Why I canceled my Cyberbeast order

[carsly]

Yeah I thought of it, but I know I’ll always want the extra hp. I didn’t test drive the dual motor yet, just the CB. Coming from a plaid my expectations were a bit too high for the acceleration (2.6s seemed really close to 1.99s on paper, but in reality it’s very noticeable).

Having owned and traded in a Model S Plaid on my Cybertruck AWD I can share that either Cybertruck is going to feel slower. Much slower, at launch.

That said, I preferred the RWD handling bias of the AWD (the Cyberbeast is default FWD), lighter weight (more agile in the twisties), lockable diffs (real lockers, not virtual lockers), and better efficiency (have done 370 miles on a highway trip with all-terrains before charging). YMMV

0-60mph in the high 3's with the AWD is still ridiculous for a three ton pickup truck. Yes, it's a second slower than the Cyberbeast, but no real difference in the real world. Two years in and I occasionally miss the staggering firepower of the Plaid, but the Cybertruck is world's more refined in handling, suspension, interior fit and finish, storage, capability, etc.

Choose what works for you, but don't sleep on the AWD IMHO.

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[Jhodgesatmb]

Pretty crazy I told the guy I had $130k cash to get the truck and he didn’t want to look into the issue. The shrinking size and undertraining of staff is the type of behavior that is going to save the world from Elon getting his pay package by a decade or two…

I don’t understand the comment about saving the world from Elon getting his pay package. His pay package is tied to company value and to time. If he doesn’t increase company value during the specific time of a tranche he loses that tranche. If he wants that stock then he has to effect serious increases in company value. Tesla increasing in value might well be good for the world; it would certainly be good for TSLA investors.

 

[Cybertruck2024]

If you are waiting for tech, you will never buy a Tesla.

They move fast and furious with updates. For me, the CT was what I needed/wanted at the time and after 33,000 miles it's been the best, cheapest truck I have ever owned.

Amazingly I was assuming tires would be replaced at 25K miles - heavy truck. I'm going to get 35,000-40,000 miles - same as any other truck. ZERO maintenance cost - which for a truck is amazing.

On customer service. I agree with you, it's not easy dealing with the sales force, especially if you are up-to-date on Tesla's. I can only imagine the tech/sales force at Tesla trying to keep up with all the changes! Tough. I will take the fast pace over 'process' based customer service of a traditional car dealer stuck in the 90's.

But you need to differentiate hardware and updates. The updates come fast and furious, which is arguably the best reason to own a Tesla. The hardware changes every 4ish years, not very fast at all.

But this is where hardware matters. If you like those fast and furious updates, not all of them come to old hardware. Where a 2027 CT may be getting all updates through 2032-2035, a CT bought today will start selectively missing updates by the end of the decade. My M3P didn't get Grok, which I use almost every drive in my CT. It is why my M3P is "a dinosaur," according to my partner.

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Yeah I hear ya. The truck was pretty cool to drive and I still want one but i realized it wasn’t worth the 20-30k extra to get new because Tesla wasn’t willing to make it perfect for me. Hoping to get a used CB for 50% off sticker in a year or two like I did with my plaid.

Tesla doesn’t make cars perfect for buyers. They never have, and you know that. You can get third parties to do just about anything you want for money, which you clearly have. If you really think that AI5 is important to you then it isn’t expected in any vehicles until sometime in 2027. But having the latest FSD runs a bit contrary to your desire for intense accelerant speed. If having unlimited free supercharging is that important to you then you can wait and hope that Tesla offers a free supercharging incentive in the future, or buy a used car that has it, but your statements about how much money you have to spend, and having had a Plaid Model S, kind of run opposed to the free supercharging. So ‘saving’ a few thousand dollars is more important to you than having an awesome vehicle … that speaks volumes. I was loaned a Plaid Model S during a recent service and I like the Cybertruck squircle ‘much’ better than the yoke, and there is ‘zero’ comparison in turning between the two; the S is a dog.

