To say the CyberTruck is divisive would be an understatement, it is likely the most polarizing vehicle of all time. On paper, the pre-release specs for the “CyberBeast” were off the charts.

What was it? 800HP, 1000ft/lbs of torque, 0-60mph in 3 seconds, 500 miles of range, oh… and bulletproof. All that wrapped up in a vehicle with the utility of a 4-door truck with a price of $79,000.
For me it was more than I needed at a price that was reasonable for comparable full size trucks. Since I’m not towing often, or very long distances range wasn’t a concern. Being electric I would get the driving performance without the corresponding gas bills. I’m not working in construction, so the short bed wasn’t a concern. Having a family, I did want the passenger space. So betting on the Tesla team, I placed my reservation roughly the time Elon was on stage breaking his demo.

You can’t talk about the CyberTruck without talking about its appearance. My wife thinks it looks like our refrigerator made a baby with a dumpster. I’m personally indifferent on the looks. I do think if they get a major market adoption, most other trucks are going to look “old” in comparison.
Tesla is an amazing company in a lot of ways. One of the many things that they are able to do is create massive hype without a “marketing” budget. I don’t actually see their P&L so, they may have some monies allocated but they certainly don’t advertise in a traditional sense. Even so, the hype around the CyberTruck was off the charts. It was sustained for the 4 YEARS of time between when the truck was unveiled and when the first people starting getting an actual model.
Once reservations starting going out the hype hit a peak that was insane. People were selling their place in line for thousands of dollars. I had an early reservation number, but the first models being released were the dual motors. I had to wait until the triple motor variants starting to come off the line. Then Christmas came…

Christmas literally came. My reservation number was called on the day after Christmas. I immediately went online and starting configuring my truck. The excitement was quickly muted. There had been noise around prices being changed, so I knew that was coming. However I wasn’t prepared to the level of increase. There weren’t a lot of options to choose from when configuring. Basically just picking how many electric motors you want and what add-ons (e.g. range extending battery). My MSRP with just the triple motor / CyberBeast truck came out to $126,000. Nearly a $50,000 price increase.
I couldn’t pull the trigger on it at that price point. So, I did nothing. Just held on to the reservation and watched all the YouTube videos on it. It was interesting to watch the progression and change in the videos. At first, they were all glowing and focused on the performance and livability of the CyberTruck. As more examples got out into the hands of more people with wider opinions of the truck and Tesla as a whole the videos starting showing more and more concerns with the truck. They ranged from bad panel gaps, bodily injuries, “dead” trucks, to trucks with completely destroyed frames.
What became apparent is that the CyberTruck was filled with promise and opportunity, but the execution (at least on this first version) was lacking. What was more disappointing is that it was failing in places Tesla should have known better and should not have been a problem from the start. Things like exposed wiring causing the trucks to completely short out and become stranded. It was too much.

So, 4 and half years later I got my $100 back. To Tesla’s credit, the cancellation process and refund was fast and painless. They asked for feedback on my reason for cancelling, I shared I had concerns about the quality of the product. At the end of this I’m disappointed and it is a disappointing situation, but I’m not going to wait for them to sort it out.