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New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

blog.caranddriver.com

111–120 of 224 posts

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#111
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they would easily put franchise dealers out of business.

If dealers would all go out if business if they had to compete fairly, then doesn't that suggest they might not be providing customers with much value? While I do think market interventions are sometimes justified, in this case it seems we are protecting dealers for their own sake.

It wouldn't be competing "fairly" if they had to compete with the guys they buy their product from.

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#112
post #89
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, this could be an incentive to purchase zero-emission vehicles instead of the alternatives, as the buying experience would be theoretically much better than that of going to a traditional dealer.

Yes. It's like visiting the websites of two competing software vendors. One has a plain-as-day pricing table with a $100 / month plan and a big blue "Buy now" button. The other company's Pricing page just reads: "Call us for a quote". Given the choice, who would ever go with the company that makes you talk to an enterprise salesman? Somehow car dealers in the U.S. have managed to enshrine this sleazy sales model into…

Pro-tip: if you're calling them, they don't have a $100 / month plan to sell you. There aren't many companies that sell most of their business at $5,000 / month through the website. And for those that do, talking to a sales rep gets you a discount just for picking up the phone.

Also, having moved from programming to sales/marketing, I'm a bit more sympathetic towards the "call me" model of selling. There's a lot of companies (like mine) that aren't deliberately withholding information, but instead are training and enabling reps to walk you through a process that can't be navigated with blog posts and product pages alone. We do monitoring, and most of our customers treat our sales reps and pre-sales engineers as free consultants. Nothing magical about it, but talking to a human is valuable for problems like "how to a unify monitoring for my 1,000 servers are 24 teams which runs apps that are a result of 17 acquisitions".

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#113
post #89
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, this could be an incentive to purchase zero-emission vehicles instead of the alternatives, as the buying experience would be theoretically much better than that of going to a traditional dealer.

Yes. It's like visiting the websites of two competing software vendors. One has a plain-as-day pricing table with a $100 / month plan and a big blue "Buy now" button. The other company's Pricing page just reads: "Call us for a quote". Given the choice, who would ever go with the company that makes you talk to an enterprise salesman? Somehow car dealers in the U.S. have managed to enshrine this sleazy sales model into…

> which is certainly an amazing feat of lobbying.

It's like I heard a collective "bitch please" come from the banks, food wholesalers, defense contractors, insurance companies, immigration lawyers, patent attorneys, entertainment industry, telcos, etc. etc.

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#114
Meanwhile here in West Virginia, our legislature just banned Tesla and Uber from operating in-state. This is the same legislature that changed the motto of the state from "Wild and Wonderful" to "Open for Business" only to have the constituents petition and vote to change it back.

Our policymakers make no sense at all, I'd like to replace most of them.

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#115
post #47
post #18

This is great news. People often forget that dealerships often abuse their power and take advantage of consumers. This is especially true since purchasing a car is a large purchase with information asymmetry (although new resources have made this less true). It's especially appalling how dealerships often discriminate on race and gender [0] I am disappointed that this move only applies to zero-emission vehicles but h…

On the other hand, this could be an incentive to purchase zero-emission vehicles instead of the alternatives, as the buying experience would be theoretically much better than that of going to a traditional dealer.

I am not sure why the experience would be better. You always have the option of paying asking price to the traditional dealer.

For some reason people that don't like to negotiate don't want to pay sticker price either.

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#116
post #89
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, this could be an incentive to purchase zero-emission vehicles instead of the alternatives, as the buying experience would be theoretically much better than that of going to a traditional dealer.

Yes. It's like visiting the websites of two competing software vendors. One has a plain-as-day pricing table with a $100 / month plan and a big blue "Buy now" button. The other company's Pricing page just reads: "Call us for a quote". Given the choice, who would ever go with the company that makes you talk to an enterprise salesman? Somehow car dealers in the U.S. have managed to enshrine this sleazy sales model into…

It's nothing like this.

One has a plain-as-day pricing table with a $100 / month plan and a big blue "Buy now" button. The other company's Pricing page has $100/month plan with "Buy now" button and additional text: "Call us if you want to pay less".

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#117
post #67
post #18

This is great news. People often forget that dealerships often abuse their power and take advantage of consumers. This is especially true since purchasing a car is a large purchase with information asymmetry (although new resources have made this less true). It's especially appalling how dealerships often discriminate on race and gender [0] I am disappointed that this move only applies to zero-emission vehicles but h…

>This is great news. It is! > People often forget that dealerships often abuse their power and take advantage of consumers. I doubt many people forget that. Car salesmen have some of the worst reputations of any profession in the US. Purchasing a car can be nerve-wracking. The research I felt compelled to do beforehand felt like I was preparing myself for battle, because I knew the incentives were diametrically oppos…

I haven't really run into this issue myself. Maybe I'm younger than others, but the two cars I've purchased from dealerships have been done mostly online. The only part that could be nerve-wracking is turning down all the up-selling when finalizing the purchase (warranty for wheels, dents, etc).

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#118
post #94
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you are advocating for a zero sum view of the economy, but you are definitely describing one. The thing about those middle class jobs that New Jersey is losing, is that they didn't need to exist. The only way they did was by stealing through coercion a little bit from people who chose to buy cars in New Jersey (mostly state residents).

I'm not describing a zero-sum economy. It's possible that NJ suffers a net local loss, even if that's more than outweighed by a net benefit in NJ + CA. And even if NJ enjoys a net local benefit, you still have a bunch of people out of work in return for everyone paying slightly lower prices for cars. In a place like NJ, where unemployment is the #1, #2, and #3 concern, you can see why legislators would be gun-shy abo…

I'd probably suggest that if a direct-from-manufacturer store would open in NJ the people most likely to be able to find employment at such an establishment would be those who used to work at a dealership.

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#119
post #18

This is great news. People often forget that dealerships often abuse their power and take advantage of consumers. This is especially true since purchasing a car is a large purchase with information asymmetry (although new resources have made this less true). It's especially appalling how dealerships often discriminate on race and gender [0] I am disappointed that this move only applies to zero-emission vehicles but h…

>People often forget that dealerships often abuse their power and take advantage of consumers. Don't worry we're reminded everytime we interact with them. Nothing says captive monopoly like an auto dealership. I'm buying a new car soon and am dreading the experience. I'm leaning towards a used car that's still on warranty because of how bad the dealership experience is and the various ways they try to scam you (hidde…

Used car dealerships run scams, too. I've bought a lot of cars, though, and never from a dealer. Some folks act as if they're OBLIGATED to buy a new car every couple of years, and obligated to put up with these people.

Re: New Jersey legalizes direct Tesla sales

#120
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If dealers would all go out if business if they had to compete fairly, then doesn't that suggest they might not be providing customers with much value? While I do think market interventions are sometimes justified, in this case it seems we are protecting dealers for their own sake.

It wouldn't be competing "fairly" if they had to compete with the guys they buy their product from.

Oops accidentally upvoted you. As somebody else mentioned above, Best Buy competes just fine with Apple while buying their products. So it's not impossible/unfair.
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