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Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

money.cnn.com

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Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#71

Post by toomuchtodo »

revelation wrote: post #63
maeon3 wrote: post #9

Will Elon Musk fold under the pressure and cooperate with the dealer network when they offer to sell at low to no markup to bring him into the extortion racket of Car Dealers? I loathe buying cars so much because of the snakes that run those Dealerships. They want the car buying process to be so excruciatingly painful so people will leave money on the table to "Just take my money and make the pain go away". How far a…

This story was recounted in a yesterday article on the topic: "I sat down in Palo Alto with Elon Musk, hat in hand, and said we want to partner with you, you can have it exactly as you want it — 'Tesla of Austin,' " said Wolters of the Texas dealers association. "You can do it just as you want to, within our law, you just can't own the showroom." Musk, Wolters recalled, didn't cotton to the suggestion, leaving the ro…

Bringing another billion dollars into the company? Loading up on ammunition.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732476700457848...

Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#72

Post by lacksconfidence »

philhippus wrote: post #61
toomuchtodo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to second this. I've bought two Jeeps, two Corvettes, a Buick, a Camry Hybrid, an Infiniti G37, and my wife's Lexus CT200h from Carmax (over ~12 years). The experience has always been extremely pleasant. I hate to haggle. Hate it. Carmax is awesome if you're looking for a used car.

I understand the aversion to haggling but, consider that it is one of the most economic uses of your time. If you haggle for 10 minutes and get $50 off, you are working at a rate of $300 per hour for the duration of the haggle. Not money to be sniffed at by any measure.

Rich people spend thousands of dollars on private planes just so they don't have to deal with the BS flying commercial. Dealing with a car sales person is no more fun than going through airport security, i happily pay a premium to not deal with those people.

Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#73

Post by toomuchtodo »

nickpinkston wrote: post #52
nknighthb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car dealers are genetically incapable of giving such a direct answer. You can either deal with their evasive swindling and haggle anyway, or just assume the answer is "no".

If you can't haggle for a better priced car, have fun trying to close real deals / acquisitions...

I don't haggle. At all. I've sold a startup before for 7 figures. You know how I closed deals with Fortune 500 companies when we were selling our product? "Here's the price. Please feel free to shop elsewhere if you're not interested." Same with selling the shop. "Here's the price (based on our fundamentals). If you don't want to buy it, cool, someone else will. Or it can keep printing us cash."

Haggling is overrated.

Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#74

Post by warfangle »

sdfaf wrote: post #17
warfangle wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably. Family was surprised that the anti-Tesla legislation in NC was spearheaded by some R's. Hasn't stopped 'em from voting red, though.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Hey.. they's my family. This is what HN sinks to?

Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#75

Post by adventured »

nathantotten wrote: post #69
adventured wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately for Tesla, they have a good decade of playing the underdog card ahead of them. Ford and GM do $280 billion in sales combined.

It isn't Ford and GM fighting this, it is the dealers. I actually doubt that GM and Ford care much about protecting the dealers. My guess is, or should I say hope, that GM and Ford executives are looking at Tesla and thinking about how they might make more money with that business model in the future.

It was understood that it's not GM and Ford fighting on this issue. The point was, in reply to the OP, Tesla will be able to play the underdog card for a very very long time.

Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#76

Post by nickpinkston »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #73
nickpinkston wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't haggle for a better priced car, have fun trying to close real deals / acquisitions...

I don't haggle. At all. I've sold a startup before for 7 figures. You know how I closed deals with Fortune 500 companies when we were selling our product? "Here's the price. Please feel free to shop elsewhere if you're not interested." Same with selling the shop. "Here's the price (based on our fundamentals). If you don't want to buy it, cool, someone else will. Or it can keep printing us cash." Haggling is overrated…

Could've been 8... ;-)

Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#77

Post by toomuchtodo »

nickpinkston wrote: post #76
toomuchtodo wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't haggle. At all. I've sold a startup before for 7 figures. You know how I closed deals with Fortune 500 companies when we were selling our product? "Here's the price. Please feel free to shop elsewhere if you're not interested." Same with selling the shop. "Here's the price (based on our fundamentals). If you don't want to buy it, cool, someone else will. Or it can keep printing us cash." Haggling is overrated…

Could've been 8... ;-)

Meh. I only need so much money.

Re: Tesla's fight with America's car dealers

#78

Post by notdrunkatall »

gnoway wrote: post #16
maeon3 wrote: post #9

Will Elon Musk fold under the pressure and cooperate with the dealer network when they offer to sell at low to no markup to bring him into the extortion racket of Car Dealers? I loathe buying cars so much because of the snakes that run those Dealerships. They want the car buying process to be so excruciatingly painful so people will leave money on the table to "Just take my money and make the pain go away". How far a…

I don't see how this will stand up if Tesla chooses to fight it. I don't think the laws were intended to guarantee the extension of the dealership model to entirely new manufacturers. The laws were intended to protect dealers from having the manufacturer come in and undercut them after they were established in the market. On the other hand, I think the dealership model exists for a reason. There's a racket aspect to…

If they don't want to manage them, they won't.
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