Massachusetts shoots down car dealers' Tesla-busting sueball A court in Massachusetts, US, has ruled in favor of Tesla in a case that could have barred the company from selling its electric car in the state. A judgment [PDF] from the state's Supreme Court upheld claims that Tesla was not subject to laws that protect car dealers. A group of dealers had claimed that Tesla was in …
Originally they didn't want to- it wasn't easy for makers in the 1920s to finance and manage dealerships in 10,000s towns and cities across America
The rules Tesla was accused of breaking was to stop a manufacturer letting a local dealer invest and build up a market, get a good reputation for service for the brand and then have the manufacturer move into the town and undercut them.
It would be as if Microsoft was allowed to let small software companies invent new products,wait to see which became popular and then sweep in bundling their own free knock off.
"The rules Tesla was accused of breaking was to stop a manufacturer letting a local dealer invest and build up a market, get a good reputation for service for the brand and then have the manufacturer move into the town and undercut them."
Which is exactly the kind of thing which is happening on the mobile phone front, with phones4u (UK side) and Radio Shack (Stateside) having their oxygen cut off by the telcos setting up thei rown network of stores and then cutting off handset supply contracts.
The fact that this anti-franchising activity has been happening in other business arenas within various states is probably what's going to cause the law to be eventually struck down entirely.
It's not for fish 'n chips! Although a SpaceX rocket would make an excellent deep fat fryer. Simply place all the batter packs fish and frozen chips in the sump where the cooling water normally goes, then after the rocket hits space the engineers get to celebrate their success with yummy food.
Might be a touch crispier than some might like...
However this is clearly Elon Musk's new venture. He's going to re-invent the Yorkshire Pudding!
This type of legislation is proof that 'temporary measures' never include a graceful exit plan.
As long as there are 'old school' dealerships then this is needed (look at Phones4U to see what could happen otherwise) but new manufacturers should be automatically exempt unless they choose to franchise at which point they would be caught by it.
There's no such animal as "free market" in America.
"Free market" in America means free to eff you up the arse without consequence and nothing else and the ability to buy lawmakers to pass laws to enforce the buggery of punters.
American companies talk a good game of efficiency and innovation driving the market, but the reality is those very things are a threat to them.
These laws protect the territories of EXISTING DEALERSHIPS, NOT THE MANUFACTURERS; dealers who put the money in to locally build up the brand and pay for stock, facilities and employees whether that be Ford, GM, or Chrysler etc. It's expensive to do and deserves protection from the manufacturers interference.
Tesla is NEW, there is no built up brand or territory. Their entire buying concept is new, so they are trying to cut out the middlemen and sell direct without dealerships.
That may work with an expensive car like Tesla but it could not work with an inexpensive car. There are MANY local conventional car dealerships for even a single established manufacturer; perhaps 2 or 3 per county or more. Tesla will only have one for a whole region or even a whole state with this model.
That's like one dealership per COUNTRY for comparison sake.
Don't miss your next service appointment because it may be years before the Tesla dealer can schedule another.
It used to be that telecoms serviced the infrastructure they used, but they are selling it off in favor of the wireless business so they don't have to maintain it. They do not deserve any protection they were originally given. They should ALL be broken up again and all the pricing heavily regulated.
The FCC should be gutted and new people hired as they are riddled with ex employees of Bell, Verizon, AT&T etc and they can't make an unbiased decision to save their lives.
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Many local economies (read: city governments) are funded by car dealerships. I know my town is. The towns will fight to the death to keep or get one.
I like the idea of going direct and generally sticking it to the car dealers, but I know that my town's temple that it built to itself ("city hall") on Main Street doesn't pay for itself. If sales tax goes down they're going to come after the residents to make up the gap. They may go for yet another sales tax increase, or come after us for more property tax.
How things have changed.
At one time enterprise, unfettered, brought us so many good things - remember what Hewlett Packard made - all those great pieces of test equipment. The crazy innovators at Wavetek of California, gobbled up by that staid outfit Wandel and Goltermann of Germany.
Since then the lawyers have taken over and companies have put their wagons in a circle and slowly real innovation is fading.
Luckily, today's generation is recapturing the spirit and hopefully they will get rid of the lawyers and the daring be set free to experiment once again.
Look at Volkswagen, they deliver straight to the customer with great success. Tesla could be the same. Why do we dealerships these days? Click away on a web site, put your dream whatever together, computers in the manufacturers test it for feasibility and then, another click, the order is entered and the JIT system looks after the rest with a delivery date almost cast in concrete.
Tesla vehicles have far less 'mechanics' and, as a certain New York Times reporter discovered, it's on-board computer, chatting away with the factory, can alert the owner or Tesla to potential problems.
Likely a 'repair' could be made by a shipping/freight company delivering parts one day and calling back if there are parts to return.
That's why Tesla can't have its own dealers.
Dealers generally lose money on new car sales. They make money on finance, trade ins and servicing.
Tesla's (almost) don't need servicing - the warranty package is something like $600/year,
there is no $150 oil change every 4000mi, brakes last for a decade, no emmission checks.
And current Tesla buyers are unlikely to need a dealership to loan them the money at 5%
"At one time enterprise, unfettered, brought us so many good things"
That depends on which bit of USA free market capitalistic history you look at. The days of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, J. P. Morgan and pals weren't so great for their competitors.
"The days of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, J. P. Morgan and pals weren't so great for their competitors."
What are you talking about 'the days of'...? A few of them are not only not gone, but they rule the club of the 0.01% and they hold nothing but contempt for the rest of us.
Old drug and slave trade money put into banks and multinational corporations still run with the same dinosaur mentality.
.
Subservience to money is a degradation of human consciousness.
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