Woman's Nail Allegedly Ripped Off by Tesla Door Handle And It's More Common Than You Think

A routine drive took a painful turn for one woman, who claims a Tesla's door handle violently tore off her nail—not once, but twice. And she insists this was no freak accident.

The Tesla driver is now calling out the company's CEO, Elon Musk, after experiencing the issue with the car's pop-out door handles. Moments after her nail was ripped off, Marc D'Amelio, father of TikTok stars Charli and Dixie, captured his wife Heidi's frustration on camera as she explained how her nail had become trapped in the door's gap.

Nail Snapped: The Tesla Door Handle Incident

Holding up her injured finger in the TikTok video, 48-year-old Heidi says, 'For the second time, Tesla, I tried to open the door, and like a guillotine, the door handle took my nail off, and it hurts so bad.' With Charli, 15, laughing nearby, Dixie, 18, stays in the car's front seat as her mom shows her the damaged nail caught in the handle.

'Look at it in there. Look at it,' Heidi says. 'Look at my nails, and look at my nail in there.' The discomfort in her finger fades for a moment as she notices her broken nail is lodged in the car door handle, which now refuses to go back in.

'Hold on. How do you even get this out? Look, I jammed it,' she tells her husband. 'Wait, it's stuck in there,' Heidi says. Heidi's annoyance is obvious, yet Marc, 51, can't help but find humour, quipping, 'Tell Elon Musk he owes you a manicure.'

'I'm so aggravated right now,' Heidi gripes. 'It hurts so much.' Marc appeared to understand that there were much bigger issues in the world. 'First world problems. Tesla manicure,' he wrote alongside the video.

Tesla Door Handle Incident Sparks Online Debate

Several online commenters sympathized with Heidi's discomfort, with one person posting, 'Dang, Elon! That is NOT a feature we are looking for in our cars. Stick to what you know, brow — we got clippers for that. Ouch! That's painful.'

However, others showed less sympathy, dismissing it as a 'rich people problems.' One person wrote, 'Sounds like SUCH a problem. That's not Tesla's fault.'

'Never would happen with my Toyota,' someone else joked. A fellow TikTok user stated, 'If only you had a Honda Civic.' Several users went as far as to call her a 'Karen,' a name associated with an overly persistent, demanding woman who always asks for the manager.

'She seems like a Karen?' one person wrote. Another pointed out: 'She has the "I wanna see the manager" hair.'

Recurring Tesla Door Handle Concerns

It seems Heidi's incident isn't isolated. A Reddit user, u/peopleloveourpatties, shared a similar account from two years ago involving a Tesla door handle. 'My finger got caught in a Tesla door handle somehow and my nail (acrylic + real nail) was ripped off,' the Redditor wrote. 'How bad is this?' she inquired of other Reddit users.

'It's bad. The Tesla has tasted blood and will now desire for more,' one user commented. 'This is why I have shorter nails these days,' another user said. 'And stick on. Stick ons don't take the nail with them, thankfully. You can learn how to make them look like acrylics, too. And save money doing them yourself.'

Another wrote, 'Don't buy a Tesla and this won't happen.' A Reddit user pointed out, 'That's looks painful sorry that it happened to you - the door handle design is really unnecessary.' Tesla's innovative approach has led to some design challenges, as evidenced by numerous user reports highlighting issues across different models.

Adding to the growing list of similar incidents, Facebook user Dev Amin reported in 2022 that his wife's nail was also ripped off by a Tesla Model Y door handle, further indicating a potential design flaw.

'We had to goto urgent care and it will take couple months for that nail to come back. They couldn't remove it; as the nerves were swollen and still attached so she has to wait for it to fall off,' Amin wrote.

'I notice even with my cut nails if I'm a rush it slips and digs into those cravats. I can see how this would easily happens in a rush. Anyone else have these issue?' he asked.

'On the Y, The edge of the handle has cut me twice the tip of my finger and the side of my arm. I am very mindful of letting go if that heavy door goes back to the closed position. There's sharp metal in there,' one person replied.

The D'Amelio Family's Rise to Stardom

The Connecticut family quickly became well-known after Charli's seemingly instant rise to TikTok stardom. The gifted dancer has gathered over 28 million followers since using the video-sharing site in June 2019.

Her growing fame has also brought her family into the public eye. Her sister, Dixie, currently enjoys 11.4 million TikTok followers, while Marc and Heidi each have 2.4 million and 1.5 million, respectively.