Rival Car Dealers Allegedly Sent Spies To Shut Down A Tesla Store - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE]Tesla was green lit to open a gallery store in ultra-posh Greenwich, Connecticut a little over a year ago with the stipulation that the company didn’t actually sell cars out of it. It works that way in many states where Tesla is barred from directly selling cars, rather than going through franchised dealers. Now Connecticut is moving to shut down Tesla’s gallery, and the automaker says other dealers went to extreme lengths to make that happen. ... But Tesla says sinister tactics were at work here: that the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association sent “secret shoppers” to the gallery to repeatedly attempt to buy a car from employees, the newspaper reports. Yet Tesla argues it didn’t work. From the story: [QUOTE] “It sent ‘secret shoppers’ to the Greenwich gallery in a failed attempt to trick our local employees into selling them a vehicle,” Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla’s vice president of business development, wrote legislative leaders. “Despite these fake shoppers’ repeated requests, our employees did not sell them a car or take their order. What our employees did, and what they continue to do, is educate visitors about Tesla, its cars and other products, and broadly about electric vehicle technology and its many benefits. It is a basic constitutional right for Tesla to be able to communicate with Connecticut residents about these topics. Ironically, even this limited non-sales activity is too much in the eyes of CARA, which is seeking to entirely shutter the Greenwich gallery.”[/QUOTE][/QUOTE] [url]http://jalopnik.com/rival-car-dealers-allegedly-sent-spies-to-shut-down-a-t-1794959263[/url]

It's fucking ridiculous that you aren't allowed to sell your cars directly. Other than sheer corruption, I can't think of any reason why this is the law.

[QUOTE=BuffaloBill;52192955]It's fucking ridiculous that you aren't allowed to sell your cars directly. Other than sheer corruption, I can't think of any reason why this is the law.[/QUOTE] I mean you've answered it. Its corruption and bribery under the guise of "lobbying".

[QUOTE=BuffaloBill;52192955]It's fucking ridiculous that you aren't allowed to sell your cars directly. Other than sheer corruption, I can't think of any reason why this is the law.[/QUOTE] dealers like being middlemen, and making money

what sucks in a way is this franchise model prevents other car companies from getting to larger markets not just tesla.

[QUOTE=Sableye;52193381]what sucks in a way is this franchise model prevents other car companies from getting to larger markets not just tesla.[/QUOTE] Yeah but to seemingly every republican/conservative I know, thats not the case, it's because "nobody wants to work hard and get to the top"

Dealers are able to provide support for the car they sell, at least. With Tesla, you have to go direct to the company and hope your complaint/concern doesn't get lost in the Main In Pile. Edit: I think people should be able to choose to buy direct if they want, I'm just pointing out that dealer method has a bonus that buying direct doesn't offer.

[QUOTE=Ridge;52194144]Dealers are able to provide support for the car they sell, at least. With Tesla, you have to go direct to the company and hope your complaint/concern doesn't get lost in the Main In Pile. Edit: I think people should be able to choose to buy direct if they want, I'm just pointing out that dealer method has a bonus that buying direct doesn't offer.[/QUOTE] I think other laws would cover that.

[QUOTE=Ridge;52194144]I think people should be able to choose to buy direct if they want,[/QUOTE] Why even bring that up then? "Here's an argument for this thing I'm not arguing for"

[QUOTE=Ridge;52194144]Dealers are able to provide support for the car they sell, at least. With Tesla, you have to go direct to the company and hope your complaint/concern doesn't get lost in the Main In Pile. Edit: I think people should be able to choose to buy direct if they want, I'm just pointing out that dealer method has a bonus that buying direct doesn't offer.[/QUOTE] Perhaps I'm slow, but how does that prevent dealerships from having bad support / direct sales from having good support

[QUOTE=helpiminabox;52194299]Perhaps I'm slow, but how does that prevent dealerships from having bad support / direct sales from having good support[/QUOTE] It doesn't. In literally any other industry, you can buy directly from the manufacturer, or through a reseller if you want that local support. And it works pretty well. Automobiles are the only one that make it so you don't have a choice by law. But I think that's what he was getting at. And I agree with it. I don't think dealers should be outlawed, but there should be a choice.

