Tesla owners are overwhelmingly men, and the most common occupations are engineer, software engineer, and manager of operations, one study found.
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As a white man, making six figures with a stem job is love to have a Tesla. My 200 year house and it’s wiring disagree however. 😔
Trust me, there are many other EVs put there that are cheaper and have much higher build quality. You don’t want to sign up to the Church of Elon.
I thought Tesla’s were for poor kids who live in trailer parks
They’re toys for rich people. The whole concept is a just big fad.
The best deal is to lease the jeep wrangler 4xe plug in, they pass the 7500 onto the buyer and by lease end the battery is weakened so give the car back instead of paying 5k to replace the battery plus by lease end new battery tech will be here
In DFW its mostly indians and asians that drive teslas, especially in Plano and Frisco. Its completely replaced the fully loaded honda accord and toyota camry as THE car to get.
I work in car insurance and noticed this whenever I see a Tesla on a policy too, they’re also usually located in the Bay Area, Texas, or a rich suburb of Seattle.
“Six figures.”
Can we retire this phrase? A lot of these people are earning multi-hundred-thousand dollar salaries. And many of them live in expensive areas where $100k is not some magic number that means you’re rich.
It’s just such a cringey phrase. Not specific enough to be useful, and loaded with economic misconceptions.
Agreed. Between my wife and I we gross close to 200k. With a house in a Boston Suburb and 2 kids, it’s solidly middle class. Certainly a far cry from rich.
I think that’s far from Tesla money. I drive a 10 year old VW (Passat) and she drives a 4 year old Honda (Odyssey).
Do you own the house?
Yes (mortgage) but even that was a bit of luck/circumstance. I’m the only child of an only child…when my grandmother died I bought out her house from the estate at a really good price.
Stayed there for five years and poured in a bit of sweat equity.
When we sold it went for over double what we paid. Our new house isn’t anything special (4bed/1.5 bath, 1100sqft 1970s cape-style), but it’s already risen in value nearly 50% since we bought it.
We also refi’d last year. My wife wants to move back to RI and closer to family, but even a lateral move (similar home, similar neighborhood, similar value) would still cost much more than I’d want to pay due to the higher interest rates.
Honestly if it weren’t for my grandmother dying I’d probably still be renting. I have no idea how people afford down payments while also renting and living a life.
Especially in a HCOL area. We aren’t “truly” a Boston Suburb. We are outside the 495 belt and closer to Providence. Still doesn’t keep my modest house from being worth close to half a million now.
The use of “six figures” as a measure of affluence goes back to at least the 60’s… if we use 1970 as a baseline, a salary of $100,000 then is $800,000 today, accounting for inflation.
Inflation isn’t the whole picture , but helps to demonstrate how dated the phrase is.
This is interesting, thank you for this. Makes me feel less bad
Agreed!
This makes a lot of sense. Tesla is a slightly higher-end car, and it’s not surprising that it attracts people from the engineering fields.
People who work in engineering/tech would be slightly more inclined to buy cutting-edge products.
The funny thing is that it’s objectively not a higher end car. It’s just a cheap Corolla with a big computer in it. Tesla’s build quality is also complete shit, as easily seen in the panel fitment (or anything fitment).
“ The funny thing is that it’s objectively not a higher end car. It’s just a cheap Corolla”
I don’t know if I can agree with that, lol. Teslas are incredibly fun to drive, are the safest cars ever made, drive themselves on the freeway (how well is a debate, but still), cost very little to fuel etc etc.
Very different than a Corolla, and I love me a Corolla!
They are behind in their tech. They almost certainly can’t overcome this without changing everything. And the tech is what makes everyone desire a Tesla. There are actually higher end cars with the same or better tech now.
They have some of the worst build quality in the industry. Shit, even musk agrees they have shit build quality.
While they may rate high in safety ratings, I personally don’t like my car spontaneously combusting and/or locking me inside because some dipshit defaulted it to locked when the battery dies. Who the fuck decided on that!?!?!?
If you strip away the big screen and the (now) inferiors gadgets, you’re left with a Corolla with really bad fit and finish.
