The process is annoying (2-15w wait) but better than haggling with sales guy for 4h in the middle of the workday. Also the cars tend to be fun to drive. I miss my stick shift, but much better carseat space.
And now, here I am April 2, 2021. The vehicle is still untitled, unregistered, and basically a paperweight sitting in my driveway, because the sales guy screwed the paperwork up so badly, that the DMV cannot make heads nor tails of it. The bank is constantly hounding me for a title, I tell them to talk to the dealership, they say to talk to the DMV, and over a year later, I've been paying $800/mo for a car and insurance I cannot even use.
Guess blame is a strong word, but not too surprised. Sure time/hassle is worth money. Generally similar is best achieved with an email or fax. "I'm willing to buy exactly car foo with options bar for MSRP, please contact me when the paperwork is ready for sign. I won't sign if any attempted upselling happens when I arrive."
Curious though, u you obviously drove it home the night you purchased it. What changed later?
They let me drive it off after waiting for hours and all the banks closing before they could finish the paperwork. So I signed a few documents (some of which blank... a mistake I'll never make again), and drove from Texas where my family lives back to New York, where I live.
Tesla just saved themselves from building a sales network.
The original idea of the dealership model was that car manufacturers could make cars and dealers could sell, service and do the local marketing and brand awareness. A robust nationwide network of independent dealers was developed such that each dealer would know their market best and be able to market and serve those customers better than one large entity. Somewhere along the way this went sideways and car manufacturers were actually restricted from direct sales in most states since technically they would be competing against the independent dealers they also supplied. Not many other industries have really evolved this way.
You still are forced to go though good cop/bad cop sales routines for 'add-ons' like mats, some sort of paint protection and crap like that.
Seem various hot/new cars (WRX, WRX STI, Forester XT, Ford Focus RS, VW Golf R, etc) list on the floor well above MSRP.
(If anyone reading this turns this into a successful exploitative gig-economy business model, please send a bitcoin. Thanks.)