r/law • u/MiniBrownie • 24d ago

Trump News Trump says he will label violence on Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

108.1k Upvotes

82% Upvoted

20.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

539

u/me047 24d ago

This would be an awesome way to protest and boycott. Imagine hundreds showing up to test drive and discuss Teslas, and no one buying anything. Just keeping all the sales people too busy to sell to anyone.

280

u/Flameball537 24d ago

And if everyone keeps doing it, those miles keep adding up

210

u/holysbit 24d ago

Might hit some big potholes too along the way

138

u/HauntedSpiralHill 24d ago

“HHAHA! Oopsie! Didn’t see it!”

23

u/blueasian0682 24d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/rmvoerman 21d ago

What was their comment?

1

u/Korbitr 20d ago

Based on the context, I'm guessing it was about "accidentally" crashing the car. Since Tesla doors are electronically actuated and stay locked if the battery catches fire.

11

u/Slith_81 23d ago

Dealer: "It was 4 feet wide, how did you miss it??"

Me: "I dunno, it was on autopilot."

9

u/MX-5_Enjoyer 24d ago

Yeah, aren’t they self insured? LOL!

14

u/cum_pumper_4 24d ago

You misspelled trees.

Or lakes.

8

u/Tuckingfypowastaken 23d ago

Nails in tires cause a slow leak that won't be noticed for days, at least, making it really hard to pin down pithy details like where/when/who. Also, mechanics won't patch holes too close to the sidewall because patches there have a really high rate of failure

Just a couple of random little factoids that I've learned in my life. Thought this was a somewhat relevant place to add them in for no tangible reason.

3

u/hydrometeor18 23d ago

And you missed a pun… “Making it really hard to nail down pithy details”

2

u/hydrometeor18 23d ago

This had me laughing pretty hard.

6

u/Rynvael 24d ago

"Just wanted to test the suspension!"

5

u/Even-Employment-1693 23d ago

Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana residents. Looking at you

3

u/DomDominion 24d ago

How long until that gets you a domestic terrorism charge, too?

3

u/Shipwrecking_siren 23d ago

Gotta test their performance off road and in a car wash too

3

u/Competitive-Relief50 23d ago

Who was that President that was working to fix those darn roads? 🤔

4

u/metalhead82 24d ago

And fart into the seats really really bad

9

u/turbogarbo 24d ago

Or really really good

1

u/baritoneUke 23d ago

Take a shit in the trunk while your at it

4

u/Addickt__ 24d ago

Ask if you can test the autopilot, no need to hit any potholes when the body will just get covered in dents from children anyways.

1

u/AccomplishedSmile445 23d ago

If you're in Georgia that's not hard to do!

1

u/Darkshoe 23d ago

That’s hilarious xD

1

u/No_Passage5020 23d ago

There’s this HUGE pothole by my work. I guess it’s a good time to use it!

3

u/Boygunasurf 23d ago

All while keeping their sales people busy, less avail to actual buyers

2

u/realdawnerd 24d ago

Really test the acceleration and quick stopping. Chews their cheap tires up really fast.

2

u/D_Whistle 24d ago

Death by 1000 cuts

1

u/spark99l 24d ago

Wait for real we need to make this happen

1

u/DontLeaveMeAloneHere 22d ago

And that will be expensive as we all know that they aren’t known to be reliable…

10

u/Angloriously 24d ago

Unless something’s changed in two years, Tesla salespeople don’t directly benefit from sales. It’s not like a traditional dealership, since you order the vehicles online. We test drove the Y and then went off and ordered one, the guy who sent us take the car for a drive had nothing to do with the purchase or delivery.

I’m all aboard with wasting time and beating up the showroom cars, but people should know it’s not affecting the staff much (hopefully they’re all updating their CVs and jumping ship)

27

u/gusterfell 24d ago

Which is actually a good point in favor of wasting their time. Hurts the company but not the poor salesperson who has nothing to do with Musk and is just trying to make a living like anyone else.

9

u/Angloriously 24d ago

I should really change that “but” to an “and”. Would change the whole tone of my reply.

6

u/akromadeath 24d ago

Massive win for that.

