Used Teslas are selling for dirt cheap as Americans air out their frustration over Elon Musk‘s unprecedented level of involvement in the federal government.
That’s according to CarGurus, which found that used Tesla prices are falling at more than double the rate of the average used car price.
While electric vehicles generally have poor resale values due to concerns about long term battery health, an expert told DailyMail.com that Tesla’s predicament is unique.
‘Where else has a vehicle manufacturer owner worked in a highly controversial position with a polarizing government and a press that provides endless coverage from a negative viewpoint? It hasn’t happened,’ said Melanie Musson, who writes extensively about the auto industry for Clearsurance.
She added that Tesla has ‘lost their cool factor’. Many Americans are wary of buying Teslas at all in this fraught political climate, while some owners are getting rid of them to show their dissatisfaction with Musk.
This has led to the secondary market for the vehicles to collapse in stunning fashion. If you’re willing to pick up a Tesla that is several years old with well over 100,000 miles on it, there are some incredible bargains available.
Take this used Tesla Model 3 from 2018 for example. It has 163,839 miles and is selling for $9,995. If you had bought this car off the lot in 2018, the MSRP would have been $47,200.
Pictured: A used Tesla Model 3 from 2018 with 163,839 miles that is selling for $9,995
Pictured: This 2020 Model 3 with 120,470 miles is selling for an even cheaper $9,500
Pictured: At just over 81,000 miles, this 2016 Model S selling for $5,500
Another example is this 2020 Model 3 with 120,470 miles selling for an even cheaper $9,500.
The lowest price for a Tesla is possibly this 2016 Model S. At just over 81,000 miles, it’s selling for $5,500. With no trade-in, an $1,100 down payment and 10.99 percent interest rate, the estimated monthly payment on that car would be just $83 per month.
The Cybertruck has fared the worst of all. The average pre-owned model would set you back $193,000 a year ago. Now it’s plummeted to just over $88,000, a more than 50 percent loss in resale value for the futuristic pickup.
Something else that factors into Tesla’s decline is staunch competition from rival automakers. Though it was the first company to have commercial success with EVs, Tesla no longer holds a monopoly.
‘Legacy automakers Ford or GM, alongside newcomers Rivian and Lucid, offer EVs with better pricing, variety, and value, making it easier for customers to switch away from Tesla,’ said Joe Giranda, the director of sales and marketing for CFR Classic, a company that specializes in shipping cars internationally.
‘This increases the competition for Tesla and diminishes the brand’s appeal, lowering its resale value,’ he added.
Tesla also has to worry about EV advances being undertaken by foreign companies, especially in China, which has the biggest electric vehicle market in the world.
Chinese manufacturer BYD announced last month that it had developed technology to charge their cars with 250 miles of range in five minutes. Tesla superchargers generally take 15 minutes to add 200 miles of range.
A Rivian R1T pickup, one of the main competitors to Tesla’s Cybertruck, is pictured driving through Times Square in New York City on November 10, 2021
Lucid, an American manufacturer, another thorn in the side of Tesla. (Pictured: A Lucid Air Grand Touring on display at a Lucid Motors service center on February 25, 2021)
Chinese manufacturer BYD is yet another entrant into the EV market. BYD recently claimed its proprietary technology can fully charge its cars in five minutes, much faster than Tesla superchargers
This comes as large demonstrations have been staged at Tesla dealerships all over the country, and in some more extreme incidents, innocent people driving Teslas have seen their vehicle get set on fire or have experienced others brake-checking them on the road.
Arsonists have attacked dealerships in Las Vegas, where a man also fired bullets into the building, and ones as far as Italy, where 17 vehicles were burnt to a crisp.
Americans have varying motivations for trading in or selling their Teslas, with some believing its dangerous to even drive one.
Others say they’re simply fed up with Musk’s antics and don’t want to be mistaken as a supporter of his policies. At a mid-March protest in Burbank, California, a man told CNN he was ’embarrassed’ to drive his Tesla Model Y, an SUV he’s had since 2022.
‘I’m in the process of getting my car repaired so that I can sell it,’ Joe Romer said in front of a Tesla dealership. ‘I’m tired of Elon Musk and all this garbage that’s going on, so I’m getting rid of this car because I’m embarrassed to drive it.’
He said he plans to replace it with a car from Lucid Motors, another American electric vehicle manufacturer.
After a test drive, he said the Lucid car ‘drives like a Mercedes’ when compared to his old Tesla.
Pictured: An overhead view of the Tesla dealership in Rome, Italy, that had 17 of its cars burned
Pictured: A protest outside a Tesla showroom in New York City on March 29
A protest at a Tesla showroom in New York on April 2 this week
Like Romer, many others are replacing their Teslas with EVs from other automakers, such as Theresa Gasper.
Gasper and her husband, who live in Ohio, sold their cars and purchased the Hyundai Ionic 5 (the SUV) and 6 (the sedan).
Gasper, a Democrat who made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2018, explained in an op-ed for The Columbus Dispatch that she once ‘bought into the branding of [Musk] being a visionary’.
She also reported that her husband’s Tesla Model Y routinely had to be brought in for issues like the interior panels falling off.
The Tesla Cybertruck, which has been recalled eight times since its debut in late 2023, was recently recalled again because customers reported that their stainless steel exterior panels were detaching.
But Gasper didn’t get rid of her Teslas primarily because of mechanical issues. She even admitted the cars are ‘pretty fun to drive’.
Instead she said she’s worried about the highly-publicized instances of vandalism and aggressive driving around other Teslas. And she also wants to vote with her wallet to show she doesn’t support the current administration.
