few issues later in my ownership, which was one of the reasons I decided to sell it) in general it was very easy to live with.
There are clearly some very skilled engineers at Tesla who know how to build a great product. It is a shame their efforts are being undermined by a fascist lunatic with a narcissist complex.
aside from a few issues later in my ownership, which was one of the reasons I decided to sell it
I'm curious, what kind of issues did you face?
The main issue was a catastrophic failure of the VC_FRONT module which is one of the critical onboard computers that manages things like the 12v battery and low voltage power distribution (basically a "smart" fuse box). Without it the car is bricked and cannot be driven.
That took several weeks and some back and forth around the extended warranty to resolve, and then even after that module was replaced, on my first drive after the repair it went straight into limp mode and then spent another week at the service centre having that diagnosed.
During this time I decided it might be time to start looking for a new car, ended up selling it a few months later and took delivery of a new Polestar 2.
He thought he could be Henry Ford, but Ford was a bit less overt in his Nazism. And, it should be remembered, Ford almost destroyed the company before being forced out by his own family. There are downsides to one man being the image the public has of a company.
family guy did made cutscenes of FORD, and his obsession with using his vehicle against jews.
I'll continue to drive mine. I'll get a used one once I drive this one into the ground.
If you want to make political stance and go for inferior car? Go right ahead. I don't give a shit what some CEO does. I'm sure all of you stopped playing blizzard games and avoid everything owned by nestle and for sure aren't recommending cars running literal slaves camps, right???
This comment reads like aggressive cope
Why are you already committed to buying a used Tesla, years before your current one dies? Why make this comment at all?
Because I've test driven what's out there right now. Nothing comes close to my old Tesla and I'm not going to buy a new car from a different brand when used model 3 of the current models will be better value.
People genuinely are ignorant to how advanced the Tesla system is vs the competition. I'm very fortunate to live in dealership hotspot and I've driven plenty. Be it byd, kia, Hyundai, Volvo, polestar, mg etc. (Fun thing to do over weekend to kill an hour).
Tesla's from 2018 are genuinely better than competitors coming out right now. You add the better battery and heat pump from 2021 and your efficiency is basically as good as it gets. I've driven enough in my car to understand what makes for a good "range". It's all about that efficiency. The latest model 3 is a minor improvement, but still one I'll happily upgrade to in 5 years time or so when I get close to 170k miles.
But hey, that cybertruck! Or earlier models panel gaps! It's such useless noise bashing what is the best car anywhere near that price.
Maybe Merc's, lucid and Rivian have it beat, but they aren't available here or more than double the cost...
I hope it makes sense. I get outrage at Musk coming from valid places, but I'm not letting a twat ruin something for me. He has more money that god, me buying used car has next to no impact. So why bother?
Inferior car? Tesla has some of the weakest reliability metrics in the industry which is shocking considering electric drivetrains are far more reliable than ICE.
Modern electric car manufacturing has far surpassed what Tesla can provide at any price point (range, reliability, comfort, you name it) unless you still believe FSD is coming in "just 2 more years bro, and it'll be free and backwards compatible"
That's why Tesla has the most cars on the road, the best efficiency, one of the best safety ratings and has countless of people getting +200k miles on them, right? If only we had all these exmples...
You're gonna pull one of two things, random examples of defect, because no other car has does or BUT CYBERTRUCK THO????
So which one is it?
You sound like an insufferable loser. Are you also terrible at video games?
What a weird thing to say! It must be fun living in your goof troop world with the other morally bankrupt incels.
Do you lie to women and say, "I'm not interested in politics"?
$3k, $5k, $20k. What's democracy mean to you?
I say let's make him the next Juliani.
I put the reason for this in song..."Nazi, nazi, bo-botsy-ko-banna-fanna-fo-fawtsy-fe-fi-moe-motsy...nazi!".
Don't live in the US, but you'd probably have to pay me to be seen driving one of those. I can afford not to and dignity has a price
No thanks Leon Hitler, you can shove your vehicles where the sun does not shine. I will stick with my Leaf and it will not burn down my garage.
Lol