I hope these rival dealerships suffer an email leak. It'd be quite humorous to read through some of their Tesla conspiracy theories.

Oh great another episode of "we only care about free market principles unless it happens to be breaking our friends stranglehold on the market." I literally cheer every time I see Tesla getting a victory against such backward-ass industry rules.

[QUOTE=Ridge;52194144]Dealers are able to provide support for the car they sell, at least. With Tesla, you have to go direct to the company and hope your complaint/concern doesn't get lost in the Main In Pile. Edit: I think people should be able to choose to buy direct if they want, I'm just pointing out that dealer method has a bonus that buying direct doesn't offer.[/QUOTE] So you know - standard consumer protection laws? Hell if you buy directly from tesla, they're actually acting as the seller and have the same obligation as other stores. I think I'll never understand why the US makes stuff like warranty completely convoluted.

[QUOTE=Demache;52194498]It doesn't. In literally any other industry, you can buy directly from the manufacturer, or through a reseller if you want that local support. And it works pretty well. Automobiles are the only one that make it so you don't have a choice by law. But I think that's what he was getting at. And I agree with it. I don't think dealers should be outlawed, but there should be a choice.[/QUOTE] This is false You can no longer watch Warner Brothers movies at Warner Brothers theaters. It's an anti monopoly thing. [url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures,_Inc[/url]. [editline]6th May 2017[/editline] Basically vertical monopolies are why these laws exist, kiddies just scream corruption because Elon is their hero

[QUOTE=thrawn2787;52195796]This is false You can no longer watch Warner Brothers movies at Warner Brothers theaters. It's an anti monopoly thing. [url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures,_Inc[/url]. [editline]6th May 2017[/editline] Basically vertical monopolies are why these laws exist, kiddies just scream corruption because Elon is their hero[/QUOTE] I suppose that's a fair point. Still, you have to agree that this particular news is pretty crooked. To say there isn't any ethics violations would be a stretch.

[QUOTE=BuffaloBill;52192955]It's fucking ridiculous that you aren't allowed to sell your cars directly. Other than sheer corruption, I can't think of any reason why this is the law.[/QUOTE] It's honestly really simple. Dealers make the state a LOAD of money in the form of taxes, but not only that, dealerships (which are often these really weird empirical and dynastic businesses) throw money at lawmakers to not only make it impossible for other non-affiliated dealers to move in, but to make sure people can't buy directly from the manufacturer. So it's kind of a double edged sword. The non-corrupt lawmakers are hesitant to do anything to piss off the dealerships which could result in them moving/closing and losing tax revenue, and the corrupt ones are getting paid big bucks to say "fuck you Tesla" [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMWmYJOa-BM]this video[/url] explains a lot of the problems with them

Ironically one of the main reasons direct sales laws exist is to protect small car manufacturers. Most newly created car companies wouldn't have the capital to be able to both produce new cars and build and staff hundreds of dealerships, so they would have to rely on third parties, putting them at a huge disadvantage to established companies who can afford to cut out the middleman and build their own network of dealerships.

[QUOTE=thrawn2787;52195796]This is false You can no longer watch Warner Brothers movies at Warner Brothers theaters. It's an anti monopoly thing. [url]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures,_Inc[/url]. [editline]6th May 2017[/editline] Basically vertical monopolies are why these laws exist, kiddies just scream corruption because Elon is their hero[/QUOTE] That's a bit of a different case though isn't it? The issue with that was Warner Brothers owning theaters and having exclusive rights to the movies. There's nothing to stop dealerships from making a bulk order with Tesla, and then selling the cars on. Generally dealerships are quite often branded for a specific car manufacturer here anyway. A BMW dealer won't tell me to go and buy a Nissan Leaf instead of an i3 for example. So I'm not sure what the difference is to the consumer? Also Tesla only have issues selling direct in the USA. It's not like there's any issue with selling direct in most industries e.g. Apple, Amazon ect...

