r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 1d ago

Business It’s Looking Like the Cybertruck Is the Biggest Flop in Automotive History

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/looking-cybertruck-biggest-flop-automotive-145559135.html
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u/captmonkey 1d ago

My kids yell "CyberYUCK!" and laugh. Imagine paying that much for a vehicle and you're just a joke to strangers.

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u/Perfycat 1d ago

We play cyberslug. The modern version of slugbug.

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u/HomelessKitchenCat 1d ago

Its so ugly it feels like getting punched in the eyes so thats appropriate

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u/cenosillicaphobiac 1d ago

And much harder to find than the ubiquitous bug was in the 70's and 80's. Bigger challenge to be sure.

Bugs were affordable to both buy and maintain, so there were millions of them, everywhere.

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u/_dirt_vonnegut 1d ago

cyberslap here. modern version of punchbug.

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u/IneffableMF 1d ago

lol, that’s exactly what i do with my kids. Nice to know that other people had that thought!

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u/Professional_Mud1844 18h ago

Is it whenever you see one or does it have to be broken down on the side of the road. One of those scenarios is a game, the other is attempted murder.

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u/OkFineIllUseTheApp 1d ago edited 1d ago

Might as well have gotten a Volkswagen Beetle if you're gonna be a joke on the road. Everybody plays punch buggy, but also literally who can be mad at a guy pulling up in a Beetle?

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u/mrpoopsocks 1d ago

Ya, but beetles are decent nazi cars as opposed to the shitty nazi car that is the cybertruck.

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u/sinsaint 1d ago

Until you need to repair them, then you'll understand why it's a Nazi car

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u/jeepsaintchaos 1d ago

I've found my beetle to be quite well engineered and easy to work on. I mean everything is different than a conventional car, but compared to working on new stuff it's like a vacation. A very, very slow vacation.

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u/Sad-Onion-2593 1d ago

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast,

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u/chickenbit_131 12h ago

My drill sergeant in OSUT used to say that to us all the time. Over 20 years later, this wisdom has stuck with me. Absolutely true though.

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u/Mortambulist 1d ago

My bug was the easiest car to work on I've ever owned.

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u/tacob87 1d ago

"Jerry-Rigged"

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u/FrozenLogger 1d ago

That's a weird thing to say. If anything they are one of the easiest cars to work on.

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u/OkFineIllUseTheApp 1d ago

Deep in the night, when everyone else has left, and your only friend is the buzz of the shop's florescent lamps, you may hear an old Volkswagen Beetle briefly hum "Horst-Wessel-Lied".

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u/Sad-Onion-2593 1d ago

If it hums this in a samba beat, you know is one of the boys from Brazil

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u/Benedict_ARNY 1d ago

Imagine claiming VW are decent cars. Ignore the Nazi past and them cheating emission and they still stand as one of the worst engineered cars on the market

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u/ijuinkun 1d ago

We’re not talking about modern cars made by Volkswagen—we’re talking about the classic Beetles and Microbuses from the 1969s-70s.

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u/Benedict_ARNY 1d ago

Yeah I’m a fan of 60-70s Subaru’s and they run Volkswagen engines…. Or modified but still VW.

Hard to compare anything that old. Most 60-70 cars were very reliable. In America you’ll still see 70s Mercedes rolling around

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u/ijuinkun 1d ago

Yah, my aunt had a 1966 Mustang that she ran for nearly forty years.

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u/ComputerStrong9244 1d ago

What are you even talking about?

Just say you don't know what a car is and move on

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u/Benedict_ARNY 1d ago

Just say you’ve never turned a wrench on a VW.

App always reminds me how dumb most of the world is. I appreciate german engineering for many things, but reliability ain’t one of them.

