Can someone with more knowledge of the (outdated) franchise law explain why Tesla can't/hasn't created their own dealerships (that officially aren't Tesla owned), but sell only Teslas?
"It shall be unlawful for any franchisor to ... acquire any interest in any motor vehicle dealer in this state ... or to use any subsidiary corporation, affiliated corporation, captive finance source or any other controlled corporation, partnership, association or person to accomplish what would otherwise be unlawful conduct under this article"
-- NY Vehicle and Traffic Laws, Article 17A, Franchised Motor Vehicle Dealer Act, S 463 Unfair Business Practices by Franchisors
There'd be little point to having the rest of the law on the books if it were so easy to work around.
Note that "franchisor" as defined in that law includes all manufacturers, whether they sell franchises or not. IANAL.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-lane-tesla-ta...
[0]http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/513/1...
Just because manufacturers can average it out across all dealerships doesn't make it less true, and obviously dealerships can never make a car cheaper, all things considered.
There isn't a lot of margin in cars anymore, but the cost of the car isn't the actual cost. There is lots of back-end money that determines the real cost. (just like PCs -- a big PC buy is own or lost over who Intel gives the biggest rebate to)
The only real exception is in a really bad economy where a dealer gets surprised by the evaporation of demand for an overstocked unit (ie pickup trucks in 2008-9). In those cases, they may sell vehicles at a loss for cash flow -- they borrow money to buy those cars in the lot.