4 ms·

Musk clearly wants Tesla to sell all of their products themselves ala Apple. His stated reason was that car dealer's cannot properly advertise the benefits of e

Musk clearly wants Tesla to sell all of their products themselves ala Apple. His stated reason was that car dealer's cannot properly advertise the benefits of electric cars without undermining their gasoline car business and so he doesn't trust them to properly sell the car.

leetrout 13y ago
As a Prius owner I can attest to this, even if just a little. The dealerships I talked to over the past 4 years were excited to sell me a Prius when I called over the phone (and when demand was so high they had to order them and you agreed to MSRP to place said order). However, showing up on the lot, they generally didn't have one to show you (again, the demand issue) and would push me towards an in stock Camry or similar. Even when I made it explicitly clear I wanted a Prius there was a bunch of FUD acted out by the sales reps. "Yea, the sticker says 45mpg, but that's only in the city where you can use the battery". "Hey Jon, what'd that lady say she got on her commut? 37mpg?" I was truly shocked. I will also note that this happened more at multi-franchise dealerships.
Shivetya 13y ago
That does not explain away others who would relish the idea of setting up an electric only dealership. He is using an pretty damn thin excuse to not allow others to sell the cars. Sorry, but there are many other like minded individuals who would very much sell the cars the way he wants, they may even improve on the methods. Local dealers for electrics would provide the benefit of tighter integration with supporting businesses, from those who install the requisite plugs at homes, to marketing the need of stations to employers so that their employees can charge up at work. There are many many benefits to having local, private dealers.
- gnaritas 13y ago
  Local dealers don't help the consumer, they just make buying a car feel awful and add unnecessary middlemen making the car more expensive to the consumer. Consumers should be able to order direct from the factory without all the unnecessary useless and sleazy middleman who do nothing of value and still expect to profit. The fact that standard practice at nearly all car dealerships is the old good cop bad cop routine between the salesman and the floor manager should tell you you're always being hustled. Whether you can win or not is irrelevant, you lost by being forced to play to begin with.
- oh_sigh 13y ago
  > There are many many benefits to having local, private dealers. Oh, so is that why they are mandatory through legislation? Usually if something has "many many benefits", the behavior will spontaneously arise and not need to be government mandated
  - sp332 13y ago
    I thought the regulation was to deter monopolization from manufacturers, not to prop up the dealership business.
- MikeCapone 13y ago
  If traditional dealers are so great, why do they rank about on par with politicians (maybe even below) in public opinion? What value do they add? Seems like rent-seeking via political clout to me...
- kenrikm 13y ago
  The issue is they would have to give the dealer a cut- direct to consumer they can keep the price lower and the margin higher.

leetrout 13y ago

As a Prius owner I can attest to this, even if just a little. The dealerships I talked to over the past 4 years were excited to sell me a Prius when I called over the phone (and when demand was so high they had to order them and you agreed to MSRP to place said order). However, showing up on the lot, they generally didn't have one to show you (again, the demand issue) and would push me towards an in stock Camry or similar. Even when I made it explicitly clear I wanted a Prius there was a bunch of FUD acted out by the sales reps. "Yea, the sticker says 45mpg, but that's only in the city where you can use the battery". "Hey Jon, what'd that lady say she got on her commut? 37mpg?" I was truly shocked. I will also note that this happened more at multi-franchise dealerships.

Shivetya 13y ago

That does not explain away others who would relish the idea of setting up an electric only dealership. He is using an pretty damn thin excuse to not allow others to sell the cars. Sorry, but there are many other like minded individuals who would very much sell the cars the way he wants, they may even improve on the methods. Local dealers for electrics would provide the benefit of tighter integration with supporting businesses, from those who install the requisite plugs at homes, to marketing the need of stations to employers so that their employees can charge up at work. There are many many benefits to having local, private dealers.

gnaritas 13y ago
Local dealers don't help the consumer, they just make buying a car feel awful and add unnecessary middlemen making the car more expensive to the consumer. Consumers should be able to order direct from the factory without all the unnecessary useless and sleazy middleman who do nothing of value and still expect to profit. The fact that standard practice at nearly all car dealerships is the old good cop bad cop routine between the salesman and the floor manager should tell you you're always being hustled. Whether you can win or not is irrelevant, you lost by being forced to play to begin with.
oh_sigh 13y ago
> There are many many benefits to having local, private dealers. Oh, so is that why they are mandatory through legislation? Usually if something has "many many benefits", the behavior will spontaneously arise and not need to be government mandated
- sp332 13y ago
  I thought the regulation was to deter monopolization from manufacturers, not to prop up the dealership business.
MikeCapone 13y ago
If traditional dealers are so great, why do they rank about on par with politicians (maybe even below) in public opinion? What value do they add? Seems like rent-seeking via political clout to me...
kenrikm 13y ago
The issue is they would have to give the dealer a cut- direct to consumer they can keep the price lower and the margin higher.