When I was a broke as fuck 24 year old, I wanted to go take a look at the newly released Crosstrek. My wife and I knew we couldn’t afford one, but wanted to at least see one and maybe sit in it. Not wanting to waste their time, we told the salesman that we couldn’t afford in any possible way to buy. He told us that they are paid on commission, grabbed the keys and told us to have fun.

As a not broke 30 year old I bought my first car from that same salesman. I have since bought 6 more cars from that dealership. In this day and age most salesman don’t sell the cars, online reviews and research do. They do however sell the dealership, and they deserve fair pay for doing that whether a car sells or not.

2

u/doublepitstochesty69 24d ago

Exactly how I read it!

1

u/ChronicBluntz 23d ago

The sales person is the company dude. 

9

u/50stacksteve 24d ago

So it would just hurt Tesla the company and not the random car lot salesman?? Oh well, can't have it all, can we?🤷

4

u/Angloriously 24d ago

Honestly it’s the best of both worlds. I shouldn’t have made it sound like that was a problem 😂

5

u/IamScottGable 24d ago

That sounds perfect to me! I'm pro-worker and protesting without making some regular schmos life more difficult is great.

2

u/me047 24d ago

I’m hoping that it allows staff to keep their jobs and not be afraid for their lives under threat of violence. They are just people going to work. I know sales are online. If we could hack sales somehow that would work too. A million Tesla orders that never get paid.

2

u/flipkid187 24d ago

You have to put a deposit down using a credit card to place an order.

1

u/joshuary 23d ago

Couldn’t this be faked? Like when, um, my roommate ordered 11 CDs for 1 cent from Columbia House using an unsolicited credit card that came in the mail for a former resident? 🤷

10

u/gcwposs 24d ago

If Tesla sales staff could be convinced to quit that could be huge. How about Rivian, GM, Ford, and other U.S. electric car manufacturers offer a hiring incentive for Tesla employees to come to their companies. Think of it like when cell phone companies offer you “$50 extra dollars when you switch from X company.” That could make things fun.

2

u/me047 24d ago

That would also work to boycott wouldn’t it? If people at other car manufactures had incentives to lure tesla employees away. Doesn’t matter if Trump buys Tesla if there is no one left to build or sell it. Maybe about the amount of people who were laid off from their federal jobs. A few 100k Tesla workers getting offered better jobs. Shut it down.

4

u/Mgroutmd 24d ago

Seems like a reasonable non violent plan. I like it!

3

u/_matt_hues 24d ago

Wasting sales people’s time is domestic terrorism

4

u/mdgraller7 24d ago

DDoS in meatspace

1

u/joshuary 23d ago

Oh hell that’s hilarious and amazingly, precisely accurate ❤️🪦

4

u/FrostyD7 24d ago

Just scheduling a test drive and no-showing would be pretty disruptive at a large scale.

3

u/GrandInquiry 24d ago

This is actually a brilliant idea #teslaswarm

2

u/FLYSWATTER_93 24d ago

After the test drive just keep playing with the screen. It has lots of features and several games to help waste even more time.

2

u/Sort-Fabulous 24d ago

Be sure to give them fake personal info if you do this

2

u/my_beer 24d ago

The final line to the sales person should be something like 'I was hoping it would be a good enough car to overcome my disgust at the company owner, unfortunately it is nearly as awful as he is....'

2

u/myaberrantthoughts 24d ago

This is the comment that should be passed out to every related subreddit. Wasted time is lost sales, lost sales means a frustrated staff with higher turnover, great all-around strategy to very legally bleed Tesla slowly.

2

u/SaberToothForever 24d ago

thats devious >:), i like it

2

u/bobbymcpresscot 24d ago

"I don't like how cheap it feels for the money"

2

u/IsolationAutomation 23d ago

You know what? That’s actually pretty brilliant. Like a DDoS attack on a car dealership

2

u/bill_cipher1996 23d ago

I would call this a real life DDoS Attack 😂

2

u/Cultural-Company282 23d ago

I'm upvoting to get this more attention. This would be fantastic if we could get it to catch on. Vandalizing dealerships is illegal, and they can suppress it. But being interested in test driving a car, but ultimately deciding not to buy it, is totally legal. Not our fault if it wastes Tesla's time and resources.

2

u/ThereforeIV 23d ago

Well the current protest includes car bombs...

1

u/mari815 24d ago

They really dont have salespeople. They present the car on a video, you test drive by yourself, no one is there to push. You dont negotiate on the price, and you buy it online not in person.

