Call yourself a bleeding-heart liberal? I can’t even believe you have to ask this question. Your oat milk is souring on you even as we speak. After all those years swanking it over the rest of us in our ordinary saloons, suddenly your Tesla has lost its metropolitan elite privileges I’m afraid. And it’s not just liberals and eco-warriors who are suffering. The status-conscious find themselves asking if their car still says all they want it to about them.
On social media, the vehicles are being dubbed “Swasti-cars”, a view that began to gain currency after Elon Musk’s Nazi salute/not-a-Nazi salute at the end of a speech at a Trump inauguration party. Elsewhere people are daubing the cars with stickers and protesting at showrooms all because of Elon’s politics. The man himself does not like people referring to his vehicles as Swasti-cars. In fact, if it wasn’t for Elon’s belief in saying the unsayable, I wouldn’t do it. But I don’t want him questioning my commitment to free speech.
Actually, I’m not certain the cars look quite as cool as they used to either. The new Cybertruck looks like something you would see if Transformers could defecate. Whatever the continued merits of the engineering, some of the newer saloons seem barely distinguishable from a Prius, except they don’t come with an Uber driver as standard.
But obviously it’s politics that is the problem for a lot of people. Early Tesla adopters did not expect to see its manufacturer shilling for Trump and prattling on about Tommy Robinson. I know he owns a business called The Boring Company but I thought that was about tunnels.
Patently this question comes from someone who now thinks of Musk as a bad thing. If you approve of his political interventions then why would you dump the car, except perhaps out of lily-livered cowardice that it might be vandalised? If you are on side, well frankly, Elon expects better of you. Drive with pride, maybe deck it out with a union jack spoiler and a Mukga sticker.
If you disapprove of Elon 3.0, however, the big question is whether to dump the Teslas for more liberal-minded vehicles, like those made in China. (It is not a dilemma I face myself since I’m still doing my bit for European democracy with a Škoda petrol car probably manufactured in the Czech Republic. Bohemian efficiency, baby.)
Anyway, if you hate his new politics or are simply fretting over your social cachet, what do you do? The new disdain is a bit unfair when all you were doing was your bit to save the planet. Perhaps there should be a buyback option for liberal drivers. Where once your friends applauded your early adoption of an EV, suddenly you are getting funny looks at your pilates class. You will need to develop some excuses. “I bought it when he was still a Democrat” is good. Or perhaps “I’m doing my bit to get him to Mars.”
Even so, the logical move is to tough this one out. You’ve already paid for it. Maybe you could get a bumper sticker that says something like “My Other Car’s Japanese”. You could always sell if you are prepared to take the hit. There are plenty of people out there who don’t care about politics but know a bargain.
If you were thinking of buying one, this is far easier. Do you care about Musk’s politics enough to alter your choice? There you go. It’s that simple, although if people had taken that view when Henry Ford was around, we’d all still be driving horses.
Mind you, even if Musk now makes you queasy, you might want to consider the wider politics. If things go badly in this week’s German elections, you may want a car that speaks well of you to the Alternative für Deutschland. A Tesla could be a useful hedge against further populism across Europe. Where once this woke green vehicle marked you out as one of the liberal elite, now it shows you as lovably down-to-earth, the kind of guy people instinctively want to help find the nearest electric charger.
Also, if the sales trend keeps heading downwards, there might be some serious discounts coming; 25 per cent off the sticker price will ease those political concerns, no end. Tesla: it’s the people’s car, now. So don’t call it a Swasti-car. It’s much more of a Volksvehicle.
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