Washington bill: SB5377

[YDR37]

All the establishment car companies have been screwing consumers for three + generations- they simply cannot go direct to consumer

The traditional car companies would probably be happy to switch to the direct-to-consumer model, if they could. In fact, VW is trying to do this with the newly revived Scout brand.

The problem is that they have longstanding legal agreements with the existing franchised dealers, who (for obvious reasons) are totally opposed to direct-to-consumer sales. In fact, VW is now being sued by its own dealers over their plan to sell Scouts independently, rather than through the existing dealer network.

Probably the only way for VW to make a painless transition would be to buy out every one of the 600+ VW dealers in the US. That's probably not feasible. And VW doesn't even have a particularly large US dealer network; for Ford or Chevy, the number would be 2,500+.

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[shopaholic]

As of now, Tesla operates a grand total of zero stores in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Alabama, West Virginia, and Alaska combined. I'm not going to review the dealership laws in every one of those states, but I'll bet they are a factor in most cases. And we can all agree that those are "red" states.

Maybe Tesla should open “galleries “ in all those states and have independent service centers provide warranty work- under tesla supervision or franchise?

 

[YDR37]

Maybe Tesla should open “galleries “ in all those states and have independent service centers provide warranty work- under tesla supervision or franchise?

I expect Tesla's lawyers have given some thought to what is possible under existing laws (which differ from state to state). One creative solution, which Tesla has used in at least two states, is to open stores on Indian reservations, where tribal laws can differ from state laws.

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