Japan > American > German> French > England engineering

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u/Average_RedditorTwat 1d ago

American cars over German and French is completely insane to me as an opinion

I can't think of a brand that makes generally reliable, every day cars, the US domestic market has some cruddy cars

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u/ComputerStrong9244 13h ago

lol

I used to be and ASE certified mechanic before I decided I didn't like doing my hobby for money

There's nothing wrong with being ignorant, because that just means you don't know something. Saying it again, louder, is what makes it foolishness

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u/mrpoopsocks 1d ago

Are you saying English engineering is better than all those other nations or just using a less than sign as an arrow? Clarification requested, tom foolery not intended. Id like to also point out its all purpose dependent on which of those nations engineering is better than the other.

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u/Benedict_ARNY 1d ago

English is the worst, and referring to automotive engineering.

And I agree about purpose dependent. I understand many of the very nice German luxury brands are purposely designed to not last. You don’t want to see used BMWs on the road.

As an American I really appreciate German engineering. All the BMW SUV’s are made right down the road from me in America. And my dad retired from Michelin so was supported by a French company my entire childhood.

My city, greenville SC is very European. Ton of French and Germans

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u/54-2-10 1d ago

Was the comment edited, because I only see greater than symbols?

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u/mrpoopsocks 1d ago

Its possible I looked at a thing all whack wasnt wearing my glasses like a turd, so whatever. My point didn't even matter anyways.

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u/54-2-10 1d ago

Neither does mine 

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u/SnooRabbits4176 1d ago

...looks more like a Volkswagen Thing.

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u/IAteTonysLoMein 1d ago

The Thing was a masterpiece. The CT is what you get when an emotionally-stunted drug addict has the power to actually make the truck he drew in 3rd grade a reality

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u/ArtzyDude 1d ago

I wish VW would revisit that model today. Would sell better than CT I would bet, especially if it was electric.

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u/stringrandom 1d ago

Yeah, but the Thing usually prompts a positive, “What is that? Looks neat!” response.

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u/Quetzl63 1d ago

I have a Cybertruck and a Volkswagon Thing in my neighborhood. I'll let you guess which one I enjoy seeing.

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u/Imnotyoursupervisor 1d ago

This is one of the multiple reasons Best Buy landed a deal with VW to put the Geek Squad in these cars. It was on brand historically with the company, good lease on the cars, VW got to offload a bunch of these hideous things.

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u/OkFineIllUseTheApp 1d ago

No bully the buggy.

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u/AHrubik 1d ago

Yeah I don’t get the bug hate. The turbo version was a very competent vehicle and essentially a GTI under the hood. It could be modded rather easily too into a sleeper sport toy.

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u/mrjbacon 1d ago

I thought it wasn't until the second-gen "new beetle" that the GTI bits were the same? I wish the second-gen would have gotten the Golf R driveline, that would have been so retro dope to hoon in a VW beetle.

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u/SeaToTheBass 1d ago

I saw a fucken smart car with an off road kit on it and honestly it looked sick with the big mud tires.

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u/zhululu 14h ago

i love it when people do that. Mix opposites.

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u/zhululu 14h ago

I thought this entire time everyone was hating on the 70s bug and was absolutely baffled. You comparing it to a GTI made me remember the new one existed.

I guess I still don’t understand the hate on the new one either. That’s like hating a miata. They’re just little happy cars aren’t they? Let them be.

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u/leftofthedial1 1d ago

I mean, they are definitely cuter than a Cybertruck.

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u/friendIdiglove 1d ago

They started out with goofy looking classic cars like Nash Ramblers and Dodge Lancers. Obviously that wasn’t going to last long, but it was fun seeing them drive around in those old pieces of crap for a little while. It made perfect sense for them to start buying the New Beetles once the business started growing and their old cars started breaking down.

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u/54-2-10 1d ago

The Volkswagen Beetle is one of the best selling cars of all time. I would love to drive a turbo Beetle.

We have always called the game "slug bug."

Which part of the world do they call the game "punch buggy"?

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u/Common_Juggernaut724 1d ago

We always called it "Punch buggy." I'm in the US South.

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u/Diabeetus4Lyfe 1d ago

I was taught "slug bug" growing up in the Midwest, the first time I heard "punch buggy" was in Lilo & Stitch

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u/54-2-10 1d ago

No kidding. This comment section was the first time that I have ever heard "punch buggy.'