‘I look forward to being free of the stigma of driving a Tesla in today’s environment,’ she wrote.
Another woman, Tammy L. Davis, recently ditched her Tesla because she was upset that Musk’s dismantling of USAID will cut off crucial food deliveries to food-insecure populations around the world
Tammy L. Davis, who runs a communications consulting business out of Washington D.C., took to social media in early March to announce that she too was getting rid of her Tesla Model Y.
When she bought the car in 2022, she explained that she was enamored with Musk’s vision to save the planet from climate change with one electric vehicle at a time.
Before Musk officially joined up with the Republicans last year, he criticized Trump in 2017 for pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord.
He has since retreated from this stance and hasn’t said anything about Trump once again getting the United States out of the treaty after Joe Biden re-signed it in 2021.
In January, Musk said: ‘Climate change risk is real, just much slower than alarmists claim.’
The ‘final straw’ for Davis was not Musk’s apparent flip-flop on climate, rather it was his dismantling of USAID through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
She was particularly worried about the 2.4 million children around the world previously being assisted by US foreign aid who could be left suffering from acute malnutrition now that funding has dried up.
Davis loves her Tesla but still plans to get rid of it.
‘I love the car so much that I even had placed the order for the new [Model Y],’ she said.
‘I had that on order for a while and I was actually supposed to go pick up that car next week. So not only did I cancel that order… but I’m also returning my current Model Y.’
Other brands of electric vehicles are getting a new spotlight as Tesla’s reputation with certain consumers sour. One example is the Cadillac Escalade IQ, a luxury SUV that retails for $127,000
The Ford Mustang Mach-E has also gotten some attention on social media as a potentially good car to swap for a Tesla
Others announced they were getting rid of their Teslas posting videos of them trading them in and showing off their new electric vehicle.
Last week, TikTok user Vanessa Wade posted a video of herself backing her white Tesla out of her garage, before smash cutting to herself driving her new Cadillac Escalade IQ.
That video has more than 1.3 million views, and Wade has since posted several more videos giving a tour of the Escalade IQ, a three-row electric car that starts at over $127,000.
Another woman shared that she traded her Tesla for a Mustang Mach-E, which is Ford’s reimagination of the classic muscle car in the form of an EV.
Alex Serna, a social media content creator, recently posted about how he wants to get rid of his Tesla but isn’t in a financial position to do so.
‘I bought this car two years ago before all the chaotic s**t that Elon has said, and if I would have known what a terrible person he turned out to be I would not have been in a Tesla,’ he said.
After he said he got comments asking when he was dumping his Tesla, he dropped his Cashapp username so people could crowdfund a new car for him.
‘It seems like y’all have the money for it, because y’all make it seem so easy,’ he said. ‘If it was that easy I would have done it already.’
Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, who claims Musk is the father to her child and has ghosted them, just recently sold her black Model S , DailyMail.com exclusively reported this week
Like ordinary Americans, a number of high-profile public figures have said goodbye to their Teslas as well, including Senator Mark Kelly and actor Jason Bateman.
Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, who claims Musk is the father to her child and has ghosted them, just recently sold her black Model S, DailyMail.com exclusively reported this week.
‘I need to make up for the 60 percent cut that Elon made to our son’s child support,’ the 26-year-old told a DailyMail.com reporter who witnessed her handing the car over to a representative from the online auto sales giant Carvana.
The phenomenon comes as European countries are even more resolute in their rejection of Tesla and Musk.
After Musk praised the Germany’s far-right AfD political party and made a controversial gesture at one of President Donald Trump’s inauguration events, sales have fallen of a cliff in the country.
Recently released data shows that 76 percent fewer Tesla vehicles were sold in Germany in February when compared to last year.
Tesla sales were down 24 percent year over year in the Netherlands, 42 percent in Sweden, 48 percent in both Norway and Denmark, 45 percent in France, 55 percent in Italy, 10 percent in Spain and 53 percent in Portugal.
In the US, Tesla sales tumbled 13 percent in the first three months of the year, mirroring the amount of time Musk has been a key figure in the White House.
There are already rumblings that Musk will step down from DOGE earlier than expected, which could lessen the pressure being felt by his large portfolio of companies
Trump insiders, reportedly frustrated with Musk’s unpredictability, feel that he is increasingly becoming a political liability and should be cast out (Pictured: Musk speaking at President Donald Trump’s Cabinet meeting on March 24)
Although things look bad for Musk right now, Musson told DailyMail.com that he is a resilient figure and that Tesla will probably bounce back once the controversy dies down.
‘This will likely be a temporary slump. Tesla manufactures a good product. They’re continually innovating and developing new ways of revolutionizing the industry,’ Musson said.
There are already rumblings that Musk will step down from DOGE earlier than expected, which could lessen the pressure being felt by his large portfolio of companies.
Musk’s designation as a special government employee meant he was scheduled to step down in May, but his early exit represents a sea change in the Trump administration.
The news, first reported by Politico, came after Musk’s preferred candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race lost after he spent $20 million to elect him.
Trump insiders, reportedly frustrated with Musk’s unpredictability, feel that he is increasingly becoming a political liability and should be cast out.
Either way, his leading role in American politics is likely to wind down in several weeks, which Musson believes is exactly what Tesla needs.
‘Once Elon Musk is out of the spotlight, people will start seeing Teslas for what they are again,’ she told DailyMail.com, adding that he ‘has plummeted out of favor and fortune several times throughout his life, yet he always ends up on top.’
