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One thing this article doesn’t account for: American dealership model. I was fully onboard with buying a new ICE car because it was supposed to be cheaper. Ent
by darth_avocado 2y ago
One thing this article doesn’t account for: American dealership model.
I was fully onboard with buying a new ICE car because it was supposed to be cheaper. Enter the American car salesman. Dealerships refused to give you a final estimate without you walking in into the dealership. When you did, they often want to sell you cars that they have on the lot over what you want. The feature packages they have are designed to maximize money: want blind spot detector, you need to buy premium leather seats as well. Then finally once you decide on everything, the car is $10k more expensive and financing is very scummy if you don’t do the math yourself.
Compare that to Tesla. You can schedule an online test drive. When you arrive your car is prepared and preloaded with a route, you check in and someone will verify your id and. Answer any of your questions. Once you’re done with the drive, you can order the car online. The price you see is the price you pay. They don’t finance the cars themselves, they field quotes for you and get you the best APR. And occasionally they’ll have 0% APR on financing.
In the end, it cost me less money to buy a EV than an ICE, for the same amount of specs. All because of the American dealership model.
- wing-_-nuts 2y agoThe last time I bought an ICE car 15 years ago, I browsed online, found some cars I was interested in, emailed their sales team and said 'I'm choosing between x,y, and z, give me your best out the door offer and you'll get my business'. A couple dealerships tried to pull the 'come in and let's talk' but a few just gave me a price. We went back and forth for a day or so and I eventually got them to a price I was happy with. I then replied 'Ok, I'm coming this friday with a cashier's check, if the price isn't exactly what we agreed when I get there, I'm walking out the door'. Best car buying experience I've ever had. You just gotta set boundaries and enforce them.
- darth_avocado 2y agoDealers right now would rather not sell than put up with boundaries. Unfortunately the experience has gotten only worse.
- wing-_-nuts 2y agoThen they won't sell to me. My car is 18 years old, but I wfh and don't drive much. If my car died and dealers didn't want to play ball, I could easily manage. There are lots of options these days. I could buy something private party, swap a lease, or even just rent a car and take transit
- lotsofpulp 2y agoI have done the same, but it still takes a few hours of your time. In comparison, you can buy a Rivian or Tesla from your couch in 15min on your phone, and picking it up at the service center is another 15min at most, with zero employees trying to screw you. I don’t see the point in wasting my time dealing with a parasitic middleman in 2025. It would be nice if we could buy cars that cost less than $80k that easily and avoid a company led by a guy that makes Nazi salutes, though.