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Car Dealers Complain To DMV About Tesla's Website
cartechboy writes "State and national car dealer groups have been battling Tesla Motors for years, trying to stop them from selling its electric cars directly to buyers. Most of the time, the dealers work behind the scenes to change state laws and and force Tesla to conduct its sales through 'independently-owned third parties' which are... well, car dealers. But in California, Tesla's operations are legal, so that tactic won't work. So dealers there are taking an interesting new tack — complaining to the DMV about Tesla's website."
The dealers have a few good points, but EVERYONE knows this is just sour grapes because the dealerships can't fleece potential buyers out of some more money off the top.
Fucking scum.
Telsa's claims might be misleading, but if you want a pathological lying sack of shit, look no further than your local car dealer.
After 30 years of automakers blatantly providing theoretical and incredibly optimistic EPA estimates for gas mileage, you'd think that dealers would be willing to give a little on another car maker fudging some other numbers on their site.
there's a reason why they call it disruptive technology, scumbags
we don't need you
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Ain't free enterprise great in America? You can do anything, as long as you cut the vested interests in for a piece of the action. Thankfully though we're not a bunch of economically ignorant Neanderthals that would do something stupid like put a nickel tariff on a pair of socks. That would be interfering in commerce!
...when companies are fighting it.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Not to troll, but i wonder what would happen in the "IP" era of the US economy? If Ford tried this today would he still win or would the "patent holders"?
I am sure they will find a way. If not directly, they will try it indirectly like associating Tesla with political movements that make them sound socialist or otherwise un-american... or they will associate them with the _wrong_ elites (i.e. not the rich sexy people who deserve all they have and are better then us, but the wrong rich people who do not deserve their wealth and think they are better then us)... stuff like that. More then one way to convince consumers to screw themselves as long as you can tie your business needs to some pre-existing social narrative.
You guys used to serve a valuable purpose. Yes, you've always screwed us as hard as you could get away with, but hey, can't fault you for following the American Way to the American Dream.
But now? Congratulations, the internet has made you nothing more than the place I go to test drive your products before I let the nearest 50 of you bid against each other for my next buy (and don't think I won't buy from the other side of the country if someone there has a good enough sale going on to cover the cost of shipping the damned thing to me).
You had a good run. Congratulations. Now cash out before you run out of cash. Simple as that.
Please, go down gracefully. Don't let this turn into yet another "when you can't compete, legislate" disaster. That just never goes well for the "legacy" side of the battle.
The manufacturers generally don’t want the hassle of owning and managing a nation-wide network of storefronts. As with any large retail franchise, having independent dealers provides them with a buffer of sorts: If the manufacturer’s much-hyped new model turns out to be a lemon, it’s the dealers who are stuck with the inventory. If a dealership goes out of business for whatever reason, it’s no skin off the company’s teeth.
Dealerships exist for the convenience of the manufacturers, not the customers.
They won't have significantly less repairs though. Maybe people erroneously think that because the most frequent, yet simplest oil and filter changes are gone, but it won't be the case of all maintenance. Most of the components that require critical safety maintenance are still there such as steering, suspension, tyres and to a lesser extent friction brakes due to regenerative braking.
If they were doing everything right then why the need for the tax credit?
It's a mere pittance compared to the decades-old infrastructure that a fossil-fuel powered car gets for "free" because we essentially subsidize the entire petroleum fuel supply chain at a federal level [1] to the tune of $10s of billions of dollars. Yes, that's for mega-corporations who are making record profits every quarter [2].
So 200k models qualify for the credit at $7500 a piece. That's a neat $1.5M for each car manufacturer - how does that compare to the $Billions in yearly subsidies that the petro infrastructure gets that's passed on to each gas/diesel guzzling car/truck on the road?
Quit whining about the tiny tax credit. Instead start complaining about how the big three auto manufacturers and Big oil are bending us over a barrel.
[1] http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/
[2] http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5503955&page=1
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While true if you factor in the cost of the wear on the battery per km driven then cost of an electric car's fuel is actually far higher than a petrol car.
Interesting point - but wouldn't that mean that petrol car dealers should be adding the costs of, "carburetor wear and tear; carburetor cleaning; air filter replacement; gas tank wear and tear; etc." to their fuel costs; all those costs that electric cars don't incur.
The electric car doesn't pollute, the electric company does. Move everything to electric and the total pollution will be less. A few centralized polluters are easier to clean and manage than 100,000,000 distributed polluters.
Learn to love Alaska
You don't change the oil in your car? You've never had to replace a belt? Do you just let your car sit in a garage all the time?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Same here in Finland. My last two cars (VW, Audi) did not even require routine service until they hit 30,000 km (19k mi). With my daily commute that's about 2 years. In between, just top off fluids, if needed. The routine service is little more than a simple oil change, checking the brakes, tires, etc.
I completely support Tesla's idea of selling direct, even if I'm not an owner (yet). I hope that they someday find a solution for batteries in Nordic climes, so it's a viable car here as well. After all, we already use the grid to keep our cars warm and start-able in the winter.
I find it appalling that some states, including my own home state, are using legal means to try and block Tesla from entering the market. Whatever happened to the so-called free market in the US? This sounds decidedly less free market.