Tesla is having a rough time these days, with shares continuing to plunge and CEO Elon Musk admitting that it’s “difficult” to run both a multi-billion dollar company and make the U.S. government more efficient. Cybertrucks, Musk’s answer to the question, “What if cars could swim?”, are being targeted in particular, with many instances of vandalism causing owners to rethink their expensive vehicle purchases.
Some Cybertruck owners have taken to new tactics in order to avoid ridicule, like camouflage. Rolling Stone writer Miles Klee posted a photo on BlueSky of something odd in a parking lot on Mar. 10, 2025—the shape of the telltale Cybertruck, but covered in white paint, with the logo “Rivian” (an electric vehicle rival to Tesla) adhered to the trunk.
“Don’t think that’s going to work,” he wrote in the caption of the post. The Rivian-Cybertruck post has since gone viral, with over 15.4K likes, 1.7K reposts, 358 quotes and 450 comments.
Almost instantly, netizens were able to track down the location of the parking lot where the chameleonized Cybertruck was located, and rip into it more.
“This post blew up so much that the Rivian-Cybertruck owner and his wife saw it on Reddit and are now defending themselves,” Klee wrote in a followup post. “Saying that no one will buy it off them and they can’t eat the price. Also that Elon didn’t go off the rails until ‘last summer’ lol.”
They included screenshots of the alleged owners, in the Reddit thread, pleading their case.
“I get where people are coming from when they say ‘not everyone was plugged into news of Musk’s insanity in years past’,” Klee continued as a comment in the thread, tagging an article from The Guardian. “But when it comes to ‘I was tricked into buying a Cybertruck’ just remember this was how the vehicle was announced in 2019 right before everyone made their reservations.”
Reddit takes the wheel: Rivian-Cybertruck owner and wife chime in
u/InspectorChenWei was the first to repost Klee’s original post, using a screenshot to leverage their viral Reddit thread.
“Scrolling Bluesky: Wait a minute, I recognize that parking lot,” they wrote as the headline, posted on Mar. 11., 2025. The Reddit thread was posted in the r/Bellingham subreddit, indicating the location may be in Bellingham, Washington according to the subreddit’s coordinates.
The post has 594 Upvotes and 105 comments, including from two people who identified themselves as the owner of the Rivian-Cybertruck, and the owner’s wife.
“They have the money, they could have bought a Rivian instead of the swastitruck,” stated u/TheOmegoner, to which u/Maximum-Spot-8465 responded:
“This is my husbands truck and he saved for five years for it. We bought it before shit started getting weird.”
“We had another Tesla we sold but no one will buy the cyber truck,” they continued. “We literally can’t get rid of it and we don’t have the money to eat it.”
“We don’t agree with Elon. My husband voted proudly for Kamala,” u/Maximum-Spot-8465 admitted. “We did everything we could to at least get rid of the Tesla we could sell.”
Reddit user u/Unfair-Driver1385 eventually dove in claiming to be the car’s owner. They tried to justify their purchase.
“This is me…glad I could make some Folks chuckle,” they began in their response. “FYI- I ordered this in 2019 and picked it up in May 2024. Shortly after Elon went weird on us.”
Aside from owning up to being a Cybertruck fan, u/Unfair-Driver1385 made another bold claim—that they were “the first person I know in the country to ‘rebadge’ it.”
“I promise…we’re not all ego centric douche canoes,” they continued. “There’s a lot of Cybertruck people that drive me insane acting like it’s their whole identity. When I first saw it…being a car guy…I thought ‘man that’s a weird looking vehicle.’ And I like stuff that’s a little bit different.”
u/Unfair-Driver1385 went on to say that the car is “really fun vehicle to drive” and that it feels less like a truck and feels more like “a Honda ruffling is a truck.”
They then tried to ensure the thread followers didn’t associate them too closely with the Tesla CEO. “Do I think Elon is cool? Na. He’s jumped the shark and has embarrassed me since last summer. I’m just a regular guy that likes cars that are a little different.”
“When I first bought it…I knew it was polarizing based on the looks…but man Elon really fucked me on this thing,” they concluded.
u/Unfair-Driver1385 also stated that they were blocked by @milesklee.bsky.social “for responding to some of the comments and explaining myself. And I was on my best behavior,” sharing a screenshot of the blocked profile.
Reddit user u/Crafty-Shape2743 asked if the owner “rebranded it because he is ashamed to be affiliated or because he just doesn’t want it vandalized,” to which u/Unfair-Driver1385 replied, “Both.”
People are trying to rebrand their Tesla cars so badly
With all the drama surrounding Cybertrucks and Tesla vehicles today, it’s no wonder that folks are trying to disassociate themselves with their car purchases. Many in the comments of @milesklee.bsky.social shared their own Cybertruck/Tesla transbrandings, spotted across the U.S.
“Saw this in nyc,” BlueSky user @acampors.bsky.social posted in the comments, including an image of the back of a Cybertruck with the Toyta logo adhered to the trunk.
“I saw one of these in Minnesota, too,” wrote BlueSky user @brookejaie.bsky.social in the comments. “Hot market for fake car decals amongst hesitant nazi sympathizers.”
BlueSky user @steve-in-manhattan.bsky.social noted that these changes don’t just apply to Cybertruck—other Tesla vehicles are getting “fakeovers” too.
“Neither will this (Subaru badge on a Model Y on the Upper West Side),” they wrote in the comments of Klee’s post, with an image of a Tesla electric vehicle and the Subaru logo affixed to the trunk. “But I applaud the effort.”
“I know I’ve mentioned this in a previous post but I think this sort of thing really goes to show you just how out of the loop the average normie is on this elon stuff,” wrote BlueSky user @fredo.bsky.social in the comments. “Like all us extremely online people have known he was a freak forever but I think the dam only really broke for normies recently.”
BlueSky user @thenarwhalmage.bsky.social tried to gain sympathy for “the other Tesla models” on the basis that “a lot of people bought Teslas for environmental concerns way before Elon went full mask off.”
“But since the cybertruck has only been around since Elon outed himself as insane,” they continued, “Anyone who bought one is signing on with all of that nazi-stuff.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to u/Unfair-Driver1385 and u/Maximum-Spot-8465 via Reddit DM, and @milesklee.bsky.social via Twitter DM, for comment.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
