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Comment by avgDev | Hacker News Reader

I'm not a fan of Tesla. After renting a model Y for a weekend I would not buy one, as it rides like a race car with extremely stiff suspension.

However, I would love to purchase a car the Tesla way. I hate the dealership experience so much. Plus, all the recent "market adjustments". I am a car guy but dealerships are turning me into someone who hates dealing with cars and doesn't even want to think about buying something from a dealership. I'm either going to buy a Tesla or something from a private party.

The only thing that sucks is that my local tesla showroom never answers their phone or responds to sales inquiries over email.

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I dont enjoy the buying experience at the dealership but when it comes time to have it serviced I am very happy not to have to put it on a trailer to be sent out of town to be fixed, and then wait weeks to get it back

You can't drive to a service center? Doesn't tesla have mobile service also? Regular cars don't get towed to dealerships when broken? I am confused by your comment.

Tesla part availability is an issue from what I have read.

Also it appears Tesla doesn't perform much scamming in the service departments like dealerships do. Replacing an air filter should not be $79.99.

I don't know if I would call that scamming. The dealership charges a significantly higher hourly labor rate than independent service shops, but that hourly rate is clearly posted as required by law, and the part price is always OEM list price.

Buying a car sight unseen is a huge mistake. Yes the dealership is a few hours of pain, but that pain gives you the option to walk away with no strings attached, which IMO is invaluable. And it's a very small fraction of time compared to the average length of car ownership.

Car buying (and ownership/maintenance) is far too vulnerable a process to trust a seller blindly. And tesla in particular has had numerous quality issues, a shady support approach involving proprietary parts and massively repair bills, and a track record of over promising and under delivering.

If you buy anything online (in Europe at least), you can return it for a full refund within 14 days if you don't like it.

They would probably refuse to take it back if you've driven it. Whereas in dealership, you can take a test drive.

I think the online car sales like cazoo and cinch give you a 3 day 100 mile test drive window where you can return without question if you don’t like it.

You buy the tesla online and then take delivery in store? You can refuse delivery.

Sounds like a huge headache after you've given them full financials. and potentially opened a loan and submitted registration and insurance forms.

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