 

[cyberjeff25]

Please - self fulfilling wish it seems. Looking for excuses. Obviously on a lease the FSD if owned by the car will not follow you to another vehicle - nor will the driver’s seat or the wheels. You don’t own anything- you rented the car. Changing the steering wheel? Really why? Silly. To buy- you go on the website and fill out your name and credit card and so on and you pay for the car and pick it up. Could not be any easier for normal people.

I own lots of cars / from new Ferrari and Porsche’s etc.- bought the cab on a whim when my reservation came up back in 2024- it has been the best experience of any vehicle- from buying, to picking it up to driving it and when getting it serviced! And the damn car drives itself - now 78% of the time. And it is quiet and smooth and front has tons of room for my fat body and the stereo is fantastic and the a/c is fantastic and my dog loves to stay in the truck while we eat at a restaurant under dog mode. And it has a tent in the back! And it farts when you change lanes - and does light shows and the system is updated every month and more features are added all for free. Watching YouTube videos while my wife shops in Costco too.

If they put newer batteries in the truck this won’t change the experience of driving the car. Cheaper for Tesla to make those batteries or maybe lighter/ charge faster? Meaningless in usage. I plug it in at night and it is charges to 270 miles in the morning. No stupid gas stations.

I will sell all my other cars and will never sell my CB - it is the vehicle that does everything and is literally 20 years ahead of any other truck on the street today.

Go to a ford dealer and play with their scammer salesman and their outdated products. You will be happier/ I can guess you would have driven the Tesla service dept crazy with nitpicky complaints about trivial stuff anyway. Tesla dodged a bullet.
My bet is you just don’t like Musk and his politics and this is a post to badmouth the company more than the truck.

 

[Gary 54]

After going back and forth (a lot) for a while, I finally cancelled my Cybertruck order that I made a couple weeks ago. Figured I’d share why in case others are weighing the same decision.

1) Hardware uncertainty
Recent trends make it feel like a major hardware shift is around the corner. Elon recently said AI5/HW5 is ready, FSD is no longer being sold outright, and S/X are being discontinued rather than redesigned because they’re not selling. That makes me nervous about taking delivery right before a hardware transition that could matter a lot long-term.

2) Sales experience killed my confidence
Dealing with Tesla sales was honestly frustrating. Hours on hold with automated systems, undertrained reps, conflicting answers, dropped calls — it just didn’t inspire confidence.

I also couldn’t get a straight answer about whether free Supercharging would transfer if I bought out a lease through the lender. No one seemed willing or able to answer clearly.

3) Final straw: conflicting info from Tesla itself
Today a Tesla manager told me over the phone that a Model S/X yoke could be installed in the Cybertruck before delivery. She told me to confirm with my local delivery advisor.

The delivery advisor (whom “has been doing this for a long time”) then told me it’s not possible because the Cybertruck’s steer-by-wire system is incompatible with the S/X yoke assembly. The advisor chose to cancel my order on the spot rather than look into the issue any further than asking the guy over his shoulder.

Getting completely opposite answers inside the same company was the breaking point.

I still like the Cybertruck and might revisit later, especially after HW5 rolls out and things stabilize. But for now, it felt smarter to step back and wait.

Curious if others are having similar experiences or if I just got unlucky.

-From: a guy who paid Tesla close to $70k for a MYLR in 2022 and also received years of poor customer service for Tesla solar panels

P.S.: Will get a CB eventually...this community seems pretty cool and a lot more low-key (in a good way) than I expected. hope to join soon...

I know your frustrations and dilemma regarding your Canceling your Cybertruck. I waited over 4 years for my CT and went through two price changes and still was open for the purchase. When Tesla changed my Written Purchase Contract and the distribution center GM would not let me buy the CT under my written contract I had with Tesla. No one could help or even knew the answer of why they could not honor their own written contract on the sale to me of the CT. I tried to make contact with personal in Tesla but the people that I talked to did not know anything or just did not have any information on this subject. That along with the general run-a-round I got and other complaints I have found, made it clear to me that Tesla's Customer Service is very poor. It would be a poor idea at this time to make my first purchase of a Tesla Auto until they get their customer service department operating more efficiently.

I Will Be Back!

 

[jimbobb23]

Why are these posts given front page status? Who cares why rando didnt buy thing? I don't purchase lots of things I look into it. It's not interesting.

