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Bit for me was interesting to hear how some rules/loop holes

 

Lawyers are licking their chops. Farley is walking a tight rope him talking about "lean" dealers is code for I wish we could deep six dealers completely.

 

When dealerships are finally removed from the equation, the world will be a happier, car buying nirvana. Just be careful not to become Carvana

 

I like CEO Farley. Tesla has traditional car companies in a bind.

 

Not at all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Tesla sells factory direct, cuts out the middleman (dealership), Ford and others are just starting to question why they can't do the same. It's more complicated because legacy automakers are over a century invested in that business model. I'd support factory direct for all automakers. I'd rather deal straight with an automaker than the 3rd party dealership .

 

Like I've written in my Polestar thread, buying direct was the best auto buying experience I've ever had. I would even pay more to buy online direct. 30 years and 7 cars, even when I did all the pre-negotiations and haggling through email, it was never a simple sign and drive off with my new car. I'm trying to think back on why it would take 2 hours to sign paperwork...most of it printed from a dot matrix printer in the 21st century....

 

If this happens at all, it will take decades to shift to this model. Think of all those family owned dealer franchises that would have to be dealt with. Ford would need all those facilities that are owned by separate businesses, and would need leadership at each facility to bring all those owners/managers in house as Ford employees instead of separately owned businesses. Ford would literally have to buy out every franchise, and enter into employment agreements with those owners/managers, and hire virtually all the staff at each dealer (except for the ones Ford decides to kick to the curb because a territory is too saturated).

I wouldn't hold my breath for Ford or any other traditional automaker to become Tesla.

 

Or they can separate out their EV business like Volvo did with Polestar. For maint and repair, I can take my Polestar to a "Polestar authorized" Volvo dealership or Polestar space that's setup to do maint and repair

 

Can they do that? Ford has a contract with the UAW which involves all manner of legalese.

 

Not all are created equal. Some Tesla stores make you pay for the car before you can inspect it and if you reject it, it could take a while to get your money back or another car. Kind of ridiculous operate that way but nothing much you can do about it if you are a buyer.

Also, my experience with service at a dealer was better than direct. My side camera would have been warrantied but Tesla wouldn’t and I know most dealers would have done it no problem since they would just get paid by the manufacturer and would have pushed for it to be warrantied based on my experience.

 

Why not? I'm not saying it's simple, but you create a seperate company (like say Ford Electric or Ford-e etc) and build your EV's under that name. Polestar, although a seperate company, continues to share resources, including parts and engineers with Volvo. The joke is that Polestar built the Polestar 1 and 2 with leftover Volvo parts . The Polestar 2 is basically the Volvo C40. I mean Ford is gonna get sued, but I say: Bring it on!

 

This thread is trolling me so bad I have to bite, sorry can't help it! hahaha
I'll be the naysayer, that's ok. lol

I hope Ford and the rest of them have to eat their words.
They are licking their chops for the extra cash $$$ by getting rid of the middle man but none of them will pass any savings on to us, they'll continue to rob us like they have for the last 40 years even when the world's "car shortage by design" is over, only lube to the screwing will be making it easy to spend too much. lol
Just my opinion!

 

You are right, it does depend on region, on the Polestar forum, people from Europe virtually have no customer service and many have complained about lack of response from Polestar when something goes wrong. Different states here in the US also have different laws when it comes to customer complaints. In California we have all kinds of resources we can file complaints, including the California Consumer protection Bureau etc.

 

It will become strait MSRP or Carvana no haggle across the board. No room anymore for anyone to get a good deal at the expense of those who can't haggle.

 

Yep. You can buy the SAME exact car from a dealer vs private party for nearly the same price if you apply pressure but with this it's not going to be a thing anymore, for new cars you used to be able to target slower moving cars that have sat too long.