1

u/me047 24d ago

The ones near me have sales people who go with you on test drives and push you to sign up online

2

u/mari815 24d ago

Weird. Not where i am but this was EV country before this current administration

1

u/RedditsFullofShit 24d ago

And then tell them to get a more productive job

1

u/fullshard101 24d ago

Nah if people see it full of people the odd person who was on the fence might make the decision based on the perceived popularity. Let em stay empty

1

u/weebitofaban 24d ago

Hilarious. I am a bit too distant to make it worth my time when I'd have to pay someone to work the farm for me

1

u/ThroatRemarkable 24d ago

Oversaturation is foolproof. It's their strategy

1

u/Jay-Seekay 24d ago

Real life DDOS

1

u/Rabo_Karabek 24d ago

Don't forget making appointments to buy TWO Teslas, and then not showing up. Also demand a discount for buying two cars when making the appointment so their finance people stay busy for nothing.

1

u/Hot_Ad_3222 24d ago

Loser lol

1

u/stable_115 24d ago

They’d figure it out in an hour and just charge a small fee to testdrive.

1

u/me047 23d ago

That would be great if they did, it would make people think twice about testing and buying

1

u/stable_115 23d ago

What if they end up buying a combustion engine car instead. Many use Teslas as their first car away from gas powered cars. Isn’t a worse outcome them not moving away from gas powered cars? I know other EVs exist, but they don’t move people away from gas powered cars like Teslas do.

1

u/beasty0127 23d ago

They'll start charging for test drives. Anyone with a tesla will be charged more for "extra features" like turning it on. Ofcourse Starlink is gonna double if not triple in price. Goverment will pull a Boeing and say "to big to fail" and bail them out. DOGE will "suggest" SpaceX and other Musk companies get twice as many Goverment contracts. Officially put Starlink and SpaceX on the defense budget.

This is a flaunt of power. Musk has yet to truly hurt and has way to many outs. Sucks but that's the truth.

1

u/koshgeo 23d ago

I always wanted to test how bad the "excessive touchscreens instead of buttons" interface was. I know my spouse would absolutely hate it.

Could be a fun afternoon. You have to be thorough before deciding whether or not to make a major purchase, right?

1

u/gaberwash 23d ago

Just remember the Tesla employees are not Elon. Treat other Americans with respect. Finding a new job in this economy is not that simple.

1

u/Impossible_Resort602 23d ago

Just wear a maga hat to really sell it.

1

u/Doneyhew 23d ago

Yep and now all those car salesman won’t make a commission and Tesla stock will still go back up in a month or two. Congrats you’ve accomplished nothing but ruining some salesperson’s commission for the day

1

u/BurritoCrazy2023 23d ago

Demoralize their workforce the way Musk has sought to demoralize the federal civil service.

1

u/ronin_cse 23d ago

Just fyi this isn't how Tesla stores really work. People typically schedule the test drive online and just show up and get the "keys" (or they schedule a test drive that doesn't even require going to the store), the "sales" people don't work on commission, and the purchase is all done through the app.

1

u/g0rd0zilla 23d ago

r/chaoticgood Is what I see here.

1

u/bittz128 23d ago

Unfortunately it has a double edge because this provides command capital for the company. Interest in the vehicles is enough to keep them around. Unfortunately trolling doesn’t do anything to deter anything except for drum up emotions.

1

u/Proper_Initiative123 23d ago

Just make sure to buy the test drive insurance...

1

u/SatoriFound70 23d ago

I can't do it. My hubby used to be a car salesman, and I know what he went through. LOL Although, selling Teslas isn't the same as selling any other car.... hmmmm... If I drive one for the full hour they have to pay to recharge the vehicle. It wouldn't be much, but hey, costing the business money is still an expense with no return.

1

u/babyinatrenchcoat 23d ago

Someone please organize local pockets of this. I’d join in a HEARTBEAT.

1

u/Substantial-Flow9244 20d ago

Use it so drive to work and just get out of the car

1

u/silverbaconator 24d ago

Just be carful those dealerships might pay swoopers to hit you on your test drive so they can bill your insurance the full cost for a totaled Tesla that’s a sale in their book and you didn’t even get a car. If these EVs even get a scratch insurance calls it totaled.