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Elon Musk Addresses New Jersey's Tesla Store Ban
An anonymous reader writes "On Tuesday, we discussed news that New Jersey is trying to ban Tesla stores, which would force the company to sell through car dealerships instead. Now, Elon Musk has prepared a response: 'The reason that we did not choose to do this is that the auto dealers have a fundamental conflict of interest between promoting gasoline cars, which constitute virtually all of their revenue, and electric cars, which constitute virtually none. Moreover, it is much harder to sell a new technology car from a new company when people are so used to the old. Inevitably, they revert to selling what's easy and it is game over for the new company. The evidence is clear: when has an American startup auto company ever succeeded by selling through auto dealers? The last successful American car company was Chrysler, which was founded almost a century ago, and even they went bankrupt a few years ago, along with General Motors. Since the founding of Chrysler, there have been dozens of failures, Tucker and DeLorean being simply the most well-known. In recent years, electric car startups, such as Fisker, Coda, and many others, attempted to use auto dealers and all failed.'"
Car dealerships are an anachronism. They offer no real added value. If it weren't for state laws protecting them, they would have been gone years ago - especially with the creation of the Internet.
The sales people are a nuisance, the parts section is to be avoided at all cost - and it really pisses me off when there are parts that are dealer only on rare occasions.
Warranty work? That could be streamlined too by having a tech of your choice do it.
I was hoping the Elon would take his billions and his cult of personality and crush the industry, but I guess that was a dream. I have the same dream for the elimination of Real Estate agents- another pointless middleman that just adds unnecessary costs to the consumer.
Can I stick my rock-hard, 15-inch, throbbing cock up your ass?
In my experience, most dealership negotiations start with this very question...
They'll make you an offer you can't refuse.
Chris Christy isn't the only one with machinations.
What, you don't think it's coincidence that the NJ State Flag has a severed horse's head at the top, do you?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
“We need to talk about the fact that we are for a free-market society that allows your effort and ingenuity to determine your success, not the cold, hard hand of the government.” -Chris Christie
This is my signature.
In New Jersey, you still aren't even allowed to pump your own gas, due to a successful lobby by gas station owners ... in 1949. it's all "full service". never underestimate the power of crappy special interest lobbies in New Jersey.
i could live a little longer in this prison
If you want to register a vehicle that you've purchased out of state in NJ, you have to pay sales tax on it, unless it was previously registered at your former address in the state where it was purchased. So basically, if you live in NJ and want a Tesla, you have to pay sales tax (and possibly registration fees) in the state you purchase it, and then pay sales tax AGAIN in order to register it in NJ.
That's true in most states. I got lucky in that I'd bought my car ~7 months before moving from New York City to Chicago...had I bought it 2 months later, I would have been stuck with sales tax in both states.
That said, as egregious as this is, it is nothing compared to the bullshit New York City and New York State inflict upon their residents. When I moved out of the state, I had to pay a punitive tax for having the audacity of leaving New York state. I kid you not. At around $3k, it's enough to hurt, but just under the amount that would make a lawsuit overturning this doubtlessly unconsitituional tax financially worthwile. That said, after this experience I will never willingly live in New York state again.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
It is illegal for a car company to open its own dealerships. That is the point of the law, they are required to have a middleman.
Tesla could make a deal with John Smith to sell him cars wholesale, and have John Smith re-sell them to the public at a huge markup with hidden fees and sketchy high pressure sales tactics... That's what normal car companies do. Lots of people hate that system. I intend to buy a Tesla for my next car, because I've hated ever interaction I've ever had with a normal dealership -- even though Teslas are out of what I consider my normal price range for a car, even though the range limit is kind of a bummer, even though I don't really want an electric car, I'll accept those downsides just to avoid dealing with the scumbags that run car dealers around here. Apparently Elon Musk agrees that there's some kind of market value in selling to people liike me, which is why he is trying direct-to-customer sales.
You can, but beware, my donkey kicks like a mule.
Ezekiel 23:20
Obsolescence? They're trying to avoid obsolescence by getting a law passed that forces people to pretend it's still 1965 forever?
That doesn't work, it's just a way to pour government money (ie your tax money) down the drain.
Nothing is forever. Today's car dealers are not the inheritors of a century's old tradition, the motor car was only popularised last century, it's like television. At the start of the 20th century there were no broadcast TV networks, and at the start of the 22nd century there will be no broadcast TV networks, the idea that we're going to have to protect something just because it's been around a few decades is craziness.
The grand-parent gave an example of Cisco. I have a funny story about that. Cisco wanted my university to test some of their new gear, as part of an EU project. The idea was that the university would fit the Computer Science building with Cisco gear, and the CS department would use the new features in a "live fire" environment with everything a CS department does, instead of just a few boring accountants or something trying it out somewhere. OK, sounds good. We'll write the cheque, you send the hardware. Nope. Can't do that, Cisco doesn't deal direct with customers. We have to call a Cisco dealer, and get them to quote for the gear. Try that, the dealers all say they can't get the gear. Back to Cisco. Cisco says they'll have a word. Dealers come back, wow, sorry, yes, you can have that new gear after all. Here's our quote. The quote is outrageous. We can't pay that, we're publicly funded. Back to Cisco. Cisco says they'll have another word. Dealers come back with a new price. We say "No" again, and go back to Cisco. "OK" says Cisco, "How much can you afford to pay, and then we'll ask a dealer to work out their cut, and we'll discount the price to them until they can quote that price". So we have to tell Cisco how much we want to pay, then Cisco knocks off the dealer's margin, and tells the dealer they'll discount to that price, and then the dealer quotes us back our original price.
All of this costs Cisco a whole bunch of money, and for what? For the pretence that Cisco isn't directly selling hardware, even though in fact they controlled the entire transaction. It's stupid and it should go away - not be encouraged by the government.
It's not so cut and dry. The difference in price of gasoline in these two states matches up almost perfectly with the difference in state tax rate. Take out the taxes and gas costs the same (which would still suggest that NJ customers don't really pay any extra for full service). NJ charges about 14 cents per gallon while PA charges 40. The current difference in sale price is 28 cents.
Tax rates: http://www.iftach.org/taxmatrix3/choose_tableq2.php
Average prices: http://www.gasbuddy.com/GB_Price_List.aspx