Here's Why I Haven't Reviewed the Tesla Cybertruck Yet

This is Doug DiMuro and today I am going to finally address and explain why I haven't reviewed a Tesla Cybertruck. The hottest car on the market. Everybody's asking about it. What about the Cybertruck? When are you going to review a Cybertruck? It's the most exciting thing. Why haven't I reviewed a Cybertruck yet? Let me explain. Today's video is brought to you by Cars and Bids, my online enthusiast car auction site that recently sold this and this and this and this and this. Okay, so the Tesla Cybertruck. I'm not even going to provide backstory and like a history of the Cybertruck to get people up to the speed because you already know what it is. I was behind one a couple weekends ago in Orange County and I've never seen a vehicle attract so much attention. It's like when I drive my Countach. Video by everybody, pictures, people freaking out and pointing. I mean it was just absolutely crazy. This car is just like the Countach. This car has transcended the automotive sphere and has become just a cultural icon and so everybody knows what it is. Obviously I would thus want to film a review with it seeing as I am a car review channel and I film reviews of new cars and this is the biggest and most exciting new car. So since I haven't yet, the first ones were delivered maybe like 10 weeks ago. People are wondering why and I'm going to explain now. So basically the deal is this. Cars and Bids, my online automotive auction website. Cars and Bids has kind of obviously become the best place to resell new electric cars after they first go on sale. If they're really supply constrained people who buy them and then flip them really quick for a profit, Cars and Bids, we do many things well and that's one of them and Cars and Bids does that better than anybody else. And as I film this video we've auctioned 425 Tesla models, 265 Rivian models, 34 Hummer EVs, 12 Lucids, you get the idea. A lot of different new EVs. So I figured I'm gonna wait until we have the first Cybertruck to come up on Cars and Bids and that way when I film the review it'll get a zillion views and it'll drive traffic Cars and Bids and it'll be great for everybody. Cars and Bids will get this huge traffic boost and someone will get their Cybertruck you know sent out there and make great money selling it and the video will do well. It'll make a lot of money. This sounds like a great opportunity to to really get capitalism working for us. I figured great this will be great and I'll tell you what in the past when new EVs have come out within a week or two some of them have just immediately already showed up on Cars and Bids and I gotta say this was true for the Fisker Ocean which I think worked really well. I did a review of the Fisker Ocean. I was one of the first people to review it and someone posted it on Cars and Bids. The one I reviewed was sold on Cars and Bids and so it worked out great and it it seems like a pretty good thought and a pretty good idea right. It'll be a good tie-in, a good promotion. It's it's wonderful and that's especially true because demand will be so high that definitely someone will want to flip a Cybertruck, make some money on it just like they did when the Plaid came out, just like they did when the Hummer EV came out, when the Rivian, all of it. So I decided I would wait until one gets submitted to film it. So then they started to get submitted. People started to submit them. They started to take delivery and immediately they wanted to sell it and make a hundred grand and that was great but just as quickly as they were coming in people started to get spooked about actually selling them. So when the Cybertruck sort of started to get near deliveries Tesla came out with a thing that said they would sue anybody who tried to flip their Cybertruck in the first year of ownership. Okay, I don't think they would be successful in that lawsuit based on legal precedent. There's a lot of legal precedent that basically says when you own something you can kind of do whatever you want with it. No matter what agreements you sign, no matter what you promise, you kind of have the ability to do whatever you want no matter what the automaker says. But just because you might prevail in a lawsuit doesn't mean that Tesla might not make it very difficult for you to you know sell the car or once you've sold that make your life very hard after that. And Tesla could block people from getting future cars. That is certainly within their rights and other automakers have done that. And a lot of the people who bought these Cybertrucks new are big-time Tesla fans and that would be a big deal if you know Tesla blocked them from getting a roadster or the next whatever. So that obviously has weighed on people's minds. Then there's the concern that Tesla could in theory brick the car. You sell it, Tesla will find out about that because in order to get into a Tesla it's on your phone and there's an app that's like signed into a VIN and in order to transfer ownership you got to transfer the VIN in the app. So Tesla will know when one trades hands no question and thus they could easily find out about it and then void the warranty or brick the car. In other words make it not work anymore. I don't think Tesla has threatened to do this but other automakers have in the past and it's certainly something you're fearing. You don't know what's going to happen right. So you want to make this money flipping the Cybertruck