 

[alpha42]

They are pretty much done selling vehicles to consumers, they pretty much announced it on the last quarterly conference call.
They have not announced when this will happen, but things move very fast at Tesla, if you haven't noticed

Tesla hype and promises move fast, actual deliverables, not so much.

They're not done selling cars until they're generating actual income on something else to replace it.

 

[Gaximus]

I always say the experience is like buying a car from the cable company. People who believe that direct to consumer is better than the franchise model have never dealt with tesla sales or service.

I've had the complete opposite experience. I'll never buy from a dealership again. I've never had an experience with a Cable company, where after I got off the phone I thought "Glad I called, I feel better now". Yet I've always felt that way anytime dealing with Tesla.

 

[SCTesla]

I've had the complete opposite experience. I'll never buy from a dealership again. I've never had an experience with a Cable company, where after I got off the phone I thought "Glad I called, I feel better now". Yet I've always felt that way anytime dealing with Tesla.

Phone? You mean app.

Tesla notoriously doesn't answer the phone.

 

[Cyberkingz]

If you think model S/X were discontinued because they're not selling you're not paying attention at all... also nice em dashes

After going back and forth (a lot) for a while, I finally cancelled my Cybertruck order that I made a couple weeks ago. Figured I’d share why in case others are weighing the same decision.

1) Hardware uncertainty
Recent trends make it feel like a major hardware shift is around the corner. Elon recently said AI5/HW5 is ready, FSD is no longer being sold outright, and S/X are being discontinued rather than redesigned because they’re not selling. That makes me nervous about taking delivery right before a hardware transition that could matter a lot long-term.

2) Sales experience killed my confidence
Dealing with Tesla sales was honestly frustrating. Hours on hold with automated systems, undertrained reps, conflicting answers, dropped calls — it just didn’t inspire confidence.

I also couldn’t get a straight answer about whether free Supercharging would transfer if I bought out a lease through the lender. No one seemed willing or able to answer clearly.

3) Final straw: conflicting info from Tesla itself
Today a Tesla manager told me over the phone that a Model S/X yoke could be installed in the Cybertruck before delivery. She told me to confirm with my local delivery advisor.

The delivery advisor (whom “has been doing this for a long time”) then told me it’s not possible because the Cybertruck’s steer-by-wire system is incompatible with the S/X yoke assembly. The advisor chose to cancel my order on the spot rather than look into the issue any further than asking the guy over his shoulder.

Getting completely opposite answers inside the same company was the breaking point.

I still like the Cybertruck and might revisit later, especially after HW5 rolls out and things stabilize. But for now, it felt smarter to step back and wait.

Curious if others are having similar experiences or if I just got unlucky.

-From: a guy who paid Tesla close to $70k for a MYLR in 2022 and also received years of poor customer service for Tesla solar panels

P.S.: Will get a CB eventually...this community seems pretty cool and a lot more low-key (in a good way) than I expected. hope to join soon...

 

[PungoteagueDave]

This just isn't sound advice though. Imagine paying full MSRP for a Tesla just before the better hardware comes out? It is a bad idea. Other manufacturers have model years and you can get substantial discounts buying last year's model when the new model comes out. That is because last year's model immediately depreciates. Same thing happens with Teslas on the depreciation side, but you don't get the discount on the purchase like with other manufacturers. I would have a hard time considering a HW3 vehicle today if it was 80% off, there just isn't any reason to buy old tech from a tech company.

We have smartphones on wheels. I always wondered what lunatics were buying a full priced iPhone say 11 months after it came out, when the same price will get you something 50% better in 1 month. Even if my phone broke and I had an emergency situation where I needed to buy a new phone, I would rather get a $80 burner phone for a month and then buy the new phone.

HW5 will be a substantial leap, just like HW4 was. We now are on year 3 of HW4, which is ancient in the tech world. HW5 is coming in a year, it will blow away what we are using now, why would you not wait?

Because life is short.

We only have so many breaths left.

Buy what’s available now because it’s best to live for today.

