10 ms·
Tesla wins in North Carolina, paves the way for direct-to-consumer sales
- tehwalrus 13y agoOccasionally, it seems, Americans remember what markets are supposed to look like. Bravo!
- jyu 13y agoFor those who are not aware, buying cars in the US is a terrible experience, and has stayed that way for many years. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/12/171814201/episode-435-why-buying-a-car-is-so-awful http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/12/171814201/episode-... http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/19/172402376/why-buying-a-car-never-changes http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/19/172402376/why-buyi...
- jivatmanx 13y agoNot a fan of dealer commercials either.
- medell 13y agoI have to wonder at what point these repetitive ads diminish in value. How many times do you need to see a truck hauling a heavy load, slogging through mud to a husky voice over? GM had a $3.1B ad budget last year, 2nd only to P&G. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-35-companies-that-spent-1-billion-on-ads-in-2011-2012-11?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-35-companies-that-spent-1...
- chloraphil 13y agoI don't think GM makes dealer commercials as they are the manufacturer.
- jbottigliero 13y agoAlthough they may not make the commercials directly, in print there is often "co-op" money available to dealers when certain criteria is meet by said ad... I imagine there is a similar system for television adverts.
- BHSPitMonkey 13y agoYour descriptions sound like manufacturer commercials; Dealer commercials are the ones with jingles and usually the owner of the dealership yelling things at you for 30 seconds straight.
- prawks 13y agoAs someone who just purchased a car at a dealer: it really is. I'm majorly hoping that Tesla paves the way to change that. Once prices come down to the ~$30k range and a larger percentage of consumers have the option of buying through Tesla, I think we'll be seeing a dramatic paradigm shift away from the horrible dealer experience. Although there's still a long way to go, I'm excited for Tesla.
- mbreese 13y agoThe last car I bought was a surprisingly pleasant experience. But I was deciding between two cars at different dealers. And I bought the one from the dealer that was the best experience. I probably would have been happy with either car, but the buying experience doesn't have to suck.
- ams6110 13y agoThe thing I figured out is: don't buy cars at dealerships.
- sliverstorm 13y agoAs someone who just purchased a car at a dealer: it really wasn't. The only part that wasn't awesome was due to the fact that I wanted a very specific configuration the dealer could only find one of, there was some extra wait and hassle. But that is just the price I pay for being picky. Moral of the story: anecdotes != data
- rdl 13y agoYou can skip a lot of that by using something like Costco, Carwoo, or just contacting fleet sales departments.
- jyu 13y agoThanks for the recommendations of Costco and fleet sales departments. Those are what I would use for my next car. I tried Carwoo for my parents buying a new car. Since it was an all cash deal, and they were shopping for a new car, the cars and quotes were directly comparable. After visiting a couple dealerships from Carwoo, we had the same shitty experience as we would have without Carwoo. Salesmanship, adding several thousand dollars of "extra but very necessary fees not included in the Carwoo quote", exploding contract price, etc. I was embarrassed that my parent's car buying experience was that bad in 2012, and it cost them a couple weekends on the phone, driving out there, hearing that somehow the quote was not the final quote, etc. In the end we just ended up at CarMax for a fair price and a decent buying experience.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoTime and time again, Carmax is fantastic experience. I have bought 8+ cars from them, and have never had a bad experience (either used or new cars).
- rdl 13y agoThe best thing I've ever seen were the BMW (and presumably other manufacturer) military/diplomatic sales deals out of Germany. 10-30% below US prices for some models, and 50+% below the local market prices in some countries. You email them, they send you a selector PDF, you reply with what you want and the price, and they take a deposit. You have to be deployed military (although not necessarily to Europe), a contractor on specific orders, etc. to use the program, but it's pretty awesome if you can.
- catmanjan 13y agoIs it like that for motorbikes as well? Here in Australia we pay an extra $3000 for Harley's!
- ams6110 13y agoHarleys are just really expensive. It's more about the whole Harley image than it is about the machine. Like any other designer label.
- sliverstorm 13y agoMany Harleys also retain their value pretty darn well, considering.
- Shivetya 13y agoWhatever, having purchased six cars in the last ten years I never remembered a bad experience. Bad cars at times but on a whole if the system was so bad then how would you explain sales? they cannot all be bad. Perhaps people confuse used car sales from no name dealers with new car sales or big dealers? I am quite sure I can point at any industry and say the experience sucks when dealing with them if I look in the right places. Even as I wrote this I was at a loss trying to think of even anyone I know who had a bad time.
- ncallaway 13y ago"Bad cars at times but on a whole if the system was so bad then how would you explain sales?" People consider cars to be necessities. There is significant legislation already in place that protects the dealer model. Thus, if you want to buy a car, you have few options other than dealerships.
- Shivetya 13y agoYou do understand that the dealer model came about to allow the manufactures to maintain production without having to directly deal with changing of sales patterns throughout the year don't you? The Faustian bargain if you will was dealerships were given certain deals by the manufacturers to protect their ability to profit. States got involved later, where there was money to license such as well as to keep manufacturers from stepping into a solid market to brush aside the dealers who forged it. It was a solution fit for its time and still is in many cases. When Tesla's support falters who you going to yell at? Fellow disgruntled owners on a message board? Not saying it will, but you who goes to bat for you when sales are direct?
- revelation 13y agoFisker failed, and you don't see dealerships reverse engineering the electrical system or building battery packs. Quite frankly, if the company fails, you are out of luck, dealerships or no dealerships.