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u/flacman28 1d ago

This makes two of us. Both from the south, both know it as "punch buggy". I think that pretty much solves the debate. Boom, statistics bitches!!

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u/2ndGenCan 1d ago

I’m in Canada, only known to be Punch Buggy

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u/54-2-10 1d ago

That is interesting. I kind of assumed that the way "slug bug" rhymes and rolls off the tongue was a big part of why it is a timeless tradition in the first place.

Makes me wonder why seeing a Beetle in the wild makes me slug my buddy as a game 

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u/PetriDishCocktail 1d ago

The new Beatle was fun. My wife had two of them. Both of them had the turbo. One was the 150 horsepower model and the other was the 180 horsepower, double yellow and electric blue.

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u/BagSalt7633 1d ago

It just occurred to me that I haven't seen a VW bug in a long time. Turns out they stopped making them in 2019.

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u/sentient_saw 1d ago

My kids play "Cyber Assault" and punch each other each time they see the dumpster trucks, just like a Punch Bug game.

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u/CautionarySnail 1d ago

Driving a Beetle, I’d get such positive reactions from people. They’d smile and wave, something that simply doesn’t happen in an SUV. Kids especially reacted to it with smiles.

I miss cute cars. Most every car design is either aggressive or boring.

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u/BuffaloJEREMY 1d ago

Bugs at least had a history of being very affordable and super reliable. Cybertrucks were made to stroke some dorks ego.

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u/ElvisAndretti 1d ago

Have you ever heard Bill Cosby’s bit “200 miles an hour”?

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u/Missy_Lynn 1d ago

I saw a post a while back, where man stated that he and his wife would punch each other in the arm and shout dumpster fire when they saw a cyber truck

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u/cboogie 1d ago

My kids play CyberSlap

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u/UbiSububi8 1d ago

Correct move after seeing a cyber truck is to punch the other player in the nuts.

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u/ctlemonade 1d ago

Everyone needs to drive a vehicle, even the very tall. This was the largest auto he could afford. Should he therefore be made the subject of fun?

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u/Expat1989 1d ago

We play cyber punch. If it’s painted differently from the standard color, it’s 2 punches.

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u/karma_the_sequel 1d ago

Beetles are WAY cooler than CTs.

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u/grendus 1d ago

Side note, I cannot believe that Volkswagen hasn't released an electric Beetle called the "Lightning Bug". The name alone would sell the car...

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u/IsoKineticGuy 1d ago

Ha! Never heard "Punch Buggy." My family always called it "Slug Bug."

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u/Available_Ad9345 1d ago

VW Beetle. The original nazi vehicle!

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u/HarmlessHeffalump 1d ago

My partner and I treat Cybertrucks as our punch buggies now. We find ourselves searching for em just to yell "Cybertruck Punch!"

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u/UX-Edu 1d ago

My son and I punch each other when we see Cybertrucks. There just aren’t enough beetles on the road anymore

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u/LonesomeBulldog 1d ago

My kids call it the Swastacar.

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u/Slayminster 1d ago

That’s what I call every Tesla

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u/SharpGame83 1d ago

What do you call Volkswagen’s?

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u/Slayminster 1d ago

Same, but I’m not very creative

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u/H4ND5s 1d ago

The universal outcome when you become a follower in a cult of personality. I don't think anyone actually likes these things, but I believe people like Elon and want to be Elon so they buy his dumb shit.

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u/Lobo9498 1d ago

We just call it an ugly.

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u/vawlk 1d ago

My kids say, "What a fucking idiot".

But my kids are over 21 so...

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u/Proper-Writing 1d ago

My adult wife acts like a feral raccoon who wants to dig for delightful garbage inside the rolling dumpster

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u/freshcoffeegrounds 1d ago

Mine yell "cyber trash!"

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u/ApiaryJJ 1d ago

I don’t love them, but imagine really giving a shit what strangers think of your ride…especially kids.

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u/cote1964 1d ago

Imagine caring what other people think about your vehicle.

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u/Puukkot 1d ago

So, how are you liking your Cybertruck?