No interview, speech, transcript, post, book, or reported statement by Elon Musk containing this line was located. What searches did surface is a clear earlier life for the sentence: it circulated widely as a supposed Robert Mugabe quote from at least February 2018, roughly six years before the earliest Musk-attributed version found. The Mugabe version appears in dated social posts, meme image cards, and in post-mortem listicles compiled after Mugabe's death in September 2019. One such roundup lists "No African girl will choose six pack over six cars" as item 10 in a collection of sayings attributed to the late Zimbabwean president. An older variant of the phrasing includes the word "African," which was dropped in later versions.

There is also no evidence Mugabe said it either. Fabricated Mugabe quotes are a documented internet genre. Fake quotes misattributed to Mugabe have gone viral across Africa, with hundreds shared daily on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Zimbabwe's High Commissioner to Ghana publicly stated that Mugabe did not care about the funny quotes falsely attributed to him. The quote cards themselves contain a factual error typical of fabricated material: they label Mugabe "Former PM of Zimbabwe," though he held the presidency from 1987 until 2017.

Separately, Musk is a documented magnet for invented quotes. Snopes maintains a standing collection of fact checks on quotes Musk has supposedly posted or said, noting he is a frequent focus of online rumors.

In one case, a digitally altered social media post falsely attributed a quotation to him that originated elsewhere.