but at the same time there's some consequences that are maybe a little bit scary. So people have been scared. And so finally we get a guy who says yeah I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it if you agree to conceal the VIN so Tesla doesn't know that it's me. Now at Cars and Bids we are obsessed with transparency. All of our previous auctions show even cars that didn't sell which some auction sites try to hide but we don't. All of the cars are available to see, all the VINs, the car facts reports, the histories, the notes. We have a section at each auction where we call out flaws of the product we're trying to sell. We're very very good about transparency and this guy's asking us to conceal the VIN. So we talk about it internally and we kind of come to the conclusion that you know here's the deal there's an enormous amount of excitement around the car. The original Cybertrucks are all optioned the same so it's not like the VIN having the VIN will give you any more information than any other you know like oh if I have the VIN and I can look up the options and this one is equipped this way or they're all the same initially all the the initial series trucks are the same. So we're like look as long as the the guy can prove to us that he owns it and show us the paperwork we can verify it then fine we'll conceal the VIN. But I said to him look I said to him Tesla's gonna find out like they just will. Years ago I had the very first Model 3 review this is in November of 17 and we did a lot to conceal that and Tesla found out let's just say and it wasn't pretty. Now I'm just gonna move on. Anyway so I said yeah we'll conceal the VIN and so the guy had sent this note like on a Sunday saying I'll do it if you conceal the VIN and Monday morning we discussed it in the office we decide okay fine we'll do it as long as he can prove ownership. Monday at noon I send him a message just all right we'll do it and he says I already sold it. Sure you did sir if you even had it in the first place. So then another guy submits his same deal we say hey look there's all these potential risks he said oh I'll do it if you conceal the VIN and you know then a day or two goes by and he says you know actually I'm gonna wait and talk to my lawyers before I make a decision and it's like well here we go. So as I film this video everyone is still too spooked everybody's too scared to sell one. Frankly I think it's stupid and I don't really get it why does Tesla care if people resell the trucks? At the very least it exposes them to the fact that there's an enormous amount of demand like if the truck's a hundred grand or whatever it costs and people are selling for $250, $300 that shows just how much interest there is in these things and just how successful this launch has been. I guess Tesla would rather these people wait to buy their own later but you're talking about onesies twosies or how many people are really gonna pay that much over and you're trying to can stop people from selling something they own what I mean it's kind of a stupid thing in my opinion but regardless that's the position Tesla has taken and again a lot of the people who own this truck are Tesla fans anyway and they're not willing to give up the relationship they have with Tesla whatever it is the rights to early products for like 100 grand in profits or 50 or 75 or whatever it end up being. So will I review one? The answer is yeah there have been some conspiracy theories I've gotten some tweets you're not reviewing it because big automaker told you to stay away no that doesn't do that I will review one and I may even just concede that we will probably not be able to list one quickly enough on the on cars and beds and I'll just review a regular one that some person has and is happy to have. I already have a friend of a friend in San Diego who has one one of my neighbors already has one I'll get one reviewed it'll be fine. I was just hoping to make this cool cross-promotion and I didn't think there would be so much hoopla and hubbub about re-selling this vehicle but that's the situation that is the explanation for why I haven't yet nothing nefarious some people have accused me of things it's not true you were paid by legacy truck a Ford Lightning delivered a wad of cash I always loved that one you've been paid off I got a career GT I'm not taking like five grand from Ford to like review a product well it's it's not occurring it's not in my mindset not gonna happen but that's basically the situation on the Cybertruck so and by the way if you want to know my early thoughts on the Cybertruck I think it is cool as hell like I think it's stupid and heinous and ridiculous but it's cool and isn't that the point of most trucks aside from the vast swath of middle America who actually uses their trucks the type of people spending a hundred grand for a lifted off-roader you Ford Raptor I mean people buy a Raptor because it's cool they don't use the capabilities they buy it because it's cool and I find it so funny all these Raptor people being like you know the Cybertruck can only tow this many pounds this many minutes and it's like when was the last time you towed you bought your truck because it's cool now this person's doing the same you're just mad because they upstaged you but anyway that's my general thought I am excited to get up close with the truck as the quirks and features guy it seems like this thing has a lot of them and uh we'll see what happens when I do