Any more cliches would be overkill but you get the point. Maybe there will be a big advance next year. Trade it in if that’s important. Meanwhile you get a year of life experience with an amazing thing. If you’re 60 years old, it’s probably 5% of your life that you get the experience vs waiting a year.

I bought my first Tesla MS in 2012. It was both an engineering disaster and one of my most wonderful life experiences, a period that could never be replaced by waiting. It was all-consuming, as were each of my subsequent Teslas. Every single one until the current CT AWD and MY had huge teething issues, lots of service interaction. But I wouldn’t change a moment of it.

In each case I could have waited for either the next upgrade or for the new model issues to be worked out. There were rumors, later confirmed in each case, of incoming incremental upgrades. For many of us with 2012 and 2013 Tesla’s, Elon’s famous October 2014 “and one more thing” announcement of AP was crushing, and there was never any followthrough on the promise of upgraded hardware. The answer, at least for me, was to suck it up, rejoice in the massive advances and tech, and trade up. Waiting never would have worked because there has never been a time in Tesla’s existence that something big wasn’t just around the corner.

You simply have to get on the merry-go-round.

In each case waiting would have been a mistake. I cannot express enough how wonderful the whole Tesla journey has been. Don’t miss it.

 

[Gaximus]

Phone? You mean app.

Tesla notoriously doesn't answer the phone.

I said phone when dealing with Cable companies, and just said "after dealing with Tesla". I prefer the text messaging system Tesla has, it's a clearer more deliberate way of communicating.

 

[PungoteagueDave]

But you need to differentiate hardware and updates. The updates come fast and furious, which is arguably the best reason to own a Tesla. The hardware changes every 4ish years, not very fast at all.

But this is where hardware matters. If you like those fast and furious updates, not all of them come to old hardware. Where a 2027 CT may be getting all updates through 2032-2035, a CT bought today will start selectively missing updates by the end of the decade. My M3P didn't get Grok, which I use almost every drive in my CT. It is why my M3P is "a dinosaur," according to my partner.

Okay, but this is betting on an unknown, and increasingly unlikely. We just don’t know whether there will be a CT with hw5 a year from now. You would bet yes, I would bet no. It doesn’t matter.

The one thing we do know for sure is is that you can buy a CT right now today that is an amazing experience right where it stands. It is like no other vehicle available today and you can own it. Will there be a newer better option someday? Maybe. But it isn’t available now, so don’t miss out on life.

Folks often live as though they’re immortal and can delay pleasure indefinitely. Two well-off people who were very influential in my life told me on their deathbeds that the one thing they regretted in life was not spending more earlier, especially on things that their family could have enjoyed at younger life periods. In my grandfather’s case, the example was a long-desired kitchen upgrade for my grandmother.

It can make sense to delay for financial reasons, but I’ve learned the hard way to not delay in order to see what the next big thing will be. Buy that thing when actually available, if and when it comes.

 

[mitch9]

Tesla hype and promises move fast, actual deliverables, not so much.

They're not done selling cars until they're generating actual income on something else to replace it.

They have no plans for "The next Tesla", they are supposed to release the new Roadster, because they took many $100K deposits for it, it is of course extremely, late, and will be their last car built for "drivers" (designed to be manually driven).

They have no plans for the "$25K low cost" Tesla, they are making it though, its called the "RoboTaxi", or as they have now renamed it, they can't use the word "taxi".. However, it will NOT be sold to consumers, only to fleet operators, it will have no driver controls (no steering wheel, brakes/go pedal)
Tesla intends to make their own fleet first, and deploy them in every major US city.

They have shifted focus away from vehicles, in case no one has noticed. They are full on headed to autonomous rideshare and optimus robots. Do not "wait" for the next great Tesla you can buy, because, it isn't coming anytime soon, if ever.

The reality is, they have a $45B cash horde, I don't think they care about selling vehicles any longer. full stop. BTW, TSLA may go away this year, rumors are SpaceX/X may aquire TSLA to align with Elons long term goals, and give him the %25 voting control he needs to avoid takeover attempts from bad actors (you know, the ones who want Tesla to only make vehicles)

The shareholders care (I am one), but we trust Elon, if you don't like the direction the company is going in, you can always sell your TSLA shares, or buy another EV from someone else.

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