Our Tesla Cybertruck Buyback: Two Years of Ownership, Reliability Issues, and a Smooth Repurchase
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Our Tesla Cybertruck Buyback: Two Years of Ownership, Reliability Issues, and a Smooth Repurchase

Escrito por: Pete White

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Tiempo de lectura 4 min

Introduction

We first set eyes on the Cybertruck at the reveal event at the Hawthorne facility on November 21, 2019. It was, of course, a wild event. This was before Covid. It was the event where the “unbreakable” glass was seen to be breakable, and where the dual‑motor all‑wheel drive was announced at $49,900.

Fast forward to January 26, 2024, and we are picking up our Cybertruck, VIN 1000, from the Tesla Service Center in Dallas. At the time, there were maybe 15 or 20 in the DFW Metroplex and certainly none in our city, so it was quite the novelty. You literally could not go anywhere without being stopped by people wanting to take a look at it. It was a super fun time and, for us, the start of real‑world Tesla Cybertruck ownership.

Early Ownership: The Honeymoon

Sure, the design is polarizing, but from the perspective of ownership, it is a technological marvel. The steer‑by‑wire system is great, the drivability was fantastic, and the sound system rocked. The vault was incredibly versatile, and we really did not have any early issues with the truck, aside from a couple of fit‑and‑finish problems and an annoying rattle underneath the driver’s seat.

Then the Problems Started

Unfortunately, the electrical gremlins did not take long to surface. The first time it died (in the garage, fortunately) was on February 19, 2024. That required a tow to the local Service Center. We got the truck back about a week later, and all generally appeared well. At the same time, we also took delivery of our Model 3 Highland on February 23.

Cybertruck being towed on a flatbed truck

All was good until March 28, when we started getting more errors, so back to the Service Center it went. Same again on May 13. We still had our Rivian R1T and the Model 3 Highland, so aside from the inconvenience of constantly having to go backwards and forwards to the Service Center, it was not that much of a big deal. Then on May 25, it died again, completely bricked. We could not even close the windows, so back on the tow truck it went, and it sat outside during some of the worst rainstorms of that year.

Cybertruck being towed on a flatbed truck

For a while, that seemed to be it—the issues appeared to be resolved! Bear in mind the truck had only driven about 1,500 miles at this point. We were using it mostly as a development platform for our XPEL Armor products. But on September 1, 2025, the errors returned, and a week later it was bricked again and towed once more.

Cybertruck errors

 

Unfortunately, we were done. It was, by far, the least reliable vehicle that we have owned in 15 or 20 years, and we had lost faith in it, so it was time to start the buyback (repurchase) process.

What made this harder was the timing. By late 2024 and into 2025, the Cybertruck had become something of a political target, and a visible stand‑in for Elon Musk’s politics as much as for Tesla’s technology. Sentry Mode would not work because we were getting constant low‑power alerts, so we did not feel secure leaving the truck anywhere public at a time when Cybertruck owners were already reporting harassment and vandalism. 

The Repurchase Process

It took a couple of attempts via the app to request a formal repurchase, but once we managed to make contact with the Service Center Manager, the entire Tesla Cybertruck buyback process was, frankly, remarkably straightforward. On September 30, 2025, they acknowledged our request, and three days later Tesla corporate approved the repurchase. It took another few weeks to sort out paperwork, and we had a vacation in the middle of that as well, but we surrendered our Cybertruck on November 6, 2025. To say that it was a bittersweet experience is an understatement; we genuinely hope to get another one in the future—ideally one that behaves itself.

The Details

In the spirit of full transparency, here are the numbers for the repurchase:

Item Amount
Vehicle purchase price (including tax & fees, less rebates) $106,758.19
Registration refund (expires 01/2026) $276.25
Deduction: mileage offset (unimpaired miles) -$32.92
Deduction: mileage offset (impaired miles) -$2,728.12
Total refund to customer $28,045.79
Est. Loan Payoff $76,227.62

 

The low mileage of the truck really worked in our favor here, but the upshot is that we ended up paying the best part of $2,000 to drive a Cybertruck for almost two years. Obviously, it is not quite as simple as that—there is loan interest and so on to take into account—but overall we are very satisfied with the offer from Tesla.

In Conclusion

We want to be clear: this is not a hit piece on the Cybertruck. We loved our Cybertruck, and were really sad to see it go. The perils of early ownership of any brand‑new vehicle are that this kind of experience is going to happen every now and then. Virtually every one of the eleven Tesla's that we have owned were early VINs (necessary for the company), so we are very used to this, although this was by far the worst experience from a reliability perspective.

If you find yourself in a similar situation with any Tesla vehicle, here is what we recommend to give yourself the best chance of a friction‑free repurchase or buyback process.

  • Keep a detailed log of every issue: dates, screenshots, photos, and service visit notes. The app does store this, of course, although I no longer have access to it, so I have had to piece together the history mostly from photos.

  • Escalate politely but clearly when you see patterns, not just isolated glitches. Do not just complain; be constructive and collaborative.

  • Be realistic about timelines and prepare to keep driving the car during the process.

This is obviously just our experience; yours may differ. Overall we are still huge fans of Tesla, and this experience has not done anything to diminish that. If anything, the repurchase process reaffirms that Tesla does actually stand behind its products.

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