'He acts like a seven-year-old': Elon Musk's antics are scaring away Tesla buyers

According to a report from Bloomberg, Tesla founder Elon Musk's daily drama and tweets are having an impact on the sales of his cars and are causing grief with current owners who wish he would dial it back.

Case in point, as Bloomberg's Ira Boudway and Kyle Stock wrote, is one Tesla owner who unabashedly claimed he was once "a total Musk fanboy," but has now fallen out of love with the industrialist.

According to 73-year-old Dennis Levitt, he bought his first Tesla in 2013, and said of the car, "It was so much better than any car I've ever driven."

His opinion of Musk, however, has changed with the passage of time.

"Over time, his public statements have really come to bother me,” Levitt stated while pointing to Musk's "spats" with President Joe Biden. “He acts like a seven-year-old.”

According to the report, Levitt is not alone and Musk has given the others a lot of fodder to consider.

"Before it was reported Musk had an affair with Sergey Brin’s wife, which he’s denied; before his slip-shod deal, then no-deal, to acquire Twitter Inc.; before the revelation he fathered twins with an executive at his brain-interface startup Neuralink; before SpaceX fired employees who called him “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment;" before his daughter changed her name and legal gender after his history of mocking pronouns; before an article said SpaceX paid an employee $250,000 to settle a claim he sexually harassed her, allegations he’s called untrue; Musk’s behavior was putting off prospective customers and perturbing some Tesla owners," Bloomberg is reporting

According to one automotive industry analyst, Musk's Twitter habits are becoming a major thorn in the side of some Tesla owners.

Mike Dovorany of research firm Escalent highlighted Musk's tweets as a source of complaints from auto owners in surveys.

“We hear from Tesla owners who will say, ‘Look, I love my vehicle, but I really wish I didn't have to respond to my friends and family about his latest tweet,’” he lamented.

Emma Sirr, of Bozeman, Montana, took Tesla off her list of brands to consider because of "his politics, staff turnover at the company and its cavalier approach to autonomous-driving technology."

“We took Tesla off the table from the get-go,” she explained. "As consumers, our power is what we buy. I think younger generations in particular vote with their wallets, and I feel like that might come back to bite."

Add to that, the report states, some of Musk's competitors are catching up with his EV technology which has potential Tesla owners -- as well as current ones -- looking elsewhere.

According to former Musk fanboy Levitt, "If you take Mr. Musk and his antics out of the equation, I'm about 98% certain that my next car would be a Tesla. His antics put me in play.”

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