The Tesla Cybertruck was officially delivered to early customers in December last year, but after many months of hype and intense promotion, it appears that some customers have been unhappy with the number of early faults and issues that are beginning to surface.
Most of the grumblings have been occurring online, where a section of the Cybertruck Owners Club forum has decided to begin a thread titled "Issues, Repairs, Warranty, Recalls."
Here, one owner regaled the group with a tale of a monumental breakdown just one-mile down the road after collecting an All-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck from a local dealership. According to user 'Cyberstank', the vehicle flashed a steering error, prompted the driver to pull over and then failed to restart.
"Tesla really rushed these trucks out, what a nightmare," the user wrote at the end of the post.
Other members of the forum then piled in to express their condolences and report that "a lot of trucks are having high voltage issues related to harness which makes trucks unusable," according to fellow user FutureTruck.
In another high-profile Cybertruck mishap, the Daily Mail reported that one owner allegedly experienced malfunctioning brakes just weeks after purchase, which resulted into a collision with a pole. To make matters worse, the owner claimed that the airbags weren’t deployed.
Other customers have complained of rust forming on the Cybertruck’s stainless steel exterior, while Brian Reese, the CEO of T Sportline, an aftermarket parts manufacturer specializing in Tesla, took to YouTube to explain a serious design flaw in the EV maker's aerodynamic wheel covers.
According to Reese, these plastic covers are digging into the tire sidewall and have the potential to cause early degradation of the rubber and could potentially comprise the structural integrity of the tire itself.
Again, the Cybertruck Owners Forum claims that Tesla is aware of the issue, reporting that some new Cybertrucks are being delivered without the wheel covers. Tesla has reportedly been approached to comment on a number of the issues expressed in the article, but has so far failed to respond.
Are these issues impacting resale values?
Tesla famously introduced a clause to its Cybertruck owner contracts that stated it would pursue legal action if customers decided to sell their vehicles within the first year of ownership.
Musk’s company then appeared to retract the statement, before reintroducing it in order to prevent owners "flipping" their trucks – or making a profit by exploiting the huge demand and limited supply of Cybertruck at the time.
But according to The Autopian, which analyzed used Cybetruck prices on popular US car sales channels like Bring a Trailer, Cars and Bids and CarGurus, prices of Musk's steel behemoth have been dropping in recent months.
In February, Automotive News reported that a Florida dealership had purchased a Cybertruck for $244,000 at auction, despite the vehicle costing $102,235 when bought new from Tesla. It then put it on the forecourt with a sticker price of $289,999.
But prices are cooling, with Bring a Trailer reportedly selling one recently for $160,000, while used car sales website CarGurus has second-hand models listed for as little as $149,000.
This still represents a solid profit when compared to the retail price set by Tesla, but as production ramps up and demand cools off, you can expect used Cybertruck prices to start deflating at a rapid rate.
If Cybertruck is anything like other luxury EVs on the market, it may well hit a point where it loses up to 50 per cent of its value, much like the Porsche Taycan and Mercedes-Benz EQS models.
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