I’m curious about the “safest cars ever made” claim?
Depends on if you define “high end.” Most people consider the build quality as a major factor in what makes a car “high end.” Tesla’s are notorious for some of the worst, if not THE worst build quality in the industry. The materials are cheap in quality and QA is seemingly non-existent, with cars frequently being shipped that are duds or begin to literally fall apart (like steering wheels coming off mid drive) extremely quickly.
I’ll never own a Tesla because the surveillance sketches me out, but their “cheaper” models can do 0-60 in like three seconds with full torque. That’s preeeeeeeeetty higher end.
Virtually all electric cars go 0-60 in under 6 seconds, with most around 4 seconds.
But even so, I didn’t dispute the performance of the Tesla in terms of driving power, just commenting on the poor build quality and how some people may exclude it from being considered high end because of that.
That’s fair! For the cost my friend paid for his, I would say it’s a much higher end car than any other cars in that bracket, features-and-performance-wise. It’s been a few years now and nothing feels shoddy, the interior isn’t crazy impressive but nothing is broken!
The surveillance is one of the features I like. Built in dash cameras that surround the car and work non-stop, even when parked? Hell yes. If someone ever fucks my car up in a parking lot and takes off, I’ll have something more substantial than just a dent or busted mirror to show the insurance company and possibly take action against the person who did it.
I love the idea of those features, but not to a placed dialed into a headquarters 24/7 transmitting all of my data to a private Corp. SUPER convenient and awesome features, but Tesla was already busted sharing what were supposed to be private videos around the office of people driving in their cars.
Yeah that part I agree with. I like the idea of the cameras and understand why they are needed for the self driving; but I want it all self contained. I don’t want any of that data to leave the car unless I pull it out from a thumb drive or otherwise physically connected device.
Fast doesn’t equal high end. Fit and finish and overall build quality and reliability do. If you look at a Bentley or Rolls (so so not my type of car, but I respect what goes into one), you can instantly tell the workmanship and quality product that went into the car. You look at a Tesla and you could easily be on a Toyota or Chevy lot.
Also, pretty much all electric cars are that fast off the line. That’s the beauty of electric vehicles.
A friend of mine bought a new Model 3 at launch here in Germany. He had to drive a couple of hundred kilometers to pick it up in a city with a port. When he arrived, he was escorted to a warehouse with 100s of Teslas in it. His was actually outside in the parking lot. He was told that he could inspect the car for one hour to find potential faults like panel gaps, scratches in the paint or runny paint (it had been raining the night before and the car was still wet lol).
He found two fault which were going to be sorted out for him no charge. He told me this while we were sitting in the vehicle and I said “oh, so stuff like this scratch in the dashboard here?” and he looked at it and said “… I haven’t even noticed that one -_-”
All in all a very strange way to sell a car and pretty unheard of, especially here in Germany and with a brand new car.
Tesla is weird here in they don’t have “regular dealerships”. You buy direct from the manufacturer, instead of a private owner dealership chain. Idk how Tesla deliver cars specifically but every time I’ve bought a car you test drive it, then you look it over. You see if it’s missing anything like floor mats or they are adding something like clear vinyl or CarPlay they give you basically an IOU for those thing. Also, if you notice anything like a ding or scratch you get that in writing too. I usually don’t take delivery until everything is there/fixed so I don’t have to go back and forth 10 million times. It sounds like your friends experience was pretty similar.
I have however been inside their service center and know quite a few Tesla mechanics. That’s run quite differently to other dealerships service depts I’ve been in.
Comma.ai will let you add driver assistance to most cars almost as good as Tesla and with OTA updates. Under $2k too so cheaper than FSD.
We’ll see! They’ve been saying that for a long time. My point is Tesla is the most advanced you can buy currently, and that appears unlikely to change anytime soon. They have more cars on the road collecting data and improving their systems than anyone. It’s not even close…
I’ve been in my mate’s model S*, and lemme tell ya, 0-60 in three seconds is hilariously NOT “objectively not a high end car” lawl
Find me a Corolla that can do that
Edit: I was wrong, it’s the standard model, not the S! I forgot the midrange one, but it’s below an S. It still has two motors and launch… go fast, though!
