I wonder if they're back on the road

 

is it a free market if you are limiting possibilities? Free market would be to let anyone become a dealer and then let customers decide if they want to service it at factory or independent dealers.

Free market is not about creating monopolies.

And I mean you are supporting it in a thread where customer has to get their car serviced 100 miles away and wait for prolonged period of time because manufacturer does not have enough capital to expand their network rapidly.

Also, story is nothing unusual - Tesla is still statistically the least reliable brand in the western world.

 

do they do this for every customer or only because this car belongs to a publication?

 

Here's an update from C&D on their Long Term tester. It's back on the road.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...ter-breakdown/

 

Knowing that part of the country like I do (part of the Great Lakes Snow Belt), probably the accumulated stress on the wiring and wiring-connections from repeated jolts and bumps on those super-crap roads in Northern Ohio and Michigan....which are bad enough even in the summertime. Winter and potholes, of course, only makes it worse. Wouldn't be surprised to see rattles and bad wheel-alignment also show up early from those conditions.

 

Pretty sure Tesla isn't the most unreliable brand.

 

Got links to data to back that claim up?

 

This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. It is absolutely a free market when the ownership of a business can decide how they want to run their business, including the way they sell and service their products. It is not a free market when your competitors get to decide how you can run your business.

You need to go read the definition of monopoly. I'll give you a hint though: 2.03% is not it.

This is a gross mischaracterization and intellectually dishonest. They had to get it serviced 100 miles away in another state, because the established hegemony poured enough money into their local politicians' coffers to get one of their competitors' business models outlawed in their home state. If Tesla weren't legally barred from having any locations in Michigan, they would absolutely have one in the Ann Arbor area.

 

free doesn't mean anarchy.

counter-example, apple doesn't let 'anyone' become an authorized apple service center. They qualify who they allow.

manufacturers should be largely 'free' to pick their business models. Obviously if they pick wrong and the customers don't like it, they can change or perish.

 

Good points, spwolf , although reliability of Tesla vehicles, both by model and by year, has been inconsistent. But you are right on with your comments on free-market.

 

Free Market discussion not withstanding, as stated above, 'Tesla' and 'Michigan' are not synonymous. To date, Michigan has managed to block Tesla from opening any stores within the state.

 

I wonder if this situation will change anytime soon? I think Tesla has a Gallery in Troy, Mi where potential buyers can get information on the models etc.

It's interesting that the bordering states of Ohio, Indiana and Minnesota allow Tesla Sales and Service.

 

^^^^ With good reason. Tesla does not allow private franchises in the free market, therefore it does not qualify for business under Michigan's free-market rules. I see no problem with that.......You reap what you sow.

 

You fail to mention the very important detail that those rules were passed at midnight in 2014 with no prior notice, no debate and no committee input, for the sole purpose of restricting competition by keeping Tesla out of the state. Legislator Jason Sheppard literally said “The Michigan dealers do not want you here. The local manufacturers do not want you here. So you’re not going to be here.”

This is not some long-standing economic tradition in Michigan, as you are trying to make it sound. They were just looking for an excuse to protect the organizations that grease their palms. If GM didn't already make the Bolt/Volt, they would have simply outlawed EVs outright just to keep Tesla out. Government stifling competition, the free market at it's best

 

that’s a very odd definition of a free market...

In a free market, both models could co-exist and the market itself would decide the business models which ultimately prevail.

And that might be one, both or neither.