I own a Tesla. I wonder what response a statement like that will get in the future when I re-read this blog someday. Elon Musk is currently the CEO and I believe owns enough shares to be the highest shareholder. Musk is also leading DOGE, in his role appointed by our current president to dismantle our government, completely ignoring the checks and balances in our constitution. I work for said government. Our president participated in an ad for Tesla on the front lawn of the White House. Musk at one point recently gave a Nazi salute. A certain percentage of left-leaning people are calling for extreme boycotts. They call Teslas Swasticars. They are protesting at dealerships and vandalizing dealerships, chargers, and the cars of individual owners. There was supposedly even briefly a website up with a map of all Tesla owners including names, addresses, phone numbers, social media accounts, etc.
I love the car itself. The technology is amazing. It's a fun car to drive. And the charging network is leaps and bounds ahead of any other charging network. I don't want to sell my car but there is some concern about insurance rates skyrocketing or denying coverage, although I don't feel like I have enough information to assess how big of a risk that is. There's also concern that the company could go bankrupt and I don't yet know how extensive a network of service providers there are with knowledge on EVs. And the car's value is dropping probably not as fast in my red state as other states but still dropping nonetheless. I wouldn't worry about depreciation if there wasn't a concern about insurance costs or maintenance because I had planned to keep the car long enough that it won't be worth much in the end anyway.
To be honest, I don't know what to do but I do know that gathering more information is never a bad thing. So I scootered to the Hyundai dealership on my way home from work today. The sales man who greeted me at the door didn't know what I was asking about when I gave him the model of the car until I explained it was an EV that I saw on their website. So he proceeded to look it up and then ask someone where to find the car.
In the meantime, I sat in one of those black chairs that seems so common in dealerships and realized the smell is the same as the countless dealerships I have been in. And it took me back to another time. The anxiety I had felt walking in the door had not calmed down at all, it had escalated.
My ex-husband is obsessed with cars. We had been through I believe over 25 during our two decades together. It escalated as we became more secure in our jobs such that most cars weren't lasting more than 6-9 months by the end. I can't even count the hours I've spent in dealerships and rarely were they positive moments. There was a time in our marriage where I was dealing with significant chronic pain and the hours at the dealership were so hard on me. I can remember laying on the floor of the showroom stretching to try and make it through.
I remember writing a poem about negotiation and the salesman asking what I was writing - I openly admitted I was writing a poem about him which I think unnerved him a bit. I should find that poem. I remember the late fast food dinners because the paperwork took so long and being there until after closing. And I remember the arguments when I tried to slow him down a bit when he pushed for the next car so soon after the previous. I wasn't even saying "no". I usually just wanted more information and more time process. As we broke up, he told me he thinks my trying to slow him down actually made him want to buy more cars which I think helped me recognize the lack of empathy, something that was never there through all those transactions he put me through.
So I'm sitting in this black chair waiting for the salesman to return, angry at the fact that I'm being put in a position to make this decision about a car I love at the same time I'm reliving the pain and sacrifices I made for an ex-husband who I'm not sure even appreciated what I did let alone would have done the same for me.
And then the salesman came back with a story of someone who is going to make a decision about buying the car tomorrow and so he couldn't show it to me. Then he said the car wasn't even there. Then it was something about a woman waiting for her father's advice. So he asked if he could call me tomorrow and took down my name and number. It was only then that he gave me his card and so I learned his name. And then I left. He didn't try to sell me another car. He didn't bother to ask about whether I would have a trade. I don't think he actually wanted to sell me a car.
No comments:
Post a Comment