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Tesla Pushes Even More States To Upend Auto Dealer-Friendly Laws (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Tesla is now pressing ahead with lobbying efforts that would allow it to expand its direct dealerships in two more states: Nebraska and Wisconsin. For now, more than 20 states already allow the California automaker to sell its own vehicles, while others have set up a system that at least partially bans manufacturers from direct sales and effectively protects auto dealers. Those states include Texas, Michigan, West Virginia, and Utah, among others. Last year, court rulings and changes in the law in Arizona, Missouri, Indiana, and other states have paved the way for Tesla to sell directly to the public. In Nebraska, the new bill under consideration is known as LB 830. It has been met with opposition from existing dealers who are concerned that other manufacturers like GM or Ford will want a similar arrangement. Similarly, in Wisconsin, SB 605 would carve out an exception in state law for a "manufacturer [whose] motor vehicles... are propelled solely by electric power."
There is a fig leaf of an argument that a car is such a significant purchase that there should have some minimal in state presence for service/support for the customer.
If you could just order a car directly from Ford, what's to stop you from visiting a dealership, taking a test-drive, wasting the sales clerk's time, then leaving and buying your car on ford.com? I'm sure this isn't exactly what lawmakers had in mind originally, but I can see this being some kind of protection for the dealerships.
Semi-related, my local camera store has had this exact problem since the advent of the internet. I'm amazed they're still around.
https://constitutioncenter.org...
I'm not a US citizen so not directly impacted by this specific discussion, but something which interests me about it is the apparent argument [from the dealers] that there is something uniquely special about an automotive purchase that requires that all such transactions cannot happen directly with the manufacturer and must go through the dealer. Why is this?
It can't be simply transaction value: huge numbers of new homes are built every year, many sold by agents and not by the builders.
It can't be because it's a mechanical device or has an engine in it: motor boats and motor yachts are sold every year - many for prices far higher than cars - without enforcing dealership based purchase.
Maybe it's because the dealers can continue to gouge their clients for years and years - on servicing and a raft of other things. Maybe it's because it allows for artificial control of used vehicle pricing.
Bottom line is: there doesn't seem to be any established or practical precedent that explains *why* motor vehicle dealers think they have such a unique use case as to grant them this special dispensation.
Or are they just being precious?
Last time I was in the market for a car the first place must have caught a wiff of "fell off the turnip truck." I test drove one vehicle, didn't really like it. The salesman hands me a document acknowledging I'd seen the carfax report. Right after that with a casual "and can I get you to sign this?" he pushes the bill of sale in front of me with an absurd 20% interest rate. I tore it up, stood up and started to walk out. Apparently the salesman and manager had planned this in advance because the manager approches me as I'm leaving and shakes my hand and saying "congratulations" as I was leaving. Congratulations on walking out of a dealership? I wonder how many people that trick works on. I'll bet it's more than 0.
The place I did get my car from wanted to charge me *more* for not using financing. They wanted to tack on around $2,500 to the asking price for paying cash. I was like "no" but I've never had to try so hard to get someone to take thousands of dollars from me on the spot. It was totally insane. I didn't have to pay that added price but I had to make a scene to get it.
In conclusion, fuck the dealerships. Their sole job is to fuck over consumers in new and creative ways just on the bleeding cusp of legal.