[threetonesun]

Many 60s/70s American muscle cars had racing pedigrees. It was a coupe with a V8, one could argue they were replaced by the JDM market with turbo 4s/I6s in the 90s early 2000s.

Maybe more importantly, either of the above had an appealing visual style (to some!) and had their own community around them. Teslas are pretty visually boring, you can't really modify them, but I suppose they have a community of their own who debates which version of software drives the car for you better.