Amazon is pretty pro monopoly though and should be sued They don't sell Apple TV or Chromecast anymore because Amazon tv and music don't work with them and that leads to a "confusing user experience". Except the reason they don't work is because Amazon doesn't want to support them and instead wants to sell it's version of those things (firestick?) [editline]7th May 2017[/editline] I agree it isn't cut and dry as to why some things can sell direct and others can't [editline]7th May 2017[/editline] I think part of it has to do with the fact that car dealerships only sell cars. If apple chooses to not sell to Walmart then Walmart can still exist. This puts car manufacturers in a great deal of power over dealerships, "do X or we'll never sell to you again." Ford and GM did do that in the past, so laws were put into place to protect dealerships [url]https://www.engadget.com/2014/07/17/tesla-motors-us-sales/[/url]

[QUOTE=thrawn2787;52196849]Amazon is pretty pro monopoly though and should be sued They don't sell Apple TV or Chromecast anymore because Amazon tv and music don't work with them and that leads to a "confusing user experience". Except the reason they don't work is because Amazon doesn't want to support them and instead wants to sell it's version of those things (firestick?) [editline]7th May 2017[/editline] I agree it isn't cut and dry as to why some things can sell direct and others can't [editline]7th May 2017[/editline] I think part of it has to do with the fact that car dealerships only sell cars. If apple chooses to not sell to Walmart then Walmart can still exist. This puts car manufacturers in a great deal of power over dealerships, "do X or we'll never sell to you again." Ford and GM did do that in the past, so laws were put into place to protect dealerships [url]https://www.engadget.com/2014/07/17/tesla-motors-us-sales/[/url][/QUOTE] Couldn't you achieve protections of dealerships from car manufacturers by enforcing two simple rules? 1. Don't allow car manufacturers to refuse an order without "good reason". 2. Make bulk discounts transparent for everyone, to prevent manufacturers from removing "discounts" for bad dealers. Then they can sell direct but not disallow dealers from selling their cars, and it also prevents the dealership from having to buy in bulk constantly even if there's no sales just to stay in favour of the manufacturer. No one is going to open a third party Tesla exclusive dealership like you see with other manufacturers because they don't ship enough volume for it to be worth it. Plus they require less servicing (or will in the long run), which is where dealerships make their money.

[QUOTE=Morgen;52197074]Couldn't you achieve protections of dealerships from car manufacturers by enforcing two simple rules? 1. Don't allow car manufacturers to refuse an order without "good reason". 2. Make bulk discounts transparent for everyone, to prevent manufacturers from removing "discounts" for bad dealers. Then they can sell direct but not disallow dealers from selling their cars, and it also prevents the dealership from having to buy in bulk constantly even if there's no sales just to stay in favour of the manufacturer. No one is going to open a third party Tesla exclusive dealership like you see with other manufacturers because they don't ship enough volume for it to be worth it. Plus they require less servicing (or will in the long run), which is where dealerships make their money.[/QUOTE] That still doesn't change the fact that going through a dealer adds roughly 8% to the cost of the car. No one would actually use them if they had a direct alternative.

[QUOTE=laserpanda;52198772]That still doesn't change the fact that going through a dealer adds roughly 8% to the cost of the car. No one would actually use them if they had a direct alternative.[/QUOTE] I agree but at that point it's up to the dealer to prove their value rather than just being a legal requirement.

[QUOTE=helpiminabox;52194299]Perhaps I'm slow, but how does that prevent dealerships from having bad support / direct sales from having good support[/QUOTE] You complain to the manufacturer, and they lean on the dealership to provide the service.

[QUOTE=Ridge;52199801]You complain to the manufacturer, and they lean on the dealership to provide the service.[/QUOTE]Or, as you already said, they just ignore it. You're just adding an extra step and more reason for the manufacturer to not care than before.