Georgia Car Dealers Want Tesla Store Shut Down

Dealership are complaining because they are tied with manufacturers. You cannot just buy a Ford, or Toyota, right from the manufacturer floor. You HAVE to have a middle man, the dealership.

It's screwy, but it's the current law. The other dealerships would have NO problem if Tesla had to sell their cars through a dealership. It doesn't matter if they sell 1 or 1000 in a month. That's not the issue. The issue is that they are circumventing a law that dealerships have to follow. Tesla can only sell limited number of cars without a dealership.

Really, I'm not a fan of dealerships. I like Tesla's current model of business. Sell directly to the consumer.
 
Dealerships control their inventory nationwide, given that most cars on dealers lots are not actually owned by the dealership. What I was trying to say was that manufacturers are in the business of manufacturing cars, not selling them. Tesla can realistically manage this because they have maybe a 100 show rooms, however when you are talking about GM or Ford they have hundreds of dealers in every state. For them to directly control the dealership network, hire the employees, manage the service centers, provide any real competition will be next to impossible. They are two different business models, that have next to nothing in common other than the product. Running a dealership is not as simple as putting up a sign that says "for sale' and having some cars out side. You guys act like its the simplest thing in the world. Might want to stick with what you know.

you make absolutely no sense. do you think mcdonalds has a problem keeping track of the inventory and staff of it's millions of stores worldwide? do you think coca-cola does? do you think any company ever has said "doing a ton of business all over the world is just too much work, let's sell less product and make less money?"
 
you make absolutely no sense. do you think mcdonalds has a problem keeping track of the inventory and staff of it's millions of stores worldwide? do you think coca-cola does? do you think any company ever has said "doing a ton of business all over the world is just too much work, let's sell less product and make less money?"

Actually, McDonalds doesn't own or manage their restaurants. People buy licensees for the privilege of running thier own McDonalds, they're called franchises. The franchise owner has to but their product from McDonalds, manage their own inventory, hire/ fire employees and maintain their franchise. In return, the franchisee gets free advertising and name recognition.
Most restaurant chains run that way which in all honesty isn't too different than car dealerships.
 
Dealership are complaining because they are tied with manufacturers. You cannot just buy a Ford, or Toyota, right from the manufacturer floor. You HAVE to have a middle man, the dealership.

It's screwy, but it's the current law. The other dealerships would have NO problem if Tesla had to sell their cars through a dealership. It doesn't matter if they sell 1 or 1000 in a month. That's not the issue. The issue is that they are circumventing a law that dealerships have to follow. Tesla can only sell limited number of cars without a dealership.

Really, I'm not a fan of dealerships. I like Tesla's current model of business. Sell directly to the consumer.

No, the dealerships had their franchise laws re-written by their state legislatures to make it prettymuch impossible for a manufacturer to take away their franchise. This means the dealer can be a douche to customers to make a quick buck. Because not that many people are repeat customers (people change locations, brands, or income levels which force people to different dealers). Easier to rip them off now than work to have them want to come back.

If Tesla is allowed direct sales, then other manufacturers have a leg to stand on to demand direct sales for themselves. Dealerships would have to compete with manufacturers who actually care about repeat business. They don't want to.
 
"Tesla sold too many cars this month! This is an outrage!"

Yet if a dealership sold over 150 cars in a month they would be celebrating it in the streets
Puts those "We're over stocked and everything must GO!" sales in perspective, for sure.
 
Car dealers can go scr*w themselves!
You want to know why you can't order a car directly from the factory? Car dealer have a huge lobby and got laws passed making it ILLEGAL. You HAVE to buy one from them at their high markup.
Just the cost of the dealer distribution network adds thousands to the price of the car itself.
 
Car dealers can go scr*w themselves!
You want to know why you can't order a car directly from the factory? Car dealer have a huge lobby and got laws passed making it ILLEGAL. You HAVE to buy one from them at their high markup.
Just the cost of the dealer distribution network adds thousands to the price of the car itself.

So they got a law passed. Answer seems simple then, doesn't it? Referendum passed invalidating that law.

Think you can't motivate enough people who've been screwed over by car dealerships to get that passed in every state in the union? Oh you know you could. I'd sign that petition and vote for that in a heartbeat.
 
I learned first hand just how lucrative the car business can be for dealership owners. We're talking stupid money. Now imagine all these incredibly wealthy owners got together to protect themselves. There you have it. The whole system is ridiculous. I can think of no other product for sale that you attempt to purchase without knowing what the actual price is. Imagine if we bought groceries or electronics in the same fashion. *Toe walks into a grocery store*

-Sleezy salesman:
"High! How can Publix help you today sir!?"

-Toe:
"I need some milk for my cereal."

-Ex convict salesman:

"Great! About how much do you want to spend?"
 
-Dealership aka stealership are loosing their prospective business (at least on the higher end, Tesla does not compete with economic car brands). Loosing business aka future money does not sit well with anyone.

-Teslas dealership atmosphere thats one straight out of Maybach or any other High End mfg. They offer a sample model to sit and experience the vehicle, plus testers for the on road feel. In addition the "store" is very simple, offers customers a simple, apple style buying experience, with highlighted feature booths. Plus you get the usual palate of colors and interior scheme, plus tons of tablets showcasing all this. Again straight out of a Bentley Dealership where they do the same thing. After-sales support is really good, as its mfg owned and operated. No third party.

-Dealership atmosphere is a big room with a bunch a different cars squeezed in. Bunch of cubicles, a top level or back office for the F&I guys, pretty much the pit and then the management lol. The CA might be knowledgeable they might know jack squat. Most of the time they learn from their customer, and have a script to run on. Individual options hell no, Options that favor the bottom line hell yea. May I see this interior material to experience...response: we dont have that vehicle in stock, or any other vehicle that showcases that material, no one buys it, its absolutely garbage or you can live without it. Once the paperwork is done on a vehicle you dont even know what most of the features do or are there for, you get shoved to the F&I peeps who try to sell you anything under the sun ($1000 air freshners or the like). Then delivery. After sale support...........................So many stories and tales, joyrides, trumped up maintenance costs or the oversell.


Overall, Tesla's sales model offers more control over the purchasing process and also offer better after sales support.

Now although at this point we should all be yelling for adapting the Tesla Model. But heres some facts:

Tesla vehicles are currently in the same price class as Luxury Brands from Germany and Japan (at least Lexus). We have yet to see anything that points they can sustain the same model on lower end, lower profit margin vehicles (not doubting they cannot but nothing proven yet).

The biggest point here is Tesla offers all of their amenities and total control due to the fact their prices are fixed. No haggling, no model year clearance, no anything. Theirs a price, you either pay and drive or don`t pay and don`t drive. For their current majority demographic, this isn`t a problem. However to what degree can they sustain that when they offer more models and a decade down the line. Pricing is key to success when selling. If they branch out of the luxury game then they would need to get pricing in order as well.
 
Pricing is key to success when selling. If they branch out of the luxury game then they would need to get pricing in order as well.

Their Model3, $35k car, that is coming out should be interesting.
 
^again their Model 3 is targeted at the luxury market, competing with the entry level luxury salon ala 3 series sedan (at least the 320i), CLA and barebones C-class, A3 A4 (bare bones).

Too be interesting, there gonna need to come with toyota corolla, camaries competitiors. 3 series competitors ehh.
 
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