Tesla to Texas: How Do You Like Us Now?

[bcoop]

The dealership cartels spinning this into a campaign to save/create jobs and protect the consumer is a complete farce.

Exactly. Dealership community knows this is a better, more efficient model, which is exactly why they are fighting so hard against it.

[jw33]

http://jalopnik.com/texass-governor-is-an-idiot-when-it-comes-to-tesla-1718228609

Tesla’s had a bit of a hard time selling its cars directly in certain states, mostly owing to the existing powerful dealership lobbies. The company’s had an especially hard time getting into Texas, and the state’s governor just gave an incredibly stupid reason as to why.

Right now, if you want to buy a Tesla in Texas you can order one online, but you can’t buy it directly from a Tesla “store,” and you can’t go for a test drive. That’s ridiculous, and mostly due to the state’s already-existing dealerships, their interest in protecting their businesses in a manner contrary to free-market capitalism, and because they think you’re an idiot.

But not as big an idiot as Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Speaking to Bloomberg Radio yesterday, governor Greg Abbott distorted the truth and then established his own complete unfamiliarity with Tesla’s actual operations in his state, all in three sentences:

“Texas has a very robust, very open, very effective automobile sector that seems like it’s working quite well the way that it is,” Abbott told Bloomberg Radio on Tuesday. “If you’re going to have a breakdown in a car, you need to have a car dealership there to make sure that the vehicle is going to be taken care of. We haven’t seen that from Tesla.”

So let’s break that down. “Texas has a very robust [true], very open [false], and very effective [I don’t even know what that means] automobile sector that seems like it’s working quite well the way that it is [I guess?].”

Then putrid sludge started pouring from his mouth, and he seemed incapable of staunching the flow. “Something something breakdown argle bargle warble dealership. We haven’t seen that from Tesla,” he said.

But that verbal garbage isn’t remotely correct. You don’t need a traditional franchised dealership to get your car repaired. Tesla, in fact, has three service centers already open in Texas, with two more on the way, to help out owners in the Lone Star State who managed to get their hands on one of the all-electric cars.

And better yet, a dealership and service center that’s directly controlled by the company, in theory, may allow for better customer service with greater oversight from Tesla’s corporate headquarters. So there’s that.

In fact, Governor Abbott — in case you’re too busy taking campaign contributions from car dealers to know this — here’s a map of Texas with the service centers highlighted, just to help you out:

Texas's Governor Is An Idiot When It Comes To Tesla


Let people buy Teslas in Texas. For Freedom, Free Markets, And Other Things That Are Free.

[Nash B.]

He dumb.

[Baron Von Crowder]

He dumb.

he's a fucking idiot.

[CJ]

Gee that article isn't biased at all.

[Sean88gt]

Had that widow maker fallen 1/2 earlier...

[Nash B.]

Gee that article isn't biased at all.

sure, but do they make any points that you can argue? Or was there anything in his interview that could counter them?

[Broncojohnny]

Jalopnik is run by liberals, what do you expect?

The governor is in the pocket of car stealerships obviously

Plenty of people buy Tesla cars here, I see them all the time. So the idea about freedom at the end is horse shit. The liberals who run Jalopnik only care about freedom when it helps them paint right wingers as evil.

Last, why doesn't Tesla just open a fucking dealership here? It isn't like they won't sell cars. They sure as hell have their trendy boutique shop in Northpark but can't open a traditional dealership?

[YALE]

Jalopnik is run by liberals, what do you expect?

The governor is in the pocket of car stealerships obviously

Plenty of people buy Tesla cars here, I see them all the time. So the idea about freedom at the end is horse shit. The liberals who run Jalopnik only care about freedom when it helps them paint right wingers as evil.

Last, why doesn't Tesla just open a fucking dealership here? It isn't like they won't sell cars. They sure as hell have their trendy boutique shop in Northpark but can't open a traditional dealership?

The boutique in NP can't sell anything. They can't even list prices. For them to open a dealership they'd have to have a franchisee. That doesn't fit their model at all.

FWIW, I think they should let Sewell and similar luxury dealerships sell them.

[BMCSean]

Starwood sells teslas all the time, just go there.

[YALE]

Starwood sells teslas all the time, just go there.

New?

[BMCSean]

New?

No, technically they don't sell anything new though. All of the custom jeeps are titled as used even though they usually have less than 100 miles on them. They had like 20 teslas there a few months ago, right now it's only a few. The mileage varies so it just depends. You can see the tesla service shop from the Starwood parking lot.

[LANTIRN]

SVO sells teslas all the time, just go there.

Fixed that for you.

[Gasser64]

If I could take the haggling part out of purchasing a car, I would be 100% on board with direct. When I go in to buy a car, that's the last thing I want. I know what I want, I have done my research (thank you internet) and more than likely I will have driven one beforehand. There's nothing more frustrating than the dance of payment terms, and how much can we fuck you with numbers game. If I could order a car online from the factory that would be even better. And as far as servicing, especially on a luxury auto 9 times out of 10 I will find an experienced independent mechanic that doesn't charge 180 bucks for labor. So Kudos to Tesla on that aspect.

There's always carmax

The dealership cartels spinning this into a campaign to save/create jobs and protect the consumer is a complete farce. I don't believe the angle that if buyers can buy directly from the manufacture that it somehow gets rid of the majority jobs in the industry. People will still need to have their cars serviced and some will want to speak to a person about all the features before they spend their money. And even if it was true that millions of people in the auto industry would be out of a job, does that make it right? I mean let's really create some jobs and force farmers to pick their crops by hand, ban online streaming services and bring back VHS tape rentals, hell make the internet illegal and make all information be transcribed by hand onto paper....

Electric cars need less than half the maintenance of internal combustion cars.

[Broncojohnny]

The boutique in NP can't sell anything. They can't even list prices. For them to open a dealership they'd have to have a franchisee. That doesn't fit their model at all.

FWIW, I think they should let Sewell and similar luxury dealerships sell them.

Meh, they can come up with some shell joint venture entity to be the "franchisee".

You say it doesn't fit their model, that is exactly my point, the model needs to change to beat the politicians at their own game.