Dealership Commentator: Tesla's Going To Win In Every State

cartechboy writes Unless you've been in a coma for a while you're aware that many dealer associations have been causing headaches for Tesla in multiple states. The reason? They are scared. Tesla's new, different, and shaking up the ridiculously old way of doing things. But the thing is, Tesla keeps winning. Now Ward's commenter Jim Ziegler, president of Ziegler Supersystems in Atlanta, wrote an opinion piece that basically says Tesla's going to prevail in every state against dealer lawsuits. He says Tesla's basically busy defending what are nuisance suits. This leads to the question of whether there will be some sort of sweeping federal action in Tesla's favor.

Comments

Re:Why so much fuss?

[PPH]

No company should be prevented from selling their products directly to the public. Land of the free indeed.

So, you are starting out as a small manufacturer. You've got a product you think people would like, but you don't have the money to build a network of your own retail outlets. So you shop around for a general retailer willing to put your stuff up on a shelf.

The minute your product gains any market share, part of that agreement will be that you don't compete with the retailer within a certain geographical area. And when you start moving large volumes of product through a retailer, your cost to get to the equivalent market goes up. So its a barrier to entry.

That's why many manufacturers' outlet stores are way out in the sticks. No existing retailers cover that area, so outlet malls spring up.

Re:Why so much fuss?

[bmo]

The dealer shill thus spake:

the local dealer may have overpriced their product so you buy elsewhere, but that local dealer is still obligated to do the warranty service (for which they are paid quite well by the manufacturers).

In no other industry is this true. In electronics, white goods, etc, there are "certified warranty service centers" where you can call up and get them to fix your stuff. For example, you don't have to go to an Apple dealer to get your high-priced computer fixed under warranty - you can bring it or ship it to one of many service centers.

https://www.apple.com/lae/supp...

Please note that the requirement to become a service center does not include having to be an Apple reseller.

Ford, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Chevrolet, etc., should be able to certify garages for warranty work. But no, the automobile industry is the only industry where you have to go to a dealer to get warranty work done.

Leeches, all of you. Die already.

--
BMO

Re:Spot on

[CastrTroy]

The manufacturer likely could sell for less but in many cases they don't want to get on the bad side of Amazon or Best Buy or whoever else is selling so many of their products. Most manufacturers know very little about good marketing and how to ship a product to the end customer. They simple aren't set up for such tasks. Amazon and others actually provide a very good service to many manufacturers. All the manufacturer has to do is send truckloads of their products to Amazon's warehouse. And Amazon will send money to the manufacturer. Amazon will handle all the complicated stuff like running website, sending out emails to let people know about the products, advertising on websites so people know about the products, search engine optimization to ensure people find the product they are looking for, taking payment from the customer, shipping the product out to the customer. Very few businesses could offer the level of service that Amazon and other online retailers do if they were tasked with it themselves.