Posted on 09/03/2014 12:59:46 PM PDT by grundle
Imagine owning the most popular automaker in the United States. Now imagine a special interest group eliminating your ability to serve over 10 million Americans unless you did business with their unique cartel.
That's in essence what happened right before Labor Day weekend, when the Georgia Auto Dealer Association filed a petition with state officials seeking to cancel Tesla's license to sell its cars in the state of Georgia.
Tesla's crime? Selling 173 cars directly from a factory-owned store located 25 miles away from Atlanta, the only Tesla retail location in Georgia. The dealers say Tesla can only sell 150 cars a year from the shop under state rules, and therefore should lose its dealer license entirely.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
Shouldn't you be making a list of those?
I hope the complaining dealers succeed . . . in bringing attention to the issue so this harmful law can be repealed.
Tesla has sold how many cars?
Who cares. The law is anti-competitive and should be repealed.
But the concept behind the law is the root of entrenched power - liberal and RINO.
The real law that is wrong is the absolute power claimed by the government concerning corporate status. Until that is addressed, nothing will change, because until that is addressed, literally nothing CAN change. Which of course is not an accident - in fact, it's the whole damn point of it in the first place.
Worldwide ~50k.
In Georgia? Who knows.
Tesla has guided for 60k-75k units in 2015.
Devil’s advocate here...
Think about a world where Tesla can sell directly to the consumer. You know - just like Apple sells its phones directly to the consumer.
Then think about what a hassle it is when your Iphone battery goes bad.
For all the sins dealerships commit, they do have advantages. All those recalls new cars usually get - take it to the dealership, instead of mailing your car back to Tesla. Need an OEM part? The dealership is required to sell them to you for several years. And they often have them on hand, for their own mechanics to use...and you can get one on the spot. Compare that to mail ordering every single widget and part you may need on a Tesla, sans dealership.
I live and work in a world where companies abuse their customers. In particular, TECH companies abuse their customers. I’m not allowed to re-sell my cell phone without illegally ‘jailbreaking’ it, I have to constantly update CAD, since previous versions are ‘no longer supported’. I’m fighting through my new version of Outlook right now...why do I have it? Who knows...but I ‘have’ to upgrade.
Tesla wants to bring a little bit of that tech world to automobiles. Musk has even described it as more ‘software’ than car. Great, the whole ‘you might as well throw away your old computer since its obsolete’ mentality will make it to cars.
No thanks. I’d like to stick with archaic dealership laws, thank you very much. The dealer gets a set territory and the ability to rip me off on the front end...but ten years later, I’ll still be able to buy a widget for my car. Wanna bet how many pats you’ll be able to buy from Tesla, if they abolish dealership laws?
Shouldn’t that be up to the consumer and not for the government to decide?
Tesla seems to have figured out a way to service the vehicles they sell. Its not an insurmountable problem.
Haven’t you ever heard of authorized service centers? No one in their right mind would buy a car if it had to be shipped back to the factory.
General Buck Turgidson says we must not have a Tesla gap.
Tesla says they sold < 150 this calendar year (since Jan), the dealers say, they sold 150 this calendar year, and an additional ~23 in nov/dec last year, so > 150 in the last 12 months. So depends if the law means a year based on the calendar, or arbitrary 12 month period.
Customers should have a choice.
“Tesla seems to have figured out a way to service the vehicles they sell. Its not an insurmountable problem.”
Tesla has approached this almost exactly as a software provider.
Some language from their website (which scares the hell out of me, as a consumer who likes to own cars for at least 10 years):
“Just like your laptop, Tesla will provide periodic updates to your Model S. When an update is released, you’ll be notified”
“More than just an annual inspection
Tesla Service includes everything needed to keep your Model S in great condition, from an annual inspection to 24 hour roadside assistance and necessary hardware upgrades”
And then it goes on to list the prices of its ‘maintenance plans’ - just like software support plans.
This one really scares me: “Think of Model S as an app on four wheels.”
They really are thinking of this as more of an electronic gadget than an automobile....and electronic gadgets have over 1,000% profit margin, and they can afford to mail you an entirely new one if yours craps out. That doesn’t mesh well with the automobile world.
I really don’t think they have mastered how to service their cars at all. Their volume, age of fleet, and geographic spread right now are miniscule. Now they certainly have an idea in mind - and its pretty lousy.
“That is one of the dumbest things I’ve read here in a while.”
See what I get for playing devil’s advocate.
Just remember - once that toggle switch is thrown, we can never go back. Your car buying and car owning experience will become a lot like your experience owning a smart phone.
The dealership laws are a strange form of anti-trust law. They prevent a monopoly in a local market...not of a sector like ‘automobile’, but for a brand, like ‘Ford’. Its a little different, and on its face it may look like it infringes on the consumer. But if you think about it for a while...it does give the consumer more choice. I can go to several Ford dealerships in one day, under the current model - with competing prices and incentives. Not so in a non-dealership world.
And if Tesla gets its way, it will be a non-dealership world. Manufacturers will put their own dealers out of business. Some may claim ‘free market’. Ok. But its a free market with a whole lot less consumer choices. And its a mirage anyway - with colgate pricing laws, the manufacturer could set up an artificial situation that gives the dealership zero chance of being price competitive....they could literally set the dealership minimum resale price at or above their own sale price.
And Tesla is not a free market force. It is artificial - subsidized by government loans. Are we really going to scrap 100 years of anti-trust law, to accommodate an artificial and very temporary market force (I give them 10 years before folding their tent)?
And they’ll figure it out. Or they won’t. Let the free market decide. Or do you prefer the government MANDATING that you have to buy cars from a dealership?
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