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motorcycle != car
Also the torque on the motorcycle would feel completely different. I’ve never felt acceleration like that, it was AWESOME.
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I’m no Tesla fan but suggesting that the existence of motorcycles nullifies the speed differentiator is an asinine argument.
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As I said to someone else, speed doesn’t equal high end. Nor does a price tag. Fit and finish, and build quality and reliability do. Look at a real high end car and then look at a Tesla and tell me they are even in the same league.
That person was also me hahaha
I get where you’re coming from, but as a person who loves Corollas, a Tesla is in another world from sitting in one. It’s nothing like a fancy Bentley or whatever, but at its price point it feels fancy enough to be in and it demolishes everything else performance-wise. I wouldn’t say it’s not high-end, but everyone can have their own opinion.
Higher end S even does sub 2 second times
I can’t even imagine what that feels like.
I don’t think you know what “objective” means. At least define your criteria more broadly to make a hyperbolic claim like this.
The interior is not on the level of Mercedes but the whole package counting performance, drive and features is luxury.
People fall over themselves to talk down Tesla since Elon is a prick but let’s please try to stay rational here vs knee jerk reddit like reactions.
I’m in the market to replace my current EV, having looked at the M3 and Y, locally here in New Zealand the panel gaps look perfect although these might be the Chinese made models?
Panel gaps were mostly an early model issue afaik
Teslas are now the more expensive finance bro Patagonia vests, but on the road I’m seeing more polestars and other Ev’s.
Yeah I only got mine because it had the best range at the time and went “zoom” real good. I’d get an Aptera (if it ever comes out) for my next one though.
As a white male renter with a household income of $37,000 I don’t own a Tesla. So that checks out.
This seems more about demographics than tech. Just sayin
This seems more about demographics than tech. Just sayin
This seems more about demographics than tech. Just sayin
Sounds about right
Yep. It basically proves that Teslas are a toy for the rich. It will eventually be realized that BEVs are a fad.
My wife got a Tesla and has a nice figure. As far as I can tell, she doesn’t have 6 figures.
Overall, not surprised.
Couple of points I noticed were missing:
- No race-related data was reported regarding the Model 3.
- No data at all from the Model Y.
These are their most affordable models, so I’m reading this article in terms of the Model X & Model S, and not every owner. The data did say that the Model 3 was predominantly male-owned, and I expected nothing less from a car marketed as a sports car.
A state that was once identified as “Camry California”, the Model Y exceeding Camry sales in the state is a big enough deal to include that data to qualify an article that describes all Tesla owners.
It’s consistent with the idea that mostly tech workers buy Teslas. It does not really sell to people outside this demographic.
Interestingly, I think only one of the countless Tesla owners I know works in tech.
Those are often pretty wealthy people.
Til the middle class is considered “wealthy.” Maybe I should be more concerned about people like you screaming that we should eat the rich, since clearly your idea of wealth is based on your own socioeconomic standing and not actual numbers. Just like your understanding of EVs, actually! Hmm, a pattern emerges!
You sound like a right-wing troll at this point.
@eltimablo @L4s @vacuumpizzas @Hypx
to most of the world, what we consider middle class, is extrodinarily wealthy beyond imagination
The top selling EV in what’s considered a developing economy, China, is a Tesla Model Y. And whilst the USD carries some weight in other economies. Middle-class is middle-class in the US.
So we should eat the middle class too?
In years past, I toyed with the idea of getting a Tesla, but they were always too pricy for me. As I’m approaching 10 years on my current vehicle and have a 50+ mile one-way commute for the first time in 15 years (one day a week, but still…), I’m wondering if replacement will be sooner or later. I’d like to go EV or at least hybrid, but I know that it won’t be a Tesla in any event.
I did have a coworker several years ago who imported a Honda Fit EV from California. He was not exactly happy in the winter when he had to trade heat for distance. I imagine things are better with newer models.
