Pardon the mixed metaphor but it seems that, due to the antics of Elon Musk, the allure of Tesla is running out of gas. In an important annual survey conducted by Axios and Harris Poll ranking the 100 most reputable brands in America, Tesla caused shockwaves by falling 50 spots in this year's rankings to number 62 on the list out of 100 companies.

The dip could be attributed to multiple factors — but most relate to character and leadership issues surrounding the electric vehicle manufacturer's founder, Elon Musk. His poor management of Twitter thus far and his posting of misinformation and far-right fringe political conspiracies on the platform have alienated many Tesla fans.

In addition, Tesla has faced charges of racism in its Fremont factory, where a California regulator has filed a lawsuit claiming it is a “racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against.”

Tesla also angered customers who had recently purchased vehicles when the company unexpectedly slashed prices for some of its models. In addition, earlier this year Tesla had to recall over 362,000 of its EVs because of a malfunctioning issue with its Full Self-Driving software that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration deemed a hazard.

All of these issues clearly influenced the new lower ranking for Tesla. In previous iterations of the Axios Harris Poll reputation survey, Tesla regularly scored an “excellent” or “very good” in the various categories, but this year the company earned “fair” scores for character, trust, and citizenship.

Tesla also only ranked 8th amongst 9 auto companies on the list, below Toyota, Honda, Subaru, BMW, Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen.

For the record, the top two most reputable companies on the list were Patagonia and Costco. So if Elon Musk wants to see Tesla move up the rankings next year, perhaps he should consider making hats with cool multi-colored buffaloes on them, or offering free samples. Or he could just become a better manager.