Tuesday, February 12, 2019

"Dealer-Less" Car-Sales? Heh.

Elon Musk is a legend in his own mind, but he has a lot of guppies on Wall Street who push his company's stock.  That's because Wall Street and the real world are quite separate, as we've learned from Donald Trump.

Anyhow.

Musk--in his idiocy--wanted nothing to do with car dealers because he had a better plan.  Well, yes, it's better for Musk--but not for his customers.

...Tesla customers in recent months have been venting on social media about trouble getting repair appointments, long waits for those fixes and flaws in newly delivered vehicles, whether they are the paint job or cracks in windows.

In interviews, several Model 3 buyers recounted their frustration with waiting for parts to arrive at body shops. David Kim of San Jose said he is still waiting for his Model 3 to come out of the shop after a collision in September. He said he was told by Tesla’s call center a few weeks ago that the auto maker was focusing its attention on making new cars.

David Kim’s Tesla Model 3 was damaged in a collision last September in the Los Angeles area; he is still waiting for it to come out of the shop....--Breitbart quoting WSJ
It ain't just body parts, either.  Mechanical and electric stuff goes wrong too, and when it does in SE Wisconsin, your new Tesla gets towed to CHICAGO.  We all love driving to CHICAGO, no?

I spent a very interesting hour with a mid-level manager from a very large auto-dealer services outfit:  Cox Automotive.  During that time, he explained to me that in 10-20 years, there will be no car dealers at all; that the manufacturers would simply sell direct to consumers, no problem, no fuss, no muss.

There are SO many things wrong with the assumptions underlying that assertion that it would be three more blog-posts; suffice it to say that I hope he buys a couple of Teslas for his family. 

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