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Comment by yupper32 | Hacker News Reader

> It's fashionable to think Tesla has the Better Way and that auto dealers are universally bad, but consumers largely don't agree.

There wouldn't need to be laws restricting Tesla from selling direct to consumer if that was the case.

Let the consumer decide what they want.

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> There wouldn't need to be laws restricting Tesla from selling direct to consumer if that was the case.

That's just not true. Consumers wouldn't have a choice if an automaker was allowed to make their new vehicles only available from a direct showroom.

They would have a choice of buying one of the numerous other car brands out there.

I don't have a choice when it comes to buying a tesla - am I losing out as a consumer?

Sorry what value does a third party showroom provide that a direct showroom wouldn't?

And currently car companies compete with each other. If one saw third party showrooms as something the consumer wants, then they would continue doing it to compete.

You seem to have missed the part of my comment where I said "if an automaker was allowed to make their new vehicles only available from a direct showroom". If the automaker didn't allow other dealers to sell new vehicles, they wouldn't be able to compete. It's very simple.

I don't understand what you're saying.

Do you think manufacturers of products should be forced to sell items to any business?

The competition that matters is against other automakers.

Dealers could buy the cars at retail and then mark the cars up for the cost of their value add, if it's actually worthwhile to customers they have nothing to worry about.

That becomes ticket scalping problem. The hottest cars would get bough up by dealerships and charge a huge markup.

Why is it a problem? If they were charging more than MSRP and still move the cars, it means that the market values the cars at a higher rate than MSRP and someone can make money off of the difference - isn't that the whole point of capitalism?

How's that someone get chosen though? Quality of their work? Level of effort they put in? How much money they have? Outright bribes? Threats of violence?

Where car dealerships are passed down from father to son, for generations, and is locally one of the most powerful organizations, to the point that competition is outright prohibited, it's not a free market, which is one of the cornerstones of capitalism.

You open up a competing car dealership on the opposite side of the street and sell for cheaper (assuming that you have access to wholesale prices from the car manufacturer - that is the part that needs to be regulated).

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