In Los Angeles, where I live, you don’t expect to be heckled while driving an electric car to the grocery store. But on a recent afternoon, a couple of men on bikes saw the Tesla logo on the front of my car and shouted “Fuck you, Tesla guy” as I rolled by with the windows down.
I bought my Tesla Model 3 in 2019, after my wife and I moved from New York to L.A. and needed a car. Not willing to burn gasoline, we got the most practical EV we could afford. Six years later, that car carries a different connotation.
In the aftermath of Elon Musk’s MAGA embrace and his scorched-earth tactics running DOGE, Tesla has become a primary target for protests. On Saturday, demonstrators marched outside all 277 Tesla showrooms and service centers in the U.S.; Teslas across the country have been vandalized and even destroyed in recent weeks. Even in Los Angeles, where Teslas are as familiar as Fords and not primarily viewed as right-wing totems, this wasn’t the first time I’d been shouted at since the election. Tesla owners who don’t support Musk are playing defense. Some have begun to slap on bumper stickers such as I bought this before Elon went crazy. Others are simply done. Sheryl Crow sold her Tesla and donated the money to NPR; Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona also got rid of his, saying he couldn’t stand to own a car that is a “rolling billboard for a man dismantling our government and hurting people.” Teslas that are eight years old or newer now account for 1.4 percent of all car trade-ins, up from 0.4 percent a year ago, and EV brands such as Lucid and Polestar offer tantalizing deals to Tesla drivers looking for an out. “You’re definitely seeing a lot of people say, ‘You know what? I don’t want to be associated with the trash that’s going on right now around Elon Musk,’” Robby DeGraff, an analyst at AutoPacific, told me. “‘I’m just going to get rid of my car.’”
The Great Tesla Sell-Off is producing a glut of politically tainted pre-owned cars. Used Teslas are now shockingly cheap: One 2021 Model 3 for sale near me, which would have cost more than $50,000 new, is going for less than $20,000. Even if you resent Musk, you should consider buying one. In this moment of DOGE madness, it’s difficult to see a Tesla as anything other than an avatar of Musk. But Elon doesn’t make any money off the Model Y you get secondhand. Strip away the symbolism, and an old Tesla is just a good, affordable car.
No, you shouldn’t buy a new Tesla if you’re enraged at Musk. The boycotters are correct that rejecting these vehicles directly hurts him. It drives down sales numbers, which hurts Tesla’s bottom line and saps the company’s stock price. Tesla’s remarkable valuation, buoyed as much by cult of personality as by the company’s sales figures, has made Musk the world’s richest person: The company was worth three times more than Toyota in 2024, despite selling six times fewer vehicles. Even so, collapsing sales, not only in the U.S. but also across Europe and Australia, have wiped out billions of dollars from Tesla’s stock.
Buying a pre-owned Tesla might feel just as unseemly. But it’s not. Start with the sustainability question. Anti-Musk liberals would surely agree that more Americans should go electric to cut carbon emissions. Only about one in 10 registered vehicles in America is an EV, so it’s likely that a used-Tesla buyer will be replacing an old gas-burner. The switch might be permanent: More than 90 percent of EV owners say they won’t go back to combustion. For the most part, Tesla refugees aren’t retreating to the polluting purr of the V-6; they’re switching to electric cars from other brands, such as Chevy, Lucid, and Kia.
Used Teslas also help to solve the main problem with getting Americans to go electric, which is price. Even with government tax credits, EVs tend to cost a premium compared with gas cars or hybrids. Pre-owned EVs, though, are shockingly affordable. Electric cars in general depreciate faster than gas-powered cars for a number of reasons, including fading battery life and used-car buyers’ unfamiliarity with the technology, Brian Moody, a senior staff editor at Kelley Blue Book, told me. All of this is bad for sellers, but good for buyers.
Even before the Great Tesla Sell-Off, the bulk of used EVs were Teslas. The math doesn’t lie: Just five years ago, Tesla sold nearly 80 percent of the electric cars in America. Now that virtually every major car company offers EVs, Tesla’s dominance is waning, but most of those non-Tesla EVs have yet to reach their second owners. Used Teslas were already pretty affordable, but now they are getting even cheaper. Moody said the average transaction price for a used Tesla dipped from nearly $32,000 in November to about $30,400 in early March as more flooded the market. Tesla’s resale value is reportedly falling three times as fast as the rest of the used-car market.
Perhaps most important of all: Unless you purchase a used Tesla directly from the company, Musk isn’t getting your money. It’s possible to buy a pre-owned Tesla and avoid his other revenue streams, too. Just like every carmaker, Tesla maintains a network of service centers to repair its vehicle, and because so few car mechanics specialize in electric vehicles, paying Tesla to do the work is much easier (and can feel safer) than taking a gamble on your neighborhood repair guy. However, a used car is likely to be past its four-year basic warranty, so you could take your old Model Y to an independent shop without voiding any coverage.
Then there is the question of charging. Tesla’s Supercharger network is admittedly excellent and convenient. But that is relevant for more than Tesla owners. Over the past couple of years, the rest of the industry has adopted Tesla’s plug standard, and many other brands’ EVs can now visit the company’s fast-charging stations. Musk-hating Rivian owners might still find themselves paying him for kilowatt-hours in a pinch. Still, avoiding them is easier than you might think. EV newbies tend to fret about charging, given that plugging in a car is still not as simple or quick as pulling into the nearest Shell. But the anxiety tends to be exaggerated. Something like 80 percent of EV owners primarily charge at home, which provides enough electricity for daily driving. On road trips, drivers can plan ahead to make a point of visiting charging stations that aren’t owned by Tesla.
Of course, a used Tesla may not spare you from getting shouted at while you’re getting groceries. Buying any kind of Tesla in 2025 can practically feel like an invitation to get graffitied, or at least a tacit endorsement of the brand. But set aside the optics—no simple task—and a pre-owned Tesla is just as climate-virtuous as all the Chevy Bolts and Ford Mustang Mach-Es that aren’t carrying around any MAGA baggage. Refusing an old Model 3 doesn’t hurt Elon or help the planet. But it does stop you from getting a good deal. If you’re still feeling trepidation, consider an apology bumper sticker: “I bought it from someone who bought it before Elon was crazy.”
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