- bobo13579 13y ago
- jessaustin 13y agoBy the time you get to the dealer, you have already guaranteed yourself a bad experience (unless your goal for the day is just a test drive). The key is to contact multiple dealers with the same fairly specific request. You'll be passed on to the most desperate salesperson on duty, because no one wants to be in a competition. The desperate salesperson at each dealership, however, will know he's in a competition, and he'll act like it. If you're especially brutal with the poor bastard he'll throw in free delivery, and you'll never actually have to go to the dealership. EDIT: I see lots of CarMax recommendations. Maybe they've just automated the process I've described.
- brooksbp 13y agoAnd target the end of month where sales is looking to meet quota. I called a few places near the end of the month asking for quotes on an exact make/model, ended up walking into both, walking out of both, and striking a decent deal with one. The only thing that really ticked me is that upon careful inspection of papers there was a random $1000 tagged along that shouldn't be. Always, always, always take your time, read everything, and bring a calculator if you have to!!!
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- brianbreslin 13y agoI think its ridiculous that they need to be fighting for their right to sell direct. Car dealer mafia, i mean lobby, is in full effect here.
- vermontdevil 13y agoImagine if we had to buy software like cars. "Come visit to Weber Software Emporium. Here you can discuss and look to buy Microsoft 8 for the low low price of $999* (plus shipping fees, dealer installation fee, boxing fee, and a rustproof fee for a total of $1,299)." shudders
- inzax 13y agoIts moving in that direction... Msoft, Apple and Polaroid are all going the way of brick and mortar.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jfb 13y agoPolaroid?
- enraged_camel 13y agoI didn't realize app stores were brick and mortar.
- tmzt 13y agoIs that not how many businesses and government purchase enterprise licenses of Microsoft software? In addition to this it seems to be common to purchase one license with hardware and a second license for the same software (but potentially a different edition) from a dealer.
- chime 13y agoAbsolutely. I've been trying to buy KMS license for MS Project for 10 users on a Terminal Server farm with 100 KMS licensed Office Professional users. It's been a month-long nightmare already. I've bought two cars within 2 hours each.
- vermontdevil 13y agoDifference is there are no 50 state laws requiring independent dealers to sell your wares.
- andrewtbham 13y agoThere is a white house petition to allow tesla to sell directly to consumers in all 50 states. Please sign. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/allow-tesla-motors-sell-directly-consumers-all-50-states/bFN7NHQR https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/allow-tesla-motors...
- nolok 13y agoWhy make a petition that allows it for Tesla, and not one that allows the same thing for every constructor ?
- rfnslyr 13y agoDo these petition sites actually ever do anything? All I can think when I see them is "wow what a clever data mine".
- ishansharma 13y agoThe petition site here is WhiteHouse.gov and has done quite a few things in past. Other sites though, I have similar thoughts!
- jessaustin 13y agoExamples please? It's an honest question; I really can't think of anything.
- rallison 13y agoThe white house released the recipe for their honey ale in response to a petition: http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe http://m.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-hous...
- jessaustin 13y agoHahaha. I'm glad that one didn't require a FOIA req.
- mfringel 13y agoSo, judging by the text of the article, the cost of the government's backing is a test drive in a shiny car. Please tell me there's more to the story than that.
- bryanlarsen 13y agoThe story certainly implies that, but it's also quite likely that it was the opportunity for Tesla to argue their case face to face with the legislators that caused the change.
- jlgreco 13y agoI'm sure it was a combination of both. Having that same chat in a local diner instead of in one of the cars would surely not be as effective.
- notatoad 13y agoSure, but you're not going to like it. the decision hasn't been made in Tesla's favour yet, it's just been delayed. reading between the lines, what just happened is that tesla has signaled their willingness to bribe the legislators, and the legislators have given them some time to do so. it's a fight between two parties that each have a lot of money, they're going to keep milking this.
- dwaltrip 13y agoI also found that to be hilariously depressing. It's like they couldn't consider the other viewpoint until they tested out one of their cars and got chummy with Musk.
- lettergram 13y agoThink about all the potential car dealers you just put out of business...
- liotier 13y agoPlease donate to support your local car dealer... C'mon people, don't be so mean !
- seanc722 13y agoI'd support my local car dealer... Unless they were trying their best to put a green car company out of business over greed. Luckily my locals are not :)
- NoPiece 13y agoThink about the money saved which can now be spent productively instead of funneled to politically connected businesses.
- njharman 13y agoBroken business models propped up with legislation need to be put out of business. That is a bigger and better benefit than being able to buy a Tesla.
- jlgreco 13y agoPotential car dealers? Is this kind of like all of those "potential babies" that are killed when a man masturbates? I'm guessing people are missing your joke...
- tomjen3 13y agoSame argument people make over record stores and piracy. It is a business model whos time has come and gone.
- medell 13y agoI dream of a world where kids idolize Elon Musk like they do pop stars and movie stars. Most influential person of our time. And so my man crush continues.
- ASpring 13y agoHe is the real-life incarnation of Tony Stark.
- toomuchtodo 13y agoJon Favreau is friends with Elon, and actually based the current incarnation of Tony Stark after Elon (note the Roadster in Tony's garage in the first Iron Man, along with Elon's cameo appearance about an electric aircraft in Iron Man 2). http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-inspired-tony-stark-of-iron-man-fame http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/tesla-ceo-... Hell, I'm 30 and Elon is my hero. No bullshit, all execution.
- quackerhacker 13y agoGreat to see Tesla changing the industry. It's disappointing to see New York (whom I view as a progressively similar to California) attempting to block Tesla though[0]. [0] http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/21/autos/tesla-new-york/index.html http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/21/autos/tesla-new-york/index.h...
- davidf18 13y agoSteve Blank: Strangling Innovation: Tesla versus “Rent Seekers” http://steveblank.com/2013/06/24/tesla-versus-rent-seekers/ http://steveblank.com/2013/06/24/tesla-versus-rent-seekers/