Half of it is the buying process.
- Had a confirmed appointment but when I showed up I still had to wait 45 minutes.
- Salespeople were clueless about the features of the car they were trying to sell. I knew more after 30 minutes of online research and had to constantly call out their bullshit.
- The car I had reserved was somehow no longer available, and then they tried to upsell me on extras I didn't want.
- I wanted manufacturer financing but they told me that wouldn't be possible and I had to get theirs at a much higher rate. I again had to threaten to walk out to get the advertised rate.
- All the dealerships in the area had priced their vehicles at $10K over MSRP, and the extra was pure profit for them. Heck they were making significantly more money on the car than the manufacturer themselves, all because of a government mandated monopoly.
And all this was for a >$50K luxury vehicle.
Meanwhile a friend configured a Tesla online and it showed up at his doorstep a couple weeks later, with the exact advertised price, financing and selections.
Dealerships make half their money from the service department. EV's require very little service. So they don't want to sell and EV, and it shows.
Go to a Ford dealer and try to buy a Mustang Mach-E and they'll try really hard to convince you to buy an ICE Mustang.
The worst dealership experience I ever had was when I was buying my first car back in 2003. I was 21 at the time, and I just wanted something reliable and efficient that I could carry friends in. I told sales people that it must have 4 doors, A/C, and under $10K. And one of them tries to sell me a Pontiac Sunfire convertible for $12K. I re-iterated what I was looking for. Reliable, efficient, 4-door, A/C, under $10K. He showed me an $13K Mustang. I thanked him for wasting my time and left.
Tesla makes is so damn easy. I had a similar experience as your friend. I spent 30 seconds minutes choosing the configuration (Model 3 Performance, blue, no FSD, black interior), filled out the online credit application, and a week later, picked up the car from the service center downtown. The delivery experience was just as simple. Just had to sign some final delivery paperwork and some DMV paperwork that was already printed and just needed a quick scan and signature. Less than 5 minutes, and the car was mine. I was blown away how fast it was. I literally said to the guy there, "That's it? The car is mine and I can drive away now?". I was incredulous.
Dealerships could easily make the experience this easy if they wanted, but no, they want to play games with you to fuck you over.
At least in EV-forward markets, this isn't much of a thing anymore, simply because they can't fight the fact that EVs have become the new aspirational cars.
The BMW and Mercedes experiences were a frustrating combo of the usual dealership tactics, large price markups and many of the options being unavailable in the US. The Y was also superior on features like storage. The BMW has neither a frunk or a sub trunk like the Tesla. Both the BMW and the Mercedes don’t allow the end user to open the hood at all.
I'm currently buying a Rivian Truck, pricing is straightforward and I could be buying a T-Shirt on a Shopify site. Simple, I know the price and the experience, while not always easy, has been straightforward.
My wife has suddenly needed a new car and leans towards a Mercedes or Audi EV and we're suddenly slammed back into going onto a lot and dealing with the normal car sales bullshit and it's a nuisance. Just test driving a car (which is a fairly significant thing for someone who's not driven an EV) is a high pressure situation.
Because I don't think that's entirely true...
I got a 2015 Volvo with their "European Pickup" option and even though you went through a US based dealership that was how it worked. Also they didn't "package" options. You didn't need to get some "Cold Weather Package" to just get heated seats for example every option was ala-carte at a fixed price.