Car Dealers Are Becoming Scared of Tesla

Cars have been sold the same way for over a hundred years: through car dealerships. Dealers were essential for the rapid expansion of automakers, allowing them to reach every corner in the country. To protect these dealerships, specifically from manufacturers competing against them after growing to be large enough to afford their own retail operation, laws were put into place to prevent manufacturer-owned stores.

These restrictions only apply to automakers who have franchised dealerships. New automakers who don't sell franchises can, albeit with some limitations in some states, open their own stores and sell cars directly to consumers even over the Internet. Automakers are always on the lookout to save every penny they can, and the economies of scale from owning their own retail operation could save millions or generate profits that are taken by middlemen (dealerships).

With restrictions being placed on only some automakers, there is no longer a level playing field. The rise of Tesla has amplified the benefits of a direct-to-consumer sales model, and if automakers are to compete they will need to figure out a way to control way their cars are sold. Ultimately, this could spell the end for the dealership only sales model.

#Tesla #Dealerships

[phil]

And absolutely nothing of value will be lost if car dealerships go extinct. Go Tesla Go!

[passdasalt]

Dealerships don't like Tesla, as do oil companies, mass media (no advertising), insurance, gas stations, car mechanics, and in fact the entire auto industry. It's truely a wonder that Tesla survived.

[stevefink]

Car dealerships can chordle my nuts, never EVER going to buy a car from them again. Thank you Tesla, was so painless to purchase a car I cant believe it.

[ramonbenito]

Dealership should not been allowed in the first place.

[justSTUMBLEDupon]

I can’t believe when I found out that I’m forced to buy from a dealership. People talk about open market but dealerships are legal monopolies

[nemeanlioness]

love telsa. we now have a choice and choose to never get scammed by dealers again.

[Muzeishen]

Best B roll I’ve seen all year, lol. Also great narration and story telling.

[gjsprophet]

For most people, going to an auto dealership is an uncomfortable and stressful experience. New and used car sales are fraught with salespeople high pressure, misrepresentation, financial wizardry, pitches to buy unnecessary bells and whistles, and plain fraud. The auto maintenance and service is no less unpleasant as mechanics “find” problems with the car that do not exist, make recommendations for service that are unnecessary, and can even sabotage a car by tampering with the computer so that problems can occur weeks down the road. In the future, with the adoption of EVs that require much less maintenance, the pressure on mechanics to “find” more problems to fix on ICE cars will be heightened since there are fewer cars to work on. It seems to me, this would be a great opportunity for entrepreneurial attorneys to catch these bandits at a profit as there will be plenty of business for them.

[CaseyBurnsInvesting]

Welcome back my man. Long time no see.

[GoatDirt]

Dealerships are such. a. joke. I love to see them sweat when I drive up in my Tesla, knowing none of the crap they peddle can match what it does. The best hack is to come in a different car pretending you heard their "model S class" can drive itself. Then they correct you and say no we sell Mercedes S class, then begrudgingly say Tesla is who you want.

[TimKennedy]

"They don't have incentive to do so" I'm fine with criticizing Tesla but I think it's quite a stretch to say they don't have incentive to practice quality control

[Firestorm]

I love ordering my Tesla’s online and showing up at my front door

[SteveBueche]

Dealers want to bend you over when it comes to sales. They don’t care if you’re upside financially in your car when you leave. They yell Sucker and move on to the next person. An educated customer is the worst thing they want. Screw them. My Tesla will be here soon and everything took about 20 from start to finish.

[quickett]

They're called 'stealerships' for a reason

[leeshaffer]

Tesla actually does have a great incentive to improve the quality of their cars — and they continuously do that day by day. Their service centers and parts are handled as a Cost Center, rather than as a Profit Center, so their motivation of improving quality is aligned with the consumer to continually improve their cars…. The rest of car manufacturers, on the other hand, have an inherent conflict of interest — too much improvement in quality does great harm to the highly profitable service and parts business for them as well as their dealers…

[bettyvick]

This article is awesome there is no reason why a customer should not be able to pay cash for a new car as of now the govtment limits people to a 9000 down payment which allows the dealership to rip us off big time

[rousseau]

While I can see why certain smaller manufacturers are against it, no reason why behemoths like Toyota, BMW, VW Group can't do it. It's all bureaucracy at this point. No other reason to not go direct to consumer for these large companies

[untouchablex]

"Stealership" not dealership.

[mangalatelgote]

Real and true economist and care and secure the rights of customers by omitting middle man or the dealers 🥰👌🙏❤️

[johnp.weiksnar]

Many great points but I call BS on the Tesla quality control assumption. I think back to my final ICE car purchase, a premium brand, that never had a PDI at the dealership. A major engine component was never fastened . . . and they weren't in the process of scaling to the degree you pointed out.