Resale value of Tesla cars sliding into toilet, both in San Antonio and nationwide

Elon Musk’s electric car company has been in stock free fall since he threw a couple of Nazi salutes, began a no-holds-barred war on government employees and started dismantling federal oversight of the billionaire class.

Now, it appears his deeply unpopular actions aren’t just tanking Tesla’s share price but the resale value of its vehicles.

Last month, used Teslas nationwide sold for $5,013 less than they did 12 months earlier, according to a study by auto value site iSeeCars. That’s a stomach-churning price drop of 13.6% — far greater than the average decline of just 0.8% for all used car models over that time.

Nationwide, three Tesla models — the Model S, Model Y and Model 3 — are among the 10 cars with the biggest year-over-year price drops, plummeting by 16.2%, 15.9% and 13.5%, respectively, the report also shows.

In San Antonio, the Tesla Model 3 was the vehicle that lost the second-most retail value between February and a year prior. Locally, that particular model dropped $5,548, or nearly 17% over the past 12 months. Only the Range Rover Evoque, a luxury brand known for its quick depreciation, fared worse.

To get its results, iSeeCars analyzed more than 1.9 million one- to five-year-old used cars sold in February 2024 and 2025. In addition to raw pricing numbers, the site’s researchers used mathematical modeling based on the number of days each car was listed for sale.

The study’s authors didn’t include speculation about how Musk’s outlandish and polarizing may be cratering the value of used Teslas. However, plenty of other folks who track the industry have been willing to connect the dots as the company’s sales hit the skids both in the U.S. and overseas markets.

“Musk needs to change course here …Tesla’s future depends on it,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote Wednesday in an update to clients. He added that the billionaire’s divisive moves with the Department of Government Efficiency “turned Tesla into a political symbol,” damaging its sales and reputation.

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This article appears in Mar 19